October 28, 1897] 



NA TURE 



615 



THE KLONDIKE PLACERS. 



WHEN the attention of the world was called to the 

 new Canadian gold-fields during the past summer, 

 few people had ever heard of the Yukon placers. Never- 

 theless, prospecting has been carried on for over fifteen 

 years throughout the whole length of the river, both in 

 the North-western Territory of Canada, and across the 

 border in Alaska. The number of gold diggers at 

 -work tended to increase from year to year, but the 

 severity of the climate, and the difficulty of getting 

 supplies into the country checked its progress, especially 

 before 1892, when the first steamers were placed on the 

 river by a trading company. In 1896 the total produc- 

 tion of gold amounted to little more than 100,000/. with 

 about 2000 miners at work, and although some of this was 

 ])roduced on the Canadian side of the boundary, little 

 attention was paid to it by the Geological Survey of the 

 Dominion, and it was reported as if it were a part of the 

 .\laska output. 



On September 6, 1896, however, Mr. W. Ogilvie, the 

 surveyor of the Yukon district, reported to the Canadian 

 Ciovernment that rich discoveries of gold had been made 

 on Bonanza Creek, a tributary of the Klondike, which 

 flows into the Yukon some fifty miles south-east of Fort 

 Cudahy, where h^ was stationed, and about the same 

 distance from the U.S. boundary. Mr. Ogilvie continued 

 to make reports during the winter, and from his book on 

 the subject, lately published by the Dominion Govern- 

 ment, most of the following information is obtained. 

 The discovery was made by G. W. Cormack, who had 

 been in the country since 1887, and a rush from Cudahy 

 at once took place, 200 claims extending 20 miles 

 along the creek being staked out within a fortnight of 

 the time when the strike became known. Later on, when 

 the neighbouring creeks El Dorado, Hunker, Dry Fork 

 and West Fork were found to promise well, the other 

 •diggings on the Yukon were almost entirely deserted. 

 Miners travelled with sleds over the snow from Circle 

 City and other places still further off in United States 

 territory, and by January 1897, 2000 men were encamped 

 on and around the Klondike, with scanty supplies and 

 little protection against the cold, although a temperature 

 of 50' below zero Fahrenheit was not unusual. Many 

 men bought a share in the claims even as early as this 

 for thousands of dollars, and the few labourers who pre 

 ferred to work for hire received one and a half dollars 

 per hour, working as long as they liked. 



Little gold was actually recovered in the winter, the 

 *' pay dirt " being dug out and piled up to wait until the 

 spring, when the frost had gone and water was plentiful. 

 Some extraordinary yields were announced, however, as 

 the result of prospecting washings, 250 dollars in a pan 

 (containing about a quarter of a cubic foot of gravel) being 

 reported, but not generally believed. There is little 

 doubt, however, that from one to ten dollars per pan was 

 usually recovered in El Dorado and Bonanza creeks, 

 although the diggers, as is their wont, were very reticent. 



In spite of this reticence and the lack of communica- 

 tion with the outside world, news of important discoveries 

 leaked out, and in the early spring the rush into the 

 Yukon basin from British Columbia and California was 

 unprecedented. By May over 2000 people had entered 

 the country by one route or another, and were pushing 

 on to the Klondike, where the town lots of Dawson City 

 had been staked out, and building was in progress. At 

 the beginning of July the population of Dawson City had 

 risen to 5000, and more people kept coming in ; but the 

 supplies brought by them were far from being adequate, 

 so that the scarcity of provisions continued almost 

 unabated, and as the summer wore on became more and 

 more pronounced, until it was evident that the 7000 

 people who will be shut up there in the ensuing winter 

 must suffer serious privations, if not absolute starvation, 



NO. 1461, VOL. 56] 



before the Yukon River becomes navigable again next 

 spring. 



Meanwhile, about July 15, the first miners from Klon- 

 dike reached San Francisco, bringing with them about 

 400,000/. in gold, and the excitement, which had been ■ 

 growing on the Pacific sea-board, became mtense, and 

 spread over the whole of the United States and Canada, 

 and even reached England. Thousands of people 

 started for the Yukon without sufficient supplies, and 

 regardless of the fact that it was already too late in the 

 season. Fortunately the means of transport failed. The 

 steamers on the Yukon were delayed, owing to the low- 

 ness of the water in the river ; and the difficulty of trans- 

 porting large quantities of stores over the passes leading 

 from the sea-board to the interior prevented the southern 

 route from being used by the majority of the immigrants, 

 so that not one in ten of those who started late in the 

 summer succeeded in reaching the Klondike, and 

 starvation, if it comes, will not be largely due to the 

 newspaper boom of July and August. 



Turning from the history of the district to the descrip- 

 tion of the gold-fields themselves, it may be remarked at 

 once that the placers, which have caused so much excite- 

 ment, do not present any very unusual features. The 

 gravels are in general about 20 feet thick, and, as usual, the 

 parts immediately overlying the bed-rock are the richest. 

 The pay dirt is, however, said to be frequently 5 or 6 feet 

 thick, and about 30 feet wide, the whole width of the 

 creek-beds varying from 100 feet to 600 feet or more. 

 The gold is very coarse, and is therefore easy to save 

 with crude washing appliances. It is of lower standard 

 than most placer gold, containing only about 800 per 

 1000 of gold, whilst the average fineness of Californian 

 gold is about 880, and of Australian about 950. No very 

 large nuggets have been found yet, the largest recorded 

 being worth about 2/. los., and in this particular the placers 

 resemble those of the Pacific coast generally, where 

 large nuggets are very scarce. 



Mr. Ogilvie considers that the auriferous gravels have 

 been derived from the crystalline rocks lying to the south 

 of the Klondike, between it and the Stewart River, which 

 also contains gold, but no evidence has been brought 

 forward as to their age. An interesting point in con- 

 nection with the question of age is that the ground re- 

 mains perennially frozen, only the surface being thawed 

 in summer to the depth of two or three feet. It would 

 appear therefore that, like the placers of Siberia, these 

 deposits have remained undisturbed and unaltered ever 

 since the Glacial period, and perhaps some such evidence 

 of this will in course of time be discovered, as was 

 afforded by the remains of mammoths and other animals 

 in the Siberian frozen mud. 



It is worthy of note that the comparative lowness of 

 standard of the gold is, under the existing conditions, in 

 favour of the view that the placer gold is derived from 

 the erosion of auriferous quartz lodes formerly existing 

 at a higher level, and has not been formed in situ by 

 being deposited from solution. For, according to those 

 who 'Support the former view, placer gold becomes of 

 higher standard than reef gold after it has found its way 

 into the drifts, the base metals being gradually removed 

 by the solvent action of running water, in which gold is 

 not readily soluble. Since, however, the Klondike gold 

 has been frozen up during a large part of the time since 

 it was deposited in the gravel, it is obvious that it cannot 

 have altered in composition so much as the gold in 

 river sands further south, and might be expected to 

 resemble the gold in the parent lodes, which is not 

 usually more than 800 fine. The low standard of the 

 gold is not so readily accounted for by the accretion 

 theory of formation of placer gold. Some auriferous 

 veins have already been discovered both in the creek 

 valleys and on the mountains round them, although no 

 direct evidence has yet been adduced to connect these 



