GEOLOGY OF THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 301 



tainous, with elevations of five hundred to fifteen hundred feet, and 

 in the highest parts of about twenty-two hundred feet. Its lowest 

 depression is the valley of the Yukon, which, in itself occupying a 

 position about fourteen hundred feet above the sea, gives to these 

 points absolute elevations of three and nearly four thousand feet. 

 Dome Mountain, or, as it is frequently designated, simply " The 

 Dome," and less often " Solomon's Dome," " King Dome," and 

 " Mount Ophir," appears to be the culminating point of the entire 

 region ; and its prominent position at the water parting of Bonanza, 

 Hunker, Sulphur, and Dominion Creeks makes it a noble figure in 

 the landscape, and the most interesting single feature to the pro- 

 spector and miner. No absolute determinations for altitude have 

 as yet been made for it, but when crossing the summit it seemed to 

 me that it could not be much under four thousand feet, and I be- 

 lieve that Mr. Ogilvie gives to it about thirty-five hundred feet. 

 The landscape which this mountain dominates is surpassingly beau- 

 tiful, and I know of no finer view from similarly low mountains 

 than that which this one commands. The sharply incised wooded 

 valleys of the different streams that head up to it tear the moun- 

 tain into projecting buttresses, and in the ridge that leads off from 

 it southwestward contracts it to the extent of forming for half a 

 mile or more a narrow backbone or saddle. In this respect it re- 

 minded me much of Mount Katahdin, in Maine. On a clear day 

 the distant main mass of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains is sharp- 

 ly outlined against the northeastern sky, a most impressive setting 

 to the verdant slopes that trend off toward it, only to disappear 

 in the belt of plain that separates the two mountain systems. I 

 was unfortunate in not getting the full benefit of this view, as at 

 the time of my first crossing the atmosphere was very cloudy, and 

 on the second it was so surcharged with smoke from forest fires in 

 the valleys of Gold Bottom, Quartz, and Sulphur Creeks that hardly 

 more than the foreground was visible. 



A succession of five or six knobs runs out from the ridge to 

 which reference has been made and which trends off in the direction 

 of the head waters of Eldorado, and these, together with the main 

 Dome, are sometimes spoken of as the " Seven Domes," but they 

 have no particular significance in the orographic detail and can not 

 even be said to be clearly defined to the eye. Dome Mountain is 

 held in a respect bordering almost on veneration by the Klondikers, 

 inasmuch as it is generally thought to be the mainspring of the gold 

 supply which is contained in the streams that fall off from it, and 

 this means nearly all the good and, the promising streams of the 

 entire region. And, in truth, there is for the moment no way of 

 absolutely disposing of the miner's suppositions, nor can the circum- 



