2,000 MILES DOWN THE YUKON 29 



hours were spent loading fuel. Thick-skinned pas- 

 sengers debarked and took a walk at these points; others 

 remained on board out of reach of the mosquitoes which 

 swarmed on the river banks but not on the boat. 



It took two whole days to beat the sand banks and 

 the swift current up to Chena, some twelve miles from 

 Fairbanks, and we were carried to the larger town by 

 train. 



Fairbanks housed about 2,000 persons, who received 

 us hospitably and took our money readily. Prices were 

 rather high: the smallest coin in circulation was a quarter 

 dollar. It was immaterial whether one purchased a 

 newspaper or a ten-cent cigar, or had one's shoes pol- 

 ished: "Two bits, please." Two boiled eggs in the 

 restaurant were sold at seventy-five cents, reduced from 

 one dollar. 



A train ride to some of the placer mines made clear 

 the scarcity of water which prevailed all summer through- 

 out the coimtry. Yet besides all this it was also evident 

 from other sources that Fairbanks was declining. The 

 many business men with whom we talked, optimistic 

 though they must appear pubHcly by compulsion of popu- 

 lar sentiment, admitted, in a corner, that the future was 

 dark, "li we only had the railroad from the south to 

 develop the country!" But they gave the impression 

 that they would be glad to sell out and try other fields. 

 Some quartz had been found around Fairbanks, but not 

 as yet in quantities warrantable to support a town hke 

 Juneau. The placer mines had, apparently, passed their 

 period of great production, and would eventually be 

 worked out. Strategically the city was placed badly, 

 except only as a center for a large population profitably 

 engaged in mining. A worked-out placer camp generally 



