250 THE UPPER YUKON 



''In 1886 coarse gold was found on Forty 

 Mile Creek — a good distance below the now 

 modern city of Dawson. This caused a gold 

 rush, and a miner named Williams in bring- 

 ing out the news was frozen to death on the 

 Chilkoot Pass in January of 1887. At this 

 time the miners were not content with less 

 than a return in gold of the value of $14.00 a 

 day. The estimated number of all the miners 

 in the Upper Yukon Country in 1887 was not 

 over two hundred and fifty." 



In i887-'88 William Ogilvie, D. L. S., an- 

 other famous Canadian explorer, crossed the 

 Chilkoot Pass with a heavy outfit, among 

 which were two Peterboro canoes, each one 

 strong enough to hold two men and 1400 

 pounds of freight. These boats made 1700 

 landings and did about 2500 miles of work 

 on Lewis River, Porcupine River, Bell's 

 River, Poplar River, Pells River and thence 

 up the great Mackenzie River — a distance of 

 1400 miles. After all of this, they were left 

 at Fort Chipewyan in a fairly good condi- 

 tion, "and," says Ogilvie, "with a little paint- 

 ing they would go through the same ordeal 

 again." 



This intrepid explorer built another boat, a 

 large one, and with the three boats he started 



