262 THE UPPER YUKON 



there were five ticks to each second, and each 

 tick meant a difference of about a thousand 

 feet. With his crude appliances and the re- 

 moteness from telegraphic connection twenty- 

 five years ago, we cannot but wonder at the 

 accuracy of his observations and deductions. 



"After completing his work on the 17th of 

 March, 1888, he left by snowshoe, and later 

 by canoe, on a great trip of over 2,500 miles 

 down the Yukon, across the divide to the 

 Mackenzie River basin, up the Mackenzie to 

 Edmonton, Saskatchewan, and later to Win- 

 nipeg and Ottawa. The most of this journey 

 in the great primeval land was through a sec- 

 tion unexplored and uninhabited. 



"Once more he was sent to the Yukon in 

 1895 to prolong his international line. He 

 remained there until 1897. Then the gold 

 on Bonanza Creek was discovered, and thou- 

 sands — some say forty thousand — poured into 

 this section as rapidly as the natural difficul- 

 ties of the trip would permit. 



"The Northwest Mounted Police at that 

 time were seventy miles away and few in num- 

 ber. Ogilvie had gone up to the Dawson 

 townsite (now the capital of the territory) to 

 lay it out. Numerous quarrels over claims 

 broke out among the miners, bloodshed was in 



