124 



NA TURE 



[December 7, 1899 



the Canadian military police, and comments on " a con- 

 dition so wholly different from that which but a few 

 weeks before dominated the atmosphere of Skaguay and 

 the American side of the trails " (p. 119). 



In praising the summer climate of the Klondike 

 Prof. Heilprin waxes enthusiastic — 



" From August 6th to September 20th, barring three 

 days of partial rain, and perhaps a fourth of cloudiness 

 and mist, the weather was simply perfection— a genial, 

 steady, mild summer with a temperature rising at its 

 highest to about 80° or 82'' F. in the shade. ... In 

 August ... the evenings were but little less pleasant 

 than the days, the balmy night air rarely necessitating 

 clothing warmer than that ordinarily worn" (p. 70). 



Neither did he personally experience any trouble from 

 mosquitoes. He also thinks that the rigour of the winters 

 has been exaggerated, as " most of the Dawsonites are 

 inclined to make light of the winter's cold, and assure 

 you that, except for head and foot wear, they take little 

 stock in that over-burdening with heavy clothing which 

 outfitters so delight in foisting, as ' absolute necessities,' 

 upon the too credulous tenderfoot " (p. 73). 



In short, there appears to be nothing in the region 

 inimical to the permanent residence of civilised man the 

 year round in comparative comfort. Even the agri- 

 cultural possibilities of the country are spoken of hope- 

 fully (p. 83), and Dr. Dawson's previous favourable 

 estimate in this direction is quoted with approval (p. 85). 



As to that which to most people constitutes the sole 

 interest of the region — its future possibilities for gold- 

 production — Prof. Heilprin, while writing with somewhat 

 oracular caution, takes on the whole a sanguine view. 

 After describing the conditions and methods of working 

 the placers which differ, in the frozen state of the sub- 

 soil and in some other particulars, from any placers 

 hitherto worked on the continent except those of Cassiar 

 in the northern part of British Columbia, and after point- 

 ing out that some of the best claims, viz. those of the 

 hillsides and high benches, were located in the early part 

 of 1898, at the time when the incomers had been warned 

 that the region for a hundred miles or so about Dawson 

 had been fully staked and occupied, the author concludes 

 that " many good locations in the Klondike territory are 

 still open, although it may not be easy or possible to say 

 lust which they are" (p. 207). This, we fear, will seem 

 rather " thin " guidance to the anxious gold-seeker ! 

 The output of the past year Prof Heilprin estimates 

 to have been "in the neighbourhood of nine or ten 

 miUion dollars, perhaps more ; but that it will be vastly 

 greater in the current year (1899) is certain" (p. 204). 

 Like other investigators of the district, he thinks that 

 capital judiciously expended in hydraulic-mining should 

 yield profitable returns. 



A summary of the Canadian laws regulating mining in 

 the Yukon region forms one of the most useful chapters 

 in the book. 



The longest chapter is that which deals with the 

 physical history and geology of the Klondike gold-fields 

 (Chapter xi. pp. 212-280), and this is, perhaps, the least 

 satisfactory part of the volume. To the general reader it 

 may indeed be of some service ; but to the student of 

 geology or of physiography more adequate sources of 

 information are available, and the chapter contains little 

 NO. 1571, VOL. 61] 



that need detain him, especially since though passing 

 mention is made of previous investigators exact 

 references to their works are rarely given. Besides 

 the early scientific descriptions of the Yukon country 

 by Dawson, McConnell, Russell and others, the recently 

 issued report of the Canadian Geological Survey for 

 1898 includes (pp. 55-62) a concise and practical sum- 

 mary of the geology and conditions of the Klondike 

 gold district by those excellent observers Messrs. R. G. 

 McConnell and J. B. Tyrrell, which gives a clearer view 

 of the structure of the country than the volume before us ; 

 and the eighteenth Annual Report of the U.S. Geological 

 Survey (Part iii. pp. 101-391) contains an elaborate 

 memoir on " the Geology of the Yukon Gold District " 

 by Mr. J. E. Spurr, with a particularly interesting pre- 

 liminary chapter, previously referred to, on " the history 

 and condition of the district to 1897," and a discussion 

 of the drainage peculiarities, by Mr. H. B. Goodrich. 

 To these works, then, rather than to Prof Heilprin's 

 book, the scientific student should turn for information. 



Prof Heilprin, after much discussion of the subject, 

 comes to the conclusion that " the known facts of the 

 Klondike region, so far as they relate to the primal origin 

 of the gold in the placers, favour the theory of chemical 

 solution and precipitation, as opposed to the generally 

 accepted view of accumulation from disintegrated reefs, 

 bodies or veins" (p. 280). 



But his arguments are unconvincing, and his views are 

 neither shared by Spurr for the placers on the American 

 side of the frontier, nor by McConnell and Tyrrell, the 

 latter investigators stating that "the gold in the Klondike 

 has certainly been derived from the rocks of the im- 

 mediate vicinity" (Rep. Can. Survey, op. cit., p. 60). It 

 is of course evident that during whatever time the rich 

 ground may have remained permanently frozen, no perco- 

 lation of the supposed solutions can have taken place. 



With regard to the auriferous high-level deposits. Prof. 

 Heilprin adopts a view similar to that held by Spurr to 

 account for the high benches of the American side, viz. 

 that they are " evidences of the past existence of large 

 lake-like bodies of water, perhaps even of a vast inland 

 sea" (p. 226). On this supposition he builds various 

 speculations, and thinks that the old shores have formerly 

 been of far greater extent and have yielded by con- 

 densation much of the gold of the valley placers. But 

 Messrs. McConnell and Tyrrell offer a more simple and 

 adequate explanation of the phenomena in question, as 

 follows : — 



" On Bonanza and Eldorado creeks, and doubtless also 

 on a number of the other creeks that rise in the high 

 land near the Dome, the work of concentration has been 

 greatly expedited by small local glaciers, which, at a 

 period not very remote, have originated at the heads of 

 these creeks, and have filled the bottoms of their valleys 

 through parts at least of their lengths. Thus the Eldorado 

 glacier would appear to have had a greatest thickness of 

 about 200 feet at French Gulch, and to have joined the 

 Bonanza glacier at the Forks, below which both continued 

 on some distance together. The gravel that fills the 

 bottom of the valley from side to side is a typical glacier- 

 wash, having been deposited by the stream which flowed 

 from the face of the glacier. The lower benches on 

 Bonanza Creek were also deposited in a similar way, but 

 the higher so-called benches have been formed either as 

 lateral moraines along the sides of the glacier, or by 



