ALASKA. 81 



is the inland waterway used in connection with the Chilkat Pass, which is long 

 (125 miles) and less used by miners or Indians. The Tahkeena is easily navi- 

 gable. A steamer could ascend it perhaps 70 miles. Lake Labarge is 12 

 miles below the Tahkeena. This lake is 3 1 miles long and is often very rough. 

 After leaving it, the current of the river increases to 5 or 6 miles an hour. The 

 course is very crooked and the bed is filled with bowlders, which might make it 

 dangerous for river steamers, especially on the down trip. The Hootalinqua, 

 Big Salmon, and Little Salmon rivers enter the Lewis within the next hundred 

 miles, the first two showing signs of gold. Fifty-three miles below the Little 

 Salmon is the Five Fingers Rapid, which can be run with a good boat with com- 

 parative ease. The channel to the right should be followed. Rink Rapids are 

 6 miles below Five Fingers, and the east shore should be followed closely. Old 

 Fort Selkirk is 55 miles from Five Fingers, and just below the confluence of the 

 Pelly and Lewis rivers. Here the Yukon begins, and soon broadens to a mile 

 in width. Ninety-six miles below, the White River enters from the west. 

 This is a large stream, extremely muddy. It probably flows over volcanic 

 deposits. Eighty miles farther on is the mouth of Sixty Mile Creek, where 

 there is a trading post and sawmill, and where a number of miners annually 

 winter. Thirty miles below, Indian Creek enters the Yukon, and 20 miles 

 from Indian Creek is the mouth of the Klondike. Some 20 miles beyond is the 

 mouth of Forty Mile Creek. There is a trading post at its outlet, and Dawson 

 is near the mouth of the Klondike River. Circle City is 140 miles from Forty 

 Mile Post, and Dawson is 676 miles from Juneau. 



The act of Congress approved July 4, 1866, relating to min- 

 eral lands and mining in the United States, says: 



All valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United States, both 

 surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby- declared to be free and open to explora- 

 tion and purchase, and lands in which these are found to occupation and 

 purchase, by citizens of the United States and by those who have declared an 

 intention to become such, under the rules prescribed by law and according to 

 local customs or rules of miners in the several mining districts, so far as the 

 same are applicable and not inconsistent with the laws of the United States. 



The act of Congress approved May 17, 1884, providing for 

 civil government for Alaska, has this language as to mines and 

 mining privileges: 



The laws of the United States relating to mining claims and rights incidental 

 thereto shall, on and after the passage of this act, be in full force and effect in 

 ^o. 86 6 



