120 THE FUTURE OF THE YUKON GOLDFIELDS 



natural desire to retain national control of the means of transit, 

 can be justified for a moment. The trne interest of Canada, as 

 well as of the United States, lies in the fullest development of the 

 resources of the region, and without accepting all possible means 

 of transportation this is impossible. Those who may be able 

 from their own resources to push through a year's supply of pro- 

 visions for themselves will in the long run be as much interested 

 as any others in the welfare of the whole mass of immigrants, 

 for a starving man will respect no property rights in food, and 

 no man in the face of starving people may hope to keep his own 

 store intact. 



Leaving out of account the impending crisis on the Yukon, it 

 is the writer's belief that it is imperatively necessary for the de- 

 velopment of the goldfields that transportation for coal should 

 be provided from the seacoast to the Yukon, avoiding the inter- 

 rupted navigation of the Lewes river. Here, again, the change 

 from the sea-going vessel to a river steamer on the Stikine, from 

 that steamer to the railway, and then to another steamer on the 

 Teslin marks the Stikine route as impracticable. One transship- 

 ment to the railway at Pyramid Harbor and from the cars to 

 barges on the Yukon is so much simpler and cheaper as to put 

 an end to argument. 



The present method of using wood of so poor a quality as spruce 

 on the Yukon steamers cannot last if the country is to be per- 

 manently developed. With coal floated downstream on barges 

 from the headwaters the steamers might be abundantly supplied 

 with suitable fuel, and two or even more trips a season might be 

 reckoned on as a certainty. British Columbia has coal in abun- 

 dance, and here would be a means of its indefinite utilization, 

 by which a far greater profit would inure to the people of that 

 province than is possible through any short-sighted monopoly 

 of transportation, which would infallibly strangle the develop- 

 ment of their Yukon goklfield in a very short time. 



A broad and generous cooperation of both countries is essen- 

 tial to a satisfactory outcome of the projects now in contempla- 

 tion. Let us hope that it may be realized before it is too late. 



The length of the coast-line of Alaska is estimated at 18,211 

 miles, which is greater than that of the entire coast-line of the 

 United States. 



