no 



No. 8. — 7-foot Bucyrus boat with steel hull, on No. 10 



above Discovery on Upper Bonanza. 

 No. 9. — Sister boat of No. 8, on No. 10 Eldorado 

 creek. 



In connection with the hydraulic operations of the 

 Yukon Gold Company, one of the greatest problems 

 originally confronting them, was that of obtaining sufficient 

 water to work their properties. To obtain this water a 

 giant ditch system has been constructed and a storage 

 dam built. 



The storage dam, situated on Upper Bonanza creek, 

 is 68 feet (20 m.) high at the crest, 205 ft. (62 m.) wide at 

 the base, and 465 feet (141 m.) long at the top, with an 

 impounding capacity of 54,000,000 gallons (245,000,000 

 litres). 



The main ditch conveys water from Little Twelvemile 

 river to the creeks of the Klondike district. The main 

 ditch system consists of 64-2 miles (102-7 km.) of main 

 line, composed of 15 miles (24 km.) of flume, 37 miles 

 (59 kn.) of ditch, and 12 miles (19 km.) of pipe line, cross- 

 ing five depressions and delivering water to the Lower 

 Bonanza hills under a head of 500 feet (152 m.). The 

 capacity of the main ditch is 5,000 miner's inches. The 

 Bonanza Extension is approximately 6 miles (9-5 km.) in 

 length, has a capacity of 3,000 miner's inches and crosses 

 three depressions. The total length of the ditch system 

 and extensions is 75-2 miles (115-5 km.). 



Practically the entire construction work of the Yukon 

 Gold Company, including the ditch system, was completed 

 in three seasons of four months each, or a little over one 

 year of actual construction work. Considering the unusual 

 difficulties to be overcome, this work may be justly called 

 an engineering triumph. The Klondike syphon — the huge 

 pipe line which carries the water across the valley of the 

 Klondike — was itself an undertaking of considerable 

 magnitude. Mr. T. A. Rickard in his description of this 

 ditch system writes [64]: "The country traversed by this 

 ditch is a rolling woodland indented by the alluvial flats 

 of the Klondike, the Twelvemile, and other streams flow- 

 ing into the Yukon river. As seen from a height, the 

 wilderness stretches unbroken from the meandering shim- 

 mer of the Klondike, enclosed within high banks on which 

 white scars mark bench-diggings, to the Ogilvie range, 

 where, far to the north, the snow still lingers in token of 

 the gift of water that shall enable man to win the gold 

 from the deposits of gravel strewing the tortuous valleys." 



