12 



RECREA TION. 



the Klondike river and its creeks, only to 

 find everything had been staked out several 

 months before. They would come back to 

 camp after several clays* tramping, almost 

 total wrecks. Nothing but the excitement 

 would keep them going. They could see 

 the gold being worked in large quantities on 

 the Eldorado and Bonanza creeks, by men 

 who had been fortunate enough to be on the 

 ground when the discovery was made. [8 

 months before. Several thousands have ap- 

 plied to these men for work, consequently 

 men can now be had for $5 a day when $15 

 had been the wages before this influx of 

 cheechacoes. How they can live on these 

 wages I cannot tell, for after packing grub 

 to where they want it. it costs at least $1.50 

 a pound. Tents on the trail to the digging 

 charge $3 a meal for beans. 



I took the dog. Sharkey, and started off 

 one evening. Sharkey carried about 40 



ment to his dying day. Even the men who 

 won the race and staked out a claim, after 

 lacing night and day for 70 miles or more 

 through swamps and over almost impass- 

 able mountains, on returning more dead 

 than alive to the Gold Commissioner were 

 told that their claims had previously been 

 recorded. They knew better but could do 

 nothing. Men get together and hold indig- 

 nation meetings in the streets, but up to the 

 time I left could not get justice. They stay 

 around weeks but as affairs grow steadily 

 worse, they get into their boats, sing " Star 

 Spangled Banner," and pull for the Amer- 

 ican side. 



Frank Swanson, one of the discoverers of 

 gold on the Eldorado and Bonanza, decided 

 to put up a large hotel in Dawson. Rooms 

 rent for $8 a night. An old flat iron sold for 

 $20. Everything else is in proportion. 



I met every man who had been on the 



ON THE DYEA TRAIL. 



PHOTO RY CURTIS, SEATTLE, WASH. 



pounds on his back, and I packed about 50 

 pounds, including pick, shovel and gold 

 pan. I traveled nights and slept a few hours 

 in the middle of the day, thereby getting 

 along without blankets. My object was to 

 find a fraction between two claims, and to 

 see the gold taken from the ground which 

 had caused such a fearful tragedy. On my 

 way back I met a stampede. Over 700 men 

 were in the race for a claim. In answer to 

 my question, where they were going, I 

 would get all kinds of rough answers, for 

 they were in such a frenzy they were more 

 like mad beasts than like men. I passed sev- 

 eral of these poor fellows entirely exhausted, 

 not able to keep off the mosquitoes which 

 were around them in clouds, and cursing 

 their luck because their strength had given 

 out. Two men actually dropped dead. This 

 rush is known as the Dominion creek 

 stampede, and many a man will feel the 

 effects of that excitement and disappoint- 



boat from Seattle to Skaguay with me last 

 summer and who had wintered in Dawson. 

 Several had been sick all winter. Some 

 worked for wages and others had been to all 

 the stampedes. All told me they were worse 

 off than when they went into the country. 

 Everyone who could get the price of his 

 transportation out was leaving. 



Doc decided to go back to the claims we 

 had staked out on 60 mile creek, and if, on 

 getting down to bed rock, he failed to find 

 pay dirt, he intended to come back to Daw- 

 son, practice medicine until the river froze 

 up, and then go out that way. He started up 

 the river in a canoe, which is hard to pole 

 against the swift currents. 



I took passage on a tug, the Gov. Stone- 

 man, and her adventures down that river 

 will be remembered by all Yukons of 1898. 

 It took her 11 months to go from the mouth 

 of the river to Dawson. She was going back 

 with 2 scows, 150 men and one woman on 



