56  CONTRIBUTIONS    TO    ECONOMIC    GEOLOGY,   1903.  [bull.  225. 
and  the  more  systematic  exploitation  of  the  older  ones.  This  output 
is  chiefly  distributed  in  small  amounts,  running  from  a  bare  grub 
stake  of  $1,000  to  $20,000.  Few  attempts  have  been  made  to  work 
groups  of  claims  by  improved  methods. 
The  general  backwardness  of  the  Yukon  field  compared  with  that  of 
Nome  is,  of  course,  in  a  large  measure  due  to  the  differences  in  values, 
but  must  also  be  assigned  to  the  isolation  of  the  region.  So  long  as 
developments  are  dependent  on  the  present  inadequate  transporta- 
tion facilities  the  region  will  be  handicapped.  With  the  uncertainties 
of  the  river-steamboat  service,  the  entire  absence  of  roads,  and  the 
scarcity  of  trails,  the  placer  miners  of  the  Yukon  district  have  had  to 
face  conditions  which  would  have  utterly  disheartened  less  resolute 
men. 
Freight  rates  from  Seattle  to  Yukon  River  points  are  from  about 
$40  to  $65  per  ton,  and  the  first  up-river  steamer  from  Bering  Sea  can 
not  be  counted  upon  before  the  1st  of  August.  The  cost  of  the  sum- 
mer freighting  from  the  banks  of  the  Yukon  to  the  mining  camps, 
which  is  all  done  by  pack  horses,  can  be  roughly  estimated  at  $10  per 
ton  a  mile;  while  the  winter  rates,  when  the  traffic  is  carried  on  by 
means  of  horse  and  dog  sleds,  are  from  $2  to  $3  per  ton  a  mile.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  some  of  the  placer  camps  are  from  40  to 
50  miles  distant  from  water  transportation,  and  that  this  haulage 
greatly  increases  the  necessary  outlay  of  time  and  money  for  install- 
ing a  mining  plant.  There  are  scores  of  creeks,  if  not  hundreds,  in 
the  Yukon  country,  which  will  be  worked  when  the  transportation 
problem  is  solved. 
The  construction  of  roads  is  properly  a  function  of  a  territorial 
government,  but  as  Alaska  has  no  representative  government,  and  is 
administered  to  all  intents  and  purposes  as  a  colony,  its  mining  inter- 
ests must  look  to  Congress  for  legislation,  and  probably  appropria- 
tions, for  road  construction.  Their  cost  could,  however,  be  met  by  a? 
tax  on  the  properties  which  they  would  benefit.  It  has  been  suggested 
that  the  }7early  assessment  work  required  by  law  on  each  claim  could 
well  be  commuted  in  part  to  a  money  tax,  to  be  spent  on  roads.  It  is 
estimated  that  roads  could  be  built  in  the  Yukon  country  at  an  average 
cost  of  $1,000  to  $1,500  per  mile.  Many  a  mining  camp  in  the  region 
has  already  spent  on  the  transportation  of  its  supplies  more  money 
than  the  cost  of  a  wagon  road.  It  is  roughly  estimated  that  700  miles 
of  wagon  roads  in  the  Yukon  and  Copper  River  regions  would  put! 
nearly  every  placer  camp  within  reach  of  reasonable  transportation, 
facilities.  A  million  dollars  might  well  be  spent  in  such  a  manner,: 
for  there  would  be  a  certainty  of  an  increase  of  the  gold  output 
sufficient  to  warrant  such  an  expenditure.  The  building  of  roads  in 
the  Klondike  district  by  the  Canadian  government  has  much  accel-j 
erated  the  development  of  the  placer  mines  in  that  district. 
