is to be found along Copper River in paying quantities. Some even predict that the findings there will be more sensational than any that have yet been made. James R. Thompson, who went up to the Yukon diggings in 1894, and came out by way of the Copper River with three companions, reports that the Indians were excessively cautious and evidently anxious to get them out of the country, and that the reason for this appeared when he saw some of those who accompanied his party deliver stealthily to their chief on arrival at one of the villages a quantity of coarse nuggets of gold. There are those who believe that the lode to which all the placer deposits along the numberless branches of the Yukon are supposed to cwe their origin will yet be discovered near the headquarters of the Copper. Mr. C. E. Spurr, in his report of the Geological Survey expedition of 1896 through the Yukon country, says: "The Yukon districts lie in a broad belt of gold-producing rocks, having a considerable width and extending in a general east and west direction for several hundred miles. Throughout this belt occur quartz veins which carry gold, but so far as yet found out, the ore is of low grade, and a large proportion of the veins have been so broken by movements in the rocks that they can not be followed. For this reason, the mines in the bed rock can not be worked, except on a large scale with improved machinery, and even such operations are impossible until the general conditions of the country in reference to transportation and supplies are improved." Still, it is believed that the real wealth of this wonderful country will eventually be found in the veins. CHAPTER III. SEEKING THE POT OF GOLD. The first requirement for one seeking the gold fields is a hardy constitution; the second is capital. For the Yukon is not, as some other gold countries have been, a poor man's paradise. Gold is there in Aladdin-like profusion, but it is not to be had for the asking. It comes only as the fruit of wearisome and perilous travel, of desperate combat with the rigors of an Arctic climate, of deadly waiting for Arctic winters to unloose their icy hands. For the privilege of a few months of toil the prospecting miner must endure many months of unremunerative delay, during which he must pay extortionately for the mere privilege of living. For the season of plaeer mining lasts only during June, July and August. Before beginning even to hunt for gold the aspiring miner must prepare himself for the long and tedious trip to the fields, and this is a task that will tax the endurance and nerve of the most hardy. It means, according to one who has made the trip, "packing provisions over pathless mountains, towing a heavy boat against a five to an eight-mile current, over battered boulders, digging in the bottomless frost, sleeping where night overtakes, fighting gnats and mosquitoes by the millions, shooting seething canyons and rapids and enduring for seven long months a relentless cold which never rises above zero and frequently falls to 80 below." Any man who is physically able to endure all this, who will go to the gold fields for a few |