and quarrelsome, he is quietly told to get out of the game, and that is the end of it. Many people have an idea that Dawson City is completely isolated, and can communicate with the outside world only once every twelve months. That is a mistake. Circle City, only a few miles away, has a mail once each month, and there we have our mail addressed. It is true, the cost is pretty high-a dollar a letter and two dollars for paper-yet by that expenditure of money we are able to keep in direct communication with our friends on the outside. [The Canadian authorities have since established a post-office at Dawson City, with regular service.-ED.] In the way of public institutions, our camp is at present without any, but by the next season we will have a church, a music hall, school-house and hospital. This last institution will be under the direct control of the Sisters of Mercy, who have already been stationed for a long time at Circle City and FortyMile Camp." Mines Not At Dawson. The general impression that the mines are at Dawson City is erroneous. They are twelve to fifteen miles up the Klondike River, and are easily reached by poling up the stream in summer or sledding over its frozen surface in winter. Dawson City is under the British Government, and its laws are enforced by the famous mounted police. Inspector Strickland, of the Canadian mounted police, who came down from Alaska on the Portland, said: 'When I left Dawson City there were 800 claims staked out. We can safely say that there was about $1,500,000 in gold mined last winter. The wages in the mines were fifteen dollars a day, and the saw mill paid laborers ten dollars a day. "The claims now staked out will afford employment to about 5000 men, I believe. If a man is strong, healthy and wants work he can find employment at good wages. Several men worked on an interest, or what is termed a "lay," and during the winter realized $5000 to $10,000 each. The mines are from thirty-five to 100 miles from the Alaska boundary." Inspector Strickland paid the miners at Dawson City a compliment, saying "they do not act like people who have suddenly jumped from poverty to comparative wealth. They are very level headed. They go to the best hotels and live on the fat of the land, but they do not throw money away, and no one starts in to paint the town red." Price List at Dawson. He gave the following price list as a sample of the cost of living in Dawson City: Flour, $12 per hundredweight. Following are prices per pound: Moose ham, $1; caribou meat, 65 cents; beans, 10 cents; rice, 25 cents; sugar, 25 cents; bacon, 40 cents; potatoes, 25 cents; turnips, 15 cents; coffee, 50 cents; dried fruits, 35 cents; tea, $1; tobacco, $1.50; butter, a roll, $1.50; eggs, a dozen, $1.50; salmon, each, $1 to $1.50; canned fruits, 50 cents; canned meats, 75 cents; liquors, per drink, 50 cents; shovels, $2.50; picks, $5; coal oil, per gallon, $1; overalls, $1.50; underwear, per suit, $5 to $7.50; shoes, $5; rubber boots, $10 to $15. The latest reports are that these figures are still maintained, despite the great amount of supplies brought in by the commercial companies, and it is expected they will go higher rather than lower before spring comes around again. Whisky is fifty cents a drink, and some of the saloons are said. to be making $6000 to $8000 a day. There is some gambling, though not of a bloodthirsty kind, and chips are commonly $500 a "stack." Should the argonaut decide to go in by the Juneau and Dyea, or "mountain" routes, he will find the trail by Chilkoot Pass the one most talked of, and will probably this fall decide to try his fortunes by that way, though the spring and perhaps the winter even may find the Chilkat, the Taku and the White Pass routes, or even the Lake Teslin trail, becoming favorites. Right here the gold-hunter, having fixed on his route, needs to make very sure of one other thing-his "outfit." When he leaves Dyea or Juneau he leaves civilization and all its adjuncts of stores and traders behind him. From Dyca to Dawson he must depend on his outfit for practically everything he has to cat, drink and wear and for every tool and appliance with which to build or repair any article needed for the long journey by trail and stream, 700 miles, to Dawson. Via Chilkoot Pass. If the "outfit" is all right, the prospector engages Indians at Dyea to pack his goods in a dugout and tow them to the head of canoe navigation on the Dyea River which is about six miles. If possible the Indians should be hired to pack the goods over the Chilkoot Pass to Lake Linderman, about twenty-two or twenty-three miles. The old rate for this work was from five to sixteen cents a pound, but the great stampede of prospectors has caused the price to rise to twenty-one and even twenty-two cents, and even at that almost prohibitive figure it is often impossible for prospectors to hire native carriers, and as a result they have to pack their outfits over themselves. A Chilkoot Indian will carry from 250 to 300 pounds over the pass, but even the strongest white man can "tote" little more than 100 pounds, and consequently when the Indians fail him, has to make "double trips," that is, take a pack a mile or two, caché it and return for another one, and keep this tedious and heart burning labor up |