Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1895-11-22

but imagine their CONSERVATION wher
they learned that their actual worl
work had only begun.
Miller glacier, Gold Creek and al
the rest of the diggings lay, / nigh
say, all together, and about TO mile
from Forty-mile Post, and it costs 3,
cents a pound to have provision
taken in.
Here is what provisions cost OF
the creek, that is, when they can b.
procured at all, which is only about
quarter OF the time: Flour costs So,
to $40 a hundred pounds; bacon, Z
cents a pound; beans, SO cents ,
pound; tea, $l.50; coffee, 81; sugar
% cents, and all other eatables in pro.
portion. Butter, potatoes, etc, We
hardly ever get. In winter time, pro.
visions can be freighted into the
mines at a cost of 10 cents pound
but there never has been provisions
enough at the post TO freight in q
summers supply, consequently it has
to be packed in as soon as the steamer
arrives in the spring.
"The Yukon basin is not 10y any
means the county it is represented
to be on the outside, and the large
fortunes made here in a few years,
that they tell about, are all cxaggera-
tions. The most money ever taken
out of here 10y one man was $4,000,
and that feat has only been performed
once. The next next largest amount
made here was $4,000.
Many man has put in from three
to six years here and worked hard ali
the time, and is to-day is in debt to the
Alaska Trading Company for provis-
ions.
"Still, there is gold here everywhere
a man may dig, but it is no: in pay
ing quantities because OF the ground
being SO hard to work; you see it
never thaws but more than foot on
top huring the whole summer and
like that OF Siberia, is frozen to depth
OF 400 feet, and the only way to get
through is to burn, and this can only
be done in summer, as the surface
water flows in and browns the fire, go
that prospecting can be done to bet
ter advantage in winter.
"There is no night here duriug the
summer months, and in fact the sun
never sets during the month OF June
but / understand that in winter there
is no sun to be seen for several
months.
at is very barren looking coun-
try, with very little timber, and after
the timber line is left there is not a
twig OF any kind OF wood to be found.
Nothing grows on the hills but long,
wet moss, from which the mosquitoes
rise in countless millions and woe
be it. to the man who is not prepared
to meet them.
"It is hard to find tree here more
than ten inches in diameter, and
house logs have to be brought 200
miles down the Yukon; firewood,
however, can be had within eight or
ten miles, but it takes about an acre
to make cord, which is worth from
$l2 to $40 in winter time.
Then they talk about wages being
$40 day, which is true, in among the
creeks, but 30 or 40 days is all that a
man can work out of the year. The
men are laid off from various causes.
sometimes there is too much water in
the gulch, at other times not enough,
and again because the ground does
not pay and the man who is working
for wages is laid off four days in a
week, aud all this time he is eating up
his food that costs him $50 for 100
pounds. Then he must also furnish
his own tools to work with, which is
no small item, l assure you. Taking
everything into consideration, the
man who works for wages up here does
not make very much.