The National tribune., 1897-07-29

change is made to one of the river steamers
! belonging to the Alaska Commercial Com
pany, or the Northwest Company, and a
! journey of about 1900 miles by river is
made up the Yukon to the point desired.
The other way is much shorter. but more
difficult. By this second route the Pacific
Coast Line steamer is taken at Seattle,
Port Townsend or Victoria, for Juneau
in southeastern Alaska, where a mining out
fiji may be secured and arrangements made
to be taken up Chillcoot Inlet through Lynn
Channel aud Chillcoot River to the portage
employed as packers to cross from Dyea to
Summit, carrying about 100 pounds each.
This portage requires three or four days,
when series of lakes and streams are
struck, by means of which the adventures
are foafed down to the Yukon by RATS
which they construct for that purpose
This route is over n very rough country,
broken by canyons and glaciers, while the
rivers are interrupted by dangerous rapids
Secretary Gage, after consultation with
the President, last Friday designated Dyea
as a SUPPORT of entry and vessels may,
therefore, go there direct, if they choose, in
stead of stopping to enter at Juneau Inas-
much as haste is the controlling element in
a rush TO a gold country, undoubtedly Dyea
will become the center for landing and out
fitting parties crossing the mountains to the
headwaters of the Yukon by this ronte.
There is another pass by way of Chillcat
Inlet, but this is several days longer, and,
according to reports, not so favorable as the
one by Chillcoot Inlet. Recent reports also
name a new pass by way of Chillcoot Inlet,
the old Indian trail, but it does not appear
upon any maps yet published with sufficient
! detail to say anything about it. 1t seems
doubtful, however, if any way over the
noun tains can be found more accessible
than the old Indian trails, because all over
this continent, from Mexico into the British
possessions, the engineers who have con-
structed railroads have found that the red
men had already adopted the best routes
across mountain barriers.
fhEN NUS Discoveries IN The 1UkON
VALLEY.
Considering the length of time we have
owned Alaska and the large population of
the Pacific and Mountain States, habituated
to mining enterprises, the Alaskan gold field
has not been opened very promptly. This
is no doubt in /. great measure due to the
fact that Immediately after the close of the
war, when we acquired the Russian PROV
ince on this side of the Pacific, the atten-
ton Of the mining world was diverted TO
the great silver discoveries in the mount
ain region The Bonanza mines of Nevada,
followed few years later by the wonderful
discoveries of the carbonate ores at Leadville,
and still later the marvellous finds of prec;-
otis metal about Butte in western Montana,
served to occupy our mining talent at home.
Then, too, the interior of Alaska was prac-
ticaly inaccessible, and the long Winters
and scant food supplies of the country still
further deferred exploration. 1t is true that
the location of the famous Treadwell mine, on
Douglass Island, near Juneau, and the work
of the Alaska Commercial Company at Unga,
attracted wide attention. But these were
quartz mines, requiring enormous capital
and vast machinery, and such enterprises