The herald., 1897-12-02
CANADIAN
CUSTOMS
Make the KIOndike Miners
Very Mad
ALL RATES WILL BE RAISED
FOR THE RUSH EXPECTED IN
THE SPRING
Letters to the Alaska Commercial
Company Bring Information
of Desperate Times
Associated Press Special Wire.

Associated Press Special Wire.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 1.-Consul
Smith at Victoria, in a report to the
state department, discussed the subject
Of the Klondike gold fields. The ad-
vices received at Victoria, he says, in
dicate that the rush in 1S49 to California
and the one to South Africa will be
eclipsed by the gold seekers headed for
the Yukon in the early months of 1898.
Agents from England have been at Vic
toria making arrangements for 5000 or
1900 gold seekers. Merchants there have
secured great supplies of outfit goods,
and the transportation companies have
made arrangements sufficient to make
daily lines between that port and st.
Michaels, Dyea, Skaguay and Fort
Wrangle. The Canadian authorities
have made every possible arrangement
for an all-Canadian route to the gold
fields and are trying to make it to the
interest of miners to purchase their out
fits in Canada. This is to be done through
tariff laws. Hon. Clifford Sifton, the
Canadian minister of the interior, made
a trip to the northwest recently, and
intimated that the hundred-pounds ex-
emption now allowed by the Canadian
government to the miners would be abb
rogated by Jan. 1st, and that probably
everything now bought in Canada would
have to pay duty. He declined to give
any assurance that the tax on mining
would he reduced or the alternate
claim outrage" be alleviated. The con-
sui goes to some extent into a descrip-
ton of the methods of mining in Alaska,
gathered from persons who have re-
turned from there. One man told him
that he regarded Alaska as more
profitable place for miners to 60 than
to Canada. owing to the excessive roy
lalty charged by the Dominion govern
ment, which, it seems, there is no ex-
pectation of having repealed. The Klon-
dixie stratum runs in the direction of
Alaska, and those men who have inter-
ests in mines there are doing as well as
those in Canada.
FAMINE CERTAIN
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 1.-The Alas
ka Commercial company today received
|eXpected letters from J. E. Hansen. as
sistant superintendent of the Dawson
district of the Yukon region. Hansen's
report states that impending disaster at
Dawson is beyond question, and that at
least 1000 people will have a desperate
time to escape actual starvation. Han
sen estimates that at the most the sup
plies at Dawson will suffice to sustain
$500 persons until the opening Of the
season in the spring. AS there are now
about 5000 people in Dawson, many
without any provisions of their own.
Hansen says it is plain that some must
suffer.
MISSING MINERS
CHICAGO. Dec. IA special from
Seattle, WASH. says:
A. A. Smith, writing under date Of
November % from Skaguay, says:
For the last four days there has been
alarm and anxiety in Slsaguay over the
possible fate of twelve men, who on
Tuesday morning on the sloop Pigeon
essayed to make the trip around the
point to Talay. The skipper lost control
of her and he was carried down the canal.
The names of most Of the party cannot
be learned. but it is known that Nicho-
las Furlong. Tom Dickens, Rene 1e-
IVY - JUS. eliItlCI, ~. 1JeHHlSOn ana
a man named Lombard were among the
number The latter Is believed to be
Milton Lombard of New York, who was
in Skaguay en- route to Dawson, which
point he had agreed, upon wager of
10000, to reach without money.
1t was as impossible for the skipper to
return to the harbor here as it was to
reach Talay, but after several unsuc-
cessful attempts to reach cover land
ing was made about mile below on this
side. Here H. s. Manning of Chicago,
and Morse Duff1eld of Detroit disem-
barked and tried to persuade the others
to do likewise, but they refused. still be-
lieving they would be able to beat back.
When last seen they were being driven
before the gale toward Pyramid harbor,
since which time no tidings have been
had Of any of the party.
KEEPS HIS WHISKY
PORTLAND, Or, Dec. lin the
United States district court today Judge
Bellinger decided the case of the United
States VS.. fifty cases Of whisky seized
by the customs officers on the wharf
here and held for forfeiture for an at
tempted unlawful importation into the
tedritory of Alaska. He sustained the
exceptions to the libel and made an or
der directing the United States marshal
to turn the liquor over to the claimant
William Sitter. The whisky was seized
on the dock just before the Elder sailed
for Alaska about a month ago, packed
in cases marked Cumberland Home
Made Tomato Catsup'
This was the first case of the kind ever
brought before the courts. Judge Bel
linger said THE fact that the fifty
cases of distilled spirits were labeled
"Catsup" has no bearing upon the ques-
tion of an attempt to import into
Alaska. This false designation is evil
dence of an intention to violate the reg
ulations against the importation Of spir-
its into Alaska: but the intent is not the
act, nor on attempt to commit 1t: The
fraudulent device Of the labels shows a