The San Francisco call., 1897-07-20
AN "OFFICIAL" REPORT.
Dominion Surveyor OgiiVie Has
Sent an Account of the Dis
coveries to Ottawa.

dominion surveyor OgiiVie Has
Sent an Account of the Dis
coveries to Ottawa.
Official information about the Yukon
diggings is scarca and valuable. The off
hand stories of lucky prospectors have
made up most of the tale to date. Gov
ernment report of the Ktondyke diggings
was published but short time ago, and ii
will be read with faith In IT'S reliability.
1t is by Surveyor William OgiIvie, located
at Klondyke, for the Canadian Govern
ment. ana it was given out by the Gov
ernment at Ottawa. From this report the
following extracts are taken:
The name "Klondyke" is mispronuncis-
| tion of the Indian word or words Thron-dak
or Quick, which means plenty of fish, from
the fact that it is a famous salmon stream. Ii
is marked Tondack on our maps II Joins the
Yukon from the east few miles above the
site OF Fort Reliance, about fifty miles above
Forty Mile. AS have already intimated, that
rich placer mines of gold were discovered in the
branches of this stream, believe, was Tue to
the reports of Indians. A white man named
G. w. Carmach, who worked with me in 1887,
was the first to take advantage of the rumors
! and locate claim on the first branch, which
was named by the miners Bonanza Creek
Carmach located here late in August,
but had to cut some logs for the mill
mere TO get few pounds of provisions TO
enable him to begin WORK on his claim, the
fishing at Klondyke having totally failed him.
He returned with few weeks provisions for
himself, his wife and brother-ip-law Qndians)
and another Indian in the last days of August
and Immediately set about working his claim
As he was very short of appliances he could
only put together a ra ther defective epplra-
tus to wash the gravel with. The gravel itself
r. H. no
to 100 feet.
Notwithstanding this the three men, work.
ing very irregularly, washed out $1,000 in
eight days, and Carmach asserts with reason
that had ne proper facilities 1t could hsva
been done in two days, besides having several
hundred dollars more gold, which was lost on
the tailings through defective apparatus
When it was fairly esta abished that Bonanza
Greek was rich in gold, which took few
days, for Klondyke had been prospected sew,
eral times with no encouraging results, there
was great rush from all over the country
adjacent to Forty Mile. The town was almost
deserted; men who had been in a CHRONIC
state of drunkenness for weeks were pitched
into boats as ballast and taken up to stake
themselves claim, and claims were stakel by
men for their friends who were not in the
country at the time. All this gave rise to
much confiiction ana confusion, there being
no one 10 take charge of matters. The agent
being unable to go up and attend TO the
thing, and myself not knowing what to do, the
miners held meeting and appointed one OF
themselves to measure off and stake the
claims and record the owners names for
which he got fee of 81. it being of course
understood that each claim holder would
have to record his claim with the Dominion
agent and pay his fee of $15.
am afraid state of affairs will develop in
KlOn6yEe hat
one. Naturally many squabbles will arise out
of those transactions. Many of the claims are
said to be only 800 and 400 feet long, and OF
course the holders will insist on getting them
the full 500, ana it is now probably impossi-
Bile that they can without upsetting all the
claim holders on the several creeks.
So encouraging were the reports from the
Klondyke regions that ali the creeks around
are practically abandoned, especially those on
the head OF Forty-mile, in American territory
Miller and Glacier creeks, on the head OF
Forty-mile River, which my survey of the
141st meridian determined to be in Canada,
were thought to be very rich, but they are
poor both in quality and quantity compared
with Klondyke.
The exte mt of the gold-bearing section here
is such as to warrant the assertion that we
have here district which will give 1000
claims of 500 feet in length each. Now 1000
such claims will require at least 5000 men to
work them properly, and as wages for working
in the mines are from $S to SO per day, with
out board. we have every reason to assume
that this part of our territory will within a
year or two contain 10, 600 souls at least, for
the news has gone out 10 the coast and an un.
precedented influx is expected next spring.
And this is not all, for large creek called
Indian Greek joins the Yukon about midway
be tween Klondyke and Stewart River, and all
along this creek'good pay has been found. All
that has stood in the way of working it here
tofore has been the scarcity of provisions and
the difficulty OF getting them up there even
when here. Indian Creek is quite large
stream, and it is probable it will yield 500 or
600 claims. Farther south yet lies the head