The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1897-09-09
KLONDIKE A LOTTERY
Starvation and Scurvy in AID.
dition to the Blanks.
THE SITUATION AT DAWSON CITY
Looked for the Coming Winter
-DeyelOument Slow.

tin has a letter from Charles Haines,
dated Dawson City, July Is. Mr..
Haines is well-known newspaper
writer, and his letter is the first written
by a trained newspaper man to come
out of the Klondike gold regions. He
says:
1.-THE rich digglngs have been COM
paratively idle during the summer, al
though the output from Eldorado and
Bonanza creeks was enormous, and there
is plenty of gold in sight. There is
every prospect of an immense output
of gold from the district next spring.
The total output this season is, as near
as l can judge. about $1,000, 900, but
very little ground has been worked and
the dumps will, like some of the tail
ings of old California placers, pan out
thousands of dollars when worked with
improved machinery. The placers are
the most puzzling and deceiivng
have ever seen. Imagine a man work
ing on good color and finding the
ground worth only a few dollars per
day, and then turning to waste of
mud and moss, with no surface indica-
tiOns, and unearthing bonanza. That
is the situation here, and all over
Alaska.
"The man who comes here to mine
does SO at the expense of health and
happiness. and it is with him a ques-
ton of making fortune quickly or
taking chances with death.
About me are scores of men who
can weigh their gold by the bucketful,
and who value their claims at millions.
Four hundred valuable diggings are
stretched along the creeks, and every
digging is fabulous mine of gold, yet
there are weary men who have gone
and are returning to Dawson after
searching the great country hereabouts,
and never nugget do they show for
their toll, having made long tramp
over broken ground, and into country
whose natural disadvantages are ex-
ceeded by no other place on earth.
''This Alaska Northwest Territory
gold field is an odd prize-drawing prop
osition that can liken to nothing that
lottery. A number of spots are select
ed on the creeks and the rivers, and for
one year the miner labors. The year
closes, the water runs and the seasons
output barely pays expenses. Not two
miles away from the unfortunate one
works man who has taken from an
uninviting bit of earth a sackful Of
gold. The lucky one did not strike the
pocket because of his ability as miner;
chance favored him, and that was all.
In short, the miner guesses at it and
locates any and everywhere. In l9
cases out of 30 he misses it, and has to
wait another year for a new trial.
Dawson is merely a collection of
log huts, saloons and a mass of tents,
about 600 in number. When the long
nights come and the glass goes down to
65 degrees below zero, there will be in,
tense suffering here, and l shudder to
think of the results.
Provisions are going to be very
scarce, and there is little reason to
doubt that the entire town will have to
90 on short rations during the winter,
and that scurvy will be rampant.
''The gold that will 60 down the riv-
er for San Francisco and Seattle will
amount to about $4,000. 1000. There is
a lot of gold that will remain in camp,
for it is used as an equivalent OF money.
and is legal tender at SIT per ounce.
OF the 5000 or 4, 900 inhabitants, only
a couple of hundred at the most have
made big strikes. There is plenty OF
work at from SIS to $40 per day, and
many men have pa d 50. 80 per day or
less for living, and saved the balance.
reports of other strikes are con-
stantly received here, and many are
authentic, SO far as Stewart and Pelly
rivers are concerned, but nothing like
so rich as the Klondike has been re-
ported. Quite a number of people are
preparing to leave here for Juneau in
case the steamers do not get through
with provisions, and the outlook for
good grub supply is not encouraging.
SIN conclusion, the Alaska and North
west Territory gold fields will be de-
yeloped slowly. Ten thousand men
NAV come here, bat they will be lost in
the vast country when they spread out
to prospect Not more than 500 OF
them will strike mine. When they
do strike pay gravel, their fortune is
made. In years to come, when at the
sacrifice of human life and energy the
treasures of this great land are located,
the wealth of the Northwest will be
something beyond comprehension.