The Monitor-register., 1897-07-30
The Klondike Gold Region.

FOR ALASKA BEFORE NEXT SPRING
FABULOUS FINDS OF GOLD STILL RE
PORTED.
The latest reports from the Alaskan
gold fields fully confirm the rich desposits
of the yellow metal along Yukon River,
and indeed it is the opinion that that
entireregin is under laid with gold.
The rush of prospe ctors still continues.
every means of transportation being over.
taxed. So anxious are gold-hunters to 60
to Alaska, and such is the distance
requiring months to make the journey,
that it is regarded as extremely hazardous
for any one to start now and expect to
to reach the Klondike region before winter
sets in, which will render travel ex-
ceedingly difficult and perilous.
Reports from San Francisco, Seattle
and Port Townsend are all to the effect
that the steamers sailing for Alaska are
crowded, with large numbers of
passengers left behind. The warning,
/ however, in regard to the danger of not
reaching the Klondike in season to avoid
snow are having itseffect, as are also
reports from Dyea that Indians and pack
mules cannot transport one-quarter of
the supplies which have been piled up
there during the last week.
Eastern expeditions which expect to
start as late as the middle of August and
90 by way of st. Michael's will surely
come to grief, as they cannot possibly get
more than half way up the Yukon before
the river freezes over, and transport for
the remainder of the distance will have to
be by the slow and costly methods of
sledges.
Louis Sloss, the head oft he Alaska Com
mercial Company says: ~ regard it as
crime for any transportation company to
encourage men to 60 to the Yukon this
fall. With the present and prospective
rush, it will be impossible to get enough
provisions through to supply the demand.
The Seattle people who are booming the
steamship lines may be sincere, but
heavy responsibility will rest on their
shoulders should starvation and crime
prevail in Dawson City next winter.
We have tried to give the facts to all
applicants and discourge this wild rush
of clerks, professional men aud women
who are unused to any hardships and
whose chances of getting out of the
country alive will be very slender, even
though they should make money. Con-
ditions are radically different from those
in California in the early days. Those
who crossed the plains or came by the
Isthmus found genial climate and
plenty of food. They also turned to other
vocations when mining proved unprofit-
able. But on the Yukon, if man can't
get work as miner, he must leave the
country or starve. If it is winter he
cannot get out, and SO, should the food
supply run low, hundreds will perish
mserably. Hence l repeat it is crime
to encourage this rush, which can only
end in disaster for three-quarters of the
new arrivals"
| 1t is reported that scores of men are
starting out from Dyea with picks and
with what provisions they can carry on
their backs, leaving their supplies be-
hind; but a band of Indian packers at
one of the most difficult points on the
trail turn all such men back, by force
when necessary, in spite Of protests.
The Indians declare that no man will
be allowed to 60 across the pass without
sufficient provisions to keep him through
the winter. Seven thousands tons of
supplies were at Dyea when the City of
Topeka left the north, and as much more
will 60 on every steamer scheduled, and
it will be impossible to get all this across
the pass unless horses now on the way
to Dyea are found to be able to carry
packs across to the lakes. In that event
it will be possible for all the men and
supplies to reach the other side, but if
not hundreds of impatient men must
winter at Dyea.
| Ex-Collector of customs Wasson and
his party of California capitalists are now
building sleds and boat at Port Towns
end, Washington, and will try new
scheme to cross the pass, taking horses
to drag sleds and boats loaded with
supplies across the divide. II this plan
succeeds it will keep the trail beaten
down and in condition for winter travel
of the same kind for others, but will be
too expensive for the average person to
utilize. The Wasson party will leave on
Aug. e. and report of their experiment
will be awaited with great in.interest all
| along the coast.
The steamer City of Topeka arrived
at Port Townsend on Monday from
| Alaska. She brought news that the
| Klondyke fever is on the increase at
Juneau, nearly every able-bodied man
there either having gone or prepared to
| 60 to the rich fields. Authentic reports,
direct from Dyea, are that there is now
as much freight piled up at the head of
the inlet IS the Indians can pack over the
divide in the next eighteen months. This
| amount of freight will be more than
doubled when the steamers Queen and
Mexico, now on the way, arrive. This
condition of affairs practically precludes
the possibility of hundreds of the gold.
seekers reaching the mining region this
year.
Frank F. Myers, Juneau newspaper
man, will leave in two weeks for
Dawson City. He will 60 by the route
followed by Lieutenant Schwatke, who
conducted an exploring party into the
Yukon Valley in 1889. This route starts
from Takou Inlet, thirty miles south of
juneau, from Takou to Lake Testin,
distance of 130 miles over level prairies,
and the country from Lake Testin is an
open valley through to Yukon river by
way of the Hootinghua river. With the
aid of pack horses the Takou route is by
far the more preferable. Parties who
have been over both routes say that the
walk of 13O miles over the level country
is more easily accomplished than that OF
the fifteen miles over the Chlcot Summit
Two Klondike miners arrived in
Philadelphia on Monday. They left
Dawson City June 17th and have been
travelling ever since, except three days
rest at Seattle.
In speaking of Alaska one If them
said:
Millions will come out of that country
next year. The Bonanza is the richest
fri l.: