ted police, it is one of the best-governed towns on the
American continent. At the time of our friends' arrival its population
was about four thousand, but the rush will swell it in an incredibly
short while to ten, twenty, and possibly fifty times that number, for
beyond question it is the centre of the most marvellous gold district
that the world has ever known.

Copper, silver, and coal are found in large quantities, but no one
gives them a thought when so much of the vastly more attractive yellow
metal is within reach. It is singular that while the existence of gold
was incontestably known for many years, little or no excitement was
produced until 1896 and 1897, when the whole civilized world was turned
almost topsy-turvy by the bewildering reports. During the first three
months of the latter year more than four million dollars were taken
from a space of forty square miles, where a few placer claims were
worked. What harvest will be during the next few years no man dare
attempt to guess. How suggestive the fact that on one stream so much of
the metal has been found that it was given the name "Too Much Gold
Creek!"

Inasmuch as our friends are now on the ground, a few more facts are
proper, in order to understand the task that confronted them. Dawson
City, it will be remembered, is in British territory, and all the great
discoveries of gold have been made to the east of that town. Doubtless
gold will be gathered in Alaska itself, but the probabilities are that
the richest deposits are upon Canadian soil.

The mining claims begin within two and a half miles of Dawson City, on
the Klondike, and follow both sides of that stream into the interior,
taking in its tributaries like Hunker's Creek, Gold Bottom, Last
Chance, Bear Creek, Bould's Bonanza, and El Dorado. Of these the
richest are El Dorado, Gold Bottom, Hunker, and the oddly named Too
Much Gold Creek. The last is the farthest from Dawson City, and the
least known; but there can be no question that numerous other streams,
at present unvisited, are equally rich, and will be speedily developed.

Just now placer mining is the only method employed. According to the
mining laws of the Northwest, the words "mine," "placer mine," and
"diggings" mean the same thing, and refer to any natural stratum or bed
of earth, gravel, or cement mined for gold or other precious mineral.
There is very little quartz mining, or crushing of rocks, as is
practised in many sections of Ca