greater than they have
previously been, and to this fact is attributed the new discoveries.

If the latest reports are to be credited, the gold region is proving to
be as valuable as it was thought to be during the first excitement.
Nevertheless, it is only the few who win great profits, while the
majority suffer.

The Canadian Government is taking an active interest in the Klondike,
and it will probably undertake before long to have surveys made to
discover the best route from the interior of Canada to the Yukon, and
will also have the Mackenzie-River route improved. Sir Wilfrid Laurier
has lately expressed the belief that there are gold regions in the Rocky
Mountains yet to be discovered.

Our Government has several questions to settle with Canada, arising out
of the conflict of opinion regarding the boundaries between the American
and the Canadian Klondike. These are likely to be settled, however, in a
perfectly friendly way.

We continue to hear reports of suffering among the miners, and the
Government is doing its best to provide relief. The best relief it can
provide, however, is to keep out of the gold regions those who are not
sufficiently provided with supplies to keep them alive for a long
period.

An American correspondent from Dawson City has lately given a gloomy
picture of the way affairs are managed in the gold regions. The Canadian
Government, he claims, is doing more for the miners than our own
authorities. The Canadian mail service, for example, is much better than
our own. Throughout the Klondike, governmental discipline seems to be
very poor. Most of the money used is United States money, but the
store-keepers and the owners of saloons do their best to keep it out of
circulation; they naturally find gold more profitable. According to the
correspondent, the miners are the men who are making the smallest
profits in the gold regions for this very reason, as the store-keepers
have their own methods of measuring the gold and estimating its value.
No doubt by next summer banks will be established where miners may
exchange their gold, at full value, for money.

Progress

Invention and Discovery

* * * * *

THE NICARAGUA CANAL.

The Nicaragua Canal has been so often referred to lately that it will
prove interesting to our readers to know more about this project and
what its successful completion will mean to the maritime nations of the
world, and especially