orth of gold-dust in thirty days,
when the secret leaked out, and a stampede to that quarter ensued. Small
vessels of all kinds, charging from fifteen to twenty-five dollars a
passenger and a good deal for freight, were making the trip, crowded,
between Nome and the new diggings. It was generally conceded that all
the ground along the creeks back of Nome, and the tundra, had been
staked and restaked for many miles; in fact, nearly all the surrounding
country had been gobbled up, on speculation mainly, after the rich
discoveries on Anvil and other creeks. There had been a rush to Port
Clarence, forty miles north and west, but it was common belief that no
gold had been discovered there, and that it was a mere real-estate boom
and a fake excitement. Cape York, thirty miles beyond Port Clarence,
which had been reported rich the preceding fall, and where it was
believed there would be a considerable and prosperous settlement the
following season, had not panned out successfully. The beach about Nome
had been already practically exhausted, so that it yielded in its best
spots only a few dollars a day, an amount which does not go very far in
a new country. It was, therefore, a serious question for the average
miner to decide in what direction and how he should move. Undoubtedly,
the poverty of the beach, which was considered common property, was a
keen disappointment to the many who had hoped to take from it sufficient
wherewithal to tide them through the winter and furnish a little capital
for future operations. The working season is short, scarcely three
months, as operations must practically cease when the water freezes; and
one must "strike it" early, or not at all. Hundreds of the adventurers
immediately threw up the sponge, cursed the Nome "fake"; and, if they
could pay the fare, departed for home. The steamers for the most part
were returning as crowded as they came, and many of their passengers, on
reaching home, exaggerating the sufficiently bad conditions which did
exist, immediately circulated in the press of the country most alarming
accounts of the situation at Nome, and also generally condemned as a
fraud a country marvelously rich in gold, a country which they had not
given even a decent trial.

Having finally collected the bulk of our freight, we put up a tent on
the sand-spit across the Snake River, half a mile perhaps from the heart
of the metropolis, the only ground except the beach which was not
tundra. Thi