n up in winter. She now has her
"sphere of influence" located in a way most satisfactory to herself.

If China leases many more ports to the great powers she may secure the
materials for a "concert of powers" which will prove as useful to her as
it has been to the Sultan of Turkey.

* * * * *

It is reported that there are 10,000 men on the trail between Skaguay
and Dyea in Alaska.

The rush is now at its height, for now that the warmer weather is
coming, the perils of the Klondike will be fewer for some months.

Some very thrilling tales have reached us from the Pacific coast,
although the newspapers are very reticent about publishing reports of
accidents. It would seem that some agency is suppressing accounts of
ill-starred ventures. Certainly, the papers hold out the golden
possibilities of the trip, while the dangers and privations are kept
well in the background.

Thousands of men are setting out for the gold country to-day. Every
small town and village of the United States has its quota of Argonauts,
and they are pouring west to take ship for the Klondike. In Greek
mythology there is a story about a man named Jason, who set out to find
the Golden Fleece. The ship he sailed in was named the _Argo_. In 1849,
when the people of the United States had the gold fever so badly, and
the rush to California was very much like that to the Klondike to-day,
the men who started from the East to go to the Pacific coast by ship
were called Argonauts. Afterward it became a common term, and all people
setting out for the gold-mines were designated by this title.

* * * * *

The reindeer which were bought in Scandinavia by the United States for
use in Alaska, and shipped to New York, are to be sold. They were to
have been used for relief expeditions, but it has been found out that
supplies are more abundant in the Klondike than was first reported.

There are five hundred and thirty-seven of these reindeer, and it is to
be doubted whether they will sell for as much money as they have cost.
To buy them in Lapland, Norway, and Sweden involved an expenditure of
$50,000, and to bring them to this country was a very expensive
undertaking.

* * * * *

There are more rumors of trouble in India. In and about Bombay there is
a strong feeling of discontent among the natives because of the plague
measures. You will remember what was written