Established by Edward L. Youmans
APPLETONS'
POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY
EDITED BY
WILLIAM JAY YOUMANS
VOL. LV
MAY TO OCTOBER, 1899
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1899
Copyright, 1899,
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
WILLIAM PENGELLY.APPLETONS' POPULAR SCIENCEMONTHLY.
FEBRUARY, 1899.
ALASKA AND THE KLONDIKE.
A JOURNEY TO THE NEW ELDORADO.
By ANGELO HEILPRIN,
PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY AT THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA,FELLOW OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.
I.—IN BY THE WHITE PASS AND OUT BY THE CHILKOOT.
Hardly two years ago the names Dawson and Klondike wereentirely unknown to the outside world, and geographers wereas ignorant of their existence as was at that time the less learned laity.To-day it may be questioned if any two localities of foreign and uncivilizedlands are as well known, by name at least, as these that markthe approach to the arctic realm in the northwest of the American continent.One of those periodic movements in the history of peopleswhich mark epochs in the progress of the world, and have their sourcein a sudden or unlooked-for discovery, directed attention to this newquarter of the globe, and to it stream and will continue to stream thousandsof the world's inhabitants. Probably not less than from thirty-fivethousand to forty thousand people, possibly even considerablymore, have in the short period following the discovery of gold inthe Klondike region already passed to or beyond the portals of whathas not inaptly been designated the New Eldorado. To some of thesea fortune has been born; to many more a hope has been shattered indisappointment; and to still more the arbiter of fate, whether for goodor for bad, has for a while withheld the issue.
In its simplest geographical setting Dawson, this Mecca of the[Pg 2]north, is a settlement of the Northwest Territory of Canada, situatedat a point thirteen hundred miles as the crow flies northwest of Seattle.It is close to, if not quite on, the Arctic Circle, and it lies the betterpart of three hundred miles nearer to the pole than does St. Petersburgin Russia. By its side one of the mighty rivers of the globehurries its course to the ocean, but not too swiftly to permit of sixteenhundred miles of its lower waters being navigated by craft of the sizeof nearly the largest of the Mississippi steamers, and five hundredmiles above by craft of about half this size. In its own particularworld, the longest day of the year drawls itself out to twenty-twohours of sunlight, while the shortest contracts to the same length ofsun absence.
During the warmer days of summer the heat feels almost tropical;the winter cold is, on the other hand, of almost the extreme Siberianrigor. Yet a beautiful vegetation smiles not only over the valleys,but on the hilltops, the birds gambol in the thickets, and the tinymosquito, either here or near by, pipes out its daily sustenance to thewrath of man. The hungr