"I see many reasons why the gold fields should be particularly rich. The streams which cut through the mountains have probably done so for centuries, wearing them down several hundred feet and washing out the gold into the beds and gravel. "It is a country in which it is very hard to find food, as there is practically no game. Before the whites went into the region there were not more than 300 natives. They have hard work to support themselves, on account of the scarcity of game." An interesting letter telling of the recent trip of the steamer Excelsior has been written by Captain J. F. Higgins, of the steamer, to a friend. He says: "The word Klondyke means Deer River, and the stream is called the Reindeer River on the charts. It empties into the Yukon fifty miles above the Big River. The geographical position of the juncture is 76 degrees 10 minutes north latitude, 138 degrees 50 minutes west longitude. Bonanza Creek dumps into the Klondyke about two miles above the Yukon. Eldorado is a tributary of the Bonanza. There are numerous other creeks and tributaries, the main river being three hundred miles long. "The gold so far has been taken from Bonanza and Eldorado, both well named, for the richness of the placers is truly marvellous. Eldorado, thirty miles long, is staked the whole length and as far as worked has paid. "One of our passengers who is taking home $100,000 with him has worked one hundred feet of his ground and refused $200,000 for the remainder, and confidently expects to clean up $400,000 and more. He has in a bottle $212 from one pan of dirt. His pay dirt while being washed averaged $250 an hour to each man shovelling in. Two others of our miners who worked their own claim cleaned up $6,000 from one day's washing. "There is about fifteen feet of dirt above bed rock, the pay streak averaging from four to six feet, which is tunnelled out while the ground is frozen. Of course, the ground taken out is thawed by building fires, and when the thaw comes and water rushes in they set their sluices and wash the dirt. Two of our fellows thought a small bird in the hand worth a large one in the bush, and sold their claims for $45,000, getting $4,500 down, the remainder to be paid in monthly instalments of $10,000 each. The purchasers had no more than $5,000 paid. They were twenty days thawing and getting out dirt. Then there was no water to sluice with, but one fellow made a rocker, and in ten days took out the $10,000 for the first instalment. So, tunnelling and rocking, they took out $40,000 before there was water to sluice with. "Of course, these things read like the story of Aladdin, but fiction is not at all in it with facts at Klondyke. The ground located and prospected can be worked out in a few years, but there is an immense territory untouched, and the laboring man who can get there with one year's provisions will have a better chance to make a stake than in any other part of the world." SOME LARGE NUGGETS.