"Little is known about the geology of the Yukon River, where the Klondyke mines have been found. Being placer mines, the gold may have been transported many miles. The means of transportation are both glaciers and rivers. The Klondyke region is on the north side of the St. Elias Alps. Alaska was never completely covered with glacial ice. The glaciers flowed both north and south from these summits. Dawson and Professor Russell both report well defined terminal moraines across the upper Yukon Valley. The source of the Klondyke gold, therefore, is from the South. "Placer mines originate in the disintegration of gold-bearing quartz veins, or mass like that at Juneau. Under sub-aerial agencies these become dissolved. Then the glaciers transport the material as far as they go, when the floods of water carry it on still further. Gold, being heavier than the other materials associated with it, lodges in the crevasses or in the rough places at the bottom of the streams. So to speak, nature has stamped and "panned" the gravel first and prepared the way for man to finish the work. The amount of gold found in the placer mines is evidence not so much, perhaps, of a very rich vein as of the disintegration of a very large vein. "The "mother lode" has been looked for in vain in California, and perhaps will be so in Alaska. But it exists somewhere up the streams on which the placer mines are found. The discovery of gold in glacial deposits far away from its native place is familiar to American geologists. "I have encountered placer mines in glacial deposits near Aurora, in Southeastern Indiana; in Adams County, in Southern Ohio, and near Titusville, in Western Pennsylvania, where, I see, there is a new excitement. But in all these cases the gold had been brought several hundred miles by glacial ice from Canada or the region about Lake Superior. These gold mines were near the edge of the glacial region, where there had been much assorting action of both ice and water. "It is evident, however, that in Alaska the transportation of the gold has not gone so far. The difficulties of this transportation into the Klondyke region and the shortness of the season will continue to be great drawbacks to working the mines. The pass north of Chilcoot is 7,000 feet above sea level and but a few miles back from the ocean. There is no possibility of a road over it. But from Taku Inlet, near Juneau, readier access can be had. This route was followed by Schwatka and Mr. Hayes, of the United States Geological Survey, a few years ago, and has been partially surveyed with reference to a railroad line, and reported to be available. The only other way is by a river which is open to navigation only a short time each year and is a great way around.