The trouble to be encountered in working these placers is owing to their remoteness from all sources of supply, and the exposure to the long winters which prevail in the placer gold-producing regions. These are obstacles, however, which will one of these days be overcome by the erection of suitable shelter, and a rich new mining field will thus be permanently opened. There are a number of trading-posts along the course of the Yukon at which white men reside permanently to traffic with the natives, purchasing furs from such as will hunt; and there are many who are represented to be industrious and provident, supplying the whites with meat and fish as well as with pelts, fully appreciating the advantage of steady habits and regular wages. In this respect the inland tribes differ materially from most of those living on the coast; the latter care little for work or wages until they are driven by necessity to seek employment. We speak in general terms; there are of course many worthy exceptions, but savage races have little idea of thrift, and like the wild animals are aroused to action only by the demands of hunger. In equatorial regions where the nutritious fruits are so abundant that the natives have only to pluck and to eat, they are sluggish, dirty, and heedless, living only for the present hour. In this Arctic region where the sea is crowded with food and the fields are covered with berries, the same listlessness prevails as regards the future with nine out of ten of the aborigines. These remarks do not apply to the Aleuts, from whom the Commercial Company obtains its workmen. These are mostly half-breeds, who are far more civilized than are our Western Indians. The proprietors of the Treadwell gold mine, Douglass Island, and of the works at Silver Bow Basin, employ large numbers of the natives, finding them to be reliable and industrious laborers. “Where we can separate these Alaskan natives from the objectionable influences which are apt to grow up in populous centres, and especially from multitudes of adventurous miners who come from a distance, we find them to be faithful and tractable workers,” said an employer to us. “How about the Chinese?” we asked. “They are excellent workers,” was the reply. “Set them a task, show them how to perform it, and it will surely be done. They are almost like automatons in this respect and require no watching.” “Then why not employ them more generally?” “Because of the prejudice, the unreasonable prejudice, against them. Our other workmen rebel if we keep many Chinamen on the pay-roll.” This corresponded exactly with the author’s experience elsewhere, in various parts of the world where the Chinese have sought a new home outside of China. John is not perfect, but he is infinitely superior to a large portion of the drinking, rowdy, and restless foreign element which fills so large a place in the labor field of this country.