[Illustration: "WE OF THE FLANNEL SHIRT AND THE UNBLACKED BOOT." _Frontispiece._] Through the Yukon Gold Diggings A Narrative of Personal Travel BY JOSIAH EDWARD SPURR Geologist, United States Geological Survey [Illustration] BOSTON EASTERN PUBLISHING COMPANY 1900 COPYRIGHT, 1900 by JOSIAH EDWARD SPURR Preface. As a geologist of the United States Geological Survey, I had the good fortune to be placed in charge of the first expedition sent by that department into the interior of Alaska. The gold diggings of the Yukon region were not then known to the world in general, yet to those interested in mining their renown had come in a vague way, and the special problem with which I was charged was their investigation. The results of my studies were embodied in a report entitled: "Geology of the Yukon Gold District," published by the Government. It was during my travels through the mining regions that the Klondike discovery, which subsequently turned so many heads throughout all of the civilized nations, was made. General conditions of mining, travelling and prospecting are much the same to-day as they were at that time, except in the limited districts into which the flood of miners has poured. My travels in Alaska have been extensive since the journey of which this work is a record, and I have noted the same scenes that are herein described, in many other parts of the vast untravelled Territory. It will take two or three decades or more, to make alterations in this region and change the condition throughout. In recording, therefore, the scenes and hardships encountered in this northern country, I describe the experiences of one who to-day knocks about the Yukon region, the Copper River region, the Cook Inlet region, the Koyukuk, or the Nome District. My aim has been throughout, to set down what I saw and encountered as fully and simply as possible, and I have endeavored to keep myself from sacrificing accuracy to picturesqueness. That my duties led me to see more than would the ordinary traveller, I trust the following pages will bear witness. Let the reader, therefore, when he finds tedious or unpleasant passages, remember that they record tedious or unpleasant incidents that one who travels this vast region cannot escape, as will be found should any of those who peruse these pages go THROUGH THE YUKON GOLD DIGGINGS. AUTHOR. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. The Trip to Dyea 9 II. Over the Chilkoot Pass 35 III. The Lakes and the Yukon to Forty Mile 65 IV. The Forty Mile Diggings 109 V. The American Creek Diggings 156 VI. The Birch Creek Diggings 161 VII. The Mynook Creek Diggings 207 VIII. The Lower Yukon 229 IX. St. Michael's and San Francisco 264