more than sustained by the facts. During the past five years it has been practically demonstrated that the domestic reindeer will thrive in Alaska, and that the Eskimos, coached for a time by the expert Lapps, make most proficient herders.

Thus the way is open to save the perishing natives of the Arctic region if sufficient means were at hand. There is an abundant food supply for deer all over the northwest portion of the Territory. The skin of the animal furnishes clothing, while its flesh supplies food for the natives, yet in many villages along the coast and far in the interior the natives are destitute, and hundreds die annually for the want of food.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE RICH GOLD FIELDS OF ALASKA

VALUE OF THE GOLD OUTPUT-POSITION IN THE LIST OF GOLD PRODUCING STATES AND TERRITORIES— ESTIMATED OUTPUT OF NOME REGION FOR 1900GOLD MINES IN SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA—SITKA MINING DISTRICT-WHEN ORGANIZED FIRST GOLD DISCOVERED-PROMISING LEDGES-CAPITAL NEEDED HARRIS MINING DISTRICT-EARLY EXCITEMENT AND ORGANIZATION-LITUYA BAYQUARTZ MINES ON THE UNGA ISLAND-THE GREAT TREADWELL-GOLD ALONG THE YUKON— RATE OF WAGES-FUTURE OF THE YUKON GOLD FIELDS MOST DIRECT ROUTE-CAPE NOME GOLD REGION LOCATION-MINING DISTRICTS-AREA -PORT CLEARANCE AND THE BLUESTONE COUNTRY GOLDEN GATE-CAPE YORK-GOLOVIN BAY -COUNCIL CITY-NORTON BAY-OTHER MINING DISTRICTS-FUTURE OF THE NOME GOLD FIELDS -SUMMER ROUTE-FREIGHT AND PASSENGER RATES WINTER ROUTES TO AND FROM THE GOLD FIELDS.

The value of the gold and silver which found its way into the United States from Alaska and Northwestern Territory (including the Klondike region) during the calendar year 1899, as per statement issued by the Director of the United States Mint, was as follows:

Gold
Silver.

.$21,048,639.54
497,734.46

Total

$21,546,374.00

Of this amount, $15,986,6 27.50 came from the Klondike region; $2,704,176 from the quartz mines in Southeastern Alaska; $2,400,000 from the placer mines of Nome, and the balance of $727,179 from the beach mines at Lituya Bay, hy

draulic mines near

Juneau, and the placers in the Porcupine and Yukon River districts.

These figures show an increase over the production of 1898 of more than ioo per cent., and places Alaska (including the Klondike) second in the list of the gold producing states and territories.

The writer has no reliable data at hand from which to tabulate an accurate statement of Alaska's output of the precious metals for the year 1900, but a conservative estimate might be made which would show an increased production over that of the previous year.

The Nome Region produced during the season of 1900, approximately $4,000,000, an increase over 1899 of $1,600,000. This, however, must not be construed as an average season's yield for the district. The dry

season, and legal complications, interfered greatly with the proper working of the mines. Nearly every important mine in the district was involved in litigation, many of which remained idle during the whole of the summer. Snow Gulch, for instance, produced in 1898, $300,000, and in 1899, only about $5,000. Snow Gulch is a very rich creek and the decrease in the value

of its gold output for the year, as shown by the above figures,was due solely to legal entanglements.

The gold fields of the Yukon, and the Cape Nome mining region, as they are commonly called, are the two best known and most important mining districts in Alaska today, but there are many other productive mines in the territory which have attracted but little attention from the outside world.