secure good cayuses of about 1,000 pounds weight and dogs weighing at least 90 pounds. Cayuses, which were worth $3 to $5 a month ago, are now worth $20 to $30.

The horses will be used in packing outfits over the Chilkoot and White passes from Dyea bay to Lake Linderman.

Packers are getting 15 to 20 cents a pound for carrying outfits from Dyea to Linderman, a distance of 31 miles. When cold weather comes many horses will be killed, frozen, and sold for dog meat.

Dogs are being taken clear to the Yukon for hauling sleds during the winter.

FOR TRANSPORTATION OF GOLD.

There is every probability that Wells, Fargo & Co. will establish an office in Dawson City during the coming spring. L. F. Rowell, assistant manager of the company, said that nothing would be gained by establishing an office earlier than that.

The present rate of transportation for gold from Seattle to San Francisco is $3 a thousand and $5 from Seattle to Philadelphia. If an office is established in the Klondyke district the rate per thousand, including insurance, will be $8.40.

CHAPTER X.

THE TWO GOVERNMENTS.

Yankees at the Front-Secretary Sherman's Opinion -Canada's Greed-Canadian Regulations-Killing the Goose-Legal Difficulties Discussed by the Cabinet Fort Alger-Fort Git There-An Expert Detailed-Canada's Action-Police for the Klondyke-British Columbia Sulky-Canadian Mining Laws-Dyea Sub-port-One Man Supreme Canada Claims It All-"Throu-Diuck"After Revenue-More Military Matters-Land Office Needs-Secretary Ryan Talks-Government Will Aid-Hermann's Recommendations—Con

gressional Action.

A statement is rife that political trouble on the Klondyke is pretty sure to be bred next winter by the Canadian government, which is smarting under the rates proposed in the Dingley bill, and is bound in some way to check the flow of gold from the placers there to this country.

A scheme which is sure to provoke violent resentment was detailed by Captain Strickland, late commandant of the mounted police on the Klondyke, on the passage down from St. Michael's to William Stanley, an American miner. Stanley was in partnership with three other men, and he took out $112,000 from a claim on El Dorado creek in ninety days.

Captain Strickland said the plan which he has already suggested and which the Dominion government was inclined to favor, provided they had a large enough police to be assured of carrying it out, was to pass a law prohibiting the export of gold except by Dominion officials. The gold dust brought in by the miners of all nationalities would be carefully weighed by officials of the Canadian government. A fixed value would be placed on the metal, according to assayers'

estimates, and this value would be paid in money of only local value.

SECRETARY OF STATE'S OPINION.

Secretary of State John Sherman, having been interviewed as to what he thought of the reports that the Canadian government proposes to enforce the alien act against American miners on the Klondyke, said: "We have an alien law of our own. We have never enforced it against gold miners. Canadian citizens have been free to come into the United States and mine for gold under the same terms that our own citizens did. There has never been any friction over the matter.

"Where a man has taken up a land claim for the purpose of residence and cultivation we have always insisted that he be a citizen. The same has been done under the Canadian government.

"Where a man has simply prospected for gold with the intention of digging into the ground a little ways and taking what he could find from land against which there was already no claim, he has never been interfered with on our side of the boundary. I do not think that the Canadian government will change that course of procedure. If they do, it may lead to fully as much embarrassment to them as to our miners.

"From the meager reports already received it looks as if there might be as much gold on our side of the Alaska line as on theirs. I do not anticipate any serious trouble with our Canadian neighbors on that score."

CANADA'S GREED.

The action of the Canadian government in placing a heavy export duty on Klondyke gold and adopting radical methods to increase the revenue of the dominion was lately discussed by Chicago authorities on mining law.

John N. Jewett said that Canada has the right to govern its own lands whether the assessment is reasonable or unreasonable. He never heard of such a procedure before in mining countries, not even South

Africa or Australia. The United States never does it. Edwin Walker said this tax for miners imposed by the Canadian cabinet is unreasonable, but there is no relief, because it is a decision from which there is no appeal. In America people who stake their claims on mineral lands are not subjected to such a tax, but it is only evident that Canada knows a good thing when she has it, and intends to make the most of it.

Charles M. Walker thought that Canada's right to govern the occupancy of her lands cannot be successfully challenged. The United States does not impose such a tax on miners, but it compels every man who stakes out a claim to be an American citizen, and the price of citizenship is perhaps treasured as very dear to many foreigners who come to this country to take up mineral claims. Canada will have a right to compel American miners to renounce their allegiance to the stars and stripes, as well as pay a tax to Canada, if they want to do business in the gold fields under the polar star.

C. A. Weare said that the tax will have the effect of driving prospectors over into the American territory. "I do not think," said Mr. Weare, "that this tax would necessitate the abandonment of any claims in the Klondyke district, for they are all so rich that the owner can feel sufficiently well off with his share. In these cases the law would simply mean that the Canadian got good pickings without much trouble. It is easy to see, however, that prospectors would be led to seek claims in American territory, for there are just as many rich streams there as on the other side.

CANADIAN REGULATIONS.

Some of the Canadian newspapers are already urging the exclusion altogether of Americans from the mines at Klondyke, but in all likelihood no such policy will be adopted by the government. Nevertheless, it is not intended that finders shall be keepers, or that gold mining shall be free. The Canadian government proposes to participate in the newly discovered wealth and receive an income from it. Every miner must pay a

registration fee of $15 and an annual assessment of $100. This must be paid as a preliminary and before prospecting begins. Next, the gold finder must pay a royalty of 10 per cent. on an output of $500 or less monthly, and 20 per cent. on all over that amount. This is tolerably heavy taxation, but this is not all. When gold claims are staked out in the future every alternate one shall be the property of the government, to be worked by it for the benefit of the public revenue. Meantime our own government is acting with great promptness to afford every facility for those who intend to prospect in Alaska. Secretary Bliss has ordered a land office to be opened and a survey of the territory is to be made. Secretary Gage will establish an assaying office, while Secretary Alger has already ordered a company of soldiers to Circle City to provide all necessary protection for our citizens in the event of lawlessness or riot in a place where there is no law in force but miners' law.

Doubtless before another season passes there will be gold found on the Alaska side of the line, enough and to spare for all American prospectors, but up to this time the rich mines are on the Canadian side.

Gold hunters must take notice of this and be governed accordingly.

KILLING THE GOOSE.

The Canadian government may be about to kill the goose that lays golden eggs. The demands made upon every miner, without respect of age, sex, place of birth, or present nationality, are, firstly, a registration fee of $15; secondly, a yearly assessment, equivalent to a license, of $100; thirdly, a tax or royalty of 10 per cent upon the gross output of each mine or mining claim that yields at the rate of $500 or less per month; fourthly, a tax or royalty of 20 per cent upon the gross output of all mines of the value of more than $500 per month.

The wisdom of such policy is very doubtful. The cost of living and of operating mines in Alaska is very great; if 10 per cent be taken from the gross output