men who would hold aloof from each other under ordinary circumstances.

"There, for instance, sprawled out full length and chatting as though friends for many years, are a brightseeming lawyer and a man who long has been a hostler in Portland. Beside the rail, engrossed in exchange information sit an ex-Judge of Seattle, and a drayman, who journeyed on the train that bore our party from San Francisco. Here stands Joaquin Miller, listening intently to the opinions of a thinfaced youth, who abandoned employment in a Tacoma restaurant that he might seek gold near the Arctic Circle.

"There is a physician aboard the Mexico who is as thin as Senator Ingalls and as pale as a summer cloud. He believes he has consumption, and was heard to observe that at best he could not live more than two years longer. He is bound for Dawson City by way of the Chilkoot Pass and intends to mine.

"There won't be much need of Doctors up there,' he explains, ‘and even if I could make something by practice of my profession, I could not afford to throw away the better opportunity the mines afford. I want to leave my little ones a fortune." "

GOING ON A BET.

“An example of very different type is afforded by J. D. Thagard. He was the proprietor of the Northern Hotel, in Seattle, until recently. He has no need, financially, of following the fortunes of a miner. Moreover, he weighs 300 pounds, and has the paunch of Falstaff. On his cards, which he is distributing gleefully, these words are printed in the left upper corner: 'The biggest thing that ever started on the trail for the Klondyke.'

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"A friend offered to wager $500 I could not go to Dawson by the mountain route,' he tells, ‘and as I thought I would like to do a bit of mining, I accepted the wager. So I am going through the Chilkoot Pass, or die in the attempt. I don't expect to have a funeral on the way, and I'm so dead sure of that $500 I feel genuinely sorry for the other fellow.'

"There are several women aboard who are determined to press through to the mines, no matter what the perils. They are wives, and accompany their husbands. One of them, Mrs. P. Sutherland, of Ballard, Wis., is exceedingly enthusiastic, and not anything in the way of narrative of danger or hardship could dull the edge of her enthusiasm.

"Of course, I shall mine,' she says, 'when I can look up from my housework. Why shouldn't I? I'm sure it will be perfectly lovely. Did I ever mine? Well, no; but what difference could that make?"

CHAPTER II.

THE GOLD FEVER.

San Francisco Stirred Up-Thousands Will Seek Fortunes-Great Rush to the Land of Gold-Portland Catches the Craze-Seattle Greatly ExcitedA Large Party for Alaska-An Old Yale Man Aboard-A Representative Scene-Richest Mines in the World-Deserting Alaskan Towns-Off for the Klondyke-Crazed by Lust of Wealth-Love of Gold All-Absorbing-Pathos of the ScenesKlondyke Fever Spreads Far-Minneapolis Feels It -Milwaukeeans Are Going-Gold the Magic Word -Chicago Catches the Infection-Many Seek Information-Overland Route Advised-Speculators in Clover-Gold Fever Reaches New York-A Canadian Report-Marvelous Results-Superb Panning -Coal Prospects-Great Rush to Take ClaimsWorkings Are Usually Rich-Valuable Claims,

San Francisco has not been stirred by any mining discovery since the opening up of the great bonanzas on the Comstock lode in Nevada, nearly thirty years ago, as it has been in these days by the stories of two score sun-tanned and hard-featured miners who have returned from the new Klondyke camp on the Yukon River in far Alaska.

The stories would have excited derision were it not that all these men were able to furnish ocular proof of their tales with pounds of yellow gold. Not one of the party went into this camp last fall with anything more than his outfit and a few hundred dollars. Not