Golden Alaska: A Complete Account to Date of the Yukon Valley

by Ernest Ingersoll

Canada has already placed customs officers on the passes and at the Yukon crossing of the boundary to collect customs duties not only on merchandise but on miner's personal outfits. There is practically no exception, and the duty comes below 20 per cent. on but few articles. On most of the goods the duty is from 30 to 35 per cent., and in several instances higher, but the matter may be very simply adjusted by purchasing tools and outfits in Victoria or Vancouver, for thus far the United States has placed no corresponding obstruction in the way of Canadian travellers to the gold-fields, but, on the contrary, has made Dyea a sub-port of entry, largely to accommodate British transportation lines. The Canadian Government is represented in that region now only by customs officers and 20 mounted police, but it is taking steps to garrison the whole upper Yukon Valley with its mounted police,—a body of officers, whose functions are half military, half civil, and which, it may as well be conceded once for all, cannot be trifled with. There is no question but that they will do their level best to enforce the laws to the utmost. The commander of each detachment will be constituted a magistrate of limited powers, so that civil examinations and trials may be speedily conducted.

The plan is to erect a strong post a short distance north of the sixtieth degree of latitude, just above the northern boundary of British Columbia, and beyond the head of the Lynn Canal, where the Chilkoot Pass and the White Pass converge. This post will command the southern entrance to the whole of that territory. Further on small police posts will be established, about fifty miles apart, down to Fort Selkirk, while another general post will patrol the river near the international boundary, with headquarters, probably, in the Klondike valley.

The mining regulations of Canada, applying to the Yukon placer claims, are as follows:

"Bar diggings" shall mean any part of a river over which water extends when the water is in its flooded state and which is not covered at low water. "Mines on benches" shall be known as bench diggings, and shall for the purpose of defining the size of such claims be excepted from dry diggings. "Dry diggings" shall mean any mine over which a river never extends. "Miner" shall mean a male or female over the age of eighteen, but not under that age. "Claims" shall mean the personal right of property in a placer mine or diggings during the time for which the grant of such mine or diggings is made. "Legal post" shall mean a stake standing not less than four feet above the ground and squared on four sides for at least one foot from the top. "Close season" shall mean the period of the year during which placer mining is generally suspended. The period to be fixed by the gold commissioner in whose district the claim is situated. "Locality" shall mean the territory along a river (tributary of the Yukon) and its affluents. "Mineral" shall include all minerals whatsoever other than coal.

1. Bar diggings. A strip of land 100 feet wide at highwater mark and thence extending along the river to its lowest water level.

2. The sides of a claim for bar diggings shall be two parallel lines run as nearly as possible at right angles to the stream, and shall be marked by four legal posts, one at each end of the claim at or about high water mark; also one at each end of the claim at or about the edge of the water. One of the posts shall be legibly marked with the name of the miner and the date upon which the claim is staked.

3. Dry diggings shall be 100 feet square and shall have placed at each of its four corners a legal post, upon one of which shall be legibly marked the name of the miner and the date upon the claim was staked.

4. Creek and river claims shall be 500 feet long, measured in the direction of the mineral course of the stream, and shall extend in width from base to base of the hill or bench on each side, but when the hills or benches are less than 100 feet apart the claim may be 100 feet in depth. The sides of a claim shall be two parallel lines run as nearly as possible at right angles to the stream. The sides shall be marked with legal posts at or about the edge of the water and at the rear boundary of the claim. One of the legal posts at the stream shall be legibly marked with the name of the miner and the date upon which the claim was staked.

5. Bench claims shall be 100 feet square.