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The word Klondike is said to be a mispronunciation of the Indian words "thron dak" or "duick," which means "plenty of fish," from the fact that the Klondike is a famous salmon stream. The river is marked "Tondak" on the Canadian maps.

In the Klondike district are a number of rivers flowing eastward from the Yukon. In all of these gold has been found. The Stewart River, which lies south of the Klondike, has been found to be as rich in gold as the Klondike, and it is confidently asserted that the Alaskan side of this region is as rich in gold as the British Columbian.

But, so far, all the gold-fields have been located in British Columbia, and the great rush for them has been from the United States.

The Canadians do not like this, and feel that it is not fair that Canada should be making nothing out of these fabulous finds.

There is very little redress for her, however. Americans have taken up the greater part of the claims in the Yukon district, and have been careful to comply with the very strict laws which Canada has laid down to govern mining claims. She can therefore make no objections on that score, but she is determined to get some share of the new riches.

At the present time the Americans are taking their goods into the new country free of duty, and are making what purchases they need in Alaskan towns.

Prominent men in Canada are demanding that custom officials shall be placed at all the Canadian mountain passes.

It is expected that the taxing of the Americans will produce a large income for the Government. One Canadian firm has offered $50,000 for the privilege of collecting the customs for ten years.

A cry has gone up that imposing duties on the miners will make their lot still harder than it is at present, but this will not be heeded. Men who start out expecting to make a large fortune in a few months ought to be willing to pay handsomely for the privilege.

Besides establishing custom-houses, the Canadian Government is seriously discussing the idea of making foreign miners pay a heavy royalty for the right to work in the mines.

There was some talk of excluding aliens—that is, all who are not British subjects—from working on the gold-fields, and thus keeping the Canadian find for Canadians.

You remember the Kootenai matter (see page 850), and how the Canadian Government made it impossible for aliens to take up claims, and insisted that all mine owners must give up their citizenship in other countries and become British subjects. There was some talk of doing the same thing at Klondike, but it was thought that such a course would make a great deal of trouble, and that it would be much simpler to force each man to pay a certain sum of money (fifty dollars a day has been suggested) for his right to work in the gold-fields.

It is strange how the search for gold brings envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness in its train.

No sooner was gold discovered than Canada began to fret because America was profiting by it, and America began to fume because Canada wanted to make her profit out of the great find.

Ugly threats were made of what the American miners would do if Canada tried to make things hard for them. In consequence the Secretary of War has been asked to establish a military post on the route to the gold-fields in Alaska, to protect the American miners if Canada interferes unreasonably with them.

This seems to be a great year for the finding of gold.

A discovery has just been made in Trinity County, Cal., which leads people to hope that the mother lode of the Californian gold-fields has been found.

This main lode had been lost sight of north of El Dorado County, but its reappearance in Trinity has caused a great deal of excitement and turned many gold-seekers thither, in preference to the frozen Klondike region. The first discovery of gold in