landing, they could dig out a small fortune. A number of these, men with their wives, knew practically nothing about mining. I recall a woman of refinement from the South, who, with her two sons, recently graduated from college, was likewise in quest of a ready fortune. She had never cooked in her life, but thought it would be interesting to look after her boys while they were digging gold from the beach to empty into their mother's lap. This sentiment certainly betokened more hopefulness than common sense. A few days after their arrival at Nome, they departed for home, having had all the experience they wanted; and I subsequently learned on my return that the mother had been confined in a hospital for some time, suffering from brain fever, a malady which it is strange she could have contracted.

The Lane remained six days at Seattle, and was one of the last boats to sail from that port for Nome. Everything in Seattle seemed to be labeled "Cape Nome"; it was in the air. General Randall and the military were there, expecting to sail for the North any day on the transport Seward, the guardians and guaranty of law and order in the new camp until the inauguration of the civil authorities. The lawyers were anxious to know the status of the Alaska bill then under debate in the Senate, especially with reference to its provisions regarding the rights to hold and mine the beach. This matter proved, after all, to be of very little consequence, as the beach had been practically worked out the preceding season and before the arrival of the 1900 stampede, about two million dollars' worth of fine "dust" having been taken from it. But the bill became a law on the sixth day of June, when we were on the high seas, and the best that the goodly sized legal fraternity represented on the Lane could do was to discuss the proposed provisions, and "what would you do in such a case?" There was developing aboard ship a certain nervousness to get away—people wanted to arrive among the first, and thought that they were losing valuable time; but Mr. Lane, who had been at Nome before, remarked that we should arrive there none too late, and his judgment proved to be sound.

Leaving Seattle June 3, with something of a send-off and some interesting additions to the passenger list, associations with civilization were finally severed.

As it is problematical in the spring just when the Bering Sea is free from ice, the first objective point of all vessels bound for the Arctic regions is Dutch Harbor, Unalaska, one of the numerous Aleutian Islands at the mouth, so to speak, of Bering Sea, which extend in a broken chain across the Pacific Ocean almost to the coast of Asia.

The stretch from Seattle to this Bering Sea harbor of refuge is twenty-one hundred miles, and the route is not like that of the delightful inside passage up the Gulf of Alaska, by Sitka and the Muir Glacier, replete with magnificent scenery, and calm. On the contrary, it furnishes nothing to gaze upon except the majestic and not always sufficiently tranquil ocean.

There was, of course, on the Lane a goodly representation of the genus "know-all," whose fortunes were really assured by reason of an infallible combination which they held or device which they had contrived. Such a combination was a certain Alaska "syndicate," from the East, whose component parts consisted of an ex-"judge," to decide the vital legal questions which might arise in the acquisition of property; an attorney, to search titles; a general manager, who declared that he didn't know gold from brass, but would soon find out the difference; a couple of engineers, and some others—not to mention clever machinery with which to extract gold, supplies of all kinds for a year at least, and the essentials of a ready-made house which could weather the fierce winter Arctic gales. It was really too good to endure long. Then, there were individuals who could demonstrate by their blue-prints just how the gold was to be dredged from the sea, it being to them a moral certainty that the gold, probably emanating from the Siberian shore, had been washed by the ocean upon the beach. One of professed large experience vehemently maintained that his theory of the beach deposits was the correct one; that is to say, the gold came down the Yukon River attached to the bottom of icebergs which were carried out to sea, and then, somehow, through the kindness of the Japanese current, the gold which they brought was deposited upon the long-extending beach at Cape Nome! Of course, as had been clearly demonstrated in the preliminary United States geological report, the beach gold had been carried down from the interior by the streams emptying into Bering Sea, and there distributed in the black and "ruby" sand.

The atmosphere became chill and penetrating, the sunsets later, the nights less dark. The crowd were kept in good nature by sparring-matches conducted along professional lines, mock trials, concerts, and recitations by the "profession." The popular song "Because I Love You" was murdered several times daily, only to be re-resurrected. We made the acquaintance of another Yale man, Mr. C——, a member of the California bar, with whom I worked, weather and disposition permitting, over the proposed Alaska laws, and with whom I later formed a law partnership.

Early in the morning of June 11 the Lane went through Unimak Pass and was steaming toward Dutch Harbor, all aboard eager, with eyes straining, to see whether the vessels which had preceded us were there, or had continued up into the Bering Sea, navigation being open. To the surprise and delight of nearly all, there lay at anchor in that magnificent harbor, almost landlocked, what appeared to be the entire Nome fleet—steamers of all sizes, sailing-craft laden with lumber and black with passengers, and the United States vessels Wheeling, McCullough, Manning, Rush, and Lawton.

It is a weird and majestic spot. Great hills, almost mountains, barren of timber or shrubbery of any kind, and streaked with snow, come down precipitous to the water's edge. Rising beyond these are snow-covered mountains. Not a tree nor anything green is visible. The surface is somber with the all-pervading tundra, or Russian moss, which stretches over the greater part of Alaska and northern Siberia. Looking down the harbor are discovered the large warehouses of one of the great Alaska commercial and trading companies, and the ancient and unique Russian settlement of Unalaska, peopled mainly by a mixed-breed population of Russian, Japanese, and native Eskimo constituents. There are a picturesque little Russian church, and the Jesse Lee Home for orphans and foundlings, endowed by a number of charitable women in Washington.

It was quickly learned that a number of the more adventurous ships were frozen up in the ice. Others were not known about; perhaps they had found a lucky opening and slipped through. Several of the vessels then in the harbor, essaying to get through, had met with ice in quantity, and had discreetly returned. A photograph taken by a passenger on one of these latter ships, posted up on the Lane, tended to chill the ardor of some of the enthusiastic souls who were for going right through and losing no time in accumulating wealth. It is safe only for wooden vessels, specially fortified for the purpose, to "buck" the ice, such as whalers and the United States revenue cutter