see at
Dawson, which is the big gold-camp that caused the Klondike
stampede in 1897; so I think I will do that the best I can."

XVI

DAWSON, THE GOLDEN CITY

Rob's diary went on as he had promised, for during the time that they
lay between boats at the once famous gold-camp there was abundant
opportunity for them to get about and see pretty much everything there
was worth seeing. Rob's record runs day by day as previously:

"_Thursday, August 14th._--Dawson at 4 A.M. Our boat does
not go any farther. We reserved passage on the _Norcom_ for
White Pass. She will sail the evening of next Saturday. On
British soil again.

"This place has had twenty or thirty thousand inhabitants in
boom times, but there are only about twelve hundred people
here now, I believe. A good many people are starting off for
Chisana district, up the White River, where they say there
is a gold strike. All this country has been crazy over gold
strikes for a good deal more than twenty years.

"We went to a hotel here and got baths and got barbered up,
which makes a change in our looks. We got a few things to
wear which the archdeacon could not give us.

"_Friday, August 15th._--Went up the famous Klondike River,
which comes in here. Half of it is clean and the other half
dirty. Saw no more pick-and-shovel work. Everything is run
by the big dredges owned by companies, which do the work of
hundreds of men. They thaw out the ground now with
steam-pipes which they drive down in, and then turn in
steam. Then they rip out the ground down twenty feet with
the big scoops of the dredges. They just have water enough
to float the dredges. Everything is worked and washed right
on the dredge. It beats placer mining a whole lot. But a few
men can work one of these dredges, and then a few men get
all the money they turn out.

"Walked on up to Bonanza and some of the famous creeks above
the dredges. They are using hydraulic mining up there,
another wholesale way. Saw no individual mining.

"We boys ate supper with a lot of French people who are
working 'lays' on some claims which are owned by other
people on the hillsides up toward Bonanza. The bed-rock,
where the rich gold is, is about the middle of the hill, and
runs straight through, and they are following through right