into the Yukon, and found it on nine creeks as early as
1894. They sent out about $400,000 that year. There were a
good many miners all along the river even in
1894--seventy-five miners in one party of stampeders. But
still no one had heard of the Klondike, although they had
prospected between the Yukon and the Arctic Ocean and far
down to the mouth of the Yukon, and about everywhere else!

"Harper and McQueston had been on the Klondike, but did not
find anything at first. Bob Henderson had as much nerve as
anybody. They went up on Indian River, which runs parallel
to the Klondike, about fifteen miles away. Henderson worked
on Quartz Creek, they say, and he had to thaw out his
ground with log fires the way they used to do, so he did not
make much. Then he worked on Australia Creek. Of course
these men all moved around a good deal. He only got about
600 or 700 dollars on the creek where he was working, so he
moved over to a stream which he thought ran into the
Klondike, and he called this Gold Bottom. He got the color
here.

"Bob Henderson met George W. Carmac, and he offered to share
his new strikes up on Gold Bottom, but he drew the line at
the Indians Carmac was living with! So Carmac did not go out
at first. But Carmac and two Indians, Charley and George,
did go up the Klondike, and up Bonanza after a little, about
a mile above the mouth. They were looking after logs for
lumber. But they found color up in there. The Indians didn't
care much about it. But after Bob told them about strikes
higher up in the country, these Indians and Carmac went
farther up Bonanza. They all claim to have found the first
gold there. Henderson would not let them stake on Gold
Bottom because he didn't like the Indians, so they turned
back, because they had found ten cents to the pan on
Bonanza. They found more gold on Bonanza, and so Carmac
staked there on August 17, 1896, the Discovery claim and
Number One Below Discovery, each 500 feet long, up and down
the creek. They tell me that these claims ran the full width
of the valley bottom--that is, from base to base of the hill
on either side.

"Then some Indians staked above and below, Tagish Charley on
Number Two below, and Skookum Jim on Number One above. They
had about a cartridg