onduct the
other business incident to the mining operations--a place situate at the
confluence of the Forty Mile Creek and the Yukon, and to which the name
of Fort Cudahy has been given--is well within Canadian territory. The
greater proportion of the mines then being worked Mr. Ogilvie found to
be on the Canadian side of the international boundary line, but he
reported the existence of some mining fields to the south, the exact
position of which with respect to the boundary he did not have the
opportunity to fix.

"The number of persons engaged in mining in the locality mentioned has
steadily increased year by year since the date of Mr. Ogilvie's survey,
and it is estimated that at the commencement of the past season not less
than one thousand men were so employed. Incident to this mineral
development there must follow a corresponding growth in the volume of
business of all descriptions, particularly the importation of dutiable
goods, and the occupation of tracts of the public lands for mining
purposes which according to the mining regulations are subject to the
payment of certain prescribed dues and charges. The Alaska Commercial
Company, for many years subsequent to the retirement of the Hudson's Bay
Company, had a practical monopoly of the trade of the Yukon, carrying
into the country and delivering at various points along the river,
without regard to the international boundary line or the customs laws
and regulations of Canada, such articles of commerce as were required
for the prosecution of the fur trade and latterly of placer mining,
these being the only two existing industries. With the discovery of
gold, however, came the organization of a competing company known as the
North American Transportation and Trading Company, having its
headquarters in Chicago and its chief trading and distributing post at
Cudahy. This company has been engaged in this trade for over three
years, and during the past season despatched two ocean steamers from San
Francisco to St. Michael, at the mouth of the Yukon, the merchandise
from which was, at the last mentioned point, transhipped into river
steamers and carried to points inland, but chiefly to the company's
distributing centre within Canadian territory. Importations of
considerable value, consisting of the immediately requisite supplies of
the miners, and their tools, also reach the Canadian portion of the
Yukon District from Juneau, in the United States, by way of the Taiya
In