The Tragedy of the Klondike - This Book of Travels Gives the True Facts of What Took Place in the Gold-Fields Under British Rule #255624

They are a unique class of men. They go out every year with never-dying hope and supply of grub. Either they work a portion of the year to earn money enough to grub-stake them selves out of their savings, or else they enthuse some one into a belief that they will find a mine; and the man who finds the grub-stake is entitled to a one-half interest in any mining property which the prospector may locate. A grub-stake is a term used to designate the provisions carried by the prospector or the sleuth in search of gold. These necessarily are very limited, as he has to carry them on his back; a robe of fox-skin, in which to sleep, as being the warmest fur procur able; flour, bacon, salt, sugar and tea. The only cooking-utensils are a frying-pan, tin plate, tin cup, knife and fork, pick and shovel and gold pan. Birch-bark is in profusion everywhere, and peeling it from the nearest tree the prospector builds a fire and cooks his flour, salt and water in a cake as thin as a flap-j ack, and the frying of his bacon greases the pan for this elaborate meal. At the Christmas holidays of 1897 and 1898 the exodus of Eastern people to the Klondike reached its height.