This thick volume was a quick and engaging read. Written by Tappan Adney, a journalist sent to report back on the Klondike in the rush of 1897-1898, it's filled with first hand observations, names of creek, and various details in all departments of life in the Yukon and Dawson City.
Leaving via Victoria, through Juneau and Skagway, deciding in favour of Dyea, over the Chilkoot Pass and then the remaining 500+ miles to Dawson City via a boat of their own building, the whole comprises a rollicking adventure - the tens of thousands of gold seekers, many, if not most, completely unprepared for the trials that await, and - remarkably few misadventures.
The whole thing makes one want to hike (and metal detect) the Chilkoot Pass - of the tens of thousands that set forth, thousands turned back and left it all behind. And somewhere up and over the pass it all remains...
Anyways, arrive at Dawson, realize - that for 2 years - the population of Dawson was greater than the entirety of the Yukon is at present - then, rumors of other gold bearing creeks lured the miners off to other destinations, in Alaska (Nome), and other creeks.
So - lots to metal detect up there, which you wouldn't suspect, given how unpopulated the place is currently.
As for the Klondike gold, estimates (his, and others) that there were millions of ounces - tens of millions of dollars - taken from the goldfields in just a couple of short years - this, with gold at $17.00 per ounce (and all expenses roughly the same as now, if not greater!!!), a short window of work (4 months, although they could dig and work in the thawed underground to a small extent) and you have some idea. Add to this the fact that the bulk of the miners were American, and didn't wish to pay the Canadian Government the royalties they expected, and you would rightly guess immense fortunes made their way back over the border undeclared...
This has greatly inspired me, for there are fortunes and millions up there still...and I've rather mastered the art of misadventure...