the Yukon and Atlin districts.
AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES.
Although a few hardy vegetables can be raised on the Yukon, it is preposterous to talk seriously of any agricultural development of the region, nor will it ever come to the front as a stock-raising country until some genius shall domesticate the caribou or evolve a profit from rearing the hybrid malemoot. Whatever settlements may become permanent on the Yukon will be resultant upon the development of other than agricultural resources, some of which will yet astonish the world.
DAWSON.
Dawson itself has seen great improvements in many respects within a twelve-month. The water front is now used for legitimate purposes, for wharves and warehouses. Better buildings have replaced those destroyed by fires of last winter, and sanitary regulations are so well enforced that it is really a healthy city. Law and order have always been enforced by the Northwest Mounted Po- lice in a manner to win the hearty admi- ration of the most critical of foreigners. The population of the district has been reduced to one-half of that of 1898 by the exodus of prospectors to the Amer- ican side of the line and of the quitters
who have not yet learned why they took the tiresome northern journey. As a direct result, wages have materially ad- vanced. Provisions are plentiful at reasonable prices.
THE PROSPECTS.
For the quarter ending September 13, 1899, the purchases of gold by the Unit- ed States assay office at Seattle exceeded eight and one-quarter millions of gold, which breaks the record. Practically all of this came from the Klondike and from Alaska, the latter a vast region the exploitation of whose mineral resources has hardly begun. Rich deposits of pla- cer gold have been found widely distrib- uted, nor is it unreasonable to expect that the ceaseless energy of the pros- pector will yet lay bare many others. The gold-bearing quartz veins already located are almost innumerable, on one of which 840 stamps are crushing ore with a never-ceasing iteration. The swift advance of gold production of this northern region indicates that it may soon lead the world in its output. Its other resources as yet undeveloped, but partly known to the explorer, and prac- tically unknown to the world, offer won- derful promise to commercial enterprise, and bid fair to furnish for a century to come the most profitable market of all that are naturally tributary to the Pacific Coast.
To a Chrysanthemum.
With. rain-clouds scudding o'er the skies, When blooming-time with summer dies; When winter's chill fore-running breeze Has snatched their robes from shiv'ring trees; When earth a brooding silence keeps, Like mother when her baby sleeps; With bird-songs hushed in Nature's calm, Before tne deep Thanksgiving psalm, — The heart were sad, the lips were dumb, But for thy face, Chrysanthemum! October's winds nor frosts offend, For thou art no fair-weather friend. Thou hardy, stalwart, high-born knight, With shield of gold or plume of white!
EU.3. Josephine Kraal.
