And now the railway appears upon the scene. Skaguay had become a lawless place, partly due to the fact that it was a sort of "no man's land," for it was impossible to say whether it was in United States or Canadian territory, and the lawless element which collected worked their will under the leadership of a "bad man" rejoicing in the appellation of "Soapy Smith." However, some sort of authority was established when the engineers of the projected railway arrived in 1898; a Vigilance Committee was formed, and "Soapy Smith's" régime came to an end by the method of killing "Soapy Smith!" But ten thousand squatters had settled there and laid claim to Skaguay flat, and asked exorbitant prices for the railway's right-of-way. However, construction was soon commenced, although the rush to the mines being at its height it was difficult to keep any labourers on the line at all. On one occasion, gold having been discovered at Atlin, in British Columbia, close at hand, nearly 1,500 workmen left in a body. Moreover, the route of the line was so steep and difficult that a foothold could only be obtained upon the mountain slopes by driving in steel bars and attaching chains thereto. Further complications arose due to the dispute between the United States and Canada as to the sovereignty of the coast strip between Skaguay and White Pass a distance of twenty miles. This, however, was later adjudicated by arbitration to the United States; whilst from the summit of the pass to the shore of Lake Bennett the route lay through land of the province of British Columbia, and thence onward through the Yukon territory, which is subject to the federal control of the Dominion of Canada. Thus the 115 miles of this railway runs through territory under three different jurisdictions.

The whole line was completed, notwithstanding all these difficulties, within the remarkably short space of a year, and the first train ran through from Skaguay over the White Pass -2,865 feet elevation above sea-level-and down to Lake Bennett in July 1899; thus establishing through means of communication between the Pacific Ocean and the navigable headwaters of the great Yukon River. From this point to St. Michael's at the mouth is 2,500 miles-distances are enormous, we shall observe, here-and as the White Horse

and other rapids below the lake only permitted navigation down stream, another seventy-five miles of line were built to their foot, whence clear passage is maintained to Behring Sea. Thus was this strenuous railway built,1 but constant work is necessary to keep it open in winter from the heavy snow-drifts.

A great railway project for Alaska is that of bringing a line to the shores of Behring Straits from the British Columbia system and thence connecting with Asia by means of a train ferry across the intervening thirty-five miles of the straits, and on the Russian side to connect with the Siberian Railway at Irkutsk. When that is accomplished, good reader, we may take ticket in Paris for New York by rail! Stranger things may happen in our lifetime.

The native races of Alaska belong to two principal stocks: the Indian and the Eskimo. The Eskimos are subdivided into Innuits and Aleuts; the former inhabiting the northern and western coasts, and the latter the Alaskan peninsula and Aleutian Islands; whilst the Indians of the interior are the Athabascans, and those of south-east Alaska (fronting upon British Columbia) are known as the Thlinkets. These Indians at Sitka are under control of American missionary schools, and they are of intelligent ways and appearance, showing an initiative and adaptability, it is stated, after the manner of Japanese, whom they resemble somewhat in physiognomy. I have often noted the same similarity, especially in face and eyes, in the Indian of Peru and Mexico at times, and there can be little doubt of some Mongolian migration from Asia to Africa in prehistoric time, from the Old World to the New via Behring Straits. Even among the upper-class Mexicans, especially in the women, the Japanese air is noticeable in some cases, where even the strong Spanish strain has not banished it.

Alaska is isolated territorially from the rest of the United States. It must be looked upon as a country of extensive and almost unknown resources, which are but held in reserve pending the pushing forward of the advancing army of civilization (or commercial development at least) from the

1 For a detailed account of this remarkable work see Engineering Wonders of the World: Nelson.

South. At present mainly an arctic wilderness, the conditions of climate are such as will by no means prevent the growth of a busy population when natural development requires such.

As to the Yukon, how many British readers know where the Yukon territory is, or whom it belongs to? If Alaska contains possibilities, much more so does the Yukon. This vast region, part of that enormous north-west territory belonging to Canada and the British Empire, which stretches eastwardly for a couple of thousand miles to Hudson Bay (itself a great sea in the middle of which Great Britain could be put down and permit us to sail round it out of sight of land), and northwardly-well, to the North Pole! It is a land of enormous river and lake systems-chief among them the Great Bear Lake, Great Slave Lake, Mackenzie, Coppermine and other rivers, which hydrographically, have their outlet to the Arctic Ocean. Think of it, good British reader! think of a land-the north-west territories of two and a quarter million square miles in area, with a total population spread over it of about the size of that of a small town in England, for there are not more than one hundred thousand people in this great pre-continent. Some day, in the orderly march of the world, this great British heritage must become the home of a busy people of high civilization, for its resources are boundless and its climate a rigorous one such as the strenuous white man of Anglo-Saxon race adapts himself to. Truly the heart of man may take comfort in the enormous unoccupied areas of the world, waiting his requirements. Not yet need we limit our populations did we but learn to use nature's real gifts adequately!

Spiritual domination on the northern part of the Great Pacific Coast and areas tributary thereto may be said to be divided. The Russian influence in Alaska remains in nomenclature and religion alone. The natives of the Aleutian Islands have been converted to the Greek Church; and in Sitka (a matter, be it recollected, of some 1,500 miles away) the old Greek Church building, with its pictures of saints, is a point of interest for tourists who come up from Seattle or Vancouver by steamer, as is also the old Russian castle. In the northern portion of the American continents,

therefore, it is interesting to note, the saints of the Greek Church hold sway; as in the south do the saints of the Roman Catholic. But the British, or rather the Canadian, Church also holds spiritual sway in these lands of the midnight sun; and the Archdeacon of Moosenee, the northernmost point of civilization, in the north-west territories, gave me the interesting information that his diocese claims spiritual jurisdiction over the North Pole! I should add that the worthy and reverend archdeacon is an Irishman.

NOTE. These lines were in press a few days before the reported discovery of the North Pole by Cook and Peary.

XIII

COLOMBIA AND ECUADOR: THE LANDS OF THE EQUATOR

FROM the Arctic Circle to the equator the exigencies of our survey, good reader, now demand a sudden flight. We have visited the whole of that far-stretching part of the Great Pacific Coast lying northwards from our starting-point of Panama a vast septentrional littoral with eight thousand miles of wave-beat, sunset shore. Our way now lies in southern seas. We must cross the Line, and ascend the majestic cordillera of the Andes, which forms the most striking feature of this meridional world below Panama.

Upon some of the attributes of the Republic of Colombia I have already lightly touched in describing the little Republic of Panama, formerly a province of this big land of Bolivar. Colombia is the first country in South America which we reach in going southwards down the Pacific Ocean. As we leave the harbour of Panama, the steamer passes amid the emerald isles which stud its bay, rising vegetationcovered from the blue Pacific in tropical beauty. The land recedes, the famous canal site and the low hills which top it fade gently away, reminding us as we look upon the vanishing horizon how small a thing in time and space even man's mightiest efforts are. Yet, as people of the progressive world, we shall "rejoice, as a strong man to run a race" -to think of the triumph over nature which the completing of the canal will be, and look forward to the few years hence when (Deus volens) the steamer which bore us from Europe or from the United States shall have climbed that lockstairway of the isthmus to take its way through the Pacific waters. Mind, indeed, shall have triumphed over matter.

Now as to Colombia, I will not insult your intelligence, good reader, by reminding you that Colombia has nothing to do with British Columbia. It is a Spanish-American