Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

THE YUKON ADVENTURE 179of dishes.prepared, and he practised economy in the washingIn many cases no glass was available for the cabin windows,and as a substitute empty bottles were placed side by side withthe chinks filled with moss and clay. In such surroundingsscurvy and other diseases seldom failed to appear. Soon,however, the better-class miner tired of such an existence, andif his claim proved of any value his cabin was quickly changedinto a clean and most attractive abode, especiallyif theowner had brought his women-folk with him. Curtains,carpets or rugs, wall-paper, pictures and numerous otheradjuncts of civilization then became essentials, and some ofthe richer miners had even a cow and a piano. Food andcooking also became more civilized. Improved transportationfacilities were soon provided at comparatively reasonable ratesby freighting companies, and brought the prices of commoditiesrapidly to a lower level. The miner was a hospitableindividual, but most casual in his dealings with those he knewand liked. Many a time an officer of the bank, returningdown the creeks to Dawson, has been hailed by a miner,handed a considerable sack of dust, and asked to lodge it inthe bank for him. As a matter of prudence, it should unquestionablyhave been weighed before it was taken. It wasnot, however, done that way, but then each man knew theother.In the early days in the Yukon every day brought somenew incident or revealed some new character worthy of fullerreference than space here permits. One of these characterswas the late Alexander Macdonald, "the Klondike King,"known sometimes as "the Big Moose," or "Big Alec," fromhis enormous stature. He was a Nova Scotian, with onlyelementary schooling, and had followed the hard life of theprospector for many years, going to the Yukon some yearsbefore the Dawson strike. With the little money he had,supplemented by whatever he could succeed in borrowing,"payable on clean up," he soon secured an interest or two insome promising claims, and he justified his faith and judgment