Page:The Pacific Monthly volume 4.djvu/184

128 wonderful strikes on Bonanza and Eldorado creeks. Then the stampede began that has had no parallel since the memorable discovery in 1849. People in every walk of life seemed to lose all power of reason, let lucrative positions, mortgaged homes and joined the gold-crazed mob. This wave of humanity broke upon the shores of Alaska and the portion that reached the Klondike soon spread itself over the face of the country. Finding nearly all the creeks near Dawson taken up, the gold-seeekers tramped to new and untried regions and new strikes and reports of strikes brought eager stampedes from the older camps. This movement is constantly going on, and will probably continue until the greater part of that vast territory will have been explored.

The author was sent out as special correspondent of Harper's Weekly and he gives a very readable description of the country and his experience therein. Starting from Skagway he and his party went by the way of Chilcoot Pass down the lakes, shooting the dangerous White Horse Rapids, and eventually reaching Dawson. From here he visited the different creeks where the mining was in full operation, and we have illustrations from photographs showing the men actually washing out the gold. These illustrations are especially fine and with the author's thoroughness the reader will get a clear idea of life near the Arctic Circle. He describes in detail the routes, cost of outfits, mining laws and everything necessary for the "stampeder" to know, and all is set forth in a graphic manner that convinces one that Mr. Adney got his information at first hands.

There are many books written on the Klondike, but none are so comprehensive and practical as this. It will be of value as a book of reference, for it gives the history of all the discoveries, including Cape Nome—that unique mining camp situated on the wind-swept beach.

The publishers have here a book, with its fine paper and binding, and wealth of illustrations, of which they may well be proud.


 * MEN WITH THE BARK ON.
 * By Frederic Remington.
 * Harper & Bros., N. Y.

"Men with the Bark on die like the wild animals, unnaturally—unmourned, and even unthought of, mostly."

These sketches are of the type of man supposed to be indiginous to certain sections of America—fearless, generous to a fault, reckless of life and limb, rough as to exterior, but at heart as chivalrous as the knight-errant of old. Mr. Remington knows him well; has rode with, him, camped with him, has "summered" and "wintered" him, and his drawings are so intense and full of action that one at first sight might mistake them for photographs.

One chapter of the book is devoted to the personal experiences of the author in the Spanish-American war and is told in his own way, which, like his drawing, is inimitable. The other sketches are of the camps of the volunteers previous to their embarkation for Cuba, and the frontier life of the regular army.

The author shows his real literary ability in the "Story of the Dry Leaves," which is as poetic in its conception as the "famine," in Hiawatha. Authors are often like artists in this respect: They sometimes persistently follow lines of work which the public does not applaud. The Late Bernard Gillam was finally forced to give up work on serious lines and take up caricature, and Mark Twain, like his "virtuous man," finds himself lonesome if he is not humorous. We can forgive Mr. Remington, however, for the particular field he delights to work in would be barren without him. His sketches with both pen and pencil will be prized in the future as illustrating a type which, like the beaver and the buffalo, is becoming extinct.


 * A TRIPLE FLIRTATION.
 * By the Abbey Press, N. Y.

This book was no doubt designed for the summer-girl, that human butterfly who makes her appearance with the advent of hot weather and ice-cream sodas. The author does not take us into his confidence, but he may have meant this to be a manual for amateurs, who, after