Online Store

Alaska Gold Prospecting

DISCOVERY OF THE KLONDIKE

In August, 1896, the world-startling discovery of the Klondike was made, which for a year or two put a period to all exploration and prospecting except in its immediate vicinity.

We will introduce an account of this discovery by referring to the name of the river from which the field takes its name. We may recall the
reader's attention to the fact that we have previously referred to the name "Tron Deg" being given this stream by Harper and McQuesten. They got the name from the Indians in the vicinity, and, being short and easily pronounced, they adopted it. The natives in that and most other countries name places and things after some prominent characteristic or feature, and in most cases the names so given are compound words, long and difficult to pronounce except for those given to the study of philology, which but few miners or traders are. This accounts for so few of the native names being recorded, much less retained, and is the reason for the name Forty-mile and others, instead of the Indian name which signifies the river, or rather water, the word literally is, that flows swiftly past the stones, which is long and difficult to pronounce, there being a great many guttural and nasal sounds in the language. Now, while I did not devote much time to the study of the language, I always did, when opportunity offered through some native who understood enough English and was intelligent enough to comprehend my object, try to get the correct native names of places and things, and their correct pronunciation, and note the words composing them, with their meaning in English. I can, therefore, appreciate the difficulty such a task presents to the ordinary miner or trader, for often it was only after several attempts that I was able definitely to fix the sound. For illustration, the Indian word for water, on the upper half of the Yukon and on nearly all the Mackenzie, is " duh " or " tuh, "but so pronounced through the throat and nose, as I heard it, that it is difficult to say exactly which sound is intended ; in fact, in pronouncing it, I have used both without criticism. In com-pounding a name for a stream the word for water is always terminal, as, for example, the Hootalinque, the Indian name of which is " Teslin-tuh " or" duh," meaning " Teslin-water." The word "Teslin" is the native name of a large fish found in the lake out of which this stream flows.

As I gathered from the natives I talked to, they employ what might be termed a diminutive of the word " tuh " or " duh," when the stream or water is small, and this takes the form " tiuck "or " diuck," but generally pronounced so fast and indistinctly that it sounds like "tick" or " dick," and some so pronounce it that one might call it" tig " or " dig." I spent hours talking to al the Indians in the vicinity, whom I could make understand me, to get the correct pronunciation, and I think I succeeded. This being true, the correct native name for the Klondike is " Tron-diuck," or " tiuck." This in English means the" Hammer-water," from the fact that this stream was a famous salmon-run, and barriers of stakes were driven across the mouth to compel the fish to enter the traps set for them. These stakes had to be driven or" hammered " into the gravel in the river-bed, hence the name. When I passed the mouth, September 1st, 1887, the whole width of the river-bed was staked, and half a dozen families were camped on an island in the mouth of the Klondike, which has since become a bar, the timber being washed away. How the name Klondike came to be adopted is incomprehensible to me, for to the old-timers who had occasion to name it, it was "Tron-deg," and the present name does not resemble that more than it does the native name u Tron-diuck." The word was pronounced to me as if one started to say "duck," but put in a slurred "i" before "u." We must admit that Klondike is easier to say, and more euphonic. A word in very common use in the territory, which has found its way out, and is sometimes quoted in a slangy way, is " mush." Its origin is not so difficult to trace, for it is simply corruption of the French word " Marché, " which the dog-drivers on the Mackenzie used as a word of command to their dogs to go on. The Indian corrupted it to "mash," and the average resident of the Yukon, with his or her proclivity to miscall things, changed it to " mush." Had they known that it is the word used by the commanding officer of troops, when he orders his command to proceed, march, they might have got it right, but that is doubtful; "mush" is original, and slang, and there you are.