The main street was the only passable street, and this was a surging mass of humanity. Men rushed furiously about, apparently without any particular object. At that date there were one or two frame lodging houses ready for business, but no hotels. A bunk cost $2 or $3 per night, according to the character of the place. Very few who had landed had gotten possession of their tents. Thousands slept outdoors on boxes or bales, or walked about all night. It was a difficult matter to tell when it was night and when it was day, as there was absolutely no difference in the amount of light. Restaurants were principally in tents; the cost of a modest meal was from $2 to $3; three boiled eggs could be had for $1 ; ham and eggs for $1.50; bread and butter and coffee, 50 cents. The weather at that date was ideal, so that little hardship was entailed by sleeping outdoors.

Sanitary arrangements were absolutely nil. The irregular city government did improve matters somewhat by ordering, on penalty of a fine, that all persons, male and female, use public latrines erected for the purpose. Tickets to these places were sold at 10 cents each, or three for 25 cents.

Realizing that to land our freight on the beach, under the conditions prevailing, would entail a delay of weeks in getting out to our beach claims, six miles away, as well as the loss of thousands of dollars for moving, I arranged with the captain of our steamer to move the vessel up to a point opposite our claims, and land our property there.

This I was enabled to do, a little later, without any cost, in view of what he was pleased to call my services to his company. Bad weather and difficulty in landing necessitated our remaining opposite our claims for more than a week. It was not until the first days of July that we found ourselves landed on our claims and in possession of all our freight.

During all of July the beach was a scene of the utmost activity ; plants of every conceivable description were in process of erection or in operation. The rule as to each man taking a twenty-five foot strip, which I had believed to prevail, was wholly disregarded; a man used whatever ground his plant occupied. Towards the last of July an attempt was made to hold full-sized claims on the beach, and in some instances soldiers were sent to remove intruders. This action would probably have been strongly contested, and I do not believe that it would have proven legal, for the beach had been frequently characterized as the "poor man's diggings." But most of the people by this time had come to the conclusion that the beach was not worth fighting for, and there was, therefore, no concerted opposition to the attempt to clear a few claims of trespassers. It is estimated that seven or eight thousand men worked the beach with rockers, and that as many more either owned or were employed by, large or small plants. Many of the rockers were painted with bright colors, and, as one rowed up and down near the shore, they resembled nothing so much as the butter and cheese machines at a country fair.

The most popular machines were small centrifugal pumps, operated by gasoline engines, throwing enough water to furnish one sluice head. Of these there were endless numbers whose explosive puffs could be heard above the roar of the surf, night and day. Many were the devices calculated to work beneath the sea.

I believe that much of the sickness on the beach was due to the fact that not all tents had floors, and thus men were unable to keep themselves warm and dry. We had everything to eat which can be put up in cans ; and most of the time we had desiccated potatoes, onions and other vegetables. Large amounts of beef and mutton were sent up in cold storage, and not a little beef on the hoof. The "Skookum," whose dimensions were really colossal, brought up a great many cattle.

Although it became warm toward noon in July, we had no difficulty in keeping all perishable articles of diet in an excellent state of preservation. By digging down a few feet one could always strike ice, on which butter and such things could be put, the whole covered over with boards and a piece of canvas. Such made ideal ice chests.

We had made elaborate preparations to fight mosquitoes, and had bolts of mosquito netting, and various sorts of mosquito-proof headgear. But we had no use for any of this while we were on the beach, though it would have been useful had we gone to the creeks during the warmest weather. I never saw any mosquitoes on the beach.

In August the scene changed. The beach was dismal beyond description. The rains had set in; much of the machinery was abandoned, covered with rust and sinking in the sand ; the exhilaration of hope, which had fired the miners a month earlier, when they were getting ready their plants with money they had brought up with them, had vanished. Most of those who still worked on were trying to get a stake on which to leave the country.

We were ready for operations on the 17th of July. For nearly a month we literally swept the bottom of the ocean in front of our claims. The machinery was admirably designed, doing all and more than had been claimed for it. We handled thousands of tons of sand, in all of which there were particles of gold, but never in paying quantities. Men with rockers made fair wages, $5 to $25 a day, early in the season, and a bare living later. The man with the rocker was able to move about looking for good spots, was under little expense, and many of those, who were industrious, did well.

While it is not to be denied that gold exists along the whole vast coast, from Cape Nome to Cape York, it is a positive fact that it does not exist in sufficient quantities to yield large returns for extensive operations, and up to September1st, the Cape Nome Hydraulic Mining Company was as dismal a failure as it is easy to imagine.

Forced to acknowledge our defeat, we housed our plant and turned our attention to the creeks. At this time there was every temptation to sell our machinery for what it would bring, and return to civilization.

A majority of the plants had given up long before we reluctantly acknowledged that our enterprise, so far as concerned that field of operation, was a failure. The fact was that the richest of the deposits of gold on the beach had been taken out during the preceding season, and that gold, in paying quantities, never existed below the water line. I am inclined to believe that those who had taken it out fully expected that infinitely richer deposits might still be found, but it was not so.