Cannot Evade Duty. Seattle Miners Caught by Customs Officers at Victoria

Bellingham Bay Reveille
July 30, 1897

VICTORIA, B.C., July 28- There is a crowd of indignant gold seekers in town tonight. Two hundred of them came from Seattle today with their outfits to take the steamer Islander for Dyea. Arriving here they found that no sound goods would be allowed to enter the Klondike district without payment of the regular Canadian duty.

Some of them decided upon payment of the duty here, but others are going north with the expectation of evading the customs officers. This is hardly possible, as customs officers are going on the Islander, accompanied by a force of constables, who will assist the mounted police now there to enforce the laws.

The gold excitement is at fever heat here tonight, the town being full of men bound for the north.