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Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., pauvent Atre fiimAs A des taux de reduction diffArents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul ciichA, il est film« A partir de Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammas suivants iliustrent la m6thode. 12 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ,-2- Outing. Vol.. XXX. vSEPT EMBER, iS,;;. Xo. () iiki\i\(; \ i;ai;i:ain wiiii iiii. naiivi- PROi^ THe C©aST TO , THE sOLPEN KLO-NPIK^ THE HieCOL^io C'F /iW OipPEClIj^L. JO^i^ti^Y. »y ESflWikira! gjfjirr. J 'HIC (iuestidii i)f tlic venicityiif tlie rn m d I's If (I in I i 111 c to time rLMcliin;^- tlie (iovcrntneiit :is to tlic niinciMl wealtli. cs- ])L'(n;illy in .ijold, of the upper Yukon dis- trict of Alaska, and the conilitions under and means hy ami limes of the year at w li i c li the district eould best be reached, were in the early ])art of last year subjects of departmental consideration. by tlu> OrriNi; I'liblisliini; Cnm\ !n order to i^atlier reliable information on the s^-eoloi^ical (piestions involved. Cnpyrinlitcit, iSii; and, incidentally, of course, some others. I, in the sprint^ of 1896, as a member of the I'liited States (^eoloj^ical Survey, was otKicially recpiested to undertake a journev into the interior of Alaska. I had never been west .mong the other passengers were two men who had undertaken to carry the first regular mail into the Yukon district, and a Catholic priest bound Tor his mission among the ICscjuimaux on the lower river. We were huddled together so closely that we perforce became speed- ily acquainted, for althcnigh the space on the floor was large enough for all of ns to sit down, there was hardly room to stretch out. When we grew weary of chatting, however, and of listening to the sound of the water as the boat threshed its way onward, we were forced by drowsiness to sleep where we could, and soon sleepers were scattered around in the most grotescjue and uncomfort- able attitudes. I had coveted a space on or under the little table used for eat- ing purposes, but found that choice position fully occupied before I made up my mind to retire ; but I finally wedged myself into a narrow space be- tween the boiler and the pilot-house, where, throughout the night, passers continually stepped on my head. How- ever, I slept several hours. The system of eating is worthy of note. The table accommodated about six at a time, whereas, as I have men- tioned, we were fifty or sixty in all. At each meal one or two, or sometimes three, sets of passengers would be fed ; then the captain, the sailor, the Chinese cook, and the dish-washer, after which the rest of ui; got our rations, in good time. As we grew very hungry during this process, we would stand around patiently waiting our chance to slip in ; but sometimes before we had tasted the tempting liver and coifee (to say noth- ing of the beans), we would be sum- marily ejected by the dish-washer, who was a very young man of dashing ex- terior and peculiar vocabulary, and who would disperse us with the assertion that " By , the crew is going to eat now." The day was foggy and rainy, and the sea quite rough. The Lynn Canal, up which we were steaming, is a long, deep, narrow fjord, from which tne cold, snowy mountains to the north rise steeply tc. lonely heights. On this day the fog hid the precipices partly from view, giving us mostly half-veiled glimpses, strange- ly distorted. At times we saw a slim waterfall leaping down ; and here and there stood great broad glaciers, stretch- ing from the clouds nearly down to the sea. These glaciers, like all that I hav<; seen in ..\laska, have wonderful purity of c(jlor. The predominating tint is a beautiful robin's - egg blue, which changes into pure white in the upper part, where the .solid ice grades into the less compact frozen snow. Their surfaces are fantastically carved — pin- nacled and turretcd ; and irregular ma.s.ses .stand out in relief, which the imagination can transform into strange groups of figures. These surroundings produced ujion me an uncanny sensa- tion, which I think was shared by others on b(jard. It .seemed a gigantic, gloomy country, a fit abode for wild beasts and wild men, but, as one of the miners ex- pres.sed it, "no place for a white man toli/e." Wh our the bt ting the FROM TUli COAST TO THE COLD EX KLONDIKE. 5 -'5 le used fcr eat- id that choice before I made but I finally rn)\v space be- le pilot-house, nijjht, passers V head. How- s. is worthy of nodated about > I have men- xty in all. At or sometimes would be fed ; r, the Chinese r, after which tions, in good lungry during stand around ice to slip in ; lad tasted the (to say noth- nild be sum- -washer, who ■ dashing ex- lary, and who assertion that : to eat now." •ainy, and the 'nn Canal, up a long, deep, e cold, snowy se steeply tc y the fog hid view, giving )ses, strange- ; saw a slim nd here and ;iers, stretch- down to the 1 that I havt^ lerful purity iting tint is blue, which n the upper grades into now. Their ;arved — pin- d irregular f, which the into strange urroundings anny sensa- •id by others Uic, gloomy I beasts and miners ex- white man When, toward night, we approached our destined hinding-jjlace, the surf on tlie beach was too heavy to attempt get- ting ashore, so we lay anchored during the night. About noon the next day, the captain made the first trial at land- ing, in a small boat, and was capsized. Then the dish-washer made himself conspicuous' by his presence of mind. " Man the lifc-lioat !" he cried in such stentorian tones that one might shut his eyes and imagine himself at home in a theatre. " Man the life-boat ; the cap- tain's overboard !" There was, unfor- tunately, no life-boat to man ; and the siilor. having but nist come from driv- ing a milk-wagon in San Francisco, did not know how to row well enough to venture out. Meanwhile the captain drifted ashore, righted his boat, and pulled out to the Scrambler again. Shortly afterward we all debarked, and that night we pitched our tent on land. The place is called Dyea ; there is a small trading-post, kept by a white man, around which is gathered a village (^f Indians or Siwash, belonging to the Chilkoot tribe. They are by no means ill-looking people. The men are strong and well-formed ; the women (natur- ally, when one considers their mode of life) are inferior to the men in good looks. These women have a habit of painting their faces uniformly black with a mixture of soot and grease, a covering which is said to prevent snow- blindness in the winter and to be a protection in sumnier against the mos- cpiitoes Some have only the upper part of their faces painted, and the black part terminates in a straight line, giving the effect of a half-mask. At the time of our arrival the Indians were engaged very l)usiiy in catching and drying small fish. These fish are very oily, and when dried can be lighted at one end and used as candles ; and for this purpose tiiey are stored away against tiie long winter night. liarly next morning we were on the trail forthejKiss. The trip from salt water to the head of the navigalile waters of the Yukon is usually made in two stages, e.'ch of about fifteen miles. The trader at Dyea had brought in a few horses, and we engaged him to transport our camp-outfit and ]M-ovisions over the lirst stage, where the trail, thougii rough, can be gone over by pack-ani- ni.ils. Some of the miners, liowever. engaged Indians immediately at Dyea to ])ack the whole distance ; and, as it afterward proved, this was the wiser l)lan. We could al.so have obtained sad- dle-animals, but our party i^referred to walk for the sake of getting toughened for the harder journeys. The trip turned out to lie excep- tionally fatigumg, a large part of the distance being tlirough sand and loose gravels in the bed of a stream, where it was impossible to find a firm footing ; several times also we had to wade the stream. The vallev along whose bottom we were thus traveling was narrow and canyon-like, with steep bare mountains rising high on either side. The tops of these mountains, so far as we could see, were cap])ed witli ice ; and this great glacier stretched out long fingers down into the valley along each of the gulches or recesses in the mountain-wall. Finally, crossing the river a last time on a fallen tree, we fol- lowed the trail up into the more rocky and difficult portion of the valley ; and .some miles of this brought u.s, thor- oughly tired, to our halting-place. A few miles before reaching this place I overtook one of the miners, who, with his two companions or " pardners," had started to ])ack over a part of their outfit themselves. lie was a stalwart young Irishman, but the load of seven- ty-five pounds or thereabouts and the difficulties of the road had exhau.sted him, although he had outstripped by .several miles his less robust companions. After a rest, however, he was able to get to the camp, where we ate tt)gether a supper proportioned in amount to the trials we had undergone. We had brought with us from Juneau lumber for the purpose of building a b(jat when we should get acro:-.s the pass into the Yukon waters, but the Indians demanded such high wages for carrying it over thai it was left at Dyea, the more readily since there .vas a rumor that .some white men had taken a small .saw-mill across the pass in the winter and were now engaged in saw- ing luniher at one of the lakes nn the other side. In order to make sure, how- ever, Wiliorg, the miner who accomi)a- nied us, started in advance across the ]Kiss early the next morning, taking with him an Indian, while we lay in camp till he should send the Indian back with news from the other side. 520 OUT ISC. I- OR ShPT/iMlinR. We profited by the delay to eliinb iij) to the face of tlie },daeier which over- hunj^ the camp. The cliinl) up the mount- ain side was difficult, there l)einj; a con- stant succession of clitrs, the rocks of which had been so severely wrenched by jriacial action that it was not safe to trust to them for handhold or foothold : so that we depended mainly on the stout bushes or younic saplin<;^s which jjrew in the crevices and on the benches. These trees averai^ed fifteen or twenty feet in lenijth — I say lenjj;'th, for most of them j^rew strai.y:ht out horizontally, and some even had a down-hiU inclina- tion ; this was evidently the result of the weijj^ht of snow and ice moving down hill over them for a 1 ar^e part of the year. We were well paid for our trouble on reachinjj the jflacier, w li i c h e X - panded b e - fore our eyes as we drew nearer. It v;as of pure blue ice, ex- t r e ni e 1 y beautiful; and its front t ose perpen- dicularly for several hun- dred feet. A deep chasm separated it from us as we stood on the summit of a pinnacle of bare rock, a few hundred feet away ; and as we looked across we saw ^reat irrej^ular clefts and caverns of the deep- est blue, !.,aiarded by slender towers. Further up the ^reat blue-white field stretched till lost to sij^ht in the mists of the mountain, its surface seamed and cracked and obstructed by hu,L,fe, irrej.^- ular mounds, S(j as U) be apparently impassable. I have seen few thinjj^s more awe-ins])irin,v; than this i»-rcat ice- field, this vast, ])ure, chaotic silence. As we sat we noticed a very slender spire of ice ([uite near wliich seemed as if it must topple. After awhile it bej,'an to ajro-ravate us that it would not, so we beyan shooting at it with the repeating LAKE HK.N.NErr. rifle which we had brouj^-ht alontj, firin}.j a number of shots in rai)id succession for the purpose of knocking it over. This we did not succeed in doing, but when we got back to camp we found that our shots had greatly excited tiie Indians who were camped near by, and who imagined that we werp (piarreling with one of the great bears found in these mountains. The idea of a sensible being shooting at a i)iece of ice is not readily grasped by the savage mind. From Sheep Camp, where we were, the only way to get (Hir supplies over the pass was to get Indians to carry them. Although tlicse Indians are no stronger than average white men, yet they greatly excel t h e m in point of enduranc e ; and they will- ingly under- go extreme, fatigue for any limited period. A t this time, however, the trail was so bad, on ac- count ui the softening of the snows in the hot June s u n , t h a t they conclud- ed to strike for higher wages. This was the cause of some little delay for us, for most of the men in camp were opposed to yielding, especially the miners, who represented that the increased cost would inconvenience them consider- ably. So began a siege on both sides; we announced our intention to the Indians of staying in this pleasant jjl.'.ce for a month or two, and both in our camp and in that of the .Siwashes the most ostentatious carelessness ])re- vailed. Late in the d;\y this stale of affairs was interrupted liy the action of one small i)arty of miners, who were anxious to get at the gold which they imagined lying around thickly in some interior gulch, waiting for the first comer to pick it \\\), and so went secretly to the other camp and compromised FROAf HIE COAST TO TIIIL GOLDEN KL()Xl)/K/:. 527 It aloiii^-, firinj*' )i(l succession :kin^'- it over, ill doinjr, l)iit nip \vc found ly excited tiie 1 near by, and srp (luarreliujr L-ars found in a of a sensible ! of ice is not .'aj^e mind, ere we were, supplies over lians to carry ulians arc no ^ite men, yet they jiTeatly excel t h e ni in point of enduranc e ; and they will- ingly under- go extreme, fatiiifuc for any limiicd period. A t this ti m e, however, the trail was .s(j bad, on ac- count of the sofleniny of the snows in the hot J line sun, t li a t tiiey conclud- ed to strike for h i ^ h c r ivaj^cs. This ivas the cau.se lis, for most ; opposed to nincis, wlio reascd cost m consider- both sides ; iti(jn to the liis pleasant and both in he Si washes Icssncss pre- this state of he action of S who were 1 whicli they ■kly in some ir the first vent secretly om promised i LOOKINC, fP LAKK I.INDKKMA.V with them. We were informed of this by a series of wild whoops from the Siwashes, as they poured over the hill and into our camp. Our first thouj^ht was that it was a hostile attack, but we were reassured when we saw tliem bei^rjn to parcel out the goods belonging to the miners. It happened that these men were the very ones who had so strongly urged holding out against the incrca.sed price ; and as it took all the available Indians to carry their outfit over, we were delayed a couple of days by thi.s. I'inally, however, we secured packers, I.<1CJKIN(; DOWN UVEA IM.l'.r. 528 OUriXG FOK Sh/T/:M/U:R. \ and one afternoon they announccil tlicir intention of startinj^ across tlie jkiss — for they are very indei)enclent about such matters, and will wait indefinite ])eriods till the weather or their humor is satisfactory. Unlike the civilized man, the Indian has plenty of time ; he is never in a hurry. ( )nce we saw the Siwash safely started with their packs, we set out ourselves, at about six o'clock in the afternoon. At this time of year the trip is usually timed by tiie Indians so that the deep- est snow will be crossed between twelve o'clock at midnij^dit and three in the morning ; for in these hours a crust forms, which in daytime is softened by the warm sun. O.ir way soon led lis on to a jrlacier-like field ' f snow, which often sounded hollow to our feet as we trod, and at intervals we could hear tb.e water rushint; beneath. The j^rade be- came steep, and the fojj;- closed around ns thickly, joininj,'- with the twilijjht of the Alaska June nij^ht to make a peculiar obscurity which jjfave thinj^s a weird, jjhostly appearance. As we toiled up the steep incline of hard- ened snow, those ahead of us looked like hu<.je giants ; while those on whom we looked down were itjjly, s])rawlinj:j dwarf.s, toilinjj iip the mount- ain side like Ilendrik Hudson's sailor, wh(jm luckless Rip Van Winkle met. As we drew near to one another, our faces seemed a pale blue color, thouf^h very clearly seen ; and we left bright blue footprints on the p'alo snow. Presently we saw a fire a little way above the trail, and climbing up to it found a deaf-and-dumb Indian and his squaw or " klutchman," who were dry- ing their moccasins before a lire made out of a few stunted bushes. He ex- plained to us by signs that the trail was dangerous, and that it was too dark to see clearly. So we waited till midnight, when another Indian, one of our packers, came up, and we started out on the trail again. All the rest of the climb was over snow, the ascent being very steep, with cliffs on all sides, which loomed u]) gigantic and ghostly. It is impossible to describe the effect ])roduced by these bare, jagged rocks rising out of tlie snow-field, in the silence, the fog, and the twilight. We were forcibly re- minded of .some of Dore's imaginative drawings. In the course of the ascent (loodrich and myself found ourselves ahead of the i)arty, who followed the Indian, toiling along under his pack. After a while the well-beaten trail faded to almost notiiing, and at the same time the snow-slope l)ecame of exLVssive stee])ness. We were obliged to kick footholds for every step on a surface so smooth and steep that a slip wou'd have .sent tis sliding into depths which we could not see. Lookingdown, it seemed a bott.)mless i)it, shapeless and fathomless, in the eddying fog. After a while we gained the top, and waited till the rest should come up. When they apjjcarc ;1, we were surprised to find tliat they came from a somewhat different tlirection ; and we found on in- quiry that we had neglected to turn otT with the regular trail, which led in a roundabout way through the rocks, with a rope for handhold and safety, and had instead kept straight up the mount- ain to the to]). On the other side of the summit a short but steep declivity led down to a small frozen lake, named by ilie miners Crater Lake, on account of the steep crater-like walls which surround it on three sides. On one side, however, this wall opens out into a valley, through which a small stream runs ; the lake is, therefore, one of the ultimate sources of the Yukon, and it was with a feeling of relief that we stepped upon its frozen surface. From here our way lay down the stream-valley and across little lakes into which the stream broadened out at in- tervals. Sometimes we walked over the stream on an archway of snow and ice, and again trod cautiously along its banks, while the river, broken loose from its covering, ran turbulently be- tween its icy banks. The upper lakes were frozen, but further down we had to wade knee-deep in slush for miles, putting occasionally a foot through the rotten ice beneath ; and finally we were obliged to .skirt along the shore, which was ])recipitous. During the last few miles it rained and snowed alter- nately. Finally, at nine o'clock at night, we rcaclunl tiie shore of Lake Linder- man, the first of the Yukon's navigable waters. Linderman is a jiretty little lake sev- eral miles in length, and ])artly shut in by the high, snow-capped mountains over which we had come. Here we FROM THE COASr TO TUT. GOLDTN KTOXDIKT S-'9 iiii'l ourselves tollowc'd the I' liis pack, -beaten trail . and at the e heeanie of were oi)lijri.tl ry step on a ep that a slip !,'■ into depths ■odkin;,' down, )it, shapeless L'dilyinjf fojf. tlie top, and lid come up. ere surprised 1 a somewhat i found on in- .'d to turn off lieh led in a lie rocks, with safety, and ip the mount- he summit a ed down to a )y tlie miners of the steep rround it on liowever, this ley, through ; the lake is, ite sources of I a feelinj^ of on its frozen y down the tie lakes into L'd out at in- walked over of snow and isly alonj^- its iroken loose bulently be- upper lakes own we had ill for miles, throu.i,'-h the ally we were the shore, rin^r- the last lowed alter- ock at ni^'-ht, :ike I^inder- "s navi^tjable tie lake sev- rtly shut in mountains Here we 'found Wiborj,' waiting: for us under a shelter made of trees, and presently the Indian who was carryiiij,' our tent came aloniu,^ ami we proceeded to make our- selves as comfortable as jiossible, after some time spent in settlin^r atTairs with our packers. The endurance of these people is shown by the fact th.at they made this very fatij^uinjr trip, witli loads averajfinjf over a hundred ])ounds each, in the same time as ourselves who car- ried little or nothing;-. These Indians all have some Enj^lish natne, which they have <^<.A from the inissi'jn, where they hanjf arouiul when there is anythinj^ to be jjfot by it. I find in m) notes " Tom " credite<^ with car- ryiu},' one hundred and ten pounds of meat and "Jim" witl. ne hundred and sixty-one pounds of sundries. Tom's orijfinal name was Kuk-shon, and he claimed to be a chief of the interior, or Stick, Indians. He spent his spare time during the short space of my ac([uaint- ance with him in daubinjj vermilion around his left eye. IJefc^re startinj^ across the pass he painted the rest of his face black with soot and j^reasc, but carefully left the red around his eye ; and this ornamentation, tojjcther with a smile, which I think he meant to be en- gaging, and which he offered on all oc- casions as a substitute for conversation, made him a particularly villainous-look- ing personai,e. Among the packers were also a number of women. These were mostly ugly old hag.s, and many of them plainly suffered greatly from fatigue ; yet their patient endurance was remarkable. It seems to fall to the lot of the old women, among these people, to do the hardest work ; but men, women and children are schooled to carrj' heavy burdens. We met on the trail a whole family packing, carry- ing out a S(jrt of contract with some of the miners. The man carried one hun- dred and iwenty-seven jKiunds, a boy of thirteen carried one hundred pt)unds, and the scpiaw and little girls had heavy loads. Even the dog, about the size of a srtt"' carried forty ]JOunds, with which he w. .ia'cd along patiently enough. vVe h:id some very slight perplexity ill setUiKg accounts. One woman, who started .n-ross the pass as Jenny, turned up r.d S.illy at Lake Linderman, having evidently made up her mind to change her name on the way ; and as she under- stood no word of English we had a momentary ditVuulty in identifying her. She and her frieiuls seemed to have some inkliii ' ')f political principles, for they all wanted to be jiaid in silver, and distrusted gold, v/liile it was with dif- liculty that tliey could be induced to ac- cept bills. Nearly all of these people on ijcing jiaid star'teil immediately back over the trail, without resting, intending to travel all night, and be in Sheep Camp in the morning; anil th fter they had already been twenty ur hours on the road. Wiborg had succeeded in obt. lining for us a iioat already built, w'l .-h sa^ "d a great deal of time, as it l. ik.es about two weeks to whi])saw lumber and bviild a boat, as minc-s usually ilo. The ne.xt morning, therefore, we load- ed our outfit and sailed down Lake Lin- derman with a fair wind. Tlie boat >vas a small, double - ender, flat - bottomed craft, fifteen feet or so in length, and oi)cn to sun ami rain alike. For a sail we used our tent-tly, an article which was put to many important uses in the course of our trip, but never to that for which it was originally intended. De Windt's party followed us in a similar boat ; and with De Windt came the priest whom we had encountered on the Scrambler — a genial and cultured gentleman, whose light heart kept him from being long affected by the jihys- ical discomforts we were all obliged to undergo. To complete the flotilla, there was a small scow, of rather shaky con- struction, which had just been com- pleted by a parly bound for the .i\nieri- can mining camp of Circle City ; this party was remarkable for containing one of the fair sex, who seemed as well fitted as the men to make the journey successfully. In after days we met the l)arty re])eatedly as we all floated down the river, the lady always sitting in the front of the scow and six or seven men behind, all wearing flowing veils as de- fence against the niosciuitoes, and wav- ing branches for the .same purpo.se; and we likened her to Cleopatra, in her barge. Just after starting. Cooper, a frontier.sman who was with De Windt's l)arty, sigliteil a iiKnintain-goat close to the sliore, and shot at it, but failed to iiring it down. The lake down which we sailed is only a few miles long ; at its foot it connects with a larger body of water, called Lake Bennett, by a short but rapid and danger- 530 OUTING FOR SlirriiMBER. !ii CLKOPATKA S KARCE. ous channel. For such places as this we had brought along a hundred and fifty feet of strong line ; and after unloading our outfit at the head of the rapids, leav- ing only a few light things which would not be damaged by water, we attached the line to the bow of the boat, and let it drop down with the current. Wiborg remained on board to steer, for if a boat sheers or yaws when going over rapids, she is likely to careen and capsize. We three greenhorn geologists held the line, with which we waded in the shallower parts of the current, and scampered over EMllARKINC, I.AKK, I.INDKRMAN. 1 I FROM THE COAST TO THE GOLDEN KLONDIKE 531 rrent. Wiborg er, for if a boat n'g over rapids, d capsize. We ts held the line, the shalh)\ver callipered over the rocks and cliffs where tlie water was deep and swift, lettin;^- run or holdin<^ firm, as Wibori^ sij^nialed. These rapids are amonjj^ the most difhcult to pass of all those (m the Yukon, and it is cus- tomary for miners to ycj below them be- fore bnildin