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Las diagrammas suivants iliustrant la mAthoda. rrata o oalura, iA H 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 2 "iJ o O 41 H c < u H " O 5 7. be o .s ^ i u I. V V 2 ■3 be «> § TWO YEARS IN TIIU KLONDIKE AND ALASKAN GOLD-FIELDS a EijriiUnfl Narratibe 2 ■3 fa •o "3 H a o I. or PERSONAL EXPERIENCES AND ADVENTURES IN THE WONDERFUL GOLD REGIONS OF ALASKA AND THE KLONDIKE. WITH OBSERVATIONS OP TRAVEL AND EX- PLORATION ALONG THE YUKON POKTRAYINO THE DANGERS, HARDSHIPS. AND PRIVATIONS OF A GOLD- SEEKER'S LIFE; WITH A FAITHFUI- DESCRIPTION OF Hifc antj Scenes \x[, ®olb J«ine« ant Camps INCLUDING FULL AND AUTHENTIC INFORMATION OF THE COUNTRIES DESCRIBED. THEIR UNDERGROUND TREASURES, HOW TO FIND THEM, ETC. M BY WILLIAM B. HASKELL (A Returned Oold Miner and Protpeclor) o be V B O Beauttfullg Illuetrateti WITH MAXy KXORAVIMU8 FROM RKOEXT I'HOTOORAPHg TAKEN ON THK SPOT HARTFORD, CONN. HARTFORD PUBLISHING COMPANY 1898 f Entered according to Act of Congrc«B, In the year 1898 By CM liarlfeMI FaMMriit eeavMV In the Office of the Llbrtrlan of Congreea, at Washington, D. C. zTxwmr^ from ^]pt6af ^Moeraft^s mobe effnrecBfe for f^im HIDorft, anb Mi (]>uB(lB0eb (gfoewQere. PAOI. 1. Alono the Dtba Trail, . Frontispiece A lone Kol ing in Ice Water— lD^"'-ed aud Exhausted— A Blinding Storm— " Oh, for a Little Meat "—Joe Starts to Hunt for a Moose— Returns and Finds Me Helpless— "I Guess I'm Done For"— A Long Night aud Day — Walking in a Circle— I Revive on Moose Broth— My Last Prospecting Trip 407 CHAPTER XXX STAMPEDERS WHO NEGLECTED TO RECORD CLAIMS — CREEKS TOO NUMEROUS TO REMEMBER — P08- SILILITIES OF- OTHER DISTRICTS — NEW GOLD FIELDS. Midnight Rush to Montana Creek — Staking by Torchlight — A Pugil- ist on Hand — Locators Rested after Their Journey — Their Stakes Stealthily Removed and Others Substituted — The First to Record Takes the Claim — Great Stampede to All Gold Creek — The Rush for Bryant Creek — Intended to be Named for William J. Bryan — Result of the Slip of the Pen — Neglecting to Record for Fear Something Better Would be Found — Tenderfeet Frozen Out — Waiting Three Days to Reach the Gold Commissioner — The Country Staked for a Hundred Miles Around — Frauds Perpe- trated — Impossibility for the Officers to Measure Claims during the Wild Stampedes — Wild Race down the Frozen Yukon to Buy a Claim — Old Miners' Belief in Stewart River — Gold Found Everywhere — Difficulties of Prospecting on the Stewart — Some of the Gold-Bearing Creeks Which May Be Heard From — In the Same Belt as the Klondike, 420 CHAPTER XXXI THE GOVERNMENT OF THE KLONDIKE — THE CANA- DIAN MOUNTED POLICE —CANADIAN REGULATIONS — MAILS THROWN AWAY ON THE TRAIL — A QUES- TION OF LIFE OR DEATH. . Attention Paid the Yukon District by Canadian Government after Gold Discoveries — Concerned Over Loss of Revenue — Detach- CONTENTS XXVll ment of Police Seat In— When the Organization was Formed — Its Principal Features— Officers and Constables — The Yukon Territory — Powers of the Gold Commissioner — His Word Final in All Cases as to Claims — Experience of a Seattle Man — How a Double Sale was Quickly Untangled — Government Rights over the Yukon Region — The Proposed Royalty — Indignation of the Miners — A Meeting and a Protest — Possibilities of Trouble — Uncertainty of the Mails— Difficulties of a Carrier — Mail Matter Taken by Returning Miners and Tlrown Away on the Trail — A Matter of Life or Death, 431 OHAPTEK XXXII THE SUDDEN RISE AND MAGICAL EXPANSION OF SK AG WAY — CURIOUS SIGNS FOR THRIVING EN- . TERPRISES ~ THE DEBATING SOCIETY IN MRS. MALONEY'S BOARDING TENT. Seeking un Easier Pass than the Chilkoot — Why Gold-Seekers Began to Stop at Skagway — A Peaceful Scene in July — The Original Promoters Quickly Overwhelmed — A Thousand Tentr and a Thousand Pack Animals — Organizing the Town — Marvelous Real Estate Business — How a Hotel Keeper Announced His Facilities — A More Modest Announcement —" Any Old Thing Bought and Sold " — Tons of Provisions Scattered on the Beach — Saloons and Dance Halls — An Opening Night — The Symbol of Law and Order — Herds of Gambling Men — "An Easy Graft " — Greenhorns at Packing — Runaway Animals — Many Ludicrous Scenes — The Serious Side — A Clergyman's Observations — The Part the Women Piayed — Widow Maloney's Debating Society — Respect for the Chair — Debating the Merits of Armies of the World — Some Race Feeling — Mrs. Maloney Does Not Permit Abuse of "Ould Ireland" — A Hundred Days of Growth — " Biggest " Town in Alaska 446 XXVIU [!! CONTENTS CHAPTER XXXIII DIFFICULTIES AND HORRORS OF THE 8KAGWAY TRAIL — PRECIPICES OVER WHICH HORSES TUMBLED — A LIFE FOR A SACK OF FLOUR AND A LITTLE BACON. An Impassable Trail — The Blockade — Stories Brought to Dawson — Principal Features of the White Pass Route — Slippery Places for Horses — Over Precipices into the River — Porcupine Hill — Where Most of the Horses Were Lost — The Sight of a Life Time- Death on Summit Lake — Efforts to Open the Trail — All Kinds of Pack Animals — Scarcity of Fodder — Selling Hay and Throw- ing in the Horses — The Big Marsh — Floundering in the Mud — Thieving on the Trail — Looking for Pierre, the Frenchman- Discovered with Stolen Goods — Appealing to Hearts of Stone — Six Shots Sounding as One — The Limp Form of a Thief Hanging by the Wayside — A Heap of Stones Cast on the Body — Chances to Make Money on the Trail 459 CHAPTER XXXIV THREATENED FAMINE — STORES OF THE TRADING COM- PANIES CLOSED — STEAMBOATS STUCK ON THE YUKON FLATS -THE PERILOUS SITUATION REAL- IZED. Miners Hasten to Secure Provisions — Companies Fear Speculation in Food — Eggs at $4 a Dozen — Good Mining Claims Traded for Provisions — Candles at a Dollar Apiece — Waiting Three Hours to File an Order — The Trading Companies Confer — Doling Out Provisions — The Steamboats near Fort Yukon — Fruitless Efforts to Get over the Bar — Captain Hansen's Efforts — Returning to Dawson — Watching the River for the Steamboats — The Situation Realized — Plenty of Whisky, but Little to Eat — Police without Supplies — The Warehouses Threatened — Police Contemplate the ,i CONTENTS XXIX Necessity of Seizing Provisions— Fancy Prices for Dogs— Mine Owners Threatened by Failure to Pay Debts, . . .476 CHAPTER XXXV THE GREAT EXODUS FROM DAWSON — DOWN THE RIVER TO CIRCLE CITY AND FORT YUKON — SAD FATE OF SOME OF THE EXILES — A BURIAL UNDER THE ARCTIC SKY. A Great Day in Dawson — Drawing Lots to Determine Who Should Go— The Restaurants All Closed— Effort to Go Up the River Thirty-five Miles in. Seven Days— The Party Finally Returns- People Pouring in While Others Were Pouring out — Arriving With Worthless Outfits or None at All — Swept By Dawson in the Running Ice — Petty Larceny Becomes Frequent — Food Scarce at Circle City — Men Arrive from Circle City Badly Frozen — Suffer- iug on the River— Exiles Badly Frozen — Sad Fate of Young Anderson — Wounded, His Friends Dragged Him on a Rudo Sled — Dying within Sight of Circle City — Thawing an Arctic Grave— The Funeral— Extracts from His Diary — Strong Miners Weep— The Scarcity of Supplies — A Restaurant Price List — A Fresh Supply of Caribou Meat — Curtailing the Work on the Mines— Those Left Pull Through, . . . . . 486 CHAPTER XXXVI DISCOVERY OF GOLD ON MUNOOK CREEK— THE SUD- DEN RISE OF RAMPART CITY — THRILLING EX- PERIENCE AND LOSS OF LIFE ON THE MOUNTAIN TRAIL. A Rival to Dawson and the Klondike — American Territory Preferable — Old Munook and Little Munook— Taking a Fortune from a Small Hole— Stream Prospected Before— The First Excitement— ■'- ^»«mm'i9n^tgit(tit XXX CONTENTS \l Stampedes from the Arriving Steamboats — Beginnings of Ram- part City — Arrival of tlie Hamilton — Crew Stampedes and Takes the Knives and Forks— A Literary Woman's Rush for a Claim — Settling in the New Camp — High Prices for Claims — Taking out |1,500 in Five Days — The Fever of Speculation — "Wealth of a Man with a House and Lot — High Price of Timber — The Rough Trails — Fatal Experience of Two Yale Graduates^ Spending the First Night on Hoosier Creek — Taking Food for Only One Day — A Terrible Night — Tucker Falls Exhausted — Running for Help — Secured at Last — Returning to Find His Companion Dead — Burird in the Wild Qulch — Situation of Munook— High Value of Its Gold, 496 CHAPTER XXXVn WE DECIDE TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY — INCl DENTS OF A HARD JOURNEY IN WINTER TO THE COAST — THE DEATH OF JOE — MY ESCAPE. Preparing for the Winter — Our Gold Dust — Returning to Dawson We Realize the Food Situation — We are Unable to Secure Pro- visions for the Winter — Selling Our Claims and Counting Our Fortune — Down or Up the River? — We Decide to Return for a Good Outfit — Dogs an Expensive Luxury — Encountering Wrecks — Difficulties at Lewis River — Picking up Tales of Hardship and Suffering — Hardships of a Man with Poor Dogs — A Young Man with Frozen Feet Left to Die in a Hut — A Young Woman Rescued from Death — Lashed to a Sled — We Arrive at the Cafion — A Cry from Joe — Into the Icy Rapids — Last of Poor Joe — I Sit Down and Cry — My Awful Predicament — Pro- visions, but Nothing Else — A Sad and Lonely Journey — A Tent Buried in the Snow — Saved! — " Got Any Grub ? " —Kicking the Dogs out of the Snow — Over the Chilkoot in a Blizzard — Homeward Bound — "Poor Joe!" . . . . . 605 CONTENTS XXXI CHAPTER XXXVIII THE GREAT RUSH TO THE KLONDIKE AND ALASKA — EXCITEMENT ALL OVER THE WORLD — PREP- ARATION FOR A QUARTER OP A MILLION PEOPLE — WHAT IT WILL MEAN IF ALL BECOME RICH. At Seattle — The Stampede of 1898 — Nothing to Compare with It — The Days of '49 Eclipsed — Transportation Engaged in Advance — Fitting Up Vessels to Accommodate the Trade — " Klondicitis " — The Topic of Conversation Everywhere — Preparing Outfits — Returning Klondikers Besieged — Women and Children Have the Fever — Old Gold-Seekers Aroused — All Sorts of Men Join in the Rush — Great Exodus from California — Associations of Women — Gold Dust on Exhibition — The Craze Reaches Jerusa- lem — A Quarter of a Million of People — How It Appeared to a Returned Klondiker — All After Gold — Money Spent for Out- fits — What It May Mean — Doubling the Gold Production in a Single Year — If All Make Fortunes Gold Will Become Cheap 519 CHAPTER XXXIX RESOURCES OF THE YUKON VALLEY — POSSIBILITIES OF QUARTZ mNING — COOK INLET, UNGA ISLAND AND COPPER RIVER— THE FUTURE OF ALASKA. Waiting for More Thorough Prospects — Comparative Smallness of the Klondike District — Room for a Million to be Lost in — The Klon- dike all Located — The Government's Gold Map — Traces of Gold Everywhere — Most of Alaska Unexplored — Some Comparisons with Early Production in California — Difference in Conditions — Obstacles to be Overcome — Possibly a Dozen Klondikcs — Induce- ments for Quartz Mining — A Belt of Rich Rock Thousands of Miles Long — The Quartz Mines of Unga Island — A String cf XXZll CONTENTS Islands that May be Rich in Gold — A Test of Klondike Quartz — Credit for the First Discovery — Cook Inlet and Its Mines — The Benefit of Waiting a Little Longer — The Copper River Country — Stories of Rich Diggings — Friendly Indians with Mineral Wealth — Points of Distribution — Unforeseen Results of Our Purchase of Alaska — Its Future, 534 CHAPTEK XL ADVICE TO GOLD-SEEKERS — THE IMPORTANCE OP HAVING A GOOD OUTFIT — POINTS TO BE RE- MEMBERED—WHAT TO DO AND WHAT NOT TO DO. Some Advantages in Not Being in a Hurry — Not a Poor Man's Country — Good Advice from a United States Government Expert — A Place for Strong Men and Those Who Can Afford to Lose — Expenses Which Have to Be Met — The Cost of Cabins and Facili- ties for Working Mines — One Thousand Dollars for Sluice Boxes — The Advantage of Having Partners — Unwise to Take Less Than a Year's Outfit — Suicide Cheaper in Lower Latitudes — It Takes a Week to Dig a Grave — Times When Every Man Looks the Picture of Distress — Sail North Only in Good Vessels — How to Mark Packages — Trunks an Inconvenience — Sugar and Salt as Hard as Quartz — Tobacco as Good us Jloney on the Yukon — As to Furs — Shot Guns Better Than Revolvers — Jack Dalton's Rules for the Trail — Possibilities of Losing a Toe or a Foot, . 548 TWO YEARS IN THE KLONDIKE AND ALASKAN GOLD FIELDS CHAPTER I MY BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE — WHAT LED ME TO ADOPT THE LIFE OF A GOLD-SEEKER — WHY MY EYES WERE TURNED TOWARDS ALASKA. Boyhood on a Vermont Farm — Scanty Rewards of Toil — Forgetting the Cows — My Father Has Ambitions for Me — I Am Sent to School but Am Negligent in Study — The Mystery of Inheritance — Book Knowledge — I Choose a Business Career in the City — Behind a Counter in a Dry- goods Store — My Unhappy Lot — Sighing for the Great West — Temptation to Break Away — It Finally Over- comes Me — News of Wonderful Finds of Gold — I Take My Little Belongings and Arrive in Chicago — Life as a Brakeman — Falling in with Gold Miners — Something about Nuggets— A Tramp's Luck — The Creede Bush— Cripple Creek— Two Irish Boys and Their Mountain Patch— Meeting Joe — Alaska for the Gold-Seeker. THIS is the plain story of one who began life in a little township of Vermont about thirty-two years ago, and who, several times during the past two years, has been dangerously near losing it in a search for gold along the glacier-bound coasts of Alaska, in the frozen regions of the Yukon, and in the rich gulches of the Klon- dike. It is of the observations, adventures, and experiences of the last two years that this story is Avritten. That of the first thirty may be briefly told, for it is commonplace — the story of a country boy upon whose future career his 8 (88) Ij I 34 BOYHOOD ON A NEW ENGLAND FARM struggling parents built great expectations only to be cruelly disappointed. That is usual enough, for parental fondness always indulges extravagant hopes in a youth whose own more moderate expectations are seldom realized, even after his hardest struggles. If at last there comes a time Avhen, in some measure, their fond anticipations are realized, they may be sleeping in their narrow graves. My parents were industrious and poor, a combination of circumstances of which life aifords many instances, especially upon remote and somewhat stubborn New England farms. A boy grow- ing up in such surroundings could not fail to be impressed with the scanty rewards of the most unremitting toil. But any boy finds sources of delight in his surroundings, be they never so poor and unpromising, and, though early enlisted in some of the necessary work of the farm, such as replenishing the wood-pile and churning the cream, my inclinations were always to wander in the woods or over the meadows, chasing the squirrels, or endeavoring to drive the woodchucks from their holes; so that many times when sent off on the mountainside after the cows, I often entirely forgot my errand in the pursuit of some chance game or childish fancy. The admonitions of my father on such oc- casions never seemed to do any good. Seldom was I able to enter with persistence and interest into tmy useful piece of work. But for one thing, however, I should probably have re- mained there on the farm like so many others, who, not having looked beyond their own narrow horizons, settle down to think their little world is like all the rest. Though very poor, my father entertained high ambitions for me, and he determined, at whatever sacrifice, to provide me with an education. He never ceased to regret what he himself YOUTHFUL DREAMS 30 lacked in this respect, and fondly hoped that, if I were blessed with a little learning, I would fill a place in the world of which he would be proud, and that his declining years would be years of happiness and contentment- So at the age of fifteen I was sent away to an academy in Massachusetts, and immediately my ideas began to imdergo a marvelous change. I became possessed by a de- sire to break away from the limitations of a routine life and rush into the great world of which I thought I saw a glimpse. But I had no definite purpose. I had not the least idea of what I should do if 1 entered the world which my imagination so brilliantly pictured. My disposition re- mained the same. It was simply let loose in a wider field, like an unbroken mustang. Anything like hard study was out of my line, and I seldom engaged in it. I Avould sit for hours and hear the city boys tell stories, would read tales of wonderful adventure, forgetting entirely to go to bed. Little by little my taste in reading improved, and I wan- dered about aimlessly in the fields of literature, not neglect- ing the great masters. But I never studied the lessons staked out by the teachers like so many narrow garden plats. I knew that my low marks were a severe trial to my parents, and it was painful to me, when I ci^me to think of it and realize Avhat a sacrifice they were making in my behalf. At times I would resolve to do better, and would try to study hard, but it was no use. My mind quickly fled away into more congenial fields. It seems to me that it is unkind to hold a man too rigidly responsible for the mixture he finds in his nature. We are largely controlled by inherent qualities of which it is dif- ficult to rid ourselves. These innate characteristics make us what we are, and I suppose that is why we are oblivious 1 1' 36 A father's .ambition thwarted to our own faults. I know now that my disposition has always been that of a wanderer, though I cannot under- stand why I should have inherited such a nature from my parents. Possibly it may be explained upon the principle that the chemical union of substances results in combina- tions surprisingly different from the originals. It may be that a person can inherit a nature widely different from that of either parent, and still be the natural combination of their natures. Notwithstanding my neglect of prescribed studies, I managed somehow to squeeze through the curriculum, and I was declared to be fitted for college, but really I was fit for nothing which had any definite aim in it. I had extracted from the books I had so diligently read a certain amount of information which, for the right ])erson, would doubtless have been more useful than all that the hardest students had extracted from their text-books and teachers, but it was ap- parently of little use to me. My fsither had hoped that I would develop a determination to enter the ministry. He sat in his pew every Sunday, looked up to the minister and imagined me in the pulpit, eloquently holding forth upon decrees and judgments, while the people hung breathlessly upon my words. But I had no more taste for theology than for politics, which I entirely ignored. From my reading I had formed the opinion that a wise Providence would con- trol the world in its own way, without regard to systems of theology, and that our civil government would somehow " run itself," no matter which party was in power. I was quite willing to let others expound theology, or struggle for political prizes. My nature was different, and my purpose, or lack of it, might be summed up, as nearly as it could be summed up at all, in the words " aimless adventure." DULL DAYS IN A DRY GOODS STORE 87 So I adroitly begged off from going to college, explain- ing to my father that, even if I had any inclination in that direction, I knew that he could not afford it, and that it would be better for me to go into business. I had no ambi- tion in that direction either, but I had the unpleasant real- ization that I must do something for a living. Thus it happened that at twenty-two I was behind a counter in a big dry-goods store in Boston. It took very little time for me to discover that there was no romance in the life of a dry-goods clerk. The requirements were alto- gether too definite to suit my nature. All my inclinations were to drift about, to find adventure, to see life in its various phases, and there I was day after day for long hours in a crowded corner of a great store, answering myriads of questions, some of which I thought the women who asked them knew better how to answer than I, and calling for a cash boy Avho loitered until my customers had become im- patient and upbraided me. Variety, there was none. I made my board, and a little more, because I paid very little for my board and received accordingly. My Sunday respites brought me little consolation, for though they afforded me temporary delight in wandering off into the country, they only served to sharpen my appetite for greater freedom. I used to wish that a war would break out so that I could enlist and give my nature vent in an atmosphere of gunpowder. Often I thought of joining the recruits to the regular army, but upon investigation I concluded that there was little for a soldier to do except to waste his time in a dull routine. To a spirit like mine the possibilities of the great West naturally appealed. I had very little idea what any part of it was like, and that is (^'^ubtless one of the reasons why I. 38 AN ENGU088IN(» SUBJECT / ; ■ '■f: longed to see it for myself. Tt made no particular difTerenco to what part of it I went, nor was it essential that 1 should go for any well-defined purpose. That would take care of itself; indeed, 1 disliked to be hamjiered by certainties. I knew I was not in my right place. What business had J, a big six-footer, built on Vermont lines, broad, nuiscnlar, and tough, dallying behind a dry -goods counter! stuck up in a corner like a house plant when I sighed for the free open air, the winds, and the storm. I clung resignedly to my nnpleasant work, however, saving all I could at many a bitter sacrifice of my inclina- tions, for I had sufficient wisdom to realize the risks of rush- ing empty-handed into regions of whicii I knew little, and where no one knew me. I was sick and discouraged at times over the monotonous routine of my daily duties. In such papers as I allowed mvself to buy I always read with great interest and care every scrap of information or news about the Great West, and like many others, even with a disposition less restless than mine, I was deeply impressed with the stories of rich strike:^ in the mining regions and the fortunes made in what seeineil an incredibly short time. I began to read all I coum! lay my hands on relating to mines and mining, and to study, Avith a zeal which I had never shown before, the science of that great industry; thus acquir- ing a store of information that woidd l)e very valuable if ever a time should come when it could be brought into con- nection with practical experience, but worth little without it. In the spring of 1889 came the stories of the ex- citement caused along the Pacific coast by the discoveries in Lower California. During March an average of six hun- dred men a day nished to the mines in the Santa Clara dis- trict, about one hundred and twenty miles south of San [i MAKING MY WAY WESTWARD ^•w Diego. One of the first worker?*, so the stories ran, washed out four thousand dollars' worth of gold in four hours, and a Mexican digger took out one thousand five hundred dollars in two days in a space eight feet stjuare. As I read these and similar talcs, the temptation became too great for me to resist. I had as yet saved only a small amount of money, but I had enough to take me a part of the way, and then, I thought, I might secure employment further west, and a little nearer the region of the Pacific Coast. So, after one of my hardest, most e ^asperating days behind the counter, I resigned my position, and for the first time in many months walked to my boarding place with a light heart. After receiving what was due me at the store, and buying a ticket for Chicago, I packed my small belong- ings in a valise, and with my accumulated capital, about thirty dollars, in my pocket, westward I took my unde- termined way. Considerable time was lost in an unsuccessful search for employment at Chicago, and gradually my small capital became greatly reduced. I avoided the dry-goods stores and of course knew little about any other line of business. My eyes were still turned westward, and quite naturally I haunted the railway depots and offices until destitiition finally compelled me to engage as a brakcman on a freight train on one of the leading lines nmning West from Chicago. It was a hard life, and yet 1 enjoyed some features of it. Even my imagination had not portrayed the Great West as I found it, with its broad stretches of prairie, its busy cities and towns, its teeming harvests, and thrifty homes. Gradually I worked my way westward, constantly shift- ing from one division of the railroad to another, each tend- 40 "PELLEKS AS STRUCK IT RICH" K ing still farther west than the last, till one evening I found myself in Colorado Springs. Seeking out a moderate- priced hotel, I entered and found myself in an eating-room where a number of men were drinking and smoking, most of them engaged in earnest conversation. Seating myself at a vacant table, I ordered as good a meal as I thought was warranted by my rather scanty funds. " Yes, thar's some mighty big stories 'bout fellers as struck it rich," I heard the old man who sat at the next table say to his companions, who were ail considerably younger, " but I'm only tellin' what I've seen to be true. One day, when I was in Shasta county, 'bout fifteen years back, three fellers that looked like Frenchmen druv into town, and droppin' into a hardware store to get soraethin' or other, asked the proprietor whar was a likely place to mine. They looked tenderfoot like, and I guess they was. The pro- prietor kinder careless like, ye know, p'inted north, and said * Oo over to Spring Creek.' Wal, sir, they went, and after prospecting around they located a claim a little ways up the stream, an' in a few days one o' them durn'd French- men picked up a nugget wuth over six thousand. " You don't find sech nuggets as them in these days," chimed in one of the younger men as he took out a roll of bills and beckoned to the waiter. He had a swaggering manner, and it was easy to see that the others regarded him with a degree of deference. " How big d' ye say yourn was, Sandy? " asked the old man. " Only forty-eight ounces, but it was enough, so I sold the claim for big money to the Denver parties." *• "iVal, ye say, Sandy," resumed the old man, " that big strikes ain't made these days, but it ain't so long ago when A BIG NUGGET 41 li I was clown on the Gila that I heard of a lucky find a little way off the Southern Pacific in Califomy. Two fellers tranipin' up the coast got put off a freight train at Calliente, and they started to hoof it to Bakersville. In two days, back they came to Calliente with a lump of gold and quartz. The boys thought they might have robbed a camp, and p'raps killed the miner to get it. But they told how they was goin' 'bout in the drj' bed of an old stream not far from the Bealev'Ue placer camp, '"n search of wood for a fire, and stumbled on the gold. They had offered-to sell it to a rail- road man before they came back to Calliente, but he sus- pected the strangers, and wouldn't bargain. Wal, sir, that lump was sold afterwards in Los Angeles for two thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars. It weighed 116 ounces. The boys rushed into that old stream but they never found any more big nuggets." I forgot my supper, hungry as I was. The effect of such conversation upon a tenderfoot with but a little silver in his pocket, and who .vas impatient to send comforting news to his faraAvay home in Vermont, may be imagined. " Roughing it,"' and "striking it rich," was just my ideal then. I liad tried roughing it somewhat, and all I needed was to strike it ricli. " Excuse me, gentlemen," I said, slowly turning my chair, and somewhat nervously facing the group, " but I am down this way U) see v^^hat I can do in a mining co'intry, and I am interested in your talk. Is there any chance any- where around here for a fellow like me to strike in? " They looked at me critically fi>r a moment, and the young fellow who seemed to be speeding the money, said: " Stranger, you look all right, and I guess you are. Say, stranger, where you from? " 43 FIRST RUSH TO THE GOLD-FIELDS I told them that I came from Xew England, and they glanced at my clothes, which, notwithstanding the rough wear of the past few weeks, were not at all bad. At this the man whom they called " Sandy " informed me that he had just sold one of his claims, but he had another that could be bought for fair money, and his companions also began t • expatiate upon the value of claims they would dispose ol I had to confess, sorely against my inclination, that my capital did not permit me to buy claims, but I would like to get work in a mining region, and tiust to my luck. It seems that Sandy had recently come in from the wild regions about Willow Creek, and a rush was then just begin- ning toward the place where Creede made his discovery. I listened eagerly to the stories of fabulous fortunes and sud- den wealth narrated by these prospectors. To my over- wrought imagination it seemed easy to become rich where gold was so abundant. The result was that the next day I started with a party of a dozen others on my first rush to gold fields. Thus it was that I began to supplemc nt my store of book information about mining with the details of practical expevience. These details wore not unlike those of others in the mining districts of the Rockies, and the story has often been told. I worked in the mines till I secured a good understanding of mining as it was there con- ducted. I was grub-staked and spent much st, he had been looking with quiet determination to- wards that land from which he had with so much difficulty only recently escaped, and in spite of that severe experience he had been working hard to save money enough to enable him to return and prospect mth safety on the Yukon. While it was generally known that the first lease of two tiny islands returned to the United States Treasury a sum equal to the purchase money, and that the salmon industry had yielded a like sum for the first six years of its establish- ment, the outside world had as yet heard very little about its gold resources. Summer pleasure-seekers had turned back at the Muir Glacier, which is over a thousand miles south of Point Barrow, and had rarely ventured as far as the Aleutian Islands, which stretch to a point two thousand miles west of Sitka. A few explorers had wandered over some of the rough Indian trails, and had nearly lost their lives in climbing the snow-capped mountain peaks. For several years poorly maintained trading posts had been col- lecting furs from the Indians, and here and there over the vast region were mission stations which had produced little effect on the dull and dirty natives. Dogs and Indians were the beasts of burden, the dogs being far superior, for, though bom thieves, they wonld work under the lash : but the Indians were lazy, and, after exacting the most extrava- gant prices for packing over the trails, were quite likely VORACIOUS INDIANS AND MOSQUITOES 47 to throw down their packs and return home, leaving the exj^lorer helpless in the desolate regions. As all contracts with these Indians includetl their keeping, and as no one had had ever discovered a limit to their appetites when others provided the food, the poor explorer usually found that the Indian packers w> aid eat up all they could carry before go- ing far into the interior. At home they would live frugally on nothing but fish, some of it very ancient, for most of them were too lazy to catch any till driven to it by gnawing hunger. When carrying a pack for a white man they were rarely able to lift an ounce till they had eaten two or three pounds. Then they would trot along mth a pack that no white man could stagger under. What means of navigation existed on the Yukon were exceedingly primitive. Running two thousand miles across Alaska and into the Northwest Territorv, into which the head tributaries stretched five hundred miles further, navigation could hardly be attempted before July, and towards the last of September the river generally began to freeze. The quickest way to reach the headwaters of the Yukon was overland from the coast, but one could do little more than take his life in his hands, to say nothing of pro- visions, if he ventured from the trails, which were full of dangers, while in the summer the mosquitoes, Joe em- phatically said, had been known to " kill bears." In five months the country receives as much sunshine, or rather daylight, as California receives in eight, and in seven months as much night as California receives in nearly a year and a half. " But there's gold therc," said Joe. " And I know it." It was the gold that he was thinking of, and though I was not unmindful of it either, I could not help but weave 48 ALASKA'S FIRST PK08PECTORS fanciful pictures of life in a little-known country reputed to be full of dangers, and hence attractive to one of my dis- position. To me it was a pleasant picture to contemplate. I knew nothing about the reality. What little was known of the mineral possibilities of the country in the fall of 1895 was fairly well known by my partner, who had industri- ously sought information from every possible source. It is a curious fact, though an experienced miner will not recognize it as such, that the Yukon and the streams which flow into it have been prospected for years. The reader must not supix)se that all one has to do is to come to the right spot to find gold staring him in the face. Expe- rienced prospectors traveled many times over some of the nchest rocks in Colorado before their treasures were discov- ered, and the conditions along the frozen banks of the Yukon are even more misleading, as will be seen later. But as early as thirty years ago, even before the seventies, gold was known to exist in the beds of the streams which empty into the Yukon. Only a few prospectors ventured into these forbidding regions and they found small returns for their hardships and drudgery. It appears that the first real prospecting was done by George Holt, who crossed either the Chilkoot or the White Pass in 1878 and found coarse gold in the Hootalinkwa river. In 1880 a party of twenty-five, headed by Edward Bean, found bars yielding $2.50 a day on a small tributary of the Lewis. In subsequent years gold was found on the Big Salmon, Pelly, Hootalinkwa, Lewis, and Stewart rivers. When Lieutenant Schwatka made his trip down the Yukon in 1883 he made the acquaintance of Joseph Ladue, who was years after to become famous as the founder of Dawson. Ladue was digging about persist- ently, but he fpund little in the holea which he sunk with FAILURE AND DISAPPOINTMENT 49 the greatest difficulty. Schwatka also heard of others who had been prospecting many seasons with poor results. Still there were traces of gold almost everywhere, and a miner knows that where there are traces of the precious metal a source of supply must exist somewhere. Early in the seventies there were miners working at the headwaters of the Pelly River, near the Cassiar Mountains, and, as will be seen by the map, near where some of the feeders of the Pelly and the Mackenzie approach each other. Some of them had learned of the existence of a large lake beyond the Cassiar and made an effort to reach it, but failed and returned disgusted. In 1872, two Irish- men named Harper and Hart; Fitch, a Canadian; Kanselar, a German; and Wilkinson, an Englishman, believing that gold existed on the Mackenzie because it had been found in some quantities on some of the principal streams, started on a prospecting trip. At Laird River they fell in with two men named McQuesten and Mayo, who were also pros- pecting. Wilkinson determined to try his luck there, but the others continued, and finally by way of Bell's River and the Porcupine came to Fort Yukon, an old supply point at the junction of the Porcupine and Yukon and close to the Arctic Circle. There they found an Indian who had some native copper which he said had come from White River, 400 miles up the Yukon. They determined to work their way up there, and did eventually, but were stopped near the White River in Sep- tember by ice. They built a cabin and during the Avinter prospected for the copper, but found none. By spring their provisions had run out and they started down the river again, prospecting as they went. They found indications of gold near the mouth of Stewart River, but could take 4 T 60 SOME EARLY PIONEERS no advantage of this till thay had obtained provisions. They had to make their wp.y nearly 2,000 miles to St. Mi- chael, near the mouth of the Yukon, and on their way back met McQuestin and Mayo, who had meanwhile gone into the service of the Alaska Commercial Company. When about 400 miles up the river and near the mouth of the Koyukuk they encountered an Indian having some gold which he said had come from the mountains in that vicinity. So they spent two years prospecting in that re- gion, but with no results. Meantime, McQuestin and Mayo had gone up the Yukon and established Fort Keliance, six and a half miles from the stream which is now known as the Klondike. Harper and his companion joined them a little later and formed a trading partnership. The region near this stream was known only as a fishing and hunting ground, and no one thought of prospecting there then, for the beds were formed of uninviting dirt and nothing but surface prospecting was done. Harper had written concerning the traces of gold to some of his old comrades in British Columbia, where he had mined for years, and some of them made their way to the new diggings. Early in the eighties gold was found in the Stewart River, and it was about this time that rich quartz fields were discovered in the vicinity of Juneau, on the coast, and the attention of the outside world was mainly directed towards them. In 1886 Har- per erected a trading post at tlie mouth of the Stewart for the benefit of the thirty or more miners who had been in- duced to go into these regions, but in tlie same year coarse gold was found on Forty Mile Creek. Coarse gold is the miner's delight, and as soon as the discovery became known, the Stewart River diggings, the product of which in 1885 and 1886 was estimated at $300,000, were deserted for SLUICING WITH A STEAMBOAT ENGINE 01 Forty Mile Creek, and Harper moved his trading post to that point ; this was the beginning of the settlement of that The same year the Klondike stream, which then name. appeared on the maps as Deer Kiver, was prospected for several miles, but no gold was found. On the other hand, gold was found nearly the whole length of Forty Mile lliver and in all its gulches. The news of this discovery was brought out by Tom Williams, who died at Dyea from the effects of cold and exhaustion endured in crossing the Chilkoot pass. His information caused several hundred men to go to Forty Mile from the Pacific Coast. The only mining done on the Stewart was on the bars of the river. The bench and bank bars were all timbered and frozen so that to work them it was thought would en- tail a resort to hydraulic mining, for which there was no ma- chinery in the country. During the fall of 1880 tln-ee or four miners combined and got the owners of one of the little river steamboats to allow the use of her engines to work pumps for sluicing with. The boat was hauled up on the bar, her engines detached from the wheels and made to drive pumps manufactured on the ground, thus supply- ing water for a set of sluice boxes. With this crurle ma- chinery the miners cleared $1,000 in less than a mo iti.. and paid an equal sum to the owners of the boat as their share. But scarcely anything was heard of these discoveries by the outside world, though the Canadian agent reported them to his government. Few miners were there, the sea- son for work was short, and the little gold which came down attracted no attention, while many rich mines were being discovered in Colorado and California. Not long after the discovery of gold in Forty Mile Creek a few miners crossed the narrow divide which sep- S2 A MISSIONARY PICKS UP A NUGGET arates the headwaters of Forty !Mile from those of Sixty Mile and discovered gold on Ikliller and (ilacier creeks, Tlie former had already been prosjMJcted three different times and given up as worthless, but it turned out to be the richest creek in tlie region and enjoyed that reputation for years. In 18ttl gold was found on the headwaters of Birch Creek, which flows into the Yukon about forty miles below Fort Yukon. According to the story which came down the coast, this discovery was due to Archdeacon Macdona' ' a Canadian missionary on the Peel River, who in connec with his missionary labors traveled over much of i...^ country. In coming from the Tanana River he picked up a nugget in one of vhe gulches of Birch Creek. He told some of the miners and a party made a search. While they failed to find the place answering the missionary's descrip- tion they found gold. This was the beginning of Circle City, on the banks of the Yukon, about 200 miles below Forty Mile and only a few miles by portage from Birch Creek. During 1893 the Klondike stream was again pros- pected, but no'. ling was found. But Circle City attracted to it many of the old miners who had had poor success on other creeks and most of the newcomers. These, however, were very few until 1894. My partner had learned the story of some o\ these dis- coveries while at Juneau and during his unsucv'essful ven- ture inland. He returned to California in ^he hopes of providing a good outfit, but was obliged to prospect and work in the mines, trusting to luck to raise the necessary money. Attracted by tlie stories which came down, several hardy miners from California went up to the Yukon regions in 1894, but Joe remained behind and worked hard to se- cure the means which he had learned by observation and PLANNING A NEW ENTERPRISE 68 experience were required to prospect in such a wild country. Late in the summer of 1805, a lot of gold came down to San Francisco from the mouth of the Yukon, and for the first time Alaska began to attract a lively attention in the min- ing camps of the Rocky Mountains and along the Pacific Coast. Joe was greatly excited but knew it was too late that year to venture safely into the new El Dorado. When we became fast friends he saw the ad antages of forming a partnership with me in the enterprise. It was then November, and we wished to be ready to start by the first of March. He said it would be no use for us to try to start earlier, for owing to the difficulties of travel before the Yukon broke up no time would be gained, while a good deal of needless Imrdship would be incurred. It was fortunate for me that I had a companion who knew something of tlie route and what to expect. It would have been just like me to start in with little thought of pro- visions and with an inadequate outfit of clothing and sup- plies. We worked along till the end of the year making our plans, and early in January we bade good-bye to Colo- rado and started for SaJi Francisco to secure our outfit and passage. I have seen many statements of the outfit a man needs in going into the Alaska mining regions, but I have never seen one that enumerated all the things which a man wants after he is there. It must be borne in mind that he is going to a place which is practically cut off from the outside world for the greater part of the year and which is very little better, as far as supplies are concerned, at any time. All this may be remedied some time, but I was going in l>efore the attention of the commercial world had been greatly attracted to the region. While one with money 54 A year's provisions 'n enough in his pocket can travel all over the United States and want for nothing, when he crosses the mountain passes or goes up the Yukon to the interior of Alaska he needs to have with him all that he is likely to want for a year. He may want it very badly and in vain, and still have any amount of go^'' in his pockets. We secured a cheap boarding place near the wharves in San Francisco and soon sec to work to collect such articles as Joe's experience and the best information we could ob- tain from every ix)ssible source convinced us would be necessary. After taking out of our capital what was needed for passage, living expenses till March, and qiiite a sum for expenses on the way, we concluded we might with the remainder purchase enough cloth *ng and provisions for a year, or more, besides the necessary hardware. I have a list of some of the things we purchased and others I have supplied from memory. The following is about what we took in the way of provisions: Flour, Com Meal, TtoUed Oats. Pilot Bread, Baking Powder, Yeast Cakes, Baking Soda, Rice, Beans, Split Peas, Evaporated Potatoes, Evaporated Onions, Beef Extract, . Evaporated Apples, Evaporated Peaches, Evaporated Apricots, . 800 lb' . 1 . r,o . 80 . 50 . 20 6 . 100 . 200 . 50 . 50 . 20 3 . 50 . 50 . 50 Bacon, Dried Beef, Dry Salt Pork, Roast (^ollee, . Tea, . Condensed Milk, 800 60 50 50 25 50 lbs. Butter, hermetically sealed, 40 Salt, 40 Ground Pepper, . . 8 Ground Mustard, . . 2 Ginger, .... 2 Jamaica Ginger, . . 3 Evaporated Vinegar, . 12 Matches 25 Candles, 2 boxes containing 240 candles, . . 80 A GOLD seeker's OUTFIT 55 Dried. Raisias, . . 20 lbs. Laundry Soap, . 15 lbs. Dried Figs, . 20 " Tar Soap, . 5 " Granulated Sugar, . . 150 " Tobacco, . . 30 " In tte hardware line our outfit was of a more miscel- laneous character and as complete as we knew how to make it, and everything came in handy. We purchased as fol- lows : 1 Hand Saw. i 2 Sliovels. ! 30 pounds of Nails (assorted sizes). ' i dozen assorted Files. 2 Handled Axes. 2 Draw Knives. 1 Jack Plane. 1 Brace and 4 Bits. 3 Chisels, assorted . 3 Butcher Knives. 2 Hunting Knives. 2 Pocket Knivos. 2 Compasses. 1 Set Awls and Tools. 150 feet of finch Rope. 1 Medicine Case. 15 pounds of Pitch. 20 pounds of Oakum. Pack Straps. 2 Gold Pans. 4 Galvanized Pails. 1 Whetstone. 2 Picks and Handles. 2 Prospector's Picks. 2 Grub Bags. 2 Hatchets. 1 Whip Saw. 2 Scissors. Fish Lines and Hooks. 1 Gold Scale. 1 Chalk Line. 1 Measuring Tape. 2 ]Vf juey Belts. 2 Cartridge Belts. 2 Gold Dust Bags (buckskin). 2 Pairs Snow Glasses. OToA'els. 1 Caulking Iron. Knives and Forks. Table and Teaspoons. 2 Large Spoons. 2 Bread Pans. Granite Cups. Granite iates. 2 Coflfen Pots. 2Fryi, g Pans. 1 Stove (Yukon). 4 Granite Buckets. 1 Camp Kettle. I have no exact record of the wearing apparel that formed an imjwrtant part of our outfit, but it was ample. There la nothing in the following list which will not come in very handy if a man intends to move around in the rain I: I 66 GARMENTS FOR ARCTIC WEATHER Storms of summer and in the frigid weather of an Alaskan winter: 3 Suits Underwear, extra heavy. 2 Extra heavy double-breasted Flannel Overshirts. 1 Extra heavy Mackinaw Over- shirt. 1 Extra heavy all-wool double Sweater. 6 Pairs long German knit Socks. 2 Pairs German knit and shrunk Stockings, leather heels. 1 Mackinaw Coat, extra heavy. 1 Pair Mackinaw Pants. 4 Pairs All-Wool Mittens. I 2 Pairs Leopard Seal Waterproof 1 Pair Hip Boots. [Mittens. 2 Pairs Rubber Shoes. 2 Pairs Overalls. 1 Waterproof, Blanket-Lined Coat. 2 Pairs Blankets. 1 Fur Cap. 1 Wool Scarf. 1 Pair Leather Suspenders. 1 Extra Heavy Packing Bag. 1 Suit Oil Clothing and Hat. 1 Doz. Bandana Handkerchiefs. 1 Canvas Sleeping Bag. r. I Any woman who thinks of going to Alaska can read this list intended for a man and govera the selection of her garments accordingly. Our outfit, which altogether we estimated would weigh about 3,200 pounds, embraced other little odds and ends, personal effects, and so on. We each had a rifle, and we also provided ourselves with revolvci's. We haunted gro eery stores and clothing houses for over a week, and as our purchases were delivered I began to get a dim realization of what Joe was preparing for. Still I was often surprised at the wholesale manner in which he bought. One day he bought a medicine chest, which looked like a miniature (h'ug store. It had been recommended to him by a phy- sician. It took up a lot of room and it was about the only thing that we did not use in our subsequent wanderings. The trouble was that we did not know how to use it. Some of the remedies might have been for blisters or cramps or any other human ailment so far as \ve knew. We managed IHI GRIT MORE THAN HALF 57 to sort out a few remedies with which we had some famil- iarity. We found that a few stock remedies, such as most persons are accustomed to use, are ahout all that it is worth while to carry over Che mountain trails and long voyages by water. In winter a hot drink of tea did us more good than anything else, and in summer a few quinine pills were taken as bon-bons. ' " Over a ton and a half," I said when the collection was completed. " You will think it weighs five times that before you get it on tlie Yukon," remarked Joe. " But it's a mighty good outfit, and I hope we shall get it there all right." Joe was sometimes vague as to the details t)f some of the difficulties for which he was so co'' fnlly providing; and though a faint suspicion would no then arise in my mind when he confined himself to general 8tat<'ments in answer to some of my questions, I quieted ni\ misgivings. I think even he had no clear conception of the magnitude of some of the dangers and hardships we were destined to en- counter. " It'll be the roughest roughing it you ever saw," he would say. " But you've got grit, and that's more than half." CHAPTER III CHOOSING A ROUTE— OUR VOYAGE ALONG THE CO AST- ARRIVAL AT D YEA— FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH NA- TIVES. ) Departure from San Francisco — Port Townsend — Through Puget Sound — Points of Interest and Beauty — A Gap in the Island Belt — Few Moments of Seasickness — The Great Scenic Region — In Alaskan Waters — Tide Water Glaciers — Juneau as a Metropolis — A Glimpse of Totem Poles — Indian Traders — The Mines of the Vicinity and their Discovery — Famous Treadwell Mills — The Largest in the World — The Skagway and Dalton Trails — Pro- ceeding to Dyea — Dumped on the Beach — Getting Supplies Together and Beyond the Tide — The Problem of Moving Ahead — Approached by Indian Packers — Dangers of Bidding up Prices — A Contract with the Heatlien — Our First Night in Camp — Dark Ways of the Chilkoots — We Decide to Do Our Own Packing. AT the time we started for Alaska there were but two general routes from the Pacific Coast of the United States to the gold regions of the Yukon. The first was by the way of the Yukon River, and that means a jour- ney of about four thousand five hundred miles, all by water, at such times as the sand bars do not obstruct navigation. This voyage can only be made between the middle of June and the first of September, and if usually requires forty days to reach Circle City. The other way, which is shorter and quicker, if conditions are favorable, can be undertaken much earlier in the year, and is l)y the way of Juneau, Byea, and the mountain passes to the lakes and upper waters of the (58) OAST- [TH NA- gh Puget sland Belt gion — In tropolis — nes of the [ills — The ills — Pro- Supplies y Ahead — p Prices — np — Dark eking. ! but two le United The first ns a jour- by water, ivigalion, 3 of June res forty is shorter idertaken au, Dyea, ers of the r. > c X K C > K BEGINNING THE VOYAGE 61 Yukon. The fare from San Francisco by way of the Yukon is about three hundred dollars, and a charge of ten cents a pound for freight over the amount allowed for per- sonal baggage. From San Francisco tx> Juneau the fare is fifty dollars, and the freight charges amount to but little. After reaching Dyea the charges for packing and ferrying are extravagant. One can spend as much as he likes. There is no limit to what the Chilkoots will try to make out of a person disposed to give. We were too impatient to get into the country to wait for the water route, and I should have dreaded its monotony. I looked forward to the overland route with pleasure, especially that part of it supposed to impose the obstacles at which Joe had so vaguely hinted. We sailed out of San Francisco harbor on Mi^rch 15th. We were not the only gold-seekers aboard. Still, we were not crowded, and our quarters were comfortable. Port Townsend, the " Key City of the Sound," is the port of entry for the Puget Sound customs district, and point of departure of the mails for Alaska. Here we transferred to the Alaska steamer which came from Tacoma and Seattle, and fell in with a few more Alaskan adventurers. The voyage from Port Townsend, which we left on the 20th, to Juneau, is one of the most varied and delightful that any coast line affords. I do not believe there is another journey on the face of the earth, the first half of which is so enjoyable and the second half so dismal, as the journey from Port Townsend to the Yukon via Juneau and the passes. For two thousand miles the vessel steams through land- locked channels, straits, and passages. The landscape is wonderfully beautiful all the wav, and the traveler never ceases to wonder at its variety. 62 PAST SNOW-CAPPED SUMMITS 1 i ^! • 'I ! i ' All the upper end of the Puget Sound is dominated by Mt. Baker, an extinct volcano over ten thousand feet high. We crossed the Strait of Juan de Fuca, close-walled on the southern side by the Olympic range, and touched at Vic- toria on the southern point of Vancouver Island, We then skirted the shores of San Juan Island through Active Pass, and entered the Gulf of Georgia, which is a great inland sea with the snow-capped mountains of Vancouver Island continuously on one side, and the Cascade Peaks on the other. Rounding Cape Mudge, we entered Discovery Passage, which is, at points, less than half a mile wide. At Queen Charlotte Sound there is a forty-mile gap in the island belt, and the swell of the outer ocean is felt. Those subject to mal de mcr disappear for a time, but that is the only place in this salt water voyage of two thousand miles where any discomfort need be expected. We soon entered the narrow way again, steaming through Lama Passage, which is beautifully wooded, revealing here and there glimpses of the aborigines and their totem poles. Having crossed Millbank Sound we entered the great scenic regions of the trip. The shores, which are seldom more than two miles apart, rise abruptly for over a thousand feet, rugged promontories underneath whose shadows limpid mirrors lie ; while above them rise the snowy ridges, glistening with glaciers and cascades. After passing Fort Simpson we entered Alaskan waters. The coasts continued mountainous and the scenery became more grand. A little above Fort Wrangel \^e reached the region of tide-water glaciers, whose bergs sparkling along the sound, and on. every foot of the shore on both sides, is a suggestion of the wonders of this mighty land of the north. Mountains rear their snow-capped summits far into the sky, ARRIVAL AT JUNEAU 68 and, peering through the clefts once riven by some great shock of nature, we see other ranges, over-topping ranges, frowning darkly or standing with a ghost-like whiteness; and, nearer, the mighty glaciers glow in all their varied tints. We passed inlets, where . . . " the channel's waters spreading Turn toward the hind, and find it 80 entrancing in its fairness, So stupendous in its grandeur ! Find its ice-bound coast so willing To receive their bright advances, That they lie in sheets of silver At the foot of lofty ice-peaks." On the fourth day out from Port Townsend we steamed into Gastineaii Channel, and soon arrived at Juneati, the metropolis of Alaska. We had feasted on the delights of the voyage, and the disagreeable portion was to come. Xature has a way of evening things up, and though some- times the process is so long that we do not realize it, her rigid law of compensation is always in force. We disembarked at Juneau with our precious supplies. It is a queer metropolis, lying at the base of precipitous mountains about three thousand feet high, and the flat plain between the shore and the base of the mountain seems very narrow. It is now well built up with houses, though it con- tained at that time only about two thoiisand people. Its streets are narrow, crooked, and muddy, and here and there the tree-stumps remain unpleasantly in the way. It has a court house, several hotels and lodging houses, theaters, churches, schools, newspapers, a hospital, a fire brigade, and a brass band, but more saloons and dance-houses than all the other institutions put together. Among its more modern improvements are water-works and electric light plants. y 64 THE METROPOLIS OF ALASKA Adjoining on the east below the wharf is a village of Taku Indians, and on the flats at the mouth of (iold Creek is a village of Auk Indians, back of which we get a glimpse of totem poles over the graves of the dead, and hung with offer- ings to the departed spirits.- As we pass along through Third and Stewart streets, in the heart of the city, we find the Indians squatting about their wares, fish, vegetables, berries, and curios, and in the larger stores are fine displays of furs. One can get about everything he needs here, and a good deal more, especially in the lines of gambling, drink- ing, and dance halls. Such, in brief, is the metropolis of a country larger than CJermany and Austria-Hungary to- gether. Juneau is essentially a mining town, owing its su- premacy to the adjacent quartz mines which have much more than paid the cost of Alaska, to say nothing of its seals and valuable fisheries. Until recently the territory's repu- tation as a gold country has been due to tliese mines. It was about twenty years ago that a party of Indians brought a bit of gold quartz to Sitka, where a merchant grub-staked Joseph Juneau and Richard Harris, and sent them in search of the ore. Although this was the beginning of Juneau, it was three years later before the place took its nam.e. The settlement was first named Harrisburg, but the mining com- pany which had named the district the Harris Mining Dis- trict gave the name of Juneau to the town. Miners flocked to the new camp, but many came too late to find claims there, and crossed over to what is now known as Douglass Island, then an imtouched wilderness. After they had staked out claims they sold for something less than five hun- dred dollars, and a corporation, mostly of California men, finally secured it. It is now the site of the famous Tread- AN INEXHAUSTIBLE SUPPLY 66 well gold mills, the largest plant of the kind in the world. About a million of dollars has heen spent on the plant, at which six hundred tons of ore are milled daily at a cost of about one dollar and twenty-five cents a ton. The ore varies in value from three dollars to seven dollars a ton. The supply seems inexhaustible. The company is capi- talized at five million dollars, and has paid nearly four mil- lion dollars in dividends. Joseph Juneau died a poor man. Being the center of such an industry, and also the chief rendezvous of the miners going over the passes into the in- terior, Juneau City will doubtless maintain its supremacy as Alaska's metropolis. The news of the Yukon dis- coveries has wrought a great change in the place since we went in, and promises to work greater. Joe Avas perfectly at home in this region, where he had worked during his former sojourn in Alaska. I plaved the part of the tourist, he of guide. While waiting a^ Juneau we purchased a couple of sleds well adapted to Alaskan uses, and with these our outfit seemed complete. From Juneau to J3yea is one hundred and eighteen miles up Lynn Canal and the Chilkoot and Taiya (Dyea) Inlets. The route by Dyea and the Chilkoot Pass was the old reliable one, having been used by the Indians for years, and the one which most of the gold-seekers we had encoun- tered were taking. There are two others, the Skagway over the White Pass and the Dalton trail from the Chilkat Inlet. The first was thought by some to be the easier route, and was the one generally chosen by those who were ex- perimenting Avith horses in this rough country. It is about seventeen miles from tide water to the siimmit of the White Pass, and about four miles of this is through a flat timbered valley. The summit is about two thousand six hundred 66 THE DALTON TRAIL feet above tide water, and the remainder of the route until it joins the (^hilkoot trail is over marshes and an undulating rocky surface exceedingly difficidt for pack animals, and with very little soil. In 18{>6 this trail attracted little at- tention. Its prominence was to come the following year. If the Alaskan traveler is to experiment with horses, and the temptation is certainly great in view of the un- reliability of the Indians, he had best try the Dalton trail, which takes its name from Jack Dalton, who went to Juneau many years ago, as one story goes, because he was accused of stealing horses. He was innocent of the charge, but he took veng'eance on the man who had accused him. His trail affords a tolerably good road for two hundred miles from tide water. The first forty miles from Chilkat Inlet is on a river flat with an easy grade, thence to the divide, which is three thousand feet above the sea level. Another divide is crossed twenty miles further on at the watershed of the Alsek and Chilkat rivers. The rest of the trail to the Five Finger Rapids is a succession of valleys with hardly perceptible divides. It is said that in summer a man with a saddle horse and pack animal can make thirty miles a day on this trail. Dalton ie one of the most expert of Alaskan trailei But it is the Dyea route which concerns us, and thus far it has remained the most practicable one. We left Juneau for Dyea on March 25th, on a fair-sized steamer, but quickly encountered different conditions from those which had pre- viously afforded us so much pleasure. We should have reached Dyoa in twelve hours, but there seemed to be a hur- ricane trying to get out of the canal, which some have called the grandest fiord on the coast. There are a few indenta- tions on the coasts, which are made up of abrupt palisades A SCENE OF CONFUSION 67 until ilatinp 8, and ttle at- variod with glaciers and f'orcst.s. The water is very deep in the channel, and a strong cold wind sucked down hetween the cliflFs of either side, and tossed ns about in the most bois- terous fashion. Drifting icebergs from tho Eagle, Auk, and Davidson glaciers added to the confusion. After pitching about helplessly for some time, we put up in a little bay, and lay over there one day. Meanwhile most of the wind seemed to have worked itself out of the channel. Thus we did not arrive at Dyea till the 27th, and after pick- ing up on the way a party which had been wrecked on a small sailboat and had lost most of their provisions. Dyea is an Indian word meaning " pack " or " load." Certainly you would have thought it a verj' appropriate one if you had seen the gold-seekers and their belongings dumped on the beach, almost every man and woman with provisions for a year or more, while some of the dirtiest- looking Indians on the face of the earth hoveretl around like evil spirit^s. There was a small improvised wharf, which was of no use, as there was too little water in the chan- nel to permit the steamer to come up, and her cargo was dis- charged by scows and small boats. The beach was flat and covered with small rocks which the people there, who make their living by unloading car- goes and packing over the trail, leave just where Xature dropped them. It might hurt their business to remove such obstructions to convenience and safety. Tho steamer anchored about two miles from the village, it being low tide. Boats were lowered and the unloading com- menced, th°. contents being dumped on the rocks, anywhere to get rid of them, and there was considerable confusion. After our goods were deposited and had been sorted out, the next thing was to get them up above the reach of the 68 TENTING IN THE SNOW 1} ' 1 tide. We worked like beavers, an 1 so did the others. With a little high-priced help from the Indians, we man- aged to carry everything' back about a mile from the beach, where we found a place to camp. There we set up our tent, and made preparations for the season of roughing it before us. About ten inches of snow covered the ground, and it was quite soft in places. While we who had been used to a miner's life did not mind it much, there was a noticeable change in the faces of those who were less inured to hard- ships. It is not pleasant to leave the steamer and to begin living in a tent pitched in nearly a foot of snow. When we had settled ourselvCvS as comfortably as we could, and had taken the opportunity to observe oinr sur- roundings, we were struck vnili the transformation which some of the women had undergone. Generally speaking, their dresses had disappeared, and they came forth in bloomers, and many of them in the regulation trousers of the other sex. It does not do to be '' squeamish" in Alaska. There are obstacles enough to travel, without the in- cumbrance of skirts. The women were of all ages under fifty, and, as v;e gradually learned, the majority of them were unmarried, at leaiit had no lmsl)ands with them, and their destination was tiie dance halls of Circle City and Forty Mile. They were not as a rule an attractive lot for fastidious people to encounter socially, but out of about thirty women, four or five were wives traveling with their husbands, or daugiiters with their father r.nd were very respectable and well-appearing people, with marks of refine- ment which their life in mining camps had not obliterated. But there is little time to observe human nature. There are over thret- thousand two hundred pounds to get over the trail somehow. On our two sleds we could draw a , ENGAGING PACKERS 69 others, ve man- e beach, mr tent, t before I, and it iped to a )ticeable to hard- to begin y as wc oimr snr- >n wliich speaking, forth in oitsers of 11 Alaska. ; the in- res under of them hem, and City and ve lot for of about vith their ,vere very of refine- iterated. 11 nature, ids to get dd draw a fair load over good roads, but the advisability of securing Indian packers for the bulk of the provisions was naturally sujigested. A few of the gold pilgrims started at once to pack their goods further up the trail before camping. A feverish haste will always be noticed among such pilgrims, though it helps but I'ttle in the end. In a short time a dirty one-eyed Indian came towards us, and in English which just escape*:! being unintelligible asked if we had packing to do. He knew well enough we had. " How mvch you give to summit? " he asked. Accordinr, to the ethics of the trail the price for pack- ing should not be bid up. If one party put up the price in order to secure quick service, every other Indian on the trail wouh; know it in an inconceivably short space of time, and all would throw down their packs at once, contracts or no contracts. They Avould refuse to carry for less than the man in a hurry was willing to pay. One man who had plenty of money, it was said, bid up the price, and as a result received a very cold ducking in the creek. So we r^ffered the Indian the prevailing price, which was seventeen cents a pound, and he ]iromised to be on hand with twenty-five Indians early the next morning. " You may see that heathen in the morning, and you may not," remarked Joe, as the Indian slowfv loafed away towards the little village of about three hundred Chilkoots. We cut some hemlock brush and laid it on the snow in the tent, put our blankets on it, and filling our pipes sat down near the opening of the tent, Joe on a box of soap, I on some evaporated apricots. " Do you see that notch up yonder? " said Joe, blowing a cloud o^ smoke from his mouth, I saw it, though it was ro THE UNRELIABLE HEATHEN II hardly distinguishable in the whiteness of the towering mountains. ** Well, this truck of ourn' has got to go up through there." I never slept better in my life than I did on those hem- lock boughs laid over snow. We were up bright and early to be ready for the Indians. There were no signs of them. We finished our breakfast, and packed the sleds which wo in- tended to draw ourselves. Then we tool^ down our tent, but no Indians came. I grew impatient, but Joe seemed not at all surprised. After a time ho went down to the Indian village, but came back alone, saying t'le Indians were not all up. As they showed no indications of taking off their clothes when they retired for the night, I concluded that getting up could not be a long process. But it was over an hour before an Indian appeared, and then there were less than a dozen. " Where are the others? " I asked sternly of the one- eyed Chilkoot. " They come bimcby," he remarked indifferently. The wretched-looking Siwashes poked aro\md among the packs, hefted them critically, then jabbered away among themselves, and finally informed us that they ob- jected to some of the articles unless an extra price was paid. The very Indians we had engaged were dickering with other parties in the same way. I tried threatening one of them, but it had no- more effect than if he had been an iceberg. Joe laughed at me, while the Indians stood about chattering in a language that is perfectly inexprox'^sible in any phonetic signs we have. No one would ever take it for speech but for the slight motions of their lips, and the convulsions in the throat. " A confusion of gutturals Avith a plentitude of ii GOOD SUBJECTS FOR MISSIONARY WORK 71 Dwering through )se hem- nd early )f them. !h we in- jur tent, ; seemed n to the Inuians )f taking oncludcd It it was len there the one- tly. d among •ed away they ol)- was paid, vith other of them, 1 iceberg, 'hattering ' plionetic poech but iilsions in ntitude of saliva — a moist language with a gurgle that approaches a gargle," is the best description of it I have ever heard, None of the Indians seemed to be in the least hurry to start; indeed, they did not appear to care whether they started or not. Once in a while the one-eyed fellow would come and demand more on some flimsy pretext or other. Finally my patience gave out completely. I told Joe that I would rather pack our stores over a dozen Chilkoot passes than fool with heathen like these. So, aft^r losing con- siderable time, we concluded to do our own packing, and I think some ( f those fellows went away actually relieved. They are too lazy to regard the loss of work as anything but a blessing. So far as I observed thom, they had one virtue, and that was a remarkable regard for other people's prop- erty. They will not steal, but their word is absolutely worthless. They have no conception of the obligations of a contract. After demanding exorbitant pay, and being promised it, they will delay starting to suit their own feel- ings, and will throw down their packs at the slightest provo- cation. They will even trudge along with them for a long distance, and then, after demanding extra pay, will drop their burdens and I'eturn with no pay for what they have done. No one can afford to engage them for any but short distances, for the point is soon reached when they have eaten up all they started with. These people may be interesting to ethnologists, and they may seem promising material for devout missionaries, but for the man who is in a hurry to get to the gold regions of Ala.ska they are li'ore often a liindrance than a help. Where one cannot depend on horses or dogs, he will save his temper by depending on himself. Tie will also save a lot of money and a large percentage of his provisions. I ! CHAPTER TY LIFE ON THE TRAIL — STIIANGE SIGHTS AND SCENES - STORM ROUND IN SHEEP CAMP — A WOMAN'S AD- VEI^TURES AND EXPERIENCES. Along the Famous Dyea Trail — Walking Twenty Miles and IVIaking Four — Snow, Boulders, and Glaciers —Exhibitions of Grit — Tent- ing in the Snow — A Democratic Crowd — The Yukon Stove — The So-called Gridiron — Beans and Bacon — "It will be New On the Yukon" — Asleep on a Bed of Boughs — What a Trail Consists of — A Crack Two Milts Long — Pleasant Camp — Sheep Camp and the Fairt-Hearted — A Discouraged Man and a Resolute Woman — Going Over Ar.yhow — Not All so Brave — Having a Good Cry — My Theory as to the Fortitude of Some Women — Throwing off the Fetters of Civilization — Two Weeks of Storm — Monotony and Silence — An Active Glacier Entertains Us — Nature' s Untamed Moods — Sunshine at Last — Now for The ChilkootI THE beginning of the trail over Cliilkoot Pass does not give any indications of the difficulties a little further on, especially under favorable conditions in the latter part of March. The strcams are still frozen, except in open places, and the trail along their banks is cov- ered wi^li snow, which in most places has l>ecome solidly packed. In the early winter the snow is apt to be soft and deep, while in the summer the trails are soft and slippery, and streams with treacherous bottoms must be fordetl. The water is considerably colder at all times than any man- ufactured ice water, and the cun'ent is swift and strong, (72) PACKING UP THE TRAIL 73 being abundantly fed by the melting glaciers and rains that never end till one has forgotten when they began. " Does it always rain here ? " I once heard a traveler ask of an Indian. ^'' Snows sometime," replied the native, in the most mat- ter-of-fact manner. Before we got through the pass we found that it could do both at the same time without show- ing any signs of exhaustion. Joe superintended all the preparations. We increased the loads on our sleds to 400 poimds each, and found that we could pull them very comfortably for the first five miles, the river being frozen and the track hardened by those who had gone ahead. At the end of five miles the way became more diflficult, and, coming to a spot well timbered and watered, where several others had camped, we unloaded, cached our goods, and returned to camp for another load. We saw that we could not make the four trips nectssary to bring up all our goods without working half the night, and Wb were tired enough to stop when we returned from the thinl load, but concluded to keep on. The Dyea Valley is an old river bed full of huge boul- ders, which make a summer trip over the trail exceedingly difficult. Even in winter they are serious obstacles, as tliere are places in the river which do not freeze, and unless the snow is deep the sledding is very rough on the banks. On either side, high up on the mountains, the tops of which were hidden in the clouds most of the time, were small gla- ciers cutting down through the scraggy growth of spruce and hemlock. Back and forth through this desolate valley we tramped, continually meeting others engaged in the same work. There is no time to stop to cultivate acquaintances. 74 GRIT OF THE GOLD PILGRIMS itii; (I ! Pi Occasionally we came uj) just in time to help a man right his overturned sled, or to extricate a woman who had stepped into a treacherous drift or fallen into a little crevice. Here and there along the way tents were passed, as well as caches of provisions, which were left unguarded without incurring serious risk. But in Alaska all provisions must be cached to be out of reach of the dogs. They are the only thieves. Many strange sights are witnessed even in these days, when the gold fields at Forty-Mile and Birch Creek are at- tracting fortune-seekers. We met a young woman who was going in with her husband, slowly working her way to- ward the pass. She was triidging along with packs of over forty pounds on her back, and her face bore the marks of refinement. The grit and nerve displayed on every side were marvelous. Some men preferred to make short marches and piled on their backs sixty or seventy-five pounds, keeping up a brisk gait for a mile or so, then strik- ing camp, and in the same way bringing up the remainder of their outfits. That is the hardest way and nothing is gained. It was very late before we arrived 'svith our last load and had our tent again set up in the snow. Those who have not tried it can hardly imagine what it is to tramp twenty- five miles, half the way pulling four hundred pounds, in an intermittent snow storm, over a i*oad which, while smooth for Alaska, would be deemed almost impassable in New England. Yet there was a novelty in the experience which was exhilarating, so that it did not fatigue us as much as it might otherwise have done. Having put up our tent and cut a few scraggy hemlocks, we trimmed off the tops for a bed FLAPJACKS ON A YUKON STOVE 75 right Ipped tvice. 3llas khout I must the and used the stumps for a fire, not so easily started with green wood in a snow storm. It was a very democratic gathering. There were no formalities, no hint of conven- tionalities of any kind. The picturesque element was not lacking, and the ludicrous side of life was ever present. Looking a few feet up the hillside through the flying snow I caught a glimpse of a woman who, attired in her husband's trousers, was turning flapjacks on a " Yukon stove," utterly unconscious of the ridiculous appearance she presented. The " Yukon stove," by the way, is a small sheet iron box with an oven at the back and a telescope pipe. Novices sometimes have to study a moment to decide which is the oven and which is the fire-box. This simple arrangement is set on a " gridiron," that is, three poles about eight feet long, so that when the snow melts underneath, the poles continue to form a support for it. Necessity is nowhere a more fruitful mother of invention than in Alaska. Joe and I confined ourselves to beans and bacon, a staple dish in these regions; indeed, an odor of beans and bacon predominates in nearly all the camps along the trail. We lighted our pipes and sat close to the little stove to dry our clothing. Mingled with the sighing of the wind and the soft beating of the snow on the tent, came the shrill voice of one of the dance-house girls singing a hackneyed air. " It will be new on the Yukon," observed Joe, as he threw himself full length on the bed of boughs, and he was asleep before I had time to follow. I went out and care- fully brushed the snow oflF the roof of the tent l)efore re- tiring, for I had learned the importance of such a measure in roughing it in an even milder climate. If the interior of the tent is heated, the snow falling on the outside will, of 76 SEVEN MILES IN FOUR DAYS ). 1^ course, become damp, and, later, when the fire has gone down or out, and the interior has become cohl, the damp snow will freeze so hard that it is almost impossible to take down the tent. ^lany found this out to their sorrow when the next day they stai-ted to move ahead. The storm had been a cold one, and it ^ ns hours before they could pack their tents, and then they weiv weighted with ice and ex- tremely difficult to handle. Peoj)le can cause themselves a world of trouble in Alaska by neglecting a few details. We were four days in moving our stores to Sheep Camp, which is about seven miles further on. For the first two miles we could haul about three hundred pounds, but through the canon it was only by the greatest exertion that wo could pull one Inindred and fifty. The trail was much better from Pleasant Camp, on the other side of the canon, to Sheep Camp, but it was up-hill all the way. It snowed continuously, sometimes gently, and occasionally fiiriously. A trail in Alaska should not be confused with the ordi- nary highway of settled states. When a trail is spoken of as existing between two points in Alaska it has no further meaning than that a man, and possibly a beast of burden, may travel that way over the natural surface of the ground. There is a very strong improbability concerning the beast, unless it be a dog. The path may consist of nothing more than a marked or blazed way through an otherwise impen- etrable wilderness, and unless it is used more or less con- tinuously the traces are apt to disappear in one of Alaska's seasons. Xo eager prospector stops to make it any easier for someone else. A man carrying his food, his cooking utensils, and working tools on his back, has no time nor dis- position to cut down trees. When he comes to an unfrozen stream he wades it, or if a tree has fallen across it, so much ! i *■■■■«■ ^one iainp take had [pack ex- Ivcs 09 a 1 in c 5 '^ 0. w c > ^ us 3- o a a n O H «-»■ o o p i:-,;'kM'^ . '^ -14, f' v'^m^i r"^-^^. ■'•■'■ ^i.iKtif^ ^ s ' i • » 1 J L IMK^ -; -i.'^ *• V"^ *^ H» m m|f'»i ■■■•Mr .■' ■ . iP'^ mmm^ '4 ■** ' -■< *!" ^^^>?% y \-^WW'l:^iii< .' \^. 101^ ISKBS -t' ^ [A ^'" »• wSB^S^Erm^'^ r-^ ^^L^ I^Ri ! \ m\ \ 1 ■ ! V 1; \t i ALONG DYEA CA\ON 79 the better. The Cliilkoot trail possesses the advantage of having been used by miners sinee 18H0, but it was hiid out by Indians, who are text lazy to improve it; and, besides, they make a living because it is almost imixissible for pack animal-^ to go over it. The opening of Alaska may put an end to all this, so far as the Dyea trail is concerned. Dyea ('anon is a crevice in the mountains about two miles long and tifty feet wide, with a raging river at the bottom. The topography abruptly changes. Great boul- dei*s are piled in confused heaps, and the snow-laden stumps of trees and uj)turned roots stick out in fantastic shapes. We kept to the ice when we could, but frequently took to steeper and rougher paths. For a short distance the grade is about eighteen degrees, until an elevation of five hundred feet is reached, and then the trail descends slightly to Plea.sant (^uup, which is not fur from the mouth of the canon. It is a spot which is anything but '* pleasant," ac- cording to the significance of t hat term in civilized regions. It is applied here because a few trees have had the good fortune to get a living there, and they afford a kind of shelter and a convenient place for a camp. The trail from Pleasant Camp to Sheep Camp was fairly good, at an average elevation of five hundred feet, and with but few sharp pitches. The camp itself is in a valley or canon about half a mile wide, with very high, steep, and rocky mountains im either side. Tlie white summit of the Chilkoot towers three thousand feet above, but we caught only glimpses of it in the fickle storm. Xo timlx^r grows above us. It is a frowning picture and it tells on faint hearts. As we slowly dragged our loads, we met more than one man who had turned back, not caring to brave the pass for all the gold that might be on the other side. Alaska I ': ■ J f I \ 80 SHEEP CAMP AND ITS REVELATIONS OF CHARACTER is no place for a man who, bocouiing discouraged at the first serious obstacle that presents itself, leaves a camp where he sees women keeping up hearts as strong as iron, and turns his back. Sheep Camp is a favorable plact; to discover the diifer- ence in men and to see what some women are made of. We came across one man completely disheartened and limp, right at the foot of that great climb of three thousand five hundred feet, pleading piteously with his wife to turn back, while she, not half his size, but with wonderful nerve, bustled about their snowy camj) in the bitter cold, con- stantly wearing a smile and cheering up her forlorn mate in every possible way. How will she get him over the sum- mit? I thought. But she did. She just told him that she was going over anyhow, and that if he wanted to go back he could. She had a woman's shrewdness. She knew that, much as he feared to go ahead with her, he would not dare to go back without her. Shortly after pitching our tent at Sheep Camp I looked out and saw a slim woman swinging an axe at a small hem- lock. Her tent was near by and she seemed to be alone. With a spirit of gallantry, which, I am glad to say, is never altogetlier lost in mining life, I walked over and offered my assistance. She wanted the tree for a fire, and I soon had it in front of her tent ready for a blaze. She had been making trips to the summit of the pass all day, carrying packs of twenty-five pounds, and was then preparing the camp for lier husband, who had gone to the summit with the last load. Her clothes were wet through; she was lame and tired, hut she laughed good-naturedly as she told me some of her experiences on the awful trail, how she had slipped off a log and fallen into the river and an Indian EXHILARATING FKEEUOM 81 had pulled her out by the collar of the thick coat she wore. But it must not be thougiit that all women along the trail were as brave as tliis. There were exceptions. 1 saw one sitting down and having a good cry, crying for home and othor women to talk to, perhaps, for cariKits, and baker s bread, and the gossij) of the city, and tlie comforts of civilized life. Her husband, who was pretty blue him- self, was trA'ing to comfort hor. I noticed that she still clung to her jx^tticoats. One could not fail to notice many instances, however, in which Uie women seemed to show a fortitude superior to the men. It was a revelation, almast a mystery. But aft/cr a while I began io account for it as the natural result of an escape from the multitude of social customs and restraints which ii civilized society hedge about a woman's life. Hardened minci*s enter on the Alaskan trail as a sort of grim business, something a little worse than they have been accustomed to, and yet much the same. The stimulus received from the novelty of the situ- ation is much less than in the case of a woman, especially one who has not been used to roughing it. She steps out of her dress into trousers in a region where nolxxly cares. Tier nature suddenly becomes aware of a freedom which is in a way exhilarating. She has, as it Avere, throAvn off the fetters which civilized society imposes, and while re- taining her womanliness she liecomes something more than a mere woman. Her sensitive nature is charmed with the new conditions, and her husband, who has had the advantage of no such metamorphosis, sits down, tired and disheartened by the obstacles in his path, and marvels at his wife as she drags her heavy rubber boots through the I ! ! Ml 82 THE TKUNDEJiUUS CKAStl OF FALLING ICE snow and clinibs with a light heart the precipices of mighty mountains. The weather wat fairly good while we were l)ringing our stores up to ^^heep Camp, but as soon as we had them settled there and were ready to begin on the summit it be- came ferociously cold. The mercury fell to eighteen de- ^ees below zero, the snow flew at intervals, and at times uke wind would swoop domn through the vaUey like an danche, rolling from the great peaks above us. On one of the valley is a larjse glacier. We could stand at the nee of our tent, lootking' across the canon, and see it plainly, r.bout two miles away. A wall of ice eighty •i. ninety feet high marted its lower end, and occasionally a lEPeat piece of ice Avouikl break off and come rolling down lETo the valley. Tlie eartii would tremble and the roar of CiH-H migiiTT crash was like ;i |)eal of distant thunder through r,:' !ii< ;;: rain gorges. Twi(f> while I wa-s watching I saw :. (S of ice many times larger than the great sky- rt<-i-;!i'iu;. uiildings of Chicago break away and come tumb- liimg intj'^he canon Iwdow. The '«*enery Ava~ sublime, but the weather ,'ontinutd al>omiiia i le and we were detained at this camp for two weeks. Few thought of venturing over the summit under such conditions. The wind mu&t be still and the sky clear. Once, when the prosjiects seemed brighter, we strap])cd on our packs and slarted out, but soon it began to storm again. "VVe met a party of Indians and prosjx^otors who had started earlier and had cached some of their goods at a jwint well up on the trail and were going back to wait again. They warned us that it was dangerous to attempt an ascent, but as we had light iiacks and tlw wind was blowing in our direction we decided to push ahci-.d. The trail grew worse, AMONG THE SILENT HILLS 83 L-hty the wind inereaseil and sifted ilu snow across the track so that we could not fail to recognize the serious dangers of a misstep. And so we followed the others back to camp. It was a very dreary camp during those two weeks, 'inhere was no laughter thei*e. The everlasting hills and the apparently everlasting storm hung over the little valley like a harsh ix?nalty. Difficult as it is to follow the ti'ails, there is nothing so hard as to keep still in these regions, especially when the mercury is far below zero. We got along very comfortably, however, as our t<'nt was n good one and we had plenty of blankets. There were alxnU a hundred others in the c^mp, but they kept clo«ely to their tent.** most of the time. Indeed, when the wind went down the stillness over that little cluni]) of white habitations among the ;^ '.uited trees was almost appalling. \o hum of industry or sound of sociability disturbed the silencje. Cut off from the world, a man feels himself dwindling into a mere itom amid these silent, everlasting hills He feels almost like speaking in whispers when, suddenly, on the op- jiressive stillness theire breaks a sharp rejwrt like a (daj) of lliimder, and it goes on roaring, and dies away grumbling and murmuring amid the mountains. Then all is still again. A glacier has moved. Tbn'e is where Xature is working. She is young yet, the liills have not been ground down. But in her youthful, untamed moods she is terrible. The anomaly presented by the region forced itself more clearly upon us when we considered that we were ])racti- cally in the same latitude as St. Petersburg, wher" the bril- liant court of a great empire is held. We were still eight hundred miles south of the Arctic rirclc. We were liardlv 84 THE CAMP ASTIR. five hundred feet above tlie sea level, but in an inhospitable region, where heroic courage and endurance are requisites; a v/ilderness with the snow and ice around and above us. At last the clouds passed away, and the sun shone out for a time witli dazzling brightness. The white peaks above us fairly glowed. The li';tle camp was alive. I r-aesem ible ites; VIS. out Dove CHAPTER V THE DREADED CHILKOOT PASS — HOW WE CROSSED IT — SLIDING DOWN THE MOUNTAINS AT LIGHTNING SPEED — "THERE COMES A WOMAN." A Steep Trail — Climbing the Mountain Forty Times — Some of tlic Difliculties — Missteps that are Dangerous — Straight up over Seven Hundred Feet — An Obscure Summit — Fucilit'iting the Re turn — Trousers Fortified with a Canvas Patch — A Slide in the Trench — Tobogganing Outdone — A Collision — Out of Sight in the Deep Snow — " There Comes a Woman " — Down Like a Flash — Runaway Sleds — An Alaskan Sunburn — Snow-hiindness — A Painful Experience — On the Summit at Last — A Grand Spectacle — Turning Sleds Loose down the Mountain — Hounding over Crater Lake — Lake Lindemi'.n — Observing the Timber — The Ir- responsible Indian — Signaling by Burning Trees — Ire-sledding across Lindeman — Lake Beuiett — Flapjacks and Congratulations. FROM Shoop Caiap to tlie immit of Chilkoot Pass is about four uiiles, and we determined to carry all our tilings up on our backs. 'J'lie trail was so steep most of the way that it would have been impossible to haul more than a hundred pounds on a sled, and added to this would be the weight of the sled. The latter part of the way is altogether too perpendicular for comfortable sl(>d- ding. It ia a steady ascent from the camp to the " Scales," which is a fiat place at the foot of " the last climb." TIh' grade from the camp to Stone House, so called because nature seems to have arranged the rocks with more syin nietry than usual, and that is saying very little, is from a (85) I! ' i I'l \''< I 86 FORTY TRIPS TO THE SUMMIT twelve to eigbtccii degrees; from there to the " Scales " it is about twenty-five tlegrees, and from that place to the smuniit about thirty degrees, though the last ascent is nearer thirty-iive. The ascent is one thousand nine Inni- dred and fifty feet in the first three miles, and one thousand two hundred and fifty in the next mile. 1'his does not look great on paper, and it is not; for mountain climbers are every day ascending steeps as great and twice as high. But they are not compelled to take along all they are to have to eat, to Avear, and to use for a year or more. Therein lies one of the main difficulties in proceeding to the interior of Alaska. If one could dejiend upon warehouses within easy reach, could buy what he wanted as he journej'ed from place to place, traveling in Alaska would have a few pleasures in it. At least it would not be difficult. .Toe and I were compelled to make forty trips over these steep places to get our outfit to the summit, and climbing a mountain forty times Avith a heavy pack on the back is dif- ferent fi'om climbing it once almost empty-hamied and for fun. Many took all tlu'ir goods to the Stone House at first, and then by another stage carried them to the " Scales " ; then by another to the summit. We adopted different tac- tics. Having strap])ed our packs on, Ave continued to the foot of the last ascent, and there if the weather Avas bad we would leave them, otiierwise Ave continued on to the sum- mit. As the Avind wos ])lowing most of the time, this re- sulted in our having most of our outfit' at the foot (tf the final ascent before v,e had many opportunities to view the summit, or any at all to indulge in a view from n. The trail up to the " Scales " looks smooth Avhen tlie snoAV. lies deep over it, but it is, nevertheless, difficult, and r^^ff^^f*-'^ '-'" A TREACHEROUS TRAIL 87 it the t is lUll- jand by a single misstep the traveler may liiul himself buried to the armpits. I'uderiieath are great massv,'s of rocks, mid part of ihe way fallen trees, but the ti'iuber belt ends com- pletely at Stone House. One of the difttculaes in the ascent lay in successfully passing those who were descend- ing for another load, for the way is exceedingly narrow, and one must not step out of the trail except with the grcat- est caution. Occasionally a man would find liimself at t!ie bottom of a crevice forty feet or so below ibe tniii, and he could make his way back only with the greatest ditiiculty. The last climb of nearly seven hundred feet up a moun- tain peak that seemed to rise almost straight be' >r(> us Avat> the hardest of all. The trail winds in zigzag fashion in and around the boulders and over the glacial streaks, but at this time it was covered with snow, in some ])laces tifty feet deep. In the steeper places steps were cut in the ice and snow, and in taking a pack up one was compelled to lean forward and use his hands on the icy steps. Occasionally a tired man would make a misstep, or his foothold caved oif, and down the precipice he rolled, landing in the s*t!T snow, from which he had to extricate himself and again attempt tlie tiresome climb. Its was drudgery in iis simplest and purest form. One hundred pounds was tiie most that either of us could take, and then it nvpiired an honr to cover that seven hundred tVet to the sumiaji'. ^vhi(*h we generally found cover_-(l with a blinding snow M^ci^Ta or bathf-d in an ice-fog. Fortunately, ita retuniing w^ covdd make up for lost finsie. 80 steep and so treachierous \\a.s the trail, and so iminy were working up it, tliat the descent by the i«tepH for aTK*ther load was as trying work as the aw^'ut. The grim mother of invcnition again r.vme to the rescue. Xearly everybody fortified the seat of his trousers liy dewinij£ on a '■I i * 1^ ' I : / 88 LIKE RIDING AN AVALANCHE piece of canvas, and as there was a short cut back to the bot- tom of the trail, straight and smooth but too steep to climb, it was brought into use for the purposes of returning, a trench being tV.mied tlierebv. One would sit down in this trench at the :op, and just hold his breath till he stnick the bottom. He need not hold it long. It took loss time to slide down than it takes to tell of it. Once started there was no opportunity to stop, and no time to consider such a question. I remember that at the first trial I picked myself out of the snow and thought I would give up that sport. It seemed a little too much like riding an avalanche bareback. I was so much larger and heavier than the rest that gravity gave me a greater speed. In places the ditch was as much as four feet deep, but in other places it was shallow, and there was danger of jumping the track. Once I ran into a little man and was thrown completely out of the groove. Down the mount^ain side I plowed, plunging entirely out of sight in the soft snow at the bottom. I picked myself out and was not in the least hurt. The little man righted himself somehow, and came down the groove in good order. After awhile the experience began to have the flavor of true sport, and the more we tried it the better we liked it. The women were a little timid at first, but they looked as if they Avould like to try it. " I'll try it if you will," they kept saying to one another. Standing at the bottom and seeing men come down the seven-hundred-foot groove, it looked easy, but when standing at the summit and looking down was something appalling. Finally, as we were about to start up with a pack, some one shouted, " There comes a woman." We could see her fidgeting a little at the top; then she wrapped her coat about her, dropped into the trench, and COASTING DOWN THE HILLS 89 down she came like a flash. She p'-'ked herself up out of the snow rosy and smiling. Then this metliod of descent became general. They seemed to enjoy it as nmch as the men, but most of those whom I saw going down were of the dance-hall variety. It appeared to be a little too. much for the staider matrons, even in men's clothes. Occasionally, on our way back to Sheep Camp for a load we also saved a little time by securing a ride on some one's sled. There was one hill, quite steep and over a mile long. By having one man to guide the sled, and another to run a stout stick down through the center for a brake, a small load of men could slide to the bottom in a very short time, and generally without mishap. An experienced man will guide these sleds with a pole about six feet long very cleverly, but the inexperienced sometimes make bad work. There were runaway sleds about every day, and generally some one was hurt. But in such places nothing is serious, so long as a man escapes with his life. It is, howe^'er, in the milder w'nter months only that the difficult ascent can be varied with such amusements as these. After the snow has melted the trail becomes one of confused boulders, roaring streams, and creviced glaciers. To be sure, we suffered from the cold, and sometimes severely, but, on the whole, going over the summit is much pleasantcr at this season than in the rains of the summer months, when the trails quickly become muddy and the streams must be forded. On my trip over I suffered from sunburn more rhan anything else. It may sound strange to speak of r-unburn when clambering over snow many feet dpep, but when in Alaska the sun begins to shine, it is with a blazing fierce- ness. My epidermis was well hardened before T started for 90 SUNBURN AND SNOW-BLINDNESS i 1 III t1 i 1 ) Alaska, but some of the time, wliile working over the pass, my face became so swollen that I could hardly see out of my eyes. It was exceedingly painful, and often kept me awake nights when I A\as very tired. When the wind blew and the snow flew, my face would smart as if burned by steam, ^fany of us learnc. co blacken our faces with burnt cork or charcoal, and this served not simply to protect the skin somewhat, but to protect the eyes. We were gruesome objects with our black faces and goggles. Snow-blindness was another serious danger. Snow glasses are an absolute necessity in Alaska, and especially when going over the snowy passes in the f\dl blaze of the sun; and one must be vei'v careful about taking them off. Occasionally, when several of us would be trudging up the steep path together a cry would be heard. Some one had suddenly become snow blind, and had to be led back to camp. Such unfortunates would suffer intense pain, and would not regain their sight for three or four days. But at last we haA'o reached the pummit of that snow- wrapped peak towards which we have been making our way for twenty-three days. Fifteen miles in twenty-three days! After such a journey there should be something besides the mere consolation of having at last conquered the obstacles in the path. There is. It is a great temptation not to throw off the snoAV-glasses, as we stand on that dazzling simimit. The clouds have been blown away for a time. The whole scene lies under the fierce sunlight of an Alaskan April day. And what a picture! It seems not of this world; it is f ^ strange, so unique. Almost at our feet is the little armlet of the Pacific which we left nearly a month ago, and beyond that and this side of the great Pacific a hun- NATURE S FIERCE ARTILLERY 91 (Ired miles away, stretch tlie snow peaks and tlioir shining glaciers. " Silence reigns! the awful stillness Like a plmntoni presence lingers All unseen, but felt so plainly That it seems to touch the seuces. " Far away the mountain ranges Pile in wild unclassed confusion, Rugged peaks, extinct volcanoes, Rounded knolls and wave-like hillocks Clustering near or stretching outward Far beyond our wondering vision: Snow-clad all, or maybe shining Underneath an icy garment. Glacier, cliCf, and mountain shoulder Leaning close against the other. By the ice-keen chisels blended, Until ice and stone are welded In a firm eternal union, ' ' Crash and boom ! the silence wakens With a shock, whose mighty roaring Rends the clouds with thunderous pealing! Sends its ^rarying detonations Rolling o'er the bay's clear surface! Bounding forth o'er mountain summits Where their echoes catch its thunders And repeat them loudly, wildly, As if Nature's fierce artillery Joined its mightiest cannonading In one grand, triumphant salvo! In a thousand-voiced announcement Of an iceberg's bold departure On its evanescent journey." Turning in the other direction we behold the hills mel^ ing away into the great watershed of the miglity Yukon, which mns its winding conrse to the Bering Sea three thou- sand miles. At our feet lies the first of the frozen lakes.; a ■-mimmt^MtMmmmm 93 ACKOHATIC INDIANS body of water lying in an old crater and now covered with ice and snow. This is the next stage of our journey, and the old adage that it is easier to fall than to climb was illus- trated in Chilkoot stvle. The descent to the lake, which is five hundred feet, is smooth and straight, and the Indians, who were packing for parties on the trail, securely tied their ])acks to sleds, mounted them as a clown would mount a circus donkey, and off they went. The sleds shot down the decline with terrific speed and bounded off on to the frozen lake, sometimes going eight hundred yards before stopping. But for the snow they would have gone much further. Sometimes a sled would swerve a little or strike a slight ob- stacle and the Indians would fly oif into the air and roll like bundles to the lake. A perpendicular bank about six feet high stretches around tho lake, and this the sleds Avould clear with a long leap to the ice below, and he was a good Indian who stuck. As the sleds seemed to go equally well without Indians as with, we concluded to let ours go alone. They behaved nicely, and clambering down the decline after them we drew them on across the lake, where they were unloaded, and we then pulled them back for another load and a slide. At the end of the lake we cached our ])rovisions and pushed on with our tent and a few articles to Lake Lindcman. The trail at this season is not difficult, as trails go in Alaska. The lakes were frozen and tho only impediment on them was the snow, which in places was soft and wet. The lengthening days were beginning to have their effect on the lower lands. Crater Lake is not more than a mile in diameter, and the outlet is over a lava bed of rough boulders. Long Lake lies a little lower, and is studded with glaciers. The traveling becomes tedious, difficult, and slow, and the h iSiuaaas Wiiimu M LAKK LINDEMAN 98 greatest care imist bo used in places, the dangers of vvlileh may be hidden by the weakening snow. After passing Deep Lake, we foUow a dim trail, almost indiscerni[)le at times, and then, from the top of a rough little hill. Lake Lindeman lies below. ]t is said to be lews than tx^n miles from the summit to Lindeman. It seems twice that distance, but we nuinaged to bring up our entire outfit in four trips, and were the best ])art of three days in doing it. In the summer we were told the natives maintained what were called ferries on this chain of little lakes, but the charges were enormous and many preferred to keep to the trails, trying though they were. From the Stone House to the vicinity of Lindeman not enough wood can be found to start a fire. At first we came to littlo clumps of short, scrubby pines or spruce, scarcely three feet high and twisted into all sorts of fantastic sha])es by the winter gales, but around Lindeman could be found a few fair-sized trees, though few were over thirty feet high. They are mainly confined to varieties of spruce, yellow cedar, bemlock, and balsam fir, but spruce everywhere pre- dominates, and its lumber resembles that of southern or pitch pine. The hemlock is less plentifuL White spruce is the staple timber, and though in some places near running streams it attains the height of from fifty to one hundred feet, it is most commonly found below forty, and averaging about fifteen inches at the butt. It is a fairly clear white wood, straight grained, and easily worked, light, and yet very tough. It endures the weather well, and a log house built of it is good for over twenty years. It abounds in a light and delicate looking gum, and those addicted to the cheAving-giim habit can always be sure of a supply. ^, IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.1 itt lit 122 Sua "^ 1^ MS, 12.0 — u& llliyi iJ4 lyi^ Vi y Photographic Sdaices Corporation ^^<^' 23 WIST MAIN STRIIT WltSTM.N.Y. I4SM (71«) •72-4503 4^' 94 SIGXALING BY BURNING TREE8 Good timber, however, was not plentiful at Lindeman, even at this time. Much of it had been burnt off. In the sunnner, we are told, when the Indians are resting on their journeys and are pestered by insects, they set fire to the leaves and twigs about them and then sit in the dense smoke which keeps a few of the mosquitoes at a distance. After his rest the native goes forward without extinguishing his fire, and as the vegetation is rank and inflammable in the long summer days, the fire quickly spreads to the trees and to the forests. The Indian also has a way of signaling by burning trees. When in a locality where he expects to find his friends or family, he sets fire to a tall spruce, and then calndy sits down and watches the horizon for an answering column of smoke. T\w wind will fan these flames into a fierce forest fire in a short time, and the Indians are too ut- terly indifferent to think of putting them out. Some gold ])ilgrims, worn out by the arduous tramp oA'er the pass, pitched their camps at Lake Lindeman to await the breaking up of the ice, meanwhile entering upon the con- struction of a boat which they fondly hoped would diminish the tediousness of the further trip. But the ice was in such excellent condition here and the timber so poor that we de- cided to push on. Lake Lindeman is a narrow piece of water six miles long, hemmed in with ragged hills. It is close to the bound- ary line between the territory (tf the Ignited States and that of (Jueen Victoria. On the cone of an immense boulder on the left, as we looked down the frozen lake, fluttered the Stars and Stripes, and from another staff close by waved the ensign of Great Britain. Both had been tattered in the gales from the great regions of the Xorth. A stitf breeze was blowing in our direction as we started I Lindeman, if. In the ig on their fire to the ense smoke ce. After uishing his able in the e trees and gnaling by ►ects to find ?, and then I answering inios into a i are too nt- I tramp over to await the on the con- dd diminish was in such that we de- : miles long, the bound- tes and that ' boulder on luttered the y waved the ered in the s we started 13 ;■=■ o ^3 3 I 3 O > o >3 73 c r; M O -3 > -J \x p IE r=S. S 3 7S V. MMM SLEDDING ON THE ICE 97 from the head of the lake. The snow was not deep except in spots; so, rigging up sails on our sleds, we fastened them together, and away v.e sped with a load of one thousand two hundred pounds. This was sport. Taking a position on the back of the sleds we used two long poles as a rudder, though it was a severe task on the arms. Occasionally we woidd run into a drift of snow and the speed would slacken, or we might stop altogether while the wind tore over our sails in a threatening manner. Then we would jump out, pull them beyond the drift, jump on, and resume our steer- ing. In this way we made the length of the lake in fortj* minutes. Others adopted the same tactics, and the scene of these ice sleds sailing over the lake, which seemed like a great canon, was indeed picturesque, and very much pleasantor than the raft trips made later in the season, when the wind is likely to " kick up ' a lively sea and drench the l)oor gold-seeker and his goods. He has usually by this time become so hardened and so accustomed to the ways of the coimtry, that he does not mind such a little matter as a wet skin, and a camp in the snow or on the spongy lowlands. The ])()rtage from Lake Lindeman to I^ke Bennett is along a rocky canal which plunges into a canon filled with boulders. The stream cut through a wall of granite and basaltic formation for three-c|uarters of a mile, and has a fall of forty feet. The latter part of the portage is over a sandy ridge, away from the stream and much l)etter traveling. Here many of the gold-seekers decided to camp and build their boats, but as the weather was fair and the travel- ing on the ice easy, we concluded to push to the other end of the lake, or further, before going into camp. Lake Ben- nett, so named by Schwatka after James CJordon Bennett, is thirty-four miles long, and from one to two miles in width. 98 NO WORSE TRAVBLINQ THIS SIDE THE MOON \ HI II' About fourteen miles down, the southwest arm of the lake joins it, and from its hills fierce winds usually blow. Thus the trip over the lake is much more comfortable on the ice than on the water. We made the first trip in one day. The wind favored us, and we exchanged services with a man who was endeavoring to take in some horses, which helped us very materially. On the second trip, however, when compelled to depend on ourselves, we had head winds, and we were three days in making the single trip. It was hard work at that. • At Caribou Crossing, which separates Lake Bennett from Tagish Lake, we learned that there was some open water beyond. The crossing is a neck of sluggish river, and is so named because the caribou use it in their migrations south in the spring and north in the fall. The ice and snow were growing very soft under the sun of the lengthening days, though the air from the peaks continued cold. "VVe determined to halt at Tagish Lake and build the craft upon which we were to depend to take us down the upper waters of the Yukon. " T guess the worst is over for a time," said Joe that evening, as we sat by the little box of a stove devouring flap- jacks as fast as they could be cooked. We both were hungry and kept well ahead of the stove. " Our health has been good, anyhow," I remarked ; " but I don't believe there is any worse traveling this side of the moon. And there is one consolation, I'm thinking, Joe, whatever society we have will at least be made up of persons of grit. Anybody who gets over here has got to be made of stout stuff, even though it is put together wrong. If you had just sat down in 'Frisco and told me in detail what this tramp would be, I think I should have looked on it ! * -• ''T nTr-'Sf-^" -• - r.;ingB ;i r"r' ■aursum , I — I — HUNGRY PILGRIMS 99 as a rather long and at times agreeable method of premedi- tated suicide." " Well, it may amount to that yet," said Joe, as he turned over another flapjack, eagerly waiting for it to brown. I had finished mine, and was patiently waiting for my turn to brown another. I CHAPTER VI CAMP LIFE IN ALA8KA-WE UUILD A BOAT TO CONTINUE OLU JOUltNEY- ADVENTURES WITH BEAKS. Our Camp at Lake Tagish— Building a Boat — The Sow Pit — Pre- paring the Trees— Wbip-8ttwing — Its Effect ou Cliaracter — An Accident — Almost a Quarrel — A Case in Which Angels Would Lose their Amiability — Spoiling the First Log— "Work it Some- how "—The Oish-Kug and the Dog — A Bargain — Adventure of a New Yorker with a Bear and Three Cubs — An Excited Man — He Empties His Oun and Nearly Kills His Dog — I Lend Him My UiHe — The Bear Finally Gives It Up— Catching the Cubs — Tough Hams — Our Triumphant Return — An Old Timer's Bear Story — Face tc >^ •> with a W^ounded Bear — Playing Possum — Just in Time— A . ow Escape— " Don't Go Off Half-Cocked." IT was the first of May when we went into camp near Tagish Lake, which is usually reckoned as about sixty miles from Dyea. Although we had made much better time after crossing the Chilkoot, we had averaged less than two miles a day on the whole tramj), and now we were destined to lie in camp for an indefinite time while building our boat and waiting for the river to be safely free of ice. But this, bear in mind, was before anything was known of the Klondike. While some were hurrj'ing along as fast as they could, and faster than was safe, the majority were taking time, and really enjoying their rough fare in camp after the ordeals of the pass. The location was very good for camping purposes, and as four or five other parties were (100) BOAT BUILDING AT TAOISH LAKE 101 there building their boats we iliil not laek for company. We ere also aiforded a little opi)ortunity to study the methods of boat-building in these i)rimitive regions. I knew nothing at all about the construction of boats iind .loe's exiK-rionoe had been small. Very soon I came to tlie conclusion that all the knowledge about boats there was in the whole camp would not have taken a man far out to sea. But Joe pretended that he knew all about it, aufl I had the greatest confidence in his judgment, mainly because he liad been over the route l)efore. Tlie Hrst e*=8ential in building boats a la Yukon is to know what constitutes suitable trees, and the next is to find them. Two logs would be sufKc.'.'nt, if they wojild cut nine-inch boards, but the great majt.rlly of the trees will not allow it. After roaming about for some time Joe found three wliicli he thought would do, and these we cut down and dragged to a place near tlie lake. The next essential is a " saw-pit." As little l)oat-build- ing had been done at this lake we could not avail ourselves of what someone else had left, but had to construct a pit of our own. We hunted about for four trees near the l)each, standing as nearly as possible in the same relation to each other as tlie corners of a rectAngular imrallelogram. These, when found, we cut off about six feet from the groimd, thus constituting the four legs or support of the platform. The tops of these stumjis were then hollowed out so that logs could be laid across each pair, that is the narrow sides of the parallelogram. We fastened these cross-pieces, after a fashion, with spikes, and the saw-pit was comi)lete. The only difhculty about this part of the process is that it is hard work, and takes time, and generally has to be done either while it rains or while it snows. The man who travels in loa THE UNHALLOWED WHIP-SAW 1 i In Alaska only when the weather is gocnl will make about a mile a month, on an average. And it is a country of mag- nificent distances. The pit being ready, we squared off the butt ends of the logs and spotted them, that is, cut them the right length, and straightened them as well as we could with an axe. Skids were Uien placed against the pit and a log was rolled up to tlie platform ready to be saweil; also two others to serve as a sort of foot-rest for the victim destined to stand above. Wo then peeled off the bark and sap-wood, and with a chalk-line marked off two slabs. " You see," said Joe, " that will give you a good place on which to stand and sec the chalk-marks when we come to saw off the boards." It looked very reasonable, like very many otlier theories which can be found wiUiout taking the trouble and risk of going to Alaska. We put a wedge under the logs so as to prevent them from rolling while sawing off the slabs, and then the samng began; also the trouble. A whip-saw is a long, coarse-toothed saw, tapering to one end and with handles fixed to each end at right angles. It is an invention of the tempter. It ought to be sup- pressed. No character is strong enough to withstand it. Two angels could not saw their first log with one of these things without getting into a fight. I learned this gradually, however. I had allowed Joe to boss all proceedings, and when he said that I might stand on top while sawing off the slabs, I thought, perhaps, that out of the goodness of his heart he was granting me a con- siderable privilege, for the man on top has only to pull up the saw while the one below nulla it down and does the cut- ting. So up I climbed, and, taking my end of the saw with IT PROVOKES . ROFANITY 103 a light heart, wo worked away at the butt end of a log for a while, and finally got the saw started on the chalk line. As a matter of fact, we both were green at this business. Pretty soon I was startled at hearing Joe swear. This was unusual. He was a man who swore only on great occasions. " What's the matter ? " I asked, looking down, and see- ing Joe's face distorted and his eyes blinking. " You mind your own end of it," he answered back, rather spitefully. I kept on pulling up the saw with a feeling that I was doing my duty, when Joe shouted savagely: " Say, don't you know a chalk-line when you see it ? " " I'm not doing the sawing," I replied, " you pull the saw down, and if you don't keep on your mark I can't keep on mine." " Well, you just keep her running on your line and I'll look out for the under one," he retorted. I have not quoted him exactly. There are certain figures of speech used by men of strong natures, when angry, that look some- what harsh in print. I tried to pull the saw towards the mark, and did so, but soon it got to running the other side, then I steered it back, and so it went, wobbling around the line, till Joe, firing another chain-shot of forceful expres- sions, gave the saw a spiteful pull. The wedges slipped from under the slippery log I was standing on and it shot oflf the pit, saw and all, with a suddenness which would have turned a firecracker green with envy. I came down on my back on one of the little stumps under the pit. Joe stood watching me for a moment aa I sat there rubbing sev- eral of my shorter ribs. " You're a dandy," he said, as he walked over and ex- tricated the saw. 7 104 IT ROUSES WRATH I felt that he was to hlanic for giving tlie saw such a spiteful pull, and my first inipulbc was to get up and have it out with him. Wo had been good friends for a long time. Wc were " pardners " in all that that word signifies in a mining camp. We ha i shared all the hardships of the tramp, and I would have risked my life any day to save his, and I knew he would have