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diff --git a/44038-0.txt b/44038-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..947b1de --- /dev/null +++ b/44038-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4872 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44038 *** + +[Illustration: "WE OF THE FLANNEL SHIRT AND THE UNBLACKED BOOT." +_Frontispiece._] + + + + + Through + the + Yukon Gold Diggings + A Narrative of Personal Travel + + BY + JOSIAH EDWARD SPURR + Geologist, United States Geological Survey + + [Illustration] + + BOSTON + EASTERN PUBLISHING COMPANY + 1900 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1900 + by + JOSIAH EDWARD SPURR + + + + +Preface. + + +As a geologist of the United States Geological Survey, I had the good +fortune to be placed in charge of the first expedition sent by that +department into the interior of Alaska. The gold diggings of the Yukon +region were not then known to the world in general, yet to those +interested in mining their renown had come in a vague way, and the +special problem with which I was charged was their investigation. The +results of my studies were embodied in a report entitled: "Geology of +the Yukon Gold District," published by the Government. + +It was during my travels through the mining regions that the Klondike +discovery, which subsequently turned so many heads throughout all +of the civilized nations, was made. General conditions of mining, +travelling and prospecting are much the same to-day as they were at +that time, except in the limited districts into which the flood of +miners has poured. My travels in Alaska have been extensive since the +journey of which this work is a record, and I have noted the same +scenes that are herein described, in many other parts of the vast +untravelled Territory. It will take two or three decades or more, to +make alterations in this region and change the condition throughout. + +In recording, therefore, the scenes and hardships encountered in this +northern country, I describe the experiences of one who to-day knocks +about the Yukon region, the Copper River region, the Cook Inlet region, +the Koyukuk, or the Nome District. My aim has been throughout, to +set down what I saw and encountered as fully and simply as possible, +and I have endeavored to keep myself from sacrificing accuracy to +picturesqueness. That my duties led me to see more than would the +ordinary traveller, I trust the following pages will bear witness. + +Let the reader, therefore, when he finds tedious or unpleasant +passages, remember that they record tedious or unpleasant incidents +that one who travels this vast region cannot escape, as will be found +should any of those who peruse these pages go THROUGH THE YUKON GOLD +DIGGINGS. + + AUTHOR. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAP. PAGE + I. The Trip to Dyea 9 + II. Over the Chilkoot Pass 35 + III. The Lakes and the Yukon to Forty Mile 65 + IV. The Forty Mile Diggings 109 + V. The American Creek Diggings 156 + VI. The Birch Creek Diggings 161 + VII. The Mynook Creek Diggings 207 + VIII. The Lower Yukon 229 + IX. St. Michael's and San Francisco 264 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + "We of the Flannel Shirt and the Unblacked Boot" _Frontispiece_ + An Alaskan Genealogical Tree 12 + Bacon, Lord of Alaska 21 + Lynn Canal 31 + Alaskan Women and Children 40 + Alaskan Indians and House 63 + Shooting the White Horse Rapids 93 + Talking it Over 98 + Alaska Humpback Salmon, Male and Female 107 + Washing Gravel in Sluice-Boxes 131 + "Tracking" a Boat Upstream 137 + A "Cache" 140 + Native Dogs 153 + On the Tramp Again 165 + Hog'em Junction Road-House 171 + On Hog'em Gulch 177 + Custom House at Circle City 190 + The Break-up of the Ice on the Yukon 213 + A Yukon Canoe 230 + Indian Fish-traps 231 + In a Tent Beneath Spruce Trees 239 + Three-hatch Skin Boat, or Bidarka 261 + Eskimo Houses at St. Michael's 265 + A Native Doorway 266 + The Captured Whale 271 + + The author wishes to express his indebtedness to Messrs. A. H. + Brooks, F. C. Schrader, A. Beverly Smith, and the United States + Geological Survey, for the use of photographs. + + + + +Through +The Yukon Gold Diggings. + +Before the Klondike Discovery. + + +CHAPTER I. +THE TRIP TO DYEA. + + +It was in 1896, before the Klondike boom. We were seated at the table +of an excursion steamer, which plied from Seattle northward among the +thousand wonderful mountain islands of the Inland Passage. It was a +journey replete with brilliant spectacles, through many picturesque +fjords from whose unfathomable depths the bare steep cliffs rise +to dizzy heights, while over them tumble in disorderly loveliness +cataracts pure as snow, leaping from cliff to cliff in very wildness, +like embodiments of the untamed spirits of nature. + +We had just passed Queen Charlotte Sound, where the swells from +the open sea roll in during rough weather, and many passengers were +appearing at the table with the pale face and defiant look which mark +the unfortunate who has newly committed the crime of seasickness. It +only enhanced the former stiffness, which we of the flannel shirt and +the unblacked boot had striven in vain to break--for these were people +who were gathered from the corners of the earth, and each individual, +or each tiny group, seemed to have some invisible negative attraction +for all the rest, like the little molecules which, scientists imagine, +repel their neighbors to the very verge of explosion. They were all +sight-seers of experience, come, some to do Alaska, some to rest from +mysterious labors, some--but who shall fathom at a glance an apparently +dull lot of apparent snobs? At any rate, one would have thought the +everlasting hills would have shrunk back and the stolid glaciers +blushed with vexation at the patronizing way with which they were +treated in general. It was depressing--even European tourists' wordy +enthusiasm over a mud puddle or a dunghill would have been preferable. + +There are along this route all the benefits of a sea trip--the air, +the rest--with none of its disadvantages. So steep are the shores that +the steamer may often lie alongside of them when she stops and run +her gang-plank out on the rocks. These stops show the traveller the +little human life there is in this vast and desolate country. There are +villages of the native tribes, with dwellings built in imitation of +the common American fashion, in front of which rise great totem poles, +carved and painted, representing grinning and grotesque animal-like, +or human-like, or dragon-like figures, one piled on top of the other +up to the very top of the column. A sort of ancestral tree, these +are said to be,--only to be understood with a knowledge of the sign +symbolism of these people--telling of their tribe and lineage, of their +great-grandfather the bear, and their great-grandmother the wolf or +such strange things. + +[Illustration: AN ALASKAN GENEALOGICAL TREE.] + +The people themselves, with their heavy faces and their imitation of +the European dress--for the tourist and the prospector have brought +prosperity and the thin veneer of civilization to these southernmost +tribes of Alaska--with their flaming neckerchief or head-kerchief of +red and yellow silk that the silk-worm had no part in making, but only +the cunning Yankee weaver, paddle out in boats dug from the great +evergreen trees that cover the hills so thickly, and bring articles +made of sealskin, or skilfully woven baskets made out of the fibres of +spruce roots, to sell to the passengers. Or the steamer may stop at a +little hamlet of white pioneers, where there is fishing for halibut, +with perhaps some mining for gold on a small scale; then the practical +men of the party, who have hitherto been bored, can inquire whether +the industry pays, and contemplate in their suddenly awakened fancies +the possibilities of a halibut syndicate, or another Treadwell gold +mine. So the artist gets his colors and forms, the business man sees +wonderful possibilities in this shockingly unrailroaded wilderness, the +tired may rest body and mind in the perfect peace and freedom from the +human element, old ladies may sleep and young ones may flirt meantimes. + +All this would seem to prove that the passengers were neither +professional nor business men, nor young nor old ladies--part of which +appeared to me manifestly, and the rest probably untrue; or else that +they were all enthusiastic and interested in the dumb British-American +way, which sets down as vulgar any betrayal of one's self to one's +neighbors. + +Some one at the table wearily and warily inquired when we should get to +the Muir glacier, on which point we of the flannel-shirted brotherhood +were informed; and incidentally we remarked that we intended to leave +the festivities before that time, in Juneau. + +"Oh my!" said the sad-faced, middle-aged lady with circles about her +eyes. "Stay in Juneau! How dreadful! Are you going as missionaries, +or," here she wrestled for an idea, "or are you simply going." + +"We are going to the Yukon," we answered, "from Juneau. You may have +heard of the gold fields of the Yukon country." And strange and sweet +to say, at this later day, no one had heard of the gold fields--that +was before they had become the rage and the fashion. + +But the whole table warmed with interest--they were as lively +busybodies as other people and we were the first solution to the +problems which they had been putting to themselves concerning each +other since the beginning of the trip. There was a fire of small +questions. + +"How interesting!" said an elderly young lady, who sat opposite. "I +suppose you will have _all kinds_ of experiences, just _roughing_ it; +and will you take your food with you on--er--wagons--or will you depend +on the farmhouses along the way? Only," she added hastily, detecting a +certain gleam in the eye of her vis-a-vis, "I didn't think there were +many farmhouses." + +"They will ride horses, Jane," said the bluff old gentleman who was +evidently her father, so authoritatively that I dared not dispute +him--"everybody does in that country." Then, as some glanced out at +the precipitous mountain-side and dense timber, he added, "Of course, +not here. In the interior it is flat, like our plains, and one rides +on little horses,--I think they call them kayaks--I have read it," he +said, looking at me fiercely. Then, as we were silent, he continued, +more condescendingly, "I have roughed it myself, when I was young. We +used to go hunting every fall in Pennsylvania, when I was a boy, and +once two of us went off together and were gone a week, just riding +over the roughest country roads and into the mountains on horseback. If +our coffee had not run out we would have stayed longer." + +"But isn't it dreadfully cold up there?" said the sweet brown-eyed +girl, with a look in her eyes that wakened in our hearts the first +momentary rebellion against our exile. "And the wild animals! You will +suffer so." + +"I used to know an explorer," said the business man with the green +necktie, who had been dragged to the shrine of Nature by his wife. He +had brought along an entire copy of the New York _Screamer_, and buried +himself all day long in its parti-colored mysteries. "He told me many +things that might be useful to you, if I could remember them. About +spearing whales--for food, you know--you will have to do a lot of that. +I wish I could have you meet him sometime; he could tell you much more +than I can. Somebody said there was gold up there. Was it you? Well +don't get frozen up and drift across the Pole, like Nansen, just to get +where the gold is. But I suppose the nuggets----" + +"Let's go on deck, Jane," said the old gentleman;--then to us, +politely but firmly, "I have been much interested in your account, and +shall be glad to hear more later." We had not said anything yet. + +We disembarked at Juneau. We had watched the shore for nearly the +whole trip without perceiving a rift in the mountains through which +it looked feasible to pass, and at Juneau the outlook or uplook was +no better. Those who have been to Juneau (and they are now many) know +how slight and almost insecure is its foothold; how it is situated on +an irregular hilly area which looks like a great landslide from the +mountains towering above, whose sides are so sheer that the wagon road +which winds up the gulch into Silver Bow basin is for some distance in +the nature of a bridge, resting on wooden supports and hugging close to +the steep rock wall. The excursionists tarried a little here, buying +furs at extortionate prices from the natives, fancy baskets, and little +ornaments which are said to be made in Connecticut. + +In the hotel the proprietor arrived at our business in the shortest +possible time, by the method of direct questioning. He was from +Colorado, I judged--all the men I have known that look like him +come from Colorado. There was also a heavily bearded man dressed in +ill-fitting store-clothes, and with a necktie which had the strangest +air of being ill at ease, who was lounging near by, smoking and +spitting on the floor contemplatively. + +"Here, Pete," said the proprietor, "I want you to meet these +gentlemen." He pronounced the last word with such a peculiar intonation +that one felt sure he used it as synonymous with "tenderfeet" or +"paperlegs" or other terms by which Alaskans designate greenhorns. + +I had rather had him call me "this feller." "He says he's goin' over +the Pass, an' maybe you can help each other." Pete smiled genially and +crushed my hand, looking me full in the eye the while, doubtless to see +how I stood the ordeal. "Pete's an old timer," continued the hotel-man, +"one of the Yukon pioneers. Been over that Pass--how many times, Pete, +three times, ain't it?" + +"Dis makes dirt time," answered Pete, with a most unique dialect, which +nevertheless was Scandinavian. "Virst time, me an' Frank Densmore, +Whisky Bill an' de odder boys. Dat was summer som we washed on Stewart +River, on'y us--fetched out britty peek sack dat year--eh?" He had a +curious way of retaining the Scandinavian relative pronoun _som_ in his +English, instead of _who_ or _that_. + +"You bet, Pete," answered the other, "you painted the town; done your +duty by us." + +"Ja," said Pete, "blewed it in; mostly in 'Frisco. Was king dat winter +till dust was all been spent. Saw tings dat was goot; saw udder tings +was too bad, efen for Alaskan miner. One time enough. I tink dese +cities kind of bad fer people. So I get out. Sez I,--'I jes' got +time to get to Lake Bennett by time ice breaks,' so I light out." He +smiled happily as he said this, as a man might talk of going home, +then continued, "Den secon' dime I get a glaim Forty Mile, Miller +Greek,--dat's really Sixty Mile, but feller gits dere f'm Forty Mile. +Had a pardner, but he went down to Birch Greek, den I work my glaim +alone." + +He put his hand down in his trousers pocket and brought up a large flat +angular piece of gold, two inches long; it had particles of quartz +scattered through, and was in places rusty with iron, but was mostly +smooth and showed the wearing it must have had in his pocket. He shoved +the yellow lump into my hand. "Dat nugget was de biggest in my glaim +dat I found; anoder feller he washed over tailin's f'm my glaim efter, +an' he got bigger nuggets, he says, but I tinks he's dam liar. Anyhow, +I get little sack an' I went down 'Frisco, an' I blewed it in again. +Now I go back once more." + +We talked awhile and finally agreed to make the trip to Forty Mile +together, since we were all bound to this place, and Pete, unlike most +miners and prospectors, had no "pardner." We were soon engaged in +making the rounds of the shops, laying in our supplies--beans, bacon, +dried fruit, flour, sugar, cheese, and, most precious of all, a bucket +of strawberry jam. We made up our minds to revel in jam just as long +as we were able, even if we ended up on plain flour three times a day. +For a drink we took tea, which is almost universally used in Alaska, +instead of coffee, since a certain weight of it will last as long as +many times the same weight of coffee: moreover, there is some quality +in this beverage which makes it particularly adapted to the vigorous +climate and conditions of this northern country. Men who have never +used tea acquire a fondness for it in Alaska, and will drink vast +quantities, especially in the winter. The Russians, themselves the +greatest tea-drinkers of all European nations, long ago introduced +"Tschai" to the Alaskan natives; and throughout the country they will +beg for it from every white man they meet, or will travel hundreds of +miles and barter their furs to obtain it. + +[Illustration: BACON, LORD OF ALASKA.] + +Concerning the amount of supplies it is necessary to take on a trip +like ours, it may be remarked that three pounds of solid food to each +man per day, is liberal. As to the proportion, no constant estimate can +be made, men's appetites varying with the nature of the articles in the +rations and their temporary tastes. On this occasion Pete picked out +the supplies, laying in what he judged to be enough of each article: +but it appeared afterwards that a man may be an experienced pioneer, +and yet never have solved the problem of reasonably accurate rations, +for some articles were soon exhausted on our trip, while others lasted +throughout the summer, after which we were obliged to bequeath the +remainder to the natives. Camp kettles, and frying-pans, of course, +were in the outfit, as well as axes, boat-building tools, whip-saw, +draw-shave, chisels, hammers, nails, screws, oakum and pitch. It was +our plan to build a boat on the lakes which are the source of the +Yukon, felling the spruce trees, and then with a whip-saw slicing off +boards, which when put together would carry us down the river to the +gold diggings. + +For our personal use we had a single small tent, A-shaped, but with +half of one of the large slanting sides cut out, so that it could be +elevated like a curtain, and, being secured at the corners by poles or +tied by ropes to trees, made an additional shelter, while it opened +up the interior of the tent to the fresh air or the warmth of the +camp-fire outside. Blankets for sleeping, and rubber blankets to lay +next to the ground to keep out the wet; the best mosquito-netting or +"bobinet" of hexagonal mesh, and stout gauntleted cavalry gloves, as +protection against the mosquitoes. For personal attire, anything. Dress +on the frontier, above all in Alaska, is always varied, picturesque, +and unconventional. Flannel or woollen shirts, of course, are +universal; and for foot gear the heavy laced boot is the best. + +As usual, we were led by the prospective terrors of cold water in the +lakes and streams to invest in rubber boots reaching to the hip, which, +however, did not prove of such use as anticipated. We had brought with +us canvas bags designed for packing, or carrying loads on the back, +of a model long used in the Lake Superior woods. They were provided +with suitable straps for the shoulders, and a broad one for the top of +the head, so that the toiler, bending over, might support a large part +of the load by the aid of his rigid neck. These we utilized also as +receptacles for our clothes and other personal articles. + +Other men were in Juneau also, bound for the Yukon,--not like the +hordes that the Klondike brought up later from the States, many of +whom turned back before even crossing the passes, but small parties +of determined men. We ran upon them here and there. In the hotel we +sat down at the table with a self-contained man with a suggestion of +recklessness or carelessness in his face, and soon found that he was +bound over the same route as ourselves, on a newspaper mission. Danlon, +as we may call him, had brought his manservant with him, like the +Englishman he was. He was a great traveller, and full of interesting +anecdotes of Afghanistan, or Borneo, or some other of the earth's +corners. He had engaged to go with him a friend of Pete's, another +pioneer, Cooper by name, short, blonde and powerfully built. Between +us, we arranged for a tug to take us the hundred miles of water which +still lay between us and Dyea, where the land journey begins; after +which transaction, we sat down to eat our last dinner in civilization. +How tearfully, almost, we remarked that this was the last plum-pudding +we should have for many a moon! + +We sailed, or rather steamed away, from Juneau in the evening. Our +tug had been designed for freight, and had not been altered in the +slightest degree for the accommodation of passengers. Her floor space, +too, was limited, so that while ten or twelve men might have made +themselves very comfortable, the fifty or sixty who finally appeared +on board found hard work to dispose of themselves in any fashion. She +had been originally engaged for our two parties, but new passengers +continually applied, who, from the nature of things, could hardly be +refused. So the motley crowd of strangers huddled together, the engines +began clanking, and the lights of Juneau soon dropped out of sight, as +we steamed up Lynn Canal under the shadow of the giant mountains. + +Our fellow-passengers were mostly prospectors; nearly all newcomers, +as we could see by the light of the lantern which hung up in the bare +apartment where we were. They had their luggage and outfit with them, +which they piled up and sat or slept on, to make sure they would not +lose it. There were men with grey beards and strapping boys with down +on their chins; white handed men and those whose huge horny palms +showed a life of toil; all strange, uneasy, and quiet at first, but +soon they began to talk confidentially, as men will whom chance throws +together in strange places. + +There was a Catholic priest bound to his mission among the Eskimos +on the lower Yukon,--calm, patient, sweet-tempered, and cheerful of +speech; and near him was a noted Alaskan pioneer and trader, bound +on some wild trip or other alone. There was another Alaskan--one of +those who settle down and take native women as mates and are therefore +somewhat scornfully called "squaw-men"; he had been to Juneau as +the countryman visits the metropolis, and had brought back with him +abundant evidence of the worthlessness of the no-liquor laws of Alaska, +in the shape of a lordly drunk, and the material for many more, in a +large demijohn, which he guarded carefully. The conversation among this +crowd was of the directest sort, as it is always on the frontier. + +"Where are _you_ goin', pardner? Prospectin', I reckon?" + +Then inquiries as to what each could tell the other concerning the +conditions of the land we were to explore, mostly unknown to all: and +straightway Pete and Cooper were constituted authorities, by virtue of +their previous experience, and were listened to with great deference +by the rest. The night was not calm, and the little craft swashed +monotonously into the waves. One by one the travellers lay down on the +bare dusty floor and slept; and so limited was the room that the last +found it difficult to find a place. + +Glancing around to find a vacant nook I was struck with the +picturesqueness of the scene. Under the lantern the last talkers--the +Catholic priest in a red sweater, smoking a bent pipe, the professional +traveller and book-maker, and another Englishman with smooth face +and oily manners,--were discussing matters with as much reserve and +decorum as they would in a drawing-room. Around them lay stretched +out, over the floor, under the table, and even on it, motley-clad men, +breathing heavily or staring with wide fixed eyes overhead. The pioneer +had gone to sleep lying on his back and was snoring at intervals, but +by a physical feat hard to understand, retained his quid of tobacco, +which he chewed languidly through it all. The only space I could find +was in a narrow passageway leading to the pilot-house. Here I coiled +myself, hugging closely to the wall, but it was dark and throughout the +night I was awakened by heavy boots accidentally placed on my body or +head; yet I was too sleepy to hear the apologies and straightway slept +again. + +It was natural, under the circumstances, that all should be early +risers, and we were ravenously hungry for the breakfast which was +tardily prepared. The only table was covered with oilcloth, and was +calculated for four, but about eight managed to crowd around it: yet +with all possible haste the last had breakfast about noon. We sat down +where a momentary opening was offered at the third or fourth sitting. +A moment later a couple of prospectors appeared who apparently had +counted on places, and the hungry stomach of one of them prompted some +very audible mutterings to the effect that all men were born free and +equal, and he was as good as any one. The priest immediately got up, +and with sincere kindness offered his seat, which so overcame the man +with shame that he politely refused and retired; but the rest of us +insisted on crowding together and making room for him. And for the +remainder of the trip a more punctiliously polite individual than this +same prospector could not be found. + +After each round of eaters, the tin plates and cups and the dingy +black knives and forks were seized by a busy dishwasher, who performed +a rapid hocus-pocus over them, in which a tiny dishpan filled with +hot water that came finally to have the appearance and consistency of +a hodge-podge, played an important part; then they were skillfully +shyed on to the table again. I looked at my plate. Swimming in the +shallow film of dish-water, were flakes of beans, shreds of corned-beef +and streaks of apple-sauce, which took me back in fancy to all +the different tables that had eaten before: the boat was swaying +heavily and I gulped down my stomach before I passed the plate to the +dishwasher and suggested wiping. He was a very young man, remarkably +dashing, like the hero of a dime novel. He was especially proficient in +profanity and kept up a running fire of insults on the cook. He took +the plate and eyed me scornfully, witheringly. + +"Seems to me some tenderfeet is mighty pertickler," said he, with a +very evident personal application, then swabbed out the plate with a +towel, the sight of which made me turn and stare at the spruce-clad +mountain-sides, in a desperate effort to elevate my mind and my stomach +above trifles. + +"This is no place for a white man," said a prospector who had +been staring out of the door all day. "Good enough for bears +and--and--Siwash, maybe." Most, I think shared more or less openly his +depression, for the shores of Lynn Canal are no more attractive to the +adventurer than the rest of the bleak Alaskan mountain coast. + +[Illustration: LYNN CANAL.] + +It was a chilly, drizzling day. The clouds ordinarily hid the tops +of the great steep mountains, so that these looked as if they might +be walls that reached clear up to the heavens, or, when they broke +away, exposed lofty snowy peaks, magnificent and gigantic in the mist. +We caught glimpses of wrinkled glaciers, crawling down the valleys +like huge jointed living things, in whose fronts the pure blue ice +showed faintly and coldly. Here and there waterfalls appeared, leaping +hundreds of feet from crag to crag, and all along was the rugged brown +shore, with the surf lashing the cliffs, and no place where even a boat +might land. All men, whether they clearly perceive it or not, find in +the phenomena of Nature some figurative meanings, and are depressed or +elevated by them. + +We anchored in the lee of a bare rounded mountain that night, it being +too rough to attempt landing, and the next morning were off Dyea, +where we were to go ashore. The surf was still heavy, but the captain +ventured out in a small boat to get the scow in which passengers and +goods were generally conveyed to the shore; for the water was shallow, +and the steamer had to keep a mile or so from the land. In the surf +the boat capsized, and we could see the captain bobbing up and down +in the breakers, now on top, now under his boat, in the icy water. +The dishwasher, who evidently knew the course of action in all such +emergencies from dime-novel precedents, yelled out "Man the lifeboat!" +The captain had taken the only boat there was. The entire crew, it may +be mentioned, consisted, besides the dishwasher and the captain, of the +sailor, who was also the cook. The duty of manning the lifeboat--had +there been one--would thus apparently have devolved on the sailor, +but he grew pale and swore that he did not know how to row and that +he had just come from driving a milk-wagon in San Francisco. A party +of prospectors became engaged in a heated discussion as to whether, +if there had been a boat on board, it would not have been foolish to +venture out in it, even for the sake of trying to rescue the captain; +some urging the claims of heroism, and others loudly proclaiming that +they would not risk _their_ lives in any such d----d foolish way as +that. + +However, all this was only the froth and excitement of the moment. The +captain hauled his boat out of the breakers, skillfully launched it +again, and came on board, shivering but calm, a strapping, reckless +Cape Breton Scotch-Canadian. In due course of time afterwards the scow +was also got out, and we transferred our outfits to it and sat on top +of them, while we were slowly propelled ashore by long oars. + + + + +CHAPTER II. +OVER THE CHILKOOT PASS. + + +At this time there was only one building at Dyea--a log house used as +a store for trading with the natives, and known by the name of Healy's +Post. (Two years afterwards, on returning to the place, I found a +mushroom, sawed-board town of several thousand people; but that was +after the Klondike boom.) We pitched our tents near the shore that +night, spreading our blankets on the ground. + +In the morning all were bustling around, following out their separate +plans for getting over the Pass as soon as possible. Of the different +notches in the mountain wall by which one may cross the coast range and +arrive at the head waters of the Yukon, the Chilkoot, which is reached +from Dyea, was at that time the only one practicable. It was known +that Jack Dalton, a pioneer trader of the country, was wont to go over +the Chilkat Pass, a little further south, while Schwatka, Hayes, and +Russell, in an expedition of which few people ever heard, had crossed +by the way of the Taku River and the Taku Pass to the Hootalinqua or +Teslin River, which is one of the important streams that unite to make +up the upper Yukon. But the White Pass, which afterwards became the +most popular, and which lies just east of the Chilkoot, was at that +time entirely unused, being a rough long trail that required clearing +to make it serviceable. + +The Chilkoot, though the highest and steepest of the passes, was yet +the shortest and the most free from obstructions; it had been, before +the advent of the white adventurer in Alaska, the avenue of travel +for the handful of half-starved interior natives who were wont to +come down occasionally to the coast, for the purpose of trading. The +coast Indians are, as they always have been, a more numerous, more +prosperous, stronger and more quarrelsome class, for the sea yielded +them, directly and indirectly, a varied and bountiful subsistence. The +particular tribe who occupied the Dyea region,--the Chilkoots--were +accustomed to stand guard over the Pass and to exact tribute from +all the interior natives who came in; and when the first white men +appeared, the natives tried in the same way to hinder them from +crossing and so destroying their monopoly of petty traffic. For a +short time this really prevented individuals and small parties from +exploring, but in 1878 a party of nineteen prospectors, under the +leadership of Edmund Bean, was organized, and to overcome the hostility +of the Chilkoots, a sort of military "demonstration" was arranged by +the officers in charge at Sitka. The little gunboat stationed there +proceeded to Dyea, and, anchoring, fired a few blank shots from her +heaviest (or loudest) guns; afterwards the officer in charge went +on shore, and made a sort of unwritten treaty or agreement with the +thoroughly frightened natives, by which the prospectors, and all others +who came after, were allowed to proceed unmolested. + +The fame of that "war-canoe" spread from Indian to Indian throughout +the length and breadth of the vast territory of Alaska. One can +hear it from the natives in many places a thousand miles from where +the incident occurred, and each time the story is so changed and +disguised, that it might be taken for a myth by an enthusiastic +mythologist, and carefully preserved, with all its vagaries, and very +likely proved to be an allegory of the seasons, or the travels of the +sun, moon, and stars. In proportion as the story reached more and +more remote regions, the statements of the proportions of the canoe +became more and more exaggerated, and the thunder of the guns more +terrible, and the number of warriors on board increased faster than +Jacob's flock. The gunboat was the butt for many good-natured jokes +from navy officers, on account of her small dimensions and frail +construction. Yet the natives a little way into the interior will tell +you of the wonderful snow-white war-canoe, half a mile long, armed +with guns a hundred yards or so in length; and by the time one gets +in the neighborhood of the Arctic Circle, he will hear of the "great +ship" (the native will perhaps point to some mountain eight or ten +miles away) "as long as from here to the mountain"; how she vomited out +smoke, fire and ashes like a volcano, and at the same time exploded her +guns and killed many people, and how she ran forwards and backwards, +with the wind or against it, at a terrific speed,--a formidable +monster, truly! + +At the time of our trip (in 1896) the immigration into the Yukon gold +country had gone on, in a small way, for some years; several mining +districts were well developed, and the natives had settled down into +the habit of helping the white man, for a substantial remuneration. +These natives were all camped or housed close to the shore. They were +odd and interesting at first sight. The men were of fair size, strong, +stolid, and sullen-looking; clothed in cheap civilized garb in this +summer season,--it was in the early part of June--in overalls and +jumpers, with now and then a woollen Guernsey jacket, and with straw +hats on their heads. The women were neither beautiful nor attractive. +Many of them had covered their faces with a mixture of soot and grease, +which stuck well. Other women had their chins tattooed in stripes with +the indelible ink of the cuttlefish--sometimes one, sometimes three, +sometimes five or six stripes. This custom I found afterwards among +the women of many tribes and peoples in different parts of Alaska, +and it seems, in some regions at least, to be a mark of aristocracy, +indicating the wealth of the parents at the time the girl-child was +born. All the natives were living in tents or rude wooden huts, in the +most primitive fashion, cooking by a smouldering fire outside, and +sleeping packed close together, wrapped in skins and dirty blankets. + +[Illustration: ALASKAN WOMEN AND CHILDREN.] + +It had been the custom of the miners to engage these natives to +carry their outfits for them, from Dyea, and some of the men who had +come with us, immediately hired packers for the whole trip to Lake +Lindeman, paying them, I think, eleven cents a pound for everything +carried. The storekeeper, however, had been constructing a foot trail +for about half the distance and had bought a few pack-horses, and we +engaged these to transport our outfit as far as possible, trusting to +Indians for the rest. We had brought with us from Juneau, on a last +sudden idea, a lot of lumber with which to build our boat when we +should get to Lake Lindeman, and here the transportation of this lumber +became a great problem. To pack it on the horses was an impossibility, +and the Indians refused absolutely to take the boards unless they were +cut in two, which would destroy much of their value, and even if this +were done, demanded an enormous price for the carrying; therefore it +was concluded to leave them behind, and trust to good luck in the +future. + +In one way or another, everybody was furnished with some kind of +transportation, and the whole visible population of Dyea, permanent or +transient, began moving up the valley. Some of the natives put their +loads in wooden dugout canoes, which they paddled, or pushed with +poles, six or seven miles up the small stream which goes by the name +of the Dyea River; others took their packs on their backs, and led +the way along the trail. Not stronger, perhaps, than white men, the +Chilkoots showed themselves remarkably patient and enduring, carrying +heavy loads rapidly long distances without resting. Not only the men, +but the women and children, made pack-animals of themselves. I remember +a slight boy of thirteen or so, who could not have weighed over eighty +pounds, carrying a load of one hundred. The dog belonging to the same +family, a medium-sized animal, waddled along with a load of about forty +pounds; he seemed to be imbued with the same spirit as the rest, and +although the load nearly dragged him to the ground, he was patient and +persevering. + +The trail was a tiresome one, being mostly through loose sand and +gravel alongside the stream: several times we had to wade across. +As we went up, the valley became narrower, and we had views of the +glacier above us, which reached long slender fingers down the little +valleys from the great ice-mass on the mountain. It was evident that +the glacier had once filled the entire valley. As soon as we were up +a little we were obliged to clamber over the piled-up boulders in the +strips of moraine which the ice had left; in places the rows were so +regular that they had the appearance of stone walls. + +We were seized with fatigue and a terrible hunger. "You haven't a +sandwich about your clothes, have you?" I asked of some prospectors +whom I overtook resting in the lee of a cliff. Here the stream becomes +so rough and rapid that the natives can work their canoes no further, +and so the place has been somewhat pompously named on some maps the +"Head of Navigation," by which most people infer that a gunboat may +steam up this far. + +"No, by ----, pardner," was the answer, "if we had, we'd a' eaten it +ourselves before now." + +Crossing the stream for the last time, on the trunk of a fallen tree, +which swayed alarmingly, the trail led up steeply among the bare +rocks of the hillside. All the pedestrian groups had separated into +singles by this time, every one going his "ain gait" according to his +own ideas and strength, and in no mood for conversation. I overtook a +young Irishman, who had started out with a pack of about seventy-five +pounds; he was resting, and quite downcast with fatigue and hunger. + +Just where we stopped some one had left a load of canned corn and +tomatoes. We eyed them hungrily, and gravely discussed our rights +to helping ourselves. We did not know the owners and could not find +them--certainly they were none of those that had come with us. We could +not take them and leave money, for although the natives respected +"caches" of provisions, we could not expect them to do the same with +money. "Again," said the Irishman, "the feller what lift them here may +be dipinding on every blissed can of swate corn for some little schayme +of his, while we have plenty grub of our own, if we can on'y get our +flippers on it." + +At this period, all through Alaska, provisions and other property was +regarded with utmost respect. Old miners and prospectors have told me +that they have left provisions exposed in a "cache" for a year, and on +returning after having been hundreds of miles away, have found them +untouched, although nearly starving natives had passed them almost +daily all winter. In the mining camps the same custom prevailed. Locks +were unknown on the doors. When a white man arrived at the hut of an +absent prospector, he helped himself, taking enough provisions from the +"cache" to keep him out of want, till he could make the next stage of +his journey, and wrote on paper or on the wooden door, "I have taken +twenty pounds of flour, ten pounds of bacon, five pounds of beans, and +a little tea," signed his name, and departed. It was not a bill, but +an acknowledgment; and to have left without making the acknowledgment +constituted a theft, in the eyes of the miner population. This +condition of primitive honesty did not last, however. Later, with the +Klondike boom, came the ordinary light-fingeredness of civilization, +and a state of affairs unique and instructive passed away. + +We arrived finally at the end of the horse-trail, a spot named Sheep +Camp by an early party of prospectors who killed some mountain sheep +here. Steep, rocky and snowy mountains overhang the valley, with a vast +glacier not far up; and here, since our visit, have occurred a number +of fatal disasters, from snowslides and landslides. Pete had arrived +before us: he had set up a Yukon camp stove of sheet iron, had kindled +fire therein and was engaged in the preparation of slapjacks and fried +bacon, a sight that affected us so that we had to go and sit back to, +and out of reach of the smell, till Pete yelled out in vile Chinook +"Muk-a-muk altay! Bean on the table!" There were no beans and no table, +of course, but that was Pete's facetious way of putting it. + +Further than Sheep Camp the horse-trail was quite too rocky and steep +for the animals; so we tried to engage Indians to take our freight for +the remaining part of the distance across the Pass. Up to the time of +our arrival, the regular price for packing from Dyea to Lake Lindeman +had been eleven cents a pound. For the transportation by horses over +the first half of the distance--thirteen miles--we had paid five cents +a pound, and we had expected to pay the Indians six cents for the +remainder of the trip. In the first place, however, it was difficult to +gather the Indians together, for they were off in bands in different +parts of the neighboring country, on expeditions of their own; and when +they arrived in Sheep Camp, with a bluster and a racket, they were so +set up by the number of men that were waiting for their help that they +took it into their heads to be in no hurry about working. Finally they +sent a spokesman who, with an insolence rather natural than assumed for +the occasion, demanded nine cents per pound instead of six, for packing +to Lake Lindeman. It was a genuine strike--the revolt of organized +labor against helpless capital. + +Being in a hurry to get ahead and fulfill our mission, we should +doubtless have yielded; but there were many parties camped here +besides ourselves--namely, all those who had been our fellow-sufferers +on board the Scrambler--and a general consultation being held among +the gold-hunters, it was decided that the proposed increase of +pay for labor would prove ruinous to their business. A committee +representing these gentlemen waited on us and begged us not to +yield to the strikers, in the carelessness of our hearts and our +plethoric pocket-books, but to consider that in doing so they--the +prospectors--must follow suit, the precedent being once established; +whereas they were poor men, and could not afford the extra price. To +this view of the case we agreed, considering ourselves as a part of +the Sheep Camp community, rather than as an individual party; and the +English traveller (who was likewise suspected of being overburdened +with funds, and therefore likely to be careless with them) was also +waited upon and persuaded to resist the demands. So everybody camped +and waited, and was obstinate, for several days: not only the white +men, but the Siwash. + +By way of digression it may be mentioned that the word Siwash is +indiscriminately applied by the white men to all the Alaskan natives, +to whatever race--and there are many--they belong. The word therefore +has no definite meaning, but corresponds roughly to the popular name +of "nigger" for all very dark-skinned races, or "Dago" for Spaniards, +Portuguese, Italians, Greeks, Turks, Armenians, and a host of other +black-haired, olive-skinned nations. The name has been said to be a +corruption of the French word "sauvage,"--savage,--and this seems very +likely. + +Like the corresponding epithets cited, the word Siwash has a certain +familiar, facetious, and contemptuous value, and this may have been +the idea which prompted its use just now, when speaking of the natives +as strikers and opponents. At any rate, they took the situation in a +careless, matter-of-fact way; cooked, ate, slept, borrowed our kettles, +begged our tea and stole our sugar with utmost cheerfulness, and +were apparently contented and happy. We white men likewise tried to +conceal our restlessness, and chatted in each others' tents, admired +the scenery, or went rambling up the steep mountain-sides in search +of experiences, exercise, and rocks. Some of us clambered over the +huge boulders, each as big as a New England cottage, which had been +brought here by glacial action, then up over the steep cliffs, wrenched +and crumbling from the crushing of the same mighty force, supporting +ourselves,--when the rocks gave way beneath our feet and went rattling +down the cliff,--by the tough saplings that had taken root in the +crevices, and grew out horizontally, or even inclined downwards, bent +by continuous snowslides. So we reached the base of the glacier, where +a sheer wall of clear blue ice rose to a height which we estimated +at three or four hundred feet, back of which stretched a great uneven +white ice field, as far as the eye could see, clear up till the view +was lost in the mists of the upper mountains; an ice field seamed with +great yawning crevasses, where the blue of the ice gleamed as streaks +on the dead white. + +One morning we heard a yell from the Siwash, and soon they came +running over the little knoll which separated our camp from theirs, +and began grabbing the articles that belonged to some of the miners. +We were at a loss to know the meaning of what seemed at first to be +a very unceremonious proceeding, but when we saw the miners, with +many shamefaced glances at us, help the natives in the distribution +of the material, we realized that these men had forsaken us and their +resolutions; so greedy were they to reach the land of gold that +they had gone to the natives and agreed to pay them the demanded +rates on condition that they should have all the packers themselves, +leaving none to us. We let these men and their natives go in peace, +without even a reproach: less than a week afterwards we had the deep +satisfaction of passing them on the trail, and even in lending them +a hand in a series of little difficulties for which, in their haste, +they had come unprepared. The veteran miner in Alaska is a splendid, +open-hearted, generous fellow; the newcomer, or "chicharko," is a thing +to be avoided. + +After this we had to wait till the natives had got back from carrying +the miners' supplies, and then we agreed, with what grace we could, +to pay the price that the others had. The Indians were quite a horde, +capable of carrying in one trip all the supplies belonging to our +party and that of the English traveller. Since they were paid by the +pound they vied in taking enormous loads; the largest carried was 161 +pounds, but all the men's packs ranged from 125 to 150 pounds. Women +and half-grown boys carried packs of 100 pounds. It was a "Stick" or +interior Indian, named at the mission _Tom_, but originally possessed +of a fearful and unpronounceable name, who carried the largest load. +He was barely tolerated and was somewhat badgered by the Chilkoots, +hence he fled much to the society of the whites, and would squat near +for hours, always smiling horribly when looked at; he claimed to be a +chief among his own wretched people, and spent all his spare time in +blackening his face, reserving rings around the eyes which he smeared +with red ochre--having done which, he grinned ghastly approval of +himself! + +Pete started over the Pass in advance of the party, to procure for us +if possible a boat at Lake Lindeman. + +"Dis is dirt time I gross Pass," said Pete. "Virst dime I dake leedle +pack--den I vos blayed out; nex' dime I dake leedle roll of clo'es--den +I vos blayed out too, py chimney: dis dime I dake notting--den I vill +be blayed out too!" + +The natives, after much shouting and confusion and wrangling, made up +their packs about noon, and started out, we following; just before +getting to snow-line they stopped in a place where a chaotic mass of +boulders form a trifling shelter, grateful to wild beasts or wild men +like these. Here they deposited their loads, and with exasperating +indifference composed themselves to sleep. We tried to persuade them to +go on, but to no avail, and we discovered afterwards, as often happened +to us in our dealing with the natives, that they were right. It was +June, and yet the snow lay deep on all the upper parts of the Pass; +and in the long, warm days it became soft and mushy, making travel +very difficult, especially with heavy packs. As soon as the sun went +down behind the hills, however, the air became cool, and a hard crust +formed, so that walking was much better. + +We left the natives and followed a trail which led among the boulders +and then higher up the mountain, where many moccasined feet had left a +deep path through the icy snow. We tramped onward, sometimes on hard +ice, sometimes through soft snow, strung out in Indian file, saying +nothing, saving our breath for our lungs; at times the crust rang +hollow to our tread, and beneath us we could hear torrents raging. It +was about eight o'clock at night when we started, and the sun in the +narrow valley had already gone down behind the high glaciers on the +mountain-tops, even at this latitude and in the month of June; so the +long northern twilight which is Alaska's substitute for night in the +summer months soon began to settle down upon us. At the same time the +moisture from the snow which all day long had been lying in the sun, +began cooling into mists, changeful and of different thicknesses; and +in the dim light gave to everything a weird and unnatural aspect. + +Even our fellow-travellers were distorted and magnified, now +lengthwise, now sidewise, so that those above us were powerful-limbed +giants, striding up the hill, while those behind us were flattened and +broadened, and seemed straddling along as grotesquely as spiders. When +we drew near and looked at each other we were inclined to laugh, but +there was something in the pale-blue, ghastly color of the faces that +made us stop, half-frightened. At twelve o'clock it was so dark that +we could hardly follow the trail; then we saw a fire gleaming like a +will-o'-the-wisp somewhere above us, and clambering up the steep rock +which stuck out of the snow and overhung the trail, we saw a couple +of figures crouching over a tiny blaze of twigs and smoking roots. +It was a native and his "klutchman" or squaw; he turned out to be +deaf-and-dumb, but made signs to us,--as we squatted ourselves around +the fire,--that the night was dark, the trail dangerous, and that it +would be better to wait till it grew a little lighter. So we kept +ourselves warm for a half-hour or more by our exertions in tearing up +roots for a fire: the fire itself being nothing more than a smoky, +flary pile of wet fagots, hardly enough to warm our numbed fingers by. +Then a dim figure came toiling up to us. It was one of our packers, +and he explained in broken, profane, and obscene English, of which +he was very proud, (the foundation of his knowledge had been laid in +the mission, and the trimmings, which were profuse and with the same +idea many times repeated, like an art pattern, had been picked up from +straggling whites) that the trail was good now. So we very gladly took +up our march again. + +Two of us soon got ahead of the guide and all the rest of our party, +following the beaten track in the snow; after a while the ascent became +very steep, as the last sheer declivity of the Pass was reached, and +we began to suspect that we had strayed from the right path, for +although here was a track, we could find no footprints on it, but only +grooves as if from things which had slid down. Yet we decided not to +go back, for we did not know how far we had strayed from the path, +and the climbing was not so easy that we were anxious to do it twice. +So we kept on upward, and the ascent soon became so steep that we were +obliged to stop and kick footholds in the crust at every step. + +It was twilight again, but still foggy, and we could see neither up nor +down, only what appeared to be a vast chasm beneath us, wherein great +indistinct shapes were slowly shifting--an impression infinitely more +grand and appalling than the reality. At any rate, it made us very +careful in every step, for we had no mind that a misplaced foot should +send us sliding down the grooves we were following. At last we gained +the top, found here again the trail we had lost, and waited for the +rest. Around us, sticking out of the snow, were rocks, which appeared +distorted and moving. It was the mists which moved past them, giving a +deceptive effect. My companion suddenly exclaimed, "There's a bear!" +On looking, my imagination gave the shape the same semblance, but on +going towards it, it resolved itself very reluctantly into a rock, as +if ashamed of its failure to "bluff." Most grown-up people, as well +as children, I fancy, are more or less afraid of the dark--where the +uncertain evidence of the eyes can be shaped by the imagination into +unnatural things. Goethe must once have felt something like what Faust +expressed when he stood at night in one of the rugged Hartz districts: + + "Seh' die Baüme hinter Baüme, + Wie sie schnell vorüber rücken, + Und die Klippen, die sich bücken, + Und die langen Felsennasen, + Wie sie schnarchen, wie sie blasen." + +Presently the rest of the party came up from quite a different +direction and with them a whole troop of packers. The main trail, from +which we had strayed, was much longer, but not so steep; while the one +we had followed was simply the mark of the articles which the packers +were accustomed to send down from the summit to save carrying, while +they themselves took the more circuitous route. + +On the interior side of the summit is a small lake with steep sides, +which the miners have named Crater Lake, fancying from the shape that +it had been formed by volcanic action; it has no such origin however, +but occupies what is known as a glacial cirque or amphitheatre--a deep +hollow carved out of the dioritic mountain mass by the powerful wearing +action of a valley glacier. This lake was still frozen and we crossed +on the ice, then followed down the valley of the stream which flowed +from it and led into another small lake. There are several of these +small bodies of water and connecting streams before one reaches Lake +Lindeman, which is several miles long, and is the uppermost water of +the Yukon which is navigable for boats. Our path was devious, following +the packers, but always along this valley. We crossed and recrossed the +streams over frail and reverberant arches, half ice, half snow, which, +already broken away in places, showed foaming torrents beneath. As we +descended in elevation, the ice on the little lakes became more and +more rotten and the snow changed to slush, through which we waded knee +deep for miles, sometimes putting a foot through the ice into the water +beneath. + +We were all very tired by this time and were separated from one +another by long distances, each silent, and travelling on his nerve. +The Indian packers, too, in spite of their long experience, were +tired and out of temper; but the most pitiful sight of all was to see +the women, especially the old ones, bending under crushing loads, +dragging themselves by sheer effort at every step, groaning and +stopping occasionally, but again driven forward by the men to whom they +belonged. One could not interfere; it was a family matter; and as among +white people, the woman would have resented the interference as much as +the man. + +Finally we came to a lake where the water was almost entirely open +and were obliged to skirt along its rocky shores to where we found a +brawling and rocky stream entering it, cutting us off. After a moment +of vain glancing up and down in search of a ford, we took to the +water bravely, floundering among the boulders on the stream's bottom, +and supporting ourselves somewhat with sticks. Afterwards we found +a trail which led away from the lake high over the rocky hillside, +where the rocks had been smoothed and laid bare by ancient glaciers, +now vanished. Here we found the remnants of a camp, left by some one +who had recently gone before us; we inspected the corned beef cans +lying about rather hungrily, thinking that something might have been +left over. Our only lunch since leaving Sheep Camp had been a small +piece of chocolate and a biscuit. The biscuit possessed certain almost +miraculous qualities, to which I ascribe our success in completing the +trip and in arriving first among the travellers at Lake Lindeman. I +myself was the concocter of this biscuit, but it was done in a moment +of inspiration, and since I have forgotten certain mystic details, it +probably could never be gotten together again. It was the first and +last time that I have made biscuit in my life, and I did it simply for +the purpose of instruction to the others, who were shockingly ignorant +of such practical matters. + +We had brought a reflector with us for baking,--a metal arrangement +which is set up in front of a camp-fire, and, from polished metallic +surfaces, reflects the heat up and down, on to a pan of biscuit or +bread, which is slid into the middle. These utensils as used in the +Lake Superior region, that home of good wood-craft, are made of +sheet iron, tinned; but thinking to get a lighter article, I had one +constructed out of aluminum. This first and last trial with our +aluminum reflector at Sheep Camp showed us that one of the peculiar +properties of this metal is that it reflects heat but very little, but +transmits it, almost as readily as glass does light. So when I had +arrived at the first stage of my demonstration and had the reflector +braced up in front of the fire, I found that the dough remained +obstinately dough, while the heat passed through the reflector and +radiated itself around about Sheep Camp. Still I persisted, and after +several hours of stewing in front of the fire, most of the water was +evaporated from the dough, leaving a compact rubbery grey BISCUIT, as +I termed it. I offered it for lunch and I ate one myself; no one else +did, but I was rewarded by feeling a fullness all through the tramp, +while the others were empty and famished. I also was sure that it gave +me enormous strength and endurance; while some of the rest were unkind +enough to suggest that the same high courage which led me up to the +biscuit's mouth, figuratively speaking, kept me plugging away on the +Lake Lindeman trail. + +We reached Lake Lindeman at about nine o'clock in the morning, and +found Pete and Cooper already there. It was raining drearily and +they had made themselves a shelter of poles and boughs under which +they were lying contentedly enough, waiting until the packers should +bring the tents. In a very short time after we had arrived all the +natives were at hand, and setting down their packs demanded money. They +could not be induced to accept bills, because they could not tell the +denomination of them, and would as soon take a soap advertisement as +a hundred-dollar note; they dislike gold, because they get so small a +quantity of it in comparison with silver. + +Like the Indians of the United States, the Alaskans formerly used +wampum largely as a medium of exchange--small, straight, horn-shaped, +rather rare shells, which were strung on thongs--but when the trading +companies began shipping porcelain wampum into the country the +natives soon learned the trick and stopped the use of it. I have in +my possession specimens of this porcelain wampum, which I got from +the agent of one of the large trading companies on the Yukon. Silver +is now the favorite currency, whether or not on the basis of sound +political economy; and each particular section has often a preference +for some special coin, such as a quarter, ("two bits," as it is called +in the language of the west coast) a half-dollar or a dollar. Where the +natives have had to deal only with quarters, you cannot buy anything +for half-dollars, except for nearly double the price you would pay in +quarters; while dimes, however large the quantity, would probably be +refused entirely. + +[Illustration: ALASKAN INDIANS AND HOUSE.] + +The Chilkoots, however, on account of their residence on the coast +and consequent contact with the whites, had become more liberal in +their views as regarded denomination of silver, but drew the line at +bimetalism, and had no faith whatsoever in the United States as the +fulfiller of promises to redeem greenbacks in silver coin. So there +was some trouble in paying them satisfactorily; and after they were +paid they came back, begging for a little flour, a little tea, etc., +and keeping up the process with unwearied ardor till the supply was +definitely shut off. The toughness of these people is well shown by +the fact that when they had rested an hour and had cooked themselves a +little food and drunk a little tea, they departed over the trail again +for Sheep Camp, although they had made the same journey as the white +men, who were all exhausted, and had, in addition, carried loads of +as high as 160 pounds over the whole of the rough trail of thirteen +miles. When affairs were settled we pitched our tents, rolled into our +blankets, and for the next twenty hours slept. + + + + +CHAPTER III. +THE LAKES AND THE YUKON TO FORTY MILE. + + +Upon reaching Lake Lindeman, we found a number of other parties +encamped,--men who had come over the trail before us, and had been +delaying a short time, for different reasons. From one of these parties +Pete had been lucky enough to buy a boat already built, so that we +did not have to wait and build one ourselves--a job that would have +consumed a couple of weeks. The boat was after the dory pattern, but +sharp at both ends, made of spruce, lap-streaked and unpainted, with +the seams calked and pitched; about eighteen feet long, and uncovered. +During the trip later we decided that it ought to be christened, and +so we mixed some soot and bacon-grease for paint, applied it hot +to the raw, porous wood, and inscribed in shaky letters the words +"_Skookum Pete_," as a compliment to our pilot. _Skookum_ is a Chinook +word signifying strength, courage, and other excellent qualities +necessary for a native, a frontiersman, or any other dweller in the +wilderness--qualities which were conspicuous in Pete. Pete was overcome +with shame on reading the legend, however, and straightway erased +his name, so that she was simply the SKOOKUM. And skookum she proved +herself, in the two thousand miles we afterwards travelled, even though +she sprung a leak occasionally or became obstinate when being urged up +over a rapid. + +It may be observed that the Chinook, to which this word belongs, is +not a language, but a jargon, composed of words from many native +American and also from many European tongues. It sprung up as a sort +of universal language, which was used by the traders of the Hudson Bay +Company in their intercourse with the natives, and is consequently +widely known, but is poor in vocabulary and expression. + +There were several boats ready to start, craft of all models and grades +of workmanship, variously illustrating the efforts of the cowboy, the +clerk, or the lawyer, at ship-carpentry. Several of us got off together +in the morning, our boat carrying four, and the English traveller's +boat the same number, for he had taken into his party the priest whom +we had met on the Scrambler. + +This gentleman, with a number of miners and a newspaper reporter, had +been unlucky enough to fall into the trap of a certain transportation +company, which had a very prettily furnished office in Seattle. This +office was the big end of the company. As one went north towards the +region where the company was supposed to be doing its transportation, +it shrunk till nothing was left but a swindle. They promised for a +certain sum of money to transport supplies and outfits over the Pass, +and to have the entire expedition in charge of an experienced man, who +would relieve one of all worry and bother; and after transportation +across the Pass, to put their passengers on the COMPANY'S steamers, +which would carry them to the gold fields. Even at Juneau the +"experienced man" who was to take the party through, and who was a high +officer of the company, kept up the ridiculous pretences and succeeded +in obtaining a number of passengers for the trip. When these men +learned later, however, that the guide had never yet been further than +Juneau; that he had no means of transporting freight over the Pass; +that the steamers existed only in fancy; and finally, when opportunity +to hire help offered, that the leader had no funds, so that they were +obliged to do all the work themselves, in order to move along: when +they learned all this they were naturally a disgusted set of men, +but having now given away their money, most of them decided to stick +together till the diggings were reached. The priest, however, who was +in a hurry, became nervous when he saw different parties leaving the +rapid and elegant transportation company in the rear, and effected a +separation. + +When we left Sheep Camp, the manager was trying to cajole his +passengers into carrying their own packs to the summit, even going so +far as to take little loads himself--"just for exercise," as he airily +informed us. He was an Englishman, of aristocratic tendencies, with an +awe-inspiring acquaintance with titles. "You know Lord Dudson Dudley, +of course," he would begin, fixing one with his eye as if to hypnotize; +"his sister, you remember, made such a row by her flirtation with Sir +Jekson Jekby.--Never heard of them?--Humph!" And then with a look +which seemed to say "What kind of a blarsted Philistine is this?" he +would retreat to his own camp-fire. + +We sailed down Lake Lindeman with a fair brisk wind, using our tent-fly +braced against a pole, for a sail. The distance is only four or five +miles, so that the lower end of the lake was reached in an hour. +A mountain sheep was sighted on the hillside above us, soon after +starting, and a long-range shot with the rifle was tried at it, but the +animal bounded away. + +At the lower end of this first of the Yukon navigable lakes there is +a stream, full of little falls and rapids, which connects with Lake +Bennett, a much larger body of water. According to Pete, the boat could +not run these rapids, so we began the task of "lining" her down. With +a long pole shod with iron, especially brought along for such work, +Pete stood in the bow or stern, as the emergency called for, planting +the pole on the rocks which stuck out of the water and so shoving and +steering the boat through an open narrow channel, while we three held a +long line and scrambled along the bank or waded in the shallow water. +We had put on long rubber boots reaching to the hip and strapped to +our belts, so at first our wading was not uncomfortable. On account +of the roar of the water we could not hear Pete's orders, but could +see his signals to "haul in," or "let her go ahead." On one difficult +little place he manoeuvered quite a while, getting stuck on a rock, +signalling us to pull back, and then trying again. Finally he struck +the right channel, and motioned energetically to us to go ahead. We +spurted forward, waddling clumsily, and the foremost man stepped +suddenly into a groove where the water was above his waist. Ugh! It was +icy, but he floundered through, half swimming, half wading, dragging +his great water-filled boots behind him like iron weights; and the rest +followed. We felt quite triumphant and heroic when we emerged, deeming +this something of a trial: we did not know that the time would come +when it would be the ordinary thing all day long, and would become so +monotonous that all feelings of novelty would be lost in a general +neutral tint of bad temper and rheumatism. + +On reaching shallow water the weight of the water-filled rubber boots +was so great that we could no longer navigate among the slippery +rocks, so we took turns going-ashore and emptying them. There was a +smooth round rock with steep sides, glaring in the sun; on this we +stretched ourselves head down, so that the water ran out of our boots +and trickled in cold little streams down our backs; then we returned to +our work. + +Before undertaking to line the Skookum through the rapids we had taken +out a large part of the load and put it on shore, in order to lighten +the boat, and also to save our "grub" in case our boat was capsized. +The next task was to carry this over the half-mile portage. Packing +is about the hardest and most disliked work that a pioneer has to do, +and yet every one that travels hard and well in Alaska and similar +rough countries must do it _ad nauseam_. In such remote and unfinished +parts of the world transportation comes back to the original and simple +phase,--carrying on one's back. The railroad and the steamboat are for +civilization, the wheeled vehicle for the inhabited land where there +are roads, the camel for the desert, the horse for the plains and where +trails have been cut, but for a large part of Alaska Nature's only +highways are the rivers, and when the water will not carry the burdens +the explorer must. + +In a properly-constructed pack-sack, the weight is carried partly by +the shoulders but mainly by the neck, the back being bent and the +neck stretched forward till the load rests upon the back and is kept +from slipping by the head strap, which is nearly in line with the +rigid neck. An astonishing amount can be carried in this way with +practice,--for half a mile or so, very nearly one's own weight. Getting +up and down with such a load is a work of art, which spoils the temper +and wrenches the muscles of the beginner. Having got into the strap he +finds himself pinned to the ground in spite of his backbone-breaking +efforts to rise, so he must learn to so sit down in the beginning that +he can tilt the load forward on his back, get on his hands and knees +and then elevate himself to the necessary standing-stooping posture; +or he must lie down flat and roll over on his face, getting his load +fairly between his shoulders, and then work himself up to his hands and +knees as before. Sometimes, if the load is heavy, the help of another +must be had to get an upright position, and then the packer goes +trudging off, red and sweating and with bulging veins. + +By the time we had carried our outfits over the portage, we were ready +for supper, and after that for a sleep. We pitched no tent--we were +too tired, and the blue sky and the still shining sun looked very +friendly--so we rolled in our blankets and slumbered. + +There were other craft than ours at Lake Bennett,--belonging to parties +who had come over before us, and who had not yet started. The most +astonishing thing was a small portable sawmill, which had been pulled +across the Chilkoot Pass in the winter, over the snow and ice; and the +limited means of communication in this country are well shown by the +fact that no news of any such mill was to be had anywhere along the +route. Men went over the Chilkoot Pass into the interior, but rarely +any came back that way. + +Among the gold hunters was a solitary Dutchman, a pathetic, desperate, +mild-mannered sort of an adventurer, who had built himself a boat like +a wood-box in model and construction, square, lop-sided, and leaky; +but he started bravely down Lake Bennett, paddling, with a rag of a +square-sail braced against a pole. We pitied, admired, and laughed at +him, but many were the doubts expressed as to whether he could reach +the diggings in his cockle-shell. Then there was a large scow, also +frailly built; this contained several tons of outfit, and a party of +seven or eight men and one woman. They were the parasites of the mining +camp, all ready, with smuggled whisky and faro games--Wein, Weib, und +Gesang--to relieve the miners of some of their gold-dust: and I am told +that the manager of the expedition brought out $100,000 two years later. + +We all got away, one after the other. There was a stiff fair wind +blowing down the lake, which soon increased to a gale, and the waves +became very rough. The lake is narrow and fjord-like, walled in by high +mountains which often rise directly from the shores. Lakes like this +all through Alaska are naturally subject to frequent and violent gales, +since the deep mountain valleys form a kind of chimney, up and down +which the currents of air rush to the frosty snowy mountains from the +warmer lowlands, or in the opposite direction. The further we went the +harder the wind blew, and the rougher became the water, so that when +about half-way down we made a landing to escape a heavy squall. After +dinner, it seemed from our snug little cove that the wind had abated, +and we put out again. On getting well away from the sheltering shore we +found it rougher than ever; but while we were at dinner we had seen the +scow go past, its square bow nearly buried in foaming water, and had +seen it apparently run ashore on the opposite side of the lake, some +miles further down. Once out, therefore, we steered for the place where +the scow had been beached, for the purpose of giving aid if any were +necessary. On the run over we shipped water repeatedly over both bow +and stern, and sometimes were in imminent danger of swamping, but by +skillful managing we gained the shelter of a little nook about half a +mile from the open beach where the scow was lying, and landed. We then +walked along the shore to the scow, and found its passengers all right, +they having beached voluntarily, on account of the roughness of the +water. + +However, we had had enough navigation for one day, so we did not +venture out again. Presently another little boat came scudding down +the lake through the white, frothy water, and shot in alongside the +Skookum. It was a party of miners--the young Irishman whom I had +overtaken on the trail to Sheep Camp, and his three "pardners." + +It was not an ideal spot where we all camped, being simply a steep +rocky slope at the foot of cliffs. When the time came to sleep we had +difficulty in finding places smooth enough to lie down comfortably, but +finally all were scattered around here and there in various places of +concealment among the rocks. I had cleared a space close under a big +boulder, of exactly my length and breadth (which does not imply any +great labor), and with my head muffled in the blankets, was beginning +to doze, when I heard stealthy footsteps creeping toward me. As I +lay, these sounds were muffled and magnified in the marvellous quiet +of the Alaskan night (although the sun was still shining), so that I +could not judge of the size and the distance of the animal. Soon it +got quite close to me, and I could hear it scratching at something; +then it seemed to be investigating my matches, knife and compass. +Finally, wide-awake, and somewhat startled, I sat up suddenly and +threw my blanket from my face, and looked for the marauding animal. I +found him--in the shape of a saucy little grey mouse, that stared at +me in amazement for a moment, and then scampered into his hole under +the boulder. As I had no desire to have the impudent little fellow +lunching on me while I slept, I plugged the hole with stones before +I lay down again. Some of the same animals came to visit Schrader in +his bedchamber, and nibbled his ears so that they were sore for some +time.[1] + +As the gale continued all the next day without abatement, we +profited by the enforced delay to climb the high mountain which rose +precipitously above us. And apropos of this climb, it is remarkable +what difference one finds in the appearance of a bit of country when +simply surveyed from a single point and when actually travelled over. +Especially is this true in mountains. Broad slopes which appear to be +perfectly easy to traverse are in reality cut up by narrow and deep +canyons, almost impossible to cross; what seems to be a trifling bench +of rock, half a mile up the mountain, grows into a perpendicular cliff +a hundred feet high before one reaches it; and pretty grey streaks +become gulches filled with great angular rock fragments, so loosely +laid one over the other that at each careful step one is in fear of +starting a mighty avalanche, and of being buried under rock enough to +build a city. + +Owing to difficulties like these it was near supper-time when we gained +the top of the main mountain range. As far as the eye could see in +all directions, there rose a wilderness of barren peaks, covered with +snow; while in one direction lay a desolate, lifeless table-land, +shut in by high mountains. Below and near us lay gulches and canyons +of magnificent depth, and the blue waters of one of the arms of Lake +Bennett appeared, just lately free from ice. Above, rose a still higher +peak, steep, difficult of access, and covered with snow; this the +lateness of the hour prevented us from attempting to climb. + +Next day and the next the wind was as high as ever; but the waiting +finally became too tedious, and we started out, the four miners +having preceded us by a half an hour. Once out of the shelter of +the projecting point, we found the gale very strong and the chop +disagreeable. We squared off and ran before the wind for the opposite +side of the lake, driving ahead at a good rate under our little rag +of a sail. Although the boat was balanced as evenly as possible, +every minute or two we would take in water, sometimes over the bow, +sometimes in the stern, sometimes amidships. I have in my mind a very +vivid picture of that scene: Wiborg in the stern, steering intently and +carefully; Goodrich and Schrader forward, sheets in hand, attending to +the sail; and myself stretched flat on my face, in order not to make +the boat top-heavy, and bailing out the water with a frying-pan. On +nearing the lower shore we noticed that the boat containing the miners +had run into the breakers, and presently one of the men came running +along the beach, signaling to us. Fearing that they were in trouble, +we made shift to land, although it was no easy matter on this exposed +shore; and we then learned that they had kept too near the beach, had +drifted into the breakers and had been swamped, but had all safely +landed. Three of our party went to give assistance in hauling their +boat out of the water, while I remained behind to fry the bacon for +dinner. + +After dinner we concluded to wait again before attempting the next +stage; so we picked out soft places in the sand and slumbered. When we +awoke we found the lake perfectly smooth and calm, and lost no time in +getting under way. On this day we depended for our motive power solely +on our oars, and we found the results so satisfactory that we kept up +the practice hundreds of miles. + +Below Lake Bennett came Tagish Lake, beautiful and calm. Its largest +fjord-like arm is famous for its heavy gales, whence it has been +given the name of "Windy Arm"; but as we passed it we could hardly +distinguish the line of division between the mountains in the air and +those reflected in the lake, so completely at rest was the water. At +the lower part, where we camped, we found the first inhabitants since +leaving the coast, natives belonging to the Tagish tribe. They are a +handful of wretched, half-starved creatures, who scatter in the summer +season for hunting and fishing, but always return to this place, where +they have constructed rude wooden habitations for winter use. We bought +here a large pike, which formed an agreeable change from bacons, beans, +and slapjacks. + +While camped at this place we met an old man and his two sons, who had +brought horses into the country some months before, with some crazy +idea of taking up land for farming purposes, or of getting gold. The +old man had been taken sick, and all three were now on their way out, +having abandoned their horses on the Hootalinqua. All three were thin +and worn, and agreed if they ever got out of the country they would not +come back. The old man begged for a little tea, which we supplied him, +together with a few other things; he insisted on our taking pay for +them, with the pathetic pride of a man broken in health and fortune, +but we understood the pioneer custom well enough to know we should give +no offence by refusing. + +After passing out of this lake we entered another, appropriately +called by the miners "Mud Lake"; it is very shallow, with muddy bottom +and shores. Here we found camping disagreeable, for on account of the +shallowness we could not bring our heavily laden boat quite to the +shore, but were obliged to wade knee deep in soft mud for a rod or two +before finding even moderately solid ground. + +About this time we experienced the first sharp taste of the terrible +Alaskan mosquito--or it might be more correct to reverse the statement, +and say that the mosquitoes had their first taste of us. At the lower +end of Tagish Lake they suddenly attacked us in swarms, and remained +with us steadily until near the time of our departure from the +Territory. We had heard several times of the various hardships to be +encountered in Alaska, but, as is often the case, we found that these +accounts had left a rather unduly magnified image of the difficulties +in our imaginations, as compared with our actual experiences. In this +generalization the mosquito must be excepted. I do not think that any +description or adjective can exaggerate the discomfort and even torture +produced by these pests, at their worst, for they stand peerless among +their kind, so far as my experience goes, and that of others with whom +I have spoken, for wickedness unalloyed. + +We were driven nearly frantic when they attacked us and quickly donned +veils of netting, fastened around the hat and buttoned into the shirt, +and gauntleted cavalry gloves; but still the heat of rowing and the +warmth of the sun made the stings smart till we could hardly bear it. +From time to time I glanced at Pete, who sat in the stern, steering +with a paddle, his face and hands unprotected, his hat pushed back, +trolling his favorite song. + + "And none was left to tell me, Tom, + And few was left to know + Who played upon the village green, + Just twenty year ago!" + +I admired him beyond expression. "How long," thought I, "does one have +to stay in Alaska before one gets so indifferent to mosquitoes as this? +Or is it simply the phlegm of the Norwegian--magnificent in mosquito +time?" Just then Pete broke in his song and began a refrain of curses +in Norwegian and English and some other languages--all apropos of +mosquitoes. He averred emphatically that never--no, never--had he seen +mosquitoes quite so disagreeable. This lasted about five minutes; then +he settled down to a calm again. I perceived that men's tempers may be +something like geysers--some keep bubbling hot water continually, while +others, like Pete's, keep quiet for a while and then explode violently. + +It seems strange to many that a country like Alaska, sub-Arctic in +climate, should be so burdened with a pest which we generally associate +with hot weather and tropical swamps. But the long warm days of summer +in these high latitudes seem to be extraordinarily favorable to all +kinds of insect life--mosquitoes, gnats, and flies--which harbor in the +moss and dense underbrush. Other countries similarly situated, such as +the region between the Gulf of Bothnia and the Arctic Ocean--Northern +Finland--which is north of the Arctic Circle, are also pestered with +mosquitoes during the summer months. + +In Alaska the mosquitoes are so numerous that they occupy a large part +of men's attention, and form the subject for much conversation as long +as they remain--and they are astonishing stayers, appearing before the +snow is gone and not leaving until the nights grow comparatively long +and frosty. They flourish as well in cool weather as in hot, thawing +cheerfully out after a heavy frost and getting to work as if to make +up for lost time. We were able to distinguish at least three species: +a large one like those met at the seaside resorts, which buzzes and +buzzes and buzzes; then a smaller one that buzzes a little but also +bites ferociously; and, worst of all, little striped fellows who go +about in great crowds. These last never stop to buzz, but come straight +for the intruder on a bee-line, stinging him almost before they reach +him--and their sting is particularly irritating. Many stories have +been told of the mosquitoes in Alaska; one traveller tells how bears +are sometimes killed by these pests, though this story is probably an +exaggeration. But men who are travelling must have veils and gloves as +protection against them. Even the natives wrap their heads in skins or +cloth, and are overjoyed at any little piece of mosquito-netting they +can get hold of. With the best protection, however, one cannot help +being tormented and worn out. + +We always slept with gloves and veils on, and with our heads wrapped as +tightly as possible, yet the insects would crawl through the crevices +of the blankets and sting through the clothes, or where the veil +pressed against the face,--not one, but hundreds--so that one slept but +fitfully and woke to find his face bloody and smarting, and would at +once make for the cold river water, bathing hands and face to relieve +the pain, and dreading to keep his veil up long enough to gobble his +breakfast. + +The climate of this interior country is dry, and the rains infrequent. +We worked so long during the day that we seldom took the trouble +to pitch a tent at night, but lay down with our backs against some +convenient log, so that the mosquitoes had a good chance at us. Even in +the day, when protected by veil and gloves, I have been so irritated +by them as to run until breathless to relieve my excitement, and I can +readily believe, as has been told, that a man lost in the underbrush +without protection, would very soon lose his reason and his life. As +soon as the country is cleared up or burned over, the scourge becomes +much less, so that in the mining camps the annoyance is comparatively +slight. Mosquitoes are popularly supposed to seek and feed upon men, +while the reverse is true. They avoid men, swarming most in thick +underbrush and swamps which are difficult of access, and disappearing +almost entirely as soon as the axe and the plow and other implements in +the hands of man invade their solitudes. + +Out of Mud Lake we floated into the river again, and slipped easily +down between the sandbanks. Ducks and geese were plentiful along here, +and we practised incessantly on them with the rifle, without, however, +doing any noticeable execution. On the second day we knew we must be +near the famous canyon of the Lewes; and one of our party was put on +watch, in order that we might know its whereabouts before the swift +current should sweep us into it, all heavily laden as we were. The rest +of us rowed and steered, and admired the beautiful tints of the hills, +which now receded from the river, now came close to it. Presently we +heard a gentle snore from the lookout who was comfortably settled among +the flour sacks in the bow; this proved to us that our confidence had +been misplaced, and all hands became immediately alert. Soon after, we +noticed a bit of red flannel fluttering from a tree projecting over +the bank, doubtless a part of some traveller's shirt sacrificed in the +cause of humanity; and by the time we had pulled in to the shore we +could see the waters of the river go swirling and roaring into a sudden +narrow canyon with high, perpendicular walls. + +We found the parties of miners already landed, and presently, as we +waited on the bank and reconnoitered, Danlon's party came up, and not +long after, the barge, so that we were about twenty in all. Wiborg, and +Danlon's guide, Cooper, were the only ones that had had experience in +this matter, so all depended on their judgment, and waited to see the +results of their efforts before risking anything themselves. + +In former years all travellers made a portage around this very +difficult place, hauling their boats over the hill with a rude sort of +a windlass; but a man having been accidentally sucked into the canyon +came out of the other end all right, which emboldened others. In this +case Wiborg and Cooper decided that the canyon could be run, although +the water was very high and turbulent; and they thought best to run the +boats through themselves. Our own boat was selected to be experimented +with; most of the articles that were easily damageable by water were +taken out, leaving perhaps about eight hundred pounds. I went as +passenger sitting in the bow, while the two old frontiersmen managed +paddles and oars. Rowing out from the shore we were immediately sucked +into the gorge, and went dashing through at a rate which I thought +could not be less than twenty miles an hour. So great is the body of +water confined between these perpendicular walls, and so swift is the +stream, that its surface becomes convex, being considerably higher in +the centre of the channel than on the sides. Waves rushing in every +direction are also generated, forming a puzzling chop. Two or three of +these waves presently boarded us, so that I was thoroughly wet, and +then came a broad glare of sunlight as we emerged from the first half +of the canyon into a sort of cauldron which lies about in its centre. + +Here we were twisted about by eddying currents for a few seconds, and +then precipitated half sidewise into the canyon again. The latter half +turned out to be the rougher part, and our bow dipped repeatedly into +the waves, till I found myself sitting in water, and the bow, where +most of the water remained, sagged alarmingly. It seemed as if another +ducking would sink us. This fortunately we did not get, but steered +safely through the final swirl to smooth water. During all this trip I +had not looked up once, although as we shot by we heard faintly a cheer +from the rocks above, where our companions were. + +Next day, after a night made almost unbearable by mosquitoes, we rose +to face the difficulties of White Horse Rapids, which lie below the +canyon proper, and are still more formidable. Here the river contracts +again, and is confined between perpendicular walls of basalt. The +channel is full of projecting rocks, so that the whole surface is +broken, and there are many strong conflicting currents and eddies. +At the end of these rapids, which extend for a quarter of a mile or +so, is a narrow gorge in the rocks, through which the whole volume of +water is forced. This is said to be only twenty or thirty feet wide, +although at the time of our passing the water was sufficiently high to +flow over the top of the enclosing walls, thus concealing the actual +width of the chute. Through this the water plunges at a tremendous +velocity--probably thirty miles an hour--forming roaring, foaming, +tossing, lashing waves which somehow make the name White Horse seem +appropriate. + +Above the beginning of the rapid we unloaded our boat, and carefully +lowered it down by ropes, keeping it close to the shore, and out of +the resistless main current. After having safely landed it, with +considerable trouble, below the chute, we carried our outfit (about +twelve hundred pounds) to the same point. Danlon's boat and that +belonging to the miners were safely gotten through in the same way, all +hands helping in turn. + +When it came to the scow, it was the general opinion that it would be +impossible to lower it safely, for its square shape gave the current +such a grip that it seemed as if no available strength of rope or +man could hold out against it. As carrying the boat was out of the +question, the only alternative was to boldly run it through the +rapids, in the middle of the channel; and this naturally hazardous +undertaking was rendered more difficult by the frail construction of +the scow, which had been built of thin lumber by unskilled hands. The +scow's crew did not care to make the venture themselves, but finally +prevailed upon Wiborg and Cooper to make the trial. + +[Illustration: SHOOTING THE WHITE HORSE RAPIDS.] + +Reflecting that at any time I might be placed in similar difficulties, +in this unknown country, and thrown upon my own resources, I resolved +to accompany them, for the sake of finding out how the thing was +done; but I was ruled out of active service by Wiborg, who, however, +consented finally to my going along as passenger. Two of the scow's +own crew were drafted to act as oarsmen, and we pushed out, Cooper +steering, and Wiborg in the bow, iron-shod pole in hand, fending off +from threatening rocks; and in a second we were dancing down the +boiling rapids and tossing hither and thither like a cork. I sat facing +the bow, opposite the oarsmen, who tugged frantically away, white as +death; behind me Cooper's paddle flashed and twisted rapidly, as we +dodged by rocks projecting from the water, sometimes escaping only +by a few inches, where a collision would have smashed us to chips. +The rest of the party, waiting below the chute, said that sometimes +they saw only the bottom of the scow, and sometimes looked down upon +it as if from above. As we neared the end, Cooper's skillful paddle +drove us straight for the centre, where the water formed an actual +fall; this central part was the most turbulent, but the safest, for on +either side, a few feet away, there was danger of grazing the shallow +underlying rocks. As we trembled on the brink, I looked up and saw our +friends standing close by, looking much concerned. A moment later there +was a dizzying plunge, a blinding shower of water, a sudden dashing, +too swift for observation, past rock walls, and then Wiborg let out an +exultant yell--we were safe. At that instant one of the oarsmen snapped +his oar, an accident which would have been serious a moment before. On +the shore below the rapids we found flour-sacks, valises, boxes and +splintered boards, mementoes of poor fellows less lucky than ourselves. + +We camped at the mouth of the Tahkeena River that night, and arrived +the next day at Lake Labarge, the last and longest of the series. +When we reached it, at one o'clock, the water was calm and smooth; +and although it was nearly forty miles across, we decided to keep on +without stopping till we reached the other side, for fear of strong +winds such as had delayed us on Lake Bennett. Danlon's party concluded +to do the same, and so we rowed steadily all night, after having rowed +all day. + +About two o'clock in the morning a favorable wind sprung up suddenly, +and increased to a gale. At this time we became separated from the +other boats, which kept somewhat close to the shore, while we, with our +tiny sail, stood straight across the lake for the outlet. As soon as we +stopped rowing I could not help falling asleep, although much against +my will, for our position was neither comfortable nor secure; and +thus I dozed and woke half a dozen times before landing. On reaching +the shore we found difficulty in sleeping on account of the swarms of +hungry mosquitoes, so we soon loaded up again. + +We had got caribou meat from some people whom we passed half-way down +Lake Labarge; and the next day we saw a moose on an island, but the +current swept us by before we could get a shot at him. Large game, on +the whole, however, was very scarce along this route. The weather was +warm and pleasant after leaving Lake Labarge, and there were no serious +obstructions. The swift current bombarded the bottom of the boat with +grains of sand, making a sound like a continual frying. "Look out!" +Pete would say. "The devil is frying his fat for us!" We travelled +easily sixty or eighty miles a day, floating with the current and +rowing. + +Danlon's party, which we had lost sight of on Lake Labarge, reached us +a couple of days afterwards, having pulled night and day to catch up. +They were grey and speckled with fatigue and told us of having decided +to leave one boat (they came with only one of the two they had started +in) at Lake Labarge, and also of leaving some of their provisions. They +had unfortunately forgotten to keep any sugar--could we lend them some? +We produced the sugar and smiled knowingly; a few days later we ran +across the solitary Dutchman, who had engineered his wood-box thus far, +and he told us the whole story: how when the boats got near the shore +one was swamped in shallow water, losing most of its cargo, and how the +occupants had to stand in cold water the rest of the night, finally +getting to shore and to rights again. The priest had been naming the +camps after the letters of the Greek alphabet, and the night on Labarge +should have been Camp Rho; and this was appropriate as we rowed nearly +all night. + +From here the journey was comparatively easy. The skies were always +clear and blue, and the stream had by this time increased to a lordly +river, growing larger by continual accessions of new tributaries. It is +dotted with many small islands, which are covered with a dense growth +of evergreen trees. On the side of the valley are often long smooth +terraces, perfectly carved and smoothly grassed, so as to present +an almost artificial aspect. From this sort of a country are sudden +changes to a more bold and picturesque type, so at one time the river +flows swiftly through high gates of purple rock rising steeply for +hundreds of feet, and in a few moments more emerges into a wide low +valley. The cliffs are sometimes carved into buttresses or pinnacles, +which overlook the walls, and appear to form part of a gigantic and +impregnable castle, on the top of which the dead spruces stand out +against the sky like spires and flag-staves. Usually on one side or +the other of the river is low fertile land, where grows a profusion of +shrubs and flowers. + +In the mellow twilight, which lasts for two or three hours in the +middle of the night, one can see nearly as far and as distinctly as by +day, but everything takes on an unreal air. This is something like a +beautiful sunset effect further south, but is evenly distributed over +all the landscape. At about ten o'clock the coloring becomes exquisite, +when the half-light brings out the violets, the purples, and various +shades of yellow and brown in the rocks, in contrast to the green of +the vegetation. + +[Illustration: TALKING IT OVER.] + +We had some difficulty in finding suitable camping-places in this +country. One night I remember, we ran fifteen miles after our usual +camping-hour, with cliffs on one side of the river and low thickets on +the other. Three times we landed on small islands, in a tangle of vines +and roses; and as many times we were driven off by the innumerable +mosquitoes. At last we found a strip of shore about ten feet wide, +between the water and the thickets, sloping at a considerable angle; +and there we made shift to spend the night. + +There are two places below the White Horse Rapids where the channel +is so narrowed or shallowed that rapids are formed. At the first of +these, called the "Five Finger Rapids," the river is partially blocked +by high islets, which cut up the stream in several portions. Although +the currents in each of these "fingers" is rapid, and the water rough, +yet we found no difficulty in running through without removing any part +of the load, although one of the boats shipped a little water. When we +arrived at the second place, which is called the "Rink Rapids," and is +not far below the Five Fingers, we were relieved to find that owing +to the fullness of the river, the rough water, which in this case is +caused by the shallowing of the stream, was smoothed down, and we went +through, close to the shore, with no more trouble than if we had been +floating down a lake. + +During the whole trip the country through which we passed was +singularly lonely and uninhabited. After leaving the few huts on Tagish +Lake, which I have mentioned, we saw a few Indians in a summer camp +on Lake Labarge; and this was all until we got to the junction of the +Lewes and Pelly Rivers, over three hundred miles from Tagish Lake. At +Pelly we found a log trading-post, with a single white man in charge, +and a few Indians. There were also three miners, who had met with +misfortune, and were disconsolate enough. They had started up Pelly +River with a two years' outfit, intending to remain and prospect for +that period, but at some rapid water their boat had been swamped and +all their provisions lost. They had managed to burn off logs enough to +build a raft, and in that way had floated down the river to the post, +living in the meantime on some flour which they had been lucky enough +to pick up after the wreck. + +Although there are very few people in the country, one is continually +surprised at first by perceiving solitary white tents standing on +some prominent point or cliff which overlooks the river. At first +this looks very cheerful, and we sent many a hearty hail across the +river to such places; but our calls were never answered, for these +are not the habitations of the living but of the dead. Inside of each +of these tents, which are ordinarily made of white cloth, though +sometimes of woven matting, is a dead Indian, and near him is laid his +rifle, snowshoes, ornaments and other personal effects. I do not think +the custom of leaving these articles at the grave implies any belief +that they will be used by the dead man in another world, but simply +signifies that he will have no more use for the things which were so +dear to him in life--just as among ourselves, articles which have been +used by dear friends are henceforth laid aside and no longer used. +These dwellings of the dead are always put in prominent positions, +commanding as broad and fair a view as can be obtained. At Pelly we saw +several Indian graves that were surrounded by hewn palings, rudely and +fantastically painted. + +When we reached the White River we found it nearly as broad as the +Yukon. The waters of the two rivers are separated by a distinct line +at their confluence and for some distance further down, the Yukon +water being dark and the other milky, whence the name--White River. All +over this country is a thin deposit of white dust-like volcanic ash, +covering the surface, but on White River this ash is very thick, and +the river flowing through it carries away enough to give the waters +continually a milky appearance. As we approached White River we beheld +what seemed a most extraordinary cloud hanging over its valley. It was +a solid compact mass of white, like some great ice-flower rising from +the hills, reminding one as one explored it through field-glasses, in +its snowy vastness and unevenness, of some great glacier. The clouds +were in rounded bunches and each bunch was crenulated. Below was a +mass of smoke with a ruddy reflection as if from some great fire, +and smaller snowy compact clouds came up at intervals, as if gulped +out from some crater. This we thought might be the fabled volcano of +the White River, but on getting nearer it seemed to be probably a +forest-fire. Although there are no railway trains to set fires with +their sparks, nowhere do fires start more easily than in Alaska, for +the ground is generally covered deep with a peat-like dry moss, which +ignites when one lights a fire above and smoulders so persistently that +it can hardly be extinguished, creeping along under the roots of the +living moss and breaking out into flame on opportunity. + +The Fourth of July was celebrated by shooting at a mark; and that night +we had a true blessing, for we camped on a little bare sandspit on an +island, where the wind was brisk and kept the mosquitoes away. These +insects cannot stand against a breeze, but are whisked away by it like +the imps of darkness at the first breath of God's morning light, as +we have read in fairy stories. The freedom was delicious, so we just +stretched ourselves in the sand, and slept ten hours. We were awakened +by a violent plunge in the water and stuck our heads out of the +blankets in a hurry, thinking it was a moose; but it turned out to be +only one of our party celebrating the day after the Fourth by a bath. + +At Sixty Mile we found an Indian trading-post, located on an island in +the river, and kept by Jo La Du, a lonely trader who a year afterwards +became rich and famous from his participation in the Klondike rush. He +had no idea of this when we saw him, but shook hands with us shyly and +silently, a man whom years had made more accustomed to the Indian than +to the white man. + +The name Sixty Mile is applied to a small river here, which is sixty +miles from old Fort Reliance, an ancient trading post belonging to +the Hudson Bay Company. The hardy and intrepid agents of the company +were the first white men to explore the interior of Alaska. The lower +Yukon in the vicinity of the delta was explored by the Russians in 1835 +to 1838, and the river was called by the Eskimo name of Kwikpuk or +Kwikpak,--the great river: in 1842-3 the Russian Lieutenant Zagoskin +explored as far as the Nowikakat. But the upper Yukon was first +explored by members of the Hudson Bay Company. In 1846 a trader named +Bell crossed from the Mackenzie to the Porcupine, and so down to the +Yukon, to which he first applied the name by which it is now known: +it is an Indian, not Eskimo, word. Previous to this, in 1840, Robert +Campbell, of the Hudson Bay Company, crossed from the Stikeen to the +Pelly and so down to its junction with the Lewes or upper Yukon. At +the point of the junction Campbell built Fort Selkirk, which was +afterwards pillaged and burned by the Indians, and remained deserted +till Harper built the present post, close to the site of the old one. +Forty miles below old Fort Reliance is Forty Mile Creek, so that the +mouths of Forty Mile and Sixty Mile are a hundred miles apart. The +river by this time is a mile wide in places, and filled with low +wooded islands: its water is muddy and the eddying currents give the +appearance of boiling. + +We found no one on the site of old Fort Reliance, and we used the +fragments of the old buildings lying around in the grass for fire-wood. +It was practically broad daylight all night, for although the sun went +down behind the hills for an hour or two, yet it was never darker than +a cloudy day. + +The day of leaving Fort Reliance we came to the junction of the +Klondike or Thronduc River with the Yukon, and found here a village +of probably two hundred Indians, but no white men. The Indians were +living in log cabins: on the shore numbers of narrow and shallow +birch canoes were drawn up, very graceful and delicate in shape, and +marvellously light, weighing only about thirty pounds, but very +difficult for any one but an Indian to manoeuvre. Yet the natives spear +salmon from these boats. At the time we were there most of the male +Indians were stationed along the river, eagerly watching for the first +salmon to leap out of the water, for about this time of the year the +immigration of these fish begins, and they swim up the rivers from +the sea thousands of miles, to place their spawn in some quiet creek. +On account of the large number of salmon who turn aside to enter the +stream here, the Indians called it Thronduc or _fish-water_; this +is now corrupted by the miners into Klondike, the Indian village is +replaced by the frontier city of Dawson, and the fame of the Klondike +is throughout the world. + +[Illustration: ALASKA HUMPBACKED SALMON, MALE AND FEMALE.] + +The trip of forty miles from Fort Reliance to Forty Mile Post was made +in the morning, and was enlivened by an exciting race between our boat +and that belonging to Danlon. We had kept pretty closely together on +all our trip, passing and repassing one another, but our boat was +generally ahead; and when we both encamped at Fort Reliance, the other +party resolved to outwit us. So they got up early in the morning and +slipped away before we were well awake. When we discovered that +they were gone, we got off after them as quickly as possible, but as +the current flows about seven miles an hour, and they were rowing +hard besides, they were long out of sight of us. However, we buckled +down to hard rowing, each pulling a single oar only, and relieving +one another at intervals, tugging away as desperately as if something +important depended on it. When we were already in sight of Forty Mile +Post we spied our opponents' boat about a mile ahead of us, and we soon +overhauled them, for they had already spent themselves by hard rowing. +Then Pete knew a little channel which led up to the very centre of the +camp, while the others took the more roundabout way, so that we arrived +and were quite settled--we assumed a very negligent air, as if we had +been there all day--when the others arrived. We called this the great +Anglo-American boat race and crowed not a little over the finish. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] A portion of this description is similar to that used by the writer +in an article published in "Outing." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. +THE FORTY MILE DIGGINGS. + + +Forty Mile Creek is the oldest mining camp in the Yukon country, and +the first where coarse gold or "gulch diggings" was found. In the fall +of 1886 a prospector by the name of Franklin discovered the precious +metal near the mouth of what is now called Forty Mile Creek. This +stream was put down on the old maps as the Shitando River, but miners +are very independent in their nomenclature, and often adopt a new +name if the old one does not suit them, preferring a simple term with +an evident meaning to the more euphonious ones suggestive of Pullman +cars. At the time of the discovery of gold there was a post of the +Alaskan Commercial Company at the mouth of the stream, but the trader +in charge, Jack McQuesten, was absent in San Francisco. As the supplies +at the post were very low, and a rush of miners to the district was +anticipated for the next summer, it was thought best to try to get +word to the trader, and George Williams undertook to carry out a letter +in midwinter. + +Accompanied by an Indian, he succeeded in attaining the Chilkoot Pass, +but was there frozen to death. The letter, however, was carried to the +post at Dyea by the Indian, and the necessary supplies were sent, thus +averting the threatened famine. From 1887 to 1893 the various gulches +of Forty Mile Creek were the greatest gold producers of the Yukon +country, but by 1893 the supplies of gold began to show exhaustion; and +about this time a Russian half-breed, by the name of Pitka, discovered +gold in the bars of Birch Creek, some two hundred miles further down +the Yukon. + +A large part of the population of the Forty Mile district rushed +to the new diggings and built the mining camp to which they gave +the name of Circle City, from its proximity to the Arctic Circle. +The Forty Mile district is partly in British and partly in American +territory, since the boundary line crosses the stream some distance +above its mouth, while Birch Creek is entirely in American territory. +The world-renowned Klondike, again, is within British boundaries. So +the tide of mining population has ebbed back and forth in the Yukon +country, each wave growing larger than the first, till it culminated +in the third of the great world-rushes after gold, exciting, wild and +romantic--the Klondike boom, a fit successor to the "forty-nine" days +of California, and to the events which followed the discovery of gold +in Australia. + +At the time of our visit, in 1896, Forty Mile Post was distinctly on +the decline. Yet it contained probably 500 or 600 inhabitants, not +counting the Indians, of whom there were a considerable number. These +Indians were called Charley Indians, from their chief Charley. There +is a mission near here and the Indians have all been Christianized. +It is told that the Tanana Indians, who had no mission, and who came +here out of their wild fastnesses only once in a while to trade, did +not embrace Christianity, which rather elated Charley's followers, as +they considered that they now had decidedly the advantage; and they +openly vaunted of it. In this country at certain times of the year, +particularly in the fall, great herds of caribou pass, and then one +can slaughter as many as he needs for the winter's supply of meat, +without much hunting, for the animals select some trail and are not +easily scared from it. One fall a herd marched up one of the busiest +mining gulches of Birch Creek and the miners stood in their cabin doors +and shot them. + +So the Indians always watch as eagerly for the caribou, as they do for +the salmon in the summer. But this particular fall it happened that +the animals stayed away from the Charley Indians' hunting grounds, but +passed through those of the Tananas in force. The heathen then came +down to the trading post laden with meat, and the chief, who knew a +little English, taunted Charley in it. + +"Where moose, Charley?" he asked. + +"No moose," said Charley. + +"Woo!" said the Tanana chief, grinning in triumph. "What's the matter +with your Jesus?" + +The Indians at Forty Mile Post were mostly encamped in tents or were +living in rude huts of timber plastered with mud; while the white men +had built houses of logs, unsquared, with the chinks filled with mud +and moss and the roof covered with similar material. Prices were high +throughout: A lot of land in the middle of the town, say 100 by 150 +feet, was worth $7,000 or $8,000; sugar was worth twenty-five cents a +pound and ordinary labor ten dollars a day. All provisions were also +very expensive, and the supply was often short. Many common articles, +usually reckoned among what the foolish call the necessities of life, +could not be obtained by us. I say foolish, because one can learn +from pioneering and exploring, upon how little life can be supported +and health and strength maintained, and how many of the supposed +necessities are really luxuries. + +The Alaskan Eskimo lives practically on fish alone throughout the year, +without salt, without bread,--just fish--and grows fat and oily and of +pungent odor. But white men can hardly become so simple in their diet +without some danger of dying in the course of the experiment, like the +famous cow that was trained to go without eating, but whose untimely +death cut short her career in the first bloom of success. + +The miners have always been dependent for supplies on steamers from +San Francisco or Seattle, which have to make a trip of 4,000 miles or +more; and, in the early days, if any accident occurred, there was no +other source. + +I have heard of a bishop of the Episcopal Church, a missionary in this +country, who lived all winter upon moose meat, without salt; and an old +miner told me of working all summer on flour alone. When the fall came +he shot some caribou, and his description of his sensations on eating +his first venison steak were touching. Hardly a winter has passed +until very recently when the miners were not put on rations--so many +pounds of bacon and so much flour to the man,--to bridge over the time +until the steamer should arrive. The winter of 1889-90 is known to the +old Yukon pioneer as the "starvation winter," for during the previous +summer a succession of accidents prevented the river boat from reaching +Forty Mile with provisions. The men were finally starved out and in +October they all began attempting to make their way down the Yukon, +towards St. Michaels, over a thousand miles away, where food was known +to be stored, having been landed at this depot from ocean steamers. +Nearly a hundred men left the post in small boats. Some travelled the +whole distance to St. Michaels, others stopped and wintered by the way +at the various miserable trading posts, or in the winter camps of the +Indians themselves, wherever food could be found. It happened that this +year the river did not freeze up so early as usual, which favored the +flight, though the journey down the lower part of the river was made in +running ice. + +In connection with the shortness of provisions and supplies in these +early years, a story is told of a worthless vagabond who used to hang +around Forty Mile Post, and whose hoaxes, invented to make money, put +the wooden nutmeg and the oak ham of Connecticut to shame. There was a +dearth of candles one year at the post, and in midwinter, when, for a +while, the sun hardly rises at all, that was no trifling privation. The +weather was cold, as it always is at Forty Mile in the winter time. The +trickster had some candle molds in his possession, but no grease; so he +put the wicks into the molds, which he filled with water colored white +with chalk or condensed milk. The water immediately froze solid, making +a very close imitation of a candle. He manufactured a large number and +then started around the post to peddle them. All bought eagerly--Indian +squaws to sew by, miners, shop-keepers, everybody. One man bought a +whole case and shoved them under his bed; when he came to pull them +out again to use, he found nothing but the wicks in a pile, the ice +having melted and the water having evaporated in the warm room. What +punishment was meted out to this unique swindler I do not know, but I +could not learn that he was ever severely dealt with. + +The evening of our arrival in Forty Mile Post we were attracted by +observing a row of miners, who were lined up in front of the saloon +engaged in watching the door of a large log cabin opposite, rather +dilapidated, with the windows broken in. On being questioned, they said +there was going to be a dance, but when or how they did not seem to +know: all seemed to take only a languid looker-on interest, speaking of +the affair lightly and flippantly. Presently more men, however, joined +the group and eyed the cabin expectantly. In spite of their disclaimers +they evidently expected to take part, but where were the fair partners +for the mazy waltz? + +The evening wore on until ten o'clock, when in the dusk a stolid Indian +woman, with a baby in the blanket on her back, came cautiously around +the corner, and with the peculiar long slouchy step of her kind, made +for the cabin door, looking neither to the right nor to the left. She +had no fan, nor yet an opera cloak; she was not even décolleté; she +wore large moccasins on her feet--number twelve, I think, according to +the white man's system of measurement--and she had a bright colored +handkerchief on her head. She was followed by a dozen others, one far +behind the other, each silent and unconcerned, and each with a baby +upon her back. They sidled into the log cabin and sat down on the +benches, where they also deposited their babies in a row: the little +red people lay there very still, with wide eyes shut or staring, but +never crying--Indian babies know that is all foolishness and doesn't +do any good. The mothers sat awhile looking at the ground in some one +spot and then slowly lifted their heads to look at the miners who had +slouched into the cabin after them--men fresh from the diggings, +spoiling for excitement of any kind. Then a man with a dilapidated +fiddle struck up a swinging, sawing melody, and in the intoxication of +the moment some of the most reckless of the miners grabbed an Indian +woman and began furiously swinging her around in a sort of waltz, while +the others crowded around and looked on. + +Little by little the dusk grew deeper, but candles were scarce and +could not be afforded. The figures of the dancing couples grew more and +more indistinct and their faces became lost to view, while the sawing +of the fiddle grew more and more rapid, and the dancing more excited. +There was no noise, however; scarcely a sound save the fiddle and the +shuffling of the feet over the floor of rough hewn logs; for the Indian +women were stolid as ever, and the miners could not speak the language +of their partners. Even the lookers-on said nothing, so that these +silent dancing figures in the dusk made an almost weird effect. + +One by one, however, the women dropped out, tired, picked up their +babies and slouched off home, and the men slipped over to the saloon +to have a drink before going to their cabins. Surely this squaw-dance, +as they call it, was one of the most peculiar balls ever seen. No +sound of revelry by night, no lights, no flowers, no introductions, no +conversations. Of all the Muses, Terpsichore the nimble-footed, alone +was represented, for surely the nymph who presides over music would +have disowned the fiddle. + +All the diggings in the Forty Mile district were remote from the Post, +and to reach them one had to ascend Forty Mile Creek, a rapid stream, +for some distance. Pete left us here, and we three concluded to go it +alone. Inasmuch as we were young and tender, we were overwhelmed with +advice of such various and contradictory kinds that we were almost +disheartened. Every one agreed that it would be impossible to take +our boats up the river, that we should take an "up river" boat, (that +is, a boat built long and narrow, with a wide overhang, so as to make +as little friction with the water as possible, and to make upsetting +difficult); but when we came to inquire we found there was no such boat +to be had. We were advised to take half-a-dozen experienced polers, +but such polers could not be found. Evidently we must either wait +the larger part of the summer for our preparations _à la mode_, or go +anyhow; and this latter we decided to do. We announced our intention at +the table of the man whose hospitality we were enjoying. He stared. + +"You'll find Forty Mile Creek a hard river to go up," he said, slowly. +"Have you had much experience in ascending rivers?" + +"Very little," we replied. + +"Are you good polers?" asked another. + +"Like the young lady who was asked whether she could play the piano," +I answered, "we don't know--we never tried." Everybody roared; +they had been wanting to laugh for some time, and here was their +opportunity. Later a guide was offered to us, but we had got on our +dignity and refused him; then he asked to be allowed to accompany us +as a passenger, taking his own food, and helping with the boat, and we +consented to this. He had a claim on the headwaters of Sixty Mile, to +which he wished to go back, but could not make the journey up the river +alone. A year afterwards this penniless fellow was one of the lucky +men in the Klondike rush and came back to civilization with a reputed +fortune of $100,000. + +We could row only a short distance up the creek from the post, for +after this the current became so swift that we could make no headway. +We then tied a long line to the bow of the boat, and two of us, walking +on the shore, pulled the line, while another stood in the bow and by +constant shoving out into the stream, succeeded in overcoming the +tendency for the pull of the line to make the boat run into the shore +or into such shallow water that it would ground. We soon reached the +canyon, supposed to be the most difficult place in the creek to pass; +here the stream is very rapid and tumbles foaming over huge boulders +which have partially choked it. We towed our boat up through this, +however, without much difficulty, and on the second night camped at the +boundary line. + +Here a gaunt old character, Sam Patch by name, had his cabin. He was +famous for his patriotism and his vegetables. His garden was on the +steep side of a south-facing hill and was sheltered from the continual +frosts which fall in the summer nights, so that it succeeded well. +Foreign vegetables, as well as native plants, thrive luxuriantly in +Alaska so long as they can be kept from being frost-bitten: for in +the long sunshiny summer days they grow twice as fast and big as they +do in more temperate climates. "Sam Patch's potato patch" was famous +throughout the diggings, and the surest way to win Sam's heart was to +go and inspect and admire it. Sam was always an enthusiastic American, +and when the Canadian surveyors surveyed the meridian line which +constituted the International boundary, they ran it right through his +potato patch; but he stood by his American flag and refused to haul it +down--quite unnecessarily, because no one asked him to do so. + +The next day we reached the mouth of the little tributary called Moose +Creek. From here a trail thirty miles in length leads over the low +mountains to the headwaters of Sixty Mile Creek, where several of the +richest gulches of the Forty Mile district were located. We beached +our boat, therefore, put packs on our backs and started. At this time +the days were hot and the mosquitoes vicious, and nearly every night +was frosty; so we sweat and smarted all day, and shivered by night, +for our blankets were hardly thick enough. We used to remark on rising +in the morning that Alaska was a delightful country, with temperature +to suit every taste; no matter if one liked hot weather or moderate or +cold, if he would wait he would get it inside of twenty-four hours. + +We were tired when we started over the trail, and the journey was not +an easy one, for we carried blankets, food, cameras, and other small +necessaries. We camped in a small swamp the first night, where the +ground was so wet that we were obliged to curl up on the roots of +trees, close to the trunks, to keep out of the water. The second day +a forest fire blocked our journey, but we made our way through it, +treading swiftly over the burning ground and through the thick smoke: +then we emerged onto a bare rocky ridge, from which we could look down, +on the right, over the network of little valleys which feed Forty Mile +Creek, and on the other side over the tributaries of Sixty Mile Creek, +clearly defined as if on a map. The ridge on which we travelled was cut +up like the teeth of a saw, so that a large part of our time was spent +in climbing up and down. + +On the latter part of the second day we found no wood, and at night we +could hardly prepare food enough to keep our stomachs from sickening. +My feet had become raw at the start from hard boots, and every step +was a torture; yet the boots could not be taken off, for the trail was +covered with small sharp stones, and the packs on our backs pressed +heavily downward. The third day we separated, each descending from the +mountain ridge into one of the little gulches, in which we could see +the white tents or the brown cabins of the miners, with smoke rising +here and there. My way led me down a rocky ridge and then abruptly into +the valley of Miller Creek. As I sat down and rested, surveying the +little valley well dotted with shanties, two men came climbing up the +trail and sat down to chat. They were going to the spot on Forty Mile +Creek which we had just left--there was a keg of whisky "cached" there +and they had been selected a committee of two by the miners to escort +the aforesaid booze into camp. They were alternately doleful at the +prospect of the sixty mile tramp and jubilant over the promised whisky, +for, as they informed us, the camp had been "dry for some time." + +Descending into the camp where the men were busily working, I stopped +to watch them. Gaunt, muscular, sweating, they stood in their long +boots in the wet gravel and shovelled it above their heads into +"sluice boxes,"--a series of long wooden troughs in which a continuous +current of water was running. The small material was carried out of +the lower end of the sluices by the water. Here and there the big +stones choked the current and a man with a long shovel was continuously +occupied with cleaning the boxes of such accumulations. Everybody was +working intensely. The season is short in Alaska and the claim-owner +is generally a hustler; and men who are paid ten dollars a day for +shovelling must jump to earn their money. + +Strangers were rare on Miller Creek in those days, and everybody +stopped a minute to look and answer my greetings politely, but there +was no staring, and everybody went on with his work without asking +any questions. Men are courteous in rough countries, where each one +must travel on his merits and fight his own battles, and where social +standing or previous condition of servitude count for nothing. I +wandered slowly down from claim to claim. They were all working, one +below the other, for this was the best part of one of the oldest and +richest gulches of the Forty Mile district. One man asked me where I +was going to sleep, and on my telling him that I had not thought of it, +replied that there were some empty log cabins a little distance below. +Further down a tall, dark, mournful man addressed me in broken English, +with a Canadian French accent, and put the same question. + +"I work on ze night shift to-night," he continued, "so I do not sleep +in my bed. You like, you no fin' better, you is very welcome, sair, to +sleep in my cabine, in my bed." + +I accepted gratefully, for I was very tired; so the Frenchman conducted +me to a cabin about six feet square and insisted upon cooking a little +supper for me. He was working for day's wages, he answered to my rather +blunt questions, but hoped that he would earn enough this summer and +the next winter to buy an outfit and enough "grub" to go prospecting +for himself, on the Tanana, which had not been explored and where he +believed there must be gold; prospectors get very firmly convinced of +such things with no real reason. + +After supper he darkened the windows for me and went to work. I sought +the comfort of a wooden bunk, covering myself with a dirty bed-quilt. +It was very ancient and perhaps did not smell sweet, but what did I +care? It was Heaven. The darkness was delicious. I had not known real +darkness for so long throughout the summer--always sleeping out of +doors in the light of the Alaskan night--that I had felt continually +strained and uncomfortable for the lack of it, and this darkened cabin +came to me like the sweetest of opiates. + +When I awoke the Frenchman was preparing breakfast. I had slept some +ten hours without moving. There was only one tin plate, one cup, and +one knife and fork, and he insisted upon my eating with them, while he +stood by and gravely superintended, urging more slapjacks upon me. I +suddenly felt ashamed that I had told him neither my name nor business, +for although I had questioned him freely, he had not manifested +the slightest curiosity. So without being asked I volunteered some +information about myself. He listened attentively and politely, +but without any great interest. It was quite apparent that the most +important thing to him was that I was a stranger. Soon after breakfast +I thanked him warmly and went away--I knew enough of miners not to +insult him by offering him money for his hospitality. + +The night shift of shovellers had given way to the day shift, and work +was going on as fiercely as ever. The bottoms of all these gulches are +covered with roughly stratified shingle, most of which slides down from +the steep hillsides of the creek. Among the rocks on the hillsides +are many quartz veins, which carry "iron pyrite" or "fool's gold"; +these often contain small specks of real gold. So when all the rubble +gets together and is broken up in the bottom of the stream, where the +water flows through it, the different materials in the rocks begin to +separate one from another, more or less, according to the difference +in their weights and the fineness of the fragments into which they +are broken. Now gold is the heaviest of metals, and the result is, +that through all this jostling and crowding it gradually works itself +down to the bottom of the heap, and generally quite to the solid rock +below. This has been found to be the case nearly everywhere. In process +of time the gravel accumulations become quite thick; in Miller Creek, +for example, they varied from three or four feet at the head of the +valley, where I was, to fifty or sixty at the mouth. But all the upper +gravels are barren and valueless. Where the gravels are not deep, they +are simply shovelled off and out of the way, till the lower part, where +the gold lies, is laid bare; this work generally takes a year, during +which time there is no return for the labor. + +Once the pay gravel--as it is called--is reached, a long wooden trough +called a "sluice," is constructed, the current turned through it, +and the gravel shovelled in. This work can only be carried on in the +summer-time, when the water is not frozen, so that the warm months are +the time for hustling, day and night shifts being employed, with as +many men on each as can work conveniently together. In case the barren +overlying gravel is very deep, the miners wait until it is frozen +and then sink shafts to the pay dirt, which they take out by running +tunnels and excavating chambers or "stopes" along the bed rock. In +this work they do not use blasting, but build a small fire wherever +they wish to penetrate, and as soon as the gravel thaws they shovel it +up and convey it out, meanwhile pushing the fire ahead so that more +may thaw out. In this way they accumulate the pay dirt in a heap on +the surface, and as soon as warm weather comes they shovel it into the +sluices as before. + +At the time of my visit, the construction of the sluices was a work of +considerable labor, for as there was no sawmill in the country, the +boards from which they were made had to be sawed by hand out of felled +trees. + +In the last few of the trough-sections or sluice-boxes, slats are +placed, sometimes transverse, sometimes lengthwise, sometimes oblique, +sometimes crossed, forming a grating--all patterns have nearly the same +effect, namely, to catch the gold and the other heavy minerals by means +of vortexes which are created. Thus behind these slats or "riffles" +the gold lodges, while the lighter and barren gravel is swept by the +current of water out of the trough, and the heavy stones are thrust +out by the shovel of the miner. Nearly the same process as that which +in nature concentrates gold at the bottom of the gravels and on top of +the bed-rock is adopted by man to cleanse the gold perfectly from the +attendant valueless minerals. + +[Illustration: WASHING THE GRAVEL IN SLUICE-BOXES.] + +Everybody was hospitable along the gulch. I had five different +invitations to dinner,--hearty ones, too--and some were loath to be +put off with the plea of previous engagement. They were all eager for +news from the outside world, from which they had not heard since the +fall before; keenly interested in political developments, at home and +abroad. They were intelligent and better informed than the ordinary +man, for in the long winter months there is little to do but to sleep +and read. They develop also a surprising taste for solid literature; +nearly everywhere Shakespeare seemed to be the favorite author, all +nationalities and degrees of education uniting in the general liking. +A gulch that had a full set of Shakespeare considered itself in for a +rather cozy winter; and there were regular Shakespeare clubs, where +each miner took a certain character to read. Books of science, and +especially philosophy, were also widely sought. It has been my theory +that in conditions like this, where there are not the thousand and one +stimuli to fritter away the intellectual energy, the mental qualities +become stronger and keener and the little that is done is done with +surprising vigor and clearness. + +Down the creek I found a Swede, working over the gravels on a claim +that had already been washed once. He had turned off the water from the +sluice-boxes and was scraping up the residue from among the riffles. +Mostly black heavy magnetic iron particles with many sparkling yellow +grains of gold, green hornblendes and ruby-colored garnets. He put +all this into a gold pan, (a large shallow steel pan such as used in +the first stages of prospecting), and proceeded to "pan out" the gold +yet a little more. He immersed the vessel just below the surface of +a pool of water, and by skillful twirlings caused the contents to be +agitated, and while the heavier particles sank quickly to the bottom, +he continuously worked off the lighter ones, allowing them to flow +out over the edge of the pan. Yet he was very careful that no bit of +gold should escape, and when he had carried this process as far as he +could, he invited me into his cabin to see him continue the separation. + +Here he spread the "dust" on the table and began blowing it with a +small hand-bellows. The garnets, the hornblendes and the fragments +of quartz, being lighter than the rest, soon rolled out to one side, +leaving only the gold and the magnetic iron. Then with a hand magnet he +drew the iron out from the gold, leaving the noble yellow metal nearly +pure, in flakes and irregular grains. As the material he had separated +still contained some gold, he put this aside to be treated with +quicksilver. The quicksilver is poured into the dust, where it forms +an amalgam with the gold: it is then strained off, and the amalgam is +distilled--the quicksilver is vaporized, leaving the gold behind. + +This man had his wife with him, a tired, lonely looking woman. I asked +her if there were no more women on the creek. She said no; there was +another woman over on Glacier Creek, and she wanted so much to see her +sometimes, but she was not a good woman, so she could not go. She was +lonely, she said; she had been here three years and had not seen a +woman. + +From some of the miners I obtained a pair of Indian moccasins, which +I padded well with hay and cloth to make them easy for my chafing +feet; then I slung my own heavy boots on top of my pack and the next +morning bade the gulch good-bye, feeling strengthened from my rest. As +I climbed out of the gulch I met the miners who had gone as a committee +to escort the whisky, arriving with it, white and speckled with +fatigue, speaking huskily, (but not from drinking), yet triumphant. The +day was cool and when one is alone one is apt to travel hard; but the +unwonted lightness of my feet and the freedom from pain encouraged me, +so I set my Indian moccasins into a regular Indian trot, and by noon +had covered the entire fifteen miles that constituted the first half of +the journey. This brought me to a locality dignified by the name of the +"Half-Way House," from a tent-fly of striped drilling left by some one, +in which the miners were accustomed to pass the night in their journeys +over the trail. Here I found Schrader, who had arrived late the night +before and was preparing to make a start. We lighted a fire and made +some tea, which with corned beef and crackers, made up our lunch. +While we were eating, our old companion Pete, with two more miners, +came in from the opposite direction to that from which we had come; he +was on his way to visit his old claim on Miller Creek. Afterwards we +got away, and kept up a steady Indian trot till we reached our camp on +Forty Mile Creek at about six o'clock. + +We found Goodrich already arrived and wrestling with the cooking, +with which he was having tremendously hard luck. This travelling +thirty miles in one day, carrying an average of thirty-five pounds, I +considered something of an achievement; but the tiredness which came +the next day showed that the energy meant for a long time had been +drawn upon. + +[Illustration: "TRACKING" A BOAT UPSTREAM.] + +For four days after that we worked our way up Forty Mile Creek, making +on an average seven or eight miles a day. Mosquitoes were abundant, +and the weather showery. We used the same method of pulling and poling +as before,--a laborious process and one calculated to ruin the most +angelic disposition. The river was very low and consequently full of +rapids and "riffles," as the miners call the shallow places over which +the water splashes. On many of these riffles our boat stuck fast, and +we dragged it over the rocks by sheer force, wading out and grasping +it by the gunwale. Again, where there were many large boulders piled +together in deep water, the boat would stick upon one, and we would be +obliged to wade out again and pilot it through by hand, now standing +dry upon a high boulder, and now floundering waist deep in the cold +water at some awkward step--maybe losing temper and scolding our +innocent companions for having shoved the boat too violently. + +We generally worked till late, and began cooking our supper in +the dusk--which was now beginning to come--over a camp-fire whose +glare dazzled us so that when we tossed our flapjack into the air, +preparatory to browning its raw upper side, we often lost sight of it +in the gloom, and it sprawled upon the fire, or fell ignominiously over +the edge of the frying-pan. Those were awful moments; no one dared to +laugh at the cook then. We took turns at cooking, and patience was +the watchword. The cook needed it and much more so, those on whom +he practiced. One of our number produced a series of slapjacks once +which rivalled my famous Chilkoot biscuit. They were leaden, flabby, +wretched. We ate one apiece, and ate nothing else for a week, for, as +the woodsmen say, it "stuck to our ribs" wonderfully. + +"How much baking powder did you put in with the flour?" we asked the +cook. + +"How should I know?" he answered, indignantly. "What was right, of +course." + +"Did you measure it?" We persisted, for the slapjack was irritating us +inside. + +"Anybody," replied the cook, with crushing dignity, "who knows +anything, knows how much baking powder to put in with flour without +measuring it. I just used common sense." So we concluded that he had +put in too much common sense and not enough baking powder. + +Just above where the river divides into two nearly equal forks, the +water grew so shallow that we could not drag our boat further, so we +hauled it up and filled it with green boughs to prevent it from drying +and cracking in the sun; then we built a "cache." + +It may be best to explain the word "cache," so freely used in Alaska. +The term came from the French Canadian voyageurs or trappers; it is +pronounced "cash" and comes from the French _cacher_, to hide. So a +cache is something hidden, and was applied by these woodsmen to hidden +supplies and other articles of value, which could not be carried about, +being secreted until the owners should come that way again. In Alaska, +when anything was thus left, a high platform of poles was built, +supported by the trunks of slender trees, and the goods were left on +this platform, covered in some way against the ravages of wild animals. +To this structure the name "cache" came to be applied; and later was +extended to the storehouses wherein the natives kept their winter +supplies of fish and smoked meat, for these houses have a somewhat +similar structure, being built on top of upright poles like the old +Swiss lake-dwellings. + +[Illustration: A "CACHE."] + +The next morning we shouldered our pack-sacks, containing our +blankets, a little food, and other necessities, and were again on the +tramp, this time having no trail, however, but being obliged to keep on +the side of the stream. Here, as below, the river flowed in one nearly +continuous canyon, but on one side or the other flats had been built +out on the side where the current was slackest, while on the opposite +side was deep water quite up to the bold cliffs; and since the current +sweeps from side to side, one encounters levels and gravel flats, and +high rocks, on the same side. Many of the cliffs we scaled, crawling +gingerly along the almost perpendicular side of the rock. The constant +temptation in such climbing is to go higher, where it always looks +easier, but when one gets up it seems impossible to return. However, we +had no accidents, which, considering how awkward our packs made us, was +lucky. At other times we waded the stream to avoid the cliffs. + +At night we reached the mouth of Franklin Gulch, where active mining +had been going on for some time. The miners were almost out of food, +the boat which ordinarily brought provisions from Forty Mile Post +having been unable to get up, on account of the low water. Yet they +gave us freely what they could. We took possession of an empty log +cabin, lighted a fire and toasted some trout which they gave us, +and this with crackers and bacon made our meal; then we discovered +some bunks with straw in them, which we agreed were gilt-edged, and +proceeded to make use of them without delay. Only a few of the total +number of miners were here, the rest having gone over the mountain to +Chicken Creek, where the latest find of gold was reported. The men had +not heard from "the outside" for some time. Even Forty Mile Post was a +metropolis for them and they were glad to hear from it. They had few +books and only a couple of newspapers three years old. + +"Doesn't it get very dull here?" we asked of an old stager; "what do +you do for amusement?" + +"Do!" he echoed with grave humor, "Do! why, God bless you, we 'ave very +genteel amusements. As for readin' an' litrachure an' all that, wy, +dammit, wen the fust grub comes in the spring, we 'ave a meetin' an' we +call all the boys together an' we app'int a chairman an' then some one +reads from the directions on the bakin'-powder boxes." + +I set out alone for Chicken Creek the next morning, following a line +of blazed trees up over the mountain from Franklin Creek. I had been +told that once up on the divide one could look right down into Chicken +Creek, and I have no doubt that this is true, for on attaining the top +of the hill a stretch of country twenty miles across was spread out +before me as on a map, while directly below was a considerable branch +of Forty Mile Creek, divided into many closely adjacent gulches. One +of these must be Chicken Creek, but which? There were no tents and no +smoke visible, much as the eye might strain through the field-glasses. +Just here the trail gave out, the blazer having evidently grown tired +of blazing. Thinking to obtain a better view into the valley, I set +out along the hill which curved around it, tramping patiently along +until nearly night over the sharp ridges, but without ever seeing any +signs of life in the great desolate country below me. When the dark +shadows were striking the valleys, I caught sight of what appeared to +be a faint smoke in the heart of a black timbered gulch, and I made +straightway down the mountain-side for it, hurrying for fear the fire +should be extinguished before I could get close enough to it to find +the place. I had no doubt that this came from the log cabin of some +prospector, who would be only too glad to welcome a weary stranger with +a warm supper and a blanket on the floor. + +On getting down, away from the bare rocks on the mountain ridge, I +found deep moss, tiresome to my wearied limbs, and further down great +areas of "niggerheads"--the terror of travellers in the northern +swamps. These niggerheads are tufts of vegetation which grow upwards by +successive accumulations till they are knee high or even more. They are +scattered thickly about, but each tuft is separated completely from all +the rest, leaving hardly space to step between; if one attempts to walk +on top of them he will slip off, so there is nothing to do but to walk +on the ground, lifting the legs over the obstacles with great exertion. +The tops of the tufts are covered with long grass, which droops down on +all sides, whence the name niggerheads,--_têtes de femme_ or women's +heads is the name given them by the French Canadian voyageurs. + +Still lower the brush and vines became so thick that it was almost +impossible to force the way through in places. At last I emerged upon +a grey lifeless area which seemed to have been burned over. There were +no trees or plants, but the bare blackened sticks of what had once +been a young growth of spruce still stood upright, though some trunks +had fallen and lay piled, obstacles to travelling. The whole looked +peculiarly forlorn. A little further I came to the spot where I had +seen the smoke. There was nothing but a stagnant pool covered so deep +with green scum that one caught only an occasional glimpse of the black +water beneath, and from this, unsavory mists were rising in the chill +of the evening air. I had mistaken these vapors for smoke from my post +miles up the mountain. My dream of a log cabin and a blanket went up +likewise in smoke. + +It was now eleven o'clock at night, and twilight; I had walked at least +twenty miles through a rough country and could go no further. So I +broke off the smaller dried trees and sticks and lighted a fire, then +I ate some crackers and bacon that I had with me, but I did not dare +to drink the water of the stagnant pool, which was all there was to +be had. The night grew frosty, and I had no blankets; but I lay down +close to the fire and caught fifteen-minute naps. Once I woke with +the smell of burning cloth in my nostrils: in my sleep I had edged +too close to the grateful warmth, and my coat and the notebook in my +pocket, containing all my season's notes, had caught fire. I rolled +over on them and crushed out the fire with my fingers, and after that +I shivered away a little further from the fire. At about three o'clock +it grew light enough to see the surrounding country, and I started +out again for the first point I had reached on the ridge the morning +before, thinking to get back to Franklin Gulch, for I was thoroughly +exhausted. On reaching the ridge, however, I met a miner coming over +the trail; he agreed to pilot me to the new prospects, so I turned back +again. + +There were fifteen or twenty men in the gulch which we finally reached, +all living in tents in a very primitive way, and all very short of +provisions, yet, hospitable to the last morsel, they freely offered +the best they had. They were poor, too; everybody does not get rich in +the gold diggings, even in Alaska. In fact, previous to the Klondike +discovery, the largest net sum of money taken out by any one man was +about $30,000, while hundreds could not pay for their provisions or +get enough to buy a ticket out of the country. The Klondike, too, has +been badly lied about. Not one man in twenty who goes there makes more +than a bare living, and many have to "hustle" for that harder than +they would at home. So the hospitality of the miners, such as I found +it nearly everywhere on the Yukon, is not a mere act of courtesy which +costs nothing, but the genuine unselfishness which cheerfully divides +the last crust with a passing stranger. + +Having been strengthened by two square meals, simple but sufficient, +I started back for Franklin Gulch the same night. It began to rain in +torrents on the way, and this, as usual, drove out the mosquitoes and +made them unusually savage. They attacked me in such numbers that in +spite of my gloves and veil I was nearly frantic. The best relief was +to stride along at a good round pace, for this kept most of the pests +at my back, and gave me a vent for my wrought-up nerves; and at the +same time I had the satisfaction of knowing I was "getting there." The +thong of my moccasin became undone, but I did not dare to stop to tie +it, but kept plunging along, shuffling it with me. I reached our cabin +at the mouth of Franklin Gulch, and the sight of the bunk with straw in +it, and the familiar grey blanket, was sweet to me. + +Next day we bade the miners at the creek's mouth good-bye, with +promises to hurry up the provision-boat if possible, and made our way +to where we had left our boat and cache. The next morning we launched +the Skookum again, and began our journey back. Going down was quicker +work than coming up, not so laborious, and far more exciting. Owing +to the lowness of the water, the stream was one succession of small +rapids, which were full of boulders; and to steer the boat, careering +like a race horse, among these, was a pretty piece of work. One pulled +the oars to give headway, another steered, and the third stood in the +bow, pole in hand, to fend us off from such rocks as we were in danger +of striking. We soon found that the safest part of such a rapid is +where the waves are roughest, for here the water, rebounding from the +shallow shore on either side, meets in a narrow channel, where it +tosses and foams, yet here is the only place where there is no danger +of striking. + +The second day out we ran twenty-five or thirty of these rapids. In +running through one we pulled aside to avoid a large boulder sticking +up in midstream, and then saw in front of us another boulder just at +the surface, which we had not before noticed. It was too late, however, +and the boat stuck fast in a second, and began to turn over from the +force of the water behind. With one accord we all leaped out of the +boat, expecting to find foothold somewhere among the boulders, and +hold the boat or shove her off so that she should not capsize; but +none of us touched bottom, though we sank to our necks, still grasping +the gunwale of the boat. Our being out, however, made the boat so much +lighter that she immediately slipped over the rock and went gloriously +down the rapid, broadside, we hanging on. As soon as we could we +clambered in, each grasped a paddle or oars or pole, and by great good +luck we had no further accident. + +Some distance further down we again sighted white water ahead, where +the stream ran hard against a perpendicular cliff. Some miners were +"rocking" gravel for gold in the bars just above; and we yelled to them +to know if we could run the rapids. + +"Yes," came the answer, "if you're a d----d good man!" + +"All right--thanks!" we cried, and sailed serenely through. This was +known by the cheerful name of Dead Man's Riffle. Owing to the strong +wind blowing, the mosquitoes were not very annoying these few days; +the sun was warm and bright, and the hillsides were covered thickly +with a carmine flower which gave them a general brilliant appearance. +These things, with the exhilaration of running rapids, made a sort of +vacation--an outing, a picnic, as it were--in contrast to our previous +hard work. When we got to the Miller Creek trail we took on a couple +of miners who wanted to get out of the country, but had no boat in +which to go down to Forty Mile Post. They had worked for some time and +had barely succeeded in making enough to buy food, and now, a little +homesick and discouraged, they had made up their minds to try to get +out and back to "God's country" as they called it--Colorado. With their +help we let our boat down through the "Cañon" safely, and the next +day,--the 29th of July,--arrived at Forty Mile Post. + +At the Post we found that plenty was reigning, for the first steamboat +had arrived, bringing a lot of sorely-needed provisions. The trader in +charge gave us a fine lunch of eggs, moosemeat, canned asparagus, and +other delicacies, and then we took possession of a deserted log cabin. +On ransacking around we found a Yukon lamp, consisting of a twisted bit +of cotton stuck into a pint bottle of seal oil, and when it began to +grow dusk we lighted it and sat down at the table and wrote home to our +friends; for the steamer had gone further up the river and would return +in a few days, so that letters sent down by her would probably be ahead +of us in getting home--eight thousand miles! We had laid in a new stock +of provisions. Flour, I remember was $8.00 for 100 pounds, and we +managed to get a few of the last eggs which the steamer had brought, +at $1.00 a dozen. + +The Skookum had suffered considerably in our Forty Mile trip, and we +spent a large part of the next day in patching her, plugging her seams +with oakum and sealing them with hot pitch. One of our number, who was +cooking for the boat-menders, suddenly appeared on the scene, chasing +a pack of yelping dogs with our long camp-axe. He had gone to the +woodpile for a moment, leaving the door ajar. At this moment a grey +dog whose tail had been cut off somehow, was looking around the log +house opposite--he had been on guard and watching our door for the last +twenty-four hours. He uttered a low yelp which brought a dozen others +together from all quarters, all lean, strong and sneaking; and they +slipped into our door. When the cook turned from the woodpile a minute +later he was just in time to aim a billet at the last one as he emerged +from the cabin with our cheese in his mouth. They fled swiftly and were +not to be caught: and an examination showed that they had, in their +silent and well organized raid, cleaned our larder thoroughly, having +eaten the delicacies on the spot and carried off nearly all the rest. + +[Illustration: NATIVE DOGS.] + +The Indian dog is a study, for he is much unlike his civilized brother. +He rarely barks, never at strangers, and takes no notice of a white man +who arrives in the village,--even though the village may never have +seen such a thing, and the children scream, the women flee, and the +men are troubled and silent--but he howls nights. A dog wakes up in +the middle of the night, yawns, looks at the stars, and listens. There +is not a sound. "How dull and stupid it is here in Ouklavigamute," +he thinks; "not nearly as lively as it was in Mumtreghloghmembramute. +There we had fights nearly every night, sometimes twice. If I only +knew a dog I was sure I could lick--anyhow, here goes for a good long +howl. I'll show them that there is a dog in town with spirit enough to +make a noise, anyhow." With that he tunes up--do, re, mi, tra-la-la, +dulce, crescendo, grand Wagnerian smash. The other dogs wake up and one +nudges the other and says, "Oh, my, what a lark! Isn't it fun! Let's +yell too--whoop, roo, riaow!" And just as men get excited at a football +game, or an election, or when the fire-alarm rings, these dogs yell +and grow red in the face. Then the inhabitants wake up and get out +after the dogs, who run and yelp; and after a while each cur crawls +into a hiding-place and goes to sleep. In the morning they wake up and +wriggle their tails. "What enthusiasm there was last night--but--er--I +didn't quite catch on to the idea--of course I yelled to help the other +fellows--it's such fun being enthusiastic, you know." + +This happens every night. The Indian dog makes it a point to stand +around like a bump on a log and look stupid; when he has fooled you to +that extent he will surprise you some day by a daring theft, for he is +clever as a man and quick as an express train. + + + + +CHAPTER V. +THE AMERICAN CREEK DIGGINGS. + + +From Forty Mile we floated down the Yukon again, and in a day's journey +camped at the mouth of Mission Creek, not then down on the map. It had +received its name from miners who had come there prospecting. Several +of them were encamped in tents, and they came over and silently watched +our cooking, evidently sizing us up. + +"When did you leave the Outside?" asked a blue-eyed, blonde, shaggy +man. (The Outside means anywhere but Alaska--a man who has been long in +the country falls into the idea of considering himself in a kind of a +prison, and refers to the rest of the world as lying beyond the door of +this.) + +"In June," we replied. + +"How did the Harvard-Yale football game come out last fall?" he +inquired eagerly--it was now August, and nearly time for the next! + +"Harvard was whipped, of course," we answered. + +"Look here," he said, firing up, "you needn't say 'of course.' Harvard +is _my_ college!" + +I was engaged in reinforcing my overalls with a piece of bacon sack; I +could not help being amused at this fair-haired savage being a college +man. "That makes no difference," I replied. "Harvard's _our_ college +too--all of us." + +"What are you giving me?" he ejaculated, and at first I thought he +looked a little angry, as if he thought we were trifling with him; and +then a little supercilious, as he surveyed the forlorn condition of my +clothing, which the removal of the overalls I wore instead of trousers +had exposed. + +"Hard facts," I said. "Classes of '92 and '93. Lend me your +sheath-knife." + +"Why-ee!" he exclaimed. "Ninety-three's my class. Shake!--Rah, +rah, rah! Who are we?--You know!--Who are we? We are Harvard +ninety-three--what can we do?--WHAT CAN WE DO?--We can +lick Harvard ninety-two--cocka-doodle-doodle-doo--Harvard, +Harvard--ninety-two--hooray!" + +The next day we tramped over to American Creek together, where some +new gold diggings were just being developed. The Harvard miner had +had no tea for several months, as he told us (and one who has been +living in Alaska knows what a serious thing that is) so we brought a +pound package along to make a drink for lunch. At American Creek we +got a large tomato can outside of a miner's cabin, and the Harvard man +offered to do the brewing. + +"How much shall I put in?" he asked. + +"Suit yourself," was the answer. + +He took a tremendous handful. "Is this too much?" he asked, +apologetically. "You see, I haven't had tea for three months, and I +feel like having a good strong cup." We assured him that the strength +of the drink was to be limited only by his own desires. He was tempted +to another handful, and so little by little, till half the package was +in the can. When he was satisfied, we told him to keep the remaining +half pound for the next time. He was disappointed. + +"If I had known you intended giving it to me," he replied, "I wouldn't +have used so much." We drank the tea eagerly, for we were tired, but my +head spun afterwards. + +There were some paying claims already on this creek--it was a little +stream which one could leap at almost any point--and on the day we +arrived we saw the clean-up in one of them. It was very dazzling to see +the coarse gold that was scraped from the riffles of the sluice-boxes +into the baking-powder cans which were used to store it. There was gold +of all sizes, from fine dust up to pieces as big as pumpkin seed; but +this was the result of a week's work of several men, and much time had +been spent in getting the claim ready before work could begin. Still, +the results were very good, the clean-up amounting, I was told, to +"thirty dollars to the shovel"--that is, thirty dollars a day to each +man shovelling gravel into the sluices. + +On the edge of the stream the rock, a rusty slate, lay loosely; one of +the miners was thrusting his pick among the pieces curiously, and on +turning one over showed the crevice beneath filled with flat pieces of +yellow gold of all sizes. They were very thin and probably worth only +about five dollars in all, but lying as they did the sight was enough +to give one the gold fever, if he did not yet have it. The Harvard +man and his companion were immediately seized with a violent attack, +and set off down the stream to stake out claims, meanwhile talking +over plans of wintering here, so as to be early on the ground the next +spring. + +I slept on the floor of a miner's cabin that night and the next morning +made my way back to our camp on the Yukon. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. +THE BIRCH CREEK DIGGINGS. + + +The next night we reached that part of the river where Circle City +was put down on the map we carried, but not finding it, camped on a +gravelly beach beneath a timbered bluff. When we went up the bluff to +get wood for our fire the mosquitoes fairly drove us back and continued +bothering us all night, biting through our blankets and giving us very +little peace, though we slept with our hats, veils, and gloves on. We +afterwards found that Circle City had at first been actually started at +about this point, but was soon afterwards moved further down, to where +we found it the next day. + +We had been looking forward to our arrival in this place for several +reasons, one of which was that we had had no fresh meat for over a +month, and hoped to find moose or caribou for sale. As our boat came +around the bend and approached the settlement of log huts dignified +by the name of Circle City, we noticed quite a large number of people +crowding down to the shore to meet us, and as soon as we got within +hailing distance one of the foremost yelled out: + +"Got any moose meat?" + +When we answered "No," the crowd immediately dispersed and we did not +need to inquire about the supply of fresh meat in camp. + +We landed in front of the Alaska Commercial Company's store, kept by +Jack McQuesten. On jumping ashore, I went up immediately, in search +of information, and as I stepped in I heard my name called in a loud +voice. I answered promptly "Here," with no idea of what was wanted, for +there was a large crowd in the store; but from the centre of the room +something was passed from hand to hand towards me, which proved to be +a package of letters from home--the first news I had received for over +two months. On inquiry I found that the mail up the river had just +arrived, and the storekeeper, who was also postmaster _ex officio_, +had begun calling out the addresses on the letters to the expectant +crowd of miners, and had got to my name as I entered the door--a +coincidence, I suppose, but surely a pleasant and striking one. + +We obtained lodgings in a log house, large for Circle City, since +it contained two rooms. It was already occupied by two customhouse +officers, the only representatives of Uncle Sam whom we encountered +in the whole region. One room had been used as a storeroom and +carpenter-shop, and here, on the shavings, we spread out our blankets +and made ourselves at home. + +The building had first been built as a church by missionaries, but +as they were absent for some time after its completion, one room was +fitted up with a bar by a newly arrived enterprising liquor-dealer, +till the officers, armed in their turn with the full sanction of the +church, turned the building into a customhouse and hoisted the American +flag, on a pole fashioned out of a slim spruce by the customs officer +himself. The officers, when we came there, were sleeping days and +working nights on the trail of some whisky smugglers who were in the +habit of bringing liquor down the river from Canadian territory, in +defiance of the American laws. + +There were only a few hundred men in Circle City at this time, most of +the miners being away at the diggings, for this was one of the busiest +times of the year. These diggings were sixty miles from the camp, and +were only to be reached by a foot trail which led through wood and +swamp. Several newcomers in the country were camped around the post, +waiting for cooler weather before starting out on the trail, for the +mosquitoes, they said, were frightful. It was said that nobody had been +on the trail for two weeks, on this account, and blood-curdling stories +were told of the torments of some that had dared to try, and how strong +men had sat down on the trail to sob, quite unable to withstand the +pest. However, we had seen mosquitoes before, and the next morning +struck out for the trail. + +It was called a wagon road, the brush and trees having been cut out +sufficiently wide for a wagon to pass; taken as a footpath, however, +it was just fair. The mosquitoes were actually in clouds; they were of +enormous size, and had vigorous appetites. It was hot, too, so that +their bites smarted worse than usual. The twelve miles, which the trail +as far as the crossing of Birch Creek had been said to be, lengthened +out into an actual fifteen, over low rolling country, till we descended +a sharp bluff to the stream. Here a hail brought a boatman across to +ferry us to the other side, where there stood two low log houses facing +one another, and connected overhead by their projecting log roofs. + +[Illustration: ON THE TRAMP AGAIN.] + +This was the Twelve Mile Cache, a road-house for miners, and here we +spent the night. Each of the buildings contained but a single room, +one house being used as a sleeping apartment, the other as kitchen +and dining-room. The host had no chairs to offer us, but only long +benches; and there were boxes and stumps for those who could not find +room on the benches, which were shorter than the tables. We ate out of +tin dishes and had only the regulation bacon, beans and apple-sauce, +yet it was with a curious feeling that we sat down to the meal and got +up from it, as if we were enjoying a little bit of luxury--for so it +seemed to us then. There were eleven of us who slept in the building +which had been set apart for sleeping; we all provided our own blankets +and slept on the floor, which was no other than the earth, and was so +full of humps and hollows, and projecting sharp sticks where saplings +had been cut off, that one or the other of the company was in misery +nearly all night, and roused the others with his cursings and growling. +The eight who were not of our party were miners returning from the +diggings with their season's earnings of gold in the packs strapped to +their backs; they all carried big revolvers and were on the lookout for +possible highwaymen. + +On getting up we washed in the stream, ate breakfast, and prepared to +start out again. In the fine, bright morning light we noticed a sign +nailed up on the dining cabin, which we had not seen in the dusk of +the preceding evening. It was a notice to thieves, and a specimen of +miners' law in this rough country. + + + NOTICE. + TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. + + _At a general meeting of miners held in Circle City it was + the unanimous Verdict that all thieving and stealing shall + be punished by WHIPPING AT THE POST AND BANISHMENT FROM THE + COUNTRY, the severity of the whipping and the guilt of the + accused to be determined by the Jury._ + + SO ALL THIEVES BEWARE. + +Our packs were about twenty-five pounds each, and contained blankets, +a little corned beef and crackers, and a few other necessities: they +were heavy enough before the day was over. From Twelve Mile Cache to +the diggings we travelled over what was called the Hog'em trail, since +it led to the gulch of that name: it ran for the whole distance through +a swamp, and was said to be a very good trail in winter--in summer +it was vile. We had been informed of a way which branched off from +the Hog'em route and ran over drier ground to a road-house called the +"Central House," but we were unable to pick up this; and we discovered +afterwards that it had been blazed from the Central House, but that the +blazing had been discontinued two or three miles before reaching the +junction of the Hog'em trail, the axe-man having got tired, or having +gone home for his dinner and forgotten to come back. So people like +ourselves, starting for the diggings, invariably followed the Hog'em +trail, whether they would or not, and those coming out of the diggings +and returning by way of the Central House, followed the blazes through +the woods till they stopped, and then wandered ahead blindly, often +getting lost. + +The Hog'em trail was a continuous bed of black, soft, stinking, +sticky mud, for it had been well travelled over. At times there was +thick moss; and again broad pools of water of uncertain depth, with +mud bottoms, to be waded through; and long stretches covered with +"nigger-heads." We walked twelve miles of this trail without stopping +or eating, for the mosquitoes were bloodthirsty, and even hunger can +hardly tempt a man to bestride a "nigger-head" and lunch under such +conditions. We arrived at night at what was called the "Jump-Off,"--a +sharp descent which succeeded a gradual rise--where we found two sturdy +men, both old guides from the Adirondacks, engaged in felling the trees +which grew on the margin of the stream, and piling them into a log +house. This they intended to use as a road-house, for the travel here +was considerable, especially in the winter. In the meantime they were +living in a tent, yet maintained a sort of hostelry for travellers, in +that they dispensed meals to them. As soon as they were through with +the big log they were getting into place when we arrived, they built a +fire on the ground and cooked supper, after which we were invited to +spread our blankets, with the stars and the grey sky for a shelter. +They made some apologies at not being able to offer us a tent--theirs +was a tiny affair,--and promised better accommodations if we would come +back a month from then, when the cabin would be finished and the chinks +neatly plugged with muck and moss. + +The next day's journey was again twelve miles, over about the same +kind of trail. Crossing a sluggish stream which was being converted +into a swamp by encroaching vegetation, we were obliged to wade nearly +waist deep, and then our feet rested on such oozy and sinking mud that +we did not know but the next moment we might disappear from sight +entirely. Further on, the trail ran fair into a small lake, whose +shores we had to skirt. There was no trail around, but much burnt and +felled timber lay everywhere, and climbing over this, balancing our +packs in the meantime, was "such fun." Sometimes we would jump down +from a high log, and, slipping a little, our packs would turn us around +in the air, and we would fall on our backs, sprawling like turtles, and +often unable to get out of our awkward position without help from our +comrades. + +Reedy lakes such as this, fringed with moss and coarse grass, with +stunted spruce a little distance away, are common through this swampy +country, and have something of the picturesque about them. The +surrounding vegetation is very abundant. Excellent cranberries are +found, bright red in color and small in size; and on a little drier +ground blue-berries nourish. Raspberries of good size, although borne +on bushes usually not more than two or three inches high, are also +here; and red and black currants. + +[Illustration: HOG'EM JUNCTION ROAD-HOUSE.] + +At the end of the second day we arrived at Hog'em Junction, where the +Hog'em trail unites with that leading off to the other gulches where +gold is found. Here was the largest road-house we had seen. There were +fifteen or twenty men hanging about, mostly miners returning or going +to the diggings, and a professional hunter--a sort of wild man, who +told thrilling stories of fighting bears. + +One of the structures we saw here was called the dog-corral and was +a big enclosure built of logs. Dogs were used to carry most of the +provisions to the Birch Creek diggings from Circle City, freighting +beginning as soon as the snow fell and everything froze hard. There was +a pack of these animals around the inn--a sneaking, cringing, hungry +lot, rarely barking at intruders or strangers, and easily cowed by a +man, but very prone to fight among themselves. They were all Indian +dogs, and were of two varieties; one long-haired, called Mahlemut, +from the fact that its home is among the Mahlemut Eskimo of the lower +Yukon; the other short-haired, and stouter. Both breeds are of large +size, and a good dog is capable of pulling as much as 400 pounds on a +sleigh, when the snow is very good, and the weather not too cold. The +dog-corral is used to put the sleighs in when the freighter arrives, +and the dogs are left outside, to keep them away from the provisions. +The winter price for freight from Circle City was seven cents per +pound; in summer it was forty. + +We ate breakfast and supper at Hog'em Junction, paying a dollar apiece +for the meals; and when we learned that the bacon which was served to +us had cost sixty-five cents a pound, the charge did not seem too much. +No good bacon was to be had, that which we ate being decidedly strong; +and even this kind had to be hunted after at this time of the year. Not +only was food very high in the diggings, but it could not always be +bought, so that in the winter, when freighting was cheap, enough could +not often be obtained to last through the next summer, and the miners +had to wait for the steamer to come up the Yukon. The Hog'em Junction +innkeeper paid twenty dollars for a case of evaporated fruit, such as +cost a dollar in San Francisco; condensed milk was one dollar a can, +and sugar eighty-five cents a pound. The previous winter beans brought +one dollar a pound, and butter two and a half dollars a roll. In summer +all prices were those of Circle City, plus forty cents freighting, plus +ten cents handling. So a sack of potatoes, which I was told would cost +twenty-five cents in the state of Washington, cost here eighty-five +dollars. Even in Circle City the prices, though comparatively low, were +not exactly what people would expect at a bargain counter in one of +our cities. Winchester rifles were sold for fifty dollars apiece, and +calico brought fifty cents a yard. Luckily there were few women folks +in the country at that time! + +Of the Hog'em Junction Inn I have little distinct recollection except +concerning the meals. We were so hungry when we reached there that +the food question was indelibly branded on our memory. For the rest +I remember that when supper was cleared away, the guests wrapped +themselves in their private blankets and lay down anywhere they thought +best. There was a log outhouse with some rude bunks filled with straw, +for those who preferred, so in a short time we were stowed away with +truly mediæval simplicity, to sleep heavily until the summons came to +breakfast,--for there were no "hotel hours" for lazy guests at this +inn, and he who did not turn out for a seven o'clock breakfast could go +without. + +We three separated on leaving here, each taking a different trail, +so that we might see all of the gulches in a short space of time. I +shouldered my blankets and after a seven mile tramp through the brush +came to the foot of Hog'em Gulch, which was in a deep valley in the +hills that now rose above the plain. This gulch derived its name +from the fact that its discoverer tried to _hog_ all the claims for +himself, taking up some for his wife, his wife's brother, his brother, +and the niece of his wife's particular friend; even, it is said, +inventing fictitious personages that he might stake out claims for +them. The other miners disappointed him in his schemes for gain, and +they contemptuously called the creek "Hog'em." Afterwards a faction +of the claim-owners proposed to change the name to Deadwood, claiming +that it sounded better and was also appropriate, inasmuch as they had +got that variety of timber on the schemer. It was somewhat unkindly +asserted, however, by those who were not residents of the gulch, that +the first name was always the most appropriate, since the spirit of the +discoverer seemed to have gone down to his successors. + +Be that as it may, I noticed a remarkable difference between the men +whom I found working their claims along the creek and the miners of +Forty Mile. Nobody showed the slightest hospitality or friendliness, +except one man on the lower creek, who invited me to share his little +tent at night. He had not enough blankets to keep him warm, so I added +mine, and beneath them both we two slept very comfortably. In the +morning he cooked a very simple meal over a tiny fire outside of the +tent--wood was scarce along here--and invited me, with little talk, +to partake of it with him. He was evidently far from happy in this +cheerless existence; he was working for wages, which, to be sure, were +ten dollars a day, but with provisions as high as they were this was +nothing much, and the work was so hard that, great stalwart man as he +was, he had lost thirty pounds since he had begun. He would have liked +to return to the States, for he was somewhat discouraged, but he could +not save enough money to pay for the expensive passage out. I hope he +has struck it rich since then and brought back to his wife and babies +the fortune he went to seek! + +[Illustration: ON HOG'EM GULCH.] + +After I left this silent man, I found none who showed much interest. +Some of them were a little curious as to what I was doing, but most +of them were fiercely and feverishly working to make the most of the +hours and weeks which remained of the mining season; the run of gold +was ordinarily very good, and all were anxious to make as good a final +clean-up as possible. At dinner-time everybody rushed to their meal, +and I sat down by the side of the trail, ate stale corned beef, broken +crackers, and drank the creek water. When I was half-way through I +observed two young men in a tent munching their meal, but watching +me; and a sort of righteous indignation came upon me, as must always +seize the poor when he beholds the abundance of the rich man's table. I +walked into the tent and asked for a share of their dinner. They gave +me a place, but so surlily that I said hotly, "See here, I'll pay you +for this dinner, so don't be so stingy about it." The offer to pay was +an insult to the miner's tradition and one of them growled out, + +"None of that kind of talk, d'ye hear? You're welcome to whatever we've +got, and don't yer forget it! Only there's been a good many bums along +here lately, and we was getting tired of them." + +After this they were pleasanter, although I could not help reflecting +that I was actually a bum, as they put it, and mentally pitied the +professional tramp, if his evil destiny should ever lead him into the +Yukon country. + +As it grew near nightfall I climbed out of the gulch, and, crossing +the ridge, dropped down into Greenhorn Gulch, which, with its neighbor +Tinhorn Gulch, form depressions parallel to Hog'em. There was only one +claim working here, and on this the supply of water was so scarce that +not much washing could be done. The people seemed like those of Hog'em +Gulch, and took little notice of strangers. Having learned a new code +of manners on Birch Creek, however, I walked into the cabin where +one of the claim owners was getting supper. He was a short, powerful, +fierce-eyed man, who never smiled, and spoke with an almost frenzied +earnestness. He did not speak for some time, however, but glared +suspiciously when I walked in. I looked at him without nodding, took +off my pack and put it in the corner, sat down on a stool and fished +my pipe out of my pocket. He glared until he was tired, and then said: +"Hallo!" + +"Hallo," I returned, and drawing up to the table, began working with my +specimens and notebook. Looking up and finding him still regarding me, +I continued: "How's the claim turning out?" + +"Pretty fair!" he growled. "What in h--l are _you_ reportin' for?" +"Uncle Sam," I replied. He was from the moonshine district of +Tennessee, and this was no recommendation to him, so he kept his eye +on me. Presently his "pardner" came in and looked at me inquiringly. I +spoke to him quite warmly, as if I was welcoming him to the cabin. Soon +supper was ready, and the fierce-eyed moonshiner looked at me four or +five times, then said, beckoning me to the table: "Set up." + +After supper the two men crawled into their bunks; I spread my blankets +on the floor. The Tennessee man poked his head out. + +"Goin' to sleep on the floor?" he asked. + +"Yes," answered I. He crawled out and pulled a caribou hide from the +rafters above. + +"Lay on that," he said. + +When I thanked him, he looked at me suspiciously. + +In the morning I sat down to breakfast without being asked, and ate +enormously and silently. The moonshiner warmed up at this. + +"You're a better sort of feller than I thought at first," he said; "I +thought you was goin' to be one of them d--d polite fellers." + +"Me? Oh, no; not me," I replied, "you're thinkin' of some one else, I +reckon?" + +After breakfast he showed me his gold dust; a little flat piece +interested me, and I said, "Gimme that, I'll pay yer; what's it worth?" + +"Nothin'," he replied. "Yer can take it." + +Afterwards I shouldered my pack and made for the door; when I got there +I stopped and looked over my shoulder and said, "So long!" + +"So long to _you_!" he answered, looking after me with more human +interest than I had previously seen in him. "Stop here when you come +this way again." + +I climbed out of the gulch and walked along the mountain ridge for a +while, encountering, whenever there was no wind, swarms of the tiny +gnats which the miners often dread worse than the mosquitoes. They +are so numerous as actually to obscure the sun in places and they +fill nose, ears, and eyes; there is no escape from them, for they +are so small that they go through the meshes of a mosquito net with +the greatest ease. On top of the ridge, where the wind blew, they +disappeared. As I walked along here I met a prospector, and after a +friendly talk with him, dropped down another mountain-side to the bed +of Independence Creek, and followed that to the junction of Mammoth +Creek, so called from the number of bones of the extinct elephant, +or mammoth, which are buried there. Wading across a swamp, I found +in the brush another road-house, the Mammoth Junction. This was a +large log building containing a single room, which served as kitchen, +dining-room, parlor, general bedroom, and barroom. At first I was the +only guest, but afterwards a prospector arrived from a hard trip to the +Tanana, and he related his experiences; how he had shot three bears, +seven caribou, and a moose in seven days. He was a tall, well-built +Cape Bretoner, Dick McDonald by name. When he got tired of talking +I spread my blankets on the floor (for which privilege I paid fifty +cents) and gladly stowed myself away for the night. + +The next day a tramp of seventeen miles brought me to the Central +House, on the way home from the diggings; for although our rendezvous +should have been at Mammoth Junction, yet I concluded to wait for the +others at Circle City. The trail was very bad, and during the first +part of the journey the gnats were as annoying as they had been on +the mountains the day before. There were millions of them. During the +last part the mosquitoes got the upper hand, and gave me the strictest +attention. + +"Ah," I soliloquized, perspiring freely and tugging at my pack +straps like a jaded horse at his harness, "the trials of an Alaskan +pioneer! Stumbling and staggering through mud knee-deep, and through +nigger-heads, wading streams, fighting gnats and mosquitoes, suffering +often from hunger and thirst, and rolling into one's sole pair of +blankets under the frosty stars or the rain-clouds!" + +When my views were thus gloomy, a smell of smoke came to my nostrils, +and crossing a little stream on a fallen tree, I came to the friendly +inn I was seeking. + +The next morning, at five o'clock by my watch and eight by the host's, +(it is unnecessary to observe that there was no standard time used in +the Birch Creek district) I started for Twelve Mile Cache. The first +part of the trail was fairly well worn, but was covered with small dead +trees which had fallen across it, necessitating the continual lifting +of the feet and the taking of irregular steps. Ten miles of this was +enough to make one very weary. I lunched on my stale corned beef and +cracker crumbs, and drank from a little creek that I crossed. Soon +after this, I came to a place where a newly blazed trail, leading to +the Twelve Mile Cache, diverged from the older path, which ran up +over the mountains. Deciding to take the newer route, I found it very +hard walking, especially as my feet were clad in the Eskimo sealskin +boot, or makalok, which are soft and offer little protection. Much of +the road lay among immense untrodden nigger-heads and in swampy brush, +where the sticks which had been cut off in making the trail stuck up +three or four inches above the ground, just convenient for stubbing the +toe; and yet the long grass quite concealed them, so they could not +be avoided. Afterwards the trail struck into an old winter sleighing +road, and I got on more rapidly for a few miles; but the mosquitoes had +increased to legions and stung painfully. The gnats and flies were also +numerous, the big deer flies biting my ears where the mosquito netting +rested on them, till they were bloody. + +At about four o'clock the cut trail came to an end, and here was a +stick pointing into the woods, inscribed: + +"FOLLER THES BLAIES TO TWELV MILL HOUSE. SIX MILLS TO TWELV MILL HOUSE +9 MILLS CENTRAL HOUSE." + +The "blaies" (blazes) had been newly cut, and as I started to follow +them, it seemed that they led through the thickest of the brush, +where it was almost impossible to fight one's way, especially with a +pack, which protrudes on both sides of the shoulders, and which often +wedges one firmly between two saplings. Soon the blazes grew further +and further apart; after leaving one it often took ten minutes to +find the next, scouting around everywhere in the tangle of bushes. +The mosquitoes kept up their attacks, and my head began to ache +splittingly, partly from their bites and partly from the jerking of the +head strap of my pack in my struggles through the brush. + +At last in despair I abandoned the attempt to follow the blazes, +and turning square away from them, struck off in the direction +where I knew the Hog'em Junction trail, by which we had reached the +diggings, must lie, steering by my compass. Very soon I found better +walking,--comparatively open swampy patches, with alder thickets +between--and in half a mile I cut into the trail I was seeking. Three +miles of this trail brought me to Twelve Mile Cache, after one of the +hardest days I had had in Alaska. Compared with such a trip as this +the dreaded Chilkoot Pass was not so formidable, after all. The entire +distance I had travelled was twenty-seven miles. I had counted my paces +through it all, and they tallied with the count of my companions, who +came on later. + +For supper at Twelve Mile Cache we had fresh fish,--pike and Arctic +trout--taken from a trap in the river, and fresh vegetables raised on +the roof, which was covered with a luxuriant garden. A thick layer +of rich loam had been put on, and the seed dropped into this throve +amazingly, for the fires inside the cabin supplied warmth, and the +plants did not have to fight against the eternal frost which lies +everywhere a short distance below the surface. The long glorious +sunshine of the northern summer did the rest, and splendid potatoes, +rutabagas, cabbages, beets, and lettuce were the results. + +The fifteen miles back to Circle City the next day was a very weary +walk, for my overwork on the day before had left me tired out. The +mosquitoes were maddening on the last part of the trail, in spite of +gloves and veil. On getting into Circle City, however, I was kindly +welcomed by my friends, the customs officers, and given a square meal. +The room we had occupied as a bedroom had, in the short time since we +had left, been put to still other uses. A newly arrived physician was +using it for a laboratory, and a man who had brought a scow load of +merchandise down the Yukon was storing his stuff in the same room. Also +a red-sweatered young man turned up who said he had been told to sleep +here, but the customs officers kicked him out and he went and slept +under an upturned boat on the bank. After a bath I felt refreshed, +but glancing into a looking-glass for the first time for many a day, +I saw that my appearance was still against me. I was a long-haired, +bushy-bearded, ragged, belted and knifed wild man, not fair to look +upon. + +I spent the next day in wandering around town in a desultory fashion, +and on returning to the customhouse found the door locked. When I +knocked I was challenged and then cautiously admitted: on entering +I was surprised to see the officers with their rifles ready for use +alongside of them. Ross lifted up the strip of calico which formed a +curtain hiding the space under the bed and disclosed two good-sized +kegs. These he told me he and Wendling (the other officer) had seized +while we were away. It was, and is, entirely illegal to bring liquor +into the territory of Alaska, and this law and its attendant features +have brought about much of the dishonesty and corruption which have +made the inside history of Alaskan government since its acquisition by +Americans such a dismal one. + +[Illustration: CUSTOM HOUSE AT CIRCLE CITY.] + +In Circle City liquor was freely brought down the river from the +British side of the boundary. The first customs inspector was said to +have been a notorious rascal, who had not only winked at the bringing +in of liquor, but had taken a hand in the trade himself. The present +representatives of the government, however, seemed to wish to do +their duty, and their watching nights and sleeping days had finally +resulted in their trapping the smugglers as they were landing, and +they had captured the whisky and had brought it to the customhouse, +where the whole camp knew it to be. The whole camp was interested in +it, moreover, for it had been whisky-dry; and the feeling towards the +officers was probably none of the best in any quarter, although most +recognized that they were simply doing their duty. At the enormously +high prices which prevailed, these two kegs were worth several thousand +dollars, and so were valuable booty. Therefore, a plot had been hatched +to recover the liquor, and this plot had come to the officers' ears +a few hours before the _coup_ was to have taken place. Hence the +caution and warlike preparations which greeted me. The men from whom +the whisky had been taken were the leaders in the scheme, and they +had also enlisted several miners, among them a gigantic fellow who +called himself "Caribou Bill," and whom I had met on the trail to +the diggings. Bill gave the thing away by going to a saloon-keeper +and trying to borrow a second revolver--he already had one. On being +questioned as to why he wanted it, he took the saloon-keeper into his +confidence. The saloon-keeper told a friend of his, who being also a +friend of one of the customs officers, cautioned him. + +Both of the officers advised me to go elsewhere till the trouble was +over, but reflecting that I was their guest and so under obligations +to them, and also that I was an officer of Uncle Sam, and was in duty +bound to "uphold the government of the United States by land and sea, +against foreign and domestic enemies" as had been specified in my oath +of office, I decided to remain with them. Ross hunted up two of his +old friends among the miners and told them he proposed to resist the +attack till the last, and that if there should be any bloodshed he +hoped the camp would treat him fairly, considering that he had simply +been doing his duty. The miners offered to stay with us and help in the +resistance, but as we knew their hearts were hardly in their offer of +loyalty, we refused to let them stay. One of them, however, loaned his +rifle to Wendling; and as he went to get it, a couple of forms behind +the house jumped up and ran away. The other miner, who had also gone +out for a moment, returned with the news that he had seen four men +skulking behind the bank which lay in front of the house. + +The plan of the smugglers and their friends, as Ross had learned it, +was to come to the door of the cabin and knock. When the officer went +to the door to open it, he would be covered with a revolver, and the +second officer with another, and the whisky would be rolled out and +over the bank into a boat which would convey it up the river into a +new hiding-place. If the officers resisted they would be shot and the +whisky taken just the same. The plan we determined upon was to leave +the door unlocked, so that when the expected knock should come we +would not have to go to the door to open it, but would call out "Come +in" without stirring. I had my post on a box near the wall directly +opposite the door, while Ross sat in the darkness close by the window, +so that when the knocker should enter he would find the muzzles of +repeating rifles levelled at him from two opposite directions, and be +invited to drop his fire-arms and surrender. Wendling was in the other +room watching the second door and window, but we did not expect the +attack to be made there, since the smugglers must know very well that +the whisky was in the officers' living-room, where we were. + +Directly after we had taken our places a man came and stood twenty +yards in front of the cabin in the dusk, and beckoned. Ross went out +to him, and a long talk ensued, which ended by the officer returning. +He said that the man had told him that we were three against many, and +that they were bound to get the whisky anyway, since it was theirs and +they would fight for it; so if Ross would simply yield without fighting +it would save us. At the same time they would be willing to pay him a +nice little sum as a plaster wherewith to heal his wounded dignity. +Ross had replied that they had mistaken their man; whereupon he was +informed that he must take the consequences. So he returned, and we +waited with tense nerves, in momentary expectation of an attack, our +eyes strained, our fingers on the triggers of our cocked rifles, our +ears listening. + +After an hour or more had passed, and no sound was heard, the suspense +began to grow unbearable. Ross whispered to me, "If them fellers are +coming I wish they'd hurry up, and not keep us waiting here all night." +Shortly afterwards Wendling, crawling cautiously and silently around +in the other room, knocked down from some shelf on the wall a pile +of tin pans, which made a terrific rattle and bang; this upset our +tightly-drawn nerves so that we laughed convulsively, trying to choke +down our merriment so that it could not be heard. Still no noise from +the outside, save that once we heard coughing behind the logs at the +back of the building. Ross, peering through the window, saw now and +then a shadowy form creeping along the bank in front; and Wendling, +reconnoitring through the window in the other room, saw other figures +passing around back of the house. And still no alarm. Sitting bolt +upright on my box, I suddenly caught my head, which was in the act of +falling forward--caught it with a jerk which brought my eyes wide open, +and at the same time horror filled my soul--I was in danger of falling +asleep! This frightened me so that I kept awake easily after that. So +we waited till the morning grey brightened in the sky, when finally +Ross remarked: "Well, there's no more danger, and I'm tired enough to +sleep." We rolled ourselves in our blankets and dropped asleep without +a moment's delay, not waking until the day was late and Goodrich and +Schrader, just returning from the diggings, pounded on the door and +asked for admission and a bite to eat. + +Concerning the reasons why the raid was given up, there was much inner +history that I never learned. I suspect that the miners who had offered +to help us afterwards warned the smugglers, telling them how well we +were prepared, and that this kept them from carrying out their plans. + +The next night a grand ball was gotten up by the ladies of Circle City, +and our bedroom in the customhouse--being one of the largest places +available--was selected as the scene of the dance. I was requested to +write the announcements of the ball, which I did, and stuck one up on +each of the Companies' stores. They ran as follows: + + SOCIAL DANCE. + + _There will be a SOCIAL DANCE + given by the ladies of CIRCLE CITY + Wednesday Eve. Aug. 19th, + At the residence of Mr. George Ross. + The supply of ice cream brought up on the + Arctic being exhausted, there will be + no collation. + No rubber boots allowed on the floor. + Dogs must be tied with ribbons in the anteroom._ + +After the notices were posted, one of the customs officers came to me +in great perturbation concerning the regulation about rubber boots, +saying that such a restriction would exclude many desirable and +well-meaning gentlemen who would otherwise be able to attend. + +The shavings were swept out of the room and our beds and other stuff +cleared out. Wax candles were cut up and rubbed on the floor, and by +dusk everything was in readiness. One of the trading companies donated +the candles, which were stuck up around the room to the extent of +nearly a dozen, and furnished a brilliant illumination. The services +of a pock-marked vagabond who was employed around a saloon and +dance-house was secured as director of the affair, and two miners just +in from the gulches (they had taken only one change of clothes to the +diggings and had not had time to change them after coming back before +going to the dance), furnished the orchestra, playing very acceptably +on guitar and fiddle. The music was all classical,--Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay +or the Irish washerwoman occupying most of the time. Each of the +players was so enthusiastic in his art that he often entirely forgot +his companion, and would be fiddling away at the closing spasms of +Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay, with perspiring zeal, when his more rapid partner +had finished this tune and was merrily galloping through + + "Wuz ye iver inside of an Irishman's shanty? + Wid salt an' peraties an' iverything planty, + A three-legged stool an' a table to match, + And the door of the shanty unlocks wid a latch!" + +The pock-marked director yelled out "_Swing_ your pardners. _Ladies_ +to the left. _Forward_ and back! _Alleman left!_ etc.," loud above the +squeak of the stringed instruments. The couples gyrated in eccentric +curves around in obedience to the cries; the candles flickered in the +draft from the open door; and a row of miners too bashful to dance, or +who could find no partners, sat on boxes close to the wall, hunched up +their legs and spit tobacco-juice, until the middle of the floor was a +sort of an island. In short, it was the most brilliant affair Circle +City had ever witnessed; even the Indians who crowded around the open +door and peered in over one another's heads murmured in admiration, and +all agreed that it was a "_haioo_ time", which is equivalent to saying +a rip-roaring time. This was not the first dance held in the camp. +The small but powerful contingent of ladies of adventure held nightly +dances, but this was the first where the ladies were respectable. + +We were hard put to it for finery. The dancer of our party, having, as +we explained to him, to bear in a way the brunt of the social duties +for us all, bought a new pair of blue overalls, much too large for +him; these he turned up at the bottom, and braced up mightily, so that +they covered many shortcomings; then he bought a green and yellow +abomination of a necktie, which had been designed to catch the heathen +fancy of the natives, plastered his hair down, and worried the tangles +out of his beard. After this he was the beau of the evening, the gayest +of the gay, being snubbed by only one woman, and she of doubtful +reputation, as we consolingly reminded him. + +The men in general wore the most varied costumes, high boots being +the prevailing style, though even the rubber boots I had been so near +forbidding were seen; then one might notice the Indian moccasins, and +the sealskin makalok, which had been brought up from the Eskimos on the +lower Yukon. Flannel shirts without coat or vests were the rule, for +the night was warm. Here and there was a corduroy coat, or a mackinaw +checked with red and green squares four inches across, but the wearers +of them suffered for their vanity. In striking and almost ridiculous +contrast to this picturesque attire was the black cutaway suit and +polished shoes of the baker who had just arrived on a Yukon steamer +from St. Michael's. + +After midnight we had cake, which the ladies had brought with them, and +considering the fact that they had so little material for cooking, the +variety and excellence were remarkable. Underneath the festive board +which covered the bed still lay concealed the two kegs of whisky which +we had watched over the night before. It was at a late hour (to adopt +country newspaper phraseology) that the company broke up, loud in their +praises of the success of the fête, and returned to their respective +homes. We then rolled our blankets out upon the waxed floor, and lay +down for another night. + +The same day a river steamer had arrived in Circle City from the lower +Yukon, bringing our trunks to us, which we had sent around by water +from Seattle. These were well filled with a goodly outfit for the +winter, for we had expected that our work would take us two seasons. We +had, however, gotten on twice as well as we had expected, and already +saw the end of our task ahead, so there was nothing to hinder us from +going out this same fall. The freight on our three trunks from Seattle +was one hundred and eighty dollars, and we did not feel justified in +expending a like sum to carry them back. We therefore determined to +sell our things, and the day after the party I wrote out notices +announcing an auction to be held in the room where we had danced. + +Wendling volunteered to act as auctioneer, provided he were allowed +to work in as part of our effects several hundred pounds of tobacco +which he had brought up as a speculation. At seven o'clock we started +in, having borrowed a pair of gold-scales for the sake of transacting +the financial part of the business, for almost the sole currency of +the camp was gold dust. Not being ourselves accustomed to the delicate +operation of weighing, we persuaded some of the miners to do it for us, +so that there should be no question as to fairness. At eight the miners +began leaving and we were told that a miners' meeting had been called, +so we adjourned for an hour, and attended the gathering. + +The miners' meeting was the sole legislative, judiciary and executive +body in these little republics. To settle any question whatever, any +one had the right to call such a council, which brought the issue to +a summary close. This one was held in the open air close to the river +bank in front of the Company's store. The miners flocked together and +conversed in groups. Nobody knew who had called the meeting or why; +but presently some grew impatient, remarking: "Let's have the meeting. +Who's for chairman?" + +One man answered: "What's the matter with Sandy Jim for chairman? Here +he is, just in from the diggings! Come over here, Jim!" + +"Second the motion, somebody. Any body object to Sandy Jim?" said the +first speaker. "Climb up on the box, Sandy, my boy." + +Sandy Jim was a slender, blonde young man with quiet manners, and a +style of speech which told of a good education. He mounted the box +in the centre of the crowd, and having thus obtained a commanding +position, he began, with correct parliamentary methods, to bring +about order. Having requested silence, he inquired who had called the +meeting. A man who acted as town clerk or some similar officer in the +miners' vague system of government, explained that he had issued the +call, to inform the miners that some one had settled upon a piece +of land that had been set aside for town purposes, and, in spite of +warnings to the contrary, was proceeding to erect a log house upon it; +and that the tent temporarily occupied by the individual mentioned +was already pitched upon the lot. As an officer of the camp he had +felt in duty bound to call a meeting and let the boys decide what was +to be done. Instantly there was a rattle of contradictory suggestions, +everybody addressing everybody else, and forgetting to turn to the +chairman. Finally a tall man with a heavy black beard mounted the box +and addressed the meeting, arguing coldly and logically that the person +had acted in defiance of the miners' meeting, which was the only law +they had; and proposing that he be fined, and in case he resisted +further, put in a boat and set floating down the Yukon. There was a +general murmur of approval, and the chairman, putting the question to +a vote, found a fairly unanimous verdict in favor of the speaker's +suggestion. + +"Before I appoint a committee," said the chairman, "the meeting should +know who the person is who has to be dealt with, and I will ask the +gentleman who called the meeting to give the information." + +The clerk of the camp elbowed his way forward a little. "I've been +trying to get a word in for a long time," he said. "I don't think we +ought to be so hard in this case. You all know the person--it's Black +Kitty. She's a woman, even if she _is_ black and a fighter, and she's +alone and working for a living. I move we go it easy." + +Amid another buzz the tall bearded man got up and remarked: "That's +different. I don't think any one wanted to quarrel with a woman, and +a black one at that." This was only his way of expressing it, for he +certainly did not mean that he would rather have quarrelled with a +white woman. "Anyhow, there's plenty of land for public purposes out +there in the brush, and I move an amendment that we let Kitty alone!" + +In defiance of all parliamentary usage, this amendment was accepted +with a chorus of approval by the crowd, which, satisfied with itself, +scattered almost before the chairman could make himself heard, +sanctioning and proclaiming valid the last expression of opinion. + +Most of the miners returned to our cabin, where the auction began +again, and lasted till twelve o'clock, by which time we had sold nearly +everything we cared to, at prices a little above cost in Seattle. +Wendling also succeeded in disposing of a hundred pounds of his +tobacco, putting up lots every now and then. Some miners expressed +surprise to Ross that we should use so much tobacco, and Ross winked +and put his finger on his nose and said, "You don't know the inside, +that's all. See that little feller over there?" indicating me. "That +little feller chews a pound a day. Yes, sir! He eats it sometimes." + +The next morning we weighed out our gold dust and found it some +twenty-five dollars more than we had any record of, from which we +inferred that the miners who had so kindly superintended the weighing +of the various sums paid in had been a little generous, and always +given full weight. When we got to San Francisco, and presented our gold +dust at the mint, where it was weighed accurately, we received several +dollars more for it than we made it from our final weighing; so it +appears that the Yukon miner's currency is none of the most accurate. +Stories were told around camp, of barkeepers who panned the sawdust on +their floor and made good wages at it; and it was alleged that one had +a strip of carpet on his counter, into which he let fall a trifle of +gold dust every time he took a pinch for a drink of whisky, and at the +end of the day, by taking up his carpet and shaking it, he had a nice +little sum over his day's earnings. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. +THE MYNOOK CREEK DIGGINGS. + + +The next day, the 21st of August, we loaded up the Skookum again, and +dropped away from Circle City with the current. The customs officers +were short of rice, but they sent a pair of old slippers flying after +us as we moved away; and several of the ladies who had been at the +dance stood on the bank and waved us adieu. Soon the river broadened +out, with many channels flowing amid a maze of low wooded islands. This +was the beginning of the great Yukon Flats, which stretch in dreary +monotony for so many miles below Circle City. + +The wind blew strong, with gusts of rain, in the morning, and increased +to a gale which lasted nearly all day. The proper channel was difficult +to determine, and we were often sucked into some little channel or +slough (pronounced "sloo"), only to find our way back again, after a +long circuit, to the larger body of water, at a place near where we +had left it. No hills were visible in any direction--nothing but the +waste of waters, the sandspits, and the level wooded islands and banks. +At night we reached Fort Yukon, a trading post, which is situated at +the junction of the Porcupine with the Yukon; we had made the distance +from Circle City, estimated at about eighty miles, in sixteen hours. So +bewildering are the various channels here that one would hardly suspect +that any stream entered the Yukon, and the current is so varied and +sluggish that one might easily attempt to ascend the Porcupine, having +the impression that he was still descending the Yukon--a delusion that +would be dispelled after the first few miles. + +Like other so-called "Forts" in the Alaskan country, Fort Yukon was +simply a rough log building inhabited by one white man, who had a +scanty stock of very poor provisions, such as flour and tea, to +exchange for skins with the natives. Around the building the Indians +had made their camp, as usual, a trading-post being always the nucleus +of a dirty and foul-smelling congregation of natives. From one Indian +we bought a whitefish, and on his presenting it to us whole, we +motioned him to clean it; he did so, laying the entrails carefully on +a board. He wished tea in exchange for it, and not being experienced +in native trading, we gave him what we afterwards learned was ten +or twelve times the usual price. We had the best English breakfast +tea, and he was at first doubtful at this, having seen only the cheap +black tea always sold to the natives; but he was vastly pleased at the +quantity, and, laughing delightedly, proceeded to "treat" his friends +on the occasion of his good fortune, by handing around the raw entrails +of the fish, which they divided and ate without further ceremony. + +Not liking to sleep within reach of the Indian dogs, who are very +dangerous enemies to one's bacon, we dropped down the river half a mile +below the post and made camp in a spruce grove--a beautiful spot, cool, +and free from mosquitoes. + +The next day we were still in the flats. There was a high wind +blowing and the sky was spotted with curious clouds. Some were like +cauliflowers in form; others were funnel-shaped; and still others were +dark, with long black tentacles of rain. Whenever these tentacles +passed over the river in a direction against the current, an ugly chop +sea was the result, and our boat, stout dory though she was, shipped +water in some of these places. + +Floating down through the network of channels we suddenly ran hard +upon a sand-bar, and it took a couple of hours' work to get us off, +for as soon as we were lodged the sand which the Yukon waters carry +began settling round the boat and banking it in, making it the hardest +work imaginable to move it. While we were tugging and groaning in our +efforts, a steamer--the Arctic--came down the river behind us, and +being steered by experienced Indian pilots, struck the right channel +only a short distance from us and floated past triumphantly. The deck +was swarming with miners who were bound for St. Michael's, and they +made many jocose remarks at our expense, offering to take word to our +friends, and do other favors for us. We said nothing, though we fumed +inwardly. Finally we succeeded in getting free, and floated off. Some +time afterwards we saw behind us what appeared to be the smoke of +another steamer; but when we stopped for lunch the craft caught up +with us, and proved to be an ordinary open boat like our own, but with +a Yukon stove made of sheet iron set up in it, whereon the solitary +passenger cooked his dinner while he floated. + +In the afternoon we caught sight of a bona fide steamer ahead of us, +and as we came steadily closer, it seemed as if she must be stopping; +soon we recognized the Arctic, and saw that the crew and all the +passengers were laboring excitedly in many ways, trying to get the boat +off the sand-bar on which she was stuck. We ran close by her, for there +was water enough for our little boat, although the rapid deposit from +the river had built up a bank to the surface of the water on one side +of the steamer. We were sorry for these men, who were in a hurry to get +to St. Michael's, and so on home; at the same time we could not resist +the temptation to return to them their greetings of the morning, and +offer to take letters to their friends. They did not seem to be so much +amused at the joke as they had been in the morning--probably because +they had heard it before. + +We were several days floating through this monotonous part of the +river. There were always the same banks of silt, from which portions, +undercut by the current, were continually crashing into the stream; +these were immediately taken up and hurried along by the current to +form part of the vast deposit of mud which the Yukon has built up at +its mouth, and which has filled up the Behring sea until it is shallow +and dangerous. On the higher banks, which were forty feet or so above +the river (it was then low water), spruce and other trees were growing, +and as the soil which bore them was undercut, they too dropped into +the river and started on their long journey to the sea. Along the vast +tundra at the Yukon mouth, and the treeless shores of the Behring sea, +the natives depend entirely upon these wandered trees for their fuel. +The quantity brought down every year is enormous, for the stream is +continually working its way sidewise, and cutting out fresh ground. + +Everywhere we noticed the effects of the ice which comes grinding down +the river in the spring. The trees had been girdled by the ice and were +dying, the underbrush cut down, the earth plowed up, and occasionally +there were piles of pebbles where a grounded cake had melted and +deposited its burden. + +[Illustration: THE BREAK-UP OF THE ICE ON THE YUKON.] + +We used to camp on the gravel bars mostly, to avoid the mosquitoes; +but every now and then a night was cool and even frosty, and the +mosquitoes and gnats, after starting in their assault, were gradually +numbed, and their buzzing grew fainter and fainter till it disappeared. +When we felt such nights coming on, we camped in the spruce groves on +the higher banks, built roaring fires and sat by them comfortably and +smoked, looking out on the smooth river with the dark even fringe of +trees between it and the sky with its snapping stars; and for the first +time on our trip we began to have some of the pleasures which usually +come to the camper-out. + +We passed Indian hunting and fishing camps occasionally, and once a +solitary white man engaged in cutting wood for the river steamers. The +natives seemed always to have plenty to eat, and we frequently obtained +from them fish, duck, moose, and berries. As we passed a camp the +inhabitants would put out in their tiny birch-bark canoes, if we did +not stop; and, overtaking us with ease, would hold up for purchase such +articles as they had. The berries were in native dishes of hewn wood, +or of birch-bark tied with wooden thongs, and were so quaint that we +took them home as curiosities. + +After several days in the Flats, we saw--when the clouds lifted after a +prolonged rainstorm--that the course of the river was apparently barred +by low mountains, level-topped, with occasional higher peaks rising +above the general level, but all with smooth and rounded outlines. As +we drew nearer we saw a narrow valley cutting through the mountains, +and into this the river ran. Just before entering, we found a trading +post, Fort Hamlin by name, and from the trader, who was the only white +man here, we each bought a pair of Eskimo water-boots, made of the +skin of the makalok or hair seal, soaked in oil. We had long ago worn +out the most of our civilized foot-gear, and were obliged to adopt the +native styles. These Eskimo boots often have soles of walrus, and yet +they are too thin for walking over stones, so they are made very large, +and dried grass is put into the bottom; the foot, too, is wrapped in as +many thicknesses of cloth or skins as possible, and thus is protected +against bruises and against the cold of the severest winter weather. + +Leaving Fort Hamlin, we floated down through picturesque hills, on +the sides of which the birch was beginning to yellow. Another day +brought us to Mynook Creek, of which we had heard at Circle City as +likely to be a good gold producer. At the mouth of the creek we found +the temporary camps of a few prospectors, who were on their way up to +stake out claims. There were also numerous Indians encamped in the +vicinity--true savages, with very few words of English among them, +"yes" "no" and "steamboat" making up almost their entire vocabulary. + +A sort of chief among them was a Mynook, a half-breed with more Indian +than white in his features. It was after him that the creek had been +named (or rather renamed, for it had formerly been known as the +Klanakakat or Klanachargut, the native name); he had been the first +to discover gold, and was engaged in working a claim with a crew of +natives, notwithstanding the fact that Indians have, according to +our somewhat peculiar laws, no legal right to stake mines. He was a +good-looking fellow with a fair knowledge of English, which he was very +proud to air, especially the "cuss-words," which he introduced into +conversation very gravely and irrelevantly. He said when he got dust +enough he was going to "San Francisco," that being to him a general +name for the world of the white men. He had always hired natives to +work his claims, although he admitted that they did not work nearly as +well as white people; they would labor only until they had a little +money ahead, and then would quit until it was all spent, although it +might be the very busiest season; and if perchance a steamboat was +reported on the river, the gang to a man would drop pick and shovel and +trot down the trail to the mouth of the creek, there to stand open-eyed +and open-mouthed, gazing at the smoking monster which held them with a +fascination stronger than even Mynook's displeasure. + +We camped on the beach, and made preparations the next morning to +visit the diggings. We separated, as usual, each taking a different +route, and each hiring an Indian to accompany him and carry his pack. +The first Indian I hired had on a new gingham jumper, and a sly smile +which gave an impression that his subsequent actions did not belie. He +wanted to be paid before starting, and when this was refused said he +was hungry, and was so weak that he could not walk without food. So we +administered to him a substantial breakfast, after which he disappeared +and never could be found again. Soon another Indian presented +himself--a particularly wicked looking fellow, with red bulging eyes +that gave one a sort of shiver to look at him. He wanted to go with +me, and I hired him, having no other choice. Then he too explained by +gestures, that he was starving and must have some breakfast to keep him +strong on his long walk; whereupon I explained, also by gestures, that +the first Indian had gotten the second Indian's breakfast already, and +that, having delivered the breakfast, the rest was no affair of mine (I +having carried out my share of the transaction as was fitting), so that +the only possible subject for discussion lay between him and the first +Indian. + +He seemed to be impressed with the logic of this, shouldered his pack +and trotted off meekly enough. As we started, the smoke of a steamboat +became visible down the river; the natives raised the excited cry of +"shteemboot" and my guide showed signs of sitting down to wait for it +to come and go before he should proceed with his journey. However, a +few studiously stern looks, accompanied by prodding in his ribs with a +stick, started him along the trail, to which he kept faithfully after +that. This led through a thick growth of alder brush, across brooks, +but always kept in the valley of the main stream, on each side of +which were hills with the bare rocks peering from among the yellowing +foliage. + +After three hours' tramp, we turned up a little side valley, and soon +came upon a claim that was being worked by a number of miners. This was +the only active one on this creek, and with the exception of Mynook's +claim on another small branch, the only one being exploited on Mynook +Creek as a whole. Several other men, however, had staked claims and +were engaged in building log cabins, preparatory to the winter's +prospecting. + +Here I dismissed my Indian, telling him by signs to come back again +on the next day. During the two days he and I were out together, we +did not utter an articulate sound in trying to communicate with one +another. It was of no use, for he could not understand the English +any better than I Yukon. So in this case I looked at him fixedly and +silently, and pointed to the miner's cabin, laid my head on my hand +and shut my eyes, signifying that I intended to sleep there. Then +with my finger I followed in the sky the course the sun would take on +the following day, halting at a point midway in the afternoon; then, +pointing to him, I imitated the motion of a man carrying a pack, and +with a rapid movement of the finger indicated the trail back to the +mouth of the creek; finally with a comprehensive gesture I gave him +to understand that he might do as he pleased in the meantime. He +disappeared immediately, coming back at night to beg for food from my +hosts; failing in that, he bivouacked at a camp-fire, with a few other +Indians who were working on the creek, in front of the miner's log +cabin, and before we were up in the morning had disappeared again. At +exactly the appointed time the next day, however, he returned, ready +for the harness, as red-eyed, dumb and vicious-looking as ever. + +The sign language of all these Yukon Indians is wonderfully clever; +it is also very complicated, and I have seen two natives conversing +fluently behind a trader's back, using their faces and hands in rapid +movements which, however, conveyed no idea to the uninitiated observer +as to their meaning. Some of their signs which I have understood are +remarkable for the clever selection of a distinguishing characteristic +to designate a given object. For example, a white man was expressed by +stroking the chin as if it were bearded. In this wild country razors +were unknown and even scissors a rarity, so that all white men wore +thick and usually bushy beards, while the natives had very little or +no hair on their faces. Since I wore spectacles, I was described in +sign language first by a gesture of stroking the beard, which indicated +that I was a white man, and then by bending the thumb and forefinger +in a circle, and peering through this circle, thereby sufficiently +identifying me among others. + +At the cabin where I spent the night was a man who had been on the +exploring expedition of Lieutenant Allen some years before, when that +young officer accomplished such a splendid journey under such great +difficulties, through a barren and unknown country, ascending the +Copper River, descending the Tanana, exploring the Koyukuk, and finally +returning to St. Michael's by way of the Yukon. On learning that I was +in the government service, this man insisted on my becoming his guest. +He slept and ate in a little log cabin of his own, where he had a bed +built of hewn wood, which was pretty exactly proportioned to his own +length and breadth. By a little careful manipulation, however, we +both managed to stretch out on it and as the night was frosty and our +covering none of the thickest, neither of us objected to the proximity +of the other, although we were so crowded that when one turned over the +other had to do so at the same time. In the morning my "pardner," as +he might fitly be called, had a savory breakfast well under way when I +opened my eyes. + +After our meal my host went to his work, while I undertook a journey +a little further up the main stream to a tributary gulch. Here one +man was engaged in prospecting--Oliver Miller, one of the remarkable +prospectors of early Alaskan times. He had been in this region many +years already, always prospecting, often lucky in finding, but never +resting or stopping to reap the benefits of his discoveries, and always +pushing restlessly onwards towards new and unexplored fields. In the +early eighties he had been among the first who had come to the Forty +Mile district from Stewart River and the other affluents of the Yukon +above the international boundary. He discovered the creek still known +by his name--Miller Creek,--which really lies at the headwaters of +Sixty Mile Creek, but is separated only by a low dividing ridge from +the gold-producing gulches at the head of Forty Mile Creek, and is +therefore usually reckoned as a part of the Forty Mile district. + +Miller Creek was one of the richest creeks in the district and was +soon staked out by eager prospectors; but Miller himself got restless, +and saying the place was getting too crowded for him, sold his claim +one day for what he could get, and investing the amount in "grub" and +outfit, started out over the hills alone, prospecting. In the Birch +Creek district, which was discovered later, he found gold again, but +as soon as miners came in he sold out and went further. Now after many +wanderings he was in Mynook Creek, and it was characteristic of the man +that instead of being industriously engaged in washing gold in one of +the already prospected tributaries nearer the Yukon, he had vanished +into the brush, out of reach of the sound of pick and shovel, and was +nosing around among the rocks and panning gravel. + +According to directions, I left the trail, which indeed ran no further, +and followed the bank of the main stream, working my way through the +brush, till I came to a little brook, then went up along this nearly to +where it emerged from a rocky gorge in the hills. At this point I came +upon a grassy nook under the birches, where a fire was smouldering; +and under a tree a man's heavy blankets were spread on a bed of green +boughs, as if he had just stepped out. A couple of kettles were +standing near the fire, and a coat was lying on the ground, while an +axe was sticking in the tree above the blankets. There was no tent or +any superfluities whatever, and it was evident that this camping outfit +was one of those which a man may take on his back and wander over hill +and dale with. Not hearing or seeing any sign of life, I sat down and +waited, but no one appearing after half an hour, I began following a +man's trail from the camp up the gorge, tracing him by the bent grass +and broken twigs. After having gone a short distance, I heard the +thumping of a pick on a rocky wall in front and above me, and gave a +hail. The prospector came down very slowly, his manner not being so +much that of a man who was sorry to see one--on the contrary, he was +pleasant and cordial--as that of one who is reluctantly dragged away +from a favorite employment. We went back to his camp under the birches +and as it was now noon he invited me to dinner with him. + +It was a sunny day, and the grass was warm and bright, with the shadow +of the delicate leaves falling upon it; the mosquitoes had disappeared +in this period of frosty nights and chilly days, so that the sylvan +camp was ideal. Some boiled beans, boiled dried apples, and bread, +baked before an open fire, constituted the meal; yet I remember to this +day the flavor of each article, so delicious they appeared to my sharp +appetite. Miller was embarrassed somewhat about dishes. He had by good +luck two kettle covers, which served as plates for us, and he was, he +explained, in the habit of using his sheath-knife to manage the rest, +for he had neither table-knife, fork, nor spoon. I produced my own +sheath-knife and assured him that I was born with it in my mouth, so to +speak, and we set to eating cheerfully. + +For a professional recluse, I found Miller very cordial and +communicative. He travelled alone, he told me, not because he would not +have been glad of company, but because it was hard to find any one to +go with him, and almost impossible that two "pardners," even when at +first agreeable, should remain very long without quarrelling; so he had +decided, as the simplest solution, to carry out his ideas alone. He +was in the habit of exploring the most remote parts of the territory, +searching for minerals. He had tramped over the mountains between the +Yukon and the Tanana, back and forth; and had been a thousand miles up +the Koyukuk, to where it headed in a high range, climbing which, he +had looked out upon the Arctic ocean. On returning down the river, he +had been knocked out of his boat by a "sweeper" (a log which extends +out from a bank over a stream, two or three feet above the water). +The current was so rapid where he met with the accident that when he +rose to the surface his boat was some distance ahead of him. He struck +out swimming to catch up with it, but, as if animated with a perverse +living spirit, the boat moved off on a swifter current toward the +centre of the river. Soon he was in danger of being benumbed in the icy +water, and he was exhausted from his efforts, yet he knew if he should +swim to the banks and lose his boat he would eventually perish in the +wilderness, without resource and hundreds of miles from the nearest +human being. So he swam desperately, and when on the point of giving +up and sinking, a check in the current ahead slackened the speed of +the boat so that by an effort he was able to reach it and grasp the +gunwale. But it was some time before he gathered strength enough to +pull himself aboard. + +The history of the prospectors in any new country, especially in +Alaska, would be a record of intensely interesting pioneering. +Unfortunately these men leave no record, and their hardships, lonely +exploring tours and daring deeds, performed with a heroism so simple +that it seems almost comical, have no chronicler. They penetrate the +deserts, they climb the mountains, they ascend the streams, they dare +with the crudest preparation the severest danger of nature. Some +of them die, others return to civilization and become sailors or +car-conductors or janitors; but they are of the stuff that keeps the +nation alive. By that I do not mean the false or imitation prospector, +who has no courage or patience, but only the greed of gold. Thousands +of such poured into Alaska after the Klondike boom, and many of them +turned back at the first sight of Chilkoot Pass, which is nothing +to frighten a strong boy of twelve. Many more got enough of Alaska +in floating down the Yukon, and kept on straight to St. Michael's, +scarcely stopping in any of the mining regions; thereby benefiting the +transportation companies greatly, and adding much to the territory's +sudden apparent prosperity. But before the Klondike rush nearly all the +Alaskans were of the hardy true pioneer type I write about. + +In the afternoon I returned, and finding my Indian punctually on hand +at the appointed time, we went back to the Yukon together. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. +THE LOWER YUKON. + + +The next day we broke camp, and floating down the river, soon entered +the main range of the Rampart Mountains. They were not high, but +picturesque, and the lower parts and the valleys were gay with green +and gold. It was a perfect day, cool and clear. We stopped for the +night below the so-called rapids, which at this time of low water were +hardly noticeable. An Indian came to our camp from his village across +the river, and we traded a can of condensed milk with him for a silver +salmon. I got into his little narrow birch canoe, and managed to paddle +it with the feather-like paddle, thanks to my experience in rowing a +racing-shell; but it required infinite care in balancing. I could not +help admiring the ease with which the Indian managed the delicate boat +when he left us for home again, and wondering how these people catch +salmon out of canoes like these. + +[Illustration: A YUKON CANOE.] + +[Illustration: INDIAN FISH-TRAPS.] + +All this day and the next we passed many Indian villages, made up +of white tents, with red dried salmon hung up on frames in front. +Although these natives are classed as Indians, (belonging to the group +of Athabascans) and although they show certain traits of physiognomy +like them, yet in their general nature they are entirely different. +Unlike the stoical Sioux or Arapahoe of the United States, these +people are childlike and open in their manners. They chatter freely +in their own language, whether it is understood or not; they are +anxious to give and get information; and they seize the slightest +excuse for a joke to giggle convulsively. They are fine boatmen, and +good hunters and fishermen. All along the river could be seen their +traps of stakes, set in some eddy near a bend of the river, and in the +early frosty mornings the squaws would come down to the traps in their +canoes,--which are broader than those of the men, and managed by a +wider paddle--propelling them swiftly and rhythmically along, crooning +a song. They are an intelligent, good-humored people, already a little +spoiled in their manners and ideas by contact with whites who were +hardly fitted to teach the untutored savage. Yet they are on the whole +far from disagreeable people to deal with, and although their habits +did not always seem up to the civilized standard, yet in contrast to +the Eskimos whom we saw further down the river, they were models of +cleanliness. There is no lack of variety in their faces, and in one +camp I saw a woman whose dark beauty would have ornamented the finest +drawing-room. Whether or not she had some share of white blood I do not +know. + +These Indians, as a rule, have no chief, but live in the most complete +independence, the only authority over them being that of the _shaman_ +or medicine man, who attains his ascendency by his cleverness in duping +others to believe he has supernatural gifts, such as prophecy. It is +the custom for any one who aspires to high position to make prediction +as to the weather, when the next steamboat will arrive, and so on. When +his predictions become true frequently, he gradually obtains influence. + +Great travellers are the Alaskan Indians too, and at a trading post +along this part of the Yukon one may see, besides the Yukon Indians, +others from the Koyukuk, the Tanana, and even the Kuskokwim; but +one rarely sees Eskimos, who are not such great wanderers, and when +they make voyages visit only the regions peopled by their own race. +Those Indians who live on the flats of the river frequently go to the +mountains a long distance off to hunt. Dr. Dall, in his "Alaska and its +Resources," gives the following translation of a song which he heard a +Koyukuk woman singing to her infant. + + "The wind blows over the Yukon. + My husband hunts the deer on the Koyukun mountains. + Ahmi, Ahmi, sleep, little one. + + "There is no wood for the fire. + The stone axe is broken, my husband carries the other. + Where is the sun-warmth? Hid in the dam of the beaver, + waiting the springtime? + Ahmi, Ahmi, sleep, little one, wake not! + + "Look not for ukali,[2] old woman. + Long since the cache was emptied, and the crow + does not light on the ridge-pole! + Long since my husband departed. Why does he wait + on the mountains? + Ahmi, Ahmi, sleep, little one, softly. + + "Where is my own? + Does he lie starving on the hillside? Why does he linger? + Comes he not soon, I will seek him among the mountains. + Ahmi, Ahmi, sleep, little one, sleep. + + "The crow has come, laughing. + His beak is red, his eyes glisten, the false one. + 'Thanks for a good meal to Kuskokala the shaman. + On the sharp mountain quietly lies your husband.' + Ahmi, Ahmi, sleep, little one, wake not. + + "Twenty deer's tongues tied to the pack on his shoulders; + Not a tongue in his mouth to call to his wife with. + Wolves, foxes, and ravens are tearing for morsels. + Tough and hard are the sinews; not so the child in your bosom. + Ahmi, Ahmi, sleep, little one, wake not! + + "Over the mountain slowly staggers the hunter. + Two bucks' thighs on his shoulders, with bladders + of fat between them. + Twenty deer's tongues in his belt. Go gather wood, old woman! + Off flew the crow,--liar, cheat, and deceiver! + Wake, little sleeper, wake, and call to your father! + + "He brings you back fat, marrow, and venison fresh + from the mountains. + Tired and worn, he has carved a toy of the deer's horn, + While he was sitting and waiting long for the deer + on the hillside. + Wake, and see the crow, hiding himself from the arrow! + Wake, little one, wake, for here is your father." + +Although we saw fish in front of all the tents and apparent contentment +in every face, yet we were told that the catch had not been nearly so +great as usual that summer, and that there must inevitably be much +suffering during the winter. "Yes," said Mynook, at Mynook Creek, +philosophically, "Goin' be hard winter; tink old people all die." +We asked him why just the old people, and he explained that the old +people had not been able to gather so much provisions as the young and +vigorous ones, and would therefore sooner starve. We told him that in +our country we cared for the old first, and he seemed to think such a +custom very unjust, observing that the old who had lived should die if +there was any famine, and make room for the younger ones who could live +yet a long time if they could get food. It is starvation, one may add, +which keeps the Indian population of the whole Alaskan interior within +very meagre limits. + +On the 3d of September we came to the mouth of the Tanana, a large +tributary which enters the Yukon on the left side; the country around +its mouth is low, and the river itself splits into many channels, +forming a delta. On the bank of the Yukon opposite the mouth of +the Tanana we found a trading post with two white men and a host of +Indians. When we landed at the store we were met by the Indians, the +white men having not yet observed us. The first was evidently a shaman +or medicine man, a copper-colored old fellow with cross eyes and a +cunning wrinkle around his mouth. He ceremoniously pulled off his +buckskin gloves before offering his hand to shake; then pointing his +finger to the sky he began a long speech in his own language, with many +gestures. We all listened very gravely, and when he got through and +looked at me with an air of self-satisfaction and triumph, I placed +both hands on my stomach, and rolled my eyes, then thumbed my nose at +him, and finally began to quote to him the immortal soliloquy of Hamlet +"To be or not to be," with much emphasis and many variations. Everybody +listened with evident delight, especially the shaman, and when we +were through they conducted us up to the trading post. An old fellow +was smoking a curiously carved wooden pipe, which filled the soul of +one of our party with the desire to obtain it, since it seemed such a +remarkable bit of native work. He offered five dollars for it as a +starter, and the old fellow, astounded but willing to accept the gifts +of the gods without questioning, handed over the pipe with an alacrity +that made Goodrich examine it a little more before parting with his +money. On the bottom of the bowl was stamped in the wood "Smith & Co., +New York," and on closer inspection it was evident that the apparent +carving was in reality pressed, and that the pipe was worth in the +neighborhood of twenty-five cents in the States. + +We were welcomed by the trader, and after a lunch with him floated +down the river about eight miles to the mission below. There our eyes +were delighted by a neat little building with a belfry and bell, and +actually two dormer windows. It was the work of the pioneer Mike Hess, +from whom the stream entering the Yukon above Mynook creek had been +named. The missionary was absent in a parochial call five hundred miles +away, but his wife and child and a nurse were there. The missionary +published the only paper on the Yukon at that time; it appeared once +a year, and consisted of four small pages, printed on a hand-press. +The items were from all over the country, and many of them were very +interesting and amusing. + +From here we kept on travelling with the current down the Yukon, +helping our speed by continuous rowing. There being three of us, +"tricks" of one hour were arranged, so each man steered for an hour, +rowed an hour, and then sat in the stern for an hour, regarding the +landscape and making notes. It grew so chilly that often the time for +resting was hardest to endure, for the skin would cool and the teeth +would chatter even with all the clothes we could get on, and we would +be glad to get a little vigorous exercise again. Storms were frequent, +and we often had the pleasure of sitting in the driving rain all day +long. We covered over our outfit as well as we could and even rigged +up a sort of awning of sail-cloth on a frame-work of boughs, which +kept the rain off the steersman, while the man who was resting crawled +under a tarpaulin, and the oarsman rowed and got wet; so that under +these conditions the position of steersman was most coveted. The wind +blew with such violence that sometimes we took water over the bow and +stern of our boat, and the steerman had to exert skill to keep from +swamping. When the weather was clear, however, it was cool, and we +enjoyed life more at such times than we had before done. + +[Illustration: IN A TENT BENEATH SPRUCE TREES.] + +To wake up on a gloriously bright morning, in a tent pitched beneath +spruce trees, and to look out lazily and sleepily for a moment from +the open side of the tent, across the dead camp-fire of the night +before, to the river, where the light of morning rests and perhaps +some early-rising native is gliding in his birch canoe; to go to the +river and freshen one's self with the cold water, and yell exultingly +to the gulls and hell-divers, in the very joy of living; or to wake +at night, when you have rolled in your blankets in the frost-stricken +dying grass without a tent, and to look up through the leaves above to +the dark sky and the flashing stars, and hear far off the call of a +night bird or the howl of a wolf: this is the poetry, the joy of a wild +and roving existence, which cannot come too often. No one need look for +such moments during mosquito time in Alaska. But the pests were over +now, and men and animals who had been fighting them all summer rested +and drew deep draughts of peace, and strengthened themselves for the +stinging cold of the winter, likewise hard on the temper and on the +vital powers. + +In our downward journey we passed close by mountains whose tops were +beginning to be snow-covered, and were higher than those of the Rampart +Mountains, which we had crossed above the Tanana; yet they were further +from the river, with level country between. Leaving these behind we +came to flats similar to the great Yukon flats above the Ramparts, but +not so extensive. Here the river split into many channels, enclosing +low green islands. The clay banks were fifty or a hundred feet high, +and as we followed the current it took us against the side which it was +engaged in cutting away. We had to avoid getting too close, for one +never knew when a portion, undermined by the stream, would topple over +with a tremendous splash; and if such a mass should strike the boat +it would bear it to the bottom of the river and bury it so deeply and +easily that when the dust of the fall should clear away, the circles on +the water would be as regular as usual. + +The banks showed on the upper parts, deposits of black peat, twenty or +thirty feet thick, and it was evident that the accumulations are going +on at the surface yet. Alaska is, like other Arctic regions, densely +covered with moss, which grows alike in the swamps and on the steep +hillsides; and the successive generations of mosses, one rearing itself +on the remains of the others, bring about in time a deposit of peat +which one can find nearly everywhere, if he digs down. It is well known +that such vegetable accumulations, after having been transformed into +peat, may by further change become a lignite or sort of brown coal, +and when much altered by the heat or pressure attending the uneasy +movement of the earth's crust may even become anthracite. In many +regions the crust, apparently still, is in reality constantly moving, +although so slowly that we do not notice it; yet in the course of ages +the most stupendous changes have been brought about. We are accustomed +to picture coal as originating in tropical swamps of the carboniferous +period, with enormous trees bearing leaves many feet long, and +bullfrogs as big as men squatting in the background, while the air is +so heavily laden with carbonic acid that it would put out a candle; but +here, at the Arctic Circle, the formation of coal is evidently going on +rapidly, and future generations may derive benefit from it. + +Beds of vegetable matter belonging to a past age are abundant all +along the Yukon, but the coal is as yet only a black shiny lignite, +for it has not been altered much; and leaves found in it show that +the vegetation of the period when the beds accumulated was not far +different from what it is to-day, and had nothing to do with gigantic +tadpoles and malaria. + +One of the most interesting of the high clay bluffs which we passed +lies on the left-hand side of the river, not far below the Tanana. It +has been called by some early travellers the Palisades, and this name +appears on the map, but the miners and traders know it by the name of +the Boneyard, from the fact that there are buried in the silts near the +top (which is about two hundred feet high) many bones of large animals, +which come down to the river as portions of the bluff are undermined +and fall. We stopped at this place, and, slumping through the mud to +the foot of the bluff, we came across the tusk of a mammoth, which +probably weighed over a hundred and fifty pounds. It was as thick as +a man's leg at its larger end, but the whole of it was evidently not +there. Further on we found a smaller tusk with the end worn off as if +the animal had been using it severely for some purpose. Afterwards +we saw other bones,--leg bones, fragments of the backbone, etc.,--in +great abundance. Our little boat was too small to carry these gigantic +relics, but we preserved a huge molar tooth from a mammoth, measuring +several inches across, and we sawed off portions of one of the tusks. + +The extinct hairy elephant, or mammoth, inhabited Alaska at a time +previous to the memory of man, yet not very ancient, geologically +speaking. Remains of these animals are also abundant in Arctic America +and Siberia. It was at first supposed that the climate was tropical +when they existed, since it is well known that the elephant is a native +of hot countries, and the bones are almost exactly like those of the +elephants of the tropics. The discovery of some of these remains in +the River Lena in Siberia was one of the most interesting of modern +scientific events. From some reason or the other, many mammoth had +been caught in the ice of the river and had been frozen in, the ice +never melting through all the thousands of years that followed. So well +preserved were they at the time of their discovery that it is said they +furnished food for dogs; but what amazed scientists most was to find +that this elephant was covered with very long hair or fur, forming a +protection against the cold such as few creatures possess. The fur and +much of the skin of one of these mammoth may be seen in the museum at +St. Petersburg. + +We know from geologic evidence that Alaska, firm and solid land though +it appears to be, is really slowly rising out of the sea, and we also +know that this rising motion has been going on for a very long time. +At a period which must have been many hundred years ago, the country +was covered with a multitude of shallow lakes, many of them large, and +some of immense size--rivalling our Great Lakes of the St. Lawrence +river system. Most of these lakes are now drained and we have, as +records of them, only broad flats composed of fine clays and silts +which accumulated as sediments in the lake bottoms. Through this vast +lake region roamed the mammoth in herds, and so far as we can tell the +climate was much the same as it is now; but with the elevation of the +land and the draining of the lakes the mammoth has disappeared--the +reason no one is able to tell. + +The Eskimos carve the mammoth tusks into ornaments, pipes, and other +ivory articles. They are familiar, in fancy, with the animal, and have +a special name for it, as well as for its ivory as distinguished from +walrus ivory. They also have some vague legends about it, which the +traveller may learn through an interpreter. At St. Michael's a Mahlemut +Eskimo told me that a long time ago, when the whole country was full +of lakes and darker than it is now, these animals were alive, and in +the time of their fathers they were said to still exist, far in the +interior, on the shores of a great lake; and that their fathers never +went near this lake, hunting, for fear of this beast. It is more than +likely, however, knowing what we do of the Eskimo habits and character, +that this was simply fancy, which grew out of finding the tusks and the +bones; or an invention, gotten up to satisfy the white man's curiosity, +for the Eskimo is so willing to please that he always tells exactly +what he thinks will be appreciated, whether or not it is the truth. +Moreover, so far as I have been able to judge from other things, the +Eskimo tradition does not run nearly so far back as it needs must to +extend to the time of the mammoth. + +Breaking camp one morning, just as the smoke was beginning to curl from +the camp of our Siwash neighbors on the other bank of the river, we +ran rapidly down stream, and by the early afternoon passed the mouth of +the Koyukuk. This is a large stream of clear water contrasting sharply +with the muddy roily waters of the Yukon, from which it is separated +almost by a distinct line. Above the rivers at the point of junction +rises a beautiful sharp cliff, probably a thousand feet high and nearly +perpendicular to the top. + +On reaching this place we were met by heavy winds which tossed the +surface of the river into waves, and where it blew against the current +made a chop sea, so that the Skookum took in a good deal of water. +Soon we were unable to make any headway at all against the wind, so +we landed, and tracking our boat along the bank till we came to a +little "slough" or shallow side channel where the water, protected +by trees which grew on both sides, was smooth, we made camp. It was +a flat smooth place, and the ground was covered thickly with fuzzy +bright green plants of the horse-tail family, which made everything +look so downy that one felt like rolling in it. These beautiful plants +are easily crushed under foot, and a little tramping around had the +effect of pressing out the water with which the sand was filled, and +transforming all into a very soft mud. We had to keep our heavy boots +on, therefore, especially around the fire, which is the most frequented +spot in a pioneer's camp; and finally we had to lay poles along the +path between the camp and the boat, to prevent slumping too deeply. +To add to our discomforts, the rain came down in torrents that night, +piercing our somewhat service-worn tent, so that by morning most of our +outfit, including blankets, was more or less wet. + +Starting out again, we found, soon after leaving our sheltered nook, +that the wind was still blowing, and in stretches of the river where +the wind was ahead we could move only very slowly, while on other +curves we went at a high rate of speed. So we moved along by jerks +till about noon, when we were brought to a standstill by an increase +in the wind, and after an effort to proceed further, which resulted +in our being blown back a little up the river, we landed, waited an +hour and lunched; after this, the wind having gone down somewhat, we +proceeded. We passed several native villages, both winter and summer +camps, the former with their clumsily built log houses and attendant +log caches, the latter with their white tents and lines of fish drying +on frames in front. The inhabitants shouted out vociferous greetings +to us as we passed, which we did not understand; but we responded +quite as cordially in our own tongue. At about five o'clock we reached +the native village of Nulato, one of the largest on the river, with a +population of several hundred, and a small trading post, at that time +kept by a half-breed trader. + +Our first question on landing was whether the steamer had passed down +the Yukon for St. Michael's. This steamer would be the last which +would make connections with Seattle or San Francisco, so if we missed +it we would be obliged to remain all winter in the country. We knew +approximately when the boat would leave Circle City, and from time +to time, as we had been floating down the river, we had inquired +at trading posts whether she had yet passed us, for this would be +very easy by day in the many channels of the Flats, and still easier +by night, especially as the river, even when confined in a single +channel, is often several miles wide in this lower part, and a steamer +passing on one side would hardly be observed from our camp on the other +bank. + +We had last heard at the station opposite the mouth of the Tanana that +she had not yet passed, though she was daily expected--but that was +several days ago. Of course we would have been able to lie by at any of +these posts and camp until the steamer should arrive; but so great was +our desire to make the best possible use of every minute we had to stay +in Alaska that we preferred to take the risk of being left all winter, +with an opportunity of building a log hut and laying in fire-wood till +spring, rather than lose the last part of our journey in the Skookum. +But we were relieved by the trader at Nulato, who told us that the +steamer had not arrived. We were then given the use of a log cabin, +with glass windows, which was sumptuously furnished with a stove, a +hewn-wood bed, a table and a three-legged stool. + +After supper we made the tour of the village, crawling into the little +cabins of the natives, where the women sat cross-legged in groups, +occupied in their sewing. They were making gloves of moose-skin trimmed +with beaver, caps of the ground squirrel or marmot fur, and high boots +of the hair seal with bottoms of walrus hide. Most of them used steel +needles, though many still kept to those of pierced bone, which seemed +in skillful hands to serve the purpose quite as well. Our curiosity +was soon satisfied, for each dwelling was much like every other; so +after we had made bargains for some of the articles, we went back to +our cabin and turned in. The joy of having a roof over our heads as a +protection against the rain which was now pelting down was so great +that I lay awake some little time staring gloatingly up at the logs. + +In the morning the one whose turn it was to cook rose early, and +soon large kettles were full of beans, dried apples and rice, and +all were boiling merrily away, while the bacon sizzled and smoked in +the frying-pan. The other two of us lay lazily in our blankets, and +sniffed the delicious odors, turning now and then from side to side +when the hewn logs upon which we were lying grew conspicuously hard. +Suddenly the door was burst open and a deaf-and-dumb Indian who had +made himself useful the night before, bringing us wood and water in +consideration of a square meal afterwards, rushed in, and with many +gestures began to try to make us understand something. We had seen a +surprisingly large number of deaf mutes among the natives, and they +were always more easy to understand than the others, who had the habit +of sputtering and choking away in their own tongue, although they knew +very well that we did not understand a word of it; while the deaf mutes +immediately enlightened us by some of the signs they were so practiced +in making. This one, by energetic revolutions of his hands around one +another, recalled to us immediately the stern-wheel of a steamboat, +while the puffing he made with his mouth took away all doubt as to his +meaning. Then he pointed up the river, and gesticulated violently. + +We all turned out on the double quick, and, sure enough, the steamer +was not more than a half a mile away. She was due to stop at Nulato +a half hour to get wood, and so heavy was the traffic on the river +at this time of the year and so important every hour in making +connections with the ocean steamer that we knew she could not be got +to stay longer. So we began hasty and energetic preparations, first +rolling our blankets and strapping them with our personal outfit +into the pack-sacks which we had carried throughout the trip, then +hurriedly bundling together tents, specimens, and whatever else we +deemed necessary and practicable to take out of Alaska with us. Many of +the more cumbersome articles we abandoned, as they were much worn, and +it would cost more than the original price to carry them back to the +United States at the extraordinary prices for freight then prevailing. +The natives soon became aware of our hurry and hung around in numbers, +eager to help, but generally getting in the way; each had his eye on +some article which he hoped to fall heir to. To many of these natives, +poor beyond our ordinary conception of poverty, a nicked camp-axe is +a substantial private fortune, and one Siwash to whom this article +was awarded for general good conduct marched off in great happiness. +Another fell heir to our boat--the faithful old Skookum, who had +carried us two thousand miles, and now was somewhat battered and leaky +as the result of her travels. + +Meanwhile the steamer had swung in close to the flat high bank, the +gang planks had been dropped down, and scores of natives, partly those +of the village and partly those who had come on the steamer, scampered +back and forth carrying wood on board in the most clumsy and ridiculous +fashion, but still accomplishing much work by reason of their numbers. +Miners, with whom the boat was crowded, came ashore and strolled around +the village; they walked into our cabin and pestered us with idle and +aimless questions, as we were working hard to get our stuff ready to +take on board. At the last moment, when sufficient wood had been gotten +in, the whistle was blown; we grabbed our pack-sacks and gave the +remaining burdens to the natives to carry, and hurried on board. We +had left some things, others than those mentioned. I felt then a keen +regret, which occurs to me whenever I think of it, at being obliged to +abandon all the good "grub" which had been boiling and frying away so +merrily on the stove when our deaf-and-dumb friend had roused us from +our dream. None of us being enthusiastic cooks, it had been our custom +to prepare large amounts of the stock articles of diet at a time, in +order that one cooking, with some few additions, might last most of +each man's allotted time of three days; so the quantity we left behind +was ample to feed quite a number of Siwash, and I have no doubt they +gorged themselves, and had lively times trying to see who could eat the +most and the quickest. + +The steamer was packed. Miners who had intended to go to the "Outside" +this year, had waited as late as they dared, so as to work their claim +and bring out as much as possible, and then had taken this last boat. +We found every sleeping accommodation taken, and not until late in +the afternoon did the steward's resources find us a place. The only +available space left under cover was that occupied by the tables in +the steerage division. After supper was eaten, these tables were +taken out, and the floor-room thus gained was allotted us. The rest +of the floor was already occupied, and we had to exercise great care +to keep from rolling over into another man's preserves. We spread our +rubber blankets on the deck to protect us from tobacco juice and +other unpleasant things, and spread our woollen blankets on these. +Lights were put out at about ten o'clock, and after that there was +considerable stumbling around. + +On the forward deck in front of the steerage department an active +poker game, conducted by a professional gambler, was continually in +progress, under a sail which had been rigged up as a cover. This game +always wore on until midnight and attracted many interested spectators +as well as players, all crowding around the table on which stacks of +gold pieces were piled, under the light of a lantern tied overhead. +When the men finally started to bed, they lost their bearings in the +almost complete darkness and wandered far and wide, stumbling over the +prostrate sleepers, whose loud and heartfelt oaths disturbed the peace +almost as much as the hobnailed boots on one's stomach. At the first +glimmer of dawn--_i.e._, about three in the morning--we were routed +out and made to roll up our blankets out of the way in order that the +tables might be set up for a seven o'clock breakfast; so on the whole +our sleep was light and short. Yet we had paid first-class fares on +boarding the boat. I have since taken a comfortable two-weeks' voyage +on a transatlantic steamer to Germany for the same price as I paid for +this passage to St. Michael's, occupying four or five days. + +The next day we stopped at the native village of Anvik. By this time we +had left the land of the Indians or Ingeliks, which reaches down the +river below Nulato, and had reached that of the Innuits or Eskimos. +Anvik was the first Eskimo village I had seen and the impression I +carried away with me was one of extreme disgust. The whole place was +a human sty, from which arose an overpowering stink. The houses were +mere shacks built of poles laid close together, with holes in the +centre to allow the smoke to escape. All around the houses, in front, +behind, and along the paths, was ordure. Most of the people whom we +saw had the appearance of being diseased: whole rows of the maimed, +the halt, the blind, and the scrofulous, sunned themselves in front of +the huts. Others sat huddled in their long fur shirts or parkas (which +constitute their only garment), and coughed constantly, too sick to +show much interest in the white visitors. A little apart, in front of +the houses, a woman squatted, sobbing, while beside her crouched an +old crone with a mouth like a fish, who crooned incessantly a weird, +monotonous and mournful chant, to which the sobbing woman made brief +responses at intervals. Other women sat around in their doors, all +looking sad, and many sobbing. A young Indian boy from the steamer, who +had picked up some English in a mission school, explained the scene to +us. "That woman's baby die," he said. "Everybody all day cry." + +We were glad to turn away from the most dismal and degraded set of +human beings it had ever been my lot to see; on our way back to the +steamer we passed a building of sawed boards used as a mission, and met +the missionary, who was properly attired in a suit of clerical black, +with white linen and tie. He had a book in his hand. I had rather seen +him dressed in a parka, with an axe over his shoulder. + +Below Anvik a short distance, we came to the Holy Cross Mission, a +Catholic station located at another Eskimo village. The village was +only a little better than that of Anvik to look at, but somewhat +better to smell of. The mission itself, however, was a model. The +buildings were well-built and clean, and there was a flourishing +garden, containing potatoes, rutabagas, cabbages and lettuce, the whole +surrounded by a rail fence; and in another little enclosure there was +a real live cow, almost as much a novelty to us as to the natives from +further up the river, who left the steamboat and pressed around the +strange animal with wondering eyes, as children view the elephant at +their first circus. We saw many little girls, pupils of the school, +spotlessly arrayed in new calico dresses, with gay silk or cotton +handkerchiefs on their heads. They made quite a pretty picture, and +the contrast of the little maidens with their relatives at Anvik was +something almost startling. These children had been taken away from +their parents by the sisters who teach at the Mission and were being +brought up by them, to be sent away again only when grown. + +Between the Holy Cross Mission and the Yukon delta the river grows +continually wider till it is in places fully five miles from bank to +bank, without islands. The banks themselves become low and very flat, +and the timber disappears almost entirely, leaving the swampy plains +known as tundra. Along here the only fuel is driftwood; and this the +natives had stacked up in places ready for the steamer. Landing to take +on wood was always the opportunity for a run on shore, dickering with +the natives for curiosities, and general hilarity. The people here +were wonderfully different from those on the Yukon from Nulato to the +headwaters, being round and rosy, rather small in stature, and with a +certain Mongolian appearance. They are childlike in look and action, +with round wondering eyes, and mouths always ready to smile broadly and +unreservedly at any hint of a joke. They were dressed in the Eskimo +parka, made of furs of various sorts, especially squirrel, mink, +reindeer, or muskrat. The whole sustenance of the people in this barren +tundra district appeared to be fish, and many of them had been obliged +to make their parkas and leggings out of the fish skins, which were +sewn together with much neatness and taste, and were ornamented with +red ochre. In wet weather they wore long shirts made of the entrails of +animals, split open and sewn together; these had tight-fitting hoods +and sleeves, and were practically watertight. The Eskimo kayak or +covered boat, made by stretching seal or walrus skins over a wooden +frame, makes its appearance along here, although the birch canoe is +still to be seen. In the houses of these people we saw sealskins full +of oil laid up as a provision against the winter. + +[Illustration: THREE-HATCH SKIN BOAT, OR BIDARKA.] + +At a mission further up the river a Russian priest of the Greek +Catholic church had gotten on board. He wore the plain black gown, full +beard and long hair of men of his class, and spoke broken English. He +seemed well acquainted with the country, however, and assured us that +these people were distinct both from the Kolchane or Indians, who were +found all along the Yukon above Nulato, and from the Mahlemut Eskimos. +These middle people he called Kwikpaks; but I am sure they are really +Eskimos, with perhaps some peculiarities, due to their position on the +border-line of two races differing so greatly as do the Eskimos and the +Indians. + +The same day we left the Yukon for good, emerging from the northern +or Ap-hoon mouth, (for the Yukon forms a delta which spreads out +many miles and includes many channels) out on the open sea. We were +struck with the color of the clear green water, after so long viewing +the muddy brown Yukon or the clear black of some of its tributaries. +Before us the country was barren, untimbered, and black, with volcanic +cones rising here and there. As we advanced, low islands rose out of +the sea around these cones,--fields of lava, covered with swamps and +ponds,--while we left behind us the dead level untimbered tundra of the +Yukon delta. We anchored under the lee of an island that night, and as +usual we were roused from our sleeping places before daylight the next +morning by the cook. The sun rose gloriously from behind the low black +volcanic hills and just as we were getting around to breakfast at the +fourth table we steamed into St. Michael's. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[2] Dried salmon. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. +ST. MICHAEL'S AND SAN FRANCISCO. + + +St. Michael's is the usual port for the Yukon, though seventy miles +from its mouth. The Russians had a fort and garrison at this place +before they sold the territory to the United States, and since then +the commercial companies have had posts here. The chief part of the +population, however, consists of Eskimos. + +These people are very expert in carving. From stone they make axes, +lamps, skin-scrapers and many other implements; and from bone, and +especially from the walrus and mammoth ivory, they carve many things, +among them polished pipes. These pipes are evidently modelled after +the opium pipes of the East, with a peculiar shaped bowl having only a +very small cavity in it, and a long stem. They are ornamented with many +figures scratched on the ivory with a sharp knife, and then colored by +having charcoal and grease rubbed into the scratches; these figures, +of which there may be several hundred on a single pipe, represent the +Eskimo in his daily occupations, especially his hunting of deer, wolf, +and whale, his dancing in the _kashim_, or his travelling in his kayak. + +[Illustration: ESKIMO HOUSES AT ST. MICHAEL'S.] + +[Illustration: A NATIVE DOORWAY.] + +Strolling around the village, and peering into the _barabarras_, or +private houses, I ran across an old savage who was handling an object +which immediately attracted my attention; when he saw my curiosity he +explained by signs that it was an apparatus for making fire, and at my +request he actually performed the feat. It was the old plan of rubbing +two sticks of wood together, such as we have often read that savages +do; yet I had never known any one who knew exactly how it was done, +although as a boy I had often worn myself out in vain endeavors to make +fire in this way. So far as I know, no one had ever satisfactorily +explained how the Alaskan natives get their fire, one writer having +even supposed that they brought it from volcanoes in the first place; +and from the extraordinary care which they take in preserving hot coals +and often in carrying them considerable distances, one does not often +see them in the process of obtaining a new supply. + +The apparatus which I saw here used was simple and ingenious. +In a thoroughly dry stick of spruce were cut a number of little +grooves,--this was the wood destined to catch fire. The other piece of +wood was a rounded stick of some very hard variety, which the Eskimo +told me was picked up in the driftwood along the shore: it was very +likely a foreign wood. The point of the hard stick was set upright in +one of the grooves of the soft dry piece and by means of a leather +thong was made to revolve rapidly in it, the hard upright piece being +kept in place by a stone socket set in a piece of wood, which was held +in the mouth of the operator. After vigorously twirling the stick by +means of the thong for about a minute the soft wood began to smoke; a +moment afterwards a faint spark was visible. Then the Eskimo stopped +revolving the stick and heaping all the fine dust of the soft wood +which had been worn off by the grinding on the spark, and blew it +carefully till it grew to larger dimensions; then he placed a blade of +dry grass on the spark, and, blowing again, it burst into flame. The +whole process had lasted about three minutes. The old man explained +also that in boring the holes in stone, bone or ivory, they used the +same device, employing a stone drill instead of the wooden stick. + +There was great commotion among the natives at St. Michael's the +morning after we arrived, and the men all dragged their kayaks into the +water and getting into them paddled out into the harbor, where a number +of small whales were seen disporting themselves. When they neared the +school the men separated, and when a whale would sound they spread +themselves out so as to be nearly at the spot where he should come +up. Each man had several of the light spears they used for capturing +fish; these weapons are perhaps three and a half feet long, and weigh +about a pound, the shaft being slender and of light wood and the tip +of a barbed piece of bone. To each of these they had fastened by a +long thong, as they were paddling out, a blown-up bladder. As soon +as a whale rose the Eskimo who happened to be near sent his little +spear with great force deeply into its flesh. The wound was of course +insignificant, and the animal, taking alarm, sank into the water +again; but when after some time he was forced to return to the surface, +he encountered several hunters again, and received several more spears +with attached bladders. This time the buoyancy of the bladders made +it difficult for him to sink, and he rose soon afterwards, only to be +filled with so many spears that the bladders kept him from sinking at +all; then the natives drew near and with all kinds of weapons cut and +slashed and worried the creature till he finally gave up from loss of +blood, and died. Then he was towed ashore amid great excitement and +with rejoicing, not only by the hunters, but by the women, children and +old men who flocked down to the beach as it came in. + +The next thing was to cut up and divide the carcass, and this was done +thoroughly, everybody in the village coming in for a share. Nothing was +wasted. Even the blood was carefully saved and divided, and the sinews +were given to the women, who would dry and make them into threads for +sewing. Soon all the fires in the village were burning, and the smell +of boiling whale-flesh came from many pots, into which the women +peered expectantly. One old lady whom I noticed doing this showed in +her dress some of the effects of civilization, which is a rare thing +with the Eskimo, as they dress by preference in their squirrel or +muskrat-skin parkas; her flowing garment was made of flour-sacks sewn +together, and one might read the legend, inscribed many times and +standing in many attitudes, that the wearer (presumably) was Anchor +Brand. + +St. Michael's is made up of volcanic rock, and has been lifted from +the sea in recent geologic times. The natives know this, and say that +they find lines of driftwood marking the ancient limit of the waves, +at places far above where the highest water now reaches; on the other +hand, they say that the island has been thrice submerged since the +memory of man. Out of the general swampy level of the land around the +village rise, further back, broken cones with old craters at their +tops; these were very likely under the level of the sea when they were +active. We had time to spend a few days wandering over this country, +climbing through the rocky craters, and looking down on the numberless +swamp lakes which cover the southeast side of the island. One day, +however, we received sudden word that the steamer on which we had +engaged passage was about to sail, and we hurried on board. That night +we were far out on Behring Sea, tossing in a strong wind which soon +increased to a terrific gale. + +[Illustration: THE CAPTURED WHALE.] + +We lay several days "hove to" in this gale, with oil casks over the +bows to break the great waves which threatened more than once to +smash us and often seemed about to roll us over and over. Finally, +however, it quieted enough to let the seasick ones drop asleep, while +the sailors made things taut again, and before long we were in harbor +at the island of Unalaska--one of the great chain of Aleutian islands +which reaches from America to Asia, and the chief stopping point for +nearly all boats between the Yukon mouth and the coast of the United +States proper. Unalaska is a country of chaotically wild scenery. +The streams in turn meander over level benches and then tumble in +waterfalls over steep cliffs to the next bench, and so on till they +reach the sea; such a cataract we saw on the right as we entered the +harbor. + +In the village here we found the Aleuts semi-civilized from their long +contact with white men, for here the Russians held direct control long +before the territory was sold to the United States; they live in neat +wooden houses, and if one peeps in by night he may even see here and +there lace curtains and rocking-chairs. + +Seventeen days after leaving St. Michael's we finally reached San +Francisco. It was a clear, fine Sunday when we passed through the +Golden Gate, tingling with excitement which we had felt since seeing +the first land on the California coast. The sight of the multitude of +houses on the hillside, the smoke of the city, the craft of all kinds +going back and forth, had in it something very strange and discomposing +for us. It was only when the ship was at the dock, and we had gone +ashore, that we realized, from the way the curious crowd formed a +circle around us and stared in open-mouthed wonder, that our appearance +was unusual for a city. We had not taken much baggage through the +Yukon country, and our camp clothes were very shabby. None of us had +had opportunity to have hair and beard trimmed since we left--with the +result that we had a mane reaching to the shoulders and fierce bushy +buccaneer whiskers, inches deep all around. Two of us wore ancient high +leather boots and the third wore a kind of moccasin. We all had heavy +"mackinaw" trousers of blanket-cloth, with belted coats of the same +material, while coarse flannel shirts and dilapidated felt hats, burned +with the sparks of many a camp-fire and seamed with the creases of many +a night's sleep, completed our costume. + +Finding the attention of the crowd embarrassing, we took a carriage +for the Grand Hotel, and as we were driving through the streets I +noticed that if one so much as caught a glimpse of our faces through +the carriage window, he would turn and stare after the cab till it was +out of sight. It was Sunday afternoon, and the streets were filled with +smartly dressed men and women. For our part, the sight of all this +correct and conventional dressing made a disagreeable impression on us, +after so long a period of free and easy life; the white collars and +cuffs of the men, in particular, obtruded themselves on my attention +and irritated me. + +We had left our "store clothes" in Seattle and had to telegraph to +get them. It took a couple of days for this, and in the meantime we +had only to wait. We had been looking forward to going to the theatre +as soon as we should arrive in San Francisco, and when our clothes did +not arrive, were disappointed, till we suddenly braced up in defiance +of the whole city, and said, "Let's go anyhow." We had not had time to +get our hair and beard trimmed, and our costume was in all respects the +same as when we left Circle City, but we sallied out bravely. We were +late at the theatre, and the play had already begun; it was a popular +one, and the only seats left were some in the "bald-headed" row. + +Although we had by this time the idea forced on us that our appearance +was unusual, we were by no means prepared for the commotion which we +brought about, as we walked up the broad aisle to our seats. There was +a hum and a sizzle of whispers throughout the house, which changed to +laughter and exclamations; and the actors on the stage, catching sight +of us, got "rattled" and forgot to go on. Up in the peanut gallery +the gods began to indulge in catcalls and make personal inquiries. We +hurried to our seats to escape this storm, and meeting an usher thrust +our tickets into his hand. He looked at us with a puzzled air and a +broad grin, as if he thought it all some huge joke, but we were getting +nervous, and gave him a glare which made him indicate our seats for us. +The audience evidently believed we were part of the show; many were +standing by this time, waiting to see what the next would be, but after +a while the buzz subsided and the play went on. There was a constant +current of conversation about us, however; behind us a young fellow was +excitedly asking his companion "Who are they, who are they?" "Don't +know," said the other. "Sailors, I guess." + +After a while we felt like returning to the solitude of our hotel +rooms; the play, too, did not please us, so in the middle of an act we +got up, and having remarked very audibly "Dis is a rotten show," we +went. As we started down the aisle the commotion grew louder than ever, +and we slipped quickly out and down a side street. + + + FINIS. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Hyphen removed: "network" (p. 123), "sawmill" (p. 130), "Thronduc" (p. +106). + +Hyphen added: "wood-box" (p. 73). + +Both "nigger-head" and "niggerhead" are used and have not been changed. + +P. 13: "comtemplate" changed to "contemplate" (contemplate in their +suddenly awakened fancies). + +P. 18: "synonomous" changed to "synonymous" (he used it as synonymous +with "tenderfeet"). + +P. 93: "bottow" changed to "bottom" (the bottom of the scow). + +P. 183: "caribon" changed to "caribou" (he had shot three bears, seven +caribou, and a moose). + +P. 222: "read" changed to "reap" (reap the benefits of his discoveries). + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Through the Yukon Gold Diggings, by +Josiah Edward Spurr + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44038 *** |