Arizona weekly citizen., 1892-03-19

this southwestern section of Alaska, and one that can only be appreciated by the explorer or hardy frontiersman, is the ease and pleasure with which one can travel the coast waters, only to plunge into the toughest of ''roughing it, as soon as these are left. .and the AL pine interior essayed.
 On board the Topeka" was the New York Ledger Alaskan expedition that had this prospect ahead of it, the sub scriber being in command. One of our main objects was to cover as much un- explored country as possible, in any di- rection, yet a general plan had been formed to follow my old explorations of 1883 to, or near, the Pelly and Yukon river confluence, and there begin the work into the unknown interior west ward and southweStward.
 We had occasion to change this plan so as to cover more unexplored country than usual. 1t came about by discus sing a new and unexplored route from Juneau with citizens of that lively metropolis of our distant colony, '.the largest city in the largest territory in the largest republic in the world" as they used to periodically put it. 1t was to go over what was called the Tahku trail that led to a large lake in the interior, and by its draining river gain the Yuk ihere joined my old trail of 1883, d could then carry out the progra4 as pre- viously planned. It was believed an available commercial trail might be opened this way, that, with Juneau as basis, could be made to supply the Yukon valley even to Behring sea, better than by any known route, while It would be no small feather in the cap of the New York Ledger expedition, to be able to do this preliminary pioneer ing This belief was founded on in- formation obtained from the interior Indians when bringing out their furs. and from prospectors who had searched this general line for precious minerals. It might be, also, that the present Yukon traffic would not pay, while the future might, and it was well to be prepared with the information. The many other reasons for or against this trail can be made clearer as we travel over 1t later. When we arrived in Jun eau a corresponding interest was soon worked up by those on the steamer, the citizens pledging everything they could to make the enterprise a success, and so we disembarked here,
 The first point we touched in Alaska was Tongass. After Tongass, we meet nothing but salmon can neries for few days, reaching Juneau on the 9th of May, where our freight is disembarked and we continue on, for this metropolis is of enough importance to be touched by the returning steamer, thus making a short round trip.
 We wake up next day in Glacier Bay, on the first vessel of the season to essay it, as is is only visited in the in- terest of the summer tourists.
 At Sitha we were crowded with pas sengers of the spring court term at Juneau. There were ten prisoners only six of them being murderers, mostly confined to half-breeds and h. dians. The naturally resulting con- versation disclosed a statement that there had never been a simon-pure lyncbing, nor a legal execution, in Alaska. At "rans cii, :- : Hs-iy e.. days ;,.ys, a murderous gam bier was made chairman of vigilance committee. the chair was pu1rcs ouU rrun unuer nm ana ne broke this peaceful record-also his bOSh' NNe OAlN "AsA Af0N tier justice knows there Is wide chasm existing between this and lynch ing. In somewhat similar action, an Indian murderer performed traction on g rope, to the satisfaction of the vigi- lance faction and the greater di~5atis- faction of the lesser faction. Knlfsnoo is very agreeable to the eye but some what abominable to the nose, due to a fourishing herring fishery and attendent guano factory: The United States Marshal attempted to arrest native here for trying to drown squaw guilty of witohorsft I have never yet seen anything bewitoh- ing about an Alaskan Indian woman, put suppose tastes vary. This Alas kan, Cotton Mather had some iplaing of the proceedings, 50 he sScreted hirf self in the Alaskan woods, whefe the proyerblai needle in g hays.ack' would De as eonspicaous as circus poster by compariso1. There were pot eleven P.:~cnners rom Killisnoo to Juneau
 Juneau reached, preparations were begun at once, the first obstacle being the report that the Tahku river was not yet open. A big canoe, a two-ton or three-ton affair, was easy enough to get but packers themselves over the lana trail were hard to obtain until . sort ot snb-chiaf of the Tahkna-. .yash@