The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-05-27

Ah'l-klain. could bring continuous
river navigation nearer the Pacific
than could the former. which is impeded
by an impossible rapid not far above
the confluence of the two. Something
over an hours drifting brought us to
miners camp. Swindlcr and Harvey
had here taken up placer bar, but at
that time 50 submerged by the freShet
it could not be worked. Swindler had
had an eventful prospecting tour the
wear before. extending across the whole
face OF Alaska down the kousl1oquim
river Just in time to reach Juneau and
outfit for work here. His narrative
was interesting, although l recall but
few salient points, the most conspicuous,
in a sensational way being the fact tor
theory that the notorious Chicago
murderer Tascott, was living
among a band of savages on the
Kousl1oqum. The Identification GER
tainly seemed to be reasonably accurate
but too long to detail here. When the
season is over these miners of the Up
per Yukon ascend the river by polling
their whip-sawed boat along shore,
abandon it at the foot of the monn-
tainS. and with but two or three DAYS
short and light supplies, make forced
marches over the range, arriving often
times on the coast with but single
blanket and their buclsl1in purses more
or less full of gold dust. according to
their luck and work. Our late lunch
that evening was on mooSe's nose,
toasted over the Goals of campfire.
1t is OF the consistency of gristle with
a nut-like flavor, not bad to average
palate. And this brings it
wildly to my mind that | have eaten
everything from beaver-tail to mooSes
nose, from warmed-over walrus-hide to
ragout of rattlesnake, and that even
ing, for the hundreth time at least, was
asked if | had ever encountered gas
tronOmic inpossiblity. ! have. A Min
neconjOn Sioux friend of mine once in
vited me to dog-feast at the old
Spotted Tail Agency the fall of 1877.
Now l can eat dog until my Sims bark,
but Touch-the-Cloudsh had sacrificed an
old Mesozoic mongrel, boiled it for
day or two in weak molasses water
and then sprinkled it with sugar to
serve as desert. ate all the agency
rations served and stuck hat-footed on
the last.
About 10 o'clock saw us drifting past
the Upper Cassiar bar. Here, in 1856 six
men. in eighteen days, took out $500
apiece; fair summers work for two
men apiece on the average bar. Despite
this brilliant record it was deserted at
the time of our visit. Camps were now
numerous, but all the men, eight in
number. at four bars, were waiting for
the water to fall. About noon we
drifted by the mouth of the big Dab
badie, which named in 1883 after the
great French explorer, the local Indian
name translated being the Salmon"
while miners call it big Salmon"
That afternoon the moose's nose came
to an end, as we ate it for a late lunch.
Like all semi-cartilagenous, nutty
meats il is, think, much better cold
than warm. but agree with one miner
who said 4 don't want too much tree
topper snout in mine:" and
the expression ''tree-topper" showed
that he was from Montana.
About the middle of the afternoon of
next day June 26) became somewhat
anxious regarding the Rink Rapids l
knew to be ahead short distance, for
the high stage of water might make it
somewhat dangerous to shoot them
in light canvas boats. As a usual
thing rapids flowing over distractions
arr AAAlpIOFSu III ndNlSdDl1llN Dg ulSH
water while those flowing through
them are rendered worse. The Rink
Rapids are of the latter class, number
of huge rock pinnacles projecting from
the very bed of the river, and looking
like the piers of a great stone
bridge whose spans had tumbled
in. / think there are five of
these, at least some miners speak
of it as The Five Fingers" About
o'clock we reached them. When |
shot these on a raft in 1888. at the re-
quest of my Indian guide. ] beached our
craft andNmade an inspection. choosing
the extreme right (eastl channel. the
usual one taken by miners and Indians.
The excitement then was just pleasantly
exhiiaraf-ng. An inspection of the
rapids by Russell and the Doctor gave
no reason for changing the usual chan
mel or method. and at AGO we went
through, Russell's boat slightly leading.
The right channel is after all quite
narrow chute, and the greatest danger .
is in not keeping well TO the center tc .
ayoid collision with the rough |