Connecticut western news., 1897-12-16
PERILS OF THE TRAIL
rARDSHiPS OF MEN FLEEING FROM
 DANGER OF STARVATION.
Edward Hern and Charles McGsrIgIe Tell Their Experlences--Travele Night and Day In Stocking Feet and Without Food Until They Were Rescued.

Food Until They Were Rescued.
 Seattle. Wash, Dec. 15.-Passengers
 of the steamer Alki, which has just ar-
 rived here from Skagguay, Alaska, re-
 port that Collector of Customs Godson,
 who is stationed at Lake .--agish. came
 into Skagguay on Dec. ? S.nging con-
 firmatory news of rich strikes on the
 Hootalinqua river and that many pros-
 pectors at Lake Marsh and other places
 on the road to Dawson had gone into
 the Hootalinque country.
 According to new ruling of Deputy
 United States Collector of Customs
 Floyd, at Skagguay, goods purchased in
 Canada and brought to Skagguay must either pay duty or s6 per day be given customs official while the goods are
 in transit to the international boundary line.
 Collector Floyd has already collected
 duties on five outfits from British Co.,
 lumbia. the owners paying the duty
 rather than pay a customs official to travel with them to the line. Owing to the dispute over the location of the boundary line. it is feared that bad feeling will be engendered by Col lector Floyd's interpretation of the cus- toms law.
 The steamer Alki had on board the latest Klondikers from Dawson City, Edward Hern of Aspen, Col, and Charles McGarigle of Chicago, who left Dawson on Oct. 25. nearly ten days lat CT than recent fugitives from hunger already reported.
 Hern left Dawson with Frank Pierce of San Francisco and another man, whose name he did not remember. They had terrible trip and a narrow escape l..xV out they put back to Dawson for boat. The third man decided to face threatening starvation in the Klondike rather than attempt to escape up the river with its terrible hardships. Hern and Pierce left together.
 After being Q week on the river, with the thermometer about 90 degrees be- ! low zero, Pierce turned his back to the coast and returned to Dawson, taking | his full share of the food. Hern went | on alone and a few days later fell in with McGarigle and Frank Thomson and Frank Callahan of Tacoma. The | latter two remained behind on the trail. | being unable to keep up the pace. Hern and McGarigle had their ears ! and cheeks frozen. McGarigle is lying 1 in his bunk on the ship, being unable to come ashore.
 | The mems canoe was capsIzed by a | cake of floating ice on Nov. 6. and they | were thrown into the water a quarter \ of mile from shore. The current was very swift, but after being carried down | the river half mile they succeeded in | swimming ashore. Their coats. shoes I and provisions were lost. Hern had on | a sweater A few minutes before the | canoe capsized Hern had got his feet
 wet and had taken off his shoes. wear | ing a pair of heavy woolen socks. i They walked up the river bank all that night and most of the next day. | Their clothes were frozen so stiff they | could hardly walk, and they had noth- | ing to eat. With their knives they cut | off one of the two pairs of mackinaw ! trousers which each wore and tied them around their feet.
 | At the mouth of the Little Salmon | river. the next afternoon, they found | camp of Klondikers, but they were | on the other side of the river. It took | nearly two hours of yelling to make the | campers hear them. A man came over | in a boat and rowed them across. and | they got something to eat and place to | sleep Hern walked ten miles up the | Little Salmon river to Indian Village the next day and purchased fur clothes. l When I left Dawson" Hern said to | a reporter from 5000 to $500 people | were preparing to leave and go down | the river to Fort Yukon. Not a man | among them wanted to go, but 1t was a | case of get out or starve. About a | week after we were out the river got
 clear of ice. and as they were waiting | at Dawson most of them doubtless | started. They are by this time at Fort ! Yukon. Of course they will all flock | up to Dawson as soon as grub gets in l there.
 | T think other creeks as rich as Fl | Dorado and Bonanza will be found. but l a mans hardships only begin when he gets to Dawson. He must pack his own | grub further than to this place, and that
 till he finally decides to locate at some | point and do some work"
 The news was brought out by Mir. | Hern that three men of Major Walsh g
 Canadian police party were caught in | an ice gorge below the Little Salmon | river on Nov. r, and J. J. Freeman of
 Seattle and two others were drowned.