Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-08-26
CRAY'S STORY!
lie e,ture at Opera House for Benefit
of Foreign Missions.
ENTERTAlNs A GooD-slzED AUDIENCE.

EN- EKI AtNS "A JOOD=SlLED
Albert D. Gray gave an interesting
account Of his Alaskan experiences at
opera house Monday evening to large
and attentive audience. The young
man spoke entirely impromptu. without
manuscript or long preparation, and
made no attempts at polished oratory or
lowered sentences. He gave merely a
direct, informal talk, telling in detail
his adventures in the north and illus
trating same by use of fur suits, skin
suits, miniature Indian boats, gold mug
gets, etc. He gave also a practical illus
tration of placer mining by use ofa real
gold pan. He held his audience inter-
ested for two hours and at the close in
vited questions and answered all queries
which the crowd was disposed to put to
him. His story was taken as follows:
Ladies and Gentlemen: In my expe-
riences during the past year and one
half, as matter of course, it has been
unusual for me to meet many persons.
So if | evidence any embarrassment in
my talk to you this evening [ wish you
would excuse me. Will start by giving
you a short description of my journey
from Seattle to Juneau. You have un-
doubtedly all read accounts in the daily
journals or in books of public libraries
concerning the voyage over that route,
hence | can tell you little that is new.
Leaving Seattle with our faces set
toward the land of great expectations,
our boat turned north into Puget sound,
passing on through numerous CULTS, the
largest of which was the Gulf of Geor-
ga. Miners all have dread for the
open ocean and Queen Charlotte's
sound. AS we passed through this
sound and rounded the end of Van
couver's island into the broad Pacific it
was between and 6 o'clock a. IN. The
first thing heard was the roaring of
ocean waves, and the first thing felt was
a dizziness that corresponded with the
steady rolling of our vessel. We
thought we were in the midst of great
storm. Many passengers were fright
trip across the sound took about two
hours, then the day gave smooth sailing
onward to Fort Wrangell. There is a
peculiarity about the tides in Queen
Charlotte S sound. When the tide goes
in the depth of water seems to decrease
and huge rocks appear above the sur
face in the channel. When the tide
goes out these rocks are covered and
ships pass over them safely. l suppose
you have read recently of the sinking
of the Topeka. The ship happened in
the sound at the wrong time of tide and
ran upon the rocks. At another time
large gunboat was lost off here with
all hands.
Fort Wrangell is an interesting old
town. 1t is the town of the totem pole
all Indian tents. Passing up through
there it is 140 miles to Juneau and Tar
kou Inlet, on the way, is very danger
Gus passage at some seasons of the year
oh aCSONiLh VI bIS NIIlus w y NChL
through without accident. At the base
of the mountains, in snug little spot,
we came to Juneau, the place where
gold was first discovered in Alaska The
first discovery was placer, then quartz,
and great quartz mills are now in oper-
alton there. They told us at Juneau
that to take the route we had planned
1t would be necessary to 90 to Fort
Wrangell and SO we turned back. Our
boat returning was not of the best We
were "A hours in high seas not moving a
bit. At Fort Wrangell we remained
two weeks and got acquainted with the
people, nearly all Indians, then boarded
an Alaskan steamer to the Stikeen
river. At the upper end of this river
we struck the Cassiar country. which
was the first part in the far north where
gold was found. 1t is what we call
British Colurnbia. This section is now
mined principally by Cinnamon. The
Stikeen enters the ocean about Is miles
from Fort Wrangell. At the mouth a
large surface of the sea is dlscolored
from the alkali that is washed down
from the mountains. The river is
very rapid stream and very shallow.
Pushing up the river aud entering the
high ranges we saw rivers of ice, 20 to
so feet high, leading into the mountains
and surrounded by a hazy blue as deep
as the ocean around. No one who has
never seen a snow slide coming down
the mountain can imagine what it is to
witness great mass of earth and rocks,
whole mountain side aud everything
in its way, come sweeping with terrible
force into the river. For us the picture
will never be forgotten.
The next place of Importance was the
canyon. There were walls about so #.
high, composed of decayed granite.
Steamers have to line here. Will give
you an idea how that is done. The
boat that we were on was handled bv
Indians. They got into a row boat and
went short distance up stream, then
attached one end of big rope to a tree
or other stationary object, and dropped
back to ship, fastening the other end of
rope to steam capstan. This drew the
boat up same as by windlass. The
operation is repeated until we are
through the canyon. A scending at last
from a sand bar upon which we had
stuck for long while, Glenora was