The morning news., 1897-07-28

river on the ice. There is no fear that the
ice won't be hard enough to bear him and
ms outht, for II freezes for keeps i'm that
country, when ID gets ready TO freeze
But we believe the river boat will arrive
at Dawson before this. Oh yes, 81 per
day foots up rapidly and the winter is
long. OF course we will make n good
proht. We expect it. It's better to run
a boarding house in the Arctic river than
lay idle all winter.
From Seattle the steamers sail to Dutch
Harbor, in the Aleutian Islands, which is
the first stop Sailing through Bering sea
the steamer lands at Fort Get There, on
st Michael's Island where passengers and
fre.ght are transferred to our large river
steamers which ply the Yukon all
through the open season. The distance
from Seattle to ST. Michaels Island is
25OO miles From st. Michaers Island to
Weare, one of the principal trading sta
tons on the river, 1t is 1000 miles, and
from there to Dawson 100 miles more
1t was suggested that the Juneau route
was much shorter and that voyage of
47C0 miles was no small matter To this
the agent replied:
Yes, l know 1t IS only $50 miles from
juneau to the Klondlke region but il
| doesn't seem to me that Is the easiest way
to get there. You have to cross noun
tain range, and pretty high mountains.
too They are covered with snow and
men crossing them have to travel on
| snowshoes, taking poles with them to pre-
vent them from slipping and rolling down
the mountain sides 1000 feet or so. Every
thing transported over these mountains ii
carried by Indians, who make pack trains
OF themselves. The packing has to be
done distance of thirty miles and II costs
80 a hundred. TWo-thirds Of the distance
from juneau Is by water, but the traveller
mas to pass through succession of lakes,
and after getting on the upper Yukon he
encounters several rapids .and worst of
all. the Grand canyon of the Yukon. This
canyon is three-quarters OF a mile long
ana the stream pours through the narrow
defle so rapidly that Il Is said the center
OF the current is raised six feet above the
level OF the water at the sides OF the can
yon. The speed of the current may he
judged from the fact that IL takes a boat
or raft only two minutes and a half TO
make the passage, and II 1t Is not steered
true II is likely TO be dashed to pieces
against the walls of the canyon
The journey by the Juneau route has
been made in twenty days but good
many have started and never been heard
from again. IL Is said that the bones of
2W0 travellers are strewn along the trail
between Juneau and the Klondike The
usual time for making the voyage from
Seattle 10 Dawson Is thirty to thirty-fiye
days. so not much time can be saved
vi account OF the expense of the trip
the character OF the people who 20 10
Alaska and the sold regions is pretty good.
In the klondike region which Is in the
British domntons, the Canadian govern
ment has thirly-ive mounted police, and.
understand, no one else Is allowed to
carry arms Any disputes arising among
the settlers are decided by Informal
courts OF arbitration established by the
miners and prospectOrs themselves" ="
A circular issued by the transportation
company contains the following inforna-
uon' which ought to convince any fair
minded man that IL Is easy enough 10
prospect In the Klondike reglonsi
In order to get at the pay dirt in this
country II Ia necessary 10 20 through
about twelve 70 fifteen feet OF snow and
zee before coming 20 the gravel In which
the gold deposits are found. This Is usual
~ done by building fires and thawing the
way through. The climate In this eoun-
try Is extremely cold the thermometer
averaging 80 degrees below zero This.
however. does not stop mining, which Is
carried on the year round TI