The herald., 1897-09-13

and a charge of one-quarter cent per
pound for goods and so cents each for
passengers is made. They are loaded
in canoes and poled from Dyea for six
miles up the river, taking full day to
tow a loaded boat that distance. From
the ferry up there are heavy timbered
bottoms, but the road is not bad now.
Spruce, cottonwood, Alaska cedar and
fir line the way. Across shallow arm
of the river the trail takes to the river
bed. 1t Is gravel and easy travelling to
Finnigan's point, again crossing to high
er ground on the east side.
Less than $4,000 would make a good
wagon road from Dyea to the head pf
the canyon and but one bridge would
have to be built At the canyon the first
perceptible climb and the first mud is
encountered.
The trail from Camp Pleasant to Sheep
Camp is fairly good and averages about
500 feet elevation, with no sharp pitches.
Sheep Camp is fifteen miles from Dyea
and the character of the, country sud
denly changes and becomes more rough
and rocky. Mountain torrents keep up
continual music. There is scarcely any
soil or timber from there to the summit
There were not many people camped
on Lake Bennett, only those who had
come over the Skaguay trail. about
twenty, and only one complete outfit had
got through on September 1st, that Of
Robert Cahel and wife.
Detective w. H. Welsh, who was the
first man to break through the trail,
only had part of his outfit and it was
scattered from there to the summit.
| What he had got through had cost him
go cents pound. All the rest were in
the same fix, their stuff being scattered
all along the trail.
The trail over the summit is just 1000
| feet higher than had been claimed for 1t
and 200 feet higher than the Chilkoot
pass
| At this third hill we found over 200
people camped where there was room for
about twenty, and in a distance of a
mile and a half over 1000, and as many
horses, mules, burros, bulls and oxen.
Not one packer in fifty on the Skaguay
trail knows how to pack an animal and
half of them never had anything to do
with a horse before.
Near the bridge we met Mrs. M. L..
Wommack of Seattle, formerly of Butte,
Mont. She started for the Klondike last
March by way of Dyea and the Chilkoot
trail, got her stuff all on Lake Bennett
and then received word of the sickness of
her two children in Seattle. She sold her
outfit and returned there, arranged to
have them cared for and started again.
On her first trip she was accompanied by
another woman, Mrs. Smith. and two ba-
bies. Mr.. Smith had claim on Bonanza
creek and sent for his wife and babies.
but Mrs. Wommack helped her to bury
both of them on the trip before they got
to Lake Bennett.
No road over this pass can be made
to compete with the Chilkoot as trail.
though it may be as railroad PROPOSE
ton, as the grade is more gradual from
this side.
A WOMAN'S VIEWS
TACOMA, Wash, Sept 12.-Mrs. E. A.
Henderson, the first newspaper CORE.
spondent to make the trip to Dawson
from st. Michaels and Is visiting friends
in this city. With her little 3-year-old
daughter she spent some months in the
mining districts and gives the Ledger
some interesting experiences in the far
north.
'"Talk about my report of the finding
| Vooo'So
discovered in the Yukon country which
Nick Knutson picked up on No. SO, Ell
Dorado, and is bringing to San Francisco
on the Excelsior, has increased the ex-
citement which calm view of the dan
ger side of the grub question had partly
allayed. When the Excelsior, with its
reported, but probably exaggerated.
cargo of nearly million of dust reaches
| Co Eron thA L.
reach it's height.
"Yet the excitement is all on the out
side. In the Klondike country even this
huge nugget, which is as large as your
hand, and almost a perfect hatchet-
head shape, did not greatly excite the
miners.
Il am asked scores of times, is the
Klondike country as rich as reported?
was prepared to say, 1t can scarcely
be exaggerated but since then 1 have
seen newspapers and I reply more
cautiously. In several papers 1 saw the
statement that somebody had seen five
gallon coal oil cans of gold to- the num-
Der Of five in one cabin, the work of two
men for one winter No one in that
country ever heard of such a cabin.
1.-THE truth is l lifted less than $4,000
of dust in granite bowl with difficulty.
Gold is heavy to bear in more senses
than one.
"These figures are accurate. have
been UP the Yukon all summer From
April 18th. to June 18th four men took out
from No 10, Ell Dorado, from but a
small part of the claim strip only 25x
70 feet, $4262S, and have recently sold
the claim for $45,OO0 This is the highest
amount of gold out of Klondike mine,
nearly 100000. that know of so far
Dawson City is swarming with dis
reputable women. Early this spring
there were over forty; there are dozens
more by this time, for they go by every
boat. One of the creatures is said to
have made 5000 in one day, another $500
in ten days.
"Of the lucky ones, Alex Mcdonald.
who went in not long ago strapped. is
now more than millionaire, and Bill
Cottwell bought claim for s100 and
sold sixty feet only of it for $1,000. This
was No. H. Ell Dorado. On No. 9, Ell
Dorado. there Is a rich streak above bed |
rock, about three or four inches thick.
The owners are taking out very little be- |
cause they cannot do much with the |
cumbrous methods in use. From two |
holes they washed out SCI, 900 in six
Frank Densmors has a claim out of