The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-07
NEARING THE KLONDIKE
JOAQUIN MILLER SENDS BACK AN IN
TERESTING LETTER.
He Finds Reports of the Great Cold
Fin1 Less E~xtrnvagant as He APP
oac the EIdOradO.
Joaouin Miller,s Fort Mrangel. Alaska.

Joaquin Miller's Fort Wrangel, Alaska.
Letter. July %, in New York Journal.
This morning at daylight we crossed the
watery line between the two great Saxon
speaking nations, and a few hours later
saw our first house in this vast, lone land
of the North. 1t is the custom house, and
hangs up against the dense, grim mountain
side just a little above the ten-foot tide
wash, as if afraid of getting in the water.
Water and woods, and woods and water
that is all. Large, strong arms of the sea
are thrust up between the precipitous dark
forests and snow capped peaks, where
white clouds hover continually. Not a
sound, no animate thing astir. Now and
then a fish hops out of the CLASSY waves
at a flash and that is all. Not a bird of
any sort. sea bird or land bird. All the
way from Seattle to this point not a bird,
if we except a single flock of ducks and
half a dozen sea gulls. Men say that what
fowl there are are far away to the north.
1 only know they are not here. And not
one single canoe. all the way the best half
of a thousand miles. We passed two little
trading or tramp steamers. and we met
one mail steamer of this line in all these
days, but this side of Victoria all was as
still and empty as if we were the first to
break this awful hush of wave and wood
since the dawn of the first day.
Mary island, the place of customs and
the postoffice, lies to the left of this mighty
river, so like the Columbia, so like the
Hudson, only ten times its size and I'M
pressiveness, and right before us lies what
the prospectorS who come and go with US
call a mountain of gold. Men, especially an
eX-federal judge who is with us, say 1t is
the richest piece of ground in the world,
and that the famous Treadwell mine. Wit
its millions, is but a babe in arms in COM
no riCnp urith fhtG mountain of quartz and
gold that lies right in our path as we push
on from the custom house toward the gold
reservation, and the Indians, a community
under the leadership of a wise and good
old S~cotchman, known as Father Duncan,
are reputed to be by far the best and most
wise on the continent, and so the govern
ment is leath to disturb them. In the early
nineties gold was found all along the steep,
starry new home of the Indians from the
tide wash to the snow that caps the peaks.
THE KLONDIKE CLIMATE.
An old returning miner to the Mecca of
our present pilgrimage, who has spent many
winters in Alaska, told me that at Metla-
kahtla the climate in the Indian town was
exactly like that at Klondike.
What, and you raise potatoes, cabbage,
and so no in the upper region?"
why, certainly, and the best hay l ever
saw. l have seen grass as high as my head
there in June, and cattle driven in from
Juneau to Dawson are in better condition
when they arrive than when they are
started from the trail
Now, what do you think of that, my read
ers, thousands OF miles away? | have fol-
lowed up this cattle story and find 1t true.
1 learned to-day that two bands of cattle
were driven into the Klondike last summer,
and that three bands have already been
driven in this year. l find that a band of
LOO sheep passed up these waters IN d
steamer a few days back, but ! do not
know certainly that they are now being
driven into the klondike, but they could
not we'll be meant for any other place.
And now as TO the road, that fearful and
perilous, steep and stupendous mountain of
ice that had to be climbed with ice stan In
one hand and rope in the other. Truly l
find that not a single person mas yet per-
ished on the line in all these past four
Further than shat, find that whole fami-
lies, women and children, old men and old
women, have gone in by the river recently,
and nobody has been the worse for it,.
And now for news, the newest news ABOUT
the dread mountain pass which, according
to all received accounts, was 10 be under
taken only at the peril of life and limb.
Well, men all along here at the lndian vii
lagos and postofticeS where we ma men 10
talk to, tell me that the true news was NOT
one-quarter as bad as published; that last
winter two mails We're brought this way by
English mail carriers, and three by Ameri-
can mail carriers, making the monthly mali
trips over the Sky-Scrdping glaciers ana I'M
passable pass as regularly then in the mid
winter as they make ii now III the MD
summer.
More than this, a Mr.. White went almost
a month ago., to cut a trail below ana
around the so-called death trap, ana now IL
is comfortable. 1t is three or -FOUR miles
longer. but il is Of easy grade and a good,
safe pack trail, four feet wide.
FIVE MILES OF WAGON ROAD.
The first five miles is already wagon road,
So you see, as 1 phophesied on leaving Sc
attic, there was a whole lot of big stories
told for the benefit of the far-off poor man
who was trying to get TO the mines. The
nearer we approach the less formidable are
all tho obstacles before US. The walls of
Jericho are already down and we have not
once trumpeted. Why. if this keeps on, in
thirty days more we will enter the klon-
dixie country at Dawson in palace cars.
AS for the richness and area of the mines,
remember l am not sent to this country to
tell what l hear, but what l see, and can
say nothing at all about the gold fields TIL
on the ground. l can only report that the
glaring accounts silence as we go forward.
But bear in mind we see next TO none di-
rectly from there.
Look at the map and you will see that the
way out is not back this way. meeting us,
but on down the Yukon, where you step on
the boat at Dawson, and without setting
foot on land, and making only one change
OF you can step out on the wharf
at San Francisco. My next letter will be
from the foot of the pass, or trail, as it now
is, where we find the last poStoffice till
Dawson nearly seven hundred miles fur
Their on.
Then we will continue to. get letters back
from the other side of the pass or end of
the line. On then, past lakes, woods, water
falls, the bowling wilderness, into the heart
of the mines. Ii the returning postman is
met with, or any other responsible party,
we may be able TO send out the story of
our voyage by boat or raft through the
lakes and down the tumbiing headwaters
of the Yukon. We are looking forward
with exultation and anticipation of wild
JOY in our hurried and headlong journey to
the mines.
Thus far 1 have had delight in every hour
Of the 1000. or nearly 1000, miles that lie
behind me since leaving San francisco.
And it is no mean compliment to this sub
lime Alaskan land and sea and sweet air
to assure you that l never felt quite so
life. my