The record-union., 1897-09-13
COMPARISON Of
THE TWO TRAILS.
ChiIkOOt Said TO be the Better Of
the Two.
The Skagaay Pass May Be Better for a
n.sI
It Is 1000 Feet Higher Than Has
Been Claimed and 200 Feet
Higher Than the Chilkoot Pass
What a Newspaper Corre-
spondent Says About the For
Up in the Klondike.

SEATTLE, Sept 12.-The following
special correspondence to the Associ-
ated Press was received here to-day per
steamer City of Seattle:
Skaguay (Alaska), Sept. 7th.
Not being able to satisfy myself as
to the relative merits and conditions
of the two trails to the Klondike from
the contradictory reports brought in,
determined to make a personal ex
animation of both, and in order to be
able to make an intelligent report 1
induced Charles King of Tacoma, a
railroad contractor, to accompany me
to secure accurate elevations and
slopes.
AT Dyea there is no townsiting or
hurly- y-burly boom as there is at Ska
quay. Near the beach there are a few
tents belonging to recent arrivals who
have not got their goods ashore, and a
little further up about 100 tents oc-
cupied by Indian families who do
packing. There is only one store,
Healy & Wilson, an old trading post
and two saloons. There was no evil
dence of any blockade there; every one
was either packing or getting ready
to start the next morning The price
that day was 3S cents to Lake Linder-
man, a raise of s cents in one week,
and is now 40 cents. Any one able to
pay the price can get his entire outfit
picked up there in the morning and set
down at Lake Lindermann the next
evening, whether it is 1000 or 5000
pounds.
From Dyea for one and a half miles
there is a good wagon road to the fer
ry over the Chilcoot River, which is
about 100 feet wide with a very swift
current, and a charge of One-quarter
cent per pound for goods and 30 cents
for passengers each is charged. They
are loaded on canoes and toWed or
poled from Dyea for six miles up the
river, taking full day to tow q. loaded
boat that distance. From the ferry up
heavy timbered bottoms should be cor
duroyed, but it is not bad now Tim
ber-spruce, cottonwood, Alaska cedar
and stunted fir-abounds. Half a mile
across a shallow arm of the river the
trail takes to the river bed. 1t is gravel
and easy travelling to Finnigan's Point,
again crossing the river to higher
ground on the east side.
Less than $1,000 would make good
the canyon, 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 aver
ages about 800 feet elevation, with no
sharp pitches. Sheep Camp is fifteen
miles from Dyea, and the character of
the country suddenly changes and be-
comes more rough and rocky. Mount
ain torrents keep up a continual music.
There is scarcely any soil or tim
Der 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 a part of his outfit, and it
was scattered from there to the sum-
nit What he had got through had
cost him 60 cents a pound. All the
rest were in the same fix, their stuff
being scattered all along the trail
The trail over the summit is just l.,
600 feet higher than had been claimed
for it, and 2UU feet higher than the
Chilcoot 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
600 and as many horses, mules, bur-
ros. bulls and oxen.
Not one packer in fifty on the Ska
quay trail knows how to pack an ami
NAL, and half of them never had any
thing to do with a horse before.
Near the third bridge we met Mrs.
NJ L. Wommack of Seattle, formerly of
Butte, Mont. She started for the Klon
dixie last March by way of Dyea and
Chilcoot 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 back again. On her trip she
was accompanied by another woman,
Mrs. Smith, and two babies. Mr.. Smith
had a claim on Bonanza Greek and sent
for his wife and babies, but Mrs Wom-
mack 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 Chi1coot as a trail,
though it may, as a railroad PROPOSE
ton. as the grade is more gradual from
this side.