The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-08-05
ghe banged down the girup mug ana


well, she don't sit here any more.
This is the captains table, and he can't
ard said, as she, like any other nasty
little fly, disappeared on deck.
I have been asked, as 1 have asked
so many of, our party, what equipment
I have for the route over to the mines,
and you may also want to know. Brief
ly, then, 1 have 20 pounds of BACON, II
pounds of bareback, half a pound of
tea. I have a heavy pair of blankets,
the heaviest socks, under clothing,
boots. a rubber blanket, a macintosh,
pound of assorted nails, 100 feet of
small rope, a sail and an AK My pack
is 40 pounds all told. 1 have a pocket
knife and an iron cup, a. Thermometer
and about 500.
pack over all the places and travel
hastily on ahead, and alone You see,
have spent years alone in the noun
tains and have been in almost all the
"stampedeS'' for the last 40 years, and
know what I am about.
OF course, / am not doing this thing
for fun, but for the information of poor
men who mean to go to the mines next
spring. This is what those who pay
me to take this trip want and what L
have promised to do if it can be done
without too much risk of life or limb.
If I make this trip thus equipped,
find work and good wages, and all that
sort of thing, why, any other man who
wants to can do it, For 1 am So years
old, and a bit lame of the leg. OF
course, may have to change some of
my plans, may join a party and go
down in a boat instead of on a raft,
and so on; but I am going to ask for
work at all events; get it if 1 can, and
do it, for l am an old miner, and can,
do almost twice the work of a new
man. Certainly can do more good
just now in that way than by describ-
ing clouds, snow peaks and polar bears,
although, of course, 1 shall not all the
time keep my face to the EARTH even
though my feet do cleave solidly to it,
After having got right down to the
bedrock of the cold, frozen facts, shall
take the steamer at Dawson and return
straight to San Francisco. So you see,
my 40 pounds will be about all I~abso-
1utely need.
But the slayer will not follow nv
say right here that it does not at this
distance look like practical common
sense to waste so much time and
strength in getting in supplies by this
lana route when they are bringing
thousands of tons by the water route.
I shall write again when we get to
Alaska; also again from the other side
or base of the so-calIed terrible pass"
But once launched on the swift river
and link of lakes flowing the other way,
there will be only a monthly mail Yet
If we find anything of great Importance
in the way of facts, we will find some
means of sending it back. If we do not
find plenty of faint-hearted fellows
Coming back, even after crossing the
mountains, it will not be in line with
other excitements from 40 up to this
hour.
And now let me lift my face from this
paper. The ratings of the densely
packed little ship are lined on either
side by silent idolators of the grandeur.
The skies are sapphire, the warm Geor-
g1a gulf sea of glass. It seems like
Sunday. We sailed out of Seattle on
Sunday, and it seems like it has been
one unbroken Sunday ever since
The mighty black and broken n1oun-
ta1ns, a stones throw distant on either
hand. it almost seems, are dappIed,
dimpIed, broken into pillows of snow
clouds as white as cotton, Sunday
clouds surely, lie asleep along the black
FIR forests that stand with their feet in
the CLASSY waters of the gulf Here
and there peak of snow pushes
through the clouds. propping the porch
of heaven and piercing the sapphire
above us.
Color, color, color! Let us not look
too partially on our own Sierras until
we see these fearful walls of black for
ests, clouds and ice-b built peaks Of the
north rising from the soft and dream
fuI levels Of this silver Georgian sea.
L tell you that if the Puritan and
Cavalier had set foot here first instead
OF at Plymouth Rock and Portsmouth.
their descendants would today, in some
mighty capital by the Pacific Sea he
introducing bills for the preservat ton of
the wild game and Indians in a nation
al park, reaching all along the length
of the A11eghenieS to the entire At
lantic shore.