The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-08-11

come most serious, owing to the immense
rush of gold-hunters.
These are the last salt water ports and
the points of debarkation for the mo un-
tain trails and passes. The number OF
Indian and white packers and horses is
totally inadequate to move the vast guam
titles of freight over the mountains, and
a blockade that Is daily assuming more
formidable proportions has resulted.
Tons OF supplies are piled high on the
beach, ana they will likely remain there
for all indefinite length of time.
Every incoming steamer dumps scores
of excited gold-seekers and tons of freight
on The beach. The confusion is indescrio-
able. Muchof the freight is dumped on a
long sandsplt at Dyea at low tide, as there
are no wharfs al that place. Before the
supplies can be sorted claimed and re-
moved the tide has risen and ruined or car.
ried entirely away large quantity of sup
plies.
An illustration of the confusion in dis
charging cargoes and getting goods ashore
i found i'll the statement that lumber cut
and Kindred for making boats at Lake
Bennett has been pitched into the angry
sea ana washed ashore to be p cked up by
the Indians. A bundle of clothing, con-
tanning $400 belonging to 3 miner, was
washed off the sandspit by the tide ana
lost.
So many tents are pitched around the
head OF Lynn Canal that the scene is ike
that of an army encamped. By far the
largest portion of the supplies must be
packed over the passes by their owners if
they are packed at all.
Only about 80 Indians. fifty white men
and ten horses are now packing over the
Dyea trail. 1t is good to be an Indian now
at Dyea. He is making at least $40 a day.
He lets the palefaces in search of gold
bid against each other for his services as
packer and calmly takes up the burden of
the highest bidder. His squaw and his
children also carry heavy packs up the
steep mountain trail. The miners III the
last week have bid against each other
with such determination that the price
per pound has risen from 10 cents to 20
cents.
Lo is filing his blanket with gold, while
the excited whites have got it yet to find.
White men are abandoning less profitable
employment in Juneau and going in
small NUM- bers 10 Dyea, where they can
make from So to $40 per day according to
Their strength and endurance. None but
the hardest can pack supplies over the
trails.
The white man, with his ten horses, is
making 500 day. 1t is estimated that
there will be fifty additional white pack
ers and forty more horses on the trail in
week or ten days, but, on the other hand,
the rush keeps up and the end is not in
sight The end is too far away to see. 1t
is back in New York, Chicago and San
Francisco and has not started yet. Every
man who has set foot in Juneau, Dyea or
Skagaway has friends back East who are
coming.
The situation involves a delay most
critical for those going into the frozen
territory beyond the mountains. Spring
Is lckle thing there. She is likely to
leave her ac mirers in the lurch an day.
The rivers will then freeze and overland
travel to Dawson must stop, except at the
greatest peril, till spring smiles again.
The Yukon and Lewis have been known
to freeze by the middle of August, but
while this is an exception it is more than
posi- bility.