The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-12-29

DAWSON CITY On. w. T.), Novem-
Der 22.-(Via steamer Al-Ki to Seattle,
Dec. 28).-The face of the great river
that has so much 10 do with the des-
tiny Of 10000 people camped along it's
banks is fixed and still. The ice stopped
running in the Yukon on Sunday night,
the 7th inst. 1t was a consummation
! that had been wished by hundreds for
many days. To those who wished most
! devoutly for 1t its coming was a trag-
edy. 1t ran like havoc, like devasta-
ton. and there is something of both
in the grim and rugged face the frozen
river has taken on. and which 1t win
wear until the warmth Of spring soft
ems il.
The hundreds who have planned to
go out over the ice only discovered
what the undertaking meant when the
tardy sun of Monday morning enabled
them to see Whit had taken place dur
ing the night. To go out over the ice
meant, on Sunday evening to the man
who knew of the Yukon only what he
had seen of it since the beginning of
this stampede, a shedding excursion 500
miles long On Monday morning he saw
the wide channel of the river piled
from rim to rim with Jagged heaps of
ice that seemed planned to form an
obstruction, and If he had an imagina-
ton he saw this desolate wreckage
stretch southwark 600 miles between
himself and the outer world.
On Sunday evening he had talked
glibly of the date at which he expected
to arrive at Juneau, and ran easily
over the calendar at twenty to thirty
miles a day. On Monday morning he
stood, sickened and helpless, on the
bank of the Yukon in the presence of a
barrier that seemed impossible. He
would have given year of his life and
double the selling price to be able to
buy back again the incomplete outfit
he had sold the day before.
But over this jagged track a thou
sand men will toll back to Lhe south
| this winter What havoc the ice jam
may have caused along the length of
! the river may only now be Judged from
what it did here, as no individual has
! arrived from up or down the river since
| then. Here it crushed and carried away
! the hundreds of boats with which the
| banks were lined The shore ice gave
/ away in the crush, and in it's place i'm
mense plateaus, ten feet in thickness,
were lifted from the current and set
| out upon the banks in that sturdy
majesty with which nature does these
! things. With the foe that went
! Wednesday afternoon, after the first
! jam, for the river made tremendous ef-
forts to free itself, counted thirty-one
boats. Many of them contained parts
/ Of outfits that the owners had been un-
able to save. From one of these an
American flag waved-its bright bit Of
color above the white sweep of ice, and
over them all hovered a flock of croak-
! ing ravens, the black omnipresent bird
of this frost-bitten land. They rose
and dipped and rested on the gunwales
of the boats, feeding from those that
contained grain.
Then came the crash and the crush
again, and the brave little boats that
| had weathered the Canyon and the
White Horse were rolled over and over
and ground to pieces as the ice jammed
and fixed itself finally to bind the great
river for the long winter
l said 1t was a tragedy, but It was
really climax to the deadly play, and
whatever devastation it has done it is
well that it is done and over with
| While the river ran there were those
who would dare whatever dangers it
presented in their desire to get here.
A boat with five men In It was at
tempting landing at the mouth of the
! Klondike at the very moment Of the
| first jam. They were held in the ice all
night, were carried down to the lower
edge Of Dawson on a foe in the early
morning, and their escape or rescue by
a party from the shore was like a
miracle.
Scarcely day since the ice began
running but has seen some sign of dis
aster and death pass down in the cur
rent with it. Once 1t was the frozen
body Of man. Time and again men