The San Francisco call., 1897-08-25
GoId-SeekerS May Travel in
Upholstered Berths Heated
by Steam.
PLANS MADE FOR EXPLORATION
OF COPPER RIVER.
There Is Said to Be Plenty Of Gold
on the American Side of the
Boundary Line.

SEATTLE, WASH, Aug. M.-In letter
received in Seattle to-day the information
is contained of 4 project that if carried
out successfully will make winter travel
to the Klondike more of a pleasure than a
hardship. Prominent business and rail-
road men propose to inaugurate an elec-
trio sleigh service capable of travelling
sixty miles an hour on smooth surface.
The Pullman Palace Car Company has by
this time completed a model of the sled
that is to make travel to Dawson practical
BILE and easy IN the middle of an Arctic win
ter. The details of the proposition reached
Seattle this morning in a letter from Will
liam Forbush of the Chicago, Milwaukee
and st. Paul Railway Company TO a
prominent business man. The company
backing the proposition is the Great
Northern Mining and Transportation
Company. which will shortly open offices
in the Great Northern Hotel Annex in
Chicago. Prominent railroad and COM
mercial men are interested in the COM
pany, as is the Pullman Palace Car Com
pany.
The letter states that the sleighs will be
built by the Palace Car Company, fur
nished with upholstered berths and heated
coldest weather will not trouble the trav-
eler. They will have speed OF from ten
to sixty miles an hour, according to the
condition of the river. On the first trip
through it is proposed to take a number
of men who. will smooth over the rough
places, and after the pilot becomes ac-
quainted with the road fast trip Will be
possible. Passengers, baggage and freight
will be carried at reasonable rate. All
the plans Of the company are patented.
The transportation scheme is not the
only one patented by the company. They
will build smaller sleighs which Will be
disposed of to the individual prospectors.
These sleighs will also be propelled with
motor, and with them it is expected that
a prospector can go anywhere he may de-
sire on the ice The sled will be fitted
with diamond drill which can be driven
by the motor fifty feet through the ice,
and in this way bars and placer ground
only accessible in the summer and at low
water can be prospected in midwinter.
If the diamond drill indicates gold in
quantities the prospector can stake off his
claim. The company will send out men
thoroughly competent to run the sleighs
and all or as many as possible OF the
small streams will be prospected.
Mr.. FOrbush states in his letter that
there is nothing about the scheme that
has not been tried, and that they know it
will work successfully. The company ex-
poets to put the sleIghs in operation dur
ing the coming winter.
An expedition OF far-reaching import
ance is being organized to explore the
Alaskan gold field tributary to the Copper
River. AT the head of it is A. Joseph Kin
of Port Townsend, ex-Superior Court
Judge, and William H. White of Seattle,
ex- United States District Attorney and at
present Democratic National Committee
man from Washington State. The inten-
tion is to organize fifty men, each to put
$1,000 in a common fund, purchase outfits
and supplies for two years and to charter
a steamer to sail from Seattle TO Prince
William Sound about the middle of Oc-
tober. The gentlemen referred to will
accompany the expedition, and they want
forty-eight other equally courageous and
able bodied men to join them. A dozen
or more have already been secured-ive of
them to-day.
Prince William Sound is about 400 miles
northwe It of Sitka and parties have tre-
quently entered Copper River from the
Sound, although not without some diff.
Guilty. Boats can ascend the river during
high tide. but they cannot go farther than
point some forty-fve miles from the
Sound. Here the glaciers are found.
When once the glaciers are passed the
river becomes navigable for distance into
the interior for all classes OF light river
boats, the stream being wide and shallow
and not very swift as a rule. The soil is
Of the nature of black muck OH the sur.
face, soft and yielding. Arctic as we'll as
other moss is found everywhere, which
makes travel somewhat difficult, owing to