The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-07-23
The Portland Sailed From
Seattle Yesterday
With 12S" Passengers, Men and
Women,
BOUND FOR KLONDYKE
Another Letter From a Man on
the Ground.
Fabulous Stories of the Region
Lose Nothing In His Telling.

S6alIle, w ASH, July Ho-~AI ~
terday afternoon the North American
Transportation company's steamer
Portland sailed from Seattle to St.
Michaels, Alaska, from which point her
passengers will be transferred to Yukon
river steamers and carried to the IA
NOUS Klondyke gold fields. There are
128 passengers, few of whom were
women. 1t can be stated almost posi-
lively that unless something unexpect-
ed happens, the Portland's passengers
will reach Dawson City at the junction
of the Yukon and Klondyke rivers
without experiencing any hardshipS
worth mentioning.
E. M. Culbertson, who went to the
Klondyke last spring, has written home
saying:
I'VE heard stoEies about the mines
that will scarcely be believed. One
day and others as high as 100000 and
100000. Some have had to clean up
the boxes as high as three times day,
but this clean up does not represent
one days work, but the wash for the
whole winter.
1.-The bonanza claims of course are all
taken up and the creeks where the rich
finds have been made are taken clear
up to the top of the mountains but we
hope to get hold of something that will
satisfy before long. The stories we
heard in Seattle do not half tell the
story of their richness, but they don't
belong to US and the only thing we can
90 Is 10 40 the next pest anu Try 10
find some more. When we arrived
here the miners were nearly out of pro-
visions.
Wages are SIS per day at the dig
g1ngs but they are trying to cut down
to $40 and most of the men on claims
that they tried to cut, quit and came
back to camp, as they claimed they
could not afford to work for less than
SIS, and pack their grub in over the
trail and one of the worst trails you
could imagine as l can vOuch for, and
Tralr erSN- RI
of their condition by a description a
man gave me. He said, 1t was like
walking through rotten straw The
country is all covered with moss from
two to four feet deep and the frost is
out about II or IA inches and you go
down to the bottom at every step. The
mines are Is miles from here and they
have to pay % cents pound to have
supplies packed in, but when it freezes
up it is an easy matter to sled sup
plies up the river and creeks and if we
get located this summer will take in a
years supplies that way"
San Francisco, July 23.-The Alaska
Commercial cOmpany'S steamer Bertha
arrived from Ona, Alaska, today with
500 tons of generates from the Apollo
mine at Unga and bar of bullion from
the same source, but brought no gold
from the Klondylze region. Captain
Hays, of that vessel, speaking of the
K1ondyke boom, however, said:
The fact that the new gold fields are
two thousand miles from st. N1ichaels
and difficulties of transportation are
innumerable, can not be too forcibly
impressed upon intending prospectors.
The newspapers will be responsible for
the loss of many lives and a great deal
of suffering and hardship if they do not
strongly advise the public that the
river Yukon, now that the mountain
torrents have ceased running, is very
low and consequently much of the five
thousand tons of supplies now awaiting
transportation cannot possibly be con-
veyed to their destination for some
time"
The Messrs. Sloss, of the Alaska
One of the firm said: What we most
fear is that the excitement will cause
many people to rush nOrthward with
out properly considering how they are
to live through the winter after they
get there. We have now about 900
tons of provisions on the Yukon and
we are sending large additional quanti-
ties, but we are not able to say wheth-
er the supply will be equal to the de-
mand, nor when the supplies will reach
their destination with any certainty.
The sternwheel steamer with which the
Excelsior is to connect will be the last
to make the Yukon river trip this sea-
son. 1t will reach Dawson City with
barge tow about September, and must
Immediately return as the river usual
ly freezes over early in October
1T is for this reason principally that
we have declined to carry more than
the usual complement of passengers on
the Excelsior this trip. We could easily
have constructed the Accommodations
for another hundred but preferred to
utilize the space for supplies to feed
those already there and on the way"