The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-10-28
SOME LUCKY, OTHERS BROKE
soUTHBoUND STEAMERS HAVE
MANY PASSENGERS.
Communication With Dawson City
During the Approaching Win
ter Promises to Be Not
Infrequent.
BY HAL HOFFMAN.
Special Correspondence Of The Call.


JUNEAU, Alaska, Oct. IS (by steam
ship City of Seattle to Victoria, b. e.,
Oct. 22)-The end of the rush out of
Dawson by the UP river route mas
reached the coast and the volume OF
travel south will be greatly decreased
from this date. The steamboat war is
still hot, and rates to the Sound have
been cut more than half. This week
the fare has been $12 first class and IS
second class to Seattle. Before an
other week goes by, if the competition
continues, the steamboats, may be car
rying people for nothing and feeding
them for the privilege OF having them
aboard. One ship, the Rosalie, played
a neat trick on the Pacific Coast
Steamship Company's Al-Ki and the
City of Seattle, which were both lying
in port here bound north. She
dropped a boat over the side and sent
the mail to Juneau by two deck hands,
from the lower end of Douglas, and
then skipped for Skaguay with as much
more steam and as many more turns
in her screw as she could raise, in or
der to catch the southbOund crowd
from the trail. She dropped her pas
sengers for Juneau on the down trip.
Many more advantages for getting
out of the Yukon will soon be availa-
bic than were offered last winter. On
this account communication with DaW-
son promises not to be infrequent. The
work of establishing police and relief
posts thirty miles apart from Lake
Bennett to Dawson is almost COM
pleted. CapaciouS cabins have been
built, and over 100 tons of provisions
packed over the Chilkoot Pass for
these posts. These thirty-mile sta
lions are as much for the purpose of
facilitating communication between
Canadian Government officials from
Dawson to the coast, Victoria and OF
taWa, as for relief of needy new COM
ers. A thirty-mile trip from post to
post can be undertaken in any kind of
weather, as it is only a days travel.
1t may be possible to send mail into
Dawson from Juneau or Skaguay dur
ing the approaching winter in from ten
to twenty days, or on an average in
less than half the time that the trip
was made last winter. For this rea-
son considerable travel may be ex-
pected both from and to Dawson, and
with the advantage of not having to
break trail through the snow. Much
of the news from the new diggings at
Atlin Lake will also come around by
Lake Bennett.
For almost a week every bed has
hotels packed by Copper River ana
Cooks Inlet people and Dawsonites
awaiting southbOund ships. In two
weeks more. with the last trip of the
Dora and Excelsior no more people can
get out of the westward sections of
Alaska till next spring. The mining
results in the Cooks Inlet country, ope-
rations having been impeded by unus-
ually high water, We're told in a pre-
Vious article. Altogether about $4,000
of Cooks Inlet dust was sold to banks
ard exchanged at business houses here
this trip for Immediate use. It brought
SIS so an ounce. 1t is estimated that
the seasons cleanup in the Cooks In
let placer mines will not exceed a total
of $50, 900.
Lieutenant L. s. Kelly of the Tenth
United States Volunteers, and ten men
of Captain Z. T. Glenn's expedition be-
yond Cooks Inlet, have reached here on
their way south This Government
party went from Portage Bay to Ka-
mix Inlet, thence over 100 miles up the
Matanuska River and down the Gerstle
River, tributary of the Tanana, 100
miles, whence view of the vast valley
of the Tanana was had. Provisions
ran short here and the main party had
to return to Sunrise City. Lieutenant
Cashier of the Fourth Infantry and
two men continued on down the Ia
mana to Circle City. Colors of gold
were found on a number of streams
The country is timbered with spruce,
birch and cottonwood, which will ave-
rage ten-inch boards. 1t is both roll
ing and mountainous, with plenty of
grass for horses, and dotted with lakes
large and small Lieutenant Kelly
said the party passed seventy lakes
in one day. He thinks much of the
country can be made agricultural Cap
tain Glenn is still at Kionack They
saw but little game and only a few
Indians in total travelled distance of
$50 miles, their extreme distance north
being 200 miles.
The steamer Brixham, which ran
aground on Lincoln Point reef about
thirty miles south of Wrangel, early
last Friday morning, still lies in al
most her original position, on an even
keel, but has listed to port somewhat
by the action of the waves Her bot
tom is now said to be torn to holes, and
1t is thought by steamship men that
she cannot be saved