The silver lance., 1898-02-18
COLORADO MAN IN ALASKA.
Letter From the Klondike Describes the
Extreme Rigors of the Winter Weather.

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| Extreme Rigors of the Winter Weather.
Monument, Colo, Feb. ia letter
has been received here from William
Dugan, dated Dawson City, December
10th, in which he says:
mo mail since last summer. The
police were to have a monthly mail, but
I doubt if they get it this winter. They
seem to be a shiftless class. / had
great rustling to get little grub. Got
$50 pounds of -four, bacon, beans,
dried fruit and rice, enough to last I'M
til late In the spring. Parties leaving
sell their outfits for 81 to 50 per pound
straight through, that is the way l got
my winters supply.
81 have a claim on Bonanza creek.
Have been too busy rustling grug to do
any work. On Bear, Hunter and Do
minion creeks they are getting little
pay, but not to compare with Bonanza.
There are several other creeks within
a radius of fifty miles Of Dawson City
that they are trying to boom, but there
is nothing to boom in them. The re
| corders office hours are from 10 a. m.
till 4 p. N. Men line up in the office
the night before, to get in and record
the next day.
my claim is up the creek six miles
from here, opposite No. rs Bonanza.
don't expect to do much work for a
couple of months, man can't do much
work and is liable to freeze. There
are lots of cases of frozen hands and
feet, but 1 don't expect to take any
chances, shall wait till cold weather is
past. 1t isn't such a bad country, but
a man has to be careful, if any part OF
his face is exposed it would be frozen
in two minutes. l don't wear many
clothes on my body. A coat, sweater
and heavy undershirt. The heavy
mitts 1 bought in Denver l had to line
with a piece Of heavy fourteen-pOund
blanket, as the cold would go through
them like paper. One cannot wear
shoes or rubber boots, as they freeze
stiff, and every one wears moccasins.
They sell for $40 per pair. Could buy
them for seventy-five cents coming In.
II am comfortably situated in cab
in, with four other fellows, at the
mouth of Bonanza. Dawson is a quiet
town, not as lively as Cripple Greek or
Victor, but will be lively enough after
the spring cleanup. There is lots Of
gold here, but no currency to amount to
anything.
"a fellow came in a couple Of weeks
ago with few newspapers dated July
25th. He sold them for 50 each, like
hot cakes. We hear the United States
is at war with Spain and Japan, and
all sorts of rumors. We've heard moth
ing from the outside world since we
came in.
'"There are a half dozen teams here.
One man paid 81, 200 to get a team here,
but he is making 5000 a day freighting
to Bonanza and Eldorado.
Wood is $40 cord in Dawson, al
though there is plenty within a half
mile of town. They pay $15 cord for
chopping. Two saw mills are at Daw-
son, and one up Klondike a couple OF
miles. They are not running this win
ter, as they had no logs. Their price
was $25 per 1000 feet.
WAS out fifty miles on a hunting
trip for reindeer. We got about 100
pounds of meat apiece. Were gone
eight days, and camped out every night,
slept in the snow with one pair of
blankets each, and the mercury forty
to fifty below. l froze my chin and one
cheek; some Of the other boys froze
cheeks, chins and nose.
"A meal can be bought in town now
for $3.50. A little meat, dried onions,
tea and bread. Pie or stewed dried
fruit, $1.5O extra. There is some of
the beef in town that came down the
river last fall.
IF person is prepared for it he can
live here as well as in any other coun-
try"