The copper country evening news., 1898-03-16
THE CHILKOOT PASS.
TRANSPORTATION OVER THE TRAIL
IN THE WINTER.

A letter to the New York Post from
Sheep Camp, IA miles from Dyea, Alaska.
dated Dec 2, 1897, states that life there Is
not hard:
We have a stout tent and sleep warm.
We've had Is degrees below zero already
and below for week steady. But you
get used to II. We wake up In the morn
ing with Ice on our blankets, but don't
seem to mind 1t. Packing would keep the
king of frost himself warm by day.
Dyea, though as yet far behind Skag-
quay In the number of its stores. Is rapidly
growing into town. 1t lacks cemetery,
church and jail yet, but will soon have
these things. 1t Is scarcely four months
old. When the rush began last summer,
there was nothing In Dyea but Healy 81
Wilson store and few Indian huts. But
now jumping lots" Is all the rage. From
the very edge Of the high water on the
long sand spit to three miles up the trail
lots are being staked and log cabins erect
ed. The first thing man does when he
lands from the ships yawl is to locate
lot. A slip of paper with warning, the
date and your name on corner fenoe post
and four logs laid In square to represent
a foundation are supposed to be sufficient
to keep other hunters Off. 1t does II the
lot isn't good one. But to hold a good
location you must live and build on IL
night and day. Healy and Wilson, the old
traders who have held 20 acres In the edge
of the timber for the last lS years, have
had to stand watch over their fences at
night Several shooting affairs have CO.
curred so far, but no blood has been
spilled. One man staked a lot at low tide
directly In front of one of the wharfs that
are building. His purpose was to bleed the
company, but town meeting checked his
| ambition.
Aside from the eagerness with which ev-
cry one turns to and speculates in lots,
there Is but little indication of any perma-
nent town. Capital Is slow to arrive. Ac-
cording to the stories In Seattle and west
ern newspapers. the money investors of the
| States, of Australia, England and Russia
are going to rush in and handle things,
but they are far away yet A few long
wharfs have been started, but they must
| be 1000 feet long to get a ships draft at
| low tide and will scarcely be ready before
next summer. Then the question of trans
portation over the Chilkoot pass is still far
| from being settled One hears of several
different tramways that can pick man 8
outfit up at high water and land 1t at the
| summit, but, outside of little right Of
way cutting and a surveyors fiaggings
here and there along the trail, there has
been nothing even fairly begun. crude
| hawser, rugged up at the foot of the last
hill of the summit, Is the only relief to the
packers shoulders that has yet been COM
| pleted, but this can all be forgotten, for
| the trail is a good one in spite of the woe
begone tales about it. No improvement Is
absolutely necessary, though tramway
would, of course, help matters.
| The Dyea river splits into several forks
and incloses the entire town. The trail
| starts out past the mail stores and crosses
! the river dozen times before siding along
the canyon. The river is frozen now and
sleds arc used over the eight miles to the
canyon. Several bridges are building, with
| the inevitable toll cabin conveniently near
the approach for those not fortunate
enough to travel by ice. In the river the
salmon are so thick that they crowd one
another upon the banks They work their
way up tho fresh water till they pound
themselves to pieces on the rocks They
are anything but inviting, bruised and
rotted as they are. Sometimes you see a
school of trout feeding on a dying salmon,
| nibbling at his sores The Siwasges, how
ever, lay in a winters supply of dried sal
| kimo dog.
Next to the dead salmon come the dead
horses and pack mules. They are strewn
along the trail from Dyea to the summit.
They are now frozen solid, and the low
| water in the river does not touch many of
them, but when the spring freshets come
and the carcasses begin to thaw If typhoid
fever does not visit Dyea trail it will be a
miracle. AS the saying Of the camp goes
now, all you have to do is to warm up the
river water bit, and you have soup.
From the foot Of the canyon to the head
of Pleasant Camp the trail. though rocky
and rough, Is by no means bad. IL the
man who goes to the interior meets with
no greater difficulties than this part of the
trail affords, his life will be easy, but sled
ding on 1t Is impossible. 1t Is pack trail
from beginning to end.
From Pleasant Camp to Sheep Camp,
short walk, brings you to tho foot of the
summit trail. Log cabins mark the places
where people have weakened here and
there and tarried The trail is hardest
from Sheep Camp to the summit. 1t Is
beaten i'm the snow, but the snow drifts In
and has to bo broken afresh every morn
ing. Resting places are found In the
powders along the route. Without these
you would have to drop in the snow to
rest. Many men wear 'creepers. or
clamps, to hold footing on the beaten
snow. Some wear simply a gunny sack
tied about each foot and others only
roughly bind their insteps with rope.
Snow glasses made Of isinglass or colored
glass are absolutely of no use in facing the
drifting sno, because they blur SO badly
Face masks with nose and mouth holes
get so frosted that you have an icicle hang
ing from your breathing hole inside of o
half hour. The simplest rig Is amackinaw
suit with overalls, jumper with trousers
over 1t as wind break, a pair Of felt slip
pers and heavy rubbers and anything tc
ward the wind from your face. Mustaches
must he clipped short, and you sometimes
have to thaw the tears out of your eyes
1t Is four miles from Sheep Camp to the
summit, and to cover this four miles you
must watch your weather Some days you
can only make the Stone Hand as Ger
tain gigantic bowlder Is called; other days
you cannot even make this II you have a
pack, whereas II you go through light you
can light pipe at the summit. The wind