The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1898-01-13
FACTS FROM YUKON
.As. Matter=of-Fact Statement Of the
Conditions on the Klondyke,
BY One Who Knows.

Mo Great Danger OF Starvation at Daw=
SON City The Country Is Very
Ricl, in Placer Mines.
Gil. Chute allowed the UNION to
read a letter from his daughter in
DaW: Dawson City, and kindly consented to
allow it to be given to our readers
The letter is a matter-of-fact article
and will be found very interesting by
those who are infected in the least
with the :Klondyke fever The letter
is given below: - ...-. ~.
DAWSON CITY, Sept. 4, 1897. !
Dear Father and Mother: I arrived
here all safe July Is, after a long. tire
some Journey of six weeks. found
Jerome well and busy as bee. He is
manager . of the post for the North
American Transportation company.
He is kept busy from early morning to
la bout $50 P. M, so do not see much
of him except at meal time. He began
to feel afraid that I would not come.
He had built a nice little log cabin of
three. rooms and though our furniture
is notYery extensive we are very COM
Portable. I think it is a palace to the
way some of the, ladies live. This is
genuine mining camp. Most of the
people live in tents, although now
they are beginning to build as the cold
weather will soon be here-it has al
ready frozen ice but the days are still
quite warm. It is not such a frozen
up country as I had pictured. The
vegetation is quite extensive. How
ever,#we cannot raise any vegetables
as the soil is too messy and under that
moss the: ground is frozen. It is a
very wet: place. In walking you are
obliged to step on ''niggerheads' or
you are very apt to get your feet wet.
MOstsOf the men wear rubber boots.
We fortunately live in quite dry
spot. This is quite a place, having
about :, 1000 inhabitants and more COM
ingtevery day. We have two posts,
two portable saw. mills, bakery, meat
markets, laundry, restaurants saloons
land dance houses. Danot say that we
1.doshbt live in a city. The boats have
had great deal of trouble making
their trips up the river on account of
low water. The river is full of sand
bars and the water is as muddy as the
Missouri. If the boats do not make
their trips it will leave us quite short
of provisions.
I will now leave Dawson for u while
and describe to you my trip as we'll as
[ can. We left Seattle June IL at
O'Clock P. M. We all enjoyed ourselves
until time to go to bed but the next
morning scarcely any one could get up,
for we all felt that lovely feeling called
sea-sickness, and for ten days until we
struck Dutch Ha-bor, our first stop
ping place, we were sick. We stayed
there from Tuesday night until Thurs
day morning, giving US time to see
how it would seem to be on land once
more. We all walked a mile and a
half to Unalaska, a small village but
located in very beautiful spot in the
Alentine mountains. The scenery is
beautiful. The tops of the mountains
looked green while some of them were
covered with snow. We sat on the
top of high hill enjoying the beauti-
full sights for an hour and then wendell
our way back over the hills and gath
cred wild flowers. The moss was SO
deep that every time we would step it
would seem like walking on feathers.
We returned to the boat tired and all
thought of seasickness gone. Dutch
Harbor is a small place inhabited by
the natives and few white men that
work around the store. We left
Dutch Harbor Thursday morning for
St. Michaels, through the Behring
sea and Norton sound, the trip taking
four days making the time two weeks
from Seattle. We had very smooth
voyage, only TWO days being rough.
Capt. Healy, of the revenue cutter,
Bear, was on board and said it was
nothing to what he had seen. We
then laid at St. Michaels one week I'M
loading freight onto the river steamer,
before starting up the Yukon river.
st. Michaels is small place with only
a few inhabitants, most natives, except
those who manage the posts there.
We left St. Michaels July 4, cele-
brating our Fourth on board Steamer
Wear. Anxious to resume our jour
ney, we went back through Norton
sound and the Behring sea fore miles.
It was quite rough that night and the
boat creaked and groaned. did not
know whether she would stay on top
or go under for they generally start
out only in, calm water, as the boats
i ara hl1ilt Tfn1,s ,.ivor3 naviuatiOn 8 We