Evening star., 1898-07-30
Hamlin Garland Describes His Trip
to tho Klondike.
OF THE OVERLAND TRAIL
Rush of Gold Seekers to the Fraser
River Country.
THE END OF THE RAINBOW

HAZELTON, June 81, 1898.
The long train from Ashcroft to Hazelton
is behind. 1t was six hundred miles of
nard travel with pack train, with poor
horses over trail with little feed. muddy
in many places, rocky and steep in others,
with very beautiful oases at long intervals.
II passes for the most part through a vast
forest, tbeneath the dense shade of which
is little grass. 1t has few bridges and its
streams are deep and sometimes full Of
quicksand.
This narrow, muddy, rocky, tortuous path
is today filled with morbidly persistent
pack trains moving like heavily articulated
canvas colored worms beneath the shadow
of the solemn forest. There are no return
ing footsteps on this trail. All are pressing
forward: no one thinks of facing about. If
horse sticks in the sand or falls into a
stream he is shot and the train moves on.
II horse gives out he is abandoned by
the wayside. Several such were passed on
the road and it is hard to imagine any
thing more sorrowful than the gaze of
these horses left behind to die. The seek
ers after gold are remorseless. They must
march on and on and on-muddy, ragged
and sunburnt.
Ever Onward.
This is written at Haze1ton. We swan
the Bulkley for the third time yesterday.
We swim the Skeena tomorrow. The trail
beyond has not been trayersed in twenty
years. No one knows its length the
number of its streams, and yet the gold
seekers go forward. A hundred men are
ahead of us. Hundreds are to follow. No
one comes back to tell of what lies beyond.
Teslin lake is the goal for which most of
these men are pushing. There are all kinds
and conditions on the trail. Men from
Australia, London, Chicago. Spokane. San
Francisco, Manchester, New Hampshire,
and Wheeling, West Virginia. Every ma
ton and climate seems represented. Some
were old packers at the start: they are ali
experienced men now: they all know what
1t means to run pack train across six
hundred miles of trail. They will not do
it again.
There are n.en tramping on this trail who
stagger into Indian villages hungry and
cold, eaten by mosquitoes and worn to skin
and bone-and they are fed The Indians
the "d-n Siwashes'-do not turn q hun
cry man from their doors. poor as
they are. The prospectors are not in posi-
ton to be generous. They hang to their
flour and bacon with relentless grip. They
are in strange lands and likely to be delayed
therefore, let the man who thinks TO be
helped through by his fellows on the road
be careful. He had better keep off the trail
or any other leading to the Klondike.
Mountains and Rivers.
This route is third longer than is indi-
ID. L
climbs high divides and winds along rivers.
1t is crossed by hundreds of little streams.
some of which are swift and rocky, others
slow and bosgy; some are filed with quick
sand. There is very little feed on the forest
land between Ashcroft and Grinnell Very
little except pine grass f'sour grassy on
the divides between the Fraser and the
bfack water and between the Black Water
and the Muddy. 1t is very beautiful at
Tchincut lake. 1t was Gods country
after the long stretch of thin grass and
monotonous forest. The valley of the Bulk
ley riots in grass and pea-vine. Strawber-
res and new potatoes at Morricetown
amazed and delighted US, but the rnosout-
toes and flies are appalling. There are
nights when the horses suffer tortures ana
there Is no way TO help them mosouifo-
proof tent is necessity
Let no one imagine this trip to be- a sum-
mer outing. 1t Is work, from the dawn of
a long day till the sun sets II seems not
to get dark at all at this season of the
year. We go to bed at s and the sun is but
setting. 1t is light at 1890, and no sooner
does one side of the tent grow dark than
the other lightens. The middle of the day
is warm and the nights generally frosty:
for many mornings ice formed on the wa
ter bucket.
No Game for Food.
There is no game along the trail and no
one should depend for moment on either
game or berries, though berries seem to he
iot hiiiS- he I1uuSou nay company nut
premium on the killing of game and the
Indians have no other means of earning
money They keep the game scarce and
shy. Some grouse drum in the thickets
and occasionally small black and white
ducks can be found on the ponds There
are no rabbits. squirrels or woodchucks.
Aside from the ringing, joyous songs of
robins and a sort of thrush. the whole land
is silent and somber. For long stetches not
a sound save the groal and creak of lodged.
uneasy trees, or the roar Of streams can be
heard. For other long distances the trail
leads through a fre-devastated land-a
land of tangled. twisted, uprooted ferns.
with not blade of grass. At other times
the forest Is black pine mile after mile.
with a struggling sour grass beneath and
the half-dead. ugly, desoiate pointed tree
tops hiding the sky
Long and unattractive.
Tchincut lake was so beautiful, IL seemed
like a dream after we had passed IL and
plunged once more into the forest We had
no such CHEEKY greeting ti,l we rode down
the Bulkley. Let no one bo deceived This
trail Is long. hard and unattrnctive for the
most part 1t has few dangers. but many
discomforts. Let no man start overland