The San Francisco call., 1898-07-22

sleeping on the dock. This little incl dent illustrates what at least one of the passengers thinks of his Copper River experience.
 The Excelsior will sail north in day or two. It is the same story again the blasted hopes which have arrived here. Men who went up with the promise of spring return with the Twin ter of discomfort" in their faces. They use almost the same words in telling about 1t. Glaciers, bottomless crev- ices, blowing and drifted snow, seeth- ing storms,a roaring water, bowling winds, canyons, declivities, precipices, impossible currents and more impassa- ble rapids, overturned boats, lost out fits, hunger, exposure, cold and heat, hurricanes, toll, toll, toil and last and bitterest of all no gold-scarcely color. Every man claims to have been deceived in regard to the country.
 A. J. Northcott of Buffalo, N. r., and J. J. Skelly of Homer. N. r., succeeded in getting up the river. Northcott says that near its head they found flour gold in a few scattered places, but the ground was not rich enough to work. There were many indications of paying copper. AS an instance or the rapidity with which water runs in that country these two men say they came down Tachna River in small boat, eighteen miles, in forty-two min utes.
 The men stranded, unable to sell their outfits, are still numerous. If those beyond the glacier do not get out within the next two or three weeks, the returned goldseekers say, they will be imprisoned there till next summer. It is daring Providence, they say, to try to shoot Miles Canyon down through &t --1o 1to O "a too far up and will not be able to get out.
 Another view of the country, not withstanding all the hard-luck stories, is taken by hundreds of men up there. They intend to stay, prospect the coun- try a year or two and see if there Is anything in 1t. Some are going up over the divide and then down to Circle City.
 Information reached here by the last regular steamer from the westward, reviving that Victoria Spanish priva- teer story, which Is not altogether a fake, and taken as 8 whole Is rather startling The news comes through two men widely known and of ac- knowledged standing in Alaska The first Is c. s. Blackett, an attorney of Juneau, who has just returned from an extended trip to the westward, and the other Colonel George Kostromet ihoff of Sitka, official interpreter of the United States District Court, who saw the Russian colors pulled down and Old Glory hoisted to the breeze on the flag staff of Barranof Castle at Sitka when Alaska became a United States pos session in 1867 for s7,2OO,OOo. More than that sum has since been taken out of a single one of the many quartz mines in Alaska.
 MT. Blackett said last night: "The Victoria report of privateer, which l have seen in the papers since my re- turn, brought to mind information re- ceived at Kodiak, where was told that a mysterious ship had been seen in the vicinity of Analgo Pass, and that she always lodged other ships If discovered the stranger ran from all other ships, so that she could not be made out. Her usual position was be- hind some island of the pass. No white man or native had been able to make her out She was thought at Kodiak to be a foreign vessel, and there Is no doubt that she acted most unaccounta- hIv This was about three weeks ago, before the British cruiser Amphion was dispatched north from Vancouver, B. c. Parties at Kodiak are going to make an effort to identify the stranger. She had one smokestack and appeared to be about medium size"
 Colonel Kostrometihon says: The last Russian papers l received gave an account of Spanish cruiser which was going to Boring Sea. The article stated that a cruiser was to be sent and that it was believed to be for the purpose of privateering on the gold-laden ships coming down from the Yukon. 1 have not these papers here. or l would glad ly show them to you. They are at my home in Sitka. MT. Blackett also told me the story after he returned from Kodiak" HAL HUT MAN.
 "IsraePs Tithe to America" in next Sundays Call.