The herald., 1898-11-16
A WoMANps DANGEROUS RIDE
Shoots the Terrible White Horse
Rapids in Alaska

Miss Laura Evans of Oswego has per-
formed the feat of riding the terrible White
Horse rapids, between Dawson City and
Bennett, in the Kondike country. She is in
Portland, and in speaking OF her perilous trip
said. '.'', ~o"7- .-' -e..'--.
'The day befure L shot the rapids eight
boats had beer1wrecked, and in a number of
these cases it was blamed entirely upon the
women, because they got excited, made the
men nervous 'who-were rowing, so that they
lost control of tine boat. Col. Steele, head
of the mounted police, therefore made a
rule that no more women or children should
go through. They must go around by land,
as most of the people had been doing right
straight along, on account of the great peril
LOT thes trip. - So. 49, ---~
'"This fiew rule was made the day / ar
rived there on my trip to Dawson from Ben
nett. When heard of it L told the Indian
pilot to bring the boat down and land where
there was big eddy, this side of Miles cam
yon. He tied the boat there,-a as | had d-
rected him to do, and watched my chance
from the brush When there was no one
looking jumped into the boat, and, though
the Canadian police are mighty clever, they
are not clever enough to stop a boat after it
is once started to go over the falls. Besides
myself, there were two men to row and the
Indian pilot.
ut would be long story to tell of my SEN
sations during the next fifteen or twenty
minutes" said Miss Evans, and her black
eyes twihkled with laughter at the remem-
brance. "After the boat was united it
foated along smoothly; then all at once it
was snatched from that eddy as though It
had been shot from q cannon. The water
seemed to be going up and the sky seemed
to be coming down. We were dashed from
one side to the other against the rocks. This
was Miles canyon, and it took us two or
three minutes to 90 through it, distance of
q mile.
"After another smooth eddy, we were
again snatched up'in the same way as be-
fore, the pilot working over his cars like a
snake. This is what made one nervous, for
it looked as though he had lost control of his
boat.
"Then, after passing this second canyon,
we struck the queerest place, bobbing up
and down and rolling oyer sideways, until it
seemed as though we would all turn somer-
sault. This was Squaw rapids, the most
dangerous place in the White Horse, for
there were loose powders on the bottom,
which keep turning over, so that if they are
safe one day they are not the next. The pilot
never knows whether he is going to get
through alive or not.
''..When we had passed these rapids the
pilot told us to look at the White Horse.
Sure enough, there seemed to be ahead of us
a whole herd of white horses, their tails and
names all flying. AS we started to go
through them the boat tossed and tumbled
every way; the waves dashed over us; we
were drenched; the boat half filed with wa
ter-suddenly the Indian threw down his
oars and shouted: Look out for yourselves
1.-THE men who were rowing, when they
heard this, threw down their oars and gave
up completely. One of them crawled under
the seat
"But this, it seems, was only a joke on the
part of the Indians, who, like all Indians,
had queer idea of humor. He knew tiat if
the boat was once started all right over the
rapids it would come through safely. He
takes pride, in telling that / sat perfectly
still. The fact is. I was wondering Just when
the wreck would take place. Portland
Oregonian. '.... e,