Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1898-08-09
WINTERED IN
Notes Of a Hard Trip>>How
People Live in the Gold
Region.
The Lying River Boatmen-The
Squaw Dance-The Tough Grub
and the Cold at 60 Below Zero.

Rlcnard S Hooker. a grandson of Sen
ator Stewart, who has just returned from
dawson city, gives the APPEAL The fol-
lowing interesting account of his winter
IN the KlOndyke.
We started from Seattle on August 18th
ana from that on until we got. into Win
ter quarters 1t was a constant row.
At Seattle we had some trouble on the
dock. Mayor Woods, who had chartered
the expedition, refused to pat on board
the "Humboldt'' our flour. bacon. sto>ps
shoVels, picks, etc, in fact everything
which would have made it possible for
us to have made the trip. We put an
officer on the boat, appointed IA comnit-
tee and after good deal of talk the boat
was nnloaded and our stuff put on. all
except the flour for which we received
orders, payable on the at 1t,
Mi chaels.
About ten days after we left Seattle we
came to Dutch Harbor, a small own in
the Alutian Islands, there we found A
store and an English and L. S. man-of-
war. About a mile away from his place
IS a small town called Un.Alaska. the
points OF interest here are the Alaska
Commercial Cos stores and the .Sam-
shoo' or Chinese gin, made ont of rice
ana strongest drink | think ever tasted.
81. Mlcnaels was oar neXt stopping
place. The Alaska Commercial Com
pany and the North America Transnor-
tatlon Il Trading Co. stores make up the
whole island. The natives are a minor
consideration, they are between the es-
qulmo ahd the American Indian, very
tat, lazy and only work when in want of
food. Their clothing consists of furs
The principle part of their dress consists
OF "A "parkee,' a fur coat, and looks ex-
actly like a night shirt with a hood al
tached, and the "muckluck' or shoes.
There are two or three different kinds of
these. The "muckluck" is made of hair
seal skins with the hair left ON. The "mcs-
lnkaS are made OF seal skin without the
halr ana rubbed with seal oil. thew are
water tight and very light, and are better
than rubber boots for summer vaar
Nearly all the shoes come to the knee
and tie with thongs.
When we arrived at ST. Michaels we
expected to find, according to the adj
veTt1sement set forth by Manor Woods. a
steam boat or steam barges waiting for
us to go up the river, but instead of that
we had to build our boat. The Dassen-
gers all realized that they had been
fooled and so without talking much
about it we set in and unloadad tho
Humboldt and built the Seattle No
a Sfas-l yrhonl l1,, 100 g--.
There was no use kicking Their as we
had a time limit of about four weeks 10
get up the river before the ice closed If
Three weeks after we arrived at ST
MlchaelS we were at the mouth of the
river but it was a hard job, up at 4 and
work all day till s o'clock at night.
Before leaving st. Michael | with NV
partners Crozier and Beaton bouobt
"a steam launch, and Mayor Woods made
d contract with us that he would take it
up the river providing we would allow
nm t" use it for picking the channel.
we helped him at st. Michael 70 get
water, as the water as a rule is very
bad. There is a good spring about three
miles across the hay, and the launcE was
used to bring water.
We finally got up 1ho river about two
hundred miles, when the toyino oaar
slipped and after a great deal of exeite-
iheit the Launch sank, 1t was impos-
'lble 10 save 1t and we went TO Woods
or an eN PLANTATION, but he told as thaf wa
'"ok the launch up on oUr own
olllty- Our mistake was not having onr
contract in black and white.
At the mouth of the river we str1ck q
andbar n were on it for "A hears. Al
MS poInt the w"ter is very low. about
WO feet on the average at low tide.
Lea ing the mouth of the river we
proceeded nearly 260 miles above Anvir- 1
tx when we met the steamer Healev [
oining down from Dawson. 250 miles
hoVe Nulatto we met the Nav West
otnlng back and the captain told MS the '
liver was fall of ice a few miles above MS G
o we turned around and steamed down h
ne river IN search of winter quarters. Il
men we found at the mouth Of Tozi q
-akat river. As soon as we arraruad
he boat for the Water we went ashore to .
winter quarters. We built 4 <
lbin on The mainland while some of the
WI '"ilI Oh the Island 100 feet from the cI
our cabin was very comfortable, lexis p
-. We calked between the logs with d
and put abOIt a foot of dirt on the W
'of to keep the water out. A Yukon
owe OF sheet iron gave a very good heat al
ld served well for cooking purposes. CT
Beaton left us and another man named fir
odgers Joined us. He has been on the ST
Iaskan peninsula for five years as him. w
trapper and trading with then natives
had pretty good eating in comnari- w
II with some of the other parties. in the d.
Tor breakfast we would have to
nee or tea and s"ur-dough flap-jarks pl
TN sugar syrup. Sour-dough is better Sc,
an baking powder, the dough is allow pa
to soul I'm a warm place. for aboIt "a LET