The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1898-06-10
FROM LAKE BENNETT.
VIM. Keene Writes an Interesting Letter
From Alaska.

VIM. Keene, who is on his way to
the Klondike, writes from Lake
Bennett, under date of April oath,
and we take the following extracts,
which will be of interest:
| My tent is pitched at point about
three miles below the head of Lake
Bennett on the opposite side OF the
lake from where the trail passes, and
where the majority of the people
camp. am in a nice clump of trees
about twenty rods from the lake, in
the side Of the mountain. There is a
spring of water about four rods to
the right Of my tent, from which I
get water. 1t is the sunny side of
the lake and well sheltered from the
storms and winds. There are few
tents along the edge of the lake, but
| otherwise am quite to myself, "far
from the madding crowd" There is
small game on this side, and what
makes it little more interesting
there Is said to be bear. A party of
men claim to have seen one day be-
fore yesterday about half mile down
| the lake from where l am.
Very few men stop on Lake Under
man to make their boats, on account
of the scarcity Of good boat timber,
but great many stop on Bennett,
while many more pass on down into
TOgish lake, and so on down to La
Barge, which is the last of the chain
of lakes. The trail passes down the
right side Of Linderman, along the
banks Of which ale thousands of
campers. Lake Linderman is about
| five miles long, and then, having
| passed through an easy canyon, the
trail passes into Lake Bennett, which
Is about twenty-eigh miles long.
My Intentions had been to 20
IL or IA miles on Lake Bennett, but
the report came back from down the
lake that great crowds of men had
rushed in and all the timber tit for
boat lumber had been taken up.
decided to pull in at the first cave
and look for timber that the crowd
had passed by, and that is how it
happens that 1 am located in this out
of the way bunch of timber. l was
none too soon about getting here,
either, and in order to get the logs for
the boat was obliged to go to cutting
before making camp. The "push'
for boat timber was so great that
took very little sleep until l had the
logs all cut and marked, and so it is
that l am taking it easy in camp
now.
April q: Am staying in camp TO-
day trying for the first time, to make
some yeast bread. A person gets
very tired OF baking powder bread as
a constant diet. have been told
over and again how to make yeast
bread, but all that can remember
about the process is that "a little
leaven leaveneth the whole loaf"
and so l have soaked up a yeast cake
and mixed it with some flour and
water and set it by the stove to sour
and with that will try to eaven
some lOaves.
| April %: Will just take a few
minutes to record the fact that have
just taken the first batch of biscuits
made out of my yeast dough out of
the oven and eaten one of them, and
that they are all right. 1 feel pretty
| good over the fact. Have just made
trip to my "cache" and returned
| with 500 pounds of provisions on my
sled. am about to make another
trip, which will finish the "cache."
1t only remains for me to fix up a
good place near my tent to place my
provisions we'll under shelter and
then the long seige that l have had
packing and shedding my goods will
be finished. excepting the short port
ages which occur on the river, and
such hacking as will become neces-
sary after get down the river.
April 90: Spring is coming on very
rapidly and the lake will soon be in
such condition that travel will be i'm
possible. The nights are getting
very short and the days exceedingly
long. Already it is real light at 800
a. m. and twilight lasts until 900 to
1000 p. M. While at Linderman this
morning, 1 got hold of Seattle news
paper dated April %. 1t seems from
that that there is a great deal of war
excitement in the United States.
hope the United States will drive
Spain out Of Cuba.
May IL. Fred Bechdolt is here to.
day and is about to start for Seattle,
so will hastily add few more lines
and send this letter out by him. |
am feeling quite well and hope to get
down the river successfully.