The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-07-20
IN ALASKA.
LIFE IN OUR NORTHWEST T
TERRITORY.

A Letter from w. L. ROser, son of John
Roser of this Place, Written 10 Miles
from Chilcoot Pass--Plans for Reaching
the Source of the Wealth of the World,
the Alaskan Interier.
In Camp, Long Lake, Alaska. June 8, '9S.
We are in camp at Long Lake, which
is three miles from Lake Lindeman. Ar
rived here night before last and will
leave early in the morning and go
through to Lake Bennett.
Just returned from Lake Lindeman;
walked over there after breakfast to see
how the trail was. A young man from
Chicago, by the name of Stevens, has
joined McHardy and myself, and we will
all go together in the hunt for our Edo
RADIO.
We are taking an extra thousand
pounds of stuff in addition to the outfit
we now have over at Lake Bennett, so
we will have a good outfit. All we have
to do upon our arrival at Lake Bennett
tomorrow is to put our portable boat TO-
gether and we will float and sail down
the lakes and the mighty Yukon river.
We did not start earlier as there were
some few accidents, where boats got
caught in ice jams on the lakes. The
ice is mostly all off the lakes now and
as the weather is hot the ice will be en-
tirely gone in a day or two. The ice In
this country freezes so thick that 1t takes
great deal of warm weather to melt it.
We came over the Dyra trail on this trip,
via ChilcOOt Pass. Our other goods went
over the Skaguay trail via White Pass.
Have been over both trails now. We
made very quick time from Dyra here.
We left Dyra at 900 a. m. day before
yesterday and Travelled steadily until we
got into camp here yesterday morning at
700 a. m., when we pitched our tent and
got breakfast and went to sleep. We
did not stop to pitch the tent in the eve
ming as the snow is so soft we could only
sled our goods in the night from the
Chilcoot Pass here. We had our goods
taken fromDyra to the summit OF the
ChilcOOt pass on tramway, which is ~
miles, and wewalked up to the summit
and found our goods waiting for us. 1t
is no trick at all to climb up the pass.
From the Pass on we sledded our goods
| to this point which is about the end OF
the snow. We took half of our goods on
| the sled night before last and slept most
Of the day yesterday, and started last
night at 800 O'clock and went back tC
the top Of the Pass and brought the bal
anee, arriving here at 4;90 this morning
i Had good sleep to-day and feel fine. II
is about 10 miles from the summit of tht
Pass to this place. We will pack oul
goods over to Lake Lindeman tomorrow
on pack horses and take them by boa
from there to Lake Bennett. We inten(
to leave the later place in about three
days and you will probably not hea
from me for some time as there is un
doubtedly no way to get mail out yer.
often from the point we are going. Ou
destination is American Creek whicl
lies about 80 to 100 miles north of Daw
son. have not written for some tim
as it is hard to write letters in thi
country. / hope, however, to writ
occasionally. l am feeling fine and ca
truthfully say that like this kind Q
life, although l would not want to sta
up in this country all my life. Alask
, is very healthy as the air is so pure an
no dampness. 1t was freezing on top
> the summit of ChilcOOt Pass yesterda
, and the thermometer stood 500 at LAX
Lindeman early this morning. We hay
continual daylight here. 1t seen
strange not to have a darkness whatevC
and it bothered me sleeping for Will
| suppose we will get enough cOntinu
O darkness in the winter to make up for
n One strange thing about Alaska, there
4 no tightening or thunder here during
J. rain storm. We loose all track of Il
# date here. / know what day Of Il
+ month it is, but could not for the life
"a me tell whether it is Sunday or Frida
h I have a calender somewhere, but it
IL packed among our things.
N suppose you are eating strawberri
~ and cream while we are dieting on Gel
,t ais, beans, dried fruit and bacon. Y
20 ought to taste of the delisciOus corn bre
Of that | make. We have it hot every d
, and it is fine. We did not take alO
any butter as it is too heavy. We ia
70 bacon greese and put in just a trife
e beef extract which gives it a fine flaw
or This we use on our bread hot. Am e
is ting quite proficient in the cooking Ii
10 and can make all kinds of bread, cak
w pies, ETC., dried fruit pie tastes fine
ds this country. When man gets
Of working on these trails here for a VIII
. he can eat anything. We expect to
to our destination on American river
about two or three weeks, and will pr
pect in that vicinity. Have cam
ar. with us and have taken some fine vie
no Will have to send the films out to HI
tbam davaIonad or will keen th