The Hawaiian gazette., 1898-02-08

its bonds of ice and floods the low
lands; ice, debris and broken timber
pouring, with a grinding noise, head
long toward the sea. For at least a
week navigation is impossible.
Summer, swift-footed, trips upon
the heels of winter The sun pours
down with a violence not soon forgot
ten, though in the shade it is always
cool. The cry of the brant, northward-
bound, is continually heard, and my
riads of smaller waterfowl appear on
every hand. All the minor forms of
life, native TO the region or migrants
from the South, with startling sudden
ness people the copses and pervade the
air. Vegetation springs into leaf and
flower at a bound, and, with hardly a
hint of spring, summer is upon u.s.
Mosquitoes, the pest of the North
appear in clouds. Except in mid
stream, or where brisk breeze is
blowing, life without a net and leather
gloves is misery. The Indians smear
their faces with a mixture of grease
and charcoal, and paddle with
smudge on square of turf in the bows
| OF their birch canoes. The caribou,
moose and bear, driven from the
thickets, plunge into the river for
temporary respite. Curiously enough,
| during three summers, black flies and
midges, so plentiful to the eastward.
were encountered only once on the Yu-
kon; possibly, near its headwaters,
our luck would have been worse
The records show that the lower W.
kon Valley has a summer temperature
much in excess of that normal TO the
latitude. AS the days are long, the
traveller will prudently sleep at noon
and utilize for his work the cooler
hours when the sun sweeps low along
the northern horizon and the mosqui-
toes are less active.
Frosts appear in mid-September
Early in October the Yukon begins TO
be covered with ice; though it is not
fully ice-bound until late in Novem-
Der. So the round is completed.
One serious danger menaces the
large population now pouring into the
district. The upper Yukon is a coun-
try where subsistence has always been
difficult. The first party which ever
reached it-that under Robert Camp
bell of the Hudson Bay Company, who
named the Pelly River-though COM
posed of seasoned voyagers, was, il
tradition be reliable, forced to support
life by cannibalism before it could
reach help. In 1866 not more than 800
: Indians were able to find subsistence
between Fort Yukon and Fort Selkirk
The abundant fish and game of the
lower Yukon are absent. The river
| steamers available for transportation
: cannot, during the remainder of the
present season, carry up to Dawson
City much more food than will supply
its present population. 1t seems i'm
2 probable that any large proportion o
: the people now hurrying over thu
Chilkoot portage can transport in
deed they possess-food enough tt
: carry them over the winter and VI
r to the arrival of summer supplies from
+ the lower Yukon.
Fortunately, it is likely that many o
those least prepared for the undertak
ing will never get over the divide, ant
e will be obliged to remain in South
. eastern Alaska, where the rush t.
Klondike will have left open many op
portunities for employment. Were
otherwise, the coming winter an
e spring would probably furnish ma
\ terial for tragedy. Even as it is, tn
!, circumstances offer ground for grav
apprehensions.