Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-10-01


to the pan-a good creek clairn--his sluice
is about ready-cleaned up last night-Oh,
l don't believe it; l wouldn't give 500 for
the whole moose pasture-weu, it's good
enough for melt is rotten, the whole
cheese-you have got to stand in with the
authorities or you can't get thing, and
so on and on, endlessly and without Sc
quence
Gradually the camp thinned out The
faint hearted ones who had not the cour-
age or the skill to so dig and sweat for
gold sailed away. Others went out upon
their claims to build cabins and lay sluice
boxes. Others still busted themselves with
packing their goods up the trail or secured
the country for new ind cations.
Slowly the voices Of the men who meant
business began to predominant. They were
cheerful and confident moving about quiet
ly they began to buy more tools and provi-
sions. To their friends they showed gold
not much, but enough to demonstrate that
there was a real basis for their hope.
Thereafter each day the news grew more
encouraging. Each noon at Discovery and
each night at the lake men came in swarms
to exchange reports Of finds on this or that
creek, and at last came the surprising rich
ness of the bench high above the creek.
Bench and Quartz Finds.
An old man was digging on ridge just
above Discovery. The passer-by had his
jests, Hello. uncle, what are you doing up
there, diggin' your grave?"
The old man remained studiously quiet
and continued to sack the dry dirt and
pack it down to the creek, where he
washed it out in a pan. The jester began
TO stare Strange to say, gold came out of
this loan. The old man PANIED dollars
from his ridge Everybody began to rub
Der neck" The old man was embarrassed
to find a pathway to his place of washing.
Then the rush for bench claims began. The
possibilities Of the camp widened. Instead
of being .'Creek proposition it became
big hydraulic proposition Nuggets APP
peared from some mysterious source and
passed from hand to hand. The faces of
claim holders broadened. The voice of the
doubter was whelmed If he rush of conf
dent boasting
And then on the last day of August came
the news of the discovery of the quartz
beds for which the experienced miners
had been searching from the moment of
landing. Of these discoveries little can be
said as yet. There was a quiet passing OF
the word among friends on this last night
in August, and on the following morning
both camps were nearly deserted. 1t was
said that fine pieces of quartz containing
Jumps and seams of gold had been found
and the town site boomers were jubilant
as the miners.
The returning boat carried men whose
certainty of tone indicated their conviction
that the country was rich and that they
were lin it." Some of them felt their need
of getting drunk over the glorious pros
pect. Others were fastening home with
samples Of gold in little boxes and bottles.
They were not prepared to develop their
claims this year. They were satisfied
merely with a test of their ground. Others
had men at work taking out paying guam
titles of gold, and would therefore remain
until the closing in of winter. The charac-
ter of those coming in had also changed.
They came on private tips" bringing
rockers. pieces of grizzly" and Plenty of
provisions.
The Beauties of AtIfn.
The weather was very beautiful, like
middle September in northern Iowa. The
wildly blue sky was filled with soaring
masses of fleecy clouds, and over the hills
and athwart the mountains long clouds OF
smoke streamed ike graceful drapery. The
climate utterly different from that of
the coast. AS we sailed down Tagish water
and up Bennett and came into that re-
morseless blast which ceaseessly sweeps
over the White pass and Chilkoot summit
If from some sunless and dreary inferno
Shivered with cold.
No words can eXaggerate the beauty of
Atln lake and its shores The water, so
clear one seems on wing rather than afoat:
the CLEAN of enormous glaciers, the gold
and purple OF the high slopes covered with
grass and shrubs the copper-staned cliffs
jutting forth into the water the sweeping
sides at right. the wondrous pathway of
the setting sun, the MINDLESS sheen of the
lake ct morning-these form picture that
once seen can never be forgotten.
TerrOrs of the Trail.
To return from this country to the Chill
koot pass is like entering upon a landscape
in hell delneated by Dore. All day faced
the roaring wind filled with rain; all day
climbed. slipping, balancing, descending,
wading streams, climbing logs, hurrying
by the rotting carcasses of murdered
horses. Mud was everywhere, greasy,
treacherous, Shiny. About me was a weird
half light walled by formless gray clouds,
out of which the rain fell in sashes. The
mist set the Imagination free. The pin
nacles We're like those which top the enor-
nous walls of the Black canyon of the
GunniSon. We seemed each moment about
to plunge into canyons, ladderess and
abysmal. Nothing in Dore could be more
singular and demoniacal than this summit
under such a light in such darkness. 1t
would serve as the scene for an exled
devil. The picture of Beelzebub perched
on one of these dripping crags with dmly-
seen and gaping CULTS of space below and
around his menacing form, silhouetted on
the mist, would shake the heart. thought
of Peer Gynt' wandering In the high home
of the Trolls. All was crags, descending
walls dimly seen and wild waters roaring
in obscure deeps. There was no sky no
level place, no growing thing, no bird
beast, only crates of bones to show where
some heartless driver had sent faithful
horse to his death. This is a fair impress
sion of the Chilkoot pass on a rainy day
OF the White pass it remains merely to say
that when one has taken the Chiikoot pass
he wishes he had taken the White pass,
and when he has walked the White pass,
with its thousands of rotting bodies Of
horses, its poisonous water and it's dreary
miles, he resolves never again to take
either. They are grim and grievous ways,
but they possess Il certain value in that
they throw into fadeless and powerful re-
lief the calm, the golden warmth and the
proud beauty of Atln lake.
Me~k Mz4.z