The San Francisco call., 1898-01-23
BY RAIL TO THE
 YUKON GOLD FIELDS
Surveys Being Made by the Alaska and Northwestern
 Company.
Boston Capitalists Awaiting the Con- sent of Congress to Begin Build
 ing to Fort Sellxirk.

Colonel W. c. Alberger of this city. who has recently returned from Alaska, where he surveyed a route over Chilkoot Pass for the Alaskan and Northern Railway Company, is confident that the work of construction will begin as soon as Con gress grants the right of way.
 'I left here last October" said Colonel Alberger last evening, with a party of twenty-five, fully equipped for the work in view. We mapped out route through Chilkoot Pass for distance of forty-five miles, which brought us to the Canadian line. From there we went twenty-five miles farther, and I returned home. starting on Christmas day. left my par ty in the field and it will proceed with the work to Fort Selkirk, which will be the northern terminus of the road. The line will be 300 miles long, which is the short est route possible from tidewater to navi-
 gation on the Yukon.
 "Of course the most difficult part of the
 route, from an engineering point of view, is over the pass, and although the grades
 are steep in places, 1 don't think we will
 have to tunnel anywhere. The worst
 feature is the precipitouS nature of the
 pass. Great masses of granite jut out,
 ueceSS1taung vast amount of heavy
 work in grading the roadbed, but the
 route is entirely practicable. From the
 point reached when I returned the coun- try is what may be called rolling and ad-
 mirably adapted to railroad construction.
 The soil is good and there is plenty of
 gravel for ballasting to be obtained all along the line.
 We will have to do considerable bridg- ing, but the longest bridge will not be over 700 feet, including approaches This is over the Yukon at Fort Selkirk, and it will probably be necessary to put in a ! draw to permit the passage Of steamers, as the river is navigable at that point. Fortunately, however, there is plenty of timber at this end of the route so we will
 not be handicapped in that respect. On the slopes of the Chilkoot Mountains there is vast quantity of white spruce, the trees being of large size. Farther up the trees smaller, an 1S-inch tree be- ing of exceptional size in the Yukon coun- try. Finally the timber disappears alto- gether and we expect to derive a good
 revenue from hauling timber into the
 mining district"
 How long will 1t take to complete the ] road?' was asked.
 If it were anywhere in the United States could answer that question" re- piled Colonel Alberger, but the cohdi- tions in that country are such that it Is impossible to say. In the first place we cannot begin work until Congress grants us the right of way. l anticipate no i trouble on that score, though. We have already filed our application and we ex- | pect Congress will act upon 1t favorably l this session and we will begin operations l right away. We can do a large amount | of work this side of the pass during ! the winter, but on the other side the | ground is frozen so hard that we cannot | do much except in the summer The
 work will be pushed ahead though, just
 as rapidly as possible when once we be- | gin."
 Gan you give the names of those in- i terested in the company"
 No I am not at liberty to do so at present. l will say, though, that they are | all Boston capitalists and there is no question about there being sufficient | financial backing. 1 have spent consid- erable money for the company already,
 and my demands have been promptly met
 and I am certain they will be right along. If we had the consent of Congress 1 could spend $200 900 a month from now on. building wharves and grading the road bed to the summit, and 1 think we will
 be able to begin work in a very short time"
 "It has been stated that the Rothschilds have also run survey through Chilkoot Pass for a railroad; do you know any
 thing about it?"
 q know they have not made any sur
 veys yet through the pass. 1 met MT. Bratennober and party, who were sent out
 by the London Exploration Company, in which the Rothschilds are interested, but
 I am positive that no surveys were made
 for at least fifteen miles from tide-water.
 They, too, would have to obtain the con-
 sent of Congress before they could con-
 struct a road in Alaska. and it does not
 seem likely that an English company
 would be given preference over Ameri-