The San Francisco call., 1898-03-18
Dread Winter March of the Famine=StriCken
 Army.
While Behind Them Came the Sound of the Flood That Swept Hundreds to
 Their Doom.

ctal object Of malice, but because Of the isolated position of the cache.
 Captain Ray took possession of both caches in the name of the Government and turned the men from their pur- pose, although a very determined front was shown by them and a score of rifles uncovered, a messenger to Cap tain Ray fired upon and captured and that officer himself confronted and de- layed on the ice while on his way to the cache
 Lieutenant Richardson, with soli- tary rifle, patrolled before the cache and held them in check previous to the arrival of Captain Ray and until a conference between him and a repre- sentative of the men reached satis- factory conclusion.
 Under the agreement there reached many of the men agreed to cut wood in payment for provisions, and bonaf1de prospectors were given outfits on giv- ing their notes.
 Others secured individual credit and others, who had it, paid money.
 It was these men, after this adven- ture and others that took no part in it, that I met toiling back along the line of the Arctic circle, enduring all that that implies, to Dawson with their bur dens of beans and bacon and flour. I told the story at length, gathering from many sources, and dispatched it by carrier, under date of January 5, from that post. I left there January 10 and wrote another dispatch at Circle City under date of January 15. As I ar rived at Forty Mile one day ahead of the carrier and at Dawson four days ahead of him, have practically carried or beaten my own dispatches and have the opportunity to write under this still later date from this place.
 I left Dawson at noon on the 10th of December. left Fort Yukon for my re- turn on the 10th of January and arrived here on the 27th of January, forty eight days out. In that time I was thirty three days travelling over 1000 miles, as the trails run. The trail was made in large part by this struggling army of unfortunates to whom the river, and especially the flats, were unfamiliar and the eighty miles between Fort Yu- kon and Circle City is this winter heightened into 100.
 Any trail is peter than no trail and the
  man who has gone before, even if he knows he is being led some distance out of the way.
 Thus the trail all the way down is said to be much longer than usual this year. It is true that it shifts and is lost and is made over again in some de- gree by almost every traveller, but ir it's main direction 1t has been laid and fixed by the travel of inexperienced men.
 Tn going down I travelled as far as l Circle City in company with Captain w E. Geiger of the steamer Weare. We have eleven dogs and two sleds We had with us Cherosky, an Indian guide famous as the discoverer of gold at Cir cle City. There travelled with us as 1 far as Charley River. Sonsa, another Indian of some fame on the river, anG to Forty Mile Pitka, @ great Indian runner and the partner of Cherosky ir the discovery of gold.
 1 From Forty Mile through to Circle City another young Indian named Peter was with us, so that between Dawson and Charley River, two-thirds of the distance, there were three Indians 1T the party. All save Cherosky, how ever, were independent of us, and had their own dog teams, although we camped and travelled and worked to- gether.
 |. During the last three days Cherosky our Indian, was sick, causing frequen, stops, when he would kneel on his snowshoes and rest his head on the sled. The entire journey was made or foot and most of the way on snow shoes. We encountered frequent snow and wind storms that completely oblit- erated the trail, and for days at a time we were compelled to follow it by means of stick, feeling for it through foot of snow. Indeed the greater part of the journey we followed the trail by sense of touch rather than sight, especially going down, as we had but a few hours of daylight and for days did not see the sun.
 The journey was undertaken at a time of year when the days are short est. On the shortest day of the year, the 22d of December, we were in the Upper Ramparts. two days east of Cir cle City. We travelled, despite the darkness, from o'clock in the morn ing until in the afternoon, being com pelled by the necessity of gathering dry wood to make camp while yet there was little light. With cabin in prospect as a camping place, how ever, we would travel many hours with no light but the stars.
 There are cabins here and there along the river at irregular intervals. equipped