The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1898-06-09
FROM ALASKA.
An Interesting Letter from r.. f. McClel-
Ian to III. C. Head,

Ian to III. c.. Head.
GLACIER CREEK, Alaska. May 8, 1898.
Dear Harry:-At last l think have
found time to write you a letter, and
it is the first time since we landed that
| could sit down and think of anything
but work, for it seemed to fall on me to
figure out how we were going to Get
over the next bad places, and they were
all bad
At last we are safely across that
awful field of ice and it has been a fear
tul trlp-very much harder than I
wrote you from Seattle-but somehow
| rather enjoyed it for every day found
something a little harder and I had to
arrange some new scheme to get over
it, There has been sixteen men in nv
crew, three other parties having joined
us in order to help each other over
the benches where we had to use block
and tackle. The first bench is four
miles from the beach, with a rise of
LIS feet at an angle of 40 degrees; the
next bench 200 feet, angle As degrees;
third bench l,400 feet, angle IS de-
grees. These three benches are all
within Il miles from the top of the
third bench. There is nine miles of
pretty stiff up grade then we come to
the fourth bench which is about 400
feet at and angle Of Is degrees; then
we have Al miles to the foot of summit
which is 4,50O feet at an angle of IS de-
grees, so that the summit of the gla-
cier instead of being l,700 feet above
sea level is about 4, 500 feet, so you see
we have had a pretty stiff job.
We have been moving ten tons of
supplies and have not paid out a dollar
for help, and as it costs S4OO per ton to
get it hauled from the beach to- the
summit think we have made pretty
fair wages. We were just p days, and
snow bound three days out of that.
We reached timber line one week ago
to-day on north side of glacier and I
tell you it was a happy day for all of
us, for we had been camped for Is days
on solid ice and fifteen miles from
wood, and it was pretty tough for me
for had to do the cooking, and it's no
use | cannot cook without a bean-hole.
: but l have a good one now and the boys
say they are going to take it with
them when they move again. There
is no doubt but what we will get to the
country we started for but I expect it
will be the first Of June before we see
the Copper river. There are hundreds
on the trail that will never see the
Copper river this summer. When we
landed at Valdes there were $500 men
ahead Of us on the trail, now there are
only 800 and If the boys do not get sick
again, in three weeks we will be in the
lead. The Gates boys, Kellar and Lud-
wig have been laid up over a week but
Geo. Whittemore, Will Hatch and my
self have been in the harness everv
day, but | worked when l had better
been in bed. I am feeling all right
now and l think all of the boys are 60
ing to be all right. This is a queer
climate, every man, woman or child
and L guess every dog that lands here
catches an awful cold, and only about
one in five that can stand it to wear
one OF them out, and when they can't
they have to get out of the country.
There are over two thousand men on
the south side of the glacier that will
not be able to get over this year and 7
tell you its pretty tough on some of
them Tor they have everything they
have in the world in their supplies.
and its safe to say that there are two
hundred tons of supplies on the glacier
that will have to stay right there and
be destroyed. There were two snow
slides Sunday night that killed two
men outright, injured six, killed five
donkeys and buried ten tons of supplies
under thirty feet OF snow The names
of the men that we're killed are Van
Advert and J.-W.- Huriner. Huriner
was aWidoW's son and was buried with
Masonic honors on the north side of
the glacier at timber line near our
camp. The only amusement that we
have had was sliding down hill, or
watching some poor fellows sled and
load get away from him on the summit
and it would take him three quarters
OF day to get it back. We had one
fine place for coasting on the trail from
fourth bench down to third. Some
mornings we would get on the sled al
the camp and ride the nine miles with.
out stop. It made me think of MAJ
and Douglas and how much they would
enjoy few such rides, but am afraid
they would not have enjoyed the com
ing back. It would take US one houl
to go down and five to go back with 6
load. We made a great mistake in no.
taking one good horse with us. We
would have been on the Copper river
now. Any kind of a pony would bring