The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-04-04
OLD" AUSTRALIA
Capt. Houdlette Writes of
His Trip to Alaska.
Former Liner Made asRecord Run.
Thlrty-five Vessels Carrying
Gold Seekers-At Skaguay.

Capt. HoudIette. Of the 5. 5. Austria
liza writes to San Francisco from Seat
tie as follows:
Here we are back at Seattle after
going the roUnds-frSt Seattle, then
Tacoma, then Port Townsend, then
Victoria, Juneau and Skaguay, back to
Juneau and Seattle. We had A. pas
sengers, horses, cattle and dOnkeys,
and quarters of beef and mutton the
whole length Of the deck.
Il think the whole community has
gone mad. Men who call themselves
as gentlemen lose all signs of gentility
when they start for the mines and
act more ike beasts than anything
else.
1--WE went from Victoria out the
straits outside of Vancouver Island
up to latitude 90 degrees 20 minutes
north, then in by Cape Ommersey,
hence we had only 243 miles of inland
steaming. 1 think by keeping outside
all the time we shall come out all right,
although we have to pass some pretty
bad places and if it should happen
TO snow or get thick it would make you
feel very uncomfortable, for the water
is of such great depth that one cannot
you never saw such a mob as there
is now here, all madly rushing for the
gold fields. There are thirty-five yes
sells carrying passengers from Port
land and Seattle to Dyea and Skaguay,
and all are going fun, with more
freight than they can carry. Seattle
is booming.
ut is a sight worth seeing going up
these channelS-mOunta on both
sides from 5000 TO 5000 feet high, COW
cred with snow and ice. Some of the
glaciers are three miles wide and thirty
miles long and from 1000 to 5000 feet
deep Of the bluest ice.
1.-The night we arrived at Juneau we
had to keep first to right and then left
to keep clear of icebergs. We broke
the record from Victoria to Juneau, So
hours Is minutes, and 6 hours 53
minutes to Skaguay. The best trip of
the Queen was 90 hours to Juneau.
Our time is not bad for the old ship in
waters.
''The Cottage City came into Juneau
while we were there with her stern
and forty feet of her keel gone. There
were three hundred passengers on
board She had three feet of water in
her engine room before they could find
q place 10 DedCn neT.
THE WhiteIaw got ashore before she
reached Skaguay, and then burned to |
the waters edge about five hundred !
yards from us.
Il want to give you a little idea |
about Skaguay. 1t is built, you might |
say, on a mud fiat, between high |
Everything is mountain |
up here, and not a bit of level land to |
be seen. The wharf where we lay is a
half-mile long to town, and the rise of
the tide is IS feet. The tide goes nearly |
to the town; and such a town. 1t is full !
of gamblers and gin-mills. You will !
first come to the house of some family, |
next door a shop next a hotel and next |
a gambling den, and that is the way /
all over town. Up the valley toward |
the White Pass hundreds of dead |
horses lie, and the water the people !
use comes down that way. When sum-
mer sets in they will die off like sheep. |
I'VE took forty Indians at Juneau |
to work cargo, as the gang at Ska
quay wants IS cents and 81 per hour. |
We had to get United States troops to !
patrol the docks to protect the Indians.
The night the Indians were paid off |
they got up courage and went up town.
About 8 o'clock they came running
On board. The gang had fired about
dozen shots at them. You never
saw such scared lot of Indians in
your life. The head one woke me up,
saying that three of them had been
shot, but the alarm proved to be false,
as no one was shot. You can form
some idea of the tough crowd at
Skaguay."