Pleasantville weekly press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1890-1911, 1898-08-31
Letter from Arthur Winner.
A Citizen OF PleasantvilIe who
Is Headed For The Gold Fields.
FoRr GRAHAM, on the Finley River.
June Is, 1898.

UNI uhAhAAi, Ou tue rinlpy hlVer.
June 13, 1898.
To the Editor OF The Pleasantville
Press
Thinking that some of the Press
readers might like to know where am
and how | am getting along, send you
this letter wholly uncertain as to when
it will reach you.
After leaving Edmonton, Canada, we
travelled $50 miles on the ice and snow
with horses and toboggans. Then we
had to abandon our sleds and pack our
grub stock on our horses. As we did
not have horses enough on which to
pack it all at once we had to "cache" q
part of it and return for the remainder,
which made us about 200 miles extra
travel before reaching Fort Graham,
where we are now, about $50 miles from
Edmonton. Increasing the Rocky Noun
tains we were delayed % days on ac-
count of the deep snow on the SUBMITS.
1t was from four to fifteen feet deep in
places and we have crossed over four
submits so far. We are going to sell
what we can and leave the balance of
the stuff that we cannot take at once, at
this place. 1t is a rough trip and we
have wet feet every day that we travel
on account of crossing SO many creeks
and rivers. Gum boots are of no SER
vice unless they are long enough to but
ton around the neck. In crossing the
creeks we had to hold on to the breech-
ing of the harness as the water ran so
swiftly it would sweep our feet from
under US if we did not. We are getting
along slowly but are among the first on
this road. There are several hundred
stranded, or have turned back, or gone
by other roads, but we are still pushing
on and think the coast route is the best.
In going over the hills the horses would
sometimes slip, and roll over and over,
pack and all, down hill. One of our
horses actually fell over backward for
the hill was very steep, and the load
overbalanced him. We had to cross one
creek thirteen times in going three miles,
in water waist deep and ice cold. There
is snow on the mountain tops and flow
ers in the valleys. Every time it rains in
the valleys it SHOWS on the mountain
tops. 1t is simply impossible to .trav.l
fast over this part of the country unless
you have flying machine. We have
were among the Chinooks when we
reached Graham. Our horses frightened
the Indians for they had never seen one
before. The squaws grabbed their little
ones aud ran away with them, and the
kids began to cry, thinking the horses
were big dogs.
We arrived at Fort Graham at the
time when all the Indians of the Chinook
tribe come to trade their furs. There is
no money and skins take it's place. A
skSa is worth seventy-five cents, so if you
want to buy something, hat or pair
of shoes for instance, they tell you the
price is 80 many skins. The Indians all
meet here once year and they have
what they call "good time". They
are great gamblers and put up" every
thing they have just like white man.
We have had some good wild game
and it tasted as good to hungry men as
q Pleasantville chicken would to the Ed
itor of the Press. One of our horses got
caught in bear snare and was nearly
choked to death. 1t made the man who
Uas driving it very mad and he smashed
up several of the other snares, and had
to pay the Indians damages for his fun.
| am with the Anderson and Sloan
party, of Minnesota. When the Indians
heard that a party of white people were
coming they stopped hunting, thinking
we would feed them. You would not
know there was an Indian in the vicinity
until the meet began to fry in the pan,
when they would come focking in from
all directions and would stand around
and say they were hungry. From the
looks of them think they told the truth.
When they first came to our camp we
fed them, but as we went along they
came in such large numbers we had to
cut them off or 60 without ourselves.
Later on one OF our men visited their
camp and found them eating bark, that
softened our hearts again and we took
them over some food. That pleased
them very much and they came to our
camp and we had lots of sport with
them when they tried TO teach us their
language.
IA rthur Winner