The herald., 1898-05-01

Hearing that there was plenty of
work and provisions at Circle City,
800 miles down the river, four of
us started at p m. on October 18th.
The party consisted of c. /. Roth of New
Whatcom, Wash; William J. Clifford of
Rock Rapids, Ia; Jas. Bliss of Whatcom
and myself After a cold and dangerous
voyage through floating ice and treacher-
Gus sandbars. with the thermometer below
zero most of the time, we reached Circle
City on October 18th. 1 had both my feet
badly frosted and suffered a great deal.
We no sooner landed than we were greet
ed with the old story. If we had no pro-
visions we could get no work, and were ad-
vised to so on to Fort Yukon, 100 miles
further down the river.
on the river bank | saw Joaquin Miller.
He intends to go back over the ice by way
of Dawson City and Dyea this winter.
October 21st d new party was formed.
Mr.. Clifford, before mentioned; A. II. Car
penter of Stockton, Cal. Charles Roger Of
Decatur, ILL.,; Eugene Doyle of st. Louis,
and myself started for Fort Yukon. We
started at 9 a. m, The river was full of
running ice; about 10 o'clock the ice closed
in, and we were frozen in solid in a short
time. We had a cold and miserable night
of it, but in the morning we managed to
get ashore and get some wood. Friday.
October %. found us twenty miles below
Circle City, frozen in, in the middle of the
Yukon river, only a few miles from the
Arctic circle. With the tent stretched over
the boat and stove we made ourselves as
comfortable as possible. While the ther-
mometer is below zero, and ali about is
snow and ice, 1 began to write to you, in
far-off sunny and beautiful Los Angeles.
We have about provisions enough to last
us a week, and it will take that long to walk
to Fort Yukon, eighty miles down the
river.
October 23d. Still ice-bound; made one
sled yesterday, another this morning
imagine our trip over the ice. piled up, as
it is, in the breaking up of the Mississippi
river at St. Louis.
Leaving the Ark
Friday, October 29th. We left the "ark'
last Tuesday, with two large sleds loaded,
but we found it was all five of us could 10
to pull one sled, so we sorted out what we
would need the most, piled on one sled,
stored the balance in the wrecked boat and
started again. We had not gone moro
than a mile when we found we could not
haul our load over rough ice, so we unload
ed half on another mile, and we found a
deserted cabin; we took possession, made
three trips for the balance of our supplies.
We made a door for the cabin, cut u win
dow in the door put a flour sack over it
which let in enough light to enable us to
get about. We have been putting in the
ma king fo1rr. SIN eIa6e la,ra CT
finished the first sled I ever attempted tc
make.
We expect to start for Fort Yukon in the
morning Seven men passed here or
their way back to Circle City yesterday
they had been frozen in mile below here
the same day we froze in. They had tc
| lift their sleds over the banks, and were al
hour going one mile. This is a desolat,
looking place, snow nearly two feet deep
1t will take q week to make the trip. A
great many have been frozen in on the
river between here and Dawson City, ant
some will never live to reach Fort Yukon
My feet pain me a great deal. We arr
, row living on two meals day. saving oul
| grub to make it last during the trip; tha
bean kettle is boiling on the stove and sup.
p, per will soon be ready. 1 often think OF
our dear home in Los Angeles. and wonder
! IL / will ever see 1t again. My compan
| ions are a genial set Of fellows, not easily