The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-03-02

the Yukon, writes the following inter-
esting letter to his aunt, Mrs. Sarah j..
Chesley, of Malone, N. Y.
Last Timber,
Skaguay Pass,
Jan. 20, 1898.
can scarcely excuse myself for de-
lay In writing you but everyone that
attempts this trip knows how 1t is.
There is barely time for more than a
line and I wanted to wait until could
send full particulars, and this first
stormy day gives me the chance. We
brought four big oxen and three
months feed for them. I decided upon
oxen for two reasons. The man upon
whom we had depended for dogs raised
the price to double that agreed upon,
but fortunately I had learned some
thing by trip made to Skaguay and
Dyea months ago for the purpose of
accounting myself with the needs Of the
trip. II found that ,oxen were about the
most satisfactory animals of all the
varieties of quadrupeds that have been
used on this trail since the rush began.
/ met Willis Thorpe, the old timer who
has made money during the past two
seasons taking stock to the Yukon
over the Dalton trail. He said oxen
would go where horses could not be
made to go and that they would haul
twice as much on the same feed and
,t, I'D INry will ,nt
haul much more than to last himself in
the journey to Dawson, and you have
got to take a lot of dogs to haul a
mans outfit. When I returned from
Skaguay my partner agreed with me,
and when the dog man wired us that
he could not give us the dogs for less
than $50 each, we telegraphed back
mo dogs; thanks. We shall put our
trust in God and oxen" and we have
been hugging ourselves ever since that
we did so. I raked the country with a
five toothed comb to get just the oxen
I wanted, and we have them here. The
four average eighteen hundred pounds
each They are young, lively and ex-
ceedingly gentle and work singly in
harness in each drawing large tobog-
gan IA feet long with three shoes bolt
ed on the bottom to protect it from the
wear Of the ice and rough ground and
to keep it from sliding sideways down
slope. Each toboggan will take as a
nice shaped load, six hundred pounds
of pressed hay, 600 pounds Of corn and
barley and 800 pounds of outfit for
ourselves This is forty days provis-
ions for the OK, and four toboggans
take out entire outfit which weighs
5000 pounds, and includes tools and one
years provisions for the men. The
oxen travel in single file stringing out
into quite respectable caravan. You
should have heard the comments as
we passed up through the center of
Skaguay from the deck There goes
the newspaper syndicate outfit" !;
That's the most sensible Klondike OUT
fit that has ever struck this trail';
beats dogs all hollow, don't it?" Yes,
and then look at all that beef too
The town is full of all sorts of ours.
You see men with all the way from one
to six dogs and small sled endeavor-
ing to train the former to pull with the
latter If one knows nothing of this
Alaska excitement and should happen
unexpectedly upon this town he would
be apt to think that many of it's citi-
zens had returned early to their child
hood, so juvenile does it seem to these
big chaps tearing about with the poor
little dogs shouting "Moosh! Moosh!'
which seems to be dog for Get up"
There is something so laughable about
the spectacle of bearded K1ondiker
bumped up on little sled, his face set
with the expression of a bicycle
schorcher doing his best to control the
movements of q lot of capricious dogs.
At least we could afford to smile for
the comparison was by far in our fav-
or 1t remains to be seen how we shall
get along with them in the interior. 1t
is certain, however, that they will take
us to the lakes, and that is always
looked upon as half the journey. We
shelter them every night in a tent by
themselves.
A list of our GRUB" outfit may prove
interesting to you. Beverages 25 lbs, II
cans condensed coffee and milk, 5 lbs.
coffee, IL cans extract of beef, SO cans
condensed milk. Cereals, 100 lbs. pilot
bread, 100 lbs. corn meal, 100 lbs. pea
meal, so lbs. wheat flour, dozen cans
baked beans, 100 lbs. rice, 80 lbs barley,
$50 lbs. small beans, so lbs. rolled oats.
Meats, so lbs. butter, $50 lbs. bacon, 100
lbs. salt pork, S lbs. cheese, lbs.
smoked herring, 5 lbs ham. Besides
this we have a good deal of fresh meat
to eat and will have about a ton and a
half to sell Cat $1.50 pound) when we
butcher our oxen. Sweets, 1000 sachar-
inc tablets, 100 lbs. sugar, 5 cans of mo-
lasses. Evaporated goods, rs lbs. soup
vegetables, so lbs potatoes, so lbs.
onions, lbs. raw onions, lbs. squash,
lbs. evaporated eggs. Dried fruit, Is
lbs raisins, so lbs. apricots, 10 lbs.
plur1s, 25 lbs. peaches, 125 lbs French
primes, Is lbs. currants. Miscellaneous,
1 can pepper, 20 lbs. salt, lbs. baking
powder, mustard soda, celery salt,
Ilorseradish, 10 bars soap, 2 cans coal
oil, boxes candles, matches galore.
Total weight $3.50 lbs. with boxes. To-
tai cost 5000.
We are now near the summit where
the last timber is found and I can
scarcely realize that nearly a month
has gone since / began this. l haven't
written line in that time and my pen
Gil feels unnatural in my fingers, which
have already grown caloused with
work We are camped down in very
wild gorge, the rocks towering far
above us on all sides. Our tent is pitch
ed on the snow which is about ten feet
deep under u.s. / am seated Turkish