The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-01
POINTS FOR GOLD SEEKERS
DOGS AND SLEDS NOT THE BEST
MEANS OF LOCOMOTION.
Vessels Hound for Alaskan Ports
Reindeer and LapIand Drivers.
Copyright, 1895, by the Associated press.)

writes an interesting letter to his aunt,
Mrs. Sarah j. Chesley, of Malone, n. Y,
under date of Last Timber, Skaguay Pass,
Jan. 30 He says:
Il can scarcely excuse myself for delay
in writing you, but everyone that attempts
this trip knows how it is. There is barely
time for more than line, and l wanted to
wait until l could send full particulars,
and this first stormy day gives me the
chance. We brought four big oxen and
three months feed for Them l decided up
on oxen for two reasons. The man on
whom we had depended for dogs raised the
price to double that agreed upon, but for
tunate,y, L had learned something by trip
L made to Skaguay and Dyea some two
months ago for the purpose of acquainting
myself with the needs of the trip. 1 found
that oxen were about the most satisfactory
animals of all the varieties of quadrupeds
thai have been used on this trail since the
rush began. 1 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 could stand more cold.
A dog will not haul much more than to last
himself in the journey to Dawson, and you
have got to take lot of dogs to haul
mans outfit. When l returned from Skag
uay 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 tel
egraphed back No dogs; thanks. We shall
put our trust in God and oxen,' and we
have been congratulating ourselves ever
since that we did so. then secured four
crio o;ub
each. They are young, lively and gentle,
and work singly in harness, each drawing
d large toboggan fourteen feet long with
three shoes bolted on the bottom to pro-
tect it from sliding sideways down a slope.
Each toboggan will take as q, nice shaped
load, 600 pounds of pressed hay, 900 pounds
of corn and barley and 800 pounds of out
fit for ourselves. This is forty days pro-
visions for the OK, and four toboggans take
our entire outfit, which weighs 1900 pounds,
and includes tools and one years provisions
for the men. The oxen travel in single file,
stringing out into quite a. respectable cara
van. You should have heard the comments
as we passed up through the center of
Skaguay from the dock. There goes the
newspaper syndicate outfit. That's the
most sensible Klondike outfit that has ever
struck this trail Beats dogs all hollow,
don't It.? Yes, and then look at all that
beef, too
ALL SORTS OF OURS.
''The town is full of all sorts of ours. You
see men with all the way from one to six
dogs and a small sled endeavoring to train
the former to pull with the latter. If one
knows nothing of this Alaska excitement
and should happen Unexpectedly on this
town he would De apt to think that many
of its citizens had returned early to their
childhood, SO Juvenile does it seem to these
big chaps tearing about with the poor lit
tie dogs, shouting 'Moosh, Moosh,' which
seems to be dog for get up There is
something so laughable about the spectacle
of q bearded Klondiker bumped up on a
little sled. his face set with the expression
of q bicycle Scorcher doing his best to con-
troll the movements of a lot of capricious
dogs. At least we could afford to SMILE
for the comparison was by far in our favor
1t remains to be seen how we shall get
along with them in the interior 1t is GER
tain. however, that they will take us to the
lakes, and that is always looked on as half
the journey. We shelter them every night
in tent by themselves.
"A list of our grub outfit may prove in
teresting to you: Beverages, % pounds. II
cans condensed coffee ard milk. ) pounds
coffee, II cans extract of beef, SO cans con-
denSed milk. For cereals we have 100
pounds pilot bread, 100 pounds corn meal
1Go pounds pea meal, so pounds wheat flour,
s dozen cans baked beans 100 pounds rice,
10 pounds barley, $50 pounds small beans, 50
pounds rolled oats. Then we have so pounds
butter. $50 pounds bacon. 100 pounds salt
pork, pounds cheese, ) pounds smoked
herring, pounds ham. Besides this we
have a good deal of fresh meat to eat and
will have about ton and a half to sell Cat
$3.50 a pound, when we butcher our oxen
In sweets we have LOCO saccharine tablets,
LOG pounds sugar, cans of molasses. In
eVaporated goods: Twenty-Five pounds soup
vegetables, 50 pounds potatoes so pounds
/ onions, . pounds raw onions, pounds
squash: pounds evaporated eggs. Dried
fruit Seventy-five pounds raisins. so pounds
peaches is5 POUNDS Rrench prun p9unG =
pounds currants. Miscellaneous One can
pepper, 20 pounds salt. s pounds baking
| powder, mustard, soda, celery SALT horse
radish, 10 bars soap, 2 cans coal oil, 2 boxes
pounds. with boxes. Total cost. $500.
| I'VE are now near the summit where the
| last timber is found, and can scarcely
| realize that nearly month has gone since
l began this. have not written a line in
| that time and my pencil feels unnatural in
my fingers; which have already grown cal
| louSed with work We camped down in
| q very wild gorge. the rocks towering far
above us on all sides. Our tent is pitched on
| the snow which is about ten feet deep I'M
| der US / am seated Turkish fashion on my
| sleeping bag, which is spread on few arm
| fuls of evergreen boughs hastily gathered
| in the nelghbOrhood. A good fire is roaring
| in our Yukon stove, and the north wind is
bowling and drifting the snow outside. Our
| cattle are still fat and in good condition and
are Snugly housed in a snow shed which we
| dug out of the side of a huge snow drift
| against the wall of the canyon. We worked
until IL O'Clock on the stormy night of our
! arrival here to get that shelter for them
| so they might not freeze to death. There
are six of US, and when we had that done
and our own tent up and some dry wood
| collected for d fire, we had coffee and q
| hurried supper and rolled into our blankets
pretty thoroughly tired out. You should
have seen me grab few slices of fat ba-
con out Of the frying pan, sandwich them
between a couple of soggy hunks of bread
and working it all down with little hot
/ coffee.
THROUGH THE WORST PART.
Yes. we are through the worst of the pass
with all our outfit and haven't found it so
dreadful after all. We waited at Skaguay
until Jan. u, getting our oxen shod and
everything in readiness. Then we moved
our outfit six miles up the Skaguay river
TO the mouth of the canyon. Here we
camped and began moving our outfit in
| small loads to a cache, in the pines, about
five miles further up. 1t took US seven days
of hard labor, but we found it very excit-
inS. The Skaguay river runs very rapidly
through this canyon, which is thickly
strewn with powders. many of them as
froze. the surface was left about as even as
storrn-tossed sea- Then the river fell and
the Ice hogan to cave in, leaving numerous
holes. down in the depths of which the
water r0ars end tumbles. There are Seores
OF places where slip would mean the GER