The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-07-31
Miss Emma Kelly Writes From
Dawson City.
Startled by the Changes That
Have Taken Place.
METHODS OF TRAVEL
No Longer a Wearisome Journey
Of Hardships.
Incidents of the Return Trip
to Gold Country.

wiring from Dawson, YUKON IeTH1-
tory. under date of June %, Miss Emma
Leonidas Kelly of Topeka, writes as fol-
lows:
Again I am in Dawson, after an alb
sence of about a year, having arrived
here in six days from Bennett lake,
which we left on the 18th of June, the
melting SHOWS in the mountains having
caused sufficient rise in the water to
float the snug little steamer in which 1
took passage. The lake steamers are
perhaps a hundred feet in length, draw
about Is inches of water and are as
well appointed could be expected.
We had a pleasant run across Bennett,
about thirty miles, and passing Division
island I saw the place of our encamp-
ment two years ago, where had my
first experience camping without shell
ter
The surroundings and landmarks
along the route had a. familiar look, my
opportunity for observation having been
much better from the steamer than it
was when I was seated in a rOwboat-
We passed through the short connect
ing strait from Bennett to Lake Tack
ish. which we crossed to the former
Canadian custom house, situated near
the north end of the lake, where build
ings for officials and the mounted police
were in course of erection when 1 first
was here; these now completed cOnstl-
tute the headquarters for the mounted
police of the district. The lake and
river route from Bennett to the Yukon
is through a region of rugged noun
tains, the sides of which are covered
with a low, scrubby growth of brush
and trees. The bottom lands approach
ing the lakes are covered with a tim
Der growth, chiefly of fir, many of the
trees having smooth trunks for per
hapS a hundred feet.
From TacEish lake we entered Sixty
Mile river, a beautiful stream connect
ing Tackish and Lake Lebarge, this
river being navigable for the lake
or a If c from obstruction
until Miles canon, near its mouth, IS
reached. The canon and W hite Horse
rapids occur in this river, and as the
water rusheS through these narroWS at a
speed of about a. mile in three minutes,
our boat did not attempt the passage,
but near the entrance to the canon
made a landing of freight and passen-
gers, where our baggage was taken by
a horse tramway around the canon and
White Horse, a distance of about five
miles, to the head of Iebarge, the pas
sengers having walked the distance.
The river flows gently until forced
into its narrow opening through the
mountains, where the current dashes
down the sharp decline of the canon
and White Horse at a speed almost as
wild and turbulent as the waters of Nj
agara. The lakes discharge through
these mountain gorges whose granite
walls tower a thousand feet on either
side, the vast volume of water being
forced through these openings less than
200 yards in width Passage of these
I
either side, for three-quarters of a mile,
is most hazardous. Many boats have
been wrecked and numerous lives lost
in the effort to make the passage OF
the canon, the fOaming waters of which
send up q. mist that arises like fog. Mid
way the canon widenS for a short dis
tance, producing a whirlpool and when
the luckless boatman strikes this he and
his boat are quickly carried to the bot
+ tom. The run from Bennett to the
canon occupied about twelve hours, and
2 TrT1rr
PEELED to wait two days for Yukon
steamer to take US to Dawson, which
we reached in five days.
Lake Lebarge is 81 miles in length
with an average width of about five
miles, and opening into Lewis, is the
last lake between the foot of the pass
and that river Our passage was on one
of the commodious steamers that ply
between Lebarge and Dawson. We pass
ed a number of Indian villages and
when our boat would make a landing
the Indians with trinkets would gather
for the purpose of exchanging their
wares for tobacco and other things nee
essary to Indian life and happiness, if
there is such a thing as happiness
among the Indians of the Yukon cOun-
try, the filthiest and dirtiest ever saw
and far more degraded than our North
American Indians.
On the bottoms approaching the lakes
and river, and especially where there
are openings in the woods, there are
many patches of grass pasture land,
upon Wh1cn the caT1DOO ana. moose IN
their migratiOns stop to Craze. The
steep banks of the river are full of
holes which are the nesting places for
millions of little bank swallows that
brood in this latitude.
On Lewis river we passed Five Finger
rapids, where the current divides into
three channels separated by column
shaped rocks 20 to so feet in height, our
boat having kept to the right it being
the safer channel for navigation.
The rise in the river from summer
floods had not occurred and hence the
water was so low that our boat stuck
on bar which detained US for couple
of days, but entering the Yukon we
found a better stage of water. We
made a landing at Fort Selkirk, 200
miles from Dawson, one of the old posts
of the Hudson Bay Trading company,
the post having been burned by the In
dams in 1852, the site of which is still
marked by the crumbling ruins. The
new post is located about two miles
down the river from the former site,
near where the Lewis, the Policy and
the Macmillan rivers form junction.
At the mouth of the Policy, there is a
basaltic plateau which rises some 1880
feet perpendicularly from the waters
edge, supposed to be of volcanic forma-
ton from an extinct volcano 80 miles
up the river. A little farther on where
the Macmillan joins the Lewis and the
Pelley the Yukon proper commences.
This great river drains an Immense re-
gion of the country west of the Rocky
mountains on British America, and
north of the Alaskan range on the
southern coast of the territory of Alas
ka. At this point Harper & Ladue
maintain a considerable trading post;
they have also done some experimental
truck farming and succeeded in raising
cabbages and potatoes.
1t was here, on my trip two years ago.
that the men wanted to go into camp for
the winter but yielding 70 my protests
finally decided to continue the journey in
our boats through the ice foe, which rem
dered navigation for our little craft slow
and dangerous. When I think of my first
trip into the country travelling in storm
and cold. steering our little craft through