The times., 1900-12-23
amid KLODDIKE PERILS
Detroit Man Describes Experiences
in Yukon Fields.
The River. With All Its Dangers. n
Beautiful Body of Water-Hard-
ships That Must BE Encountered in
the Treasure Region-Strong Wen
Only Capable for the Battle.

!
in that region of Arctic severity, has sur
| prised them by announcing, in letter.
that reads like a romance. that he is still
| on top of the earth, alive and well. In his
letter Mr.. Hartgen says:
| Il left Seattle, Wash, September 10
and arrived at Skagway, Alaska, in due
| time. l left Bennett. British Columbia
on October ], with a. VI. Kilgore, of Daw-
son City. We made the trip to Dawson on
scow II took us three days to cross the
lake, and as there was no wind we were
obliged to set four men on shore with
rope 400 feet long, with which they towed
us. Ii was eighteen miles across and
when we had reached the other shore we
set sail for the McClintock River. twenty
five miles away The trip to White Horse
Rapids. known as Miles Canyon. occu-
pied four days, though it is only forty
miles away. l had heard great deal
about the peril of shooting the rapids,
and now I realize what thrilling expe-
rience 1t really is We shot them with
out a pilot and my hair lifted my hat
from my head. After getting safely
through the rapids We ran aground on
sandbar mile from White Horse Town,
where we played Robinson Crusoe three
days and nights. We were up to our
shoulders in water all the time, trying TO
pry the scows into the swift current,
which we succeeded in doing at last
During the remainder of the trip we
had numerous other adventures, ineIud-
ing the loss of two scows worth $500 and
thirty tons of freight, valued at 5000.
The fierce wind drove us against the
rocks, and the crew, ten in number,
worked very hard to save the freight.
while two or three of them went in
search of help. They failed to return and
a searching party found the bodies about
five miles from our camp. We had no
rowboat and we were indeed in a very
bad plight. The boss, Kilgore, said he
would give me 500 if l would swim the
lake to a little Indian village across the
water. l agreed, and 1t took me just
three hours to swim about seven miles
l secured a small rowboat, in which |
made my way to upper La Barge, and
then telegraphed to White Horse for
scow and the steamer and started at
once for lower La Barge, where we ar
rived almost frozen. At Stew
art River it was ten degrees below zero
and the ice was running freely Ice
formed on the bottoms of the scows and
we we're obliged to chop our way with
axes in order TO navigate. We had what
is known as anchor ice on the bottoms
of our seows, and before we knew it we
had run hard aground on a sandbar. and
there we stayed five days and nights.
We had plenty of wood on board and we
made raft and went ashore on it. At
ter walking thee miles We came to a
log cabin called the Reindeer Roadhouse,
at Wnich place we got a large rowboat
for 1928. In this we made our way TO
Dawson.
The mighty Yukon. with all its dan
gers, is beautiful body of water Il is
called the Queens Highway by a great
many Canadians. The Yukon closed for
the winter on Friday morning, November
e For about five months of the open, or
summer, season 1t was navigabIe for
steamers and smaller craft Few people
of The South and East have any concep-
tioa of what noble waterway this great
river OF the north Is; OF eits SURPRISING
value TO Yukon Territory. Without II
the work of prospecting and developing
this rich country would be welI-nigh i'm
possible Had the greatest engineer of
the age been entrusted with the work of
constructing highway that would most |
fully serve the purpose required in mid
die Yukon, he could hardly have i'm
proved on what Nature has done for us, |
Here we have river-one of the great !
est on the Continent-sweeping in a |
rough but mighty semi-circle from west |
to east to north, and back to west again |
again which. through its various beauti- |
full lakes and broad affiuent streams. |
drains and connects the whole valley |
west OF the Rockies, from the northern |
of British Columbia almost to
the White Ocean itself on the Chilcoot |
Pass, about twenty miles from the salt |
water OF an arm of the North Pacific.
that runs nearly 100 miles inland
"A waterway SO vast and important
opened a pathway for the adventurous gold
seeker, by which he could readily enter
Yukon territory from the mouth of the
river, or passing over some forty miles of
mountains, he could launch on the deep
waters of Lake Bennett At one time |
goods were brought into Dawson on the !
middle Yukon via the Behring Sea route
,heaper than by the passes, but the con-
'truction of a railway from the Lynn Ca
nal over the passes and far into the in
.erior to White Horse has revolutionized
The transportation OF merchandise destined |
or Dawson Instead Of having to be driv-
IN up strong current for over Geo miles
lur goods now come down the same cur
'ent but $50 miles. A great quantity of
he supplies needed for the Klondike coun-
ry is placed on barges and foated down
itream. From White Horse to Dawson the
number of passengers who come in that
way is also large but by far the greater
lumber OF passengers and the greater
quantity of freight are brought down the
liver on fat-bottomed stern-wheel steam
RS. The traffic on the middle and upper
liver has increased so rapidly that score |
# steamers varying from large finely ap-
'ointed vessels down TO light draught
jackets, have profitable business during
he open season. Then there is the lower
liver fleet. including some tall. stately
tern wheelers that would grace the De- ,
roit River itself During the shorter sea- ,,
on of the lower river these vessels bring
much merchandise to Dawson for the big
ompanies that own them. These goods
ONE via the Behring Sea route.
THE commerce OF the Yukon River has
rOwn at rate that has not been surpass-
d on any river on the continent but what
as been accomplished in three seasons !
'ill yet be outclassed by the development /,
hat will double the commerce of this no. |
lie river of the North.
Amy man who goes into the country 1
hould go prepared for an encampment of |
tx months or year, and should remem-
er that he is going into daily war with |
unger and cold; that he is to be isolated :
nd denied the common comforts of civil
,ation. Every man going to the Klon-
ike should be sober, strong, and healthy.
lie should be able to adapt himself quick
to his surroundings. The climatic ex- =
remes make it necessary to prepare for
he very cold and also for the very warm :
'eather. The miner works large part | {
the time in snow and water. He should !
ave plenty of bedding. 4 sleeping bag
uch as is sold on the coast will insure .
ferhf |