The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-08-01
HARDSHIPS AT CAPE NOME
SOME OF TIE TRTBUL1TIONS or A
PROSpECTOR.

sickness and Death at the Gold Fields
The Place Under Martial Law and
Observation-Disclosures from Lawrence j.
CONvIes.
Lawrence j. Cowles son of William
j. Cowles of Avon has written again
from Cape Nome to his family and the
letter gives an interesting picture Oh
the rough life in that far-aWay coun-
try. He is accompanied by his brother
and writes as follows Of their recent
experiences:
Nome, Alaska, July 5, 1900.
Dear M,
Your letter OF the 9Th of June re-
ceived yesterday and also a paper
(Hartford Courant) dated August g.
49, which dad sent me last year. This
Is the first paper that / have received
here. Allie and l have just returned
last night from a prospecting trip UP
In the Cripple River country. We left
last Friday and took my canvas boat
with a weeks grub and our blankets
We stopped at the mouth of Cripple
River, the first night, which is eighteen
miles along the coast west. We had no
tent so we slept in the boat. we
fixed a tarpaulln over the boat with an
oar as a ridge pole and slept very COM
Portable. The next morning we llned the
boat up the river about eight miles,
which took us seven hours hard work
as the river is very low. We stopped
there over night and the next day we
left the boat there and took two days
grub and the tarpauin and one blanket
and started off on foot
My Cripple River claim Is No. "a
above Discovery and as there are four
clearings to the mile that would make
the distance eight and one-half miles
above Discovery. l did not know where
Discovery was SO l didn't know how
far we had to go. Well, we walked all
day and finally got up to No. "a (nly
claim at p. m. l prospectsd little
and got very good prospects and then
we went to bed Cor tried to-. The
mosquitoes were awful and we had to
keep everything covered up and 1t
was so warm we could not sleep, so l
finally got up and prospected three or
four hours and then went back to bed
and managed to get some sleep. The
next morning we got off about a. m
and got down to our boat at y. m.
steady walking, and got down to the
mouth of Cripple River at 8 p. M, MAX
ing distance of about thirty miles.
We were both played out but we got
good nights sleep there and yesterday
we lined the boat up the coast to Nome.
where we are now.
We got back Just in time, as the wind
is blowing gale now and the breakers
are quite high. This morning Allie is
heating some water to wash some tlan-
nels with, and am writing. We did not
get UP until $3.50 as Allie was COM
pletely played out last night and /
was too 1t was hard trip. We have
a nice camp on a high bank facing
Snake River about one-half mile from
the P. O. There are two strings OF
men lined up in front of the P. o. wait
ing for mail, sometimes 125 men in
each line. from 6 a. m. to IL m. night.
There must be 10000 people here. There
are 125 cases of smallpox and lots of
typhoid. The town is in quarantine and
no ship allowed to leave except the mail
boat Don't know whether this last is
true or not). About five die day. The |
graveyard is growing fast. A young |
fellow committed suicide last night |
down at the east end of the town and |
a week ago two men killed each other |
over a loaf of bread and |
the same day two men fought a duel !
and killed each other. Hundreds Of
idle men. The beach pays from one to |
three dollars o day. There are about |
one hundred big outfits on the beach |
between here and Cripple River and lots |
more growing up every day.
The town is under martial law once |
more, for some reason or other, the |
same as It was last year l haven't been |
able to do much on my property yet |
though there Is gold in some Of It, l |
know Anderson has not prospeeted my |
bar claim on Nome River yet but will |
in the next two weeks. All the stuff I |
left here last year is gone. Think I |
shall stay in this winter. Bradley is |
all right but Harry Vanderworker died
last winter of typhoid fever.