Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1901-02-27

Bic T. C. Couklin recently received
letter written by hjs brother, who left
heye in eaVy winter GoI ar turn trip to
the sold fields Of Alaska CENSOR
les permitted To nmke iii i excerps
tlo,n tha letter, which Is dated ut DGw
70 Nl'v 80 Iaruarv %:
Il left Sattle on December 23d, com
Jug 10 SkaSuiy. Was five days aboard
ship in very rough weather VALLEY,
my vnrdner left on the 28sh with our
magazines and papprs and got TO Ska-
quay on the first o' lanuary We Were
Ehere two DAYS. | went ahead with the
hogses, as the boat the news matter
c2tne on would not carry horses We
got to White Horse Rrpids the evening
of the 4th We had y tons of freight
which consisted OF 2, l50 pounds of mag
azines and papers, 1000 pounds of feed
ard our fonr sleda, harness, baggage,
etc. GA which we paid $50 per ton over
the White Pass railway, $50 each for
our horses with SEQ duty on each, and
du6y on everything we had except the
magazines aud papers When we got to
White Horse we had no money, and we
both telegraphed 10 Dawson City end
got $3.50 We loaded up and left White
= at o'clock p. nj. and drove 15
e. than ev, ming We learned there
st a man had started for Dawson City
that morning with the same kind of
ding material as we had so we must
d him off or our cake would be
L ..gh and we would loose the lest of
our saleables. Well, 81 niles is long
distance to travel ovYr a fery bad trail
The first five miles was ood, and from
the lower end of Lake T.tfarge the trail
leaves the river and ti.R - the G. ID. cut
off and goes over the hill 6S miles and
then strikes the river at Five Finger
Rapids. The first q miles on that cat
off is q terror. Some If the trail stands
on end and all up hill and on that %
miles we passed six double teams. and
when we got to the glacier that was all
ice, and here we passed the man with
the papers We drove our horses single
each drawing two sleds. the first one 25
inches between the runners, and the
trail sled a lidtle Yukon one Ia inches
wide, which we hauled our horse feed
on. Mr. Green, cur opponent with the
papers. wanted as to haul his load over
the glacier, bro we did not have time
for $50 We nut one Of cur horses ahead
of the othei and they being sharp shod
we made 1t over with one ed and then
with the other 1t being seven miles tj
Chicko the road house. and s,bout six
O'Clock and dark. Mr., Green l,ft his load
and went on 20 the road house for the
night and all the other five teams on
loaded and went on 10 the same place
Arthur and | staid there also but we
took our load with us. We had /, 700
pounds on each horse and we doubled
mp all the bad hills. Our time was to
come about ten o'clock o. IN VALLEY
called to me and said his horse hal
! given out; that she would not pun
went b ok took the lines and made her
| pull but il pdlled so hard | knew some
| thing was rong. looked at the trail
| sled and found 1t tipped over and drag
| ging in the snow 1t was very dark and
while fixing up the load l saw he had
ost hundred -ponnd sack of oats off
| the sled We hooked his horse ahead OF
mine an1 eht on to the road b0une, ar
riving IL "a at ii O'Clock without any
dinner and 81 degrees below zero. There
we found all the boys They had r I'd
the cook we were coming and he had our
supper ready. You may imagine that
ii was awful nice TO see the fire aud
smell the supper We went back in the
morning and got our bad and made "a
miles after dinner, bit our sack Of oats
worth $25, had spilled all along the trail.
The wind began TO blow and drift the
snow and the trail got bad aud the
travel light. At Chico | caught Mr.
VIM Casey, an old sour dough aud
his lady, Miss Wheeler, going in. Ca.
sey being an old acquaintance we
travelled all the way to Dawson together,
he having horse and sleigh, with Miss
Wheeler as passenger, We were to-
gether in Seattle, but they stal ted one
day ahead Of us from White Horse.
We'll, will not go into details of the
whole trip, but from the end of the cut
off it began to get colder, and from Five
| Fingers we were l. hours going / 3 miles
in driving snow storm, VALLEY, Ca
sey and froze our faces in every part
| left exposed There was no trail, all
drifted full. and | went ahead in the
morning with lantern aud candle IN
il and followed the trail while Valley
| chased the horses along They followed
| like dogs by this time, stopping as soon
AZ they got off the trail So we had the
| DEVILS own time for FIVE days We had
| to break our trail and the Ice was so
rough that a wolf coald not cross the
river Ice piled up all the way down
| wherever there il slough The gov
ernmsnt and the O. d. company have
| chopped the ice down and made the
| trail passable. IL got colder and we still
| pushed on days were short aud we had
| to travel early and late and there were
| lots Of dangerous places on the river
where the mail teams had gone through
| the ice. and one man walked into one of
| these holes and the Lord only knows
| how he got ont walked three miles 10
| tent His pardner packed him home
| frozen stiff but saved him. One man
came over the summit the same day we
| did wit. t,s~ee dogs The dogs gave out
( and Le left two of them at the Road
| house aud came on with one They
found mis- sleI and one dog the day be-
| fore we came along The police went
! 70 look for him, but as it y7a5 GS degrees
| below zero it was too cold TO look long.
| He probably got off the trail and being
cold and weak fell between the rough
| ice and the snow drifted over him just
another added 10 the long list in the Yu-
| kon When we arrived at TT Sci Hrk,
| that is half way il was II degrees be
| low zero. In the morning we left at
| and it was "a below FOur miles below
Ft Selkirk, at place called The Farm,
| it waa 81 below For eight days 1t was
| from As to "a. Miss Wheeler started on
| ahead TO walk short distance as their
| horse was very tired. The temperature
| was : 4 and we did not catch her till she
got 70 Selwin four miles, she being very
nearly frozen VIXEN sne got there.
| could see her ahead Of us and ! kept
looking 20 see her fall at any time. She
4 could not wait on the road but had 10
! t,s.e,, moving IN keen the blood in circu-