The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-04-25
FIRST MIN IN FROM NONE
CAPT. RUSSIAN NELSON ARRIVES
IN TACOMA AFTER THREE
MONTHS TRIP
HUNDREDS OF MILES OVER ICE
General Conditions He Reports EN-
couraging, With Many New
Strikes Made by the
ProspectOrs.

TACOMA, Wash, April 24-Captain
Russian Nelson has arrived from Nome.
He is the first to come out since the close
of Boring sea navigation last November.
He came via the Katmia overland route
and the steamer Excelsior. Over 1900
miles of land and water travel were
covered by the traveller. His course lay
over ice and snow for more than. l,4C0
miles
Captain Nelson left Nome Jan. H. ten
days prior to the departure of the last
mail, which reached Puget Sound by
the Yukon route a fortnight ago. His
voyage involved innumerable hardships
and dangers. Leaving Meme, he pro-
ceeded to Unalaklik, following the shore
of Moron sound for 24O miles. At Una.
laklik he met the first mail party, which
left Skagway Nov. 2. This was four days
in advance of the national. election, but
three weeks later, when the expedition
was at Fort Egbert, on the Yukon, u dis
patch was received announcing McKin-
1ey's election. This information was
brought to Unalaklik by the mail car
riers.
Thirty miles west of Mood News bay
Captain Nelson found a Bleaching schoon-
er whose name he does not recall; but
from which nine white men were sys.
tematically prospecting the surrounding
country for placer gold. Despite the fact
that they claimed to have made rich dis
coveries, Captain Nelson says he does
not believe there is any pay gold i'll that
section He saw neither gold nor evi-
dences of it in the Good News bay re-
gion.
1t was March 16 when Captain Nelson
reached Katmai. The last several hun
dred miles of the journey he made With
out his dogs, which he left at Sevansky,
owing tothe fact that he could not find
food for them over the final 500 miles.
At Katmai he procured the services Of
two Aleut Indians, and crossed Shilikoff
strait in a vidaska to Kodiak. Though
the strait proper at this point is but sew
en- miles wide. they were eleven days in
reaching Kodiak, which, as the crow
flies, is probably not over fifty miles dis
tant The vidaska voyage was, the cap-
tain says the most dangerous of his
1900 miles of travel Day after day the
storm threatened to swamp them. In
deed, in the very middle of the strait
the Indians brought the vidaska to a
standstill, held a consultation and deter
mined to proceed only after the most ar-
gent urging of their passenger. AS the
storm increased in fury they would dis
continue the use Of their paddles,
seemingly consigning themselves to the
will of the elements. March 81 the VII
daska brought up in the harbor of Ko-
diak, where Captain Nelson caught the
steamer Excelsior for Seattle.
Capt. Nelson passed many fortune
seekers in the vicinity of Unalaklis
bound to and from the Koskokwim plac-
er diggings which, he is inclined to be-
lieve, exist only. in the imagination OF
some visionary prospector. He says In
oil the number he encountered he saw nc
one who had been able to find Yellow
river, the tributary of the upper Kcs
kokwim, on which the discoveries ars
said to have been made. Twenty-Five
miles below Andrafsky he met three
Koskokwim stampeders who had sJf-
fered misfortune. One had has hands
and feet frozen, another his hands frcz
en-, and the feet of the third of the trio
were frost bitten They were in pit
able condition, and their friends had dis
patched a messenger to Nome with the
request that q relief expedition be sent
The unfortunates declined absolutely tC
give Capt Nelson their names, saying
that they did not wish the news CT their
misfortunes to reach their friends in the
East.
Capt. Nelson says the general condi
lions at Nome could hardly be more en-
couraging New strikes We're being maze
by winter prospectors. On Newton gulch
a tributary to Dry creek, $23 to the par
had been found, and very startling re
ports as to the richness of the strea ms
were coming in from the Bluestone dis
trict when he left. A man named Kenne1
purchased a Bluestone claim for $500 and
within ten days sold the property for
$4,000 cash.
The general health and order of Nome
Capt. Nelson says, could hardly have
been better. Owing to- internal dissen.