Amador ledger., 1902-02-21
Prospecting in Alaska.


lay, agreeing to give 20 per cent of the
gross proceeds to the owner of the
claims, if we found anything to justify
US in taking hold of them. The place
was eighteen miles south from Nome.
We had amongst us boat capable of
carrying a tons weight, besides the
oarsman. But not mothers son of
US knew anything about boating. One
of our partners, J. E. Stone, had some
business to attend to at Nome and
could not go for a day or two, so he
hired sailor to go in his place, which,
figuratively speaking, put US in town {"
Our provisions, tools, bedding, ETC.,
were put into the boat and we were
ready to launch her, it being impossi-
BILE to put anything in boat even in
the calmest time that can be- found and
let it stay in the water. The surf came
rolling gently scroll like inward and
all hands took hold of the boat to push
it into the water, The sailor, and one
OF our party, got into the boat, oars in
hand, ready to Lush out into the sea
whenever we could force it beyond the
inrolling surf, columns that came with
periodical, momentary splash upon
the smooth sandy shore. ''Pull for the
sea, you sky-lark, Stone shouted, as
he helped to launch the boat. The
two men leaned with all their strength
on the oars, and over the inrolling
surf she started with dive seaward,
and she was now properly en- the wave.
The sailor pushed seaward beyond the
inrolling surf and headed, bird like,
southwark. The other three of us,
| considering that sandy shore was
better than watery grave or good
| ducking, "hoofed' it along the shore,
following the boat. Earnestly speak
ing, the Behringe sea is so treacherous
that men in small boats are too often
in the power of a merciless wave. that
may swallow them up forever in a sec
ond. AT times the sea, like huge
leviathan, lies for short period so
still as to appear to be resting in deep
est slumber; then, without warning, it
awakens as if disturbed from a peace
ful rest, and in its fury lashes the waves
into wrathful columns of furious waves
and seething foam, sending everything
upon 1t unprotected to destruction and
death. On the lst of July last two
sailors with their row boat was upset
and one of them drowned. A woman
and her fourteen year old son were
foolish enough to venture out for a
| pleasant ride along close to the shore.
Suddenly the sea grew rough and in
its wrath swallowed up the boat and
left two corpses to drift and be thrown
God knows where beneath the
surges of the furious waves. A half a
hundred without doubt, have lost
their lives in the last two years in this
treacherous sea by being out in row
boats. No wonder, then, we watched
with solicitude our tiny craft. freighted
with our belongings and two human
souls, as she skipped like a sea-bird
over the treacherous deep. Look at
her!'' said Stone. She, was now a mere
Ispeck, and as she followed the troughs
of the sea she disappeared and seemed
momentarily to have dived beneath
the waves; but way out upon the crest
of the rolling surf we saw her reappear
as tiny spectral form, fleeing like
some hunted shadow. Gone! she was
lost to our sight in the distance. Along
the shore we followed our departed
craft. About two and a half miles
from Nome whale lay dead upon the
shore. 1t was thirty or forty feet
long, and some men were cutting great
slabs out of it for food for two or three
hundred dogs housed in great pen a
half mile back of Nome. "Look there"
said one of my partners, as we travelled
onward. looked; long, bright new
oar was being rolled back and forth
upon the beach by the actions of the
waves. We secured the oar, and nat
urally enough scanned the ocean, in
search of some derelect tiny craft that
we thought might be wandering aim
lessly at sea; but nothing could we see
save the wide expanse of the ocean, or
the transport Warren as she lay at
anchor, opposite the government bar
racks nearly ten miles away. Just
| above the barracks that are situated
on the beach, beyond the mouth of
Nome river, l picked up at the water's
edge nearly a new shoe that was vet
wet with ocean surf. 1t doubtless was
connected with the oar and went to tell
the tale of horror and death. 1t is
known to be fact that drowned-at-
sea man will be stripped of his boots or
shoes by the action of the waves. A
little further up the beach found a
new buckskin purse that had caught
on buried stick and was futtering as
| if trying to get away from the almost
spent wavelets that played about. All
that it contained was some ocean sand
that had forced itself within. | emptied
the sand out of the purse, washed it,
and now retain it as a souvenir.
Two of us stopped to talk to a SOL
dier and the others walked along.
After leaving the soldier we walked for
some time along the sandy beach with
steady, worried tread. On suddenly