Douglas Island news., 1904-10-19
PusLIsAD EVERY WEDNESDAY
TERMs:-In Advance.
FROM SNETTGSHAM.
EDITOR NEWS:

general deSCrpClOn or SneCClSnam ana vicinity. Your correspondent lays no claim to the word juggling art that would enable him to adequately picture in words the scenic beauties of any part of this magnificent land. There fore the following is given simply that you may gain slight knowledge of the lay of the land.
 Snettisham Bay, at the mouth or en- trance, is a mile and half wide, with rockbound shores on either side. The hillsto the north are steep and rugged, and covered with a heavy growth of spruce and hemlock, which extends from the waters edge to timber line. To the south the country presents the appearance of long, gradual slope. On this side is located cannery, also the works of the Alaska Snettisham Gold Mining Go. Here is fine wharf, where any of the steamers running to $. E. Alaska may dock with ease and perfect safety. On the wharf is we'll stocked general store; and leading from the wharf is a fine planked street run ming to the dwelling houses and the boarding house.
 100 feet from the store, built on a solid foundation, is modern 2O-stamp mill, with Frue Vanners to care for the sulphurets. Steam and water power are both used to keep things go- ing, and dynamo furnishes lights for the mill and dwelling houses. Lights are also placed at intervals of 90 feet along the planked street, giving the place a citided appearance by night. There is also saw mill where the tim Der from the mountain sides is con- verted into lumber for building pur- poses.
 Old winter has already covered the mountain tops with snow and the native weather prophet has said that there will oe a hi-u-snim, which in the ladguage of the poet meaneth, "a he'll of lot of snow"
 You may not know that this is the most wonderful place in the world for fish. The following story is submitted with the most profound apologies to you and all the other liars on Gastin. eaux channel. A few days ago l and two other men were fishing for haIibut, off the wharf. We had to have very long lines, as it is 90 feet to,the bottom. After 10 or 15 minutes of patient wait ing I felt something tugging on the line. We pulled in the line, hand over hand until, huge fish came to the surface. It was a monster haIibut that surprised us, but the minute we tried to pull him out, he snapped that heavy halibut line as if it were cotton thread, and away he went to the bottom. We were not discouraged, aud resolved to try again, although some of the ex- pressions of my associates would have made tramp blush. We went to the blacksmith shop and made hook, out of piece of drill steel, with ring on the end, to which we attached 50 feet of inch rope. The hook weighed 7]% pounds, and we put 10 pounds of beef on it for bait, dropped it to the bottom and awaited developments
 In short time, his royal highness, the hali but, had that beef,and incident ally the hook, lodged away back behind his jaw teeth. We pulled and pulled until we got him to the top of the water, when all of sudden he gave a lunge and off he went, with the three of us, and Maggie the bull dog hanging on to the rope for dear life. We did not get him stopped until we had paid cut 300 it. of that inch rope. Now that we had him stopped we were at our wits end to know what was next best to do, when one of the men suggested attach ing the rope to the bull wheel of the saw mill and see if we could land him that way. After several attempts we finally landed him on she skidway of the saw mill, and, what monsterl We beat him with stones, clubs and axes, but did not subdoe him until box and a half of giant powder vas laid on his head and exploded.
 Upon dissect5ng tho monster we found in his cold storage apartment four full grown salmon. crabs, 15 sal mon trout, 3 jelly fish, 2 large wooden AOoks. such as the natives uss to catch