Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1911-09-12

| circuitous route going first over The
White pass and Yukon to White
Horse then back to Caribou and over
the great mountain lakes, the longest
of which is one hundred and ten miles,
and after a short journey of three
miles over a narrow guage road in
canvas covered cal oo5c we came to
another big lake, crossed the end OF
it and arrived at this litl1 Canadian
village of Atlins full of good people
and also full of great st. Bernard and
husky dogs. The homes were mostly
cottages made of logs or implanted
lumber, sometimes of the better
bungalow type and screened by balm
of gilead shrubs and tall sentinel-like
stalks of Indian fire-weed. According
to the testimony of pure Swiss, the
leading free Mason of the village, it
resembled exactly lake Thun in
Switzerland. To me it resembled
pictures of lake Como in Switzerland
and two or three of the glaciers were
much like pictures of Mer de Glace.
All along the route of the White
Pass and Yukon we saw the trails OF
'98, and in many places the trail of '97
which was a winter trail and made
use of the ice in lakes Bennett and
Linderman. At White Horse we
walked on the old wooden tram over
which the gold seekers portrayed their
supplies around Miles canyon one of
the dangerous points on the Yukon,
and we sat down by the White Horse
rapids, on a most beautiful Sunday
afternoon while a "sourdOugh," as the
early Alaskans or old-timers are called,
sketched for us brief history OF the
obstacles that were to be overcome by
those bound for the Klondike. Scat
tered graves all along the banks of
the upper Yukon are silent testi-
mony of hunger, sickness, exhaustion,
and suicide At Caribou we talked
for two hours with the squaw who
saw and handled the very first gold of
the Klondike country, and her story
was interesting as we'll as pathetic.
We visited the Indian mission school
and found the natives in the hands of
refined and noble women from south
ern England. A new school was being
erected at an expense of $50, 900.
That afternoon the Indian children
were enroute for the mountains to
get berries to can and preserve for the
winter. The Indians of Southeast
Alaska are by far the most interest
ing and progressive of the whole
country. Their walrus ornaments
and baskets are objects of
real beauty. These are kept in enor-
nous quantities in Skagway and in
abundant quantities in Juneau,
Haines and Wrangell. Their totems
are especially interesting but it is i'm
possible to give an accurate interpre-
tation of this crude heraldry in a
brief article. Alaska, meaning great
country, is a land teeming with future
possibilities. Its people are aware
Of it's future prospects but see no way
to make it what it might be as they
are but patient, long suffering,
silent host, governed by a body of men
four to six thousand miles away from
them, who have little or no knowledge
of their conditions or their needs.
Every Alaskan l met and talked with
was dissatisfied with the govern
mental side of his country, but loved
everything else about it to the hearts
core. Alaska may not only be place
for real homes with it's enormous
yield of minerals, turs, fish and tim
Der but it may also be primeval
enough for hundreds of years for a
camping ground and retreat for fish
ermen and hunters and playground
for the summer tourist for all time.
ROsALIA BOHRER.