The Red Cloud chief., 1921-01-27

who had some wonderful spruce timber He
framed up the wing for us, built ribs and spars
for the stabilizer and the aeron. OF course, each
one Of us had piece Of linen for patching; we
pooled our supply and covered the wing. The
dope Lieutenant Kirkpatrick, the only chemist we
had In the party, was able to concoct from cellu-
lose nitrate unrefned banana oil, and several
quarts OF amyl acetate, proved not very ehi-
caciOus the linen about fabby when 1t
dried as 1t had been before wettng. But, we took
a chance on the new wing anyhow. Still another
delay held us ut Prince George, however, for al
most ten days in all. aud we got our first ac-
quaintance of real frontier town. We got &c
quainted with hard-boled miners Of the old type.
with umberjacks-great, tall Scotchmen and little
French Canadians, who came In about twice q
week for the fun Of spending their money.
"Our next stop was to be ut Hazelton, at the
head Of navigation OH the Skina river, and at one
time the main point of distribution for the region
beyond. Hazelton is right in the mountains, and
these are covered with high timber. Due to the
frost, even when the timber is removed and the
land plowed level and cultivated during the sum-
mer when ii thaws out again next spring, 1t Is
rolling and rough as the waves Of the sea-
Knowing Of these conditions, we went on by train
to inspect the landing field before making the
jump In our planes. Finding its dimensions in
adequate, Captain Street arranged to have the
grain cut from a field adjoining to make
for us to alight with safety
sour next jump was to land us in United States
territory again, but to reach Wrangell. we had to
jump the Coast Range mountains. at least
that is what thought we had to do from our
maps, which showed the trend of q river or of a
mountain system and depicted everything else as
perfectly smooth, level country. In point of fact,
the region has never been explored surveyed.
Fortunately. we had a clear day for our take-off.
When we began to ascend for hop over the
mountains we found that the mountains rose too,
md CHI than va had TpSta IF hoin
and 1000 feet as shown on our map, when we
reached height of 1000, we found we needed
5000 more to get over the top, and when we tried
to skirt the range, we found 1t wasn't really a
range at all With valley on the other side, but
just close packed mountain peaks filed with snow
and Ice between These glaciers looked like level
Of dark green water. At Wrangell. the only
landing field available was on little island in
the Stickine river, which, at high tide wasn't an
island at ALL We landed in about six inches of
water which had grown to foot before we took
off.
"From WrangeIl we went by way of Chkoot
Pass and Skagway to Whtehorse. This is the re-
giOn made so famous In the early days OF the
gold discovery. Formerly 1t took about three
months to make the trip; In winter, travel was
by dog-sleds; In summer on foot or by pack-tran.
The once famous mines Of this region are now in
active. Their surface veins have been stripped
and high-grade mining In this country Is too ex-
penSlVe because OF inadequate transportation IA
cilities.
sFrom Whitehorse to Dawson we flew over the
route patrolled by the Canadian mounted police
The trail runs In almost an airline that shows up
practically all Of the way dotted with the neat
little road houses at intervals Of 40 to so miles
apart. The police, in full regala-brIghtred
jackets and blue trousers-are snappy looking
fellows, well disciplined and giving wonderful
service to the country. They were Of tremendous
assistance to us wherever we encountered them
We crossed Lake La Barge, SO well known to read
ers of Services poems which breathe the very
soul and spirit of this far northern region. This
lake Is Mt once the basin of the White river and
the source Of the Yukon, unless. indeed, 1t be
one and the same river with different names in
different localities.
"Crumrine had blown out tire at Whltehorse
but, filling his casing with rope packed tightly, he
wrapped the outside with rope. taking Off with
us to Dawson, and landing safely despite the hard
jolt from his mended tire. We arrived at Daw-
son. by chance. on August II, the gala day Of the
country Discovery Day" 1t Is called. for Just
22 years before, the first Alaskan gold was dis
covered on Bonanza creek. The people made W