Dangers of the Road to Klondike.

Hastings Standard, Issue 428, 17 September 1897, Page 4

Dangers of the Road to Klondike.

EXPERIENCES OF HARRY de WINDT. (Post Correspondent.) London, August 7. Bad as things may be in Westralia and New Zealand, miners will do well to pause and reflect before they set off —as half America is just now_ doing— for " Golden Alaska." Setting aside the Yankee pictures of this wild and barren country —which may possibly be prejudiced for interested reasons—one cannot doubt the evidence of tough old travellers like Harry de Windt and other Englishmen. In Monday's Standard Mr de Windt gives his personal experiences of the journey to Yukon. Here are three passages taken therefrom. He says : I left Juneau for St. Michael's on the 18th of June, 1895, the bast season .for travelling. A filth/ steam

launch, built to carry 25, but which on this occasion took 57 passengers, landed me at Dyea, 100 miles distant, on the 14th of June, although the journey should have occupied 12 hours at most. The sea was heavy, and wo wcro nearly swamped twice, which caused the delay. At Dyea we anchored a mile from land, and had to wade ashore with baggage or,d provisions, much to the detriment of the latter. This was unfortunate, as Alaska produces absolutely nothing of an edible nature. There are at present only three settlements along the 2000 odd miles between Juneau and Behring Sea where food of any kind is procurable. These are Dye-i, Forty Mile City, and Circle City. I should add, procurable at times, for when we reached Forty mile City the settlement was in a state of semi-starvation. Nothing was to be had but a few tins of sardines, some desiccated fruit, and a small sack of flour, damaged and almost uneatable. The Chilkoot Pass (4000 ft. high) would, in Switzerland, be a question of ropes and ice axes. The passage is generally made at night, for the snow is then in firmer condition, and there is no darkness to speak of. A stiff climb of two hours from Sheep Camp brought us to Stone House, the limit of the tree line, and from here hard work commenced in grim earnest. For the first few hours the way lay over a succession of snowy "plateaus," which, broken away beneath by numberless watercourses, formed a kind of crust 14ft. to 20ft. above the ground. The travelling here was extremely dangerous. There was absolutely no path or trail to guide one, and huge crevasses, where the snow had fallen in upon some foaming torrent, appeared here and there. There are seven or eight " plateaus," which increased in steepness until, midway up the last, we were scrambling painfully up the slippery ice-slope on our hands and knees. Here a dense mist overtook us, and we lay shivering (at a very uncomfortable angle) for three hours, until it cleared away and disclosed the rocky precipitous peak of the Chilkoot towering another thousand feet above us. I have roughed it for the past 15 years in Siberia, Borneo, and Chinese Tartary, but I can safely describe that climb over the Chilkoot as the severest physical experience of my life.

A blinding snowstorm barred our way for nearly an hour, am l we then descended a steep ice slope of about 500 ft, which brought us to Crater Lake. From here, at 7 a.m., began an exhausting tramp through deep snow drifts, gradually thawing to halffrozen slush, knee deep as we gained the lower ground. A rocky ridge of hills and three small streams were then crossed. One of the latter, swollen by recent rains, carried one of our party off his feet, and he was with difficulty rescued. From 10 a.m. till mid-day heavy and incessant rain considerably retarded our progress, but by 2 p.m. we stood, dead-beat, bleeding, and exhausted (but safe), on the shores of Lake Lindemann, the journey having occupied nearly 15 hours. That we had to wait for 10 hours, drenched with rain and perspiration, and sick with hanger, until the Indians came up with provisions, is for Alaska a mere detail.