Klondike.

Manawatu Herald, 28 July 1898, Page 2

Klondike.

The " Chronicle " has published an interesting letter dated 20th May from Lake Bennett from Mr Willie Beaven. eldest son of the well-known Mr G, Beaven, of Wanganui, from which we take the following : — PRICE OF PACKING. Our tent we pitched within a milt of Log Cabin, a well known restaurant that lays within nine miles of the last named lake, the road fa very similar to a bad N.Z. pack track, for the enow on the trail has gone and leavrs bare rocks and mud holes most of the way. On making en quiries as to prices of packing from here to the lake, we found the.y ranged from three to four cents n pound ; this was to long a price to suit us, so we rested for a day or two and waited our chance, till business in the packing line was very quiet, and then secured a packer to take it over for two cents, which was decidedly cheaper than carrying it ourselves. Excluding our own labour it has oost us to move the whole out fit from Skagway to Bennett, six and three quarters cents per pound, and, baring one N.Z. party that travelled with us right through this is the cheapest bit of tranportation we have heard of yet. Ai to the terrible hardships and dangers that are spoken of in the papers, at least con cerning the Skagway trail, for I can. not speak with authority on theDyea trail, not haying travelled over it, in my opinion it ia a lot of utter bosh. Concerning the cold, although the glass has registered it fourteen below zero, and we have had several storms of sleet and snow we have not felt it. in the least. Nothing but N.Z. clothing have we worn, and seldom could we work with a coat on at that. I have seen "men sliding across the lakes with all their beard frozen stiff, and icicles hanging from their moustache, and one night about twelve o'clock I saw a man take wet, socks off his feet frozen as stiff as a board. PACK ANIMALS. The number of dead animals that line the way from here to Skagway is simply awful. Some of the poor mules and horses have scarcely a leg to stand upon, their backs and sides are raw, and the bones are almost protruding through their skim through the want of sufficient food. The sledge dog, no matter how honest a worker, if he should get stuck, or given too hard a task to do, get? kicked and hammered unmercifully. The sure, but slow old working bul ' lock I believe, fares the best of the lot. He is kept in fairly good fettle that he may prove with the butcher % financial boom when his working days are done. It is only two dayago since I saw and overheard thf following: — Two men who had a short time since packed their goods

over with a bullock, were dragging timber with him to the lake for bo*J building purposes. About six in thd. evening, one proposed that they should take him away now and shoot him, but the other thought it advisable to drag another log over bo« fore ending hia existance ; so thii they agreed to, and after the tMk was completed he was led away lo execution, just a short distance from our tent. A shovel that they bor. v < rowed from a neighbouring -tent, we thought wag for the purpose of dig. ing a hole for his carcase. But her* we were mistaken, for it was merely to make a trench to give the blood a chance to get away. The head wai offered us for a dollar, or a dollar aqsl a half with tongue. The rest of the meat wag Bold for twenty-five centi per pound. Bread here is fifty eenti a loaf; a meal one dollar; in fact everything is an extortionate price. Continued.