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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

TO MY THREE SONS

HOWARD, CLIFFORD AND ARTHUR A., JR.

WHO WERE GREATLY INTERESTED IN MY STORY

WHILE BEING WRITTEN,

THIS VOLUME IS
AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

MR. ARTHUR A. DIETZ

Upper, taken just before he started for Alaska. Center, on his return after his
hair and whiskers were trimmed. Lower, as he appears today.

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD

FROZEN NORTH

BY
ARTHUR ARNOLD DIETZ

ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS

W. A. SHARP

LOS ANGELES:

TIMES-MIRROR PRINTING AND BINDING HOUSE
1914

Copyrighted

Arthur Arnold Dietz
November, 1914

740977

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

PREFACE

A thrilling adventure of a party of eighteen
gold seekers who left New York City in the
winter of 1897, headed by Arthur A. Dietz, who
has been physical director of the Young Men's
Christian Associations at New York City,
Lockport, N. Y., Torrington, Conn, and Coates-
ville, Pa., and at present in the Playground
Department of Los Angeles, Cal.

Of the eighteen men who started out, only
four of the party ever reached civilization alive,
and of the four, two are totally blind, while the
other two were left with very poor sight, due to
the glaring effect of the sun on the snow and ice.
The party traveled many miles into the very
heart of Alaska, crossing immense glaciers, which
had never been crossed by white man before.

This wonderful true adventure is far more
absorbing than any of the fiction that has been
written about Alaska and has a decided educa-
tional value.

During the time he was away Mr. Dietz kept a
diary in which he recorded his adventures up
until the time when he lost all record of time in
the great Arctic night, but he kept a record of
every incident for the two years and two months
that he was away.

The city of Seattle, during the gold rush is
vividly pictured with all its vices. A heart-
breaking trip by boat to Yakutat, Alaska.
Meeting the natives and the missionary and
their mode of living. The start over the great
Malaspina Glacier, where some of the party
met their death by falling into snow-covered
crevices. After untold sufferings they reached
the interior and were engulfed in the arctic
night, which held them frostbound for seven
months. Their miraculous escape to the out-
side world through the assistance of a tribe of
interior natives and their final rescue by the
U. S. revenue cutter Wolcott, then patrolling
the Alaska coast protecting the seal industry.

For a month before the rescue, the remaining
party were compelled to eat their faithful dogs
and dead fish found on the beach, and after
spending two weeks in a hospital at Sitka,
Alaska, where they were taken by the Wolcott,
they again reached Seattle, only to hear that
they were reported lost two years before.

AUTHOR.

THE SPIRIT OF THE NORTH

Spirit of the frozen North,

Where the wave is chained and still,
And the savage bear looks forth

Nightly from his caverned hill !

Down from the eternal throne,
From thy land of clouds and storm

Where the meeting icebergs groan,
Sweepeth on thy wrathful form.

Spirit of the frozen wing !

Dweller of a voiceless clime,
Where no coming on of spring

Gilds the weary course of time !
Monarch of a realm untrod

By the restless feet of men,
Where alone the hand of God

'Mid his mighty works hath been !

Throned amid the ancient hills,

Piled with undecaying snow,
Flashing with the path of rills,

Frozen in their first glad flow;
Thou hast seen the gloomy north,

Gleaming with unearthly light,
Spreading its pale banners forth,

Checkered with the stars of night.

Lord of sunless depths and cold !

Chainer of the northern sea !
At whose feet the storm is rolled,

Who hath power to humble thee?
Spirit of the stormy north !

Bow thee to thy Maker's nod;
Bend to Him who sent thee forth,

Servant of the living God.

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

A Picture of the Days when Young and Old Men
and even Women Rushed away to the Gold
Fields of Alaska. Party of Eighteen Start
from New York City. Seattle more
Wicked than Sodom. New York Party
Charter an Old Brig which had been
Condemned by the U. S. Govern-
ment Two Years Previous.
Hundreds of Lives Lost in
1897-1898.

CHAPTER I.

URING the two years following the

DJJ] discovery of gold in Alaska, no few-
«i er than 1800 men who went to that
vast continent of snow and ice,
buoyant with hopes and dreams of
untold treasures that were to be
theirs for the taking, met death in-
stead. These figures are from the
government report. But I do not believe that
the true story of the great harvest of death in
that land at that time has ever been told, or
ever will be known.

My own impression is, and I write it down
confidently, that the number of brave fellows

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

who started for the Klondyke region and never
returned was between twenty and twenty-five
hundred, nearly the total fatalities from all
causes on both sides in the Spanish-American
war. Behold, the power of gold! Imagine that
great army of misguided humanity — the very
flower of America's best physical manhood-
going down to death for mere gold, which after
all is a minor consideration in the affairs of men.

When after untold hardships I made my way
into the heart of Alaska, and it came to be a
question of life or death, I left behind the gold
I took along without great regret as I would
leave behind a worthless burden. I have learned
the value of gold as compared with life. But in
1896 I did not realize that or this story would
never have been written — or experienced.

I remember distinctly how each morning
the papers announced in flaring headlines that
great quantities of gold were being picked up
in the interior of Alaska. Men grew rich over
night; the treasure was so great that there were
not enough people to lay claim to it.

The country went gold-mad. People ran
away from their homes determined to go to the
Klondyke. Others, who were tied to their
homes by ties so strong that they could not be
broken, wished in their hearts that they could go.

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Wives, sweethearts, aged parents, children,
happy homes, friends, incomes, employments—
everything that the world holds dear — were
left behind in that mad scramble for gold.

Without a thought as to the perils they were
encountering, old men, young boys and even
women, who were physically unable to endure
the rigors of the climate and the hardships,
rushed away. It was a case of the survival of
the fittest. Thousands never reached their
goal, and other thousands who were more
successful were unprepared for the hardships
to be endured.

It is no wonder that so many died, but I have
always felt that some measure should have
been taken by the government to prevent that
great loss of life. It was useless; it served no
purpose, and somebody was responsible. As
time goes by and I reflect, I am beginning to
feel that some inhuman brute organized that
mad gold-rush for selfish gain; my reasons for
thinking thus will appear as this record unfolds.

When the first reports of the gold strike
reached the States I was living in upper New
York City. The continued exploitation in the
papers of gold finds caused almost every man to
think of venturing into the frozen north. Almost

MAD BUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

every man I met talked of it and would say,
"If I had money enough I would go/' I had
always been from childhood of a roving and
adventurous disposition and these stories of
untold treasures in Alaska took possession of
me and I was soon afflicted with the craze.
I imparted my desires to my father-in-law and
was pleased to learn his opinion that if anyone
could endure the trip that that person was I.
That clinched the matter. I decided finally
to go to the Klondyke.

At that time parties were forming everywhere.
The gold craze seemed to be sweeping everything
before it. Men left for that unexplored country
with insufficient equipment — men who had
never seen a snow-shoe or a dog sled, who had
always slept on soft mattresses and were accus-
tomed to three meals a day, for no one could
start unless he had at least $500 and many had
more than $5000. All of them were sadly
inexperiened as to what conditions they might
be expected to meet in a land where the mercury
drops to from forty to seventy degrees below
zero and the nights are seven months long.

In August, 1896, I advertised in the New
York Herald for a partner or two to form a
mining company. The next morning the post-
14

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

man brought me no fewer than forty letters,
and more during the day. They came from men
in every station of life — clerks, policemen,
firemen, and in three instances women wanted
to join our party and claimed to have sufficient
funds. One letter came from a friend of mine
who was one of the superintendents of a large
cartridge factory at Bridgeport, Conn. Besides
this, my brother-in-law, a physician living in
Brooklyn, and having a lucrative practice,
wanted to go. Although at first he was one of
the strong advisers against my going.

In two weeks we had a party of eighteen men
organized and we decided to start on February
1st, 1897. Unlike many of the parties that had
rushed away on the spur of the moment, our
party had a faint idea of the difficulties it was
to encounter, and we attempted to take every
preparatory precaution possible and to make the
venture a success. We met every Sunday at
my home to arrange for the trip, and in order to
familiarize ourselves with arctic conditions, we
read books by Perry, Scott and Dr. Kane on
North Pole expeditions and various other works.

We decided to buy our outfit on the coast,
feeling sure that we could get there just what
we needed. We did, however, buy four large

MAD RUSH FOE GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

St. Bernard dogs and two Newfoundland dogs,
which we started to train in upper New York
City as soon as we could get harness made for
them and snow was on the ground. We would
hitch them to an old bob sled loaded with
lumber to make it heavy and drive them for
several miles each night, and one day, while we
were thus engaged, a policeman placed several
of us under arrest.

He at first thought that we were crazy and
our minds had become unbalanced by the
gold craze stories in the papers. When he finally
learned his mistake, to save himself, he turned
us over to the humane society who brought
charges of cruelty to animals against us — that
is, driving dogs in harness.

Much was being printed in the papers about
our party about this time, as the reporters were
after us for interviews and we had little trouble
in identifying ourselves when brought before
the judge and he promptly discharged us,
wishing our party success.

At last the date for starting came, and the
New York and Bridgeport Mining Company, as
our party came to be known, was ready. The
company consisted of one mineralogist, two
civil engineers, two New York policemen, one

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

physician, three toolmakers, one tinsmith, one
mail clerk, five clerks, myself and my friend,
the factory superintendent, every one in good,
healthy condition. Fourteen of the eighteen
men were married. We were all dressed alike
and wore big heavy special made sweaters,
corduroy trousers, large sombreros and heavy
leather boots; each carried a 30-30 Winchester
rifle.

The newspapers had printed so much about
our party that on the day set for leaving, an
immense crowd surrounded the Y. M. C. A.
Building, where we gathered to make the start.
You can imagine the parting as we bade farewell
to wives and children, sweethearts, friends and
parents.

No one had any idea of the hardships he was
to encounter; everyone was buoyant with
enthusiasm; yet as I look back upon that scene
I can again feel that tremor of uncertainty that
passed through us as we thought of encountering
the unknown. However much those brave
women feared for the safety of their beloved
ones, yet little did they think when they gave
their last parting kiss and spoke their last word
to many of them that it was to be forever.

When we left upper New York several
hundred persons accompanied us on the elevated

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

train and to the Lehigh R. R. Station where we
took the Black Diamond Express for Buffalo,
and from there were soon on our way to Chicago.
All along the route we were sought for interviews
by newspaper men who questioned us as to our
intentions and prospects. We must have looked
like a husky bunch, all dressed alike in sweaters
and boots.

Between Chicago and St. Paul we had all
kinds of trouble with our dogs, which had to be
fed and watered, and when the train stopped for
a few minutes we had to take turns at running
them a little. They whined and howled and
the baggagemen were generally very much
pleased when we changed cars.

At. St. Paul a party of thirty or more men
bound for the same destination as we, came
aboard and soon a strong friendship grew up
between the two parties which continued during
the rest of the trip to Seattle.

At Fargo, N. D., we were held up two days
while a wrecking train was clearing the tracks
of wreckage caused by a rear-end collision the
day before, when seven people were killed and
many were injured. It took us nine days to
reach Seattle, but in spite of the delays and
the trouble with the dogs, everyone seemed to

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

be in good spirits when we got there and we
were enthusiastic to go on.

It had been said that the gold rush made
Seattle, and I truly believe it. But I shudder to
think of the cost in human life and misery. Dur-
ing the gold rush that western city was more
wicked than Sodom; the devil reigned supreme.
It was a gigantic chaos of crime and the city
government as an institution protected evil.
Every kind of illicit business flourished. License
trod all law under foot in its grasping and never-
satisfied greed. Every possible form of decep-
tion was practiced with the full consent of the
city government, apparently. Thousands of
gold seekers spent their money for worthless
fakes and they never knew they had been
deceived until too late; soon their frozen
corpses told the story of man's inhumanity to
man and its awful price.

Our first impression when we alighted from our
train in Seattle was that the city was over-
crowded, and we soon learned that there was
no chance of getting hotel accommodations.
We searched for lodgings until we were tired
and about to give up in despair, when someone
directed us to a stable that was being converted
into a lodging place. Cots so small that one

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

could not lay comfortably upon them were
placed six in a room, and besides the cot each
man was given a tin basin and stool; for this
service he was charged $1.00 per night. The
only place to get water was at a hydrant which
had been used for washing wagons. It was a hard
life already, but no one complained and everyone
seemed to be willing to do his part.

With no better accommodations in prospect
we settled down to make the best of it and
prepare for our expedition to Alaska. One
man was selected each day to watch our rooms
and dogs which were tied just outside in the hall.
The place was worse than a barn, but everyone
was willing and did his part and thus our troubles
were minimized.

A committee of four were selected to do all
the purchasing and to secure transportation
and as one of the committee I shall never forget
the experience. Previous to that time I thought
that nothing could surprise a New Yorker.
But I was sadly deluded and to my sorrow.
While our experience in New York did us great
service in preventing our being swindled and
spending all our money for stuff that was of no
value, still we were relieved of hundreds of
dollars through schemes that looked to be

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

perfectly good until we got to Alaska and found
that we had been defrauded in every way.

At that time the city of Seattle was a mael-
strom of raving humanity driven half insane
by the desire for gold. Between 1800 and 2000
people from all over the world were there
clamoring for transportation to Alaska when
there was none. Money was plentiful and fabu-
lous prices were asked for everything. Every
scheme, legal and illegal, mostly illegal, ever
devised by mortal to separate a man from his
money was run "wide open." Unspeakable
dives, houses of ill-fame existed on every block
in the business section and women under the
protection of the police solicited business every-
where. Gambling houses, saloons and disorderly
houses were run in notorious defiance of the
law and under the same roof. Many pick-
pockets, professional gamblers and gunmen
collected about these places like flies about a
cider jug, and would not stop at murder — to say
nothing of lesser crimes.

Everything imaginable for use in gold mining
and arctic expeditions was offered for sale-
Fakers filled the streets and hawked their
wares which consisted of compasses, mercury,
worthless contraptions for locating and testing

MAD EUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

gold and a thousand and one things which were
found to be absolutely worthless.

Agents solicited business everywhere. They
sold anything from a portable house to a con-
densed form of vegetable. Evaporated foods
seemed to be a favorite with the confidence men;
evaporated potatoes, beans, fruits and even
evaporated eggs — I remember distinctly how
we were deceived into buying 100 pounds of the
eggs. The agent poured some of the yellow
powder out and cooked it. It tasted like
scrambled eggs which indeed it was, but it was
all a sleight-of-hand trick for the stuff we paid
for was yellow corn meal. Although we were
very careful, many of the supplies we bought
were worthless.

A United States Government store was opened
in Seattle at that time, where old army equip-
ment, consisting of tents, blankets, knap-sacks,
etc., were sold. Much of this stuff was worn out
and useless but it was eagerly bought by the
gold-blinded crowds. The men who came from
the east were not so easily deceived, but many
parties spent all their money for worthless
trash and some never got further than Seattle.
One party from Texas, which later took passage
for Alaska with us had been so badly fleeced

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

by the confidence men, and had bought so much
worthless stuff that much of it had to be left
behind. I think sometimes that almost as much
money was left in Seattle by the gold seekers as
was ever recovered those two years. The real
gold mine was in Seattle.

While we were engaged in purchasing our
outfit, we were also attempting to secure
passage to Alaska. We soon found that every
available craft had been engaged weeks ahead
and it looked as if we were doomed to remain
several weeks in Seattle. Everyone in our party
was anxious to push on, as was that great army
of 2000 men, impatient and blinded by the
prospect of riches.

Dan Collins, the former New York policeman
of our party, in talking with one of the United
States Custom Inspectors, was told of an old
brig tied up at Tacoma, across the inlet from
Seattle that could be chartered for a good sum.
We looked the old hull over and learned that it
had been condemned by the Government two
years before. She was a square-rigged brig-
antine, 140 feet long with a twenty foot beam,
and was owned by the Oceanic Packing Company
of Seattle, Wash.

We were blinded, no doubt, by our desire to

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

get to Alaska and did not see any defects. We
were informed that it could be put into condi-
tion, manned by a crew and taken to Alaska for
$5000.00. This sounded good to us, as we had
planned to get together several parties and
thereby divide the expense. Ship carpenters
were set to work at once, while we scurried
about getting a party from Manchester, Conn.,
the St. Paul party and later a party from
Dennison, Texas, one hundred men in all, who
were as anxious as we.

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Provisions Secured. Start Is Made in Boat. Life

Aboard the Rotten Brig Blakely Proves To

Be a Miserable Experience. One Sailor

Lost and Gold Seeker Dies. Dories and

Dog Crates Are Washed Away and

Give Rise to the Story That the

Entire Crew Perished.

CHAPTER II.

HE old boat was given a daub of
paint here and there, a deck-house
was built amidship for fifty of the
men and extra bunks were put in
the forecastle. Two men were to
sleep in each bunk and they were
built three high, with barely room
enough to crawl into. The galley
or cook-house was aft and just large enough for
two or three to move about in. She was towed
to a dock in Seattle and it was very noticeable
that she lay very low in the water.

Eight days after we had engaged her, she
was pronounced ready for the voyage and was
to be manned by Captain McAfee, Mate Jung
and three sailors who I am sure did little deep
sea sailing. There was also a cook and a colored

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

assistant. While the repairs were being made,
large crowds were always on the wharf willing
to take passage with us at any price.

In the meantime we had secured all our pro-
visions, tools, and other goods from the Seattle
Trading Company. Each man was allowed
1000 pounds, baggage included. A portion of
our outfit consisted of beans, pork, bacon, flour
and many evaporated articles, such as potatoes,
apples, beef tea, tea and coffee. We had special
tents and sleds made, all sorts of mining tools
and ropes, snow-shoes and sleeping bags and
other needed articles.

The dogs, now thirty in number, which had
been fattened up during our stay in Seattle,
were placed on the deck-house in crates with
the owner's name on each crate. All hands
helped to get the goods aboard. When we had
loaded everything on board for the whole party,
the boat was down in the water nearly to her
scupper holes or nearly to the main deck, as
she lay in the calm waters of Puget Sound.

Guarded from the old gray Pacific Ocean by
mountainous promontories and caressed by
gentle breezes, Puget Sound is a body of water
of rare beauty. To the person whose mind is at
peace with the world and who looks upon it

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

with an eye receptive to beauty, it imparts a
charm all its own — a charm that cannot well be
expressed in words, for it exists nowhere else.
The sunshine seems to enter into a conspiracy
with it, and the cloud shadows play hide-and-
seek upon its surface and even when it rains the
drops of water dance upon the tilting wavelets
in a joyous fashion. It is indeed a gigantic
playground of nature enclosed in a marvelous
setting of wooded hills and far-away mountains.
But we saw none of this.

With nothing but the desire for gold in his
heart man degenerates into a beast. He sees
nothing, appreciates nothing, thinks nothing
but gold. It is the guiding star of his existence,
the spur of his ambition; it takes possession of
his soul, engenders selfishness, deadens his
moral sense and projects him into a state of
insane madness, which is akin to being under a
hypnotic influence.

When that old rotten hulk, loaded down with
almost all our worldly possessions, was towed out
to Dungeoness Point on the twenty-fourth day
of February, 1897, we had but a single thought-
Alaska. All worked with the strength of a
Hercules to get the cargo aboard; we had lost
sleep and had not taken time to eat in order to

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

get away; we were tired, wretched, hungry, but
we did not know it. Above, beyond, far out
upon that green expanse of water was our
goal — Alaska.

Although impatient to proceed, we lowered
anchor for the night and as I stop a moment in
retrospection and think how that wretched
company of men forgot everything in a sort of
wild frenzy — everything but the dictation of a
blind faith that they had given up every other
consideration to follow — it all seems a vain,
weird, jumbled memory.

The things that seemed so commonplace and
important then as we lay there in the peaceful
water of the Sound as the boat tugged at its
anchor and swayed and tilted with the motion
of the sea, have faded into insignificance now.
That wild impatience that caused us to walk the
deck when we should have been at rest, that
longing to reach our goal kept our jaded nerves
on edge and filled our minds so full of thoughts
we could not sleep; that alluring prospect
made us forget all we left behind — wives,
parents, homes, friends, civilization. We could
see but one thing — gold. All this is but an
incident now, but it was very real then.

It is no wonder, that before the sun arose
above the eastern mountain next morning, we

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

set sail and rejoiced in a weird way as the
Blakely moved slowly out over the water. We
sailed that day to Port Angules, and before we
had been on our journey an hour, some of those
aboard who had never been to sea before were
beginning to lose their impatient frenzy in the
delirium of seasickness. The party from Texas
suffered most, and after the first afternoon on
board I do not think they appeared on deck for
a meal.

Although the sea was not rough the first day
out and the boat was extremely heavily laden,
it rolled and dipped and rode the waves in a
bewildering manner, and there were very few
men aboard except the sailors and myself who
were not affected. The captain who had been
on a glorious drunk, and had brought several
bottles of whiskey aboard with him, kept to his
cabin and did not appear until he had consumed
all the booze.

During the first day of our journey the dogs
must have become seasick too, for they howled
and whined piteously; their imploring cries
rose above the creaking and clattering of the
boat and the swish of the waters as we bowled
along. It produced a pandemonium that was
most distressing.

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Although our meals consisted of nothing but
beans and coffee, the cooks had much trouble in
preparing them. Three times a day those of us
who had our sea legs — and the number began
to diminish immediately — would line up on one
side of the boat with a tin plate in one hand and
a tin cup in the other. As we passed on the
outside of the galley or cook-house, the cook
reached out of a window and slapped a spoonful
of mushy beans on each man's plate. The line
passed on around to the other side of the cook-
house, where from another window each man
was served with coffee, which was poured from
a big kettle into his tin cup.

After leaving Seattle our boat was followed
by many sea-gulls which perched on the yard-
arms and watched for something to be thrown
into the water. With much flapping of wings
they would swoop down and recover anything
in the way of food that was thrown in the sea,
and their presence soon came to be somewhat
uncanny. We sailed along before a stiff breeze
for the next three days and they gradually
disappeared; by the time we reached Cape
Flattery, on February 29th, there was not a
gull to be seen.

It was also about this time that some of the
real hardships of the expedition began to make

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

themselves apparent, and even the bravest
among us feared that we would never reach
Alaska. An increasing number of our party
who had been suffering from seasickness, grew
worse and failed to come up for their meals.
Those of us who were still able to navigate,
carried water and food to the rest who could not
leave their bunks.

No one but he who has experienced it can
imagine what real seasickness is. The first two
or three days the victim is so sick that he fears
he is going to die; then a change comes over him
and he resigns himself to the inevitable. He
loses all hope, all ambition, all fear, all self-
respect, all interest, even in himself, and his
most earnest wish if he has any, is that he
were dead.

At first the men stuck to their work while the
delirium which was raging within them made life
almost unbearable. Wild-eyed and sullen, they
would stagger to the edge of the boat and hang-
ing there, would offer a prolonged gastronomic
sacrifice to the sea. But when they reached the
second stage of their sickness, they remained in
their bunks and the result was revolting beyond
belief. The stench that arose from the fore-
castle, where the men lay huddled together,

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

permeated every part of the boat and was
unbearable. I have often wondered since how
those men managed to live at all.

During all this time the sea had been running
higher and higher and the waves were beginning
to wash over the decks. The Blakely was
leaking badly when we left Seattle and the
syphon pumps had been working steadily all
the time. Now, in order to keep our boat from
going down, everyone who could stand up was
compelled to assist in operating the hand pumps.

The supply of whiskey that the captain had
brought aboard became exhausted about this
time and he appeared on deck for the first time.
The captain was a capable officer when not
drinking, and I feel now that his taking charge
at this time prevented us from being lost. It
was on account of his intemperance that he
was not commander of a larger vessel at sea
and that he could be obtained to captain the
vessel when we left Seattle.

Conditions continued to grow worse and on
March 3rd a number of the dogs belonging to
the Texas party died and were cast overboard.
The rest of the canines which had been howling
and whining day and night for more than a week,
grew quiescent from sheer exhaustion. To

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

make matters worse a member of the party
from Texas fell seriously ill and my brother-in-
law, Dr. Bolton, announced that there was little
chance for his recovery. He had eaten nothing
for eight days and with the old boat rolling and
swaying with the high sea he suffered untold
agony.

Still we continued our journey not without
hope. The winds began to blow a hurricane,
the sea arose like a great mountain of devouring
green and rushed upon us. Great waves dashed
over the boat and completely covered it with
spray. One minute the Blakely rode on the
white crest of a great hill of water, and the next
it was lost in a valley of the same element.
The old hull creaked and groaned and rolled
about aimlessly and I was sure it was only a
matter of minutes before it would fall to pieces.

During the latter part of February and the
most of March a terrific storm, known as the
equinoxial, passes over the Pacific. It consists
of wind, rain, hail and sleet and every sailor who
has once experienced it never cares to encounter
the storm again. Instead of blowing steadily
from one direction, the wind shifts continually
and passes over the surface of the water with a
whirling motion like a series of miniature
tornadoes.

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

It was this storm that the Blakely encountered
on March 6th and was blown about like an
egg-shell in a hurricane for four whole days.
How we ever managed to keep that old hull
afloat, has always been a mystery to me. The
normal surface of the sea was on a level with
the main deck and every wave that came along
broke over us twenty feet or more, drenching us
to the skin, throwing a great volume of water
into the hold and forecastle and leaving a blind-
ing salt spray behind that would not clear before
another big wave broke over us.

On March 7th the storm reached its height
and ever since my return from the Klondyke,
my family and myself have observed that day as
a holiday in commemoration of my deliverance.
Those of us who had our sea legs had had very
little rest for several days, being continually at
the pumps which had to be operated constantly
in order to prevent the boat from sinking. Our
clothes were water soaked, and we were cold,
tired, hungry and wretched.

Those below were even in a worse plight; we
could keep warm through exercise, but they had
to lay in water soaked bunks and shiver with the
cold. To make matters worse, the water put
out the cook's fire soon after the storm began

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

and for several days we could get little or nothing
to eat. I have often wondered since how we ever
managed to live through it without contracting
pneumonia but I think the dry atmosphere
which we reached soon after the storm abated,
saved us.

While the storm raged with relentless fury,
the menacing clouds hung low and we held on
to that rotten hull like grim death — expecting
every moment to be hurled to our doom in that
wilderness of angry waters — one of our best
sailors, Joe Creeg, was ordered aloft to clear
away a broken spar which was dangling over
the deck-house. Suddenly he disappeared; he
had fallen from the yard-arm into the ocean.
It was impossible to turn about as we were
completely at the mercy of the sea. The storm
had blown away the top-mast and jib-sail, the
rotten ropes parting like cotton threads, and
we were sailing under bare poles about eight
knots an hour.

I got one glimpse of the poor fellow, with
arms and legs outstretched, as he started to fall,
and almost instantly his form was screened by
the spray. If he made any out-cry it was
drowned in the roar of the storm. The loss of
the brave fellow distressed us but a moment.

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

We looked imploringly at the rolling sea, hoping
to get one last glimpse of him and wondered
that there was not one possible chance of rescu-
ing the poor fellow. Then suddenly the utter
futility of the thing dawned upon us and the
reality of our danger broke the spell that had
held us and we continued pumping.

The storm caused three of our dories to break
away from the davits aft, and washed ten
crates of the dogs overboard, including two of
my own canines. Besides this, the rolling of the
ship caused our cargo to list to one side, and I
was sure we were going to capsize.

In our hurry to get away from Seattle we
packed our goods and provisions in the hold
ourselves, and not being experienced stevedores*
it is no wonder we had trouble. We tried to
remedy it as best we could, however, and under
the direction of the captain, moved a portion of
the goods back to the other side of the boat and
in that manner partially restored its equilibrium
and gave us a fighting chance.

By this time we were in a pitiable state and
the condition of the poor fellows in the cabin
and forecastle was even more distressing. Having
lain in their bunks for more than a week, not

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

caring whether the boat sank or not, their
condition was so revolting that I will not attempt
to describe it.

Our dories and dog crates and other wreckage
floated out upon the sea and some time later
were noticed by sailors on a passing vessel, who,
reading the name of the Blakely on the dories
which they picked up, concluded that our boat
had sunk and we were all lost.

They reported their story upon reaching
Seattle and it was printed in the newspapers all
over the country. My wife and relatives, as
well as the relatives and friends of all the rest
of the party, read the story and after waiting
for a time and getting no word from any of us
and learning that the boat on which we sailed
was not seaworthy, having been a condemned
boat, accepted it as the truth. Had we suspected
this as we fought the elements in our desperation
it would no doubt have made the outlook more
gloomy than it really was.

On March 9th, the storm abated and the
calm gave us a faint hope of reaching our
destination. The cooks managed to build a
fire and we got the first meal of coffee and beans
that we had had in five days, and it cheered us
considerably. The member of the Texas party,

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

whose condition became grave before the storm,
died as the storm waned the night before, and
that day I witnessed my first burial at sea.

The sailors sewed the body up in a piece of
old sail cloth, weighted it with a piece of chain.
After a prayer by Fred Weigan, of our party,
the captain gave the order and it was dropped
into the sea. As I think of that solemn incident
in retrospect, its sadness, that I could not
recognize then, dawns upon me. The pathos of
horror of that simple funeral which seemed so
commonplace did not appeal to me then and it
was long afterwards that I began to appreciate
the human misery and suffering that I had seen.

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

A School of Whales Sighted. Seasick Men

Recover Somewhat. Wonderful Sight Greets

Passengers of Blakely as Mountains of

Alaska Become Visible. Huge Icebergs

Loom Up. NativesComeOuttoMeetUs.

CHAPTER III.

SPENT a few days following the
storm, helping the mate and the two
sailors to mend the sails which had
been torn almost to shreds by the
storm. For more than a week we
sailed steadily northward and the
men who had been so badly seasick
began to recover somewhat as the
sea remained calm. They began to realize their
condition and as they staggered or were helped
up from the forecastle and cabin they were indeed
pitiable sights. Some of them had not eaten
anything for nearly two weeks. Their clothes
were mouldy and foul smelling and the greater
part of their apparel had to be thrown away.
Some of the men were nearly frozen. An at-
tempt was made to build a fire in the forecastle
in a small stove that had been there, but the
rolling of the vessel and the water coming from
above prevented it.

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

The sea was fairly calm and we were gradually
nearing our goal. Soon we were to be richly
repaid for all our troubles! The mate told us we
were in Alaskan waters and this had a wonder-
fully encouraging effect. On March 17th, while
running through great fields of small ice, we
sighted our first school of whales; a long black
object rising here and there above the surface
of the water like a boat upside down.

It was indeed a strange sight to watch that
big black hulk far off near the horizon throw a
stream of spray high into the air and then
gradually sink into the sea. There were also
schools of porpoise that always seemed to keep
abreast of the bow of the boat. They ranged
from four to eight feet and jumped and turned
about in the water in such a manner as to pro-
duce a beautiful kaleidoscopic picture that we
used to watch for hours.

On March 19th, a heavy snow storm began.
The snow was wet and stuck to the rigging until
a large mass had been collected, and then would
fall to the deck and cause all kinds of trouble,
and we could not see three feet in front of us.
In spite of this, those of us who were on our feet
attempted to make life a little more endurable
for those that were sick. Both of the physicians

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

on board were as sick as the rest, so that they
were only able to give directions and we followed
them as best we could. Despite all our efforts,
the condition in the cabin and forecastle re-
mained as revolting as ever.

We had now been on the water for twenty-four
days and had not yet sighted land. Yakutat,
our destination, was only seventy-five miles
away, however. According to the captain, we
expected to sight land at any time. The snow
storm, which began the day before, continued
and sometimes the snowfall was so dense it was
impossible to see but a few feet ahead.

Later the weather cleared somewhat and we
sighted numerous icebergs and floes of small ice.
Some of these icebergs were immense. They
looked to me like white islands of ice with
ranges of ghostly mountains rising up out of the
sea. The scene was rarely beautiful, but withal
cold, desolate and uncompromising.

As we drew near, the immensity of the bergs
almost overwhelmed our senses. There before
us, or along side of us, was a great wall of ice,
thirty to seventy feet high, and for every foot
that is above water, there is seven below.

Many sea-gulls were again following the ship,
floating overhead without a movement of their

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

wings like a fleet of aeroplanes. Some of the
men were again getting their sea-legs. We grew
tired of having the gulls always flying over the
ship and wanted to shoot them, but the captain
forbade it, saying such action would mean an
ill omen.

The weather grew colder and the men who
were compelled to keep continually at the pumps
with wet clothing suffered greatly. The Blakely,
which for two years had been sitting high and
dry on the beach at Tacoma, was beginning to
get water-logged and sank lower in the water,
and again we began to fear that we would not
get her into port.

Few of us had slept for several days, in our
anxiety to get a glimpse of land, which the
captain assured us was very near. At last he
announced that he had sighted Mt. St. Elias,
the highest peak in Alaska, and we took turns
with the telescope. Gradually the great white
mountain took shape in the hazy blue far above
the horizon.

It was shaped like the top of a pyramid and
standing there immovable in the sky. The sight
was indeed awe-inspiring. The sea reached out
from us to meet the sky as before; there was
no land in sight and the base of the mountain

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

was lost in haze; but there, hanging above and
beyond us like a pillow of cloud was that awful
white mystery which, as we looked, seemed to
change imperceptibly to a delicate shade of pink.

We watched this immovable mass for hours,
and then gradually the white outline of a range
of mountains came into view. As yet no land
broke the horizon. Above the sea was the sky
on which it seemed was painted the outline of
those mountains and far above them the great
peak of Mt. St. Elias.

The whole thing seemed so unreal that for
a time we thought we were looking into another
world, and that Alaska was as far away as ever.
But we were fascinated by the overpowering
grandeur of the scene and for a time we forgot
the hardships through which we had passed.
We even lost our mad desire for gold, as we stood
there and gazed at that incomparable picture
in speechless wonder.

Then gradually the horizon began to give way
to an irregular beach. The outline of the
mountains seemed to lose its enchantment and
before we knew it we were looking upon the
bleak, desolate coast of Alaska. Alaska! Our
goal!

There before us lay the dirty blue and white
mainland with here and there a black speck.

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

In the middle distance were some forests and in
the background those mountains, which had
assumed a commonplace aspect. But far up in
the sky above and beyond them all, towered
that great white peak which seemed to have no
base.

The whole picture looked to us like heaven!
Men who had not moved for two weeks got up
and shouted for joy. Never in my life have I
looked upon so pleasant a picture as that bleak,
uninviting coast of Alaska. Everybody seemed
imbued with new life and with an almost irresis-
tible desire to set foot on land once more.

While we watched, there came through the
sharp sea air a long deafening roar like distant
thunder which resolved itself into a series of
booms like the distant firing of cannon. For a
time we were startled, but the captain soon
informed us that the noise was caused by ice-
bergs breaking away from the Malaspina glacier.

The roar of an avalanche is unlike any other
sound in the world. A long peal of rolling
thunder, punctured by the quick, irregular
firing of a distant cannon, is probably the nearest
approach to that roar. Yet it had a vibrant
crashing note peculiarly its own, which thrill,
terrifies and impresses the listener with the

MAD BUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

mighty magnitude of those great masses of ice.
The rest of that day, we looked and listened and
wondered and almost forgot the object of
our quest.

The next day, March 23rd, the captain looked
for the entrance to the harbor of Yakutat. He
was formally a skipper on a whaler and had been
at Yakutat before for the purpose of trading with
the natives, and he knew the place. A high sea
was rolling and he had some fears of entering the
harbor, but we were all so anxious to get ashore
that we insisted that he take a chance. The sea
spray and snow had frozen fast to every part of
the ship, covering it with ice several inches thick.

Granting our wish, the captain tacked the
vessel back and forth and finally entered the
harbor and sailed to within a hundred feet of
the shore and dropped anchor.

The two remaining dories were lowered and
fourteen of us pulled for the shore. We had not
gone far before we saw at least ten canoes headed
for us. They contained the fur-clad natives of
Yakutat.

They paddled about our dories with great
skill and ease, going entirely around us, but not
speaking a word. Their canoes were small, frail
and awkwardly built, but the natives managed

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

their craft with the greatest ease. When a
wave would dash a quantity of water into their
canoe, its occupant would just give it a peculiar
shake or twist and every drop of water would
be thrown out.

One of the smaller canoes drew up along the
side of our dory and we were surprised to hear
its occupant address us in English. He informed
us that he was a Swedish Missionary from
Chicago, who had been there several years and
had not seen a white face for thirteen months.
He inquired our mission and when we told him
we were gold seekers, he shook his head, saying
that he had not seen any gold all the time he
had been there. We informed him that we were
going into the interior about a thousand miles
toward the McKenzie River.

As we neared the shore we could hear the
awful howling of about three hundred wolf dogs
and for a time I was actually afraid they would
not allow us to set foot on shore. Over a small
hill beyond the beach we could see a row of huts
and several log cabins covered with snow with
large totem poles in front.

When we first set foot upon land, we were
dazed. I experienced a sensation that I don't
think I ever felt either before or since. After

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

spending more than three weeks on that rolling
vessel we expected everything we stepped on to
slip out from under us, and when the beach did
not do this, we reeled about as if we were drunk.

In a short time we got our bearings, however,
and then to our surprise found that the dogs,
which we expected would eat us up, had dis-
appeared over the hill and had stopped howling.

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

On Land Once Mare. The Missionary Invites

Us to Bring Sick Men to His Chapel. The

Men and Dogs Feasted on Plenty of Fish

Furnished by Natives. A Realistic

Prayer Service. Wonderful Totem

Poles.

CHAPTER IV.

HE missionary whose name was Mr.
Johnson, who was of a short stocky
stature, led us to his home and
chapel a short distance from where
we landed; his home was a crude
frame shack, substantially built of
logs, but rather primitive. He ex-
plained our mission to the many
natives who had clustered around our party,
and they in turn would inform those that were
continually coming.

The Esquimo who appeared to be the chief
gave instructions to several men near him. Then
they repaired to their canoes, which are also
known as kyacks or dug-outs, each one taking
with him a pole about ten feet long and an inch
and a half thick. About a dozen spikes were
driven through one end of the pole, two inches

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

apart and the spikes on each side of the pole
sharpened to a fine point. We asked Mr.
Johnson where they were going and he replied
that they were going to a lagoon for some fish,
and for the time being we forgot all about the
poles.

In the meantime some of our men and the
sailors had been rowing back and forth from the
boat bringing ashore all the men who could be
possibly moved. The Texas party were in very
bad shape in their filthy bunks. Many of them
were barely able, even with assistance, to walk
to the chapel, where a roaring fire had been
built by the missionary in a crudely constructed
open fireplace.

All the natives with their children of the
village gathered around and seemed pleased to
see us, but very few of them seemed to talk any
English. In talking their own language they
would make characteristic guttural sounds,
which seemed to require much effort and we
sometimes thought they were choking. When
the missionary talked to them, he made the same
deep sounds which appeared to me to be a sort
of Chinese puzzle in acoustics.

The natives at Yakutat are known as the
Thlinket tribe and there were in the village at

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

this time about two hundred and fifty, including
the children. It was impossible when in their
fur garments to distinguish sex, as they looked
alike and talked alike. One seemed to be as
dirty as another, and they all had an ill smell of
fish about them. Their children seemed to be
full of life and would roll in the snow and wrestle
each other and never seem to get tired; their
games were very simple, but while playing them
they seemed to expand in joy as a flower as it
expands when it proceeds from the bud.

Mrs. Johnson, the missionary's wife, proved
to be a kind, hard-working, middle-aged Swedish
woman, who set about immediately to make us
comfortable. Their cabin adjoined the chapel,
which made it very convenient for her to cook
food on her stove and bring it into the chapel for
the famished men to eat. We brought a quan-
tity of coffee from the Blakely, as well as all the
coffee boilers and frying pans we had, in readi-
ness for the return of the men who had gone
after fish.

We had a short time to wait as they soon came
with their canoes just filled with herring and
smelt, and I wondered then how they got them
so quickly. But we were all too hungry to
waste any time in speculation, and we lost no

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

time in cleaning the fish, and getting them into
the pans.

Some of the men had had little or nothing to
eat for two or three weeks and the way they
helped themselves to those fried fish was a sight
I shall never forget. We ate until we could eat
no more, and then we prepared to sleep in the
chapel as everyone dreaded going back to the
ill-smelling hold of the Blakely where we had
spent the most horrible three weeks of our lives.

It is wonderful how the novelty of a new life
or a new expectation — that thin veneer of human
existence that causes one to look upon things he
does not understand — soon wears off.

When we first left Seattle we were filled with
great expectation of the wealth that was soon
to be ours. Then when the hardships of the sea
began to make themselves felt, we virtually
lived on hope.

When we first started out we always thought
that the next day conditions would change for
the better, and when they grew worse instead,
we set up our hopes on Alaska.

When we got there, we thought all our troubles
would end, and then — the great reward. We
would be abundantly repaid for all our suffering.

MAD BUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

If we had not these thoughts to cheer us, I
really think that few if any of us would have
reached Alaska alive.

During the last few days of our voyage,
however, we forgot the gold craze; we even lost
all thought of wealth; our single ambition then
was to get to shore alive. In a case of life or
death, gold or great wealth is never considered.
This lesson was to be taught us several times
later by the same hard, uncompromising teacher
—experience; but this first lesson has since
struck me with greater force than any of the
others.

This experience caused us to be in no great
hurry to start off in the third stage of our
journey across the desolate country. It was
several days after landing that thoughts of gold-
mining began to enter our minds. For the time
being we were content to save what provisions
we could from the Blakely, and amuse ourselves
in seeing how the natives lived.

While the majority of the men slept after that
good meal of fish, which to me tasted better than
any meal I had ever eaten before or since, some
of the men and the sailors were kept busy until
after midnight, bringing all the poor dogs that

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

were still alive and a number of other much
needed articles ashore.

The dogs were given all the fish they could
eat and clean water to drink and were placed in
an empty shack. My fine big St. Bernard dog
was as thin as a rail, with blood-shot eyes, and
seemed just alive.

It was the first time since we left Seattle that
any of us had a real chance to rest, and although
our improvised bunks in that old chapel were
very hard, the men enjoyed them as much as if
they had been spring mattresses, and all slept
at least sixteen hours, getting up bright and
cheerful.

Mr. Johnson after we had another good feed,
insisted upon holding a prayer service, and
everyone of those men, many of whom had never
seen inside of a church, joined in and offered
grateful thanks to GOD that their lives had
been spared.

I shall never forget that service for I do not
honestly believe that some of those men had
ever prayed before. We sang "Nearer, My God,
to Thee," and another hymn that I have never
since been able to remember. The missionary
was a poor singer and but few knew the words of
any hymn, but all joined in the chorus.

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

The singing must have been wretchedly poor,
but I thought the noise we produced was the
most exquisitely sweet music that I ever heard.
I have certainly never since heard anything
sung that contained such genuine realism and
feeling.

After the service we came out of the chapel by
the side door, and there, standing over by the
huts of the natives, were three large and one
small brightly colored totem poles, representative
of the Eskimo religion.

It was indeed a contrast. The poles were
about twenty feet high and all kinds of horribly
ugly features were carved upon them. The
figures, to them, represented different spirits.
Some of those figures — human or beast — I don't
think represented anything that ever existed on
land or sea. I was interested to know how the
natives managed to color them so brightly and
was informed that some of the coloring came
from berries, some from sea-grass and from other
sources, and the methods employed by the
natives in preparing it were most ingenious.

Unfortunately I did not inquire much into
their religion, but I learned that they still
worship these poles. They seemed to consider
everything that happened a good or bad omen
and regulated their actions accordingly.

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Gold Seekers Inspect Living Conditions of Natives

at Yakutat. Fish so Plentiful in Lagoon

That a Man Shod with Snow-Shoes Could

Walk Across on Their Backs. Their

Queer Fishing Poles. How Ice Igloos

Are Made. Totem Poles and

Their Meaning.

CHAPTER V.

HE morning after that memorable
night spent in the chapel, which
was on March 24th, the entire party
set out for a visit to the homes of
the natives, led by Mr. Johnson and
their chief, whom they called Okla.
As the long night was over and the
daylight was nearly continuous for
the greater part of the twenty-four hours, the
absence of night appealed to us as being very
peculiar.

The sun seemed to travel around us and never
got very high above the horizon or very far
below it. The light was mostly dim, like the
beginning of twilight or just before, and when
the sun was not screened with haze, as it usually
was, it looked like a great red ball of very hot
metal.

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

We found the natives were house-cleaning and
preparing for the hunting season when all the
male members of the tribe go out to get food
for the long winter months. They hunt in bands
and kill bear, reindeer, beaver, mink, otter and
caribou. Others go sealing and fishing for fur
and hair seal which are very abundant.

The women remain at home making new
winter fur garments and doing bead and basket
work; they also do all the salting and smoking
of fish and meats for winter. Some of the basket
and beadwork they do is wonderful, when the
conditions under which they have to work is
taken into consideration. The baskets which
they make from sea grass and reeds, interested
me especially and I often wished I had brought
some of them home. They color the baskets
similar to the manner they color the totem
poles.

I was not partial to many of their articles of
diet, some of which appeared to me to be about
as wholesome as a piece of old leather, but a
piece of dried salmon a year old that Mr. Johnson
gave me I thought was the best piece of fish I
had ever tasted.

The natives have two sets of houses; several
old shacks built of wood in which they live in

OKLA, CHIEF OF YAKUTAT NATIVES

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

the summer-time and their ice huts or igloos,
which they use in the winter time and which
melt away when the summer returns. These
ice huts are built somewhat as a bricklayer would
lay his brick, and the cakes of ice incline toward
the center, making a perfect dome about ten
feet high.

It was like solving a Chinese puzzle to get into
one of them without a guide. The entrance is
about three feet high and we had to get on our
hands and knees to crawl in, and when I did get
inside, I was not at all charmed with the place.
There were plenty of fine furs on the bunks they
used for their sleeping quarters, but the air was
stifling and the fishy odor that permeated it
was repulsive in the extreme. The walls were
dirty, evidently from the accumulation of smoke
and grease, and it was very dark.

The igloos are built usually in three sections.
The first is the smaller one used as a storm break
and where the dogs usually gather to keep away
from the sharp, biting wind. The Eskimo dogs,
however, will sleep right out on the hard, frozen
snow banks, if they have plenty to eat, and never
seem to mind it.

The middle hut is somewhat larger and on
entering the men leave their outer garments here

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

before entering the larger or sleeping room. At
the top of the dome of the sleeping room is a
small hole which is used for ventilation. The
cooking is done by means of a lamp, and during
the cold winter it is always so cold that the side
walls of the igloo do not show any signs of melting
The passageways are so arranged that the
draught keeps the fire burning and causes the
smoke to go out of the hole in the roof or ceiling.

The sleeping room is lighted by peculiar lamps
that burn oil taken from the seals. They are
simply iron or copper receptacles or even tin
cans which are secured from the traders, in which
is a float containing a wick made of seal gut that
has been chewed until it resembles a common
cotton rope. This receptacle is kept filled with
oil and the lamp burns continuously for months.

In these igloos are always large piles of dried
skins that the natives have ready for the traders
when they come along. They also have dried
red berries hanging up about the rooms which
are used when mixed with tallow for food and
other purposes.

When we arrived at Yakutat the natives were
just moving out of their igloos which were
beginning to melt, and taking up their residence
in the log huts. These were built much the

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

same as the middle compartment of the igloos
and had a hole in the center of the roof at the
top so that a fire of pine logs could be built in
the center of the hut.

The space between the logs was filled in with
some moss which grows very abundantly all
over Alaska and is much used for food by all
kinds of animal life living in that climate. It
also produces a red berry which is used for food
by the natives and with which they make a
coloring matter for the purpose of coloring
baskets. The huts which are located along the
beach, present a very dreary and desolate
appearance.

Another thing that interested me greatly was
their canoes, which they also call kyacks or dug-
outs, and which were very crudely constructed.
In building one, they first felled a large tree
with their axes and then they decided what
portion of the trunk was to be used for the boat.
Then they would set to work and carve out the
inside of the boat first. When this was finished,
they would begin cutting the boat out of the
trunk. With their crude instruments they would
often knock several holes in its side before it
was finished, but they would cover these holes
with pieces of skin and when a new boat was
completed, it was a very crude affair.

MAD EUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

In front of the chief's hut, near the totem poles
was a large war canoe, which had not been in
service for a long time. It was large enough to
carry about three tons burden and was handled
by from ten to twenty oarsmen.

After our tour of inspection of the native
village, some of the men were again going for
fish and I asked to go along in one of the canoes.
I was given a "ramagua," a sort of water-proof
coat, made of seal, and then I climbed into a
canoe with a native, who took one of the long
poles with spikes through one end, which I had
seen when I first landed the day before.

After paddling for about fifteen minutes, we
came to the opening of a large lagoon about a
quarter of a mile directly back of Yakutat.
When we had gone into the lagoon about two
hundred feet, the native motioned to me to stop
paddling, and picking up the pole, he made a
quick sweeping movement through the water
with it. When he brought the pole to the sur-
face, to my utter amazement there was at least
twenty fat herring and smelts on the spikes
which he threw into the canoe with a quick
twist of the wrist so that a number struck me as
they wriggled about.

I watched him repeat this performance several
times, hardly believing my own eyes, and then I

CHIEF'S SHACK AND TOTEM POLE

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

motioned to him to give me a trial. I cannot
describe my feelings when I attempted to put
that pole down into the water and found that
the fish were actually so thick that it would not
go down easily. The natives motioned to me
to push it into the water sideways and when I
did so, that moving, squirming mass, startled
me. It was like pushing the pole through soft
mud. When I brought it up I had wounded
scores of fish, but I had a number of them on the
spikes, too.

This fish story may seem unbelievable, but it
is nevertheless true. I have often heard the
story of a man walking across a stream on the
backs of the fish and thought it was a joke, but
I honestly believe that if a man wore snow-shoes
he could have walked about the lagoon on the
backs of those fish.

After our meal of fish that night, that wrig-
gling, squirming, mass of living things got into my
dreams and I could not get them out. I rolled
about in a delirium of fish all night.

Up until this time we had been so much
interested in our expedition that we had taken
little notice of our own condition ;but after being on
land about two or three days we began to realize
what a rough, uncouth party we were.

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

The day I decided to go on the gold-mining
expedition I began to allow my hair and beard
to grow, being informed that it would be a great
protection from the arctic cold. Others did the
same and by the time we left New York we were
already a grizzled bunch. Some of the men still
tried to shave after we had gone aboard the
Blakely, but they soon abandoned it, and by the
time we reached Yakutat we looked like a tribe
of wild men and if our friends could have seen
us they never would have recognized us. Our
clothing was already beginning to wear out, and
we were all pretty dirty.

Then, too, it was not until two or three days
after we landed that we began to comprehend
some of the things we saw. While the immediate
scenery around Yakutat is very commonplace
and dreary the views in the distance are most
magnificent. Far to the north of us the great
white peak of Mt. St. Elias loomed up and its
top was lost in the clouds.

To the northwest, Mount Logan reared its
white form far into the skies and all around that
bay was a high range of snow-covered mountains,
which protected the little harbor from the
severe winds that sweep down from the north.

At the base of Mt. St. Elias, lies the great
Malaspina Glacier, which seemed to smother

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

everything out of existence except the mountain
itself. The foot of the glacier reached right
down into the sea, and occasionally a great
iceberg would break off with a thunderous roar
as of contending armies and float away to
become a menace to navigation.

By walking some distance down the beach we
got a good view of the foot of this immense
glacier. The sight, as one looked up at that
great mass of ice, was overwhelming. On
account of the ice breaking off the end of the
glacier, the edge or "break-off" was very abrupt.
Approaching it from the ocean it looked like a
great flat wall of marble of various colors rising
perpendicularly up out of the water to a height
of five hundred feet or more. This end was in
reality a cross-section of the glacier and it looked
as if the ice had been laid down into strata.

Each layer was clearly defined, and the top
layers were white tinted with shades of blue-
green. Down near the water line, however, the
wall of ice was of a bright purple color. All
around, the sea was a dead green, and when the
sun shone on the end of that wall of ice, it
produced a dazzling effect that almost caused
one to feel that the thing was not real.

It was also at Yakutat that we got our first
glimpse of the Aurora Borealis, or Northern

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Lights, but it was not until we had started for
the interior that we saw anything of its real
brilliance. About 9 or 10 o'clock at night the
northern heavens seemed to light up with a dim
illumination as if the real light was hidden
behind a cloud and we saw only the reflection.

This light would come and go each night, but
it did not grow bright enough to dispel the
darkness to any extent. It is hardly likely that
we would have noticed it had we not read so
much about the brilliance of the northern
heavens.

On account of the fact that the tide rises and
falls from twenty-five to forty feet at Yakutat,
the beach is very extensive, except where the
mountains drop down abruptly into the sea.
The beach is composed of a fine gray sand, and
during the spring season, is covered with hun-
dreds of cakes of ice of all sizes and shapes,
some as large as ten feet square, which have
been brought up and left there by the tides.
Hundreds of spotted hair seals, or dog seals, as
they are also known, could be seen bobbing up
and down among these cakes of ice and barking
like a pack of wild dogs.

This was one of the most peculiar sights that
could be seen about Yakutat, and I remember

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

how we all experienced an uncertain fear when
we first came ashore and heard the barking of
those seals a short distance from our boat.

While most of the men were busily engaged in
sight-seeing, the captain came ashore and made
arrangements to unload our cargo. On March
23rd, the work began and continued for three
days. The sailors came ashore with a hawser
which was tied to a tree some distance inland,
and when the tide had reached its greatest
height, a number of men caught hold of the rope
to pull the vessel ashore.

I well remember how we pulled and tugged at
that rope for several minutes before that old
ship gave any intimation that it was going to
move. It began very gradually to move and
then as our steady tugging overcame its momen-
tum it could be seen coming in shore. I think
now that one man could have moved that boat
if he would only pull long enough.

We pulled the Blakely in shore until she
struck the beach and anchored her to a tree with
a hawser. When the tide flowed out a peculiar
sight greeted us. There, high and dry on the
gray beach, lay our boat, listing to one side at an
angle of about forty-five degrees. From the
shore we could see the water running out of the

MAD BUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

seams in her sides and forming a small creek as
it coursed its way down to the water's edge.

The ice that had covered the rigging and deck
began to melt and fall away, but the hull of the
vessel, covered to a depth of three inches or more
with barnacles, presented a deplorable sight.
The crusted ship, with its sickly steel gray color
as it rested there in the sand, reminded us so
forcibly of our terrible experience that we did
not care to go near it to get our supplies which
were still packed in her hold. When the wind
blew in from the vessel it brought with it a
revolting odor, still so strong and nauseating
that we were compelled to avoid it.

MAD RUSH FOB GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Much of Our Goods Were Spoiled on the Blakely.

Preparations Are Made for the Wild Dash

into the Unknown Interior. Men Take

Up Collection and Give It to Missionary.

Men Erect Tents, and Try Out the

Dogs In Harness.

CHAPTER VI.

HE sailors set to work immediately
caulking up the holes in the side of
the hull from which the water
gushed, in order to prevent water
from running in these same holes
when the Blakely put to sea again.
In order to reach the seams the

sailors were compelled to chop the barnacles

away with an axe.

The caulking was done with oakum, a sort of
fibre, which was packed in the seams with
instruments known as caulking irons. As soon
as this was done the sailors made ready to
unload the cargo, and a scaffold was built to
better facilitate the work.

We found much of our goods spoiled. All of
our tools and machinery were rusted almost
beyond recognition, and we were compelled to

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

spend a considerable amount of time scraping
the rust off and greasing the tools in order to
preserve them. We used seal blubber and fish
oil for this purpose, which we bought from
the natives.

With the exception of our flour and meats and
the foodstuffs we had in air-tight cans, all our
provisions were partly spoiled by the water,
even the tin cans were badly rusted so that we
had to scrape the rust off and grease them. The
flour preserved itself in a way that surprised us.
The water only penetrated to a depth of about
one-half of an inch, and caused a hard crust to be
formed just inside the bag, which protected all
the flour within. I have since learned that a bag
of flour can be thrown into the water and left
there and the dampness will not penetrate more
than a quarter of an inch.

For three whole days we toiled away, unload-
ing the ship, carrying the cargo to shore and
piling it up in three big piles, each containing
the goods and equipment of a separate party.
All this was done in a systematic manner and
the operation moved along like clockwork. After
the cargo had been unloaded the sailors tore
away the deck-house and put the lumber in the
hold of the boat, to be used partly as ballast.

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

With all our provisions and equipment on land
and everyone beginning to feel fine, we began to
consider the next stage of our journey. Within
two days after we landed, all our dogs, which had
survived the voyage, but which looked as if they
had but a faint spark of life left, had completely
recovered and were ready for work. They were
getting fat and sleek on plenty of fish, which
were left over from our meals.

Fish were so plentiful that no one stopped to
pick bones, but just took one bite and threw the
rest to the dogs. After our dogs got acquainted
with the place they were continually fighting
with the Yakutat "huskies/' which did not seem
to have any sense of "dog honor" whatever and
were always sneaking about attempting to steal
something.

The Alaskan dogs look just like wolves except
that they are not so large and have bushy tails
that curl up over their backs. They were always
snarling and fighting among themselves and laid
about everywhere in the huts or outside, as they
pleased. Each family had from twenty to
thirty of these dogs.

Our first concern was to try out our equipment
that we had purchased in Seattle, and it was not
long before we had come to the conclusion that

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

while the sleds, snow-shoes and other imple-
ments used by the natives were all very crude,
they were far superior in point of service to any
of the implements we had brought with us.
While the Seattle equipment did the work
required of it and was a wonderful help to us,
we found that the equipment made by the
natives was much better adapted to arctic
conditions.

Their sleds were all built entirely of wood,
bound tightly together with straps of sinews.
When they were about to be used the sleds were
stood on end and water which had been melted
from ice, poured down the runners. The
weather was usually so cold that it froze instantly
and made a sliding surface that was much more
serviceable than steel. Not being rigid the sleds
were very hard to upset and seemed to conform
their shape to the surface of the ice in such a way
that their equilibrium was seldom disturbed.
They were guided by uprights attached to the
rear of the sleds.

The sleds we bought in Seattle were made of
steel and wood and their rigidity made them
very easily upset, and they were intended to be
guided by a stick run through two rings on the
side and protruding out in front, which we found

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

to be impractical. There was also something
about the native-made snow-shoes that made
them superior to the snow-shoes we had brought
along, which cannot well be described. They
seemed to conform to the feet better, and were
more elastic and were not so tiresome.

We made arrangements with the natives
to purchase a large amount of additional equip-
ment, and the native women immediately set
to work making "mucklocks," fur coats and dog
harness for us. The "mucklocks" are a sort of
a moccasin made of skins which cover the feet
and legs up to nearly the knee and they are a
necessity for traveling in the arctic regions.

We had figured when purchasing our equip-
ment in Seattle that one sled would do for two
men, but we soon found that we would have to
have a sled for each man, and before we left
Yakutat we bought almost everything in the
place that could be used in the journey, including
some forty dogs, which we started to run in
harness along the shore for the purpose of getting
them broken into their work, and running the
rust off the sled runners.

We also erected our heavy army tents and our
Yukon wood stoves so that we could do our own
cooking and get an idea of camp life before

MAD RUSH FOB GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

starting out for the interior. The stoves were
fitted with collapsible pipe which would telescope
together and could be placed in the oven of the
stove when it was being moved.

The tents also soon proved their usefulness.
They were equipped with what is known as mud-
flaps, which are nothing more than a double
wall which reaches down to the ground so that
mud can be banked against them on all sides of
the tent. This prevents the wind from getting
in, and when a man pulled his sled into his tent,
fastened the flaps down, curled up in his sleeping
bag and used his sled for a bed, he could rest
comfortably in the coldest weather. I never
knew until then, how warm a tent could be
made.

The men spent their spare time learning to
walk on snow-shoes. Some of the men were so
awkward that they fell down completely, but
after several days of trying managed to learn
how to use them.

The trouble experienced by the men was
because they thought a certain style of walking
was to be learned in order to use the snow-shoes,
when in reality the shoes compel a person to
walk naturally, and as soon as they learned to
walk with a natural stride, the snow-shoes gave
them no trouble.

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Just before making our final arrangements to
start into the interior, we took up a collection
among the men, which amounted to $300,
which we had planned to give to the missionary,
Mr. Johnson, for his good advice and kind ser-
vices. We were astounded when he at first
refused to accept the money, and it was only
after much pleading on our part that he could be
induced to take it.

I have often thought that even if the amount
was double what it was it would not have repaid
him for his service in our behalf. He had
endeared himself to us as no other man could,
for he made every single one of us feel that he
had a personal interest in us, and it was indeed
a joy to him to be able to render us any service
that lay in his power.

Saturated as we were with a desire to find gold
and assured in some inconceivable manner that
we were soon to have our ambitions realized, it
was hard for us to see how a man of such attain-
ments could be content to throw his life away
among the half -civilized natives of the far north.

But both he and his wife labored for their
welfare as if they were their own children, and
although the Esquimo is always skeptical and
hard to convince, he had accomplished wonders,

MAD RUSH FOB GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

not only in instructing them in the true religion,
but also in bettering their material welfare.

Before he made his home with this tribe,
traders had been in the habit of coming to Yaku-
tat occasionally and purchasing almost priceless
furs for a few gaudy articles which were usually
of little or no value. He taught the natives the
value of their product and compelled the trader
to give, in compensation, something that approx-
imated the furs and skins in value.

Aside from this, he instructed them in the use
of machinery and in practical carpentering in an
effort to show the people how to build better
homes. He had a small saw mill shipped to him
by the church in Chicago which was supporting
him, and by damming a stream, managed to
construct a crude water-wheel with which to
run it.

In the short summer months the natives were
taught to cut down trees, saw them into boards
and build homes. Yet the natives were such a
shiftless people that I often wondered that the
missionary did not lose patience and give up
in despair.

In addition to this, Mrs. Johnson conducted a
sewing class where she taught the Indian girls
how to sew with a steel needle and cotton thread

NATIVE WOMEN OF YAKUTAT

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

and with a sewing machine which she had. The
girls persisted in sewing the way their ancestors
had sewed for generations before them, however,
and I could not see that she was making much
progress.

The missionaries were also attempting to
teach the natives English, but were not succeed-
ing very well, because both Mr. Johnson and his
wife spoke with a decided Swedish accent and
the natives, of course, talked in much the
same way.

MAD EUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Party Starts on Toilsome Journey Packing Goods
to Glacier. Men Work Eighteen Hours
Each Day. Heavy Motor a Great Draw-
back. Life on a Glacier of Moving Ice.
Hard Time Getting Up On the Glacier
Proper.

CHAPTER VII.

EFORE making the start of what
proved to be a very toilsome journey
into the interior, we took account of
stock and found that every man
had between 900 to 1000 pounds of
goods, provisions and tools to be
taken with him.

In an effort to show what a stu-
pendous task we were undertaking, I have com-
piled a list of everything we purchased in
Seattle. Some of this stuff was spoiled on the
Blakely, but what was later bought from the
natives about made up for this loss in weight.
The list was as follows:

Thirty-six hundred pounds of flour, 1800
pounds beans, 1000 pounds salt, 300 pounds
dried beef, 50 pounds spices, 50 pounds black
powder, 100 pounds candles, 400 pounds sugar,

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

600 pounds dried fruit, 1500 pounds evaporated
vegetables, beef tea, matches soap, tea and coffee,
10 pounds citric acid, 100 pounds pilot bread,
50 pounds split peas, 90 pounds condensed milk,
15 pounds magic yeast, 100 pounds rolled oats,
110 pounds of other articles, including malted
milk and medicines.

Other equipment — motor 800 pounds, two
stoves 50 pounds, quick silver or mercury 100
pounds; eighteen shovels and twenty picks,
250 pounds; six axes and six hatchets, 50
pounds; whip saw, brace and bits, 25 pounds;
rope and wire, 1000 pounds; gold pans and
steel bar, 65 pounds; tarpaulins, tents, sleds and
harness, 600 pounds; sleeping bags, utensils,
blocks and pulleys with our rifles and the
ammunition, 2000 pounds. This made an
average of 835 pounds per man. This did not
include the men's clothing or shoes and boots,
however.

We consulted the natives as to the best route
to take and were directed over a range of
mountains that would bring us to Disenchant-
ment Bay, where we could take any of four
glaciers, which were arms of the Malaspina
Glacier. We decided on a northerly course
between Mount Logan and Mount Hubbard

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

north of Mount St. Elias. This led over vast
glaciers, which had never been crossed by any
human being before. The natives were fearful
of crossing moving ice, but we paid no attention
to their warning, feeling that we could easily
cross the glacier.

Our plan was to proceed north to the Yukon
River and then up the river to our goal a distance
of about eight hundred miles. The Manchester
party decided to go with us across the glacier
at least, but the St. Paul and Texas parties,
desiring to reach the Mackenzie River, started
out in a northwesterly direction.

After arranging with a couple of natives who
could speak a little English to go with us as
guides, our preparations for the trip were
complete.

At this point it may be said that the territory
of Alaska was ceded by Russia to the United
States in 1867 for a consideration of $7,000,000,
and according to the government report, has
an area of 577,390 square miles. Texas is said
to be twice as large as any other state in the
Union, and Alaska is twice as large as Texas.

When it is taken into consideration that but
one-tenth of this territory was inhabited in

MAD RUSH FOE GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

1896, an idea of how vast the wild unexplored
territory that was left can be gained.

At the present time there are railroads,
telegraph and telephone lines in many parts of
the territory, and the mode of living there has
been vastly changed since the days of the
gold rush.

On April 12th we carried our first load of
seventy-five pounds each with pack-straps five
miles and it was a long toilsome journey. We
were unable to use the sleds, as the trail was very
rough and steep leading through forest and
ravines, although we had sent scouts ahead to
lay out the best route and blaze a trail through
the woods.

We established a camp five miles from Yakutat
where some of the men remained all the time
and guarded the supplies. Each man made two
trips a day and it was several days before we
brought the last load and bid farewell to
Yakutat.

Before leaving, however, we wrote about 100
letters to our relatives and friends; these were
left with the missionary with orders not to put
them aboard the Blakely, which we feared would
never reach port, but rather to put them on a
trading vessel or home-bound whaler.

100

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Although our journey had not yet begun, we
got a taste of the ceaseless toil and bitter hard-
ships that were to be ours later in moving our
goods and equipment those first five miles. The
pack-straps, although unusually wide, chafed
and cut our shoulders until they had imbedded
themselves in our flesh.

My own shoulders still bear the pack-strap
marks. Finally we were forced to abandon the
straps altogether and carry the goods on our
heads and shoulders. But not a man flinched.

We worked for eighteen or twenty hours at a
stretch and then completely exhausted, crawled
into our sleeping bags and rested for twelve
hours more. These sleeping bags were about
seven feet long and three feet wide, were covered
on the outside with heavy water-proof canvas,
with a heavy wool blanket and a bear or goat
skin bag inside. The bag was so arranged that
you could get in and fasten the outer flap from
the inside and always feel warm and cozy, even
in the coldest of weather.

The hardest part of our work was moving our
motor, which was in reality a dynamo weighing
about 800 pounds and which we attempted to
move intact. The engineer in our party had
planned to dam up a stream, construct a water

101

MAD BUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

wheel and manufacture power for mining pur-
poses. We had all the tools and equipment
with us to do this and we were assured such a
plan was practical.

It was not so much the weight of the machine
which bothered us, but its awkward bulk. We
lashed it with ropes to two poles and attempted
to carry it on the plan of a Soudan chair. After
a great amount of toil we managed to get it
moved the first stage of our journey, but this
one piece of equipment seemed to be our greatest
drawback toward making rapid progress.

It required more than a week for us to get all
our goods and equipment up near the glacier
proper, where our real journey started. The
journey up over the edge of that great field of
ice was much more toilsome than the journey up
to it. Finally, however, on April 20th, we carried
our last load and made arrangements to start on
our journey northward over the ice.

The days continued to grow much longer and
warmer and everyone was in good health and
spirits. Each man put about five hundred
pounds on his sled, which included his equipment
of a tarpaulin, a sleeping-bag and a small army
tent. Each sled was drawn by four dogs. They
seemed to understand what was expected of

102

TRAVELING OVER MUMMOCK ICE

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

them although at times they would start to fight,
and we would have a Chinese puzzle to solve in
getting the tangle out of the harness.

With everything in readiness we started
forward. The ice at that point was covered with
soft snow and four of our party were required
to go ahead and break a trail with snow-shoes
so that the remaining party might follow and
keep in a straight line.

The sleds followed at a distance of fifty to one
hundred feet apart, so that our entire party
covered a trail of nearly a half a mile and it
looked like a broken black streak in a vast sea
of whiteness that was almost blinding. The
sled train could move no faster than the men
ahead who broke the trail, who used a pole to
test the places in the ice that looked weak.

By traveling a whole day we were able to
cover no more than ten to fifteen miles, and when
we finally stopped to rest we were so completely
exhausted that we could have gone no further
if we had tried.

Life on a great glacier of moving ice is so
different from life under any other conditions
that it is almost impossible to convey an ade-
quate idea of this portion of our journey.

105

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Imagine, if you can, a rolling sea of ice which
stretches away to meet the horizon on all sides.
There is nothing above but the light blue sky,
nothing below but the snow-covered ice, modeled
into hills and hollows, much the same as a
treeless stretch of rolling landscape. The sur-
face of the glacier is always windswept, so that
here and there where the ice is bare, the dazzling
whiteness of the snow is augmented by the
blinding brilliancy of the reflected light from
these ice mirrors.

At first this brilliant scene seemed to fascinate
us, but as we toiled heroically on, the glinting
flashes of reflected light gradually revealed to us
the desolation that surrounded us and threatened
to devour us.

Although we all wore blue or smoked glasses
made like automobile goggles, some of the men
began to feel the effects of snow-blindness
within a short time after we reached the glacier.

At first we began to lose control of our feet.
Unable to see ahead on account of the piercing
glare of reflected light, we tried to walk on
blindly and found it impossible. Whenever we
managed to open our eyes the surface of the ice
seemed only to be a few inches away and we
were completely bewildered.

106

MAD BUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

We tried to reinforce the glasses by covering
our faces with red handkerchiefs in which two
small holes were cut for eyes. This plan gave
little relief and we were unable to refrain from
rubbing our eye-lids, which caused them to
become very much inflamed and sore. At times
the pain became almost unbearable. My eyes
felt just as if someone was rubbing sand into
them, and my head became giddy.

I have been told that men often go insane with
the pain, and had our party not come prepared
with a large assortment of glasses of different
colors, I am sure some of us would have met
this fate.

Even the natives who live in the arctic regions
are not immune from the attacks of snow blind-
ness, and not being able to secure smoked glasses
often suffer more than white men.

The only life that is seen anywhere on the
glacier is the ptarmigan or fool-hen as they are
known, a sort of morbid species of chicken. Its
eyes are protected by being surrounded by a
black disk fringed with red.

In attempting to prevent snow blindness, the
natives use nature's plan and paint a portion of
their faces around their eyes with black soot and

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

stain the edge red with the juice of berries. Some
of the men of our party tried this plan, but did
not find it as good as the smoked glasses. When
the natives painted their faces in this way they
presented an extremely horrid appearance and
looked like demons as they trudged along.

In the middle of the day when the sun was
highest, the air became comparatively warm, but
the temperature near the ground was very cold.
At times we tugged at the sleds with the dogs
and perspired freely with no clothing except a
thin shirt about the upper portion of our bodies,
but our legs would always have to be covered
with heavy "mucklocks" or moccasions.

During the first two or three days we were on
the glacier, we could hear the water gurgling
under the surface, but not a drop could be seen
anywhere. In places these subterranean streams
would cut deep crevasses in the ice under the
surface and we had to be very careful to test the
ice with sticks before venturing ahead in order
to prevent breaking through. From the very
first we had many narrow escapes, because we
did not take the necessary precautions.

108

ONE OF THE NUMEROUS CREVASSES OF THE MALASPINA GLACIER

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Great Crevasses Make Journey Dangerous. Native
Guides Never Give Any Advice. Sick and
Weary Party Toils on Hopelessly Over
Desert of Ice. Terrible Blizzard Over-
takes Them. Fuel Nearly Exhausted
and the Middle of Glacier Not Yet
Reached.

CHAPTER VIII.

FTER we had traveled over the very
rough and hummocky ice for at least
fifteen miles, we left these gurgling
streams behind, but the crevasses in
the ice were ever present. Some of
them were no more than a few
inches or a foot wide and we could
step across them with ease.

In other places the crevasses and cracks were
much wider and were packed full of snow, form-
ing a bridge and we were able to cross them
in safety. The snow never completely filled the
crevasses, but was plugged tight in the mouth
for several feet. Sometimes we could push a
stick down through the snow, but it was packed
together tightly enough that we could walk over
it safely with snow-shoes.

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MAD RUSH FOE GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Of course this was a very dangerous piece of
business, but we were both ignorant and fearless
and up until that time did not take risks into
consideration. Whenever we saw a streak of
snow across the ice we knew it filled the mouth
of a crevasse.

At times when our entire party would cross a
snow-plugged crevasse at the same point, the snow
in the center would sag down several feet and
although we realized that it would only be a
question of time before someone would go
through, we plodded on doggedly without giving
such a possibility so much as a passing thought.

The attitude of our Indian guides, whose
names were Koomanah and Koodleuk, toward us
in our ignorance and foolhardy risks, gave us a
good insight into their character. They could
not understand why we did not know as much
as they did regarding the ice and snow, and were
loath in giving us information.

Although they were very cautious themselves,
they paid no attention to us whatever, and if we
attempted something in our ignorance of con-
ditions, that was extremely hazardous, they
never warned us or paid any attention to us
whatever. Then when we would ask them a
question and they could not answer it, they

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

would not say they did not know, but would
stand mute. Until we learned to understand
their peculiarities, we were often very much
provoked at their strange actions. After a time
we learned to watch how they did things and
then attempt to imitate them.

Another condition that made the first stages
of our journey very laborious was the fact that
we were continually traveling up grade. Where
the grade was real heavy, the dogs were unable
to draw all our goods at one time and we were
compelled to leave a portion of them cached
behind and then go back after them. This
doubled the amount of work to be done and
greatly hindered our progress. At times the
surface was very rough and we were compelled
to choose our path carefully in order to avoid
the continual overturning of the sleds.

It is almost impossible to set down in cold type
the hardships we endured at this time. We
were all so intent upon getting gold that nothing
else seemed to enter into the scheme of our lives.
Each man lived for himself alone.

During the first week or more on the glacier
we toiled on and it was seldom that one man
spoke to another. We would travel along for
six or eight hours without a word being spoken

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

except to the dogs, which would usually be
"All right, dogs/' or "Go ahead, dogs/' For
right or left I would only call to Kodiak, "Ge
a little, Kodiak/' or "Kodiak, go haw/'

Then when we stopped for rest everyone
seemed too weary to talk or enjoy any social
intercourse with the others of the party. At
that time we very much resembled a party of
deaf mutes.

After we had been on the glacier a week or
more, our habits began to assume a definite plan
and a sort of daily program was carried out.
Once a day we stopped and put up a tarpaulin
to act as a shield against the cold winds that
were constantly blowing over the surface of the
ice.

Fire was started in our cooking lamps and the
day's cooking done, which consisted in heating
some beans and making flapjacks. After the
meal we usually were ready to retire, and when
we did not take time to pitch our tents, we would
crawl into our sleeping bags and sleep on the
loaded sleds out in the open.

Every few days and sometimes every other
day, we would pitch our tents and cook some
evaporated potatoes and beans and make coffee.
I have no doubt now that our rations were very

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

poor, but after a hard day's work, everything
that was fit to eat always tasted good and we
thoroughly enjoyed our meals.

From the first I avoided eating bacon or pork
to any extent, having heard of sailors being
terribly afflicted by scurvy in this way. Our
cooking while on the glacier was done with oil
lamps, which we secured from the natives, and
which seemed to produce more smoke than heat.
After a pot had been hanging over a blaze long
enough to cook some food, there would be an
accumulation of half an inch of soot on the
bottom. Every time we moved our tent this
soot was scraped off and was left on the top of
the snow.

The relief that this one black spot in the land-
scape gave to our eyes can hardly be imagined.
For myself, I got more satisfaction out of seeing
those dirty black spots of soot, than anything
else on the glacier.

Besides these soot spots there was nothing to
break the monotony of whiteness, except some-
times when we came near a mountain. We
could usually see a faint outline which was the
snowline around its edge, and down its sides
would be several thread-like black streaks.
These, we later learned, were caused by great

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

avalanches of snow and ice that broke away near
the top and came sliding down, tearing great
furrows out of the side of the mountain, bringing
great quantities of rock and earth down on the
surface of the glacier through which the moun-
tains protruded like ice-covered islands in the sea.

At different times as we traveled on we came
upon huge piles of different sizes of stones lying
on top of the ice. These piles of stones were
usually conical in shape and from ten to twenty
feet high and their presence for a time com-
pletely mystified us.

We finally came to the conclusion that they
had been brought down from the mountains by
avalanches which had subsequently melted tod
left the stones there. Being a moving glacier,
some of these piles of stones were from three to
eight miles from the base of any mountain. The
glacier had evidently moved that far since the
avalanche had torn down the mountainside
years before.

It was during our journey across the glacier
that we saw the first brilliant displays of the
Aurora Borealis. The light in the northern sky
was much more defined and brilliant than what
we saw at Yakutat. It seemed to be cut into
streaks and formed a perfect semi-circle, the

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

center of which was due north and the ends
seemed to spread out as they approached the
horizon. No blaze could be seen, and the light
seemed to be a reflection.

As the nights were very short and the daylight
only faded for a short time, the Northern Lights
were not visible for any great length of time.
On account of our thoughts being centered on
so many other things, we paid little attenton to
these displays, which were beautiful and made
night almost as light as day.

We had been on the glacier two weeks when we
encountered the worst blizzard that I had ever
experienced. As spring was beginning to open,
the snow was wet and very heavy and the flakes
which were very large pelted us like snowballs.
The blizzard of 1888 was nothing more than a
gentle April snow flurry compared with that
storm.

Before it had reached the height of its fury,
we were compelled to stop and attempt to build
some kind of shelter. The falling snow beat the
brims of our sombreros down over our faces and
made it impossible for us to proceed, even if we
could have seen a few feet ahead.

Finding that it was impossible for us to even
attempt to pitch a tent, we piled our goods and

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

sleds one on top of another to act as a sort of
windbreak, and laid down behind them in our
sleeping bags.

The next morning we found ourselves and our
goods buried under two feet of snow and at least
six feet of snow on the other side of our break.
The blizzard had abated, however, and we were
able to proceed after considerable trouble in
recovering our goods. This storm gave us an
idea of what a terrific blizzard in Alaska in the
dead of winter really is. On account of spring
being so near at hand there was not the possibil-
ity of the storm continuing, but if it had raged
unabated for several days, as it often does in
winter, our entire party would have perished.

Already we began to find our supply of oil for
cooking purposes getting low, and we had not
yet reached the summit or back-bone of the
glacier, which was somewhere near the center.
Because of this fact and our desire to make as
few stops as possible, many of our men started
to eat our evaporated articles uncooked. This
caused them to get very thirsty and as they
walked along they got in the habit of eating
snow.

Almost every member of the party developed
bad attacks of sore throat, which at that time

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MAD RUSH FOE GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

could be partly relieved by my brother-in-law,
the physician of the party, who had brought a
large quantity of medicines along.

Snow blindness also caused us much trouble
at this time, which, unlike the sore throat, could
not be relieved. Some of the men howled with
pain, and I feared they would go insane. When
the sunlight began to fade, we would be relieved
somewhat, but the semi-darkness was very short.
During this time the Aurora Borealis was so
brilliant that it was almost as bright as day and it
was difficult to sleep at any time.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Physician of the Party with Sled Load of Medicines

Lost in Crevasse. Futile Attempt to Rescue

Him. Men Live in Burrowed Holes in

the Snvw. Even Dogs Get Snow-Blind.

Two Others of Party Missing When

Camp on Summit Is Made.

CHAPTER IX.

N April 25th an accident happened
that awakened us from the indiffer-
ent stupor into which the gold craze
had plunged us, and for the first
time since we started we found time
for reflection. The snow had cov-
ered the ice completely, making it
very hard for us to pick our way.
We had been plodding on doggedly with no
thought of danger with the heaviest loads
ahead of us so that in case of a breakdown the
lighter loaded sleds could come up and help out.
My brother-in-law, the physician, who had a
light load consisting of the medicines and the
more valuable parts of our equipment was two
sleds ahead of me and six sleds were ahead of
him.

The sleds were about a hundred feet apart and
no one paid any attention to those ahead or

121

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

behind and no noise broke the silence except the
creaking of the loaded sleds and the occasional
shout of a man to his dogs, which, on account of
the stillness could be heard for a great distance.

About noon as we were going up a fairly steep
incline, suddenly in front of me I heard the howl
of dogs and then a man shout. I looked up just
in time to see my brother-in-law's sled disappear
from view. It just seemed to drop out of the
landscape in a flash. I realized immediately
what had happened — my sister's husband lost!
His four dogs and sled containing all our valuables
gone!

The awfulness of the tragedy seemed to settle
upon us in an instant; then when I recovered and
tried to make haste to the spot it seemed to
retard me. Cheered on by one last forelorn
hope that we might be able to rescue him, I
rushed forward and within a moment came to
the hole in the snow that covered the mouth of
that treacherous crevasse.

The opening was about ten or twelve feet in
diameter, and as we looked frantically down into
that terrible abyss, all our hopes sank within us.
My first glimpse made me feel sick at heart. I
was firmly convinced that nothing could be
done, yet I could not help looking down into that

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

cavern with a glimmer of hope that was worse
than torture.

I will not attempt to say just how deep that
crevasse was; we could see down probably two
hundred and fifty feet. Below this there was
nothing but a hopeless blackness, which as our
vision arose, faded into dark green, which grew
lighter as you look up and near the top was a
beautiful shade of emerald.

But the beauty of the thing was a hollow
mockery! As we looked we thought we could
hear faint distant sounds, which, as we listened,
raised and lowered the last glimmer of our
hopeless hope. There before us was that cold
lifeless thing, immovable and as commonplace
as if nothing had happened.

We decided to let down a rope and after much
trouble and delay, due to our unnerved condition
mostly, we got the work started. Before we had
let down a hundred feet of the rope into the
hole it began to get very heavy and it required
several men to hold it. We let all of our five
hundred feet of rope down, and that yawning
gulf still said "more, more/' Who could have
said how much more? It was no use.

We had to give up. Our oil was getting short
and we had to be moving or we would all be

125

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

lost on the glacier, which was beginning to
crack badly with the snow melting. We had
trouble in tearing ourselves away from the scene
of the tragedy and leaving my brother-in-law
behind to his fate. What a fate!

Burdened with sorrow and completely
unnerved, we continued our journey and
attempted to prevent another similar accident
by running a rope from one sled to another,
which everyone held as he plodded on. It is
almost impossible to describe the utter despair
that followed us during the next two or three
days. We were completely broken in spirit and
we lost interest in our expedition. Previous to
this time we had thought little of home. As the
lost man was a near relative of mine the sorrow
connected with his death fell most heavily upon
me. Thoughts of home and friends and my
folks, especially his wife, my sister, settled down
in my mind and made my life miserable.

I well remember how my faithful St. Bernard
dog, "Kodiak," seemed to understand my loss
and grief and offer me his poor appealing
sympathy. The day after the accident, as I sat
with my head in my hands grieving for my lost
relative, Kodiak came up and tenderly licked
my gloved hand; then placing his fore paws on

126

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

my knees, he uttered a low whine and tried to
touch my face with one of his paws. He seemed
almost human in his solicitude, and I felt that
he was imploring me not to worry. It did me
good.

As I sat thinking I tried to solve some theory
as to just how the accident happened. After
turning the incident over in my mind, I was
convinced that my brother-in-law was walking
at the rear of his sled as he usually did, instead of
at the side. The six sleds ahead of him which
were more heavily laden than his, had passed
over this snow-plugged crevasse in safety, and
I was inclined to think that his dogs and probably
his sled had done the same.

Then, just as he came upon the crevasse the
snow under him gave way and he caught hold of
the rear of the sled to save himself. His weight,
however, was too much for the dogs, which were
pulled backwards with the sled, and the whole
team was dragged down into that bottomless
gulf to destruction. His dog team was one of
the best in the outfit; he had the black New-
foundland I bought in New York for a leader,
and he sure understood what was required
of him.

Fred Weiden, who had been a Christian
Endeavor worker in New York City, and a good

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Christian man, got our party and some of the
Manchester party together and held a religious
meeting — the first service since we had left
Yakutat. Up until this time Weiden had been
the spirit of the party and his cheerful disposi-
tion had helped us wonderfully.

Although we were beginning to get hardened
and less responsive than ever to any social
intercourse among ourselves, we joined in the
meeting as heartily as we could and I think it
did us good. From that time on I forgot, in a
measure, my grief over the loss of my brother-
in-law, which soon appeared like a faraway
incident. We somehow got an impression that
we must be nearing the summit of the glacier,
and the thought seemed to cheer us to some
extent, although our condition was beginning
to be most pitiable.

As we traveled on, the noises and echoes of the
avalanche, which sounded like distant cannon-
ading at irregular intervals, grew fainter and
fainter. We also stopped pitching our tents
for the night, and instead burrowed holes in the
snow, just large enough to contain our sleeping
bags. This proved to be better than the tents,
as the snow did not melt and it protected us
from the severe winds that continually blew
down over the ice.

128

A * *-v-1^

r-,4^ \

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

On account of the fact that all our medicines
were lost, snow blindness and sore throat grew
worse, because we had nothing to relieve the
trouble. Before our medicines were lost we
could soothe our eyelids with cold cream and
borax water.

Now, however, we were almost driven to
desperation by the itching and some of the men,
including myself, rubbed their eyelashes com-
pletely off their lids. Several of the men put
bacon fat on their eyes in an effort to obtain
relief, but the salt in the bacon irritated their
eyes more and the pain they were compelled
to endure was terrible. Even the dogs were
afflicted with snow blindness, for whenever a
halt was made the dogs would rub their eyes
with their paws and whine.

Our guides, the natives who had gone ahead,
returned on April 28th and informed us that it
would take several days to reach the summit on
account of the rough character of the ice over
which we had to travel. We found as we traveled
on, that the rough ice was at the end of a range
of mountains which cut the glacier in two. We
had been traveling almost parallel to this range
of mountains on one of the forks of the glacier
and the rough and hummock formation was

131

MAD RUSH FOE GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

probably caused by the mountain dividing the
glacier as it moved toward the sea.

After crossing this rough portion of the glacier
we camped on what we thought was the summit
on May 4th. The surface of the ice was much
like the surface of rolling land and the only way
we could tell that the highest point had been
reached was by our sleds, which now seemed to
be running down hill almost continuously.

I was among the first to reach the summit and
with the others pitched our tent for the first
time in several days and waited for the others to
come up, when it was noticed that Weiden was
not in line with his team of dogs. For several
days past he had been acting strangely and had
gone evidently insane with the pain from snow
blindness and lack of proper nourishment.

Up until this time he had been the optimist
of the party, but he suddenly became very
ill-tempered and morose and refused to take our
life-line. He declared that we were trying to lose
him on the glacier and insisted on going ahead.
He had a team of poor driving dogs and after
greatly delaying the progress of the party he
finally consented to fall back to the rear of the

132

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

line. We paid little attention to him all this
day, as he was coming silently along, and we had
not missed him up until this time.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Another Member of Party Loses Life by Falling

Into a Treacherous Crevasse. Summit of

Glacier Reached at Last. Daring Coasting

for Miles Down from Summit. Men

Who Used Tobacco Were Unable to

Hold Up Their End in Work.

Oil Entirely Exhausted.

CHAPTER X.

HINKING that Mr. Weiden, who
was the last man, was simply lag-
ging behind, we did not pay any
attention to his absence at this
time. But when he did not come up
to camp after several hours, how-
ever, Eagen of our party and two of
the Manchester party, decided to
go back and look him up. This meant a sac-
rifice, considering the condition of the men.
After walking about two miles, they came to a
great crevasse in the glacier, which had not
been noticed there as we passed earlier in the
day, and the marks on the snow at the edge of
the yawning cavern told the wholestory—
Weiden, his team of dogs and load of provis-
ions lost.
When the three men returned to camp and

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

reported the terrible accident, it had little effect
on us. Since the accident of several days before,
when my brother-in-law lost his life, a great
change had come over the men. The first laws
of nature, "self preservation/' began to assert
itself. We were so weary in body and mind that
we were not responsible for our actions; we had
very little feeling left. The humanity that was
in us was ebbing away and nothing was left but
the animal. Each man was a world in himself
and a very narrow world at that.

Realizing that our oil was getting very low
and that unless we gained the timberland on the
other side of the glacier and got off the ice
within a very short time we would be lost. We
remained, however, two days on the summit
taking a much needed rest, and getting ever-
thing in readiness for a quick dash across the ice.
We partly cooked enough beans to last the whole
party for several days and as fast as they were
cooked we would throw them into a gunny sack,
while they were still hot. At night they would
freeze into a solid mass and pieces had to be cut
off with a knife.

We also dried out our equipment. We dried
our sleeping bags by turning them inside out
and hung some of our clothing, which had become

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

wet, on the poles of our sleds. We packed about
800 pounds on each sled and took extra care in
strapping it down tight, as we expected to coast
a good portion of our downward journey. Our
poor dogs had been nearly reduced to skeletons
and we expected to give them a rest.

As soon as we were ready to start we sent two
men ahead to see that there were no crevasses
ahead of us; we noticed a difference in climatic
conditions. The wind that blew toward us from
the interior was not so bitter as those on the
other side of the glacier, but were dry and
invigorating. We coasted down the long inclines
recklessly, but our Esquimo guides were very
cautious and although they saw us go down
safely, they would not attempt it, but broke a
new trail for themselves instead. Yet they did
not warn us of any danger or offer any suggestions.

Our dogs, released from their sleds, had become
so harness-hardened that they would try to run
in their old positions in front of the sleds as we
coasted. In this way, several of the dogs were
badly injured and we had to tie them on our
sleds also. Then, when the sleds stopped, they
would all take their regular places in front of
them.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Although the Alaskan huskies were very
faithful in this respect, they were very treacher-
ous and whenever our backs were turned for a
second they would attack our bacon sacks.
Kodiak, my big St. Bernard, was always on the
alert and although he was always as hungry as
any of them, he would allow no thieving and the
other dogs respected his great bulk and low
growl, which they had learned to fear. Kodiak
would often pounce upon them and with his
superior strength and weight soon taught them
who was master.

We coasted down grade more or less for three
days, sometimes going from four to seven miles
at a stretch without a stop. Then we came to
more rough ice and were compelled to pack our
goods, fifty pounds at a time, over a very rough
trail. This required many relays back and
forth over very dangerous crevasses. And held
us up for more than a week.

We made our first attempt to lighten our
motor, which had been our greatest burden up
until this time, by taking off a wheel and some
other pieces which could be removed with a
monkey wrench. The additional labor and
delay greatly disappointed us, and our despair
was increased by our illness. We suffered

138

MY DOG KODIAK

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

terribly with sore eyes and sore throats and we
simply had to endure the pain with no hope of
relief. We did what we could, but it seemed to
get worse all the time.

It was at this point of our journey over the
glacier when every man of us was on the verge
of prostration from overwork, illness and
improper nourishment and any special weak-
ness, physical or mental, if we had any,
showed itself. During these last days on the
glacier all of our reserved strength was used up,
and if the journey had been much longer we
would have perished. One thing that was very
noticeable to me at this time, as well as through-
out the rest of our adventure, was that those in
the party wlio were addicted to the use of liquor
or tobacco or both, were always the first to lose
heart, the first to shirk their work and the last
to want to do anything.

The men who used tobacco were always more
anxious to carry their tobacco than anything
else. At this time I believe that if any one of
those men had been given their choice of bread
and tobacco they would have left the bread
behind and taken the tobacco with them. In
their last stages of prostration and physical
collapse, tobacco to them seemed to be more

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

needful than bread. But when at last their
tobacco was exhausted and they had no more,
they thought at first they could not live without
it. But gradually they ceased talking of it
entirely and seemed better able to hold up their
end, and were more cheerful and had much more
endurance.

Our fare since leaving Yakutat, almost six
weeks before, had been bacon, beans and
coffee, or coffee, beans and bacon, the only
change being in what we started to eat first.
By May 24th the snow had all melted away from
the surface of the glacier, exposing crevasses
everywhere from a few inches to many feet in
diameter. The ice was very clear and beautiful,
being of a dark blue color, and it was also very
slippery, which made it treacherous and danger-
ous near the opening of the crevasses.

As we neared the break-off, the crevasses
became more numerous and seemed to run in
every direction, and at times we had to walk
several miles out of the way in order to get
across some of the wide ones. Sometimes we
were able to stretch a rope across the mouth of
the crevasses and swing our goods over in this
way, but in either case we lost much time.

We traveled on for several days more as fast
as we could, not daring to pitch our tent on

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account of the slippery condition of the surface
of the ice. The only sight that broke the monot-
ony of the ice, was large piles of stones which
we encountered again some ten miles from the
nearest mountain which must have been depos-
ited there thousands of years before by an
avalanche.

As we proceeded the ice became rougher and
with the increasing crevasses greatly delayed
our progress. It seemed that the glacier was
being focused to a point between two great
ranges of mountains and the ice was crushed
together in such a manner as to form great
hummocks of ice between which were zig-zag
crevasses.

With all our oil used, our plight at this time
was even more sad than ever before. Our last
ounce of strength was almost gone, as we did not
dare to sleep for more than an hour at a time,
owing to the place we were hemmed in at. We
had to keep continually moving and with no
cooked food and no means in sight to cook any,
many of the men were ready to give up and die.

It was in our hour of darkest despair, as we
toiled on without purpose, it seemed, when a
ray of hope came to us from the gurgling waters
which seemed to be everywhere flowing away

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

from the glacier, but could not be seen. Every-
where, below us, around us and it seemed above
us, the rushing, gurgling waters could be heard.
For a time we were non-plussed; then the
situation seemed to be uncanny and we expected
any moment to break through the ice and be
swallowed up in a great caldron of roaring waters.

Gradually our fear left us as our senses became
accustomed to the unfamiliar sounds, and then
of a sudden, looking up, we could see a deep,
dark timber-covered ravine ahead, clear of
snow. The effect of this sight upon the men was
electrical. That scene looked like the dawning
of a new day. Our eyes which for fifty days had
looked upon nothing but snow and ice were so
rested by that speck of color in the landscape,
that the men immediately began to recover.

From that time on, we toiled incessantly,
going without sleep for several days, in order to
get our goods over the rough ice and crevasses.
Until this time we had not mentioned gold while
on the glacier. Indeed, we had almost forgotten
where we were going and what we expected to
find. Now, however, we talked of nothing else.

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THE ARCTIC LOVER

Gone is the long, long winter night;

Look, my beloved one!
How glorious, through his depths of light,

Rolls the majestic sun!
The willows, waked from winter's death,
Give out a fragrance like thy breath—

The summer is begun!

Ay, 'tis the long bright summer day:

Hark to that mighty crash!
The loosened ice-ridge breaks away—

The smitten waters flash;
Seaward the glittering mountain rides,
While, down its green translucent sides,

The foamy torrents dash.

See, love, my boat is moored for thee

By ocean's weedy floor—
The petrel does not skim the sea

More swiftly than my oar.
We'll go where, on the rocky isles,
Her eggs the screaming sea-fowl piles

Beside the pebbly shore.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Or, bide thou where the poppy blows,
With wind-flowers frail and fair,

While I, upon his isle of snow

Seek and defy the bear.
Fierce though he be, and huge of frame,

This arm his savage strength shall tame,
And drag him from his lair.

When crimson sky and flamy cloud

Bespeak the summer o'er,
And the dead valleys wear a shroud

Of snows that melt no more,
Til build of ice thy winter home,
With glistening walls and glassy dome,

And spread with skins the floor.

The white fox by thy couch shall play;

And, from the frozen skies,
The meteors of a mimic day

Shall flash upon thine eyes.
And I — for such thy vow — meanwhile
Shall hear thy voice and see thy smile,

Till that long midnight flies.

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MAD EUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Just as Relief Is Near Another Member of

Party Accidentally Falls in Crevasse and Is

Lost. After Land Is reached Men Start

to Recover. Journey to Far Interior

Begins in Earnest. Manchester Party

Leaves and Takes Both Guides.

Several Sustain Serious Injuries.

CHAPTER XL

FTER several days of continuous
toil, Mr. Boyden, who had been a
close companion of mine for several
years before I left New York, and
who only went with our party for
experience more than he did for
gold, was now in bad shape, barely
able to stand up. While trying to
cross a three-foot crevasse, he was pushing his
loaded sled when, in some manner he accident-
ally slipped and fell, sled and all, out of sight.
He uttered a faint yell, and some of the men
near him tried to reach for him, but he disap-
peared so quickly it was impossible to do any-
thing for him. The men realized the futility
of losing any time and continued on. On being
informed of what had happened I was again

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MAD RUSH FOE GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

thrown into deep grief for my poor friend and
companion.

We finally managed to get to the end of the
glacier, and there we found an unexpected
problem confronting us. From the top of the
ice to the ground below was many feet, and it
was almost impossible to find a safe trail down
through the ice canyons formed by great bulks
of ice. Then along the edge of the break-off
flowed a rushing, roaring river of whitish water
caused by the melting ice, which grew less in
volume at night when the ice froze, but greatly
increased during the day. The gaps seemed to
widen every hour.

We saw immediately the pressing importance
of getting off the glacier as soon as we possibly
could, and traveled along the edge to a hill
where there was nothing between us and dry
land but the roaring torrent. Taking a heavy
load on his back so that the rushing water
would not sweep him down stream, one of our
men waded through the river with a rope which
he tied to a small tree on the other side, and after
a great amount of painstaking labor we were
able to swing our goods and equipment to terra
firma with pulleys.

The break-off of the glacier at this end was
much different from the break-off at the sea.

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CREVASSE WHERE ONE OF PARTY WAS LOST

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

It was much less abrupt, and the big icebergs,
instead of breaking away and floating out to sea,
remained where they were and melted down.
Rounded boulders, large and small, which had
evidently been rolled along under the ice for
centuries, covered the land for several hundred
yards around the glacier where the ice had
melted and left them. Then at the edge of these
stones where the ice had formerly been, the
timber line began.

One of the most peculiar things we saw here
was a "pot hole" under a cliff about twenty feet
high, which consisted of a round hole about eight
feet in diameter and probably six feet deep, cut
in the solid rock. At first we thought it could
have been drilled in no other manner except
with a steam drill, but we later found that it
had been formed by water dropping from the
cliff, which started some large stone to revolve,
and it took probably centuries to grind out this
hole. Some of the stones that were still there
were as symmetrical and round as marbles, due
to the revolving motion of the stones as the
water poured upon them.

June 2nd we finally managed to get the last
of our goods on land and our first concern was to
build a fire with alderwood on a nearby hill for

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

the purpose of cooking some evaporated potatoes
and apples and drying out our clothes. We
also built fires in our Yukon stoves and made
some biscuits; this was our first meal in several
days and after pitching our tents, we lay down
for our first good sleep in seven weeks. We
were in our sleeping bags continuously for
twenty hours and when we did get up we felt
better than we had at any time since leaving
Yakutat. Our beards had all grown quite long,
and all of us had lost much weight. For myself,
I think I must have lost at least twenty-five
pounds.

Although we had intended to go much farther
north, the men already began their search for
gold. We got out our gold pans only to find
them sadly rusted. We at once began to scrape
the rust off in order to have them ready for use,
and we immediately began to ask each other
if anyone "had seen any color?" The men
picked up all kinds of colored stones, dug dirt
out of the sides of the hills and washed it in
their gold pans in their efforts to find gold. The
gold pans, we found, were not so easy to handle
properly. But we soon learned the knack of
washing the water and sand so that we would not
cover ourselves with water, but would have it
run out in front at every twist or turn.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

We remained in our camp at the end of the
glacier for two days, resting and getting ready
for the next stage of our journey, which we
found would be very laborious on account of
having to pack our goods all the way. We sent
a number of men out to lay out a trail and get an
idea of the nature of the country. They found
the land to consist of a series of ranges of hills
running across our route north, which were
generally covered thickly by alders and larger
timber. There was still much snow between the
trees, but the ground was so rough and the
underbrush so thick in places that we were
compelled to carry the sleds. Between each
range of hills was usually a stream and some-
times a lake, still covered with ice which was
fast melting.

We packed our goods up over the first range of
hills and established a camp nicely located along
the banks of these lakes, which were fed by
small streams. The morning after we arrived
at this new camp, one of the men went to the
lake to get a bucket of water and he thought he
saw a fish. He ran back to camp and within a
short time about ten of the men got out the
fishing tackle we had brought along, and were
casting their lines with nothing but a piece of
salt pork on their hooks for bait. Their lines

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

had hardly struck the water before the fish
began to take the bait and within a very few
minutes, a fine mess of speckled salmon trout,
each weighing from half a pound to a pound and
a half, were landed. Their meat was of pink
color and I don't know whether it was because
I was so ravenously hungry or not, but I thought
at the time that they were the most delicious
fish I had ever tasted.

After a few days more of rest during which
time we made final preparations for our journey,
we established another camp about five miles
farther on and started to pack our goods over
the hills to the new camp. Our plan was to
establish a camp from five to ten miles ahead and
then pack our goods to it from the old camp,
working in relays as we did in approaching
the glacier.

As soon as we had all our goods cached at one
point, we established another camp from five to
ten miles farther north. Although the work was
very laborious, our plan worked out very well
and we soon got used to it and did not mind it.
The weather got much warmer, the snow dis-
appeared from the lowlands and, although the
nights were always cold, the middle of the day
was sometimes very warm.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

On June 12th the Manchester party, which
had traveled with us over the glacier and who
also had the misfortune to lose two men on the
glacier, decided to branch off in a somewhat
different direction. Their idea was to travel
north-east and try to strike Dawson City while
at that time we were heading due north for the
Tanana River district.

According to an old survey which we had, we
reckoned it was about 250 miles to Dawson,
although it must have been much farther. We
had originally intended to strike for the lower
Mackenzie River, which was north of Dawson;
but after learning that there was a wonderful
supply of gold along the Tanana River, we
changed our minds. As far as I have been able
to learn, the men who came to Alaska on the
Blakely were the only ones who attempted to
enter the gold fields by the route we took.

The Manchester party made better offers to
our two guides, natives of Yakutat, than we felt
they were worth and we decided to let them go,
as they proved to be a disappointment to us so
far. It was very evident that they had never
been over the ground before, and we found our
compasses far more reliable than their uncertain
ideas. We were sorry to part with the Man-
chester party as they were a fine lot of fellows.

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MAD BUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

An advance party, which had been sent out,
came back and reported a river six or seven
miles ahead. After separating their goods, the
Manchester party set out for the river, intend-
ing, if its current ran northeast, to build boats
and try to reach Fort Selkirk by water the first
of August. They had a much better equipment
than ours and the men were now much elated
over the prospects.

After the Manchester party had left us, we
saw quite a few wood-chuck and ptarmigan or
"fool-hen/' as we called them, and we cleaned up
our fire arms and opened up our ammunition.
The ptarmigan were so stupid that they were
very easily killed and although I fear they are
about as edible as a turkey buzzard, when caught
out of season, we ate them and enjoyed the
change in diet.

Now, with plenty of fish and ptarmigan, our
men started to get stronger and became them-
selves again. All our trouble with snow blind-
ness had now mostly disappeared. The dogs
even got strong and fat as they had very little
work to do. Again came that insatiable desire
for gold, which caused us to wash out samples of
earth all along our trail and although we found
nothing, the possibility of making a strike was
our main topic of conversation.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

With our party now reduced to fifteen men,
we packed steadily onward day after day over
some rough hills, through ravines and across
streams, which at times caused us much trouble.
The streams were not so deep but were very
swift and several of our dogs nearly drowned on
more than one occasion in swimming across.
On June 17th, while wading across one of the
streams with a sailor's large clothesbag on his
shoulders, Tom Eagen, the New York police-
man, stumbled and fell headlong and for a
moment was stunned. His bag was carried
down stream for fully a mile, and he had to
run this distance along the bank in his heavy
wet clothes in order to again recover it. When
he finally got his water-soaked bag to camp,
he was completely exhausted, and was confined
to his sleeping bag for several days.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

One Member Breaks Wrist. Member of Party
Shoots a Bear Which Results in a Change of
Menu. Prospectors Find Much "Fool's
Gold:1 Motor, Which Has Proved Ser-
ious Drawback Is At Last Abandoned
In the Woods and Party Rushes On.

CHAPTER XII.

T was about this time that I received
an injury, the effect of which will
follow me to my grave. I was
carrying a fifty pound sack of beans
down a steep hill when I stumbled
and lost my footing and fell, or
rather rolled, down about fifty feet.
When I got up I found that my
right wrist was broken in two places. There was
no one with me at the time, and I had to carry
those beans two miles to camp with a painful
broken wrist.

When I got back, the other men set my wrist
as best they could, using bark for splints, tearing
up some underwear for bandages and using moss
instead of cotton. From that time on, for several
weeks, I was compelled to use my left hand for
everything and I became left-handed. Although

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

my wrist is now well and in a normal condition,
I have never entirely got into the way of doing
things with my right hand again.

But our misfortunes did not cause any of us
to waver. After each accident we felt sure it
was the last and we would soon reach our goal.
It is hard to describe the condition we were in at
this time. Hardships came to be a matter of
course and nothing that happened surprised us
in the least. Nothing interested us but gold,
and although we had not seen a sign of the
precious metal, yet our supply of optimism
seemed to be inexhaustible. It was a selfish
optimism, however, and it seemed to be fathered
by the dream that we would all go back to New
York with vast fortunes.

The entire surface of Alaska, as far as we have
seen, is mountainous. The country is wild,
rugged and for the most part, impassable. In
spite of the extremely cold weather, hardy
vegetation flourishes luxuriantly in the ravines
and lowlands from which the snow usually melts
in June. The mountains are covered with
perpetual snow, however, and vegetation dis-
appears as the altitude of the land increases.

The mountains are very rocky and the cliffs
precipitous, so that we seldom attempted to

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

cross any of the ranges, but rather followed the
water courses. This was also made necessary by
the thick growth of alders and other kinds of
bushes in the valleys, which made any kind of
travel most laborious. When we did leave a
stream, it was always necessary to blaze a trail
through the woods.

In places in the lowlands, the brambles were
so thick that it was impossible to get through.
In other places there was so much decayed
vegetable matter on the ground that walking
through it was much like walking through deep
snow. Yet there is an immense amount of the
finest timber in the valleys, consisting, for the
most part, of spruce, fir and pine trees. Some of
the spruce trees were the most magnificent I
have ever seen. They ranged in height from 100
to 150 feet and from four to six feet in diameter
and were very straight and symmetrical. They
were very thick on the ground, and for that
reason had no lower branches which would have
made them most valuable as timber if there had
been any way to get it to civilization.

It was while camping in a typical Alaskan
forest, a few days after I had the misfortune to
break my arm, that Arthur Wilson who had been
acting as cook that week — we took turns in this

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

capacity — saw tracks of a huge bear about one
hundred feet from our tents. He followed the
trail for a distance of about two miles and came
to a sort of cave in the side of the mountain. He
fired into the hole and failing to drive the bear
out, burned his handkerchief in the opening of
the cave, causing the smoke to go into the cave.
Hearing a noise above he looked up, and there,
fifty feet above him, he saw a large cinnamon
bear scampering up the side of the mountain.
He fired at the fleeing animal twice with his
Winchester 25-30 steel jacket and the bear
turned facing him and got up on his haunches
and then tumbled forward down the hill about a
hundred feet.

Wilson became so excited over his success
that he ran back to camp without giving the
bear a second look and told his story to us. In
another hour five other men went with Wilson
to the spot where the bear had rolled, but it was
not there. A trail of blood on the ground
brought them to the opening of the cave, where
the bear was found dead. The men at once
skinned him and cut him up as best they could.
Each one gathered up all the meat he could
carry and brought it back to camp, leaving the
rest for the dogs to eat. We thought we would
have a good feast on the bear but were dis-

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

appointed. It had a repulsive, fishy taste and
was very tough, which I thought was on account
of its having been killed out of season. We
made a fairly good soup, however, by boiling
down large quantities of it with some evaporated
potatoes and onions. We cleaned the skin and
stretched it out on sticks to dry.

As we continued traveling northward, our
desire to find gold increased in intensity and
more time was spent in prospecting. Hundreds
of samples of dirt were dug out of the ground and
sides of the mountains and brought to camp, and
our hopes were always high until Professor
Merrill, the mineralogist of the party, examined
them and found that they were either pyrites of
iron, sulphur or copper or some other quartz,
which is commonly known as "fool's gold/'
Sometimes we were so sure that it was gold that
we had found, that we had even staked out our
claims before we had the samples analyzed.

The prospecting entailed a vast amount of
hard work with pick and shovel. Big fires had
to be built over the spots where the earth was
taken out, except along the streams. Each
successive find caused great excitement in camp
among us, as it was always different from any
previous find, and we never had any idea that
there were so many kinds of "fool's gold."

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

During all of this time the chief drawback to
our making much progress was our 800 pound
motor, which had cost us so much money in
Seattle. We had tried many different plans of
dragging it along since getting off the glacier
and from time to time had taken piece after
piece off in order to make our load somewhat less
heavy. The only practical way of getting it
along was to carry it, and we were all so weary of
it that we threatened many times to leave it
behind if we did not soon make a gold strike.
At last one of the party hit upon a plan of build-
ing a cart to haul it.

We cut down a large tree, sawed out two
wheels and using our crowbar for an axle, lashed
two poles to it so that they would drag on the
ground behind; then we placed the motor on
this improvised vehicle. After hitching sixteen
dogs to the wagon we started to move it along
at a slow rate. We soon found, however, that
the ground was so rough that our cart was use-
less and we had lost much valuable time in
constructing it. We made one last effort to
carry the motor and finding it impossible we
finally on July 29th, decided to leave it behind.

The spot was marked and Harry Davis of
Brooklyn, our engineer, took bearings so that

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

we might come back and get it some future time.
I have his drawings yet, but I hardly think that
anyone could take them and travel over our
route from Yakutat and locate that motor.
I should judge that we left it between fifty and
seventy-five miles from the glacier. Our prog-
ress, after leaving the motor behind, was much
faster than before and we took renewed hope.

By this time I could use my wrist again, which
had been broken five weeks before, and I was
now able to do my share of the work. The nights
were starting to get colder and we knew that
we would soon be confronted with the long
frigid winter. Our clothing was about worn out,
but we consoled ourselves by the fact that we
had another supply with us.

At this time we certainly must have been a
hard looking bunch of men with our long hair
and beards, but among ourselves we paid no
attention to our uncouth appearance. Very
seldom did we brush or comb our hair or try to
get the kinks out of our beards. The uppermost
thought in our minds was gold and we talked and
thought of nothing else.

And living under the conditions we were, we
actually continued to get stout and rugged from
hard work. I have since thought, our almost

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

continuous diet of beans made us fat. Before
going on this expedition I never liked the taste of
beans and did not eat them, and even after we
started out I ate very sparingly for quite some
time because our diet was mostly beans. After
we got on the glacier, however, our food did not
come to be a question of beans so much as
something to eat. Sheer hunger soon compelled
me to eat the food I had heretofore detested.
Since coming home for some fifteen years I have
never been able to eat beans, no matter how
hungry I was or how hard I tried; for a time the
sight of beans made me sick. However, for the
past year I have taken a fancy to them and
don't understand how I could have ever disliked
them.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

TO A MOSQUITO
Fair insect! that, with threadlike legs spread out,

And blood-extracting bill and filmy wing,
Dost murmur, as thou slowly sail'st about,

In pitiless ears full many a plaintive thing,
And tell how little our large veins would bleed,
Would we but yield them to thy bitter need.

Unwillingly, I own, and, what is worse,
Full angrily men hearken to thy plaint;

Thou gettest many a brush, and many a curse,
For saying thou art gaunt, and starved, and
faint;

Even the old beggar, while he asks for food,

Would kill thee, hapless stranger, if he could.

I call thee stranger, for the town, I ween,
Has not the honor of so proud a birth,—

Thou com'st from Jersey meadows, fresh and

green,
The offspring of the gods, though born on earth

For Titan was thy sire, and fair was she,

The ocean-nymph that nursed thy infancy.

Beneath the rushes was thy cradle swung,
And when at length thy gauzy wings grew
strong,

Abroad to gentle airs their folds were flung,
Rose in the sky and bore thee soft along;

The south wind breathed to waft thee on the way,

And danced and shone beneath the billowy bay.

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MAD EUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Scourge of Alaskan Mosquitoes Attack Camp and

Make Life Miserable. Large Beaver Dam

Causes Surprise. Another Man Succumbs

to Unknown Disease. Party Loses Track

of Date and Weather Gets Severe.

Locate and Build Cabin for Winter

Quarters.

CHAPTER XIII.

URING about three weeks of our
journey through Alaska, our lives
were made miserable by the mosqui-
toes, which were so numerous that
they hindered our progress in a
hundred ways. They were much
larger than the mosquitoes that are
seen here, and they just swarmed
into everything we ate, and they swarmed
around our tents and nearly drove our dogs
crazy. They got into the tents at night and
kept us awake. We attempted to smoke them
out, but we found that we were more liable
to suffocate ourselves than the troublesome
insects. We finally got used to them in a way
and accepted them as a matter of course.

It is impossible to convey in mere words an
adequate idea of the number of mosquitoes that

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

were always about our camp. When we baked
flapjacks, we placed a tin plate over the top of
each cake to prevent the mosquitoes from getting
on them, but in spite of all our precautions,
from a hundred to two hundred of the insects
would be caught on them when we turned them
over.

In making bread or biscuits we would knead
the dough in a cloth bag, using one hand in the
bag and the other to hold the mouth of the bag
shut so that the insects could not get in, but in
spite of this, the dough would be almost black
with bugs when it was taken out of the bag.
Every cup of coffee we drank contained many
dead insects, which collected in the bottom of
the cup with the grounds. We used netting
tied on our hats and gathered around our necks
to keep them away from our eyes.

At first we were fearful of eating the insects
and attempted to pick them out of our food,
but within a very short time we abandoned this
plan. Everything we ate was flavored with
mosquitoes. When we went in or out of our
tents we crawled between the tent flaps, holding
them down tight around our bodies in order to
try and prevent the mosquitoes from getting in.
The mosquitoes collected on the mouths and

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MAD BUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

eyes of the poor dogs, and after trying to rub
them off they would run down to some stream,
and jump into the icy water for relief. About
the time we were getting accustomed to the
pests, they suddenly disappeared, and we were
not sorry.

It was soon after we recovered from the
scourge of mosquitoes that I neglected writing
in my diary for several days and I lost track of
the date. By considerable figuring we came to
the conclusion that it must be about August 15th,
and that we were about 300 miles from the
glacier. Already, there had been a change in the
temperature and the nights were beginning to
get very cold and a considerable amount of snow
started to fall. Very little snow melted during
the day and the volume of water in the streams
grew much less. Still we toiled on, hoping to
reach the gold fields before the cold weather
caused us to go into winter quarters.

As we traveled along, John Henshaw, of
Yonkers, N. Y., saw the tracks of some bears
in the snow. Following them up, he came upon
an old cinnamon bear and two cubs. He
succeeded in killing the cubs but the old bear
got away, not, however, before she had put up a
fierce fight for her young and had been wounded

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

twice. The meat of the cubs was fine and was
the best meat we got during the entire time we
were away. The dogs, too, were made happy by
the killing as they had had very little really good
food for some time. We dried the skins of the
cubs, which were very soft and of fine texture,
and packed them away for the purpose of making
garments with them later.

A few days later we came upon a beaver dam,
which was built so perfectly that we thought at
first it could have been constructed by none
other than human hands. We expected to find
human beings about somewhere. When the
fact that it was a beaver dam and had been
built by beaver, dawned upon us, we thought it
almost unbelievable. The breastworks were
constructed of sticks crossed and recrossed; the
filling was of small stones and moss closely
packed together. It was about three feet wide
at the top, thirty-five feet long and in places six
feet high, closing the end of the valley, making
a lake from two to three hundred feet wide,
which looked very much like a natural body of
water. The breast was just as straight and
symmetrical as if it had been constructed of
concrete by an engineer.

We remained at the dam for two whole days
hoping that the industrious animals would

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appear and we would get a shot at them. We
did not understand their characteristics and
could not understand why we were unable to see
any of them. Later, when we learned that the
only way to catch beavers is to break a place in
their dam and then set traps near the break, we
felt like novices. We had a large number of
traps with us, and would no doubt have captured
some of the beavers if we had set them and then
gone away.

Up until this time every member of our party
had been in robust health ever since leaving the
glacier. Having lost all our medicines, and there
being no one along who had any direct medical
knowledge, we felt that we must keep well and
this determination on our part, I think, helped
us. The climate, too, I think had an effect.
Almost every day we got our feet wet and they
remained wet until our shoes dried out, but not
one of the party ever got a cold.

On August 26th Andrew Maddis, of Bridge-
port, Conn., who, up until this time, had been a
very willing hard working fellow, took sick. He
remained in his sleeping bag and we soon found
that he was suffering from a high fever. In that
barren region there was little we could do for
him. We put snow on his forehead and heated

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

stones and placed them against his stomach,
but our efforts to counteract the fever had little
or no effect. How we did miss the medicines,
but we could only let the poor fellow lay there
and suffer, always trusting and hoping he would
get well. Besides this he became very sore from
lying on the hard sleds, so we put the three bear
skins we had on his sled.

He continued to grow worse. Becoming
delirious attempted to get up and go back home.
By this time, however, he was so weak that he
could hardly move, and on August 28th, he died.
We dug a grave where he died and buried him
as best we could. His death cast a gloom over us
that seemed to follow us for days. Being in
much better physical condition than we were on
the glacier, we felt the loss of Maddis much more
keenly than the death of our other comrades,
whose bodies were held in the awful grip of the
glacier.

It was not until this time that we began to
realize our awful predicament. We wondered
what had been the cause of poor Maddis' death,
and thought it might have been typhoid fever
contracted as the result of eating so many
mosquitoes. If this were so, we feared that we
would all get the disease as we all ate the same
food and drank the same water.

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As we trudged on, fearing every minute that
some other member of the party would be the
next victim, the gloom that at first seemed to
pervade everything gradually lifted and the
hard work distracted our thoughts. We came
finally to a fairly level stretch of territory and
began to follow a stream that flowed in the
direction we were going.

We established our camps ten miles apart
now and made much better progress, as we had
become hardened to packing from 50 to 100
pounds on our backs. We saw tracks of all
kinds of animals in the snow, but did not
attempt to hunt any of them, as we did not wish
to lose any time. Every day it continued to get
perceptibly colder and we were anxious to stake
a claim, and settle down for the long winter that
was soon to be upon us.

The stream we had been following continued
to get wider and wider until it became quite a
river. We decided, after consulting our maps,
that we must have reached the Tanana River.
We had again lost all track of days and dates
as the great arctic night was coming on. There
was just a little illumination every twenty-four
hours from the sun. It must have been some
time in September when we pitched camp and

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divided into two parties; one took provisions for
a week and went on a prospecting expedition into
the nearby mountains; the others looked about
for a good site to build a cabin for protection
during the long, cold winter which was very near.

I remained at the camp and helped to con-
struct the cabin. We at first selected a site near
the foot of a mountain, but when we thought of
the avalanches we had seen sliding down the
mountain sides, the spring before, we changed
our plans and started to build it on a hill over-
looking the river. None of us were skilled in
building and our cabin proved to be a very crude
affair. It was ten by twenty, built for the most
part of poplar wood which was the easiest to cut.

It was a typical log cabin with the logs crossed
and grooved at the ends to act as a mortise.
We were fortunate in finding a kind of mud down
by the river bank with which we plastered up the
cracks on the outside which dried out as a brick.
We planned to build a stone fireplace with the
chimney on the outside, cut a door about three
feet high and two and a half feet wide through
one side as well as two small windows; these
details presented the greatest difficulties.

The first chimney we built was of rough stones
but before it was finished we found that we would

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

have to rebuild it. We pushed it over and for
days we did the hardest kind of work searching
the river banks, a mile away, for large flat stones
which we carried back to the cabin for the
chimney. After it was completed, we banked
dirt up around the outside and we congratu-
lated ourselves on our good job.

In constructing the door and windows we had
to have boards which we made by digging a pit
and placing the end of a log over the mouth of
the hole, then laboriously whip-sawing them
lengthwise. When the door was finally com-
pleted, it was the crudest part of the house or
cabin, rather. For glass for our windows, we
had nothing but the greased paper in which our
hams and bacon had been wrapped. Although
there were several thicknesses the paper was
very frail and it served the purpose much better
than we had expected, yet it had to be renewed
very frequently.

After completing the cabin we gathered great
quantities of moss which we put in our bunks
for bedding; we also pushed this into the cracks
between the logs of the cabin. By the time we
had finished furnishing our house it was a toler-
ably comfortable place. A roaring fire could be
built in the big fireplace, and as the weather had

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not yet begun to get severe we could keep the
cabin good and warm. But this suggested a
new problem — fuel. We set to work at once and
started to cut green wood and pile it about the
cabin until we had about eight cord; we thought
it enough to last for all winter. We killed many
wood-chucks and as fish was very plentiful we
again had some variety to our food. The dogs
soon became lazy and fat and slept around the
fireplace all day.

While we had been on the alert for gold ever
since leaving the glacier and had examined hun-
dreds of samples of dirt, we washed out and also
staked out several claims; we had not begun pros-
pecting in earnest until the prospecting party,
which left the camp several days before came
back. The men returned while we were still
building the cabin with a large number of copper
nuggets, the size of a pea and many garnets
imbedded in a sort of sandstone, as well as a
number of samples of dirt, which we washed
through the rockers for ' 'color. ' ' None was found
and after talking the matter over we decided that
a good copper mine would pay. We had our
engineer, Mr. Davis, lay out a homestead claim
where they had found the copper and place large
stakes at each corner with our company's name
cut in the wood. Whenever the men had any

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

spare time on their hands they would occasion-
ally play cards, or have a dog running race or
jumping contest.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Much Wood Was Cut for Coming Winter. Three

Members of Party Want to Break Camp and

Follow Onward Trail. Breach Grows and

Men Finally Part. Halderman, Eagen

andBohnGo Ahead in Terrible Winter

and Are Never Heard From Again

by Former Companions.

CHAPTER XIV.

T was too late in the season to begin
any active mining operations. We
were compelled to settle down and
face the long cold dreary winter.
It was not until now that we had
time to reflect on our condition.
We began to think of the seven long,
weary months that we would have
to wait before we could again venture out in
the open. We began to feel most keenly the
friendships and comforts we had left behind.
We reflected bitterly that we were nine long
months travel away from New York.

Up until this time our thoughts of going home
had never entered our minds, but now we began
to fear the great unknown darkness ahead of us.
Until this time, it seemed our thoughts were

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

occupied with pushing on, but now when we
were compelled to sit down and wait with no
notion of what to expect, the situation became
as terrible as it was unexplainable.

If we had known for a certainty that we could
not have survived the winter and that at a
certain time all would succumb, it would have
been a relief to our mental anguish during the
first few weeks of the winter. Rough and
irreligious as almost all of the men were at this
time, we placed our trust in Almighty God.
There was nothing else for us to do. It is
wonderful how, when a man is reduced to his last
extremity, when life has been stripped of all its
artificialities and a man's soul is laid bare, he
will turn almost instinctively to his Creator.

Whether or not a man professes any religion,
there is inherent in him a feeling of reliance upon
some Higher Power which is, in some mysterious
way, responsible for him. If this feeling had not
taken possession of us and came out as promi-
nent as any material thing around us, from that
awful background of our mental anguish, we
would all have been raving maniacs before a
month had passed.

A peculiar fact in connection with our wan-
derings after our first few days on the glacier

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

was that each one of us thought that all the rest
were crazy, and he alone was in a rational frame
of mind. As a result no one put any confidence
in what another had said, and we could gain no
comfort from each other's advice or opinions.

I have thought since that our unnatural
existence had affected all our minds and at
times everyone of us was partially insane. We
did not have the same feeling toward one
another that we would have had under ordinary
circumstances. We acted like a pack of animals
and had it not been for that feeling of a reliance
upon our Creator, that came to us through no
effort of our own, there would have been nothing
in us, but animal left.

In the early part of the winter we continued
to cut wood and pile it up near the cabin; to
go out hunting for mink, otter and wood-chuck
for food in order to save our beans and flour,
as it will be understood that we only intended to
stay, at the most, one year and had only an
eight months' supply with us. We were soon
prevented from hunting to any extent by the
snow storms which exceeded anything in fury
that I have ever seen here.

The greater part of the snowfall in Alaska
comes in the early winter and spring, and the

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

blizzards come so suddenly that there is no way
to forecast their approach. The winds blow
hurricanes and it is almost impossible to exist
for any length of time exposed to the fury of the
elements. We knew it would be impossible to
follow any trail or to locate our cabin were we
to be caught out in these storms, so we kept to
our cabins. The snow would sift in a dozen
places until it was banked up on the outside to
above the roof.

After finishing our cabin and settling down to
the routine of a life of waiting for the long winter
to pass, Halderman, one of our men from New
York, became alarmed at our condition and
wanted to push on down the river. We had
little to do at this time, but discuss our troubles
and conditions. At first no one thought Halder-
man meant what he said, but after discussing
our conditions and prospects for days, he
gradually drew Tom Eagen, the New York
policeman, and Henry Bohn, of Providence, who
was clerking in New York when he joined our
party, to his side and we would sit and argue
and speculate for hours every day.

Although none of us knew anything about the
surrounding country nor where the river went,
Halderman contended that there must be a min-

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

ing camp or a native village not far away, and
wanted our party to set out immediately, follow
the river until we came to some human habita-
tion. There he contended we could get our
bearings and make our way to Dawson.

While he had no reason, whatever, from which
to draw such a conclusion, he repeated his plan
so often that both Eagen and Bohn felt that
there was no doubt but that he was right,
although they did not know why. The majority
of the party argued that Halderman's plan
could not but result in death for all of us, but the
more we discussed it, the wider became the
breach between us.

By this time it was snowing continuously and
we were again compelled to use our snow-shoes
when we went out in the open, as the fall was
very soft. The river also had begun to freeze
over; every day it seemed that the great arctic
winter was tightening its grip. Instead of
causing Halderman and his two friends to accept
their fate and remain with us, the severe weather
only caused them to get more anxious and
restless.

They talked and planned among themselves
and worked themselves into such a condition of
mind that we found we could not keep them

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

from leaving us. Under the terms of agreement
which we had all signed before leaving New
York, all the tools, equipment and foodstuff
belonged to the party as long as the majority of
the party held together and we threatened to
allow them nothing if they left us, but our
threats had little effect.

Finally we decided to divide our food, pro
rata, but not our equipment. We gave each of
the three men an axe, a shovel, a Winchester
rifle and two dogs. Two days after the division,
they started on their aimless mission, feeling
confident they would reach some human habita-
tion, where they could either spend the long
winter in comfort or find their way to Dawson
City. As we bade them good-bye and watched
their dark forms disappear down the river in
the gathering gloom of that long arctic night,
we looked upon them for the last time. No
tidings of them ever reached civilization, and
they must have perished within a few miles of
our camp, as travel at this season of the year
was impossible.

Reduced now to eleven men, we faced a
terrible winter of loneliness, idleness, privation
and suffering from cold. As I look back upon
that gloomy time, I feel that the only thing

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

that kept us alive was our trust in God. The
transformation that had come over us was
astounding. From an irreligious party of adven-
turers, we had been converted to a firm belief in
God. We had no church, no creed, no reason for
the change in our attitude toward our Creator,
except our condition.

We were at a loss to explain the change in our
ways ourselves, but it all seemed to be so natural
under the circumstances that we thought little
about it. We had but one Bible in the party;
this was read in turn by every man by the light
of the wood fire, and so assiduously did we
continue our reading that in time our eyes were
afflicted as badly as if by snow-blindness.

As our troubles continued to accumulate,
nothing could shake our firm belief that we
would yet make a rich strike. We talked it over
and over so many times that we came to believe
that near where we found the copper nuggets and
the ledge of garnets, there was gold. Even Mr.
Merrill, our mineralogist, who knew by reason of
his scientific knowledge that there could be no
gold there, came to agree with us for no other
reason than that we asserted it so often, that he
actually believed it and longed for the winter to
break so that we could begin work. Our picks

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

and shovels, which had begun to rust were
brought out from under the bunks and cleaned
up. The men never seemed to get tired of
greasing and polishing them. Yet the winter
had by this time only fairly begun.

During the early part of the cold weather
before the snow became so deep as to make
travel difficult, a party of four men would go out
hunting with all the dogs. Although they usually
returned without a thing, the trips gave our lives
a little variety and helped to keep the men in
good spirits. Later when the snow became very
deep and the mercury dropped to from thirty to
sixty degrees below zero, we kept to our cabin
and the men became very inactive.

There was nothing to do but wait — we had no
idea how long. Outside the great arctic night
had settled down. The frozen, innate landscape
never changed. The weird desolation, the stark
grewsomeness of the trees that here and there
protruded, through a whiteness that had no end,
caused a hopelessness to settle on us that made
the men sullen and morose.

Yet, withal there is something awe-inspiring
about Alaska in the dead of winter that I cannot
refrain from setting down, although we did not
appreciate it then. The long silences were

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

broken now by the weird sighing of the fierce
winds that seemed to sweep over the world with
a frigid intensity that was appalling. The
reverberating roar of a giant avalanche as it
thundered and crashed down the side of a moun-
tain, combined to remind us of the sublimity of
creation.

All the little things in life — the details-
seemed to have been banished and nothing but
the grandest and most profound demonstrations
of nature were left. The snow snuffed out
everything but the towering mountains, which
seemed to become our friends; they grew
commonplace in that land of gigantic settings.

With the exception of those terrible sounds
that disturbed us with their awfulness and
continued so that they too became monotonous,
there was little change in any of the manifesta-
tions of nature. The air was so clear and crisp
that it seemed ordinary sounds were much
louder there than elsewhere. When any of the
men would yell at the door of our cabin it could
be heard echoing and re-echoing back and forth
between the mountains four or five times before
it finally died away.

It was always cold. At times we turned the
dogs out for a frolic in the snow; when they

195

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

insisted upon coming right back, we knew that
it was colder than usual. With these conditions
surrounding us, we waited and grew impatient
with waiting. My faithful St. Bernard dog,
which had become the pet of all the remaining
party, would silently sit before the fire. The
moment any one of the husky dogs, which we
bought at Yakutat, would go near where we had
our provisions stored behind some logs at the
foot of our bunks, he would utter a low growl
which sent them back to their places cowering;
they had great respect and fear for Kodiak. It
was impossible to make friends of the huskies,
for while they were natural workers in harness,
they could not be trusted for a second; many a
beating they received from the men in an
endeavor to train them for a house dog. At
times when all was quiet they would start to
yell and nothing on earth could stop them, even
Kodiak would take up the yell.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Party Suffers Terriby During Long Winter. All

Record of Time Is Lost. Continuous Wood

Fire Causes Painful Disease to Attack the

Men's Eyes. Systematic Exercise Keeps

One of Party in Good Condition. Men

Compelled to Cut More Wood for Fuel.

CHAPTER XV.

HIRING that long, cold, desolate
winter we lived like animals. The
fact that we managed to exist at all
appeals to me now as being a
miracle. There was nothing for us
to do but to keep ourselves alive,
and it was not until now that we
began to realize how all the com-
forts and activities of civilization make life
worth living. Life without hope, without friends,
without ambition and with nothing but the bare
necessities of living, is punishment that will
sooner or later drive a person insane. I firmly
believe that our sufferings and hardships during
that terrible winter helped us to live through it
and kept our minds occupied to an extent that
prevented our becoming entirely demented.

There was little or no ventilation in our cabin,
as the two small windows we had, we were

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

compelled to cover. We also filled every crack
we could find with moss; the large fireplace,
however, acted as a vent where all the foul air
was drawn. During most of the winter, it was
so cold that ice formed within two feet of the
fire, which was never allowed to go out.

We seldom changed our clothes and probably
four-fifths of the time was spent in our sleeping
bags. We kept a pot of water over the fire all
the time, and cooked our food but once at
intervals of twenty-four hours. Although we
still had plenty of provisions, we ate very
sparingly and lived upon about one-third the
quantity of food required when we were working
hard. Still we all became quite stout from
idleness, but we soon found that the flesh we
were accumulating was not a healthy gain.

Although we had long lost the record of time
before the continual cold of winter had settled
down, we could tell each day as it passed along
as the sun was visible; but now we lost even a
record of the days for there was no day. Time
was simply one vast span of eternity — no days,
no nights, no weeks, no months.

There was nothing by which to measure the
passing of time, except perhaps the growth of our
beards. All we could do was to guess and

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

speculate. Some of the men who had watches
kept them running and every twenty-four hours
would cut a nick in a stick. This plan would
continue maybe for weeks and then sometimes
the watches would run down and we would lose
count. All that we knew of that long winter
was several portions of time calculated in this
way and cut in sticks, but this only furnished
more subject matter for discussion as the great
darkness dragged on.

The hardest part of our confinement was our
lack of amusement. Even the devil himself
seemed to be powerless to find something for our
idle hands to do. We talked of everything we
ever knew. Each man heard the genealogy of
every other man in the party until we could
repeat it all from memory. Every poem, or
song, or hymn that any of the members of the
party knew was repeated or sung so often that
all of us knew it.

Everyone of us made confessions of his past
life, simply for something to say that could not
have been wrung from him by the most severe
third degree methods under ordinary conditions.
Every man in the party knew every other man
better than it is possible for human beings to
know each other under any other conditions.

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MAD BUSH FOE GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Every thought that any of us had was expressed,
not as a confidence, but simply as a subject
for speech.

When we would get tired from singing or
talking we would write in our diary or whittle
on the logs in the cabin with our knives. During
that winter the interior of our cabin was written
over several times and the amount of wood that
was cut up in chips and carved into grotesque
shapes was astounding.

In the back of our memorandum books, was a
set of rules for first aid to the injured, tables of
weights and measures, and before the winter
was very far advanced everyone of us could
repeat what was in that book from memory, but
so thoroughly did we learn these rules and
tables that I remember them yet, although
we made no effort to commit them at the time.

After spending an indeterminate amount of
time amusing ourselves in this way we finally
invented a checker-board by marking squares
on a flour sack with a pencil and cutting round
and square checkers out of wood. Previous to
this time few of the members of the party,
including myself, knew anything about the game,
but within a short time we all became very good
players. We laid the checker-board down on the

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

flat top of a large spruce log that we had sawed
in two and stood on end for a table and spent
days and days figuring new combinations and
moves. I became so expert at the game at this
time that I have beaten many good players since
my return.

Our physical suffering, of course, resulted for
the most part from the intense cold. In the
middle of the winter when it became very cold
the air was usually very still and there were few
storms. Then it seemed the cold was the most
subtle and it was almost impossible to keep
warm no matter how big a fire we had.

At this time two of us would get into one
sleeping bag and lay as close as possible for
comfort. My St. Bernard dog I used as a
pillow when he lay at the head of my bunk and as
a foot warmer when he lay at the foot. The snow
outside had fallen to a depth of six to eight feet
and a big drift had collected on the north side of
our cabin, but wind kept the roof clear of snow.
From our door we had to go to the surface of the
snow, which was almost on a level with the
eaves of the roof.

We also suffered much from diseases incident
to close confinement and improper food. During
the early and middle part of the winter the men

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

were very inactive. Personally, I was thankful
for the desire I have always had for strenuous
exercise; many times I would try to get the rest
of the fellows to get up and go through a set of
exercises with me.

Sometimes they were so lazy that they would
not move and upon another occasion as many as
five would get up and take an active part. In
spite of my efforts our condition became terrible.
Some of the men became sore and rheumatism
was starting among them as a result of lying
down so much, yet they could not be induced to
move. Rather than take the trouble to cook
their food they often ate their meat raw.

During the winter our supply of salt became
exhausted and for a time we did not think we
would be able to live without it. Some of the
men who thought they could not live without it
nearly starved themselves. But gradually, how-
ever, as the pangs of hunger increased, we began
to eat our food without salt, and it was not long
until we did not miss it at all.

We soon began to have serious trouble with
our teeth, however, and some of the men were
driven desperate with pain. Several times the
men would pull an aching tooth with a piece of
string or wire, as this was the only way to obtain

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MAD RUSH FOB GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

relief. Just what the effect the lack of salt had
upon us at that time I do not know, but since
returning I have always had an almost insatiable
craving for salt.

In spite of all our hardships and our utter
disregard for one another, we still felt an interest
in the three members of our party who left our
camp early in the winter. We often talked about
them and speculated upon their possible fate.
I do not think that this was the result of any
brotherly feeling for them, but simply because
it was a subject for earnest conversation.

Before leaving for Alaska I had read quite a
little about snow-blindness, but neither before or
since have I ever heard the name of a disease
similar in its results, that attacked us during the
latter part of that terrible winter, which we had
begun to think would never end. Our eyes got
sore and pained us greatly from looking at the
flickering flames in the fire-place which was kept
burning continuously for seven months. At
times our eyes gave us as much pain as they did
when we were on the glacier, and it was impos-
sible for us to judge distances correctly. Many
times we burned our hands putting wood on the
fire because our eyes caused us to see the fire
farther away than it really was.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

I have always been inclined to believe that it
was the uncertainty rather than the brightness of
the firelight which gave us trouble. While it
seemed to be one continuous night outside,
there were times when it was lighter than others,
and although the snow made it possible to see
at all times, the fire was the brightest light we
had.

As we began to become accustomed to the
great Alaskan night, we found that except when
there was a storm raging, it was often possible
to trace the passing of a day in a general way by
means of the changes in the light and the climatic
conditions. It seemed that usually every twenty-
four hours there was a dead cold darkness which
we supposed was midnight. Then the atmos-
phere would grow perceptibly brighter and for a
time it would be fairly light. This condition
became more pronounced as spring advanced,
but at no time were the days well enough defined
for us to have marked them off on a calender
had we had any.

When we were cutting wood in the fall for our
winter supply we thought we had sufficient to
last us for two years, but burning it as we did
continusously day and night, soon depleted the
supply and some time after the middle of the

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

winter we found ourselves without fuel. There
was no alternative but to go out into that
frigid darkness and cut it. This proved to be a
terrible hardship. Most of the men were just
now physically unable for the work. Having
done nothing but lay around for about four
months; their muscles were soft and some of
them seemed to be almost helpless. The woods
were so thick that many dead trees still stood up
and by untold drudgery and suffering from the
cold we cut them off above the snow and sledded
them back to the cabin with the dogs.

At this point I cannot refrain from saying
something about the dogs which were as much
averse to working as were the men. During the
winter one of our diversions had been teaching
the dogs tricks. My big St. Bernard was the
only one of them that seemed to learn or under-
stand, and he was so intelligent that at times it
seemed to me he knew and understood our
inmost feelings and desires. The wolf dogs or
huskies seemed to be able to learn nothing but
to be continually on their guard and to steal
when the opportunity offered. They watched us
continually; when our supply of wood became
exhausted and we started to get out the sleds
they would sneak away and try to hide the
minute the first man reached up to take down

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

the harness. Still, when they were hitched up,
they pulled in the harness with a will and did
not seem to have been as much affected by the
long idleness as were the men.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Streak of Light in North at Last Heralds the

Coming of Springtime. Men Start to Dig

Shaft for Gold Mine. Another Man

Becomes III and Hopeless Efforts Are

Made to Save Him. Abundance of

Fish Now Being Caught Changes

Diet.

CHAPTER XVI.

E labored and suffered what seemed
an endless age. We had been
looking eagerly for the coming of
spring long before our wood pile
was exhausted, and after we had
been cutting our fuel from the stump
for a long time. There was yet no
sign of spring.
We descended into the lowest depths of de-
spair. Months before we thought we had noticed
conditions that presaged the immediate breaking
up of the winter and had made ourselves believe
that we had almost seen the sun again. We
discussed the possibility of the earth coming to a
standstill or the sun burning out. We began to
lose faith in nature and we almost resigned
ourselves to the fate of freezing to death in that
dreadful, limitless and never-ending darkness.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

How we ever managed to live during this
period I cannot now explain. I feel that our
despair had affected our minds, and we were just
doing things after a mechanical fashion with no
particular end in view. As we continued to
make expeditions after wood, we became some-
what hardened to the work, and we did not suffer
so much. At times, however, we were so com-
pletely exhausted after bringing a log to camp
that we were compelled to leave it at the door
and stagger in to our bags for rest. We burned
everything about the cabin we could spare in
order to diminish the labor of getting fuel, even
to the bones of the bear we had killed, which
made such an offensive odor that we could
hardly endure it and which it seemed never
subsided.

To make matters worse our wood stove began
to fall to pieces, being practically burned out,
and this also was a cause of alarm on our part.
George Evens, one of the party, was a tinsmith,
but he had nothing with which to repair it.
The stove was a sheet-iron affair with a collap-
sible pipe and had been very serviceable. In the
early winter we built an addition to our cabin
in front of the door which was supposed to be a
sort of storm-break or shed; we set up the stove

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

there and used it as a kitchen where we did all
of our baking and cooking.

Although we did not notice it ourselves, we
must have been a most ragged, sorry, disheart-
ened looking lot of men at this time. My hair
and beard was at least a foot long and thickly
matted, as was most of the other men of the
party, and I suppose all men in Alaska were
equally as grizzly.

Most of us were convinced that the sun had
died out, leaving the earth to its fate, and we
were simply eking out a dreadful existence
without hope. Again the first laws of nature,
self preservation, asserted itself in some unknown
manner, and kept us alive against our wills.
We had lost all hope, yet we continued to suffer
and exist for no reason that we could satisfac-
torily explain. Again some Higher Power seemed
to interfere and we followed blindly a sort of
instinct that compelled us to worry on.

We had long ago lost interest in looking up
into the heavens for some sign of coming spring.
Situated as we were down in the depths of a
valley with towering mountains on all sides,
we had not even seen the glories of the Aurora
Borealis, which must have been very brilliant
in the north. To us the heavens looked just

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

the same as they did ages before when the winter
began. We were doomed and we knew it. There
was no hope. We were simply awaiting a ter-
rible end. The sun had gone out. The day of
judgment was at hand and we had been aban-
doned by the Almighty on a dead and latent
planet that had been swallowed up in dark and
frigid space.

In the depths of our despair, when we had
about resigned ourselves to our fate, a streak of
light appeared above the range of hills. At first
we could not believe our eyes. It disappeared
before we could convince ourselves that we had
seen anything, but after an anxious wait of
twenty-four hours it reappeared again, and we
were convinced that the long winter was about
to break.

The thought of the approach of warm weather
put new life into us, and in one day we were
transformed from a sorry, disheartened gang of
adventurers who had given up to die, to an
expectant, though motley, company of gold
seekers. Although we were near physical wrecks
from our long confinement, we could not restrain
our joy and the days of waiting for the ice and
snow to begin to melt were even worse than the
long winter.

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MAD EUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

The temperature began to rise slowly and
while the mercury dropped to from six to eight
degrees below zero at night, it rose to twenty
above in the brightest part of the day.

We took a renewed interest in life, and every
day a hunting party was sent out. At first
they had little or no luck, but within a few days
the men began to bring back some ptarmigan,
which gave our diet variety, although the meat
was far from being palatable. The hunters saw
many bear tracks and occasionally they located
a bear, but it was too early in the season to kill
them as their meat was liable to have a repulsive
taste of fish. None of them were shot, as our
ammunition was short and we wanted every shot
to count for food.

After waiting a long time during which the
streak of light we had first seen in the north
became a brilliant twilight, the sun appeared,
only for a brief space of time at first, but as the
days passed it continued to mount higher into
the heavens and we were overjoyed. I was never
before so glad to see Old Sol. It was like raising
the shades of day.

We forgot immediately our terrible sufferings
during the winter and thought only of the
glorious light. Our desire for gold came back

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

with our renewed life; although our ambitions
had lain dormant all winter, we were out pros-
pecting just as soon as the weather would permit.
Indeed, so anxious were we to get to work that
we could not wait until the grip of the long
winter was unloosed by the returning summer,
but attempted to dig down through the frozen
snow. Although we had no reason whatever to
suspect it, we were convinced that our claim
contained a large amount of gold and we would
all go home rich.

As the weather became warmer it started great
avalanches to slide down the sides of the moun-
tains, producing thunderous roars. Although we
had heard the roar of the avalanche almost
every day after reaching Alaska, this was only a
suggestion of what was to take place near our
cabin that spring. The noise seemed continuous
and was loudest in the evening when the largest
number of snow-slides were in motion. The
noise from these slides would echo and re-echo
between the mountains with a series of rumblings
that sounded like a battle of giants. At first
this continuous noise disturbed us, but we
finally became accustomed to it.

After looking around, we finally selected a
place at the side of the mountain to dig a shaft,

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

which was about one and a half miles from our
cabin, and as soon as it became warm enough we
pitched our tents nearby and all of the men
started to work. We built a large fire over the
spot we selected for the shaft. We kept it
burning continually for two days, to thaw the
frost out of the ground, which seemed to be
down about fifteen feet.

The spot cleared was about ten feet square,
and the fire left a mass of mud which required a
great amount of labor to remove. Six to eight
men were kept busy at work in the shaft, which
was dug out in shelves so that the hole became
smaller the deeper we went. When it was so
small that no more shelves could be built, we
erected a crude windlass and drew the dirt up in
buckets.

The windlass, which was a ponderous affair,
was made by cutting down two trees, that forked
several feet above the ground. One of these was
planted on each side of the shaft and a good sized
log laid across the opening in the ground between
the forks. This log could be turned by means of
a handle, and a rope and two buckets were
attached to it in such a manner that when a
bucket full of dirt was being brought up an
empty bucket was let down.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

The operation of this windlass was most
laborious, but the men were so sure that they
would strike gold that they never complained,
but worked on until they were completely
exhausted and then crawled into their sleeping
bags for rest. The ice continued to melt and
by the time we had reached a depth of twenty
feet the river was open and moving, but we were
unable to catch any fish. Our supplies were
beginning to get low, and we came to the con-
clusion that we must replenish them from some
source.

As the sinking of the shaft progressed we
frequently took samples of the dirt and washed it
searching carefully for color. After we had
tunneled in toward the mountain about thirty
feet we finally came to the conclusion that we
had struck pay dirt and we were surely overjoyed.
We hastily arranged our crib and rocker and
putting in some mercury which we kept in a
three-inch iron pipe, plugged at both ends with
caps, we started to wash for gold. We continued
to work the rocker for four days; at the end of
that time the last few pails of dirt from bed rock
contained a very small percentage of pin gold,
which was all the gold we got during our stay in
Alaska. Copper was plentiful enough in small

214

WINDLASS

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

nuggets and we gathered together a considerable
quantity of this metal.

While we were digging our shaft, Merrill, our
mineralogist, became very ill and fell away to a
shadow. He had a high fever, and although we
did not know what was the matter with him at
the time, I have thought since that it must have
been either typhoid or scurvy. His hair came
out and then all of his teeth became loose and
finally fell out.

He insisted upon working as long as he could
remain on his feet and after he got down we
attended him as best we could. We placed snow
on his forehead to counteract the fever and
although he suffered greatly, he never com-
plained. His illness somewhat dampened our
gold-seeking ardor. Soon his presence seemed to
exert a gloom over us all that we could not shake
off. In our weakened condition we knew that
if any of us became ill we would have no chance,
and the terror of a lingering illness, that could
have no ending but death in that wild region,
oppressed us as we watched our poor comrade
grow worse.

After we had despaired of ever catching any
more fish, as the men spent many hours trying
for them each day without success, the river

217

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

suddenly became filled with them swimming up
stream and we had no trouble in catching all we
needed. For a time we ate nothing else. The
change in our diet benefitted us considerably and
for the first time in several weeks we ate all we
wanted. We had completely lost all record of
time and we had no idea what month of the
year it was. We had come to judge time by
seasons rather than by days and we knew that
we were in the beginning of the Alaskan summer
season.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Three Mare Men Who Go Out Prospecting Are
Lost. Dog Leads Rescue Party to Their
Tent. Completely Disheartened, Remain-
ing Men Suddenly Think of Home.
Start Is Made for Home in Dead of
the Great Alaskan Winter. Leave
Equipment At Cabin.

CHAPTER XVII.

URING our long confinement in the
cabin a great range of mountains
just south of us that stood out stark
and white against the sky seemed
to be beckoning to us as we waited
the long winter through. Somehow
we came to believe that there was
gold at the base of those mountains
and long before the sun made its appearance,
we had decided to accept the challenge.

After starting work on our shaft, we sent out
an exploring party, consisting of Davis, our
engineer, John Horman and Edward Norris,
who took with them three weeks' provisions.
I was urged to accompany them and at the last
moment decided to remain at our permanent
camp, as I had become very proficient as a cook

219

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

and the men thought my services were more
needed at camp.

Two weeks passed during which time we heard
nothing from our friends and we began to become
alarmed. We waited still another week; when
they did not return, four of the strongest mem-
bers of our party, myself included, started out
with a one week's supply of food to look for them.
We took my faithful dog, Kodiak, and six others
and they seemed to realize that we were looking
for our companions. My faithful dog would
sniff the air and seemed to be continually anxious
to pick a trail on the ground or in the snow.

The mosquitoes again appeared in the ravine
we were in, and not being prepared for them,
we were greatly bothered, but we trudged on
in the direction we knew the exploring party
had taken. After traveling for two days over a
rough country, covering about twenty-five miles,
Kodiak started to whine and run ahead; we
followed as best we could, thinking that perhaps
he scented a bear or some other animal; he led
us about two miles and suddenly we came upon
our comrades' tent which did not look as if it
had been occupied for several days. We felt
that at last we had come upon them, and we
decided to rest there for a while and await their
return.

220

MAD RUSH FOB GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

We slept in the tent that night and the next
morning we began to feel that everything was
not right and that probably something had
happened to the party. We fired our guns and
built a large fire and smothered it so that dense
clouds of smoke rose high in the air. With the
great white snow-capped mountains for a back-
ground and the rare atmosphere, we thought
that the smoke could be seen as far as our per-
manent camp, but there was no sign of them
anywhere.

We would have been at a total loss to know
what to do or how to proceed if it had not been
for my dog Kodiak. He had become so familiar
with the men during the long winter that he
seemed to know who we were hunting for and
several times he ran away in one direction so
that at last we decided the best plan was to
follow him.

After following the dog for a mile along the
side of the mountain we came to a great gulch
that had been freshly torn out of the side of the
mountain by an avalanche. It was at least one
hundred feet wide and ended below in a great
canyon through which roared a swift flowing
river. The picture that greeted our gaze as we
stood there on the edge of that great fissure was

223

MAD EUSH FOE GOLD IN FEOZEN NOETH

indeed terrible; there and then we came to the
conclusion that our comrades had been caught
in that great avalanche and swept down to a
horrible death.

The trail of the avalanche showed that it came
down the mountain side in a zig-zag track,
carrying everything before it. Great rocks and
trees were ground under it and dragged along
underneath, tearing great fissures in the side of
the mountain. We were even then in a danger-
ous place as several small slides went down close
by where we stood.

Far below we could see where the entire slide
tumbled over the edge of that gigantic canyon
and disappeared. We were afraid to venture
near the edge of the canyon whose walls of solid
rock seemed to drop abruptly for hundreds of
feet and which seemed to be at least a mile wide.
Far up the canyon we could see the roaring river
which the canyon walls cut off from our view as
it approached. As we stood and looked at that
overwhelming picture we felt instinctively that
it was responsible for the death of our comrades,
and if they had not been swept away in the
avalanche they must have crossed its path
before it swept down and then found themselves
unable to get back. None of them ever returned
to tell the story.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

There was nothing left for us to do but to go
back to camp, and we began to talk over our
misfortunes, and as the death of our comrades cast
its gloom over us, we gradually became to realize
our plight. Until this time our desire for gold
had almost continually been our ruling passion,
but now fear began to take its place and thoughts
of home and the uncompromising possibility
that we might never get there, struck terror to
our very souls.

The fact that we were in all probability hope-
lessly lost, many miles from civilization,
impressed itself upon us. For the first time since
we left New York City we were thoroughly
frightened. Life even with its terrible hardships
had never seemed so sweet, and that we had
been so foolish as to imperil it to seek gold now
appeared to be unthinkable. GOLD! We
detested it; we hated it and from that day on
we did not spend a minute looking for it. Our
ambition was demoralized. Our single and only
thought was to save ourselves and try to get
out of the country.

I am firmly convinced that if we had acci-
dentally struck the richest gold mine in the world
we would have left it untouched. What was
gold to us now ? Gold was simply a yellow metal.

225

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

We could not eat it, we could not load our guns
with it. It would not clothe us. It would not
take us back to civilization. It would not keep
us alive, and life was all we cared for now.

With our food supply almost gone, our clothes
completely worn out and our ammunition
exhausted, we descended into the lowest depths
of despair and dismally discussed the possibility
of getting back to Yakutat or to the coast some-
where where we could get a boat for home. We
wanted to start immediately, but we found that
we would be unable to go until snow came again,
so we could use our sleds and the condition of
Mr. Merrill, who was still very ill, made it imper-
ative that we remain and take care of him. The
poor fellow lay there just rolling and tossing with
a continual high fever just waiting for the end
to come.

As the frost began to come out of the ground,
our shaft filled with water and made working it
impossible, but we did not give it a second
thought. We moved back to our cabin again
and began to lay plans for a perilous dash to the
coast as soon as there was plenty of snow in the
valley and travel was possible. This we real-
ized would not be more than six weeks or two
months. Some of the men wanted to go back

226

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

the way we came into the interior over the
glacier, while others declared they would rather
die than take that route.

All the records of our trip inbound were lost
with Davis, our engineer, who had made a map
of the glacier and our trip to the present camp.
We decided to follow the river, as did the other
three of our party last winter when it froze, not
knowing where it would take us. In the mean-
time there was nothing for us to do but wait, and
we employed our time catching plenty of fish
and replenishing our food supply. Every man's
rations were cut down to almost nothing, and
we did not allow ourselves all the fish we wanted
in order thereby to get together a good supply
for our journey.

We killed six of our dogs in order to save our
food and by cooking them, fed them to the
remaining dogs to fatten them; we also
attempted to cure the fish we caught by smoking
them. We secured a piece of wire by taking
apart the old stove that had burned out the
winter before, and smoked the fish by running
the wire through their gills and suspending
them over the fire.

For several weeks we did nothing but catch
and smoke fish. During all this time Merrill

229

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

had been very ill and we wondered what would
become of him. We realized that he could not
go with us and if we remained we would surely
all perish. At last he grew worse and died
without a murmur after a heroic struggle. We
took his outer garments and moccasins and
buried him as best we could about fifty feet
from our cabin, putting the remains of the stove
with some stones on his grave as a mark. There
were now but eight of the original party of
eighteen left, and we had begun to feel that
none of us would ever survive to tell the story.

When I thought how near I had come to going
with the exploring party and what a narrow
escape I had, the disaster seemed to weigh more
heavily upon me than upon any of the other
survivors. I brooded over it for weeks; at
times I even wished that I had perished with
them. I did not know then as I know now that
the death of those three men was the sacrifice
that was to save my life, or I might have been
more miserable still, if that were possible. Had
it not been for the clothing that was left us by
Davis, Horman, Norris and Merrill, everyone
of us would have perished with the cold before
we had traveled many miles from the camp.

By the end of that second summer all of our
clothing was completely worn out. My heavy

230

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

woolen socks, which were prevented from falling
away from my legs by the mucklocks, were
worn until there was not a semblance of a stock-
ing left. It was not even possible to recognize
a weave in them. There was nothing left but a
dirty mass of wool. Our moccasins were entirely
gone and even before we started on our journey
we suffered terribly from the cold.

We divided the clothing that was left behind
by dead comrades. We wrapped up our feet
in rags and in this manner prevented them from
freezing and prepared for our journey. We
figured that it must be near the month of
November or December or about a year and
ten months since we left New York City. We
had hardly brought along clothing enough to
last us for a year, as we had expected to be back
in New York long before this.

From the time I left for Alaska I had been
accustomed to carry my money, which was in
gold and paper, in a belt strapped around my
waist; but on getting to our permanent camp
after the cabin was built, the belt was so heavy
and hard that it cut into my flesh and made a
continual sore. In order to avoid carrying it
around, I cut a hole in a log of the cabin just
above my bunk and carefully placed it there.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

There was about seven hundred dollars in the
belt and as I had no use for it where we were,
I forgot all about it in time.

It was at this time that I had impressed upon
me most vividly that money, in itself, was
useless. In a civilized country money represents
many things that are worth while in life, but in
Alaska, where we were, it represented nothing.
We could forget about it, because it was simply
an incumbrance. At this time we forgot that
for which we came. Had we succeeded in hoard-
ing an untold amount of gold in our shack, it
would have all been forgotten. Gold is of very
little value when a man's life is at stake.

At last the river had frozen to a depth of four
or more feet and we made all preparations for
our trip. By this time the sun had disappeared
and there was only a little twilight each day.
We delayed a little longer than we intended by
attempting to get more food, by fishing through
holes cut in the ice. We met with very little
success, but we persisted, knowing that starva-
tion was probably staring us in the face.

By the time we finally started, the river was
frozen solid. We left behind everything but our
food, sleeping bags, one tent and a shovel or
two, and with four dogs attached to each sled,

232

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

made our way slowly down the river. Probably
to this day our entire equipment of guns, etc.,
is still there by the Tanana River just as we left
it, a heart-breaking exhibit of blasted hopes
and labor lost.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Rough Traveling Down the River. Footprints

Discovered in the Snow, Lead to Indian

Village. Refugees Pitch Camp with

Natives. A White Man With Natives

Gives Directions to Reach Coast. One

of Party Gets His Feet Frost Bitten.

CHAPTER XVIII.

E traveled down the river at the
rate of ten miles a day with dusk
continually hanging over us. The
surface of the river was very rough
in places which made progress slow,
and in places great rocks protruded
through the ice and snow. We
suffered terribly with the cold;
at times we were harassed by fierce blizzards,
which swept down and made life in the open
almost impossible.

When further progress became impossible,
we would pile up our sleds as a wind break, and
throw our tent loosely over us, and the men and
dogs would huddle together, in order to prevent
being frozen to death, until the storm passed.
We employed every precaution at our command
to prevent freezing, and took turns rubbing and

237

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

hitting one another in order to keep the blood in
circulation. Whenever one of us became lazy,
the others would make him exercise in order to
keep awake.

Our physical condition at this time was prob-
ably worse than at any time so far. There
seemed to be nothing left but our animal
natures. Although we were a long time on the
river, I remember very little of the trip as we
were just numb from the cold; and for the most
part, it appears to be a blank space in my life.
I remember, however, that we had to get off the
river course and make a trail through a close
canyon, where the going was very rough. The
side walls arose very abruptly on either side for
several hundred feet; at times they seemed to
close at the top as we could see very little of the
sky.

On these occasions the natural darkness was
greatly augmented and sometimes it was impos-
sible to see very far ahead. The outlook was
indeed awful and we felt that we were going
forward to a terrible and unknown doom. We
knew to turn back meant sure death; and we
chose the unknown and worked our way slowly
and gloomily on, into that terrible gulf.

After traveling along for a few days we again
came to the river. We had been on our way now

238

MAD RUSH FCR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

about three weeks and came to a point where the
river spread out into a stream one-half mile wide.
To our surprise we came upon the tracks of
snow-shoes and dogs, and we immediately
thought of our comrades, who had left our
camp the winter before. We were beyond our-
selves with joy.

The chance finding of these tracks was another
link in the chain of miraculous events that was
to lead to our final rescue. Had we not come
across these tracks, we would have all probably
perished on account of our insufficient clothing
and food supply. We would have continued
our journey up the Tanana River to the Yukon,
where, by only the merest possibility would we
have been able to reach a mining settlement at
that season of the year.

We followed the tracks down the river for
half a mile, when we left the water course going
through a large canyon; after two hours' hard
traveling, as the trail was rough and irregular
and the sleds would often upset, we finally came
to a crude Indian settlement. We expected to
surely find our three comrades. As we
approached, their dogs began growling and
barking when suddenly from out of the igloos
came several natives clothed in reindeer skin.

239

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

They seemed to be a very low order of human
being.

They had deserted their shacks and were
living in their igloos or ice-constructed houses
and were greatly surprised to see us. They
crowded around us and stared, and one of their
number who could speak English asked us who
we were and where we came from. We could
see immediately that they were far below the
Yakutat natives in intelligence. We at once
inquired about our friends but they shook their
heads. Evidently if they had traveled this way
they had missed this Indian settlement and had
gone on up the Tanana River, toward the Yukon
River, to perish in some unknown manner.

We pitched our tents alongside the igloos
and prepared to stay with the Indians for a few
days. We soon learned that the man who spoke
to us was not an Indian, but a Swede who had
been living with the natives for the past ten
years, and had a squaw for a wife with half-
breed children. He was a man of few words like
the natives with whom he lived, but we finally
managed to learn that his name was Jenson and
that he had once lived in New London, Conn.
How he ever happened to get to be connected
with that tribe of uncivilized natives, in the

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almost inaccessible interior of Alaska, we did
not know. He seemed to have great influence
over the natives and if we had not met him it
is not at all likely that we would have been
treated as well as we were. The Alaskan native
is a man who attends strictly to his own affairs
and apparently he extends very little sympathy
to an unfortunate brother.

The Indians we met in the interior belonged
to some small tribe and in appearance were
much like the Indians we had met on the coast.
Men and women were dressed alike and as their
bodies were completely covered, with the excep-
tion of a small portion of their faces, it was
impossible to tell them a part. Our dogs which
were in a fairly good condition when we started
from the cabin, were now foot-sore and com-
pletely fagged out. We made moccasins for all
of the dogs out of our worn out leather coats,
which proved a great help; it saved us from
stopping so often to pick the snow from between
their toes.

We noticed among other things that the
Indians had a peculiar method of preventing
snow-blindness that was different from the
practice of the coast Indians. They used a piece
of wood in which was a very small slit, not much

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

wider than a needle point, which was fastened
in front of the eyes. This prevented very little
light from getting through and while I do not
think that this plan was as effective as our
colored glasses it was much better than painting
the eyes. Their sole occupation was hunting
and fishing. When the river was open they
packed up the Tanana one hundred miles to the
Yukon, where they met traders who came up
the river. Other than this, we learned very
little about the natives, because our physical
condition and the partially demented state of
our minds caused us to take little or no interest
in what was happening about us.

During our trip down the river, George Evans,
one of our party, had both feet frost-bitten and
after we pitched our tent and built a fire they
gave him terrible pain. As long as he remained
outside where it was cold he did not suffer, but
just as soon as we built a fire he raved. More
than once we were compelled to prevent him
from cutting off his toes with an axe. We
rubbed snow and ice on this feet and did every-
thing possible for him, but it did not relieve him.
The natives came in our tent and looked at
Evans; although they knew that his condition
meant certain death, they offered no sympathy
nor suggestions whatever.

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Our condition was indeed precarious, but we
did not consider for a moment staying with the
natives during the winter and setting out again
in the spring. Mr. Jenson attempted to tell us
of the perils we would encounter if we continued
our journey, but the state of our minds was such
that even if he had told us we would go to certain
death, I do not doubt but that we would have
set out on our journey.

As our clothing was completely worn out, we
attempted to buy some from the natives. After
considerable dickering, they finally provided each
of us with a pair of mucklocks and a hair seal
coat, crudely sewed together with gut, and
equipped with a hood for the head and large
mitts, which reached to the elbows. They also
gave us a quantity of oil to use for fuel and some
smoked fish. They wanted flour in exchange,
but we had so little left that we could not spare
it. They finally agreed to take gold in payment,
and then I suddenly discovered, for the first
time, that I had left all of my money behind in
the cabin with the rest of our equipment,
probably one hundred and fifty miles away.
Arthur Wilson and Pitman paid my share of the
money, and I did not give my loss a second
thought.

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Mr. Jenson gave us our compass bearings and
directions to reach Orca on the coast; we were
to go down a stream from their village, then
cross a glacier until we came to Copper River,
and continue down to the coast. Before we
left the settlement he invited us to his igloo,
where he served a feed in our honor. In the
center of the igloo was a fire made with a large
wick floating in a pot containing a thick dirty
mess of grease. I thought at the time that this
pot had never been cleaned and the odor that
arose from it was stifling. Our host passed
around a board on which was some dried and
frozen seal meat cut into strips about one inch
square and six inches long. The meat was
almost entirely fat with a streak of lean through
it here and there.

We did not know what was expected of us,
but as the others each took a strip of meat, we
did likewise. It was very evident to me that it
would be impossible to eat it in its present con-
dition, and again we allowed the natives who
were sitting around in a circle to take the
initiative. Holding one end of the strip in the
pot of hot grease for a few minutes until it had
been thawed out, they then bit a piece off and
devoured it with great relish, making all kinds

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

of offensive and ill-bred noises with their lips
as they ate.

We attempted to do likewise but failed
miserably. I held one end of my strip of fat in
the grease for several minutes and then bit a
chunk off. The taste was almost unbearable,
but I was so nearly famished that I could easily
have endured the taste if I had been able to
chew it. It seemed that the longer I chewed,
the larger the chunk of meat got and I had to
give it up as my teeth hurt so. My comrades
were equally unsuccessful in their efforts to
partake of Mr. Jenson's hospitality. Mr. Jen-
son's native wife gave us a mixture of small red
berries, and a sort of lard and another kind of
plant all mixed together and while we ate it I
am sure not one of the men cared for more.

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Glacier Is Again Reached. One of Party Frozen

to Death. Food and Fuel Exhausted. The

Dogs Are Killed and Eaten. The Ocean

At Last Looms Up Before Them. The

Men Are Exhausted and Bewildered.

CHAPTER XIX.

FTER spending a week with the
natives, we again packed our sleds
and resumed our journey. Instead
of following the Tanana River,
which runs in a generally north-
westerly direction, we turned about
and took a course almost due south.
My faithful dog Kodiak, who was
much thinner than when we left the camp, was
always in the lead. As we rushed along, the
dogs would often get into a general fight, which
always meant a half hour's work to untangle
the harness; we had to beat the huskies in order
to stop these fights, which always meant the crip-
pling of one or more dogs.

We proceeded over a rough country toward the
glacier. I cannot help but refer again to my dog,
who had been more to me than any of my
comrades. He was always ready and willing,

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and, although reduced almost to a shadow, he
seemed to understand all my troubles and
extend his sympathy. Often when I would look
into his bottomless eyes, which betrayed unusual
intelligence, I could see there an innocent appeal
and a solicitude for my welfare that made my
heart ache. He understood every word I spoke
to him and when a cross word escaped my lips
he would drop his head and allow his tail to
droop until I spoke kindly to him again.

After several days of rough traveling, we
reached the glacier and found that a hazardous
job of getting up on it confronted us. The end
of that vast ocean of ice was a twisted and
broken mass which at first made us despair of
ever being able to climb over it. After consider-
able work, however, we finally managed to
break a rough trail and get up on the body of the
glacier. We found that the surface of the ice
was so rough that we could not use our sleds;
we were compelled to pack our goods the first
two miles, which was a cold and laborious job.
Fortunately we had little with us except our
provisions, which were running short, or we
would have perished from sheer exhaustion and
cold. When we were finally able to use our sleds
again, the going was so hard that each man was
compelled to lash a rope to his sled and put it

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over his shoulder to assist his dogs. With never
any sunshine and the Aurora Borealis hidden by
the mountains, we toiled hopelessly on through
the cold dreary night.

Evans, one of the men whose feet had been
frost-bitten just before we reached the Indian
village, continued to grow worse and had his
feet frosted again soon after we got on the glacier.
He did not suffer so much now, but his feet
swelled to twice their normal size and he was
unable to walk. His condition was indeed
pitiful and hopeless, but he did not complain.
We placed him on his sled tucked in his sleeping
bag and had his dogs pull him along. The
temperature must have been from thirty to fifty
degrees below zero and all that we could do for
him was to rub his feet from the outside. In
spite of all our efforts he grew worse; he seemed
to have no feeling in his limbs at all and lost all
interest in life at the same time. He just seemed
to fall into a peaceful sleep and before we could
realize it he was dead.

We buried him in the snow and killed his dogs
to save food, then proceeded without so much as
the shedding of a tear. Our physical condition
at this time was such that mourning for anyone
was impossible and we even envied him his

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peaceful sleep. Our trip out over the glacier
was much worse than our trip inbound, almost
two years before. The dogs we killed, belonging
to Evans, we fed to the other dogs, which greatly
relieved them, making them better able to
pull our sleds.

The ice was very rough as we entered some of
the narrow canyons and great mountains loomed
up all along the route. Although we had a small
burden as compared with what we took into
Alaska, we were almost famished and bordering
on collapse. With fierce storms blowing and the
temperature below zero, existence under any
circumstances was almost impossible.

It is impossible to set down in words an
adequate idea of the hardships we endured
during our trip across the ice and snow. When
we left the Indian settlement we expected to
reach Orca within three weeks, but a month
passed and we toiled on with the long night
hovering over the ice that seemed to be limitless.
We were again afflicted with snow blindness,
but not as bad as we were before, as our colored
glasses afforded great relief. We had to use our
snow-shoes continually and we set up our tent
about every other day to do the little cooking
which was necessary. The surface of the glacier

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was broken here and there by great crevasses
which compelled us to make wide detours;
these, in connection with the rough ice we
encountered, greatly impeded our progress.
We also took greater precaution than before;
we connected the sleds with ropes in order to
guard against any of the remaining members of
the party falling into a crevasse in the ice.

Terrible blizzards also caused us great incon-
venience and at times we felt that we must
perish. The snow was usually frozen very hard
and it cut like sharp sand. At times we were
unable to see more than ten feet ahead, and we
never knew whether the snow was falling or just
being blown about. It was almost impossible
to cook anything, although we had brought
along a supply of wood for fuel as well as some
oil tied up in skins, which we had procured from
the natives. The wood would burn lustily when
placed in the remains of one of our stoves which
we had brought along, and a wick placed in the
oil would blaze up when a match was applied to
it, but two inches from the blaze, water would
freeze because of the cold all around.

With our compass always before us, we toiled
on, hoping against hope to reach the Copper
River every hour. We would push on until

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completely exhausted or a fierce blizzard made
further progress impossible; then, piling up our
sleds as a wind-break, we would crawl into our
sleeping bags, throw our tent loosely over us
and lie down with our dogs from sheer exhaustion.

Our dogs suffered terribly as it was very
seldom that dogs were required to make a trip
over a glacier, even during the summer time.
At this season of the year, such a trip was even
worse for the dogs than for the men. The
moccasins we made for the dogs were entirely
worn out, and the snow worked up between
their toes and froze. Every few hours we were
compelled to stop and dig the ice out of the dogs'
feet with a knife. The ice often caused them
great pain by spreading their toes, and unless it
was removed it made travel impossible for them;
the bright red spots on the snow told the tale of
their condition and we would relieve them as
best we could.

We had been on the glacier probably six weeks
when our flour supply became exhausted. The
wood we had brought along for cooking was also
consumed and all we had left was a few smoked
fish and some beans. For the first time since I
started out, I lost heart completely and every
vestige of hope that I had entertained before,

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slowly ebbed away. When I thought that we
had expected to reach Orca within three weeks
and we had been on our journey a month and a
half, I became convinced that there was abso-
lutely no hope for us, and I slowly became
reconciled to my fate. This is a feeling that no
one who has never experienced it, can appreciate.
Man, it seems, has two distinct minds or sets of
feelings. One a conscious sense that gives up
when all hope is gone, and gains peace by recon-
ciling itself to its fate; the other an unconscious
sense, which never gives up. We had con-
sciously given ourselves up as lost, yet uncon-
sciously and hopelessly plodded on with no
end whatever in view.

Weak from hunger and with only four dogs
left, which were equally as weak and hungry,
we left everything behind, extra sleeping bags,
our rusty stove, a shovel, and a number of other
articles — and made our last desperate stand
against fate and the elements. Our strength
was so far gone from want of food that we found
further progress was impossible without nour-
ishment, and in our last extremity we killed
one of the dogs.

Repulsive as dog meat would be to me now,
I can only remember that the tough sinews of

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

that famished animal tasted good and we ate
the meat like savage animals, not being able to
wait until it was properly cooked. The dog
meat revived us to a considerable extent, but
it was with great effort that we took our places
alongside of the three remaining dogs and helped
tug the sleds along. We gave the poor famished
dogs the bones of their mate with a little of the
cooked meat; we realized that to an extent we
had to rely upon the dogs if we ever intended to
reach anywhere.

Soon we became aware of a change in con-
ditions and we found that we were going down a
long incline. We had at last reached the summit
of the glacier; yet for some unaccountable
reason this fact did not elate us — no ray of hope
shone on our dreary way. We still plodded on
hopelessly to our doom which we were sure
awaited us. Our meat supply again became low
and we were compelled to kill another dog,
leaving my dog Kodiak and a large husky.

By this time, spring was beginning to come
slowly again and we could see the brightness of
the returning sun in the sky. It would only
appear for a short time and disappear, yet it
gave us no hope. Time meant nothing to us
now. We never expected to see the sun again

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and its returning brightness only annoyed us.
Our course now was always down grade, which
made travel comparatively easy, and had not
this condition favored us we should have
perished. This was simply another of the chain
of circumstances — that now seem almost provi-
dential— that was to save us.

As we toiled on in the dim twilight several
days after our last stand, we noticed far ahead of
us a change in the color of the landscape near the
horizon — a thin streak of blue. Our first thought
was that it was the sea; but when we remembered
that Mr. Jenson had told us that we would have
to travel one hundred and fifty miles down the
Copper River after crossing the glacier, we felt
that this could not be so. As we traveled on, the
streak of blue undoubtedly became an expanse of
water and, although we were still undecided as
to what it was, it engendered in us a spark of
hope as water always will. Before many hours
we came near enough to identify the water
before us as the Pacific Ocean, and in spite of
the fact that by this time we were almost in a
delirious state of mind, we were somewhat
bewildered. The next day after a sleepless
night we continued toward our gleam of hope
and now fully realized that before us was the
Pacific Ocean!

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Men Eat Last Dog and Some Dead Fish Found On
Beach and Lapse Into Unconsciousness.
Four Found Alive by the U. S. Revenue
Cutter. Taken to Sitka Hospital,
Where They Recovered in Two Weeks
and Return Home. False News-
paper Reports of Success.

CHAPTER XX.

LTHOUGH we had provided our-
selves with the best maps available
before starting on our expedition,
we always found them very unre-
liable, and we were seldom able to
identify any of the rivers or glaciers
we crossed, except the Malaspina
Glacier. After leaving the Indian
settlement in the interior we had followed the
instructions of Mr. Jenson to the best of our
ability, but we must have gone out of our
course. My impression is that we bore to the
east and instead of crossing an arm of the
glacier, as Mr. Jenson had directed, we crossed it
lengthwise and followed its course all the way to
the sea. This course was probably shorter than
the one laid out for us by Jenson, but the hard-

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ships of traveling over the ice were infinitely
greater than traveling down the river. Besides
the shorter route over the ice led us nowhere,
while the route down the Copper River would
have taken us to Orca, an Indian settlement,
where also were a number of miners.

When we finally reached the break-off of the
glacier we found that it ended abruptly in the
sea; what little hope the sight of water had given
us was again blasted. For at least six hours we
toiled, pulling our sleds along the edge of the ice
in a northwesterly direction, hoping to come
to some place where we could get down to the
beach. At last we saw a range of hills ahead
which seemed to confine the glacier.

After considerable work we managed to get
off the glacier on to one of the small hills and
make our way down its side to a small strip of
the beach, which was partially covered with
huge masses of ice, between which there was the
open sand. It was only with a superhuman
effort that we ever reached the sand, as the ice
was so thickly massed near the beach that we
could not find a passage and we had to pack
very carefully over them. The tides rise very
high at that point. From the edge of the solid
ice on the shore, to the edge of the water at low
tide, was two hundred feet or more in places.

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MAD RUSH FOE GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Our condition, both physical and mental at
this time, cannot well be described. As I look
back now, this portion of my life seems clouded
in an almost impenetrable maze. I had no
definite idea of the passing of time. The time
we made our last desperate stand until we
reached the sea was just as long as it required
seven half starved men to eat two famished dogs.
There is no doubt that at this time we were all
completely demented. It was instinct, not
reason, that kept us alive.

After reaching the beach we made a fire of
one of our sleds and killed another dog which
was starved most to skin and bone, but very
faithful to the last. In making our last stand at
the summit of the glacier, we, in desperation,
left behind everything we absolutely did not
need; we now had no cooking utensils whatever,
but managed to cook the dog meat by running a
chunk through with one of the metal runners of
a sled we burned, holding it over the fire. We
also found some dead fish along the beach which
we cooked and ate. The fish were frozen hard,
but when we held them to the fire and they
thawed out, we found that they were putrid
and emitted a horrible odor. Still we ate them
and thought that they were good.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Gathering a large quantity of driftwood along
the beach we made another large fire on a knoll
overlooking the sea, which threw up great clouds
of black smoke; we hoped it would attract some
vessel at sea. For days we looked imploringly
out over that cold, blue, ice-spotted sea and felt
that to further resist the inevitable was useless.
The sea had no sympathy; the thought that we
lived through all our struggles and then to have
reached the ocean only to die, caused our very
souls to cry out.

We searched for miles along the beach and
found a few more rotten fish, which kept us
alive a few days more, and then at last my
faithful dog Kodiak had to be killed. Never
have I experienced so terrible a moment as when
the rest of the men led that companion of my
sufferings and tribulations away to be killed.
He gave me one last appealing glance, from those
bottomless eyes, that struck me like a death-
thrust.

Even in my exhausted physical condition I
could not bear to see the dog killed, and I went
off alone along that cold and barren shore to
comfort myself as best I could. The dog had
been more to me than any of the men, and as he
had seen the other dogs killed for food, I still

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MAD BUSH FOB GOLD IN FBOZEN NOBTH

think that he knew his life was to be sacrificed
to save us and he died willingly!

At first I thought that I could not eat the
meat of that faithful animal, but with the return
of an intense hunger, animal instincts predom-
inated and I ate the flesh of a true friend, who
had given up his life that I might live a little
longer. To us there seemed to be no hope, yet
we held on as long as there was a spark of life
left. We felt little or no physical sufferings now.
We had nothing left but pur sleeping bags,
which were almost worn out and the spring snow
storms covered us with soft down when we slept.
I sank down on the beach and the rest is a blank
to me, and as I look back I feel that I have indeed
experienced a horrible death.

My first impressions of a returning conscious-
ness gave me a hazy idea that somebody or
something was moving about. For a long time
I was unable to figure out who I was or where I
was or whether there ever had been such a person
as I. Then gradually I became aware that I was
in a white bed and a woman — a nurse — was
moving about in the room. My poor jumbled
mind was unable at the time to comprehend any
more and I fell into a sleep. Awakening refreshed
I recovered quickly and the nurse, a pretty

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

English girl, explained to me where I was and
how I came to be there. All this happened on
April 18, 1899, in the Sitka Hospital, which had
formerly been a part of the Greek Church.

The details of our rescue areas follows: It
appears that the United States revenue cutter,
Wolcott, in command of Captain Adams, had
been cruising along the coast for the protection
of the seal industry and the sailors had been
attracted by the smoke from our fires, on which
we had placed every particle of driftwood we
could find for miles along the shore, and even
the skins of the dogs. Sending a boat ashore,
they found only four of us alive; the other three
men were lying dead in their sleeping bags. We
were quickly taken aboard and given medical
attention and the Wolcott immediately pro-
ceeded to Sitka, where we were placed in the
hospital. We had been in the hospital for a week
before I regained consciousness.

We recovered rapidly and within another week
the four of us, who were found alive, Pitman,
Wilson, Murtha and myself, were able to take a
little walk around Sitka, which was, at that time
the capital of Alaska. It was only a few days
more when we took the steamer Discovery for
Seattle. While at Sitka and later on the boat,

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

we heard much about a strange war that we did
not understand. It was not until we reached
Seattle that we learned that the Spanish-
American war had been waged to a successful
conclusion while we were in the wilds of Alaska.
It all seemed so unreal that I have trouble yet
in thinking of the Spanish- American War as a
real contest.

Our first action after arriving at Seattle was
to telegraph to our wives and parents. My wife,
who had mourned me as dead for two long years,
thought that someone was playing a cruel hoax
upon her when the telegram was delivered.
Seattle seemed to be an entirely different city
from what it was when we left it two years
before. The place was a comparatively quite
business-like town, lacking all the horrible
scenes that made it hideous before. The traffic
and the noises dimmed our ears and it seemed
that we would never get used to it after the long
silence in Alaska.

Two days after our arrival I was surprised to
pick up the Seattle Times and read an article to
the effect that our party had arrived with
$500,000 worth of gold dust and nuggets. Then
the light began to dawn upon me and I began to
realize why these wild stories were printed. To

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

boom business! Yes, to make business for
Seattle and the transportation companies! Even
so. But I cannot forget nor forgive. The
heartlessness of it, the awful consequences in
human wretchedness, suffering and misery!

The officers of the Wolcott gave us the money
that had been taken from the dead bodies of our
unfortunate comrades, and we bought some
cheap clothes and shoes and started for home
over the Northern Pacific Railroad. Although
we were anxious to get home, we felt a peculiar
dread of meeting our folks, As I stepped from
the ferry into New York City the noise again
bewildered me and it was with difficulty that I
made my wray to my home. My hair and beard
were still very long and as I walked along
people stopped and laughed at me. Although
my wife had received my telegram, she failed
to recognize me. It was not until my little six
year old son stretched out his arms and ran to
me that my wife finally managed to realize who
I was. To her my return at first seemed uncanny
for she felt that I was returning from the dead.

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MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

Other Parties Who Started with Us Fared Badly.

Letters Arrive from Alaska. Blakely Went

to Pieces on Return Trip. Washington

Scientists Claim to Have Discovered the

Glacier We Crossed Two Years Before.

The Two Native Guides Perish.

CHAPTER XXI.

EFORE bringing this narrative to a
close, there are several incidents
growing out of my experience that
must be explained. When I arrived
in New York City, I found that my
wife had never received any of the
letters which I left with the mis-
sionary, Mr. Johnson, at Yakutat,
to be mailed to her. However, four months
after my return they arrived postmarked Yak-
utat, Sitka, Fort Wrangell and Juneau, Alaska.
They had evidently been given by the mission-
ary to a trading vessel going north and had been
carried up in the Arctic and left somewhere
at a station. At least this is the only possible
way that I can explain it.

The Blakely, the old tub that we sailed to
Alaska in from Seattle, after discharging her

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MAD BUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

cargo at Yakutat, loaded her hold with many
tons of sand for ballast for her return trip. She
was wrecked at the mouth of Cross Sound and
from what I later learned, all on board were lost
except the first mate, Mr. Jung.

As for the other parties who took passage
with us on the Blakely, all fared equally as
badly as our own party and none of them got
any gold, as far as I know. After suffering
untold hardships and losing eighteen men, the
Dennison, Texas, party and the St. Paul party
finally reached Dawson City, where two of the
Texas party had to have their feet amputated,
due to being frozen. The Manchester party,
two of whom I had often corresponded with for
years, suffered as much as we through scurvy,
typhoid and starvation; they lost nine men, two
of whom were drowned in the Yukon River
when their boat upset. They came out of Alaska
by way of the Yukon River to St. Michaels.

Three of the men who were rescued with me
are still alive, but they have always been
broken in health. Mr. Pitman became blind as
a direct result of his sufferings from snow blind-
ness in Alaska and at present keeps a newstand
on Fourteenth Street, New York City. Mr.
Wilson, who like myself, was left near-sighted,

276

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

is in business in Long Island City. Mr. Murtha,
who also became blind, is spending his remaining
days in Southern California. He never recovered
from his Alaskan experience and is, and in fact
always has been, in poor health. As for myself,
from the first three months after arriving home
I have never felt better in my life, due in part,
I think, to the systematic training I have always
taken and the healthful work I have been
engaged in ever since my return, as physical
director of the Young Men's Christian Asso-
ciations and playground director of a Los
Angeles, Cal., playground.

277

MAD BUSH FOE GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

SCIENTISTS FIND
ALASKAN GLACIERS

Many Discoveries and Good Sport Re-
ported by Members of Mr. E.
H. Harriman's Party.

1900

Tacoma, Wash., Thursday. — Two
Washington State members of Mr. E. H.
Harriman's party of scientists, now
exploring Alaska's coast, have returned,
having left the steamer Elder at Kodiak.
They give accounts of the Elder's cruise,
which indicate that Mr. Harriman and
the scientists will return laden with many
laurels. They seem to have developed a
mania for glaciers, having visited and
explored more than thirty, some of which
were unknown except to natives.

In one bay, not shown on the maps or
charts, they discovered an immense
glacier, not as large as the giant Muir,
but much more grand and picturesque.
This bay extends inland more than
twenty miles, and at a point near the
glacier a sounding line of forty fathoms
did not touch bottom. This inlet they
named Unknown Bay. It was here that
the Elder, manoeuvring among the cakes
of ice from the glacier, broke a propeller
blade, making it necessary to return to
Orca, where repairs were made.

At the head of Disenchantment Bay
they found four glaciers which had never
been seen before by white men. In
Icy Bay, twenty miles across, opposite
Carroll's Glacier, the party discovered a
new glacier with a front of three-fourths
of a mile. This was named Harriman's
Glacier.

The above appeared in a New York City
paper a year after our return.

278

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

One year after my return from Alaska, I was
greatly surprised and provoked one morning to
read in a New York newspaper that a party of
scientists from Washington, members of the
E. H. Harriman party, were reported to have
discovered four large glaciers in Disenchantment
Bay, which had not been seen before by white
man, and then giving them names after members
of their party and friends. The fact is that
somewhere, in the third glacier over which the
Manchester and our party had traveled, lie
the bodies of several of our party and their dogs
and loaded sleds which went down those treach-
erous crevasses. The Texas and St. Paul
parties made their way to Dawson after first
crossing the fourth glacier where they also lost
four men in crevasses under practically the same
conditions that we did.

I even doubt that we were the first white men
to have seen them. As Duke Abbruzzi, when he
attempted to scale Mount St. Elias in 1896,
sailed in Disenchantment Bay must have seen
them, so also did Lieut. Russel, U. S. A., who
was on the same mission as Abbruzzi. But one
thing is absolutely certain, we were the first
white men to have ever crossed the Malaspina
Glacier to the interior, according to the natives
at Yakutat.

279

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

I do not mention the above to contradict the
report of the Harriman party, or to lessen the
value of their statement, as no doubt they were
sincere in the statement they made, but if they
had stopped at Yakutat with their steamer
Elder, they would have learned the truth from
the natives and missionary there. It will be
remembered that two of the Yakutat natives
named Koomanah and Koodleuk acted as our
guides across the glacier and then went on with
the Manchester party; they never returned,
having perished as the party reached the
Yukon, near Dawson.

In conclusion, I wish to state that as I grew
well from the effects of my experience, I felt
that I owed to the world something, so I entered
the work of physical director, where I could be
instrumental in the building up of a better and
stronger race of boys and young men, to better
enable them to meet the demands of their
future life. And the playgrounds have no better
calling with that purpose in view.

END

280

MAD RUSH FOR GOLD IN FROZEN NORTH

THE PAST

Thou unrelenting Past!
Strong are the barriers round thy dark domain,

And fetters, sure and fast,
Hold all that enter thy unbreathing reign.

Far in thy realm withdrawn,
Old empires sit in sullenness and gloom,

And glorious ages gone
Lie deep within the shadow of thy womb.

Childhood, with all its mirth,
Youth, Manhood, Age that draws us to the ground,

And last, Man's Life on earth,
Glide to thy dim dominions, and are bound.

Thou hast my better years;
Thou hast my earlier friends, the good, the kind,

Yielded to thee with tears—
The venerable form, the exalted mind.

My spirit yearns to bring
The lost ones back — yearns with desire intense,

And struggles hard to wring
Thy bolts apart, and pluck thy captives thence.

In vain; thy gates deny
All passage save to those who hence depart;

Nor to the streaming eye
Thou giv'st them back — nor to the broken heart.

281

PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY

Dietz, Arthur Arnold
909 Madrush for gold in the
D56 frozen North.

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