Starving on a bed of gold; or, The world's longest fast

NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES

THE GORDON LESTER FORD

COLLECTION

FROM EMILY E. F. SKEEL

IN MEMORY OF

ROSWELL SKEEL, Jr.

AND THEIR FOUR PARENTS

Starving on a Bed of Gold

-N \

OR

The World's Longest Fast

BY
JAMES A. HALL '<
WATSONVILLE, CALIFORNIA

Press of the

Sentinel, Santa Cruz, California

1909

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COPYRIGHT, 1909,

BY JAME3 A. HALL.

{All Rights Reserved .)

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James A. Hall on July 17th, 1900

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PREFACE.

All of tins book, except Chapter VI, was written wliile I was
imprisoned in bleak Alaska. Time Imng heavily on my hands
and dnring the long sunless days of winter it was a great relief
to me to liave something to occupy my time. It was generally
known among the miners that I was writing the story of my
experience and I had hundreds of applications for the little
volume, even before I left the country. On my arrival in
California, some of the largest dailies on the Pacific Coast made
full page Sunday stories of the matter, and incidentally men-
tioned that I had written a book on the subject.

Several ministers have used the facts to illustrate their
sermons. All this publicity has caused many applications to
be made to me for the book when published. This constant
demand is my excuse for giving it to the public.

JAMES A. HALL.
Watsonville, California, Feb. 22nd, 1909.

DEDICATION.

I would be ungrateful if I did not dedicate tliis little volume
to Ju.dge Charles Udell, formerly of Los Angeles, California, the
man who more than all others, rendered me aid and assistance,
after I was rescued, though I had never met him until I went
to Alaska.

May God, in his mercy and justice, bless and prosper him.

THE AUTHOE.

CHAPTER I.

THE START

I was sitting in my law office in San Francisco, one afternoon
in the early part of March, 1900, when -my clerk brought me in
the card of one of the surgeons connected with the City Receiv-
ing Hospital.

The doctor was a frequent caller, and after some conversa-
tion on commonplace subjects, informed me he had the gold
fever, was going to Alaska, and wanted me to go along. I
told him I could not go, that I did not think I could stand the
hardships of that kind of life. Finally, after some days of
consideration, I agreed to take the trip.

We engaged passage on the Thrasher, one of the many vessels
belonging to the Pacific Steam Whaling Company. It was
advertised to sail on the 21st of April. I then invited the
doctor to spend a week or so with me at Rose Hill, my father's
ranch near Watsonville, Santa Cruz County, California.

After a pleasant visit we returned to San Francisco, and
began active preparations for the long, dangerous journey. I
had never been outside of California in my life, had never even
been in a half inch of snow, and was now preparing to start
to one of the bleakest, coldest and most barren countries in the
world.

Finally the sailing day of the Thrasher came. She was about
the first steamboat to start for the gold fields in the spring of
1900, and was a converted whaler. Like the fish after which
she was named, she had killed many whales in her day. The
boat had one great advantage over the ordinary passenger
vessel— she was an '4ce bucker"; her prow was ten or twelve
feet thick and sheathed on the outside, so she could safely ram
the ice. A new deck had been built on forward and the 'tween
decks was filled with tiers of bunks, leaving just room for the
dining table. Over two hundred souls were to be transported on
a ship that would not comfortably carry-half tliat number. But

8 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

as every additional passenger meant one hundred and twenty-
five dollars to her owners, the old saying, "There is always
room for one more," was applied with vigor.

Promptly at three o'clock in the afternoon the warning
whistle sounded, and then many sad partings were witnessed
between relatives and friends. "Au Kevoir," (till we meet
again), are hard words to say under these circumstances, but
with many a poor unfortunate the Saxon words, "Goodbye,"
were more appropriate. It has been said that a metallic casket
is a necessary part of every well selected outfit — if you do not
need it yourself, you can always sell it for a good price. There
was certainly a great demand for them the winter I spent in
Alaska. Very few relatives or friends will allow the bones of
their loved ones to rest in the bleak mountains of a country
like this, if they can help it.

At last the starting whistle blew, the gang plank was drawn
in, and we were under way to the celebrated gold fields.

The thoughts and feelings that possess the average passenger
starting on a dangerous trip as he looks, perhaps, for the lasi
time, upon the faces of loved relatives and friends, can never
be told in words. If the reader has ever had the experience,
the sentiment will be fully understood.

As we passed through the beautiful Golden Gate into the
arms of the grim old ocean, a flood of thoughts came over me.
I realized that my dangers would be many, but fully intended
to return in the fall and not brave the terrors of an Ai'ctic
winter. But "man proposes and God disposes." I was com-
pelled, much against my will, to remain for a year and a half
in the land of the Eskimo.

Old Neptune was in a bad humor the day we started and we
glided out of the comparatively smooth waters of San Francisco
Bay into a terrific storm. In less than half an hour every
passenger on board, except about six of us, was in his bunk,
groaning from seasickness. The attendance at the dining
table was, for several days, very slight.

Every shipload of people, like every town or city, contains
its "characters". We were no exception to the rule. The
most noted person on board was, probably. Sergeant Wright,
the color officer of the regiment of Rough Riders who fought so
bravely at San Juan and other battlefields, in the late Spanish

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 9

War. Tlie Sergeant planted Old Glory on San Juan Hill. I
chanced to have, among my books, a magazine that contained
his picture and a full history of his many acts of bravery. He
was easily the lion of the voyage. Tall, slim and wiry, with
dark hair and eyes, he looked the typical Rough Rider that he
was. The Sergeant was a good conversationalist, and after his
seasickness wore off, used to interest us by the hour with tales
of the war. He was very sparing in the use of the capital " I, ' *
but could not sing the praises of Colonel Roosevelt and his
gallant band too loudly.

The comical character of the boat was "Ike," a young Jewish
gold hunter. Ike was always in some trouble. He knew the
location of every whisky bottle on board, and, although not a
heavy drinker, was never at a loss for a taste when he wanted
it. He was one of a party of six from Tacoma, Washing-ton.
' ' Deep Creek Jones, ' ' the head of the little company, was him-
self a man with a State reputation. He had been for some
years the chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee
of that State, and was a fluent talker and polished gentleman.
He was one of the favorites of the ship.

''Murphy" was among the fun makers of the voyage. He
was a son of the late Judge Murphy of Del Norte County, Cali-
fornia, a big, raw-boned boy, good natured and good hearted;
his pranks served to while away many weary hours for us.

"Dad" Trenchel was another of the ship's wits. He had in
his company two young men. If ' ' Dad ' ' had not been partic-
ularly good natured, life would have been a burden because of
the numerous pranks they played on him, but he generally paid
them back in their own coin, much to our amusement.

A young San Franciscan named McGinniss was one of
the greatest fun makers on board. His innocent pranks helped
to shorten many hours of the long, dreary trip. At an enter-
tainment of ours, one evening, McGinniss was called upon to do
something for our amusement. He said he would try to relate
a little incident that happened to him and his friend, ]\Iurphy.
It occurred a week or so ago before he started on this trip.
Murphy lived on top of Telegraph Hill, in San Francisco.
They had been spending Saturday evening together, and Mc-
Ginniss had gone home with him to stay ail night. The next
morning at eleven o'clock they were having a late breakfast to-

10 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

getlier, when a rap came at the dining room door. Murphy
said ' ' come in, ' ' and in walked an Italian fish peddler with a
big basket of fish on his shoulders. ''You likee buy fish,
Mister; nicea fresha fish; he no dead yet, just catcha him; heapa
cheap. ' ' Murphy was not feeling very well that morning, and
he told the fishman, in very plain terms, not to bother them
with his fish, but the fellow was so persistent that Murphy had
to almost throw him out. The day was a hot one, and the grade
of the hill was very steep. After the Italian had been gone for
a few moments a happy thought struck Murphy; going out on
the porch he put his hand to the side of his mouth and yelling
as loud as he could, succeeded in attracting the attention of the
fishmonger; he then beckoned him to come back. The fellow,
no doubt, had visions of a big sale, and toiled up the hill again
with his heavy basket on his shoulders, large drops of perspira-
tion rolling off him; finally nearly tired out, he arrived at
Murphy's. Murph}', shaking his index finger at him, said:
"And see here, you Dago, we don't want any fish next Sunday;
do you understand?" McGinniss said he had all he could do
to keep the fellow from braining Murphy then and there.

The heavy storm that was awaiting us as we passed out of
the Golden Gat? continued to increase, and you can safely sur-
mise that this change was not at all welcome to those poor souls
who were suffering with "mal de mer." Night came on and
the staunch old boat was tossed about like a straw. Tons of
water came down the hatchways, and through the seams of the
boat, and was a foot deep, in some places, under our bunks.
The lights had been turned out, and dismal darkness reigned
supreme. About three o 'clock in the morning, one of the life
boats washed away, and, as it fell from the davits, one end of
it struck the side of the ship, making a noise that sounded like
the crack of doom. A poor fellow on the port side of the ship,
just under where the boat struck, imagined that the judgment
day had come, and yelled at the top of his voice, "Come over
to this side, all you fellows ; the ship 's going over. ' ' Word was
passed from bunk to bunk that the vessel had sprung a bad
leak, and that we were trying to make port again; this turned
out to be a false rumor. When daylight came, we found a
rough sea and a laboring ship, but were assured by the captain
that there was little or no danger. This was a great relief to

OR, THE WORLDS LONGEST FAST 11

most of US. We had already learned to liave a great deal of
faith in noble Tom Ellis, the acting captain; he was the
favorite of the whole shipload of passengers.
. We who had left loved ones at home, were afraid that the
life boat would be washed ashore and found, thus causing our
friends and relatives to think we were lost at sea. Our fears
were not unfounded for when we got to Dutch Harbor we
learned that we had been reported wrecked. The storm finally
calmed, but we were buffeted by adverse winds, and driven in
the opposite direction to our true course.

A few nights afterward another storm struck us, and we lost
a second life boat. When, at last, fair weather did put in an
appearance those who had been so seasick gradually recovered,
and we all began to get better acquainted. I will never forget
the first general assembly of passengers on the after-deck in
the evening. A male quartette got together and the first song
they sang brought back to me a flood of recollections. It was
' ' The Old Oaken Bucket, ' ' a song that my mother had sung to
me when a child, and also one of the last songs some friends of
mine had sung before I left "the States."

After the storms were over, and the passengers had recovered
from their seasickness, we spent most of the day and early
evening on the after-deck telling stories, planning our mining
future, and entertaining ourselves generally. Long before we
reached Dutch Harbor, the first and only stopping point ere we
arrived at Nome, bets were being made among the passengers
on the time it would take us to get there ; one lost three hundred
dollars on the ship's sailing time to that point. Finally, on
May 17tli, we arrived at that port. It was my first experience
in the snow. I had lived nearly all my life in Santa Cruz and
Monterey Counties in California, and had never been, as before
said, in a half inch of snow.

There is an old Russian settlement at Dutch Harbor, and it
is principally populated by Aleut Indians and their dogs.
Tliere are a few white men in business there, but half breeds
and full blooded Aleuts are in the majority. This was the first
of Indian semi-civilization that many of us had seen. They
gave a squaw dance the night we were tliere, but I did not
attend. I was told that it was conducted very much like a
leap-year party in ''the States." The women chose their
partners.

12 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

The Barabaras, or native Aleut house is nothing but a rock
or wooden frame with some kind of hide, generally walrus,
stretched over it ; every well built house has a bath attachment.
The bath house contains a pool of water, a kind of fireplace and
some rocks. They heat the rocks red hot, and throw them into
the pool; a dense steam is thus generated. When the bather is
well heated up and thoroughly steamed he plunges into the near-
est ice water for a few moments. They claim this will cure most
diseases, and it certainlv seems verv effective in some cases.
His northern neighbor, the Eskimo, never takes a bath unless
he falls in while after the festive walrus or seal.

We were told at Dutch Harbor that we would find the ice
about five hundred miles out — and we did. We struck it in
the night time. Next morning when we arose nothing but snow-
covered fields of ice were visible as far as the eye could reach. It
was a pleasant change for a time but soon became very monoto-
nous. I was almost asleep when we "bucked the first ice, ' ' and
had a half formed idea in my mind that we had run aground,
but when we began backing off, and then taking a rapid pace
ahead I realized our position. The Thrasher is said to be the
best "ice bucker" on the coast; she will back a quarter of a
mile or so, then, with full speed ahead, strike the solid ice
cracking it in twain, and going as far as her impetus will carry
her. Then she will repeat the operation until a passage is
made. The "ice captain," in this case our acting captain, is
located in the "crow's nest" near the top of the foremast.
He can see from his elevation the best path to pursue, and
gives his commands to one of the mates, who is situated in the
front of the wheel house ; the mate repeats the command to the
man at the wheel. About one-third of the thickness of the ice
is above the water line and two-thirds below, so the captain
easily estimates how heavy the ice is ahead of him. There
were very few people on the boat who had ever seen "ice

bucking" before, and it was an interesting experience to us all,
at first, but soon became very tiresome. We met with a some-
what stirring incident after we had been in the ice fields a few
days. The ice ahead of us seemed to be unusually heavy, and
Captain Ellis decided to tie up to some ' ' ground ice ' ' near where
Ave were, and wait until prospects were better. ' ' Ground ice. ' ' as
the name implies, extends down to the ground. The piece we

OR, THE WORLDS LONGEST FAST 13

tied to was several acres in extent, and in places was forty or
fifty feet high, an ice island as it were. Two heavy hawsers were
thrown out, and tied to immense pillars of ice. There were a
couple of acres of level ice, and as soon as the boat was made
fast we all climbed out, glad of the chance to exercise a little,
after weeks of confinement. We had ''tugs of war," played
"prisoner's base," and in fact, behaved like a lot of school
children just turned out for recess. We all got back on the 1)oat
before dark and retired, feeling much better for our exercise.
When we awoke in the morning quite a heavy wind was blow-
ing; several passengers, although cautioned by Captain Ellis,
went off on the island again. The wind increased in fury, and
the ice mountains began to break and slide, with a noise like
thunder, into the sea. All but two of the passengers got back
into the boat as soon as they saw the ice beginning to break.
These two had taken their guns in the hope of shooting a

walrus or seal, and had wandered to the opposite side of the
island. We all beckoned to them to return at once, and the
captain blew a number of warning blasts. They ran for the
ship, and by throwing them ropes we managed to get them
aboard, frightened half to death. The wind became a hurri-
cane and mountains of ice were breaking off all around us, and
lashed l)y the fury of the sea, were making every moment more
dangerous. One of the hawsers had parted, but still the cap-
tain dreaded to undertake the run for the clear water we could
see about half a mile off, on the side of the island that the wind
was blowing toward. Finally, it became apparent that to stay
in this position any longer, meant that our ship would be
crushed like an egg shell. All was excitement aboard; passen-
gers were rushing hither and thither; some ten or fifteen had
gotten hold of a large spar, and were attempting to push away
the icebergs that came near us. Twenty Samsons would not
have moved one of them. Captain Humphries, and acting
Captain Ellis were on the bridge, and we could plainly see that
both were very nervous. In a few moments we beheld two
immense icebergs approaching, one on each side of tne
Thrasher — the one on the lee side of the ship having broken
from the island within a few feet of us it was plain that if they
both struck us at once we were gone. Just then Captain Ellis,
his voice sounding above the roar 'of the storm, veiled. *'Cut

14 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

away that rope. ' ' The first mate seized an ax and cut the rope ;
the wheels began to turn and, in a few moments, we were
threading our way among the icebergs for clear water. For-
tune favored us, and in a short time we were out of danger,
with no damage but the loss of about a hundred dollars ' worth
of rope.

One of the passengers, when the excitement was at its height,
rushed on deck with a six-shooter in one hand and his grip in
the other, while his face was the color of marble. We asked him
afterward what he had intended to do; he said he knew there
were not half enough life boats to go around, and he proposed
to have a seat in one. He did not stop to think that a life boat
would not have lived a minute in that sea of icebergs. The
poor fellow did not hear the last of it during -the rest of the
trip. We had some good artists aboard, and his picture, with
a gun in one hand and the grip in the other, adorned several
bunks.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, and on May 28th we
dropped anchor in Nome harbor, and the much talked of Mecca
of the gold seeker was before us. A feeling akin to awe came
over me as I gazed at this tented city through the gloaming of
the evening. I was reminded of that ancient city whose name
rhymes with this one, and which, from her seven hills, ruled the
world, and I wondered if people were as greedy after gold in
those days as they are today. I also wondered which was con-
ducive of the more sorrow — the greed for power possessed by
the Romans or the greed for gold which seems to possess us
modern mortals. The world will never know the extent o:^ the
pain, sorrow and suffering that has been caused by that mystic
word "Nome," during its existence. In one week, during the
summer of 1900, twenty-five bodies were washed up on the
beach between Nome and Topkok, a mining camp sixty miles
down the coast. Undoubtedly, only a small proportion of the
bodies were washed ashore there. In the winter of 1900-1,
between the same two points, and in about the same length of
time, nearly as many were frozen to death, not counting those

who had arms and legs frozen off. A¥ere the seven or eight
millions of dollars taken out in the past two years enough to
balance the suffering, pain and sorrow endured by these poor
men, and incidentally, their families, remembering that this

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 15

does not include the suffering of those who did not die, and
further remembering that those who died on that short coast
line were a very, very small moiety of the total number during
the entire two years, in all of Alaska ? This means hundreds of
families left without their bread-winner, and carrying a load of
grief instead of gold. Can anybody say that eight millions, or
even fifty millions would offset all this?

While I was standing at the rail contemplating the metropolis
of the gold fields, most of the passengers had gone ashore in the
numerous small boats that swarmed around the ship's sides as
soon as we dropped anchor; as my destination was Port
Clarence, about sixty miles further northward, and the
Thrasher was to remain here a week before going on up, I de-
cided to stay on board at night, and inspect Nome and vicinity
in the daj'time.

16 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

THE GOLD SEEKERS.

The panting steamer slowly drops
Away from the crowded pier;

The blackened deck recedes from view,
And leaves me musing, here.

Away where the gold so warm and red,
Lies hid in the dark earth's breast;

Little they reck of danger t^r cold,
Aglow with the golden quest.

The rosy youth with kindling eye,
Li his manhood's early dawn;

The pale man with the student's stoop.
The stalwart man of brawn.

All, each and all, with fevered gaze,

Fixed on the fields of gold;
Ah, well-a-day ! for a faith that 's firm.

And a heart that is brave and bold.

For those there be who will come again,
All broken and- worn and wan;

While others left in the Arctic snows,
Will slumber forever on.

And some will empty-handed come,
Who have missed the golden goal,

And some with gold, too dear, alas!
The price of a sinless soul.

And those at home will sit at night —

W^hile the wind sweeps where it wills —

With heart away in a shambling shack
In the wild Alaskan hills.

'Tis thus I muse on the lonely quay,

Whence the hurrying crowd is gone —
Whilst far away for the frozen north
A line of smoke trains go on.

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 17

CHAPTER II.

AN EXCITING TRIP THROUGH THE ICE.

On June 5tli, 1900, the good ship Thrasher weighed anchor,
and we left Nome for Cape York and way stations. As before
said, I wanted to go to Port Clarence Bay, between Nome and
York, but it was understood that the ship would go to the latter
place first. Just before we steamed out of Nome Harbor, the
bark Alaska sailed arourfd the stern of our boat and
dropped anchor immediately off our starboard side. It proved
to be the last time her hook ever fell. She was a total wreck
the second morning afterwards, and had one or two other ships
for company. Little did we think, as our steamer gave the
customary three toots— the nautical goodbye — and was
answered by three dips of the flag, that ere a second sun had
risen, her bones would lie bleaching on that cheerless, barren,
inhospitable shore. I have forgotten how many lives were lost
that night, but there were a number. For several hours we
sailed along towards our destination very smoothly. About
dark, something of a storm came on ; as the ice was very thick.
Captain Ellis decided to stand well out at sea; when morning
arrived we found we were many miles off shore, and almost
opposite Cape York. As the captain had mail for Missionary
Lopp at Cape Prince of Wales, which by the way, was in sight,
he determined to go to that place first. When we came shore-
ward we could see two boats lying at York, one a steamer, the
other a sailing vessel. We soon dropped anchor in Bering
Straits, off Cape Prince of Wales. The sea was rather rough
and some wind blowing, and it was an hour or so before any
of the natives ventured to come out to us. Finally several
boatloads came, bringing the missionary with them. It was
my first meeting with the Eskimo in his native wilds. As they
came through the water in their skin boats, and climbed over
the ship's sides, in their peculiar dress, thoughts of my school
days and the pictures so interesting to me in the old geog-
raphies flashed through my mind. I have since become so
accustomed to them that they do not seem anything out of the
ordinary; in fact, are very commonplace individuals. We did
some trading with them; I remember paying one of them
twenty dollars for a skin boat, and it proved to be one of the

18 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

most useful purchases I made in Alaska. The skin boat is
nothing more nor less than a light frame, made something in the
shape of our small boats, and covered with walrus skin. They
are of all sizes, very light, and if properly handled and cared
for, are durable; they should never be left with water in them
as the skin soon softens. You are obliged to step very care-
fully, and only on the frame work, or you may have a hole
through the bottom the size of your foot. If carefully bal-
anced a big load may be carried in them.

There are few if any whites at this village except the mis-
sionary and his wife. Mr. Lopp, who has been in charge here
for years, is well spoken of by the natives and whites; in fact,
I have met some of the natives who thought him almost infal-
lible. He was formerly a teacher here, and afterwards given
charge of the mission. I am reminded of a story told by some
sacrilegious peo])le in this country; they say that those who
preach the gospel here have to describe Hades as a very cold
place instead of a very hot one, as the poor native is much
inclined to favor a warmer climate.

After spending a few hours at anchor, we started for Cape
York, with thirty or forty natives and the missionary aboard,
their skin boats trailing behind the ship. In a short time we
arrived there; passengers who expected to get off were on
deck, their luggage and blankets at hand, all ready to be set
ashore, and everybody was waiting for the anchor chain to
rattle. Suddenly Captain Ellis, who was on the bridge called
in stentorian tones to those in charge below, "Don't drop that
anchor." We heard him immediately ring for "full speed
ahead". Astonished, we all looked seaward, and, in the dis-
tance could be seen a long white line, so well known to every ice
captain. A storm was coming, driving the icebergs before it.
One ship, the steamer that we had seen on our way up, was well
outside the ice line. The sailing vessel had also seen the
danger, but was powerless to get out of it. AVe did not wait
to land natives or anybody else, but started for the open sea
as fast as steam and sail could carry us. The poor vessel that
was left fired her gun, and turned her flag upside down, signals
of distress, but it was our ship and the lives of her passengers
,against the others, and we had not a moment to spare. The
natives, well used to aquatic exercises, climbed over the stern

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 19

of the boat while we were under full speed, reminding me of
frogs jumping into a mill pond; the squaws seemed even more
expert than the bucks. Soon the storm struck us, but we had
rounded the ice and were no longer in danger of being driven
ashore by it. When we reached clear water, the captain turned
the ship's stern to the gale and we scudded before the wind; on,
on we flew, faster than we had ever traveled on the Thrasher be-
fore. Night dropped her sable curtain over the scene, but the
frightful howling of the wind through the rigging told us, as we
lay in our bunks, of the condition of affairs around us. Mari-
ners say that though the Bering Sea is shallow, it can generate a
more dangerous storm than the main ocean; the waves are short,
choppy and irregular. We were driven through the Bering
Strait and a hundred miles into the Arctic before the storm
abated; we then took the back track, and, that night, ho ve-
to in the lee of a bluff on the Siberian coast. Bright and early
next morning we passed back through the straits and finally
arrived again at Cape York. W"e found that all hands had
abandoned the vessel we left in distress, and she had been
driven about by the ice, but strange to say, was uninjured.

Just before we got there, the captain and some of his men
had gone aboard again; if we had found her still drifting we
would have had a rich prize, as the salvage in such cases is
very liberal.

This time our York passengers managed to get off without
any mishap. We then steamed on down the coast to Port
Clarence Bay; as the ice had not yet gone out, we were landed
on the "Spit," a narrow, fifteen-mile stretch of sand, sepa-
rating Bering Sea from the Bay. This country abounds in
"spits"; as you will soon hear, one of them came very nearly
causing my death by starvation. About a dozen of the
Thrasher party remained, camx)ed together on the Spit, for
nearly two weeks; when the ice went out of the bay,
four of us crossed over to the old Eeindeer Station, a govern-
ment building put up some years ago as a headquarters for
keepers of the reindeer, and for other purposes. My mining
partner and myself were persuaded by the recorder of the
mining district to stop over here for a time. There was no
particular excitement, but we liked the looks of the country,
and subsequent developments proved we were right in that
respect. After we had camped at the station a week or two,

20 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

a little town began to spring np, three iniles above, on the bay.
The projectors of the tented city invited us np, and we went,
locating a couple of lots. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, the govern-
ment agent, who came in one of the boats about this time, sug-
gested that the new town be called Teller; a little mass meeting
was assembled as soon as we took this suggestion up, and the
place was given that name — the name the Reindeer Station had
borne on the maps. "Wilson Brothers" were just erecting
a store building, up to that time, the only one in the city of
tents. The members of the firm on the ground were Thomas
G. and William M. Wilson; I mention their names, as they
come more or less into the subsequent parts of this story.
There was no particular life in this little mining camp of
about sixty tents; at that time of the year it was daylight
substantially all night. We went to bed at any hour, and got
up the same way, just as our fancy dictated; there was nothing
to do except to watch dog fights, and do a little fighting our-
selves with swarms of tantalizing mosquitoes as our opponents.
Like Dickens' celebrated character, we were "waiting for
something to turn up," and, so far as the writer is concerned,
it did. I went out on a trip that came very, very nearly cost-
ing me my life, and the equal of which is said never to have
occurred in Alaska, the country where hardships and pri-
vation are the portion of every man. Before starting to give
a detailed description of my journeying for sixty-seven days,
lost and without food, through the roughest, wildest mountains
of this wild, rough country, I realize that words can not begin
to describe the suffering I passed through from the time I
started, to the 22nd day of September, 1900, when I was found
dying.

At this writing, a few months subsequent to the time I was
discovered, I am still an invalid, imprisoned, as it might be
termed, in the town of Teller, x\laska, in the midst of the worst
winter that the country has seen for a quarter of a century, if
the statements of the Indians and some "old timers"
can be relied upon. I further realize that a great many
people in "the States" will not believe that any person could
have gone through what I describe. I have procured the
affidavits of government officials and others who will vouch
for the truthfulness of all, except those facts that are known

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 21

only to God and myself. For I was not seen by, and did not
see a human being or hear a human voice (except my own)
from the time I was lost until I was found dying. These
affidavits will be found at the end of this book.

BERING SEA.

By W. H. Harrison.

Oh, Bering Sea! Oh, Bering Sea! •

AVliat fury hath awakened thee'f
To lash thy sounding, sullen shore,

And with hoarse, tumultuous roar
Proclaim thy anger long and loud f

Art thou l)ellowing to the cloud
From whence the cold and slanting rain

Is driven by the wind amain?
Do the ships that at anchor ride

Upon thy dark and swelling tide.
Until chains creak and anchors drag.

And half-mast floats a signal flag —

Do they annoy and harry thee.

Oh, fitful, tempestuous sea!
Or is this sport and do you play

With sail and life and destiny?
Do you kick up these foam-flecked waves

In wanton fun, and laugh at graves.
Unmarked in ooze and sea weed rank,

Where luckless sailors, clammy, dank.
With eyeless, eyes that need no light.

Lie and rot — ^weird, grisly sight?
Yet, still I love you, Bering Sea,

Oh, water — waste of mystery !

I love you in calm, peaceful mood.

When by the zephyrs you are wooed.

When sunlight glints your pulse beats faint
AYith tints that mortals could not paint;

But I love you most when you rage.

yj

22 , STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

And roar and surge, and when you wage
The battle like the war of life;

This thrills and fills my soul with strife,
Until it beats its prison door

As the waves beat a rocky shore.
I love you, oh sea, tempest tossed;

The story you tell and is lost

By the winds in the silent hills

Of Nome, is always one that thrills
The heart — a tale of "hair-breadth 'scapes,'

Where the water stretches, yawns and gapes;
' ' Of moving accidents by flood,

The imminent deadly breach," blood
Incarnardining world. You win

Me, Bering Sea, ere you begin,
Without "wit or words" of your life.
The tale that won the Moor a wife.
My heart is thine, T bend my knee,

Oh, restless, roaring, raging sea.

CHAPTER ril.

LOST

Little did I think when I retired to rest in my tent at Teller,
on the night of July 14, 1900, that on the following day I would
start on a trip that would change me from a physically perfect
man, six feet one inch and a half in height, weighing a shade
over two hundred and twenty-five pounds, to a living
skeleton, weighing one hundred and twenty-five pounds, and
all within the space of sixty-seven days.

On July the 15th, 1900, about half -past ten o'clock in the
morning, "Billy" Wilson, of the firm of AVilson Brothers,
storekeepers at the tented town of Teller, opened the flap of
my tent and said, "Come down to the store; there's some busi-
ness for you. ' ' Being an attorney, I naturally concluded that
there were some legal matters to attend to there. At that
time of the year the dark part of the day, or what we usually

James A. Hall in Alaskan Garb

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 25

call "night," was of very short duration. I had gone to bed
late, and as a consequence woke up late. At the time he ap-
peared I was lying in bed reading a magazine. I got up,
dressed and went down to the store. He informed me that his
brother Tom, who was out in front of the store, wanted to
speak to me. I went out and saw Tom and was informed that
he had brought two men up from Nome on a gasoline launch
he had purchased down there a couple of days before. These
men, it seems, claimed they had information, derived from the
deathbed statement of some old friend of one of them in
Florida, concerning the location of a very rich quartz prospect
at some point a few miles back in the mountains north of
Teller. It was asserted that this man was one of the first party
of surveyors sent into Alaska by the United States govern-
ment, many years ago. He had discovered this rich lode, but
liad no opportunity to prospect it. He had kept the informa-
tion to himself, hoi)ing at some time to come out and locate it.
but one thing or another detained him until he found himself
near the top of the "Great Divide" that we must all cross,
Fooner or later. He then communicated the information to
others, and it fell into the hands of one of these two men.

Tom Wilson, on his way up from Nome on the launch, had
made up his mind to send, as his representative, along with
these men, an old miner who was clerking in his store, but
when he arrived at Teller he found the old gentleman absent
for a few days. He and his brother William then talked the
matter over, and concluded to ask me to go. It was under-
stood that the trip would not take over three or four days, so
I consented. We were to start at noon, and this gave me less
than an hour and a half to get my blankets ready. Wilson
Brothers told me to come down to the store and get what
provisions I needed. So I went to my tent, rolled up a double
and single blanket in some canvas, threw a big plug of pipe
smoking tobacco, a good sized bunch of matches, and some
other small thina's into a United States haversack I had pur-
chased in San Francisco for such emergencies. With my
blankets strapped to my shoulders (their weight was about
twenty-four pounds), my haversack leather over one shoulder,
and a granite cup and sheath knife at my belt, I went down to
the store. In the hurry, I forgot to put in a compass I had in
the tent.

26 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

When I got to the store, Billy AVilson asked me what pro-
visions he should put up. "Oh," said I, "put in some bacon,
some crackers, some salt and some coffee. I do not want to
take much, as I am a light eater and too soft yet to carry any
more load than I can help. ' ' He stepped over to where the bacon
was hanging, and putting a big knife up on the "side" said,
"about that much!" I said, "No, Billy, that would make too
much of a load — about half that." He cut it as indicated,
about three pounds, then he put in some crackers to corre-
spond, a little salt and a half-pound can of coffee. This is all
I took on the trip, and would have been enough for the time I
expected to be gone.

Promptly at noon we started, Tom Wilson taking us in the
launch down the bay to the old Reindeer Station three miles
below. From here we "mushed" (localism for tramped)
over the tundra, westerly eight miles, to a stream known
as Eureka Creek.

"Tundra," described elsewhere in this book, is the decayed
vegetation of ages, covered by a kind of moss, and thickly
studded with pools of stagnant water. It is from a foot to
three feet in depth, and is frequently dotted with "nigger-
heads". As a walking medium it is of course, abominable.

At Eureka Creek we turned and paralleled the stream
northerly until late in the evening, when we camped on wdiat
is called Mystic River. When camp was reached, my com-
panions suggested that we use my provisions first, as theirs
was in tablet form and lighter to carry. I agreed, so we had
supper and breakfast off my bacon, and they had some fresh
bread which we used. At five o'clock in the morning we were
off again in a dense fog. We traveled at a rapid gait until
the middle of the afternoon, when we stopped for rest and
luncheon. One of the party made a fire and they dissolved
some of their tablets in hot water, which, with a portion of
my crackers, made a fairly good meal. We laid down and
slept for a time in the sun. On rolling up my blankets I forgot
to put in a small army frying pan I carried; one of the party
offered to take it, so late that evening when I was lost, they
had the only cooking utensil I carried.

We traveled rapidly the rest of the day, they with chart anr^
compass in hand, guiding the way. About six o'clock in the
evening we crossed a snow glacier that had not even yet been

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 27

melted by the summer sun, and began the ascent of a high, slate-
covered mountain. I was much fatigued when we came to this
climb, and as it was very steep, and I very tired, the slate rocks
frequently giving way under my feet as I ascended, sending
me crawfish-like backward quite a distance, 1 made very slow
headway; they soon got some ways ahead of me. When
I. had proceeded about two-thirds up the mountain
a heavy fog struck us. They were very nearly up, but
I noted their location, and finally reached the top just at the
point where I saw them disappear. Fully expecting to find
them waiting for me, I called in a loud voice, but received no
answer. There were fifteen or twenty acres of rough table
land on top. I went directly across this, thinking perhaps
they had gone down the opposite side. In the darkness I
could see the outlines of an almost perpendicular cliif, and a
steep ravine below me filled with a glacier. There being so
many other directions they could take to get off this table
mountain, I concluded it would be folly to attempt to follow in
the darkness and heavy fog, so I unrolled my blankets, took
a few mouthfuls to eat, and went to bed. I did not feel
frightened, but badly disappointed at losing them.

The fog soon turned into a rain, and I had a sample of what
I afterwards got for weeks in succession. Morning finally
came, and with it one of those beautiful Indian summer days
that sometimes occur here at that time of the year. On such
a day the distance one can see, especially from such a high
elevation as this, almost surpasses belief. AVe had made so
many turns that I did not remember the points of the compass.
I had laid my bed under the lee of a small cliff a little over the
edge of the mountain so as to protect myself as much as possible
from the wind and fog. Getting something to eat and rolling
up my blankets I went to the highest part of the plateau to
determine what I would do. When I reached the elevation
I could very plainly see what I took to be Port Clarence Bay
and the sand spit that separates it from Bering Sea. I argued
to myself that there was no use trying to retrace the round-
about trip we had made when I could cut across and get home
so much easier. Oh, fatal mistake! How small a thing
sometimes changes the whole current of our lives. This one
caused me indescribable suffering, loss of health and money,
caused my family and friends all the pangs suffered for the

28 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

death of a loved one, and left me a skeleton to battle with the
hardest winter Alaska has seen in many years. If the day
had been foggy or even an ordinarily clear one, I would not
have seen this distant bay and spit, and would have tried to
retrace my steps, or at the worst would have reached some
point on the Bering Sea, in a day or so, where I would have
found plenty of natives, and been perfectly safe. There had
not been over three such days during the summer, and that I
should catch this one just at this time, seems almost as queer
a freak of the wheel of fate, as my rescue nine weeks later,
when dying from starvation.

I stood for a few minutes on an immense boulder, pondering
over the matter, and finally when my mind was made up, I
tightened my pack straps, and started for my objective point,
which was a high bald mountain, apparently near the shore of
this l)ay. It seemed very near like a mountain I had seen back
of Teller. Down I went over rocks and small glaciers, where
the sun never struck, until, after a precipitous trip of prob-
ably a mile, I came to th^ bed of a stream of considerable
size that seemed to run in the direction I wished to go. I
followed this stream many miles, but as night drew nigh I
seemed little closer to my landmark than when I started.

On the way down this little river, while mushing over the
tundra alongside, I caught a young bird. It was the only one
I had seen during the day and was some company to me as I sat
on the l)ank fondling it. The temptation to kill and eat it was
strong within me. I realized that my food was almost gone,
and that even if I could reach Teller the next day, I would be
glad enough to find some of my friends at dinner. Still, the
poor little fellow seemed, like myself, lost, and as I had not,
up to this time, felt the pangs of hunger, I let the poor thing
go, and it flew off with a chirp that seemed to say "Thank
you."

Witli the evening came another heavy fog, and I found a
place on the stream where there were some dead willows, and
camped. I made a fire and broiled a piece of bacon on the
tines of a fork I had in my haversack; this was the last meat
I ever cooked on the trip. The balance of the small piece
of bacon I had left I ate raw, as there was too much waste in
broiling it in this way. The portion that remained of this
article was less in size than the palm of my hand. I had four

OR, THE WORLDS LONGEST FAST 29

or five crackers and some salt. There was probably three-
fourths of a half-pound can of coffee left.

I awoke early next morning, and rolling up my wet blankets,
(it had rained again the previous night) took a few mouthfuls
and started. A half mile or so below my camp the creek
turned off my course, so I was obliged to cross the divides over
the wet and miry tundra.

During this second day T was downhearted most of the
time. I could see my distant landmark, but could not see the
bay or spit.

My sheath knife was an eight-inch surgeon's amputating
implement, given me by a dear medical friend. I had had a
fine buckhorn handle put on before I left San Francisco, and
the blade was as sharp as a razor. It stood me in good stead
luany a time during the ti'i]), l)ut was a sorry looking weapon;
when I was finally found the point was lu'oken off, the
shaft was broken and an old willow handle — the sixth
I had put on during the trip— had taken the place of the buck-
horn, xlt one place where I stopped to rest, I took my little
piece of bdcon from my haversack, and with my knife drew
fourteen lines across the rind equal distances apart, each por-
tion being about the thickness of a case knife blade. I made up
my mind to take one of these morning and evening, It was
merely a mouthful, but I was determined to make my supply go
as far as possible.

I was full of uncertainty; at times I was sure I was right,
and then again a strong feeling that I was wrong would take
possession of me. At one time I took a half day to climb a
high elevation, that I might see the bay and spit. An
idea had come over me that I might have seen a mirage.
When I got to the top of the mountain there it was, in dim
outline before me, but apparently still a long way off, although
I had then been traveling four days. I went back down the
mountain to where I had left my blankets and camped in some
scrub willows on a stream; a bite of bacon, a quarter of a
cracker, a smoke for a few minutes, and I was ready to wrap up
in my blankets.

This was about the routine for the time it took me to get
out of the mountains. I had been following a stream nearly
all of the last day. Late in the afternoon of this day I had
arrived very nearly to my landmark. The stream I was on

30 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

diverged, and I concluded to cross the low foothills that
seemed directly on my course. I turned from the river, and
climbed the first one; being now quite weak from want of food,
it was a hard climb for me to get up this brushy ascent.
When I did get to the top my heart was tilled with joy. The sun
was just setting and it threw long streaks of golden sheen
across the water that appeared to be very close by. I knew,
from hearsay, that ihere was a large lake back of Teller,
although I had never seen it. I also knew that between Teller
and this lake there was a sandy elevation. Here they were,
two or three miles ahead of me, as plain as day. I was happy.
I had nothing to do but "mush" over a few miles of swampy
tundra and I would be at Teller. I was tired and weak from
hunger and, furthermore, I felt I would rather go in early next
morning and surprise them all asleep, than to get in at night
and be joked about being lost, even had I been physically
able to get there. I wrapped myself in my blankets and lay
down to sleep on a dry piece of tundra I found on top of the
hill, intending to rise early and go to town. It was the first
good .night's rest I had had since I was lost. 'There was
nothing on my mind to worry me, as there had been for
several days and nights past.

Morning came none too soon for me; with a cheerful heart,
I rolled up my blankets in that neat, compact shape that a
miner and "musher" soon learns in this country, and started.
My course took me through the low, boggy tundra bordering
the lake. I found it much farther to this lake than it. had
seemed from the hilltop, and I sank to my knees at every step.
Here I felt my first thirst. While in the mountains I had
]:)]enty of fine, pure snow water in the creeks, Imt while there
was an abundance of water here it was not fit to drink. No
one in this country thinks of drinking tundra water without
first boiling it.

Finally, after many hours, I got to the lake. I found it was
fed principally by a mountain stream, and seemed reasonably
clear and pure, so I drank several cupfuls of it. While on the
border of the lake I discovered that I had lost my sheath
knife. I remembered using it a few hundred yards back to
cut some tobacco, so I retraced my steps and luckily found it.
The lake had a kind of low wall or dyke all around it, except
where the stream entered. It looked almost as though it had

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 31

been done by human hands. I saw a great many of these after-
ward, and figured out to my own satisfaction, at least, the
cause. High winds prevail, especially at certain seasons of
the year. The lake, having an area of several acres, generates
quite heavy swells or waves; this would pile up the soft dirt
and the debris until, in a few years, a heavy dyke would be
built by nature. The rapid rise and fall of the lake, owing to
the melting snows which feed the rivers, serve to keep the
banks in good repair.

After resting on the lake shore for some time, I again shoul-
dered my pack and started along the edge of the water toward
the elevation now only about half a mile away, and from which
I was sure I could see Teller. As the distance decreased the
beating of my heart increased. I began to consider what it
meant to me, if perchance, I should be wrong. At last I
arrived at the foot of the low divide. To climb to the top
was the work of but a few minutes. AVith eager eyes I
scanned the landscape. My spirits sank as I realized there
■ was nothing but a barren waste before me. I was on a little
sandy hillock and the front of it was covered with scrub
willows and streaked with little ravines filled with compact
snow, which, slowly melting, fed a small lake at the foot. I
was in despair, but I had one hope left. Port Clarence Bay
is the largest of a chain of three inland seas, Grantley Harbor
emptying into it from a narrow strait formed by a spit, and
being itself the recipient of a still smaller body of water,
known as Great Salt Lake. I might be approaching Great
Salt Lake instead of Grantley Harbor. A body of water
several miles in extent lay before me ; now the next question in
my mind was whether or not it was salty. If so, 1 still had a
chance to be right. If not, I had been following a will-o'-the-
wisp, and had come to some big fresh water lake. I could
see, from where I stood, that the nearer bank of this body
of water curved in a semi-circle until it almost touched the
spit that seemed to form its opposite boundary, and which I
had seen from afar. A heavy lake-covered tundra lay be-
tween me and the shore, but filling with ice my coffee can,
from which I had emptied the coffee into a salt sack, I started.
Those two or three miles were as bad as ten on the creeks. I
sank above my knees at every step. Exercise, weakness and
the heat of the burning sun, made me very thirsty. There was

32 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

notliing but stagnant, typhus breeding tundra water within
reach; this I did not dare drink without boiling, and there
was no wood. To make matters worse there were mosquitoes
by the million.

After several hours I reached the shore. Here I found
- plenty of drift wood. Going down to the water's edge I dipped
up a cupful. It was salty. Making a fire from the drift wood,
I melted some of the snow found under the bank, and satisfied
my thirst. I boiled some leaves I had gathered and drank the
extract. After a smoke, I threw some more wood on the fire,
and being very tired, lay down and slept an hour or so. After
this rest, I started down the shore of the bay, hoping that
when I reached the lower end of the body of water I would
find Port Clarence and Teller on the other side of the little
divide that appeared in the distance. The walking along the
shore was comDaratively good for the balance of the day.
There is little, if any, tide on this coast, and no sandy beach.

Toward evening I came to an arm of the bay extending a
couple of miles back into the tundra. This, of course, I had
to go around. I decided to camp, and try this hard trip in
the early morning. The sun was still an hour or so high, and
the mosquitoes as thick as the hair on a Malamoot dog's back.
I found some dry tundra, and unrolling my blankets, went to '
bed. I was unable at this place to find even grass roots to
eat. I searched all the little ponds to see if I could find some
frogs. There are no frogs in this country. I dug for worms.
Tbere are no worms in this part of Alaska.

This was on July 23rd, and I desire to digress, with the
reader's permission, for a few minutes. A most startling
instance in mental telepathy happened in connection with the
following day. This book, as before said, is being written at
Teller, Alaska, during the terrible winter of 1900-1. In the
second mail to reach here from "the States," after navigation
closed, I received a long letter from one of my sisters, Mrs.
Adelia H. Taffinder, of San Francisco. My relatives had all be-
lieved me dead, but on September 27th, the day I was brought in
in a dying condition, I had caused postals to be sent informing
my relatives that I had just been found and hoped to live.
No particulars were given. Imagine my surprise at the fol-
lowing sentences in my sister's letter, in reply:
J "I dreamed not long ago that I was hunting for you in an

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 33

unknown land; at last I met you for an instant only. You
looked so sad and troubled and did not speak, but handed me
a piece of paper with only these words written thereon,
'July 24th'. I do not know what happened to you that day
unless you felt utter despair."

Next morning I got up early, and following the winding of
this inlet, finally got around to the bay again. I rounded
another, much shorter, an hour or so afterward, and then had
comparatively good walking until the early part of the after-
noon when I came to a wide marsh, covered with the worst
kind of tundra, and thickly dotted with lakes. Wading
through this for a couple of hours, sinking nearly to the top
of my hip boots at every step, and finding very few places where
I could even stop for a breathing spell, I came to a big river.
(I have since learned that this was the now celebrated Ser-.
pentine). Luckily for me the river formed a delta, there
being two branches. The gravel from the mountains had
washed down and the bed was comparatively firm. By select-
ing a wide place I was able to cross each branch, the water
coming to within an inch or so of the top of my hip boots,
except in one place where a little water ran into them, but as
the weather was then warm I did not mind this.

After crossing this stream it was only a short distance to
good walking on the bay shore again. Resting every few min-
utes, I kept going until almost dark. As I walked along the
edge of the water, I saw in the distance something that appeared
to be the frame of a small building, and also beheld with joy
what I took to be a man coming in my direction. Before getting
to the frame, I came across some old moss-covered chips, such
as would be made by sharpening pickets. As I drew
near what I had thought, in the uncertain light of the evening,
to be a man, I found a heavy piece of drift wood set in the
ground. It had the appearance of having been there for
years, as did the several pieces of frame work I had taken to
be the ruins of a native eglow or house. It must have been
something used by whaling vessels in years agone.

I went on a hundred yards or so, and as it was getting dusk,
and I was very tired, even with the numerous and long rests
I had taken, I concluded to camp. I threw my blanket roll
down at the water's edge and ascended the high embankment
to see what could be seen. This was done hurriedlv, as dark-

34 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

ness was fast approaching. Going a hundred yards or so back
from the bank my heart almost ceased beating at the sight.
In the limited horizon I conld see an ocean, and immediatelv
before me was another bay. Inland and in the edge of the low
foothills I could distinguish two or three large lakes, such as
I knew were not anywhere about Teller. Hope was now
almost gone. I returned to my camping place and sat down
upon my bedding, saying aloud, "I guess the jig's up." I am
not given to using slang, and know not why I did then, but
the words will ring in my ears to my dying day. I was now
perfectly convinced that I was at the Arctic Ocean, with-
out food, or the prospect of food — I was almost a living
skeleton even then — and knew, if it was the iVrctic, I must be
at least a hundred and fifty miles from Teller, as I remembered
" it on the maps.

I unrolled my blankets and lay down, but not to sleep.
Carefully I considered what was best to be done in the morn-
ing. The great question in my mind was whether to attempt
to follow the shore of the ocean or try to retrace my steps.
From the hurried view I got on the hilltop the shore looked
barren and desolate indeed. I realized that if I got into the
mountains again I could have pure fresh water, and plenty of
dead willows for a fire. Besides there was still a little grass
and a few weeds and plants. This I knew, but what was on
the shore was an unknown quantity to me.

I have been told many times since my rescue that I would
probably have found shell fish or something of that kind on
the rocky beach of the ocean when I got to it. Be
this as it may, I carefully weighed every point for and against
taking to the coast, well knowing that my life probably hung
on my judgment in the matter.

Along towards morning I concluded to again go back to
the knoll where I was the evening before, and if a clearer view
should confirm my opinion of the looks of the shore, attempt
to retrace my long journey. I dropped into a doze and upon
awaking found that the usual morning fog had cleared away,
and the sun was shining brightly.

Eolling up my blankets, I ran my arms through the shoulder
straps and climbed the bank and knoll. In the clear morning
light I could plainly see the barren, desolate shore of the grim
old Arctic. It appeared even worse than it did the night

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 35

before. The die was cast. I must attempt to retrace my
tracks.

I concluded that instead of following the bay shore back, I
would cut across the tundra to the place where 1 came off the
mountains and thus avoid the long **mush" around the arms
of the bay. Taking a landmark as near as possible in line
with this point, I started, traveling all day and at night
camped, or rather slept, on a dry piece of tundra. I well
remembered climbing over a small hillock on the ocean side of
which there was some brush and melting snow, with a lake
at the bottom, as heretofore described. My endeavor was to
find such a place. I found a dozen that answered the descrip-
tion almost perfectly, but could not find the right one. I spent
several days looking for it, tramping over this terrible tundra.

At last I gave it up in despair, and concluded to try to get
to the low foot hills, and parallel the high mountain range
until I could, if possible, get my bearings. "While on the marsh
I found a kind of rush that had a little nutriment in it. If I
caught it firmly near the root I pulled up what very much re-
sembled a young onion sprout. The outside of this was spongy
and absolutely without nourishment, but the center, the young-
est leaf (if that is the proper term, botanically speaking), con-
tained a little nutriment. It was not as large as a shingle nail,
but by collecting a great number of them they helped me
some.

On this wet lowland, and in fact along the edge of the
streams in the mountains, I found a weed that in childhood I
had known as "sour dock". It has two elongated leaves and
between them sends up a stem that we used to chew. This
stem is sour to the taste and perhaps has a little nutriment
in it. , I used it whenever I found it. I had never tried the
root of this plant, and one evening while on the lowlands, con-
cluded I would try to cook some of it. It is yellowish in color
and has quite a large bulb. It softened in the boiling and
before I tasted it I thought I had found something that would
serve me in good stead. When I came to eat it I found it as
bitter as gall and a few minutes afterwards my stomach
ejected it.

After an exhausting trip of a day, I got back to the foot-
hills once more and started in to parallel the higher range.
Up to this time I had never been able to see a clear sunrise

36 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

or sunset on account of fogs and because during all of the
first week I was down in the ravines. I knew approximately
the number of days I had been lost and could therefore tell
very nearly what day of the month it was. I also knew, of
course, that on September 21st the sun would rise due east
and set in exactly the opposite direction.

After being in the low hills for two or three nights I finally
got a clear sunset and that same night saw the north star,
the evening being clear and cold. As soon as I had located
the points of the compass I felt a little more hope. I knew
that going south would take me to the Bering Sea. The
trouble was that I found myself too weak to scale the high
mountains ,that were to the south of me, and was obliged to
continue in the same direction I was going, and which I now
knew to be easterly, hoping that I would find some low place
through the divide.

About this time I came across a small water course that
did not contain running water but had a number of pools in
its bed. As I was passing one of these I saw a small fish dart
in under the tundra-covered bank. I dropped my pack and
taking off my sou '-wester baled the hole dry after an hour
or so of work, being rewarded by the possession of a minnow
the length, probably, of an average finger. I did not stop to
cook it but ate it raw in two bites. In this same little creek
I caught three more during that day and the next, all about the
same size. After. this for two or three days, before the heav\-
rains began, I kept a sharp lookout for these dry water
courses. I would even go out of my way for miles if I saw
any indication. I found only one more, but a couple of hours
before I reached it a heavy rain began and as soon as I
came across a likely looking hole I cached my blankets under
the brush and worked in the cold storm for hours,
baling with my hat. I finally got it dry and was rewarded
with three little fish somewhat smaller than the ones I got
on the other creek. I caught two more a day or so after-
Avards in a manner that certainly seemed providential.

The latter part of the day had been warm but the evening
was cold. I conceived the idea of sleeping in the rocky bed
of the creek I was on and of building a big fire on the rocks
and when they got hot, sweeping them off and making my bed.
I tried it and made a dismal failure; the rocks were too hot

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 37

to be comfortable at first but along toward morning got very
cold. I had always heard that rocks held heat for a long
time, but I do not believe it now. Another thing that kept
me very uneasy was the thought that perhaps I had not swept
all the coals out of the crevices and would set my blankets
afire.

Next morning I arose early from my cold, hard bed, and
''mushed" on up the creek. I was suffering even more than
usual from hunger that morning ; there being no running water
in the course and the tundra coming right down to the bank
there were absolutely no weeds or grass at all. I had gone
about half a mile when in a little shallow pool I discovered two
of my small finny friends. It was only necessary to stoop down
and pick them up. These, nine in all, completed my fish diet,
as the heavy rains became almost continuous about this time,
and started all the streams running.

I desire to explain the reason I use the word ''mush" so
frequently. "While the word is a localism of this northern
country it is not slang. It is used always by everybody who has
been here any length of time and is very expressive. Travel-
ing over the heavy, soft tundra we have could not be
as well described by any other word. It is also used syn-
onymously with the words "get out," especially when applied
to dogs and persons.

They tell a story about a fellow who had lived in this
country for several j^ears. He went out to "the States" a year
or so ago. The boat getting in late at night he did not
land until morning. Of course the first thing he did was to
hunt up the best restaurant he could find. Most Alaskans
do this when they get out. He went in and sat down; not
having had time to get shaved or change his old mining
clothes, he fully realized that he had very much the appear-
ance of a tramp. A neat lady waiter came to his side and said,
"Mush, sir!". He got right up and went out, leaving the
waitress gazing at his departing figure, speechless and full of
wonder at the man's actions.

For some days after the fish episode nothing of particular
interest happened. It would generally rain hard all night
and clear up in the morning. I was very weak and emaciated
and could rarely "mush" more than a couple of miles in a
day and could never go to sleep before four or five o'clock

38 STARVING ON A BED OP GOLD

in the morning; if it was still raining when I awoke I often
lay in my blankets all day with an oil coat (known here as
a ''slicker") over the upper part of my body and the piece
of canvas in which I wrapped my blankets over the lower por-
tion. With the blanket rope I would tie my blankets around me
when I went to bed, and thus be warmer and at the same time
keep the edges of the blanket from getting out into the rain. If
it was not raining when I stopped to camp I always made
a big fire, wood and water being two things that were always
plentiful. I would boil some water in the half-pound coffee
can and drink it, thus warming myself, it being almost im-
possible, as any old ' ' sour dough ' ' will tell you, to keep warm
by an open fire.

I counted my matches over and over again, and during the
last two-thirds of my trip could have told you at any time
how many matches I had. I remember having sixty-five
left the day I was found dying. In attempting to make a
fire once after a heavy rain I used eight matches and then did
not succeed. I decided not to try further and got into my wet
blankets very cold and was almost frozen all night long. You can
hardly imagine how much the wasting of these eight matches
worried me. If they had been twenty dollar gold pieces and
the last I had in the world, I assure you it would have troubled
me less. The principal reason for the loss of matches this
time was the absence of any suitable piece of wood to get
shavings from. I became very expert in making fires and
rarely used more than one or two matches, even after a heavy
rain. I would find a limb of dead, barkless willow (willows
were the only wood I saw on the trip) and taking my sheath
knife, trim off the wet outside down to the dry part. Tlien I
would cut some shavings from this stick after which I took
the smallest branch tips to be found on a dead willow (of which
there were always plenty,*the heavy winds that prevail playing
sad havoc with the scrub vv^illows that line the stream banks),
then I would put on larger and larger tips until finally the pile
would burn easily. I was always in great fear that my
matches would get wet. In order to guard against this, I
left them in the paper in which they were bought; around
this I kept a piece of oil paper in which most Alaskan goods
are packed for import. This in turn was surrounded with
a heavy piece of cloth and the whole package was kept in a

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 39

large rubber tobacco pouch I bad in my pocket. To guard
against tbe setting on fire of the whole bunch, in breaking off
one, I separated it into several parts. I knew that the loss of
my matches was sure death to me and I guarded them as I
did my life. My blankets were nearly always wet until I dried
them at bedtime, and the hot water to keep me warm was
indispensable.

Seeing no low places in the rough mountains to the south
of me I kept on easterly at my snail-like gait. After about
three weeks, during which time the weather grew worse and
worse, I saw, a few miles ahead of me, a high mountain which
looked quite accessible, and from which I thought I might be
able to better determine what I should do. Toward evening on
the third day after this I arrived at the top. The mountain
itself was quite high, but on the side I went up the ascent was
so gradual that by taking a rest every few feet I got to the
top without much difficulty, where there was a rectangular
ledge of rocks four or five acres in extent and of an almost
uniform height of perhaps twenty-five feet. On the westerly
end of this rocky crown was an old, partially tumbled-down
stone house. It must have been the work of natives in former
years. Before examining this I eagerly surveyed the sur-
rounding country. My heart rose within me as I beheld in
the south a low pass through the mountains. While the ele-
vation of this pass appeared even higher than the one I was
on, still it was much lower than the rough, steep mountains
on either side of it. After all I was afraid that I would not
be able to scale even these lower mountains in my then
physical condition, still having in mind the plan of follow-
ing the Arctic shore. After calm deliberation and observation
of perhaps half an hour, I came to the conclusion that I
would try to reach another and still higher elevation about
ten miles easterly. I favored the mountain route, but realized
what a mistake would cost me. I could see a glacier on the
side of this distant elevation and running down from it was
apparently quite a large stream. Beneath the crown of this
distant mountain top was the head of the largest and widest
valley I had seen on the whole trip. There seemed to be a
gradual slope of about five miles with very high precipitous
mountains on either side of the little river that flowed down
this valley and finally emptied, some miles below, into the

40 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

stream that ran easterly past the mountain I was then on. It
appeared to me that it would not be a very hard trip down
the latter stream and up the very gradual ascent of the former.
Jt turned out to be the worst ten miles of my whole trip, not
on account of the "mushing," for that was comparatively
good, but because of the weather and other things. I was ten
days making this ten miles.

When I had finished my observation and arrived at this
conclusion, I went back to the easterly end of the cliff where
I had left my blankets. At the base of this end was a low,
marshy piece of ground. It seemed to me there should
surely be worms here. In California, where I was raised,
there would have been thousands of angle worms in such a
pl^ace. I took my case knife from the haversack and dug
over several feet of ground but there were no worms of any
kind. I had thought of camping at this spot and getting some
protection from the lee side of the cliff, if it rained, but there
being no pure water and no wood, I decided to go- down the
mountain side to the stream heretofore spoken of. The way
down was marshy and covered with scrub willows near the
foot.

I had gotten well down the mountain and within, probably,
two hundred yards of the stream when I beheld right in front
of me, and just across the stream, what at first sight I took
to be a prospector's horse. I stopped short and said aloud,
"Thank God," well knowing that a prospector there meant
food and life to me. A moment later my joy was turned to
dark despair when on closer observation I saw that the ;jup-
posed horse was really an immense brown bear. He had
evidently not seen me. The reader may not believe me, but
as God is my judge, I coolly deliberated for several minutes
whether or not I should go on down to the stream and if the
animal attacked me give him battle with my sharp knife. I
was starving and bear steaks would have been much more
welcome to me than pure gold; on the other hand I knew I
was so weak I could hardly stand, let alone fight a bear, which
would probably kill me outright or wound me badly and leave
me for dead. I had become desperate, feeling certain that I was
destined to die of starvation and reasoned that if the bear
should kill me it would be a much easier death than the slow
torture of starvation. M}^ better judgment however prevailed

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 41

and I watched the bear wander slowly down the stream in the
very direction I expected to go.

I made a big fire, drank some hot water, smoked some willow
leaves and rolled up in my blankets on some l)ranches I laid
across the forked boughs of a willow that had been blown down
almost flat to the ground by the wind. I frequently had an
opportunity to get a comparatively good bed in this way.
Toward midnight the rain began to pour down and did not
cease during the night or the next day. I did not get out of
my blankets until the morning of the second day after I saw
the bear. I then ''mushed" down to the stream, and the day
being clear and cold, attempted to make a fire. Everything
was wet and the proper kind of wood being unavailable I did
not succeed. Weak and cold, I had to keep moving or almost
freeze. A half mile or so down the stream I found the ruins
of an old eglow; it had been made by sticking willow poles
five or six feet in length into the ground in circular form and
bringing all the tops of the poles as near together as possible.
Some brush had then been thrown over these and this in turn
covered with sod. Time had partially wrecked this shelter, but
by cutting a little fresh sod with my case knife and putting
it on I succeeded in getting considerable protection the rest
of that day and night. I also managed to build a little fire
inside. It seemed unusually cold that night, considering the
shelter I had, but when I got up next morning the reason was
apparent. It had snowed heavily during the night. This
must have been as early as the middle of August. It did not
begin to snow regularly until about the first of September.

The night I slept in this old eglow I thought of a plan by
which I might get a few mouthfuls to eat and wondered that
the idea had not entered my mind before, I had noticed at
this and several other places where I had camped in the brush
that the little birds were very gentle or rather had great curios-
ity. They would sometimes even alight on my blankets before
I got up in the morning; the slicker being entirely over my
head they could not tell that there was any living object
under the blankets. At the first move I made, however, they
were off like a shot. I imagined that I might be able to kill
some of them with rocks. I was anxious for morning to
come that I might try it. My mind was stronger than my
body. When I tried the experiment I found I had not force

42 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

enough to kill one even if I did hit it. This same over-estima-
tion of my strength frequently happened in regard to "mush-
ing". I would wake up in the morning feeling, before I
moved, strong enough to travel several miles that day. When
I began to move about, however^ I found my renewed strength
had existed in my mind only.

After my night in the old egiow I started on down the
stream not knowing what minute I would run against Mr.
Bruin, and to tell the truth, this matter was not bothering me
a great deal. I did not meet him again, however, but saw his
tracks once more on this stream, and once on another stream
several miles from there. As I hobbled along down the creek,
a cold rain set in. Finally I found a high, perpendicular,
rocky cliff near the river bank. In the rain I cut with my
sheath knife as many small poles as I could and making a
"lean-to" against the lee side of the rock, covered it with
tundra sod. I succeeded in making a fire under cover of
this shed. At this place on the creek, nearly in front of my
eglow, I found a small quantity of the rush plant which I had
found over at the Arctic. I noticed at my last camping
place there was some bird, undoubtedly of the snipe
species, that followed along the stream at night and turned the
smaller rocks over with its bill, seeking grubs or some kind
of water bugs. I never saw any of them, but could hear them
plainly and conceived the idea of making a trap to catch
them. I spent most of the following day cutting the
straightest willows I could find. At last I got the trap made,
including the figure four trigger so often used in "the States".
I had no bait, but in searching my pockets found a piece of
red flannel. I set the trap and placed thereon a rock for
weight. Tired and famished, I struggled back to my
blankets and crawled in, anxious for morning to come and
with it the bird feast I anticipated. I arose early and made
my way down to my trap in the creek bed. When I reached
the bank I was highly elated at the sight before me. There
was my trap down and the rock still on top. I- hurried to it.
As usual, fate was against me. The trap was empty. I sat
down on the bank in despair at my disappointment.

In a short time another cold rain started in. I went back
to my shack and tried to make a fire but could not do it; by
this time the rain had soaked through the sod and my "lean-

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 43

to" was leaking like a sieve. My blankets, yet unrolled, were
getting quite wet. This was one of my darkest hours. I
realized that if I stayed there without being able to drink any
hot water to warm myself I would get pneumonia or perish
from exposure and I felt too weak to mush that day. I pro-
tected myself as well as I could and shivered in the rain.
Finally when the downpour stopped for a few moments I
grabbed my blankets and hurriedly packing them together
some way, threw them over my shoulders and started down
the stream.. I was in the habit of rolling my blankets in a
neat, compact bundle, not for the looks, but to make them
easier to carry.' There is a great knack in doing up blankets.
Spreading them out flat with about a foot of one end turned
down, fold both sides to the middle; then tightly roll them,
beginning at the end not turned down and upon reaching th^
turned down portion of the blanket, you will find this caplike
end will fit over the roll.

I staggered along for a few hundred yards and concluded
to cut across a low "divide" toward my objective point. I
managed to get across this hill but could get no further. I
was warmed up a little on account of the exercise, although it
was still raining and sleeting. I got into some brush on a
little stream and pulled my blankets over me and the canvas
and slicker over them. In a few hours it cleared and began
to turn warm. In the morning I was able to make a fire and
get some hot water and could also dry my blankets.

Weak from my experience of the day before I did not feel
strong enough to travel. I stayed by the fire, drank hot water,
smoked willow leaves and passed the time until late in the
afternoon, then moved my bed to a more comfortable place a
few feet from where it had been deposited in the hurry of
the night before. In front of me was a high, tundra-covered
hill I knew I must scale before reaching the stream that would
carry me to my elevated destination. I lay down on the bed
and gazed, in the gloaming, at the hard climb before me. As
you will shortly see, this much dreaded hill proved a lucky
one for me.

I got up in the morning and tried to catch some of the small
.fish swimming in the creek. I used a little net that I had
stayed up all night to make, about a week before, cutting a
piece off the end of my canvas and unraveling the twine

44 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

from it. I tried many times, but never caught a single fisli;
it was too diminutive and the water too plentiful.

One day early in August I was crossing over a high divide
and ran ahnost over a ptarmigan hen with four little chicks,
evidently hatched a day or two before; as weak as I was,
I managed to catch the four little ones. Each was only a
mouthful but I made four meals of them. The second day
after this I found one, a shade larger, of which I made a
couple of mouthfuls. The x:)tarmigan is a bird about the size
of a young pullet, and in fact, looks very much like one. It is
brown in summer, but the color changes to pure white in
winter. It is fully as good eating as any chicken; in truth
I think it is better. I may be a little biased in its faA^or, be-
cause, as 3^ou will learn hereafter, it indirectly saved my life
twice. Nature especially protects it, for as winter approaches
feathers come out on its legs all the way down, but in the
summer they are like those of any ordinary farm-yard
chicken. Their white color prevents their being seen so easily
in the snow by animals and hunters. Their color in summer
is much the same as the tundra; some of the other animals
also change color in the same way.

Well, about ten o'clock I shouldered my blankets and
started over the divide. By resting every ten feet or so, I
finally climbed about two-thirds of the way up this tundra-
covered mountain when, at my feet, I beheld what I took to
be a beautiful red flower. I was pleased and surprised to
find this so late in the season, and stooped over to pluck it.
Imagine my astonishment to find that it was a berry. I
dropped my pack from my back saying aloud, "Thank God;
if I can find enough of these they may pull me through"; I
began to hunt for more, only finding a few at this spot but in a
little wet hollow running down the side of the hill fifty yards
away, I got thousands of them; in fact the ground was yellow
with them. I crawled about on my hands and knees and ate
until I was full. I have since learned that these are called
salmon berries; they are red when ripe and yellow when
over-ripe. It was so late in the season that all I found were
yellow except on some high, dry spots. They are nearly all
water and seeds and contain very little nourishment. After
eating all I could I filled the coffee can and went back to my
camp of the night before. I boiled those in the can iii their

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 45

own juice; there is enough sugar in them to make them
palatable. I thought I could keep this jelly to eat if I found
no more berries l)ut got so hungry, however, during the night
that I ate it all up, knowing I could refill the can in the
inorning.

Next day I felt a little stronger and started out early,
because I knew I would spend a couple of hours after berries.
This time I began at the foot of the little hollow and worked
up, making another discovery right at the start. I saw a
number of little reddish colored plants growing out of the
tundra and on them I found a small berry, bluish in color,
when ripe. I have learned that these are called blueberries;
in flavor they very much resemble our currant. The blue-
berry bush does not come more than from six to ten inches
above the sod and the salmonberry does not grow on a bush
at all, but comes right up out of the ground on a little stem.
I may have walked over some of these berries before and not
noticed them, as I had always been used to seeing berries grow
on taller bushes and plants. I did not pay much attention
to the blueberry then, as it was much more scarce and harder
to pick than the other. I hated to leave the spot, but when I
had eaten all I could and refilled my can, I concluded to go
on, having been so much delayed in the past few days and
everything indicated the approach of winter. On the top of
the divide I walked over a few salmon berries, but I assure
you I never stepped on them when I could help it; I was so glad
to find them that it seehied to me, in my then frame of mind,
almost sinful to crush them with my feet. On the other slope
of the mountain I found even more than on the westerly side.
The ptarmigan seemed to know a good thing when they saw
it because here they were thick; I never wanted a gun so
badly in my life.

When well down on the easterly side I stopped to rest and
make up my mind what to do. A startling panorama was
before me; at the foot of the mountain lay the widest valley
I had seen in my whole trip, being probably a quarter of a
mile in width. Heretofore, most of the mountains formed an
acute angle at their bases; the lower part of this mountain was
covered with a dense thicket of dwarf willows. Directly in
front of me was an immense glacier, acres in extent and of
the width of the valley. A big, Avide stream of water ran

46 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

through a natural tunnel cut in the ice and fed by this glacier
and others like it which I could see further up the valley; this
was the slope that was to lead me, by gradual ascent, to the
elevation I spoke of some pages back. I concluded to camp
before reaching the bottom because I wanted to be near the
berries without too much of a climb, so finding a place where
dead willows were thick I took off my blankets and made a big
fire, then emptying my berries out of the coffee can into my
hat, went down to the stream for water; about the first thing
I came across at the creek was fresh bear tracks — undoubtedly
my friend of a few days before. He did not make his appear-
ance again, however, but from the freshness of the sign I am
satisfied he was in the thicket somewhere.

I came back to where my fire was burning, boiled some
salmon berries, dried my blankets and made my bed on one
of the horizontal willow forks heretofore described. I had
become an expert weather prophet and had in my mind pre-
dicted rain that night. It soon began to pour down and kept
it up continuously until late in the afternoon of the next day;
when it stopped I got out of my wet blankets and
went up on the hillside after some berries; I found
that the heavy rain had almost ruined them but
picked enough to fill my can and a few to eat.
The grass and bushes were dripping with w^ater and not
being able to make a fire I was very cold. Before I got back
to my blankets it began to rain again and did not stop until
the next morning. I went to bed at once but not to sleep.
How the rain did pour down during the night! It was frigid
and I almost froze in my blankets. Toward morning the rain
stopped a little and I concluded that the best thing I could
do, not being able to build a fire, was to "mush" along as
fast as I could and try to get some animal heat into my poor,
cold body. Eating a few berries, I rolled my blankets and
started. Getting around the big glacier I found the most
interesting creek I had been on during the trip. On either
side of me were rough, rugged mountains, their almost perpen-
dicular sides forming the boundar}' of this valley.

Below each glacier, along the banks of the stream, I found
a substance that at first I thought was good to eat, but I got
badly fooled. It was white and of about the consistency and
appearance of soft taffy candy, but when I tasted it I became

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 47

satisfied it was some combination of lime, and therefore not
nutritious. As I went on up this little valley cold showers
of rain frequently impeded my progress. Finally, an im-
mense ledge of rock came into view near the center of the
valley. I got on the lee side of this until the showers had
stopped coming so frequently. There was a temptation to
camp there, but I could not find any dry wood to make a fire
and my blankets being very wet I soon ''folded my tent like
the Arabs and as silently stole away."

Late that evening I found a good camping place with plenty
of wood and still having a few of the salmon berries left,
ate them, and tied myself up in my blankets. The weather
had cleared but as usual it became frosty. I woke up during
the night and found myself groaning with the cold; next day
I was too weak to travel, although the weather was beautiful
■ — clear, bright and cold. After resting up a day I felt
a little stronger and succeeded in reaching the high elevation-
mentioned some pages back. About the time I got to the
top a heavy driving mist began to come in. I could see
nothing and hurried to the lee of a big ledge of rocks to make
my bed. I found I was not yet on the highest part of the
mountain, but concluded to wait until morning where I was,
hoping the weather would clear. I awoke early but it was
still blowing and raining; I managed to roll my blankets and
carry them up the rocky mountain to a kind of cave in the
cliff of rocks, still several hundred yards from the top.
Although it rained hard during the night, I slept quite snugly.

In the morning the weather cleared a little, but not enough
to allow me to get a view of my surroundings. There was
absolutely no plant or grass of any kind that I could eat on this
rocky height. The water up here was only such as is con-
tained in the tundra pools and I could not go down to the
creek at the foot, as the trip back would be more than I could
stand.

While sitting under the projecting and protecting end of
a large rock, meditating, I spied on the ground near me, a small
snail or periwinkle; to fall over and grab it was the work of
but a few seconds. Looking around I found a few more in
that immediate vicinity, but hobbling over to a low, damp,
rocky swale near by, I found hundreds of them. I dropped
down on my hand and knees and followed up this damp place

48 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

cracking periwinkles with my teeth as I would hazelnuts, and
swallowing the tiny morsel therein contained. Although the
meat in the shell was no larger than a quail shot, by eating a
great many of them, I felt a little strengthened. I was at this
place four days before the fog and mist cleared sufficiently
for me to get a view. I hated the delay, knowing it was get-
ting late in the season and that the terrors of an Arctic
winter would soon begin in earnest, but, on the other hand, it
was all-important that I should acquire the information I could
only get here.

The fourth morning broke clear and bright; leaving my
blankets where they were, I ascended the balance of the climb
to the mountain top. Sure enough, I could see the low place
through the mountains distinctly, and the desolate looking Arc-
tic Ocean in the near distance, a marshy lake-covered tundra,
miles in extent, lying between it and me. The pass through
the mountains to the south looked better; it had the appear-
ance of low hills and far, far in the distance I could see, appar-
ently near the end of this mountain pass, two tall peaks, almost
exactly alike in appearance. My mind was at once made up.
I would head for those twins. Returning to camp I ate a few
snails and started. I noticed one peculiarity about these
snails; one hour there would be an abundance, the next there
would not be one in sight. I suppose this must have been
on account of the changes in the temperature; I can think of
no other reason.

CHAPTER IV.

STRUGGLING HOMEWARD.

I could see from my position that it would be necessary for
me to go toward the southwest for awhile, although the pass lay
directly to the south of me. There were a couple of high, bald
mountains directly in the way.

The wind and sleet had come again, but not heavily as yet,
so making a neat roll of my l)lankets, I started. For several
miles I tramped over the worst of upland tundra. It was a
rocky, wet j^lateau immediately overlooking the glacier valley
up which I had come. I could, if I had had my usual strength,

OR, THE WORLDS LONGEST FAST 49

have thrown a rock down the perpendicnlar side to the stream
on which I had camped several times.

As the time passed on, the cold easterly wind blew the
sleet in cutting gusts; I was wet and shivering with cold.
The top of this mountain was very rocky; indeed, at places
there were immense cliffs. During one of the worst showers
I got in between two enormous boulders to protect myself. I
was sitting there, damp, disheartened and full of meditation,
when a moving object passed before my retina and I was con-
scious of some animal before me. I did not realize its size
at first, but when I got a good look at it, I saw it was a large,
black fox. When I first saw it, it w^as coming directly toward
my rock, in a dog trot. Presently it saw me, stopped a
moment, threw its pretty head to one side, and made a semi-
circle around me. Oh, how often after that I wished that it
had had a ptarmigan or other bird in its mouth! I am sure
it would have dropped it from fright.

After the heavy shower was over I mushed ialong, an hour r
so later coming to the largest cliff I had seen on the mountain.
Although it was beginning to grow dark I could still plainly see
my starting point. In this huge mass of rocks I found the
best protected sleeping place of the trip. I was cold, thirsty
and hungry; there was no running water and no wood. AVith-
out a mouthful of anything, I get into my blankets. It rained ^
almost incessanth", but not a drop could strike me. As usual,
I dreamed of food all night, after I got to sleep. This is one
of the peculiarities of starvation. My every thought, almost,
while lying awake was of something to eat. It is astonishing
how your memory will run back clearly and distinctly to the
minute details of meals you had years before, and which in
your normal condition you had entirely forgotten. You will
even remember what position you occupied at the table;
whether the meat was well done or rare, and which dish you
liked best. For weeks, after the first few days, it is safe
to say I never had a dream that did not contain a meal. I
ate, in my imagination, all varieties of meals from the finest
French dinner to. the most humble "kow-kow" I ever had in
Alaska. I would see great stacks of all kinds of . canned
goods; the label on each can was plain to me. Meats seemed
to predominate, but the numerous other canned stuffs that we
have in this countr}^ were much in evidence.

50 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

During my trip on tlie Tliraslier I was very much interested
in a story I read of a man who was lost in the Alps and who
was finally rescued by some monks and their St. Bernard
dogs from a monastery in the wildest and roughest part of
that country. Twice during my terrible trip I dreamed I
came to a monastery, where I was well fed and attended
medically and when I recovered, was sent, accompanied by
a guide, to my destination.

The odd thing about these dreams was that I seemed to
enjoy the meal in reality. Unlike Tantalus, the food was
always within my reach; many a nice, thick, juicy beefsteak
did I devour in my sleeping moments. But, oh, the awaken-
ing was awful! I seemed to feel the pangs of hunger much
more than if I had never had the dream.

Next morning after the camp on the mountain top, I
crawled out of mv little cave and looked about for snails. I
could find none, although I was not more than a mile and a
half from where I had found many of them. The weather
had cleared- but was still threatening. In the distance I could
see a «t:reai. running past the foot of this mountain. There
appeal ^ plenty of wood on it, and in the Alaskan slang,

"it look ..?<:m1 to me". Slowly I climbed over the rocky,
wet tundr . mountain side, resting at frequent intervals.

Near the boUum "^ere a number of scattered scrub willows.
I lay down by one of these to rest for a few minutes. While
reclining on my elbow on the wet ground, my slicker protect-
ing me from the f'ampuess, I saw near me a snail. I ardently
seized it, ate it an i hunitd for more. I found quite a number.
It was strange I shc'ild fi>v"' them in this unlikely place and not
on the top of the div: ''-c \.:< the rocks. After eating all the

snails I could find I w down to the creek. At the foot

of the mountain, on ti. ba.ak of a stream, I found a fine
mineral spring. There ; -'^ large number of these in this
part of Alaska and some >i li.cm rival the most noted springs
of "the States". There are t^AO very fine ones near Teller.

Leaving the spring I sta'^-geied on down the creek through
the brush, looking for a trOod camping place. I was always
glad to follow a creek; i ; so much better walking than
on the rough tundra. Lnless the stream is too large, you
can nearly always take advantsige of the gravel bars and in
some places the walking is fis good as on a sidewalk. I finally

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 51

found a place with plent}^ of dry wood and dropped my
blankets. The wind was blowing quite briskly, so 1 brought
some rocks up from the river bed and made a wind-break for
the fire, to the lee of some thick brush. I tried to cook some
leaves I found on the bank of the stream but could not eat
them.

I made my usual bough bed and after a smoke of willow
leaves went to my couch. It rained during the night but cleared
in the morning. I arose early and going up on the bank among
the bushes, found a few snails. I could not make a fire
so rolled up my blankets and started on down the stream but
was not able to go more than half a mile.

My next camp was about a third of the way up a divide T
had to cross to get to my point of destination. There was the
usual routine at this place. The following morning, a few
hundred feet higher up on the hillside, I found some more
snails near a small cliff. I made the best "mush" that day
I had made during the latter part of my trip. The snails
seemed to have strengthened me somewhat. Late that even-
ing I reached a likely looking stream about eight feet wide
and apparently running due east, past the low place in the
mountains for which I was aiming. I came to a halt in some
thick brush on the bank of this creek. To my surprise the
morning dawned clear, cold and sunny. This stream was full
of trout of all sizes. Oh, how they used to annoy me! They
would sport about in the water, seeming to know that I, a
poor starving mortal, was watching them. I happened to
have a supply of white thread in my pocket. I took a piece
of this about twenty-eight feet long and twisting and rolling
it together, made a kind of a fish line. I had nothing to make
a fish hook out of except a large safety pin. I bent this as
nearly in shape as possible and cutting a little rod, tried my
luck, having for bait the same piece of red flannel with which
I had tried to catch the birds some days before. Patiently I
waited for a bite. Carefully I slipped up to the foot of the
ripples. Not a bite did I get. Then I got down below a
small waterfall and tried to build a rock dam, thinking I might
catch what fish there were in the enclosure. I managed to
get a few rocks together but found that in my feeble con-
dition it would take me a week to finish it and then perhaps
not be able to catch a fish.

•52 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

Next morning bright and early I started down this com-
paratively small brook, not dreaming I was destined to follow
it week after week until it became a mighty river and a month
later be found dying on its banks. During the day I gathered
a small cupful of blueberries in a spot on the stream, but they
were so scarce that it took me several hours to get even so
many. By the time I finished picking them it was dark, but
I was in a convenient place to stop for the night.

My next camp was unimportant, but the following day was
a serious one to me. I felt particularly weak; a short
time after I had started one of those cold, snow-charged
rains that I dreaded so much began; I could find no
place to camp. It seemed as if there was nothing to do but
to spread my blankets in the cold, drenching rain, without
shelter. The little river had made a complete semi-circle
around a high, lone mountain. It did seem to me I should
freeze if I had to stop, under the existing conditions. Finally
I came to some brush, just where the river took a segment
off the circle at the base of the mountain, but it was still
raining nor did it stop for a single minute, so I kept on.
I thought I saw a protecting cave in the mountain side. Trying
it I found that it was too shallow and was in slate rock, which
being wet, was as dirty as if covered with soot. I gave this
up in despair, finally seeking the wet scrub willows on the
bank. They kept very little rain off; in fact I do not know
but their constant dripping made it more unpleasant. I slung
my blankets off my back in a hurry and throwing them down on
the wet ground, crawled into them; I had no time to cut boughs
this night and was very much afraid that in my weak con-
dition I would get the dread pneumonia. This was indeed
another of my darkest hours, but as the dawn succeeds the
darkness of the night, so I found a little ray of light next
morning.

It had stopped raining and I got up early, and leaving my
blankets hurried across the creek to where I could see a
prospect for berries. I was mistaken; there were none, but I
found something that gave me great comfort. Within ten
yards of where I slept there were the tracks of two men,
evidently made about two weeks before. The brush they had
cut was not dry yet. When I crossed the creek I found their
dead camp fire. Looking around I saw a thick piece of bacon

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 53

rincl; I staggered to this and grabbing it, placed it to my
moiitli, tlien hesitated. I had been about receiving hospitals
a great deal and knew the danger of ptomaine poisoning.
This bacon was partly decayed and I dared not eat it. A
second time I put it to my mouth thinking I would take a bite
of the part that seemed the least decayed. Again I hesitated.
If I desired to kill myself I still had my sharp surgeon's knife
and need not die by slow poison, a death of terrible suffering.
The thickness of the rind attracted my attention. I thought
what a generous fellow the cook must have been. Well, the
result was I did not eat the toothsome morsel. I could not
find anything else around but a piece of baling rope that after-
wards stood me in good stead. These fellows had taken what
few dead willows there were, so I could not make a fire. I saw
nothing to do but "mush" on, and this I did.

As I went along I found that the two men had gone down
the stream also; in fact they were the most entertaining com-
pany I had all the rest of my terrible trip; they never left
the stream. The reader can not realize how much company
those footprints were for me. I knew that in all probability
these men were headed for civilization; if so, I was on the right
track. For the next couple of days nothing outside the regular,
simple routine of my camp life occurred.

Near noon, on the third day, I saw I was approaching the
low line through the mountains. I came very nearly turning
oft in the same direction once or twice before I arrived there.
I then found the pass was only low hills and I came to a
couple of big forks flowing into my stream from that side.
I figured that such large streams must draw from an extensive
watershed and by taking one of these branches I might thus
save considerable distance. Fate favored me this time and
I went on down the main river. If I had turned off, weak as
I was, I w^ould surely have perished. When I finally got within
a few hundred yards of the pass I could see that either this
main river turned almost at right angles and ran through it
or a stream was running out of it into the river I was on.
Notwithstanding these good indications I could follow with my
eye a line of green willows for miles toward the Arctic that
seemed to be a continuation of those along the bank where
I was. Imagine my joy upon reaching the all-im})ortant spot
to find that the river I had been following for many days,

54 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

turned almost at right angles and ran due soutli, througli this
low place in the mountains, the very direction I wanted to, go.
Another large stream, coming from the direction of the Arctic,
emptied into it just where it turned. Hope, which at this
time was at a very low ebb, began to revive. I soon found,
however, that traveling on this now wide, rushing body of
water was not what it had been; up to the last few miles I
could cross and recross, and taking advantage of the gravel
bars, have very good walking. Now for several hundred yards
on either side of the river there was a low, marshy tundra
into which I would sink above the knees at every step. Some-
times dense groves of willows lined the immediate vicinity
of the banks and these generally grew out of pools of stagnant
water. I found really better "mushing" just above the outer
edge of this marsh at the foot of the mountain, but even this
was abominable.

A couple of miles below the bend of the river, I came to a
point where it had cut away a precipitous side of the mountain,
leaving an almost inaccessible cliff. I was in a dilemma. I
could not ford the stream and, skeleton that I was, did not
believe I could scale the cliff, yet I tried it. I failed, but found
several acres of blueberries. Being the westerly slope, rain
and heavy winds could not strike it so well, hence they were
very plentiful. It was the only place I ever found these
berries in their prime; there were a few green ones. I kept
these and ate all the ripe ones I could. I was more anxious
for the green ones because they would keep and not mash in
my pockets. I had nothing to put the ripe ones in but the
little half-pound coffee can. After picking what berries I
could, I concluded to camp and try the cliff in the morning
When I was fresh. It was impossible to find a good place to
spread my blankets — the low land was so wet and the moun-
tain side so steep. I finally bent some willows over and putting
plenty of boughs on these, managed to keep out of the water.

During the night the usual cold rain set in and lasted until
about nine next morning; shortly after it stopped I arose, ate
what ripe berries I had in the can and rolled up my
blankets. Once in a while I could hear a big fish jump out of
the deep water after a fly, so I resolved to try my school-boy fish
line, which I still had with me, but with my usual success —
nil. Eolling up my thread and safety pin hook I ran my arms

OK, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 55

tlirougli tlie blanket pack straps and made a desperate effort
to scale the cliff, finally succeeding. On top I found a fresh
supply of blueberries, but no green ones. I ate a few more
and began to fill the can. With one exception, this was the
last I ever found.

Within the next day or so winter set in in dead earnest; the
high mountains and even the low hills on either side of me,
were covered with snow all the time. In the daytime the cold
wind blowing over this cut right through my clothes. My
face and hands almost froze as I had little blood left to keep
me warm. At night my suffering was even still more intense.
This reminds me of a story that a friend of mine from Cal-
ifornia, John J. 0 'Leary, tells.

W^hile personally I do not feel in the humor for joking,
especially over a matter that was at one time so serious to me,
still I realize that my readers may enjoy the yarn. It seems
that a man who had been in Alaska for several years always
expressed a desire to be cremated; he froze to death a year or
so ago. His friends took his body out on a boat to one of
the large cities; it arrived at its destination and was taken
directly to the crematory from the ship; the body was pre-'
pared and placed in the metallic box used in these places. The
furnace was heated to that terrific heat necessary for incin-
eration; they slid the box in and left it for several hours. At
the usual time they opened the furnace doors expecting to
see but a few cups of ashes left. The fellow rose up in the box
and said, ''Shut that door. This is the first time I have been
comfortably warm since I started to Alaska five years ago."

Nothing of unusual importance happened during the next
few days; I was on the lookout all the time for berries, but
it was too late in the season; at one place I found a cupful of
them, but even they were almost decayed. The time of year
had arrived when there was absolutely nothing edible grow-
ing. What few plants that came with the summer sun had
gone with the winter blasts. I had frequently looked for more
periwinkles but never found them. Day after day never a
morsel of anything but hot water passed my lips.

One day I came to a place where the river ran through a
deep cut in the mountains; it was simply impossible to travel
along the cliff, but by wading along the edge of the river I
could just get by. At one spot where there was a little turn in

56 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

the stream I discovered a set of footprints going np and a set
coming down. I wanted to see if these were made by two
different men, or the same man ascending the river and then
descending. If made by different men the fellow who went
up might be coming back in time to pick me np. The tracks
looked to be the same size but I concluded to measure them,
and reaching over to the bank and pulling a twig from a bush,
stooped over to make the measurement. I found them the
saine length and evidently made by the same man. I rose
slowly and just as I stood straight everything turned black
before my eyes. I heard, but did not feel, a dull thud. I had
fainted. I do not know how long I lay there, but distinctly
remember, either in going into or coming out of the faint,
saying aloud, "My God! Is this death?" I had been expect-
ing death for many days and suppose it was on my mind
at this moment. Slowly, consciousness came back. My first
rational thought was, "I am lost"; then everything was clear
to me again. When I examined myself, I found no mud on
my clothes, but quite a little on the blankets. I had evidently
fallen squarely on my back. I found a piece of the bush that
was growing on the bank, in my hand. Many times when I
had stooped over, hunting for berries or plants, I had felt on
the verge of fainting, but found if I raised up slowly, the
feeling would pass away. I never fainted before in my life,
and never since.

' I felt no ill effect from the fainting spell and "mushed"
along slowly down the stream. I tried dozens of times to
cross the river but never succeeded. I had many narrow
escapes from falling on the slippery rocks. I would probably
have drowned if I had, for besides being so weak, I had my
twenty-five pound pack of blankets strapped to my back. The
side I was on seemed much worse for "mushing" than the
opposite one.

Finally, late in the afternoon of one day about this time,
1 came to an island in the river containing several acres; the
stream adjacent thereto was broad and apparently shallower
than I had before seen it; after considerable effort I managed
to cross to the island; here I rested and attempted the other
branch. It was too deep and too swift for me to cross. I
felt very tired and as there were some nice, large willows on
the island, concluded to camp. While I was making a fire

OR, THE WORLDS LONGEST FAST 57

to lieat some water it began to rain. Lnekily there were some
large clnmps of willows which had canght a great deal of
driftwood and brnsli at high water. By getting to the lee of
one of these I had pretty good protection. I hurriedly cut my
boughs for a bed before the rain had wet them badly. After
sitting around the fire and drinking hot water for a time, I
got into my blankets. It rained all night and when morning
came I found the river had risen considerably and I was a
prisoner. There was nothing serious about this except the
delay, for the rain had stopped and the weather had turned
cold again. After a few hours I was able to re-cross to the
mainland but there was trouble ahead. A high cliff faced the
stream as far as the eye could see. It took me all the rest of
the day to go about a quarter of a mile. In getting even that
far I had to crawl along, inch by inch, over the immense boul-
ders, some of which projected several feet into the stream.
The crevices and open places between the rocks were filled
with a dense growth of brush, making them well nigh im-
passable. I had a very bad place to camp that night but for-
tunately it did not rain. .

Next day the traveling was a little easier and along toward
evening I arrived at what seemed to be a place where two
men had camped sometime before. The double set of tracks
that I had frequently seen on gravel bars further up the
stream were plain; remains of a dead camp fire were near the
bank. My heart jumped for joy when, on looking into the
bushes a few feet away, I beheld a salmon of large size. I
staggered to it as rapidly as my legs would carry me, but
horror! it was rotten; the roe and maggots ran out in a stream
together. Notwithstanding all this, I would have eaten it
with a relish, except for the reason heretofore given in the
case of the bacon rind. I could hardly resist taking the chance
anyway. After I was rescued, my mining partner, formerly
a surgeon at the San Francisco Receiving Hospital, informed
me that ptomaine poisoning was only generated at the time
the decay took place, but not after it was completed.

Eeluctantly I started on down the stream. At this period of
my trip I was compelled to rest every few feet. While sit-
ting resting I would pick out some object a little way ahead
and endeavor to reach it next time, without stopping before
I got to it.

58 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

An hour or so later I arrived at what seemed to be a general
camping place for all the "mushers" who had passed during
the season and found nearly a dozen dead fires, and for the
first time found a camp where there were any tin cans; here
there were quite a number. I searched each one thinking
there might be a morsel left. I finally came to a small glass
pickle bottle. "Thank God!" I said, "here is something in
this". I took out the cork which was loosely in the neck and
tasted the liquid. It was the strongest vinegar, but only about
a wineglassful. In it I found about a third of a small cucum-
ber pickle and a piece of cauliflower about the size of
my thumb to the first joint. I also found about a dozen little
black peppers. Gentle reader, you do not know how I en-
joyed each of these ingredients. The vinegar was just what
I craved; the taste of the pickle was like nectar; the peppers
warmed up my stomach and I could taste them for hours
afterward. You can hardly imagine how the labels on the
cans tantalized me. My imagination ran wild at the sight. I
concluded to be fashionable and camp here. I did not have
to cut any brush; it was already cut and dried.

I felt elated over the outlook. It assured me I was nearing
civilization, but I noticed frequently during this long trip
that if things looked bright one hour, they looked correspond-
ingly dark the next. Shortly after I went to bed a cold rain
set in. It poured all night long; I had no shelter of any
kind; in fact the xDlace was very much exposed to wind and
rain and it surprised me that so many campers stopped here.
Jt was still raining when I woke in the morning, but getting
up between showers I started, having first gathered up
nearly all the best cans and the bottle and placed them
in my pack; these made additional weight and a very
unwieldy package to carry. I was determined, however,
if I found any more berries to have something to carry them in.

A few hundred yards down the river I found a very wide
place and after several attempts succeeded in crossing. The
cold sleet which had been beating me in the face from the
time I left camp was now pouring down and becoming unbear-
able. Of all the cold and exposure I had had on this awful trip,
this was the worst. I began to feel that I could stand it no
longer. Still, knowing that to stop was almost sure death, I
kept going. I finally got into a clump of willows and tried

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 59

to make a fire. The willows were dripping with water and
I could get no dry tips so I had to give it np after wasting
three matches. To stop was to freeze, so I stumbled along.
This was another of my darkest hours. I came to
a grove of quite large willows. They were in a kind of
marsh where the water was several inches deep, hut finding one
that the wind had blown over I put some boughs across the
forks as heretofore described. In desperation I got into
my blankets. I could not sleep for many hours but it soon
turned a little warmer and stopped raining and sleeting.
Sleep finally came and when I awoke the sun was shining
brightly; it was morning; bright sunshine was something I
had not enjoyed for many days. I took my things out to a
sand bar near the river bank, spread my blankets on some
bushes to dry and made a fire. After eating a hearty break-
fast of hot water and imagination, I basked in the sun, and
smoked willow leaves for an hour or so. I would probably
have rested considerably longer if 1 had not seen signs of an
approaching wind or rain storm. Experience had made me
quite a weather prophet. I knew that if I^ desired to make
any headway that day I would have to be moving along in
a hurry; besides, I was anxious to find a more protected camp-
ing place. I did not start any too soon, for I had not gone
more than a quarter of a mile before one of those cold, sleet-
ing rains began; it was not quite so bad as the one of the pre-
vious day, but was very weakening to me.

After a time I came to a fairly good camping location and
was soon in my blankets again. I had frequent regrets for
crossing the river; so far, I had found no berries or roots. I
imagined several times I could see protected spots across the
stream where I was almost sure there were a few left.

I slept unusually well that night and as the morning dawned
clear and warmer, I felt my hope thermometer rise a little.
The last taste of food I had was the little nibble of pickle I
had found several days before. After -making a fire and
heating some water I rolled up my blankets and was soon on
my way, being fortunate enough to find several long gravel
bars ahead of me, but even on these I found I had to take a
long rest every twenty or thirty feet.

After some hours the good walking gave out and the river
bank became thickly lined with dense, wild, well nigh impass-

60 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

able willow groves. The wind as usual liad played sad havoc,
and there were as many dead as live ones. "Mushing"
through this tangled mass would have been slow work for a
strong man, but I traveled at a snail's pace; many a bad fall
I received, being too weak to catch myself when I stumbled.
Early in the afternoon I came to an old channel of the river.
The stream had evidently in former years made a semi-
circular bend in towards the foothills, on the side on which I
then was. In some manner it had straightened itself and now
ran its direct course. At first I thought I had come to a dry
creek from the mountains, but this seemed impossible at this
time of the year, and I soon came to the right conclusion. I
at once determined to follow the old river bed, noticing a
number of foot tracks in the damp gravel, and among them
those of the two men I had been following for weeks. By
the time I had completed the semi-circle I was very tired. In
front of me on the bank was a large clump of willows. I strug-
gled, through them for awhile, until I came to a little
knoll, where I concluded to camp. I noticed that
between the river and the foothills there was a very
bad looking marsh of several hundred acres, but thought,
in the morning, I would continue down the bank and avoid
this. Dropping my pack from my back, I began collecting
wood for a fire. There was more nice, dry wood here than I
had found at any other place on my entire trip. Within a
space of ten feet I was able to collect wood enough for a big
camp fire. My blankets needed drying badly and I was glad
to have so good an opportunity to dry them.

At one side of this elevation was a little "nigger-head"
swale, it being about fifteen feet, I should judge, from the
top down to the water in this sluggish stream, which, by the
way, seemed to empty into the main river. The knoll upon
which I was camped was between this nigger-head swale
and the dry channel which I had come down. I cut some
boughs for nij bed, and laid them sloping down hill; this still
left probably eight or ten feet between the foot of my bed and
the shallow water below me. I made a big fire, dried by bed-
clothes and got into them; being very tired I went to sleep
much sooner than usual. About eleven o'clock in the night
I was awakened by rain, but this was nothing new to me.
Besides, the weather seemed unusually warm, so pulling in the

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 61

outside edges of my blankets as much as possible to keep
tliem dry, I dozed off to sleep again.

In the morning it was still raining and I did not get up that
day. About twelve on the second night I had a sensation that
felt as though my feet were in water; when I came to think
of the distance down to the ' ' nigger-heads ' ' I was sure I must
be mistaken. Lying there, half awake, for some moments, I
still had that peculiar feeling, and though as usiial, I had
tied myself in my blankets, I managed to reach my hands down
to my feet. To my horror the water was up to my ankles.
I then realized that the warm rain must have melted the
snow on the low hills and that I was in a rushing, roaring
flood. As I listened I could hear that peculiar rumble so well
known to every one who has ever been in a flood. Dark as
it was I could see by the glinting on the water that the old
channel, along which I had come into this place, was also full
to overflowing. Untying my blanket rope I managed, in the
rain and wet, to push some of the boughs a couple of feet fur-
ther up the knoll and pull myself on to them, never dreaming
the water could get any higher. I dozed off again shortly,
(for some reason I felt unusually drowsy) but in an hour or
so I was again awakened and putting my hand down found
the water a little above my knees; the rain was still pouring
down. Jumping up as quickly as my physical condition would
permit me, I reached for my rubber boots where I remembered
having left them. I found them in the water; one sock had
washed away. Pouring the water out of my boots I pulled
them on. I had hung my haversack on a limb; this I easily
got. All my cans except a couple, had washed away. The
lower part of my blankets were of course soaked with water.
In the dark I pulled them and my other things to the very
top of the knoll and throwing the single blanket down against
a small willow tree, sat down on it with my back against the
shrub and drew the dryer part of my double blanket over me.
The drowsy spell overpowered me again in a few minutes,
and a half hour or so afterward my shoulder slipped on the
tree and instinctively I threw out my hand to the ground to
catch myself. I was suddenly awakened by clapping my
hand into several inches of water. Here was a terrible sit-
uation. I knew this was the highest point. It was still pitch
dark, except that I could see a little glimmering on the water

STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD
62

all around me. I could liear the maddening rush and roar
of the angry waters on all sides, and knew not what to do or
which way to turn. It was evident that the freshet was
growing in force and volume every moment, I knew I could
not get out through the swamp for that was probably now a
deep lake. Neither could I retrace my steps, for as I said
before, I could see that the channel was overflowing its banks;
there was one possible chance; I might keep along the high
edge of the river. With my haversack over my shoulder and
dragging my blankets, I tried this. After a few yards' travel
T found there was no hope in this direction. I could not have
done it even if I had been strong, for there was no spot so high
as the knoll I was on. Every step took me deeper and deeper
until in a few yards I was to the top of my rubber boots in
water. Daylight began to break by -this time and in the dawn
I could see an unusually, large scrub willow standing in the
rushing water. Its forks were several feet above the surface.
I threw my smaller blanket into the crotch of another tree and
still dragging my double blanket, struggled to this one. With
strength born of desperation I managed to get between its pro-
tecting limbs; my weight, poor as I was, pulled it down until
I began to fear it would be no higher than the knoll. How-
ever, when I got quiet I found I was at the highest accessible
point. I held tightly to the top fork to keep it from splitting,
as this wood splits very easily and I knew that to fall on my
back in that water was to drown. With one hand I managed
to get the blanket over me and this broke the rain to some
extent. I did not dare allow myself to doze now.

Dawn soon turned to broad daylight. I watched the trunk
of that tree as a cat watches a mouse. By the limb marks I
could see that the water was still rapidly rising. I would no-
tice a spot on the trunk an inch or so above the water line and
in a few minutes it was covered. Finally the water came
up to within, probably, a foot of me. I saw death at my side.
My dear reader, I speak truly when I say I prayed, of the
two manner of deaths now before me, if I had to go by either
one, that I be given death by drowning. For weeks I had cal-
culated that the chances of starvation were as a hundred to
one. All at once the water stopped rising and remained
stationary for several minutes. Then it began to recede.

I watched it going down as rapidly as it came up. Soon I

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 63

became drowsy again aud putting some more liouglis across
the limb I was on, fell into a deep sleep. When I awoke some
hours afterward, the water had run off and the ground under
me was comparatively dry; the rain had stopped and a heavy
drying wind was blowing. I was shivering with cold. What
could be done? I did not like this drowsiness that had taken
possession of me and deemed it a bad sign, as my senses had
all been so acute before. I knew if I had some hot water I
could soon warm myself, but did not think there was any
chance to make a fire with everything so wet. I tried it, how-
ever, and luckily was successful at the second match. The wind
had dried the willow tips. I could not make a big one as I did
the first night though, but still had plenty of hot water and dried
my blankets some. They were so wet I could not get tliem
entirely dry. I do not know what I should have done if I had
not gotten the hot water, because in my w^eak condition I
would very likely have died of pneumonia that night. T could
not warm up by ''mushing" as I did once or twice before under
similar circumstances. I cut some dry boughs and went to
bed early, feeling too weak to try to get out of the swamp
that day; in fact my dreadful experience of the night before
had taken almost every particle of strength I had left. It
was the beginning of the end. Drinking some more hot
water, and with no taste of grass or anything else, I went to
bed and to sleep.

The sun came up clear and bright next morning and I man-
aged to arise from my blankets, but staggering, fell against
a tree, not fainting, however. I rolled my blankets after a
great effort, and shouldering them tottered through the
willows down the stream. After traveling about a quarter of
a mile I came to an unexpected obstacle in the shape of a
deep creek, the result of the flood, emptying into the main
river. Oh, how I did hate to retrace my steps over that rough
ground and through the tangled brush, but it had to be done
and I did it. To cross the swamp was then my only recourse,
as the old channel was still full of water. I started but could
not take over ten steps without stopping. I could neither sit
nor lie down on account of the deep morass, but had to rest
standing. I fell in the muck a number of times, Imt by sheer
will power, struggled on, as I did not want to die in this mire.

64 STARVING ON A BED OP GOLD

About sundown I arrived at the outer bank and exhausted,
crawled into my blankets.

The next day was not a bad one; still I did not have sufficient
strength to get up and "mush" along, although I knew that
every day of delay was now reducing what little chance of
rescue I might have. I slept all day. Toward evening it
began to snow, and kept it up at intervals all night. I had
arrived at that stage where I seldom dreamed of good things
to eat. As I have already said, in the earlier stages every
dream was of the dining table. When morning came I found a
sleeting, cold, windy day. I determined to make at least one
more effort, so, near the middle of the forenoon, I staggered to
my feet, made a fire and boiled some tundra water. This
warmed me a little. Every half hour or so a heavy snowstorm
would pass over. During the couple of warm days, while I
was having my experience in the swamp, most of the snow on
the lower foothills had melted off, but now again they were
white, and the wind that blew over them was piercing. I had
a hard time rolling my blankets that morning. There were
very few sparks of vital energy left in my poor frame. To
make matters worse, another dismal swamp was to be crossed;
otherwise I would have had to take what seemed an even
worse trip around it. It was not quite so wide as the last one,
but I had a dread of dying like a poor old farmyard cow in
a pasture bog. With my pack on my back, I could hardly
stand up straight, let alone accomplish the fearful task before
me. Something had to be done — I must either give up and
lie down never to rise again, or make an effort to proceed.
With a dogged i3erseverance I did not know was in me, I
started. A cold shiver ran through me, as I staggered through
the tundra of the hillside, into the morass; it began snowing
again jiTst as I started. Slowly, step by step, for hours I
writhed and struggled through this slime, falling a number
of times, fearing each time that I would not be able to rise
again.

On a little dry spot about half way across, I found an old
ptarmigan nest, and saw that it contained one egg about the
size of a pullet's. With a haste you can well imagine, I broke
it; there was nothing left but sulphurated hydrogen. A few
minutes afterward I was taken deathly sick at my stomach,
and sorely wrenched myself in a vain effort to relieve this

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 65

nausea, not knowing whether it was caused by the bad egg
or weakness, but hoping it was from the former, not liking the
symptoms if it was the latter. I finally reached the bank again,
and assure you I felt like getting into my blankets, but had
lost so much time lately, and the weather was becoming so
terribly cold that, weak and chilled as I was, I resolved to
struggle on. In front of me, when I had climbed the bank,
was a comparatively level tundra of several hundred acres
that had been all burned over, probably during the summer
season. By crossing this I would save a big bend in the river
and arrive again shortly at the old river bank. By the term
' ' old bank ' ' frequently used heretofore, is meant the one next
to the foothills. The stream, in its endeavor to carry off the
water, caused by a sudden thaw in the spring, cuts a bed as
wide as the foothills happen to be apart; during lower water,
the actual bank of the river at the edge of the stream may be
a half-mile away from Mie old bank.

I headed for my objective point. As I moved along through
the burned ground, I picked up dozens of empty snail shells,
but no live ones. On the way across this burned tundra, I
came to a creek running down from the mountains, and empty-
ing into the main river near by. Here again I saw several
beautiful salmon trout sporting about in the water.

This little stream had cut a deep gully, and one of the heavy
snowstorms being then at its height, I rested here nearly an
hour, fairly well protected from the driving sleet. Deter-
mined to go as far as possible in order to make up for the loss
of the previous day, I soon shouldered my blankets and again
struggled on. Although the burned tundra was comparatively
easy walking, I could barely drag one foot after the other.
A number of times, when I had stumbled and fallen, it was
almost impossible for me to rise again. I was determined, if
possible, though, to get to the old bank of the river, which I
now saw before me, feeling sure I would have better protec-
tion from the storm and wind, as the bluff at this place ran
easterly and westerly, and the chilling blasts came from the
north. AVithin about a hundred yards of my destination I
fell, and this time could not rise. I was still on the flat,
burned tundra, fully exposed to the weather. I crawled on
my hands and knees to the edge of the embankment, and must
have been a horrible sight, struggling over .the burned hill-

66 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

side. My hands, and, I presume, my face, were as black as a
negro; I was as near a living tskeleton as a man ever gets to
be; tall, gaunt, bony, and black, I surely was a weird looking
object. A few feet below me on the steep slope, grew some
small willows, almost in a row, and about the length of my
body. I knew that to lie on the wet ground was to accelerate
death, so being unable to cut boughs as heretofore, I managed
to crawl down the bank to this brush. Near my feet, a little
rill of dark germ-infected water trickled down the slope. I
managed to get my pack unrolled, and tied myself in my
blankets. Then I rolled over on these bushes, and was
thus off the wee sod. My head was lower than my feet,
making a very uncomfortable position, but little did such a
thing as that bother me now. Pulling my blankets up over
my head, I lay there panting and pondering. I was sure I
should feel stronger in the morning. Had I not often been
compelled to stop from weakness, even weeks before? Was
I not always able to go some distance at least, the next time
I started?

In an hour or so I was again attacked by nausea. There
being nothing to emit, the wrenching was terrible. Lying on
my back, my feet higher than my head, tied in my blankets,
and unable to get an easier position, I thought my farewell to
this world of care and sorrow was at hand. If mortal man
ever wishes for the ministering hands of loved ones, it is in
an extremity like this. The sickness at my stomach passed
away shortly, but recurred a couple of times during the night.
I dropped off to sleep near morning, and slept until the sun
was well up; the day was clear and cold, as were, in fact, the
remaining days until I was found.

When I awoke, and before I moved at all, I felt I was much
stronger and was sure I would be able to go quite a little dis-
tance that day. Poor, deluded mortal! When I endeavored
to rise I found the end had come at last. Struggle as I would,
I could not get to my feet. My last spark of hope was gone.
I knew that nothing short of a miracle could save me now. It
was too late in the season to expect prospectors, and besides
I was half a mile from the river in the brush, and if a late
miner should pass he would go up or down the stream. For
weeks I had known I had very little chance for life; now I
was sure of death. Yet, strange to say, I did not have the

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 67

fear of death tliat I had always thought I would have. I
hated to be cut off in the prime of life, but what did worry me
much more than the dying, was the fact that my bones should
be torn apart by the wild animals and Malamoot dogs, and
scattered to the four winds of the earth — an arm here and a
thigh bone there; that my relatives would never know where
I had died, nor where my remains were. While this is mere
sentiment, and would never be thought of by some peox^le, I
l^lead guilty to being brimful of that feeling, and am glad of it.
I thought over my past life, and found that my conscience was
clear — that while I had been by no means a saint, my sins were
largely errors of the head and not of the heart. I have
always been a firm believer in a Supreme Being and a here-
after. I have ever hated hypocrisy, and would never attach
myself to any creed unless I thought I could live up to its
teachings. I remember well lying there, thinking, "Now
within five days I will know what the Great Hereafter is."
I do not know why I put the limit at five days, for, as a matter
of fact, I would not have lived half that long.

Sometime during the forenoon, on the second day, as I lay
there waiting for death, my head under the blankets, I thought
I heard a shot. I had been fooled so often before that I had
little faith in the correctness of my supposition, but pulled the
cover down and called, "Help! Help!" as loudly as my feeble,
child-like voice would permit. I received no answer, but after-
wards learned from the boys who found me that they did fire
at some birds over on the river, on their way up the stream.
During the first day I managed to crawl out on my hands and
knees, and pluck a handful of grass that was growing m a
protected spot on the bank near me, get a little water from the
rill at my feet, make a small fire and boil the grass in the
water. I drank a portion of this — a teacupful perhaps, but
had nothing more until found, nor did I again get out of my
blankets during the balance of the four days I lay there. I
had the same drowsy feeling I experienced in the swamp.
Nausea troubled me no more, but late in the evening of the
day before I was found I experienced a most peculiar sensa-
tion, and one, I am told, not a person in thousands ever goes
through. Beginning at my pelvis I could distinctly feel my
stomach fall against my spine, gradually, as though a lieavy
flat iron had been placed at that point on my flesh, and run up^

68 STARVING ON A BED OP GOLD

the medial line; when this took place I knew my hours were
numbered. I had read of the feeling in medical works. Med-
ical men tell me that one of the most singular facts connected
with .my case is that I retained my mind to the last moment.
The boys who found me say I was perfectly rational, and I,
myself, know I was. Several cases have happened here in
Alaska, since I was rescued, in which starving men have lost
their minds in from three to seven days. If I had not retained
mine, my life would have gone out like a candle.

When I crawled back into my blankets on the second day,
I was unable for lack of strength to make my position any more
comfortable. My head was still lower than my feet.

Toward noon on September 22nd, as I was lying in my
blankets with my head covered and a peculiar, drowsy
feeling on me, I thought I heard voices. I was perfectly con-
scious, but came very nearly not trying to call because I had
been so often disappointed before. There is a kind of bird in
these mountains that, at night, makes a sound very much like
a human being. It had fooled me many times. Still, without
expecting any reply, I pulled the blankets o:ff my head and
called, ' ' Hello, Hello ! Help ! Help ! "

My heart almost stopped beating when in return I heard,
"Hello there, what do you want?" I answered, "Come here,
please"; then I could hear one say to the other, "I guess there's
some fellow in trouble over there. ' ' At this time they could not
see me on account of the brush, and I could not turn my head,
much less raise myself up. They were down in the old river
bed, and I was, as you already know, on the slope of the bank.
Dear reader, I have told you in the previous chapter that there
were portions of my experience that words were inadequate to
describe; this is one of them. I had wandered for sixty-seven
days over the roughest part of wild Alaska without food, with-
out hearing a human voice, literally almost without hope. I had
now resigned myself to death, and, silently, awaited the ap-
proach of the grim monster; he was but a few short hours
behind his prey; I could feel the chill of his clammy claws; his
enveloping saliva, such as a snake is said to emit over the
body of the frog before it swallows it, was fast covering me; I
could indistinctly hear the muffled oars of his boatman, Charon,
as he made ready to effect a landing and take another solitary
passenger to the side of the Great Majority. Then to know

OR, THE WORLDS LONGEST FAST 69

that help was at hand, and life once more before me was cer-
tainly an indescribable feeling.

I have read, in the old school books, of a man l)eing pardoned
while standing on the trap of the gallows; I could never fully
appreciate his feelings before.

As the two young men approached me, leading their pack
horse, one of them called out as soon as he saw me, "What's
the matter f" In my feeble voice I replied, "I have had
nothing to eat for over two months." He afterward told me
that he thought, at the time, I was some poor fellow who had
been without food for four or five days, and was out of my
mind, but when he got to me, saw the condition of my body
and talked with me, he changed his opinion. The two good-
hearted young miners who found me were John L. O'Brien,
known among his friends as "Jack" O'Brien, and Frank Hen-
son, both of Nome. They had been camped for two weeks with
a couple of companions, William Clinton and Frank Henryj
seven miles from where they found me.

After the boys talked to me a few moments, Frank grabbed
his gun and started out to kill a ptarmigan to make me some
broth. Both being old timers in the country, knew it would
never do to give me solid food, though I begged for it as only
a starving man can. Jack, after raising me to a more com-
fortable position, went to his pack and, cutting a very thin
piece of bacon, parboiled and fried it, cooked a potato until
it was mushy and passed them to me together with a small
pancake, on a tin plate. Here again the vocabulary contains
no words that will convey to the reader, who has never been
starved, the gratification of these few mouthfuls. I have
heard of ' ' nectar for the gods ' ' ; this was what the food seemed
to me.

I had eaten a few mouthfuls and Jack had turned around
to the rill to wash his hands, when I was seized with a pain
that I thought meant my end. He looked around and saw my
face, and immediately jumped to me and asked what was the
matter. By this time I began to feel a little better. I ex-
plained to him that I had had a feeling as though melted lead
was being poured down my throat. It was no doubt the irri-
tation caused by food going into a stomach that was "caved

in".

I had never shed a tear on the trip, but when I was asked by

70 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

Jack who I was, and wliere I came from, tears rolled down my
cheeks as I told of leaving a dear old father of over eighty, and
relatives and friends in California the April before, and coming
to Alaska to seek my fortune in the gold mines.

I begged Jack not to leave me alone, as it really seemed I
must be in a dream, of which I had had so many. I call the
boys by their given names, because I have since learned to
know them well, and love them for their noble, generous treat-
ment of me.

And right here I want to say a word of the "sour dough"
miner of Alaska, and the same holds good of those who have
followed the business of mining any length of time whereso-
ever dispersed around the globe ; but I wish it distinctly under-
stood that, with some exceptions, the rule does not apply to
the "cheechako". The former are generally noble, true-
hearted men, used to the many hardships of such a life, used
to being poor one year and perhaps millionaires the next.
They are liberal to a fault. They will take the coat off their
backs to protect from the driving storm a fellow being in dis-
tress, having themselves often received the same treatment.
Ready to fight a man who jumps a 'friend 's claim or otherwise
abuses him, as quickly as if they were themselves oppressed,
yet slow to anger and willing to give and take if the right
spirit is shown by the other. This is the true miner.

Frank returned, after a couple of hours ' hard hunting, with-
out a bird, but the boys resolved to get up at daylight and
kill one at all hazards— and they did. Being determined I
should have no more solid food while in their care, they picked
me up and carried me about a hundred yards to a better camp-
ing place on the flat, threw a robe over me, depriving them-
selves of its comfort for the night, made a rousing big brush
fire and scantily covered, went to bed. It was one of the cold-
est nights of the season; I did not close my eyes in sleep during
this or the two following nights, and looking out from under
my oil coat in the early morning, I could almost see the dew
crystallize into frost. During the night, I traveled, in my
mind, over the whole dreadful trip, step by step.

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 71

CHAPTER V.

IN THE HANDS OF FRIENDS.

My kind-hearted rescuers arose at four o'clock, cold as it
was, and taking their guns, started out after ptarmigan for
the purpose of making broth for me. After a couple of hours
they returned with one; making a huge fire near my feet they
warmed themselves, and, when it had burned down to coals,
cooked breakfast. The broth the}" gave me was delicious,
but I craved something more substantial; of course, I was not
allowed to have it. 1 begged most piteously, but that did no
good; the boys did not propose I should kill myself after they
had rescued me. After breakfast, the pack saddle was put
onto the horse, and I was tied on. The boj^s had to leave
their picks, pans, shovels and several other things, as there was
no room on the poor horse. We soon started over the rough
tundra for the tent, seven miles away, Frank led the animal,
and Jack, with the gun on his shoulder, kept a look-out for
ptarmigan. The sun came up brightly, and, except for the
terrible jolting I received as the horse struggled across the
morass, the ride was not a hard one. When we finally arrived
at our destination I was gently lowered from my position and
carried to a bed in the tent. I was more comfortable during
the two days and three nights I was there than I had been in
nine weeks before, and the many months that have passed from
that time to the present writing. The only thing that both-
ered me was my inordinate appetite. The boys killed many
ptarmigan during these two days, but I only got the, broth.
How I did implore them to let me have some solid food! I
would have eaten it had I known it would almost kill me.
Here again, dear reader, words fail to convey the sentiment.
No person, except one who has lieen at the verge of death from
starvation, can realize the almost insane craving for food under
these circumstances. The desire to eat is as strong as it was
before you had anything at all, and oh, the taste of what you
do eat! ! I would forfeit many months of my life if I could,
enjoy my food all the balance of my days as I did for the first
two weeks after I was found. To see the boys eating solid
food, and not be able to join them was torture. The meals
were eaten as the boys reclined on their blankets, on the floor.

72 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD .

Bill Clinton, who, by the way, was a great big good-hearted
fellow, fair, fat, but not forty, always lay next to me. When
the other boys were not looking, I would quietly beg Bill to
give me a mouthful of solid food — beans, potatoes, ptarmigan
or bread. He could not resist, and in this way I got many
a toothsome morsel unknown to the other three. They caught
him in the act once, and scolded him roundly. If all the boys
went out they hid everything that was edible. I had a par-
ticular desire for '*b"annocks" or ''punk", a kind of bread
made of flour, baking powder and water and used in mining
camps from pole to pole, and from Portland, Oregon, to Port-
land, Maine. The boys used to say they could not eat it them-
selves without being greatly distressed, and it would be sure
death to me, but many a little piece found its way to my mouth
through Bill 's generosity.

It began sleeting and snowing the day after we got to the
tent; my rescuers had counted on starting to Teller with me
at daylight next morning; but, when day dawned, the weather
was so severe that they concluded to wait twenty-four hours
longer. Their provisions were getting very low, and they were
also very anxious to get me to a physician. I heard one of their
private conversations when they thought I was asleep, as I was
lying with my eyes closed. They were very much afraid they
could not get me to town alive.

When we awoke on the third morning, the outlook was even
worse than at any previous time. Things were getting des-
perate, so the boys decided to start anyway. I had remarked
to my companions on the evening before that I felt very much
as a man must feel who is to be executed next morning at day-
light. 'I knew that even in good weather this thirty- three miles
trip would be a terrible one for me, and I was satisfied that
the storm would not abate during the night. I lay awake
listening to the howling of the wind and Bill's snoring until
nearly daylight, but, not having been able to sleep any since
I was found, finally dropped off into a doze. A few minutes
after dawn. Jack's sonorous voice awakened the camp. Eub-
bing their eyes, they all arose and Frank TIenson cooked a
hurried breakfast. As soon as this was through, the work of
breaking camp began in earnest. Each one had his allotted
work to do, and soon we were ready to start on the terrible
journey. They had decided to leave the tent, Yukon stovo.

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 73

picks, shovels, gold pans and many other smiilar objects be-
cause there was no room for them with me on the pack horse.
Some poor prospector undoubtedly made a rich find. When
all was ready, they carried me forth and tied me to the pack
saddle. My heavy blanket — the single one had been left
where I was found — was thrown over my shoulders, and the
oil coat over that. We started. If I should live to be a hun-
dred years old, I shall never forget this trip. As soon as
things were packed, two of the boys started ahead. Frank
Henson led the horse, and the other, (Bill Clinton, I think it
was) brought up the rear. It was about two miles over the
worst kind of a morass before we came to the mountains.
That poor horse would plunge and struggle along until I
thought I would have to give up, and lose my feeble grip on
the front cross bars of the pack saddle, in which event I
would have fallen over the side of the horse. My two days
of comparative comfort in the tent had made my feelings very
acute. The sleet was falling so fast we could only see a short
distance ahead, but the double set of footprints in the snow
could be easily followed. At last we came to the mountains;
everything was covered; if the lowland had been bad, this
was doubly so. At many places we had to ascend and de-
scend over sheer precipices at an angle of almost forty-five
degrees. The loose rocks on these places were covered with
many inches of snow, and how that horse ever kept its feet is
more than I can tell. I thought every minute I would have a
broken limb or two to add to my other calamities. Finally,
after we had traveled many miles over the mountains and
caught up with the other two boys, we all got lost in a blinding
snowstorm. My friends had been heading for a couple of
peaks that were side by side, and looked exactly alike. When
they came to the place where they thought they ought to see
them there were none visible. Here indeed was a fearful
dilemma. The boys were complaining that they thought
their feet were frozen. Be it remembered that they were full
of health and life; had come out in winter dress and were
exercising. I was almost a corpse from starvation; was
dressed in my summer clothes, was not exercising, and had on
rubber boots with only one pair of socks. Any ''sour dough"
knows your feet will freeze in rubber quicker than in anything
else.

74 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

Frank dropped his leading rope, leaving the horse stand-
ing, and all fonr set out in different directions to hunt up
their landmark — the twin peaks. After an hour or so of
search up and down the creeks, a glad shout from one of the
boys announced that we could again get under headway.

My rescuers afterwards told me they dreaded to return to
the horse for fear I had already crossed the Higher Divide
where no one ever loses his way. At this time it was agreed
that Frank Henson, who had been leading the horse should go
ahead to the bay on the opposite side from Teller and see if a
man, who had been camped there hunting ptarmigan two
weeks before, was still there with his boat. If so, it would
save many miles around to the spit where a kind of ferry had
been established. Right here I must tell the reader that the
great mining excitement about the Bluestone, Gold Run and
Krougarock mining districts had changed the town of Teller,
which I had left, to another place of the same name seven
miles away, across the bay. The new camp had many sub-
stantial two-story buildings, and I was told, contained a popu-
lation at that time of nearly one thousand. I could hardly
believe that the town, of which I was a trustee when I left, had
been wiped off the face of the earth, and this new city had
sprung up, all while I was without a meal. Even worse than
that, the new place was not started until a month after I was
lost.

Shortly after we passed the "twins", Grantley Harbor and
Port Clarence Bay came into view. It was a welcome sight
to me, I assure you. There, before us, lying at anchor in front
of Teller, were eight large ships; we had not had two ships a
month at old Teller.

A mile or so from the bay shore we met Frank coming to
inform us that the hunter had gone, but there was a man with
an old boat collecting wood for his camp some distance below.
He called our attention to the fact that our dog had lost its
pack; all the cooking utensils had been strapped on the little
beast, and he had trotted contentedly along behind the horse
most of the way.

Finally we arrived at the coast line. The boys hurriedly lifted
me from the horse to a blanket spread on the ground; they had
not realized before how nearly gone I was; in fact, I myself
did not. For some time it was a struggle between life and

death. The owner of the old boat was there, and when asked
for its loan to carry a sick man across, he hesitated and said
he would have to see his partner who was hunting nearby,
first. The man had good security; the boat was not worth ten
dollars, and the horse, which could not be taken over at that
point, was worth many times that amount. As the fellow
walked back to see his partner, my companions agreed among
themselves to take the boat by force if he showed the least hesi-
tancy when he returned. Luckily, he came back and reported
that he could not find his partner, but that we could take the
boat. The boys carried me to it, and laid me in the bottom
on some blankets. They then began the pull for Teller.

Nothing eventful happened on the way over. In about an
hour we reached our landing place. I was hurriedly taken
from the boat to Wilson Brothers' store, and deposited in a
chair until a place could be prepared for me. There was not
a vacant room that could be heated in the town, so through
the kindness of Mr. A. McLean and Mr. W. J. Morse, I was
taken to a cot in the rear of their saloon; within a few feet of
me was a large stove, and although the weather was cold, I
felt comfortable.

I was allowed no solid food for several days; as soon as I
was given some my stomach began to misbehave ; for over two
months I never ate a meal but what I paid the penalty. My
feet began to swell the next day after my arrival and con-
tinued in this condition all the long, dark, dreary winter.

I had visitors by the score; it seems to me ihat almost
every soul of the several hundred people in town at that time
came to see me. Some out of sympathy, and some out of
curiosity; a number of newspaper reporters called. A special
representative of the San Francisco Examiner had photo-
graphs taken of myself, my rescuers, and the horse that so
safely brought me in; even the dog had his place in one of the
pictures. Speaking of this horse, I must say my heart was
full of gratitude to the poor animal. The boys had no hay or
grain left for him while we were in camp, so they fed him
bread and beans. If I had had the power I would have made
as much of him as Caligula, Nero, and others did of their fa-
vorite horses.

We arrived at Teller a few days before the last boat went
out, but my physical condition was such that my friends

YD oiAxvvxiNVj yjx\ jx dhju yjr VjUIjU

tliouglit I would be very foolish to attempt siieli a long trip
when storms were so frequent. Besides, I had seen but little
of mining life in Alaska, and hated to go back without this
experience; I did not then know that I was about to face the
worst winter that this country had witnessed in over a decade.
Dozens upon dozens were frozen to death in the vicinity of
Nome and Teller. Many a man had his face, fingers, or toes
frozen within five minutes after he stepped outside his door,
even though warmly dressed for winter. If possible, I suffered
more during this dreadful winter than I did while lost.

I will conclude this chapter by quoting from one local paper
and one outside paper in regard to my trip and rescue. The
papers of Alaska and of every State in the Union had quite
long accounts at the time.

The Nome Weekly News, a leading paper of Alaska, con-
tained the following in its issue of October 6th, 1900:

SAVED FROM STARVATION— ATTORNEY HALL'S
AWFUL EXPERIENCE— LOST IN MOUNTAINS.

His Only Food for Sixty-Seven Days Was a Pound of Bacon,
a Few Crackers, and What Berries and Roots He

Could Gather.

(From a Staff Correspondent.)

TELLER, Oct. 2. — An event in the life of an argonaut in
search of the elusive gold has happened in this vicinity, which
seems as strange and unusual as the tales of the Arabian
Nights. It is the experience of a lost man who has almost
crossed the portals of death and has returned to life after the
pangs of starvation and hardship have turned his robust frame
into an emaciated skeleton. It is the story of man's inhu-
manity to man, of base ingratitude, for the love of gold which
resulted in an attorney's battle for life on the verge of star-
vation for the long period of sixty-seven days.

Attorney James A. Hall is lying on a cot in the Teller Saloon
building, slowly recovering from the effects of living on
berries and roots while lost in the mountains and on the low-
lands to the north and west of Teller city.

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 77

On Sept. 22nd, upon the banks of American River, about 30
miles from here, Jack O'Brien and Frank Hensen found Hall
lying on a bunch of willows, wrapped in his blankets, weak
and exhausted in the last throes of starvation. He had sub-
sisted on a pound of bacon, and a few crackers, and what berries
and roots he could find for sixty-seven days. Nothing like
such vitality and dogged perseverance in a fight for life has
been chronicled in the history of this country's privations.

Hall told your correspondent the story of his pilgrimage in
the shadow of death in such a simple and straightforward
manner that one could hardly believe he could have passed
through so great a struggle and still retain so gentle a disposi-
tion and kindly address. He was not embittered with life.

On July 17th, Attorney Hall, in company with Dr. Vincent
and G. P. Hall, formerly of the A. G. Company, was sent out by
Tom and Will Wilson from old Teller to locate a quartz ledge
known to Dr. Vincent, to be situated about fifty miles back of
old Teller. Dr. Vincent had the dying statement of a prospector
who claimed he had found all kinds of gold some years ago.
On the second day out. Hall and Vincent left Attorney Hall
on the top of a mountain, not waiting for him to catch up, and
descended to a stream to the north. Attorney Hall reached
the top about fifteen minutes later, and, not finding his com-
panions, spread out his blankets and passed the night on the
peak. He never saw his companions again.

Hall and Vincent returned to old Teller two days later and
told how they had lost Attorney Hall in the mountains. Tom
and Will Wilson formed two rescuing parties and searched all
over the country in vain for Attorney Hall, and finally gave
him up as lost. Hall and Dr. Vincent did not join the rescuing
party, saying they were too tired to go.

Attorney Hall, with about a pound of bacon and five crack-
ers, traveled for one week, a lost man wandering among the
mountains and in the soft and swampy tundra off Kotzebue
Sound. He tried to retrace his steps, and struggled along sub-
sisting on berries, roots and grasses until he reached a branch
of the American Eiver. At last he became exhausted and lay
down to die on Sept. 18th. He could no longer drag or crawl
along in search of help. On the night of Sept. 21st he felt his
stomach collapse and sink back against his spine. His suffer-
ings were excruciating. Dazed, and ready to die, he heard a

78 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

shot and made one more effort for sweet life. Henson was fol-
lowing a flock of ptarmigans, and had missed a bird. He heard
the call for help and approached. Hall raised his head feebly
and begged for something to eat. He said he was starving.
For the first time he wept at the joy of his delivery. 0 'Brien
gave him a small piece of bacon and some potatoes warmed by
a fire. Henson rushed out on the hills in search of a bird to
make broth, but was unsuccessful. O'Brien and Henson then
strapped Hall to their horse and took him to their camp and
tent seven miles away where Frank Henry and William
Clinton, partners of 0 'Brien and Henson, were located. They
left their camp, the second day, after Hall had gained more
strength. He begged piteously for solid food, but his new
companions only fed him broth and liquids in order to save
his life. He was taken to the coast on the horse, and brought
here by boat. The Wilson Brothers have done all they can for
his welfare and care, and he is now rapidly recovering his
health and strength.

Attorney Hall came to Nome on the Thrasher, and two weeks
later went to Port Clarence, being one of the first residents of
old Teller. He practiced law in San Francisco and was for-
merly associated with Attorneys C. W. Cross, Tirey L. Ford
and Frank P. Kelly. He was born in Monterey County, Cal-
ifornia, November 9, 1857, served in the California Legislature
of 1889-90, and was District Attorney for Santa Cruz County
in 1883-4. The people of Teller will see that he is looked
after and when he opens a law office he will be engaged by
many clients who wish to show their interest in his prosperity.
The most pathetic part of his story was that pertaining to his
matches, which he carefully counted each day, hoping that
they would last to build fires as long as the spark of life could
be maintained in his emaciated body. Attorney Hall is 6 feet
1% inches in height, and weighed 225 pounds before his ex-
perience, losing fully 100 pounds in his sixty-seven days' fast.
The only implement he had was a surgeon's knife, and with a
safety pin he made a hook and tried to catch fish, but with-
out success."

The reader will notice that this paper uses the name
American Eiver, while I call it the Agiapuk. Since I was

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 79

found the name has been changed from the former to tlie
latter, by order of the U. S. District Court.

The San Francisco Examiner, the largest daily on the Pa-
cific Coast, contained the following in its issue of Oct. 25th,
1900:

( (

SAVED FROM DEATH ON AN ARCTIC TRAIL-
ATTORNEY JAMES A. HALL OF THIS CITY RES-
CUED WHEN HIS LIFE WAS PASSING IN A
STORM SWEEPING NOME.

For Over Two Months He Wandered Through the Snow and

Subsisted on Bacon, Crackers and Roots — Rescuers

Find Him After He Had Given Up Hope of Escaping

From- the Perils of the Snow-bound Country.

(Special Dispatch to the "Examiner.")

SEATTLE, Wash., Oct. 25.— James A. Hall, an attorney who
lived at San Francisco, was rescued from death by Frank
Henson and "Jack" O'Brien, two big-hearted Nome miners.

These men found Hall wrapped in his blankets and lying in
a bunch of willows on the banks of the American River, in the
Teller City district. For sixty-seven days he had wandered
in the mountains back of Nome, lost and bewildered. His
grub stake consisted of a pound of bacon and a few dozen
crackers. With these articles of food, and such berries and
roots as he could find, he subsisted for over two months.

The rescuers found him Sept. 22nd, and they assert that such
dogged perseverance and vitality in a fight for life have never
been equalled in the history of the thousands who have
searched for fortune in the northland.

Hall's pilgrimage in the shadow of death commenced July
17th. He was out with Dr. Vincent and G. P. Hall (not a re-
lation), in an endeavor to locate a quartz ledge fifty miles back
of Teller. On the second day out, Vincent and G. P. Hall left
the attorney on top of a mountain, not waiting for him to
catch up, and descended in a northerly direction. G. P. Hall
returned to Teller two days later and told how they had lost
Attorney Hall in the mountains. Tom and Will Wilson organ-

80 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

ized two rescuing parties and searched all over the country in
vain for the lost man.

For weeks the lost man traveled about the mountains and in
the soft and swampy tundra of Kotzebue sound on the Arctic.
He tried to retrace his steps and finally reached a branch of
the American River where on September 18th he threw him-
self on the ground to die.

The men who found him took him to Teller, where he was
being cared for with chances of recovery, when the San Pedro
sailed. Hall had been professionally associated with Senator
C. W. Cross, Tirey L. Ford, the present Attorney General, and
Frank P. Kelly.

CHAPTER VI.
A TERRIBLE WINTER.

For one month I lay on my back in my bunk, near a hot stove.
At the end of that time I was able to walk across the floor by
holding on to the wall.

I will never forget the first solid meal I was allowed to eat.
It consisted of reindeer steak and potatoes. To describe the
enjoyment of that meal is beyond my power. It was "as
nectar fit for the gods ' '. I could not eat often enough. Meals
were one dollar each and my appetite soon knocked a big hole
in what little money I had left. A few days after I had been
brought in, I noticed that my feet were badly swollen. They
had been frozen on that terrible trip through the snow, over
the mountains, tied to a pack horse. The swelling did not
abate during the long, long winter. In about a month, large
sores began to break out all over the frozen portion of my
lower extremities, from the knees down. I frequently had as
many as twenty-five large running ulcers on my legs at one
time. Dr. Bates, my physician, kept burning them out with
nitrate of silver pencils to heal them. The pain of this was
excruciating, in my feeble condition, and often I would
send a friend to get morphine tricherates for me when I ex-
pected the doctor. Luckily, I did not contract the "habit".
The cause of these sores was explained by my medical attend-

James A. Hall, on Oct. 1st, 1900, After the Longest Fast on Record

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 83

ant. He said that tlie freezing destroyed all the little blood
vessels that carried the blood to the surface of the skin. This
lack of nourishment caused the skin to rot. There was very
little nutriment in the frozen, canned goods, which was about
the only food we could get in this rough mining camp. Con-
sequently I had no chance to build up my system, so was not
relieved from these sores until I reached the "States," about
a year after I was found dying. The scars left by this experi-
ence will probably go with me to the grave.

The first legal case I had after I was able to hobble around
was one in which a man was arrested for locating a lot in the
middle of a street and moving a house on it. It was disputed
that the street had. been regularly laid out, but the resident
Deputy United States Marshal swore to a complaint against
him. He was arrested and placed in the U. S. jail, which, by
the way, did service also as a morgue and hospital. The camp
was equally divided on the question. Finally we secured a
jury, and after considerable conflicting evidence, the case was
ready for argument. It was the first and only time in my
twenty years of law practice that I ever addressed the jury,
sitting. We got a verdict of "not guilty" and the partisans
of the defendant i^icked up the chair on which I was seated
and carried me downstairs and up the street.

About this time the largest building in the town was finished.
I moved into one of the rooms and thereafter occupied it as
law office and bed room. I was still so weak I could only
hobble along with the assistance of a cane.

The snow was from ten to twenty feet deep around us and
for months it was dark most of the twenty-four hours. I
never dreamed that it was possible for time to pass so slowly.
The building was a two-story one and contained a large saloon
and gambling house. These saloons were headquarters for all
the miners, as there was always a large fire in them, although
coal was a hundred dollars a ton that winter. Those that were
not playing at some of the numerous gambling games, sat
around the fire and discussed the various mining prospects of
the country and other matters of interest.

These persons that habitually sat around the fire were known
as "chair- warmers". Through the floor I could hear their
various discussions all day long.
I will never forget one old gentleman I met that lonelv

84 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

winter. He was known as ' ' Captain. ' ' Nearly all the men in
this country were under fifty years of age, but the Captain was
over three score. He was a walking encyclopedia and could
give you accurate information on almost any subject. I
noticed that the old Captain had the asthma very badly and as
the dreary winter wore along he grew worse and worse.
Finally, as some signs of spring began to approach, we missed
the grizzled face from his accustomed chair around the stove
for several days at a time. Upon his return he would tell us
how near to death 's door he had been. One day along about
the last of May, 1901, a friend of the Captain's fell danger-
ously sick and he volunteered to sit up with him. The patient
was almost unconscious and unable to move and it was neces-
sary to give him his medicine at stated intervals. Those that
called at the shack the next morning found the Captain stiff
in death on the floor and the patient about to breathe his last.

We had all become very much attached to the old man
and his funeral was indeed a sad one. The ceremonies were
held in a room adjoining a saloon, but as a matter of respect
the door between the two was securely locked.

A carpenter had made a coffin from some pine^oards and
it was covered with the most suitable cloth that could be found
in the camp — a kind of polka dot, if I remember correctly.

Around that bier stood the little crowd of us that had passed
the long, long winter together. It must be remembered that
from the time the last boat left, early in November, we had
been in prison, as it were. Nobody could get out of Alaska
and nobody could get in. There we stood, the coffin in the
center of the room, and the motley throng of mourners press-
ing close upon it. At the head of the coffin a miner-preacher
gave us a short sermon. His audience was certainly a cos-
mopolitan one — merchants, miners, gamblers, two or three
respectable wives and two or three wives that were not resi^ect-
able, saloonkeepers, Government officials and a half dozen
curious Eskimos.

When the services were finished, willing hands lifted the
coffin to a sled just outside the door, on the snow, and eight
dogs slid the poor old Captain into his frozen grave, far from
the home of his younger manhood and thousands of miles from
a loving wife and family.

Such scenes as this were particularly sad for me because

Dr, U. C. Bates and Charles Wilson

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 87

on a number of occasions I had overheard remarks made by
one miner to another, as I hobbled by, that ^'that man can not
possibly live the winter through."

As feeble as I was, I managed to assist my physician in two
capital and many minor surgical operations. The first of these
was on a young man named Charlie Wilson. He had been out
prospecting and when he returned to within a mile of liis
shack felt himself freezing. It was snowing heavily, but he
could see the smoke curling up from his stove pipe and tried
his best to get home. He became so weak and dazed that he
fell down on his knees and crawled to within a number of yards
of his abode. Here he was found by friends, who took him
at once to Dr. Bates, the physician who was attending me.
It chanced that he was placed in a room next to mine. The
doctor discovered that all of his extremities were frozen, his
feet were in such a bad condition that it was found necessary
to amputate both of them immediately. I had had consider-
able experience in hospital work and was requested to assist
in the operation; a capital amputation, even of a single limb,
is very dangerous at any time and particularly so in a rough
mining camp, where nothing is aceptic and the apparatus very
crude.

There was no fire or place for a fire in this rough room and
the thermometer was toying with the zero mark.

The operating table consisted of some old boards, fastened
together. In fact, the surgeon was handicapped in every way.
Charlie was game, though, and ten minutes before he began
to take the chloroform, was chatting pleasantly with us. As
soon as he was sufficiently under, the first cut was made. I
had seen hundreds of operations, but never one in which I
hated to see the first incision as much as I did here. The sur-
rounding circumstances, the affable nature of the young man,
the distance from relatives and old friends, all made it a pit-
eous sight. It took nearly three hours to take off both legs,
just below the knees. He rallied from the shock and in about
two months was lifting himself along with his arms and stubs.

A few weeks afterward we cut off both hands of another
man. He had been out with his dog team, twenty miles, to
what was called the ''Spit" (the place where I landed off the
Thrasher), after drift wood. The mercury showed twenty-five

below, but lie was well prepared and had returned safely back
to within a couple of miles of Teller.

His hands becoming a little numb, he took off his "mits"
to rub them together. The very moment he took oif the gloves,
his fists clenched, automatically, and he could not open them
again.

He managed to kick the dogs loose and their wonderful
sagacity is told of in another part of this book.

Though a large, strong man, this fellow soon began to stagger
like a drunkard as he struggled homeward. At the edge of the
camp several persons saw him, but thought he was under the
influence of liquor. His mind seemed to wander and he was
not able to tell them his troubles.

A few days afterwards we took off both hands, near the
wrists. This man did not have the genial, affable temper that
Charlie "Wilson had.

As sick as I was, myself, I sat up with him, in his cold shack,
through three long winter nights. The snow was deep, the
thermometer low and the patient ''cranky". Nobody could
please him, although our services were gratis. I never saw
men so different in dispositions as were these two patients.

Slowly, oh so slowly, signs of spring began to appear! We
were waiting for the ice to go out in order that communication
might be again opened up with the outside world. The long
looked for event happened on July 2d. For weeks the ice
had been rotting, which caused many unfortunate accidents.

One man was driving a fine large team of horses, attached
to a sled, over the ice, a few days before the grand breakup.
He struck a particularly rotten place and down went team and
sled, the owner barely escaping, by falling backward out of
the sled. As these animals were the only ones in that part of
Alaska, and had been brought in at great expense, his loss was
very heavy.

When at last the ice had gone out and the "cheechako"
(new arrival) had come in, "there was something doing every
minute", as the slang has it.

The visitor was after gold dust, and so was the ' ' sour dough ' '

('a man who has seen the ice go out of the Bering Sea for two

successive seasons). The sour dough had "staked" almost

every square foot of ground in that part of the country. The

cheechako, whenever he. saw a good looking piece of mineral

OR, THE WORLDS LONGEST FAST 89

land, would jump it. Only about one-lialf of these disputes
were ever carried as far as the courts. The shotgun or Win-
chester generally settled the trouble. The same rule held good
on town lots.

Teller, as I have said before, was located or rather moved to
its present site, about a month after I started on my fearful
trip from old Teller.

The place was laid out on a gravelly beach and the scramble
for lots began. Some secured a half dozen and some were un-
able to get any. The fellow that had several lots had to get
a tenant for each lot, because possession was not only '^nine
points of the law ' '■ — but ten.

This state of affairs existed during the whole nine months
of winter. There were many fights, legal and fistic, over lots.
My partner had been one of the original locators of the town,
having moved over from old Teller with the rush.

He had located a lot the value of which, in the open market,
was several hundred dollars. One-half of this was, of course,
mine. He went out on the last boat, leaving the lot with me
and expecting to return in the spring. I was too feeble to
erect a shack on it, consequently it was not held possessio
pecds.

Everybody in the camp knew the terrible experience I had
had, so through sympathy my lot was left unmolested for
many months.

Finally, one fellow, a man who had a lot adjoining mine,
allowed his greed to get the better of his sympathy and my lot
was jumped. Many of my friends tried to shame him out of
it, but, although I think he was really ashamed of himself, he
still kept it.

I had one satisfaction, however, for when spring opened
and the mines did not turn out as well as expected, the bottom
dropped out of the market and lots that had been held at many
hundreds of dollars, sold for twenty-five or thirty. He had
kept this, expecting a big price, but received nothing.

When the spring sun began to melt the snow, many bodies
of people who had been lost, were found. In this country
everybody is a stranger to everybody else. If a man starts out
to go from Teller to Nome, ''over the trail", and is lost in the
snow, there is nobody to inquire whether he arrives safely
at his destination or not.

90 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

During the winter, the whole country, as said heretofore,
was staked. They drove the stakes down into the snow,
regardless of the law that a discovery of gold must be made on
a claim before it can be legally located. Several of these pros-
pectors were kind enough to stake claims for me, some in very
promising localities. Although I had been in bed a good
portion of the winter, I had about fourteen claims when spring
came.

After the first boats arrived there was considerable activity
and I had hopes of selling my mining interests, but like the
ignus fatuus, the sale was always just ahead of me. Finally, as
the summer passed along, I determined to leave everything and
get back to the "States". I sailed from Teller on the good
ship Centennial, August 26th, 1901, for Seattle, arriving there
safely after a stormy trip of nine days.

At last I was able to get fresh meats and vegetables and in
the week spent there, before sailing for my old home in Cali-
fornia, 1 gained manyifpounds. The terrible sores that had
covered my frozen legs and feet began to disappear and I
commenced to feel like my old self again.

After I had been home a few months T learned that one of
the mines that had been staked for me during the winter and
which I had abandoned when I left there, was afterward sold
for several thousand dollars.

One of my greatest regrets is that my dear old father died
at the age of eighty-two years, while I was gone and I would
have given much to have seen him and let him see me after he
had mourned me for dead many months.

One day I had been sitting, for several hours, hearing the
trial of a lot case in which I had been chosen arbitrator, when
the news came that the- mail had arrived. As we only got mail
about once a month, Court was immediately adjourned and we
all proceeded to the Postoffice. Here I found the letter that
told me the sad news, and, strangest of all, it gave me the sec-
ond verification of mental telepathy I had received while in
Alaska. The letter informed me that my father had died on
February 4th, 1901, about six o'clock in the morning. On that
very date, as I lay in my bunk, I was awakened at three in the
morning, by what seemed to be the voice of my younger sister
saying to me, "Father is dying, father is dying." It made a
very deep impression and I could not get over the feeling for

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 91

several days. The difference in time between the two places
is three hours. My sister afterwards told me that when she
saw father was dying she thought of me, in that distant land.

I now feel no evil effects from my strenuous ordeal, except
that my feet sometimes get very feverish after a long walk. My
doctor warned me that this would last for years.

Upon my return to San Francisco the Examiner published a
full page Sunday story of my experience.

In that article there was an interview with Dr. Edwin Bun-
nell, who was then the Chief Surgeon of the City Receiving
Hospital of that place. Dr. Bunnell stands at the head of his
profession. In closing this chapter I will quote his language:

"MOST EXTRAORDINARY CASE I EVER HEARD OF."

By Edwin Bunnell, M. D., Chief Surgeon of the Receiving

Hospital.

The survival of Mr. Hall is not only the most extraordinary
case that has come under my observation— it is the most extra-
ordinary I ever heard of. Undoubtedly the secret of his com-
ing through such an experience alive is the strength of his
nervous system. He possessed will power to an extraordinary
degree and used rare judgment in conserving his physical
force, but then. Hall is an educated man, and brought his in-
tellect to bear upon the situation. I should say that two things
saved him — will power and water. Physicians recognize the
aid to them that mental force and a firm will can give. Place
two patients side by side, suffering with the same disease, their
chances for recovery equal, and the patient x^ossessing the will
to live recovers, while the other dies.

There have been numerous instances of remarkable fasting,
but none like this. The case of Tanner and other- so-called
starvers are not a parallel at all. Hall was exposed to the
elements in their worst form and he was in a perilous predica-
ment at all times while they had every comfort they wanted
but solid food. To me the physical aspect of Hall 's case is not
so amazing as his mental soundness after what he had gone
through. Most men go crazy after a few days of hunger and
exposure. Hall retained his mental poise perfectly after
sixty-seven days of wandering in an icy desert. ' '

92

STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

(Dedicated to my friend, James A. Hall, who made the
longest fast ever recorded.)

( (

TOMBSTONE BILL" PASSES THE BUCK."

I'm an Arizona bad man,

My name is Tombstone Bill,

I'm right there in a show-down
And I alwuz shoot to kill.

Go ask Long Pete of Bisbee
Who filled him full of lead,

And why Pichaco Charley
Is numbered with the dead.

In Pinal and Maricopa,

Quite broadcast is my fame.

And many a heap that's cross-crowned
Commemorates my name.

Once in the Harqua Halla,
Close by the Granite Hill,

Eight Apaches 'round me gathered,
Fur to scalp your Uncle Bill.

With a quick manipulation,

My guns I did unstrap —
Not one of them wuz missin'

At the finish of the scrap.

In many a noted instance
I've been up against it hard.

But a feller down from Teller
Holds a somewhat stiffer card.

And though I've tagged a burro

Fi'om Yuma to the rim,
I pass the buck with plezhur

To my friena, Alaska Jim.

I claim him as no fighter.

Nor that he got his man;
He wuz only a prospector.

With his horn-spoon and his pan.

He blind-trailed in the ice-fields.
Where the sky-fires flash and glow

And great white b'ars in hunger
Prowled hunting thro' the snow.

Nigh three straight months he fasted
With no liquor in his hide,

Had it a'been your uncle,
I shorely would a'died.

I've eaten chip-broiled mule meat
And partook of jerked coyot'.

Chawed the pulp of borel-cactus
That would kill a Pima goat.

I have chased the Chuckawalla
When my grub was gettin' slim,

But I f»ass the buck for trouble
To my friend, Alaska Jim.

Oh, I've hit the silent desert.
Where the Colorado flows.

Where the Needles raise their turrets
And the thorny Yucca grows.

Where the burning Chimehuevis

Hide their stores of wealth untold.

Full patiently I've wandered
In lone pursuit of gold.

Through rock-strewn Coconino
My weary feet have strayed.

And with the grim side-winder
I oft in sleep have laid.

I sartin am a tough one.

Where such like plenty grow.

And a noted individual
Wherever I may go.

But 'till Satan forks your Uncle,

Across the flery brim,
I'll pass the buck, by thunder.

To my friend, Alaska Jim.

— Frank V. Gaffey, in Overland
Monthly.

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 93

CHAPTER VII.

TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE OF THREE PROSPECTORS.

On or about June 15tli, 1901, a year after my awful experi-
ence, three men, Georg Dean, Jack Huston and Joseph C.
Thierry, started from their mining camp on Clara Creek, a
tributary of the celebrated Quartz Eock in the Good Hope min-
ing district, near the Arctic coast, to return to Nome via the
way of Teller. It will be remembered that this is the same
section of country in which I had come so near dying as de-
tailed in former chapters though then there were few
prospectors in that section and the district had not been organ-
ized. The high waters of the various streams necessary to be
crossed on their way to Teller delayed the party until the
small supply of food on hand finally gave out. They were then
compelled to eke out an existence on grass, roots, snails and
wild goose eggs containing half formed birds, and finally the
survivors were brought face to face with cannibalism. Joseph
C. Thierry, who seems to have been the strongest of the three,
made the following statement a few hours after they were
found :

"We would travel for twenty hours at a stretch, and
after a few hours' rest, get up and go at it again. When v^e
saw Salt Lake, we headed for that, but when we thought we
were nearly there, we came to deep jnarshes or sloughs, ten to
three hundred feet wide and from ten to twenty miles long.
Being unable to cross these, we started back for the Agiapuk
River, expecting to strike it farther up and continue down the
river to the lake. In our trip back to the river we came i^
a slough that extended back from the lake, bench upon bench,
for at least twenty miles to the mountains.

' ' Huston, who up to this time had held on bravely, gave out
and asked Dean and I to leave him to either get assistance or
save ourselves. I left Dean there and walked to the top of
the divide about five miles distant from which I could see the
Agiapuk. I then returned and helping up Huston, whose legs
had become partially paralyzed, continued our tramp. Dean,
by this time, had become so weak that he could not carry the
gun, and every time that we stopped he would pitch forward
upon his face, or while walking would fall asleep and drop.

94 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

i i'

• In my condition it would take a mighty effort to get liim to
walking. Then the hallucination seemed to take possession of
him that he was a drag upon the party, and he repeatedly
asked to be left behind,

"We came to another slough about fifteen feet wide. The
boys had not strength enough left to attempt to go around it,
so I built a bridge of willows and our six pack straps, and
one at a time I got them over,

"After following down the Agiapuk for thirty or forty milej,
we arrived opposite the lower village. I left the boys here
and went down the river two miles where I came to a slough
that I knew could not be crossed, but I found a little igloo
about six feet in diameter, where I brought the boys and made
camp.

"While at this igloo we could hear shots every night, but
could not locate the direction from which the bounds came.
I found a rope of three strands ten feet long, and with this and
several logs made a raft with which I intended to cross the
river and procure help from the village. After building my
raft I found that it would not sustain my weight, so I had to
give up the j[dea of crossing. Later I found an Indian corpse
rolled in a light canvas about fifteen by twenty feet in size
from which I made a boat eight feet in length by four in
width. It was too rotten to hold me up, and I was nearly
drowned trying to row it. But the boat subsequently saved
our lives as it was that which attracted the attention of our
rescuers.

"About five days before we were found. Dean asked me to
^rite a statement which he wished to dictate and which I did.
Dean had seemed to be reviving physically, with rest, but he
was still laboring under the delusion that he was in the way,
and begged me to shoot him and put him out of his misery.
He said that every bone in his body ached and he was suffer-
ing untold agony. He suggested to us that with his flesh we
might sustain life until some one found us.

' * The following day I found a partly decomposed ptarmigan,
of which I made soup and a stew, dividing it equally among
us. This was the last we had to eat until we were found, and
the following day I almost broke down myself. •

' ' The night of the l{)tli Huston and I talked the matter over,

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 95

and decided that unless we were rescued tlie next day we would
act upon Dean's suggestion.

''He died at three o'clock the next morning and, (here
Thierry's voice broke down and he wept) at eight I cut a
piece from his thigh about three inches long and to the bone,
and after removing the skin and outer flesh I placed it in the
pot to boil. We decided to let it cook at least two hours, and
while we were waiting we heard a voice. I immediately said
to Huston that Dean was not dead and was talking to us. He
said that it could not be, and I looked out and saw two men
with a canoe, whom I called and we were saved. I then threw
the pot and its contents into the river and I thank Grod that I
was saved from this last extreme."

Thierry, so his living companion claims, displayed very
heroic qualities in the treatment of his weaker companions.
They both begged him to go on and leave them and try to save
himself. This he refused to do, saying that he would stay with
them till death, if necessary.

They, dying and dead, were found on the morning of July
20th, 1901, on the Agiapuk River, about ten miles up from
where it empties into Great Salt Lake, by two miners, Louis
Reich and George Woods. Strange to say, it was on this
river, and near this very spot, where I was found dying nearly
a year before, by Jack 0 'Brien and Frank Henson, two young
prospectors.

Reich and Wood were rowing up the Agiapuk River and on
a sand bar at one side saw a peculiar looking boat. They
stopped to examine it and heard a faint cry of "For God's sake
.don't leave us, we are starving! "

Upon investigation they found the two living skeletons and
the corpse.

On the fire near at hand was a stew of human flesh, the
pieces being about the size of those in ordinary beef stew.
Thiefrry at once emptied the can when he saw help at hand,
and asked the rescuers if they had any food. They were given
something light to eat, and then conveyed by boat to Teller.
Dr. U. C. Bates was summoned by the United States Com-
missioner, who is ex-officio coroner, to accompany him to the
scene of death. The doctor says that though the men of the
coroner's party were used to rougli scenes, there were few dry
eyes when the corpse was inspected. There lay an emaciated

96 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

liuman body, partly denuded of flesli to save tlie lives of other
humans.

The body, hair, beard and sunken eyes were covered with
vermin. On the body of the deceased was found the following
documents. As appears from the statement of Thierry, these
documents were written by him at the dictation of the de-
ceased. It also appears that the date should have been July
15th, instead of July 20th, 1901.

''July 20th, 1901.

"Finder will recognize by this paper the body of Georg
Dean of Canton, Ohio, U. S. A., who with his two companions,
Jack Huston of Nome and Jos. C. Thierry of Davenport, Iowa,
left their camp on Clara Creek, a tributary to Quartz Creek, in
the Good Hope District, with the intention of returning to
Nome for new supplies. Being without sufficient food and
unable to find anybody, nor could we cross the river, we were
compelled to starve. We are at present twenty-two days
away from camp,

' ' Georg Dean is a Free Mason and his sincere wish is to have
his death reported to the lodge at Nome. Proof of his being a
member can be found at the Hiram Lodge, No. 26, Canton, Ohio.
Also like to have my family notified of my death and proof sent
home of my being deceased.

"Address of my wife, Anna Louise Dean, 1000 Lafayette
Street, Canton, Ohio.

"I also wish the Masons to take charge of my body and act
as they think best with it to dispose of.

Fraternally,

GEORG DEAN,
Canton, Ohio."

This was found in his pocket, written with an indelible pencil.
In the same pocket in common black pencil was foimd a short
will:

"I, Georg Dean, born in London, England, 25th day of
January, 1850. I pray the Masonic order will take charge of
my effects that may be found on my body or in Nome with
the exception of all clothing that my companion, Joseph
Thierry, may need for his benefit, he being the one that has
rendered us the most assistance in trying to save our lives
by building a boat out of canvas and willows which he found
in the swamps, as I feel that I am near the end of this life,

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 97

1 pray tliat you will tell my wife tliat I die a Christian, and that
my last prayer is for her and dear family. Goodbye, friends.

GEORGDEAN.

God's will he done. Amen."

I was one of the pall bearers at the funeral of Georg Dean.
The remains were at the U. S. Jail in Teller. The two sur-
vivors were quartered at the same place. The stronger one of
the two requested to be allowed to see the remains. The coffin
was placed near the outside door of the jail and after those
who wished to view the remains had passed, the wish of the
survivor was gratified. He was supported to the side of the
body and stood in deep meditation for a few moments. His
feelings overcame him, and he fell back into the arms of his
supporters in a dead faint. The recollection of the terrible
experience they had been through together was more than he
could bear.

We buried Dean in the little lonely graveyard on the
hillside near Teller, and, dear reader, I assure you there were
few dry eyes in that crowd of rough, but good-hearted miners.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE ESKIMO.

The Eskimo is low and squatty in stature, and very fre-
quently bow-legged. It is a common theory of the old white
residents of this country that these people are an off-shoot of
the Japanese race, changed a little in color by climatic con-
ditions. In former years, so the old traditions say, Bering-
Straits were frozen over almost every year. In these times, it
only happens about once in a decade; the winter of 1900-1 was
the first time in years that this has been the case.

The natives of the eastern Siberian coast are even more like
the Japs than those of Northwestern Alaska. We had Jap-
anese waiters on board the Thrasher, and one day at Cape
Prince of Wales, a number of natives came aboard, and we all
noticed the similarity at once. Some of the Eskimos could
talk a few words of English. I asked one of them if he knew
who those fellows were; quick as a flash he answered, "Japs".
There really seemed to be a kind of fellow feeling ])etween
them.

98 STARVING ON A BED OP GOLD

The natives of Alaska, like all other peoples, have their good
and bad traits of character; you very rarely find one who will
lie or steal; it is said that before the advent of the whites they
were absolutely perfect in this respect. Again they are gen-
erous; many a miner owes his life to the few mouthfuls of
'^chow-chow" (pronounced cow-cow) which some poor native
had given him, retaining less for himself than he gave.
Shortly prior to this writing, a U. S. Commissioner told me that
an old native — who, by the way, was along with me in Teller
at the time — had a few days before gone thirty-five miles
through the most terrible storm Alaska has seen in years to
get food to keep the former from starving.

The parents are good to their children, and will deprive
themselves of food that a child may eat; on the other hand,
the native, as a rule, is a great beggar. His plaintive whine
for "cow-cow" is generally granted by the "sour dough" (old
resident of the country) and refused by the "cheechako" (new
comer.) The former perhaps well remembers the time when
some native divided his last mess with him; the latter has not
had that experience yet.

The native does not know the meaning of the word cleanliness;
they rarely bathe, and "gray backs" are as thick on them as
fleas on a California mongrel. Their eglows (native houses)
are no cleaner. Rancid seal oil seems to permeate everything
a native owns or has anything to do with. He, himself, reeks
with it. It seems to come through his skin like beads of per-
spiration. They never carry a handkerchief, and most of
them are afflicted with a catarrhal affection; you can imagine
how disgusting they must be in this respect. Virtue is un-
known to them. Fear of a beating from her buck or her squaw-
man sometimes makes a native woman appear virtuous. They
are a very lazy race; the men never work; the women never,
when they can help it; the bucks make them do all the work
that is done, however. Sometimes the men do a little fishing
or hunting, but the women really do most of that, especially
fishing. If whisky is the curse of some white men, it is doubly
so with all the natives. A half-pint bottle of the stuff they
get for whisky will convert a quiet, peaceable, inoffensive
native into a demon; he has to be beaten into insensibility
before he can be arrested. There are stringent laws against
selling liquor to natives, but juries rarely convict for it; the

An Eskimo Belle

43S34:

i

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 101

probabilities are tliat half the jury have done the same thing
themselves; whatever the reason may be, the fact is, he gets
whisky whenever he has ' ' the price ' '.

The natives saw their first ship many years ago. I was told
by an old fellow who speaks good English, that when they first
saw it tliey thonglit it was some kind of a water animal that
had made its way to this part of the country; but when they
saw the white men getting out of it they rushed for the hills;
in a short time they sent several of their bravest men to in-
vestigate; the men came back and reported that the strangers
Avere evidently white Eskimos from the interior of the
country somewhere. They further reported that these white
Eskimos had many strange and beautiful articles that they
seemed to want to exchange for furs and ivory. AVlien the
natives found that the new comers were not dangerous they
came down from the hills to the boat. They saw the gaudy
calico and bright jewelry; they liked the effect of the fire-
water; they were willing even anxious to trade furs and ivory
for these things. The ship also had a number of old guns.
The natives did not understand these at first, l)ut, when taught
their use, they were considered very valuable. The whites
of course, at first, evinced great reluctance to part with them,
but when the Eskimo saw how easily the white men could kill
the walrus and seal he was willing to pay an}^ price in furs.
The result was that in a week or so the ship was loaded with
vaiual:)]e furs and ivory and the poor native had a little cheap
whisky, some tobacco, a few bolts of calico and some old rusty
guns. This thing has been repeated with more or less profit
to the white man ever since.

The Eskimo is of a migratory nature; in the winter he stays
on the coast where he can cut through the ice and get fish, and
where the seal and walrus are plentiful; in the summer he goes
inland and catches salmon and other game. Eskimos live in
eglows, which are peculiarly constructed sod houses, during
their sojourn on the coast; inland, they generally inhabit tents.
The time is likely to come soon when there will be few Eskimos
in Northwestern Alaska. A plague, in the nature of our la
grippe, is taking them off by the hundred every year.

About fifteen or twentj^ years ago, Captain Gilley left the
Sandwich Islands in a schooner to trade with the natives of
Port Clarence and Cajje Prince of Wales villages. He dropped

102 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

anchor at the latter place very near the spot where a naval
engagement of the late Civil War was fought between a Con-
federate privateer, the Shenandoah, and some armed whaling
vessels, in which fight the whaling vessels were destroyed.
About sixty natives came aboard and demanded whisky, which
he refused to trade to them. They then undertook to take
the licjuor by force. A fight ensued in which eighteen of them
were killed outright, and a number drowned in getting
off the boat. This is the biggest fight that has ever
taken place in this part of the country between the
natives and whites; three or four years later, at
the same place, they again became very threatening
toward the whalers, and Capt. M. J. Healy of a United States
revenue cutter shelled three villages, but it is not known how
many, if any, were killed. Since that time Capt. Healy has
been held in awe by them. Whenever any serious trouble arose
between natives and whites, Capt. Healy would hold a prelimi-
nary examination, and if the facts warranted, the culprit was
taken to St. Michaels to be tried; if not, he was turned loose.
A few years ago, while Capt. Healy had charge of the revenue
cutter Bear, a native named Posier beat out the brains of
his own child. A council of three captains and the missionary
at Herschel Island decreed that he have one hundred and forty
lashes, which they gave him. Then they took him from the
island to the mainland and ordered him to leave the country.
He came down into Northwestern Alasiva and murdered a
native family of eight persons; robbed them of their canoes,
dogs and other valuables and came to Point Barrow. In the
family that he left for dead, a little girl revived, and was
picked up by some hunters that were passing. She described
the murderer and pointed him out. The natives notified Cap-
tain Healy of what had been done and he ordered them to
arrest the murderer and have him at Point Barrow when he
returned next jeav. Capt. Healy was relieved from duty
before the next season, but the natives had the dead body of
Posier there awaiting his return, and it still remains, frozen,
in an ice house at that place, the natives confidently expecting
Capt. Healy to return.

A group of about fifteen Eskimos was taken from near the
old reindeer station on Port Clarence Bay, my first landing
place in this section of the country, to the World's Fair at

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 103

Chicago by Minor Bruce, a trader for the Seattle Hardware
Company. He had permission to do so from the Government
Agent, Dr. Sheldon Jackson, and took them on his schooner
to Seattle, from which place they went overland to Chicago.
He represented that they were of the royal family, and called
one of them the Duke, and another the Princess. They were
here when I arrived, and I talked with them frequently. They
are still known by these cognomens; it is interesting to hear
them tell of their experiences in Chicago. In speaking of all
the great men they had met back there, they told of Grover
Cleveland, the Great Chief of the white man, and who, in their
minds, still occupies that position, and of United States Sena-
tor Mason of Illinois, the "alibiba ahmudluktuk, " (which,
translated means "great talker"); they could not remember
the name of the Senator at first, but imitated his walk (he
being lame) and said ''all same Captain of 'Jeanie' ", whose
name is Mason. On being asked who was the greatest white
man they had met they would say ' * Him, Mr. Healy ' '. He was
even a greater man with them than Grover Cleveland.
The natives call the "Bear" the "Healy," and are sadly dis-
appointed every year when the ship appears without that cap-
tain on board. He always distributed the food sent them by
the U. S. Government, but the natives claim that some of the
revenue cutters have not always done so since.

There is a very rich Eskimo near Teller on the Siberian
Coast. He is a millionaire, the richest man, white or black,
who resides in this northern country. He has large store-
houses full of bone, furs and other like commodities. Hun-
dreds of natives work for him, getting their pay in trade at
Alaska prices. I am told he sells an immense amount of
whisky to the natives; if he sells a shipload of ivory and furs',
the space is soon filled again. His trading station is well
known by most of the whaling captains.

The native women on the Siberian side dress differently
from those on our side; they wear the old fashioned pantalets
of our grandmothers' time. As you go up the Alaskan shore
on the Arctic, you find the native in his more primitive state;
he has seen fewer white men, and does not know the value of
money; his great desire is to trade. At Point Hope, well
toward the northern extremity of Alaska, is situated two
Protestant missions; the Eskimo there is well-to-do, has plenty

104 STARVING ON A BED OB" GOLD

of furs, whaleboue and other trading material; is generous,
peaceable, and for their race, industrious; there is a whaling
station here, and he has become skilled in this business. There
are very few native settlements between Point Hope and Point
Barrow, the most northern jDiece of land in America, lying
in about latitude 71 degrees 22 minutes north. The natives
around Point Barrow seem to be particularly bright fellows.
Tliey have heard from the whalers so much about the north
pole that it would not be surprising, as well equipped as they
are for traveling over ice and snow, and as accustomed as they
are to this work, that some of them should find that much
sought object before the white man does; it is said they have
talked of making an effort in this direction. Would it not be
poetic justice that the real inhabitants of the bleak northland
should get the credit of this discovery? True, it might not be
of any scientific benefit to the world, but there is really not
much science connected with it after all. From what I have
seen in the mining districts of Northwestern Alaska, I am in-
clined to believe that the only thing that will prevent the
"dusky native from being the first to discover the pole, if he
sees fit to make the effort, will be the circulation of a report in
this country that there is undoubtedly a rich deposit of gold
there. There would surely be an immediate stampede for that
quarter, and some "sour dough" would reach it. Mr. Eskimo,
standing on that imaginary spot, would indeed be able to say
what no other human being ever has said. Time would be
wiped out so far as it related to him, for time is reckoned by
noon and he could have no noon while he remained on that
spot; his compass would not work; three of its main points
would be entirely useless — north, east and west. He would
not need a compass though, as he could only go south; if he
should lie down on his side across the pole and sleep for
twelve hours, his head and heels would be just reversed when
he woke up. If he should camp on the spot for a year he would
only have two days, both of equal length — one of darkness and
the other of light. On March the 21st the sun would rise for
him; at first he would get only a glimpse of it; next day it
would make a complete circle around him, following the line
of the horizon. The next, it would describe a little higher
circle and so on, like a spiral staircase until June 21st follow-
ing, when it would begin to retrace its steps downstairs again

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 105

until September 21st, when it would disappear altogether until
the 21st of the succeeding March, The North Star would be
right over the fellow's head as he stood on that mystic spot,
and all of the other stars within the line of his vision during
that six months of night would circle on a horizontal plane
around him.

But the Eskimo need not go so far north to see curious
astronomical phenomena. I, myself, have seen the sun rise
and set almost directly in the north on June 21st, and the
length of time it was down did not exceed a few minutes. I
was camped on a low spot at Port Clarence Bay. If I had gone
to the top of any nearl)y mountain it would not have set at
all to me. On December 21st the converse was true.

Five miles west of Point Barrow at Cape Smith, is the second
largest settlement on the Arctic coast; the inhabitants live
mostly in "knock down" houses brought in by the whalers,
burn coal, and have the ordinary cooking utensils of the
whites; they live well, have plenty of flour, "black skin"
(whale meat), walrus, seal, ducks, geese and such other edibles
-as tickle the native palate ; they keep all these things in ' ' dug
outs" or ice houses, thereby having them frozen and fresh the
year round. You must travel fully three hundred and sixty-
five miles east of these before you find any more natives. Then
you come across a race called the Nunatamas, who are fine
looking Eskimos, fully six feet in height, and in fine propor-
tion. It is said that the name of this tribe is from Nuna (land)
and tama (inward), though they live on the coast; it is thought
that they take this manner of distinguishing themselves from
the island natives. This tribe is not so large as it used to be;
before the advent of the missionary, they are said to have
been accustomed to kill all their children except the oldest boy;
in fact, I have it on the best authority that it is practiced more
or less today. These people are particularly peaceable and
hard working fellows; they are about the best looking natives
on the Arctic coast. About one hundred and fift}'' miles east
of Herschel is Eichards Island; here is found the Cogmulic
tribe, the largest settlement on the coast, and the most eastern;
Cogmulic means Eastern native in their language; "unlike
the other tribes of the coast, they practice polygamy. Game
is very abundant in this section.

If a white man kills one of these natives, thev retui-n the com-

106 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

pliment; if an old one is the victim, then an old white man
''bites the dust" sooner or later; if a yonng one, then a young
white man pays the penalty.

These fellows are skillful workers in brass, which they get
from the whalers. Inland, up the McKenzie Kiver about two
hundred and fifty miles, we find the Ithilic, or Slavey native;
they are particularly noted for their hunting and trapping;
they trap a great deal for the Hudson Bay Company; these
fellows are very small in size, but wiry and full of life and
vigor; the nearest neighbors of this tribe are what is called
the "Dogribbed natives," and inhabit the Great Bear Lake
country and what is known as the Barren Lands; in fact, very
little is known of any of these natives not living immediately
on the coast.

The traditions, superstitions, habits and customs of the
northern native are most interesting; like their brothers of
more southern climes, they have their "medicine men"; these
fellows adopt all manner of methods to compel the others to
look upon them with awe. I knew of one at Cape York, who
went out hunting seal one day; he was being watched from the
shore by the whole population of the native village. Sud-
denly, they saw the smoke of his gun, and shortly heard the
report; the doctor fell over as if shot; they all ran toward him,
but just before they reached him, he arose, and waving his
hands in the air and dancing in a demoniacal manner, informed
them that he had been shot, but had healed himself; in x)roof
of this he showed them that he was covered with fresh blood,
which he said had come from the wound before he healed it.
The truth was he had taken a quantity of blood with him when
he went out.

The natives near the white settlements are fast learning that
the medicine of the pale face is superior to the fantastic gyra-
tions of the medicine man. When an Eskimo dies in an eglow
or tent, it will never be inhabited by people of that race again
unless the body is taken out through a hole in the roof; they
are frequently taken outside on the ground or snow to breathe
their last; the}^ bury their dead on poles about eight feet above
the ground; the corpse is well wrapped in canvas and other
covering, and generally deposited in a rough box or coffin;
every article belonging to the deceased is buried with the body;
I have seen their gun, kayak, (canoe) oomiak, (big boat) and

>

•2.

5
S
o

o
<

OR, THE WORLDS LONGEST FAS'i 109

other similar articles lying alongside the box that contained
the remains. The native will never sell or even use, if he
knows it, any article so consecrated. Sometimes the wily
white man confiscates these things for his own nse, but he can
neither sell nor even give any of them to another native if the
latter is aware of the theft. I once saw two white men dis-
puting over the name of some small native relic; they could
not agree, and, calling up a native who stood near, referred the
matter to him; he took it in his hand and examined it closely,
then asked where they got it. On being told that it was from
a native grave he dropped it to the floor as if it had been red
hot.

The Eskimo has no method of measuring the time of day; he
reckons the month by the moon. Six months with him is ' ' six
moons"; distance is computed by ^'sleeps"; a "sleep" is a
day's travel, but if the traveler takes sick or is otherwise de-
layed on the way no allowance is made and the "sleeps" are
counted from the time he starts until he arrives at his desti-
nation. If the fellow does not understand enough English to
say "sleeps" then he will make an appropriate gesture.

Their story of how day and night originated is interesting.
They will tell you that centuries ago all this northern country,
except some mountain highlands in the section now known as
the Kotzebue Sound region, was under water. One great chief
ruled over all the ijorthern Eskimos. He had a grand eglow
on the top of a high table mountain, which sloped gradually
toward the Arctic Ocean. On the side of this mountain were
hundreds of snow-covered eglows wherein lived most of
his subjects. Guards patrolled the regal plateau night and
day, for it seems that even in those early times the head that
wore a crown did not rest easily. From time immemorial
there had hung in the eglow palace of the successive chiefs
two large golden balls several feet in diameter, but light as
air. No one knew what they contained, but tradition informed
them that if they should be broken the people would be scat-
tered and the ruler would lose his authority; to guard these
was a part of the duty of the sentinels. One day while the
chief was down on the shore watching a great walrus hunt,
two children of the tribe passed the sleeping sentinels, and in
their childish curiosity entered the royal dwelling; in the dim
twilight that then pervaded the country, they saw these beau-

110 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

tiful globes hanging from the ceiling; it was the work of but
a few minutes to get them loose; they rolled them around in
the snow near the building for some time without awakening
the oil-scented guardians. Finally the spheres escaped from
their control and started down the mountain side; the natives
saw them bounding by, but could not stop them; a wild scene
of commotion ensued. When near the bottom of the moun-
tain the long cherished spheres broke into a thousand pieces,
and night and day were given forth to the world. At the same
time a noise like the crack of doom was heard, and the sea
receding, left all this northern country exposed. The new
arrivals struggled and fought for many "sleeps," each claim-
ing the right to rule the country. During all this time the
elements were badly disturbed; lightning flashed, thunder
roared, and the waters rolled high; at last, the terrific struggle
ended in a compromise ; it was agreed that each should rule for
six "moons" beginning with day. Then quiet reigned. The
natives soon scattered to the new lands, and the old chief lost
his power.

Another tradition on the same subject is that while semi-
darkness covered the country there appeared one day a bird,
resembling our crow; the natives had heard that in some land
far to the southward there was bright daylight; they asked
this strange bird if this was true and received an affirmative
answer; they then implored it to go back to this coimtry and
supplicate the Great Spirit of that region to grant them the
same blessing. The crow finally consented, and after many
"moons" returned with the information that their request was
partially granted; that henceforth they should have daylight
at least half the time.

There is a rugged, dark looking mountain near Kotzebue
Sound that the natives think is haunted ; they will go miles out
of their way to avoid it; no native lias ever been known to
scale this elevation. I did not learn what particular kind of an
evil spirit is supposed to dwell there. At another place in the
same locality, there is a rough mountain pass which the na-
tives will tell you is guarded by an immense bird unlike any
other ever seen in this country. No Eskimo is allowed to pass
this winged sentinel.

An article on the Eskimo would be incomplete without some
mention of the native dog; this creature is to them what the

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 111

horse is to the outside world; iu fact, the white miner of
Alaska today could scarcely get along without this animal.
He might get along without the Eskimo himself, but not his
canine. Since the great influx from the outside world, many
foreign dogs have been brought in, but they do not take the
place of the Malamoot or Siwasli; they can not stand the rigors
of winter very well, and this is the particular time of the year
they are needed. The foreigner has to be fed even in summer,
while the other will "rustle" for himself if necessary. I have
found this out to my sorrow. My first few months here were
spent in a tent; when my things were landed from the boat I
did not get them all under cover the first night. Among the
articles left out was a box of bacon well bound with iron
hoops; next morning the thick boards had been gnawed
through between the bands, and some dog had had a good feed.
After I got my tent up I used to miss any article of food that
was left out of the heavy iron bound grub box. One morning
1 hung a side of bacon to the ridge pole which was very high
in my tent, and stepped out for a bucket of water, having fas-
tened the door flap of the tent securely and boarded it up with
a knock-down rocker I had convenient. When I came back
the bacon was gone. Being a "cheechako" and not knowing
the shrewdness of the Malamoot, I laid the theft to some
human being; it did not seem possible that any animal could
get the meat, firmly tied and fully seven feet from the ground.
I hung up another side of bacon, and cut olf enough for break-
fast and dinner. I was about the tent all day, but next morn-
ing went off a few hundred yards after water again, having
fastened the tent door this time so well that I was sure no two-
legged thief in the country could get in short of five minutes
without cutting the heavy canvas. Imagine my surprise on
returning with the water to see a contemptible Malamoot dog
disappearing across the tundra a hundred yards away with my
bacon; you can rest assured I never hung any more meat there.
In winter almost all the hauling is done by dog teams; there
are quite a large number of reindeer here, but they do not seem
to be half as satisfactory as the former; they will not travel
when tired, but staud and sulk, and are much trouble to feed
and care for. The sagacity of the Eskimo dog is wonderful.
He both loves and fears his master. Two cases came under
my immediate notice during the "\yinter I spent in Teller that

112 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

were the talk of the camp for some time. Dr. Tarn and his
brother, residents of the town, had gone to the Spit, eighteen
miles away, with their dog team after wood. The thermometer
was only about 15 degrees below zero, but a heavy wind was
blowing. When within a mile or so of home the doctor gave
out; his brother covered him up as warm as he could, turned
the dogs loose from the sled and hurried to town for help. A
rescuing party soon started out, and after a struggle through
the rapidly increasing storm, found the lost one unconscious
but still alive. Beside his body cuddled up as closely as pos-
sible as if to keep him warm, was one of the faithful dogs ; the
animal at first refused to allow the party to touch his master,
and only did so after much persuasion. The physician was so
badly frozen he died the next morning. The dog seemed dis-
consolate for many days. The other case was even more
startling. In this the man had also been after wood with a
4;eam of two dogs; on the way back he felt his fingers getting
numb and took off his "mits" to rub his hands together. The
weather was so cold that his hands involuntarily clinched, and
he could not get them covered again. He managed, however,
to unloose the team from the sled, and staggered on toward his
destination. The dogs, fastened together, left their master
and ran to Teller. They went to a house where the man had
frequently visited, and scratched at -the door until it was
opened; then they turned and started back toward the freezing
man as much as to say, "Follow me," The people did not
comprehend, and did not follow. The dogs went all the way
out until they met the object of their solicitation, and jumping
up on him, seemed by their actions to try to tell him what they
had done. Then they started off for help again, rapping at
two other houses, as they had at the first one, and each time
returning to meet the man. He finually got to town and
secured aid l)ut was badly frozen. I helped the surgeons to
amputate both his hands a couple of weeks afterward.

An ordinary dog on a fair trail will pull one hundred and
fifty pounds on a sled. The Eskimos are generally kind to
their animals. I have seen some white men abuse their dogs
so badly that they would have been arrested on the spot in
any of the large cities of "the States," for the same acts.

A great many dogs go. mad in this climate, but they generally
seem to want to l)ite other dogs, and do not. of ten molest human

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 113

beings. I have known a Malamoot dog to cause a loss of many
liiinclreds of dollars, as each good work dog is worth from one
Imndred to one hundred and fifty dollars in the winter time.
Some 'headers" are worth even more than the latter amount.
The "leader," as the name indicates, is a dog who leads all
the others; he minds the words of command well, and will
' ' gee ' ' and ' ' haw ' ' as neatly as an ox.

I deem it proper in this chapter to say something of the
"squaw man". I did think of w^'iting a separate one on this
subject, but it being so closely allied to the matter in hand, and
hardly of enough importance for a separate heading, I changed
my mind. I approach it with some hesitancy, as I am well
acquainted with quite a number of these men, some of whom
are really good fellows, as the term is generally understood,
but I propose to "hew to the line, let the chips fall where they
may." It is not mj intention to be personal, and I am satis-
fied it will not be so taken. They are found in almost every
Indian settlement from Point Barrow on the north to the most
southern extremity of Alaska. Nearly all the whalers' officers
are in the same boat, and if not called "squaw-men" should
be so termed. If they do not live with the native women on
the land they take them with them on the ships during the
trip and keep them on board during the long winter while the
vessel is frozen in in the ice. Within a very few miles of the
town of Teller, where this book is being written, there are at
least six half-breeds, some of them nearly grown, who claim
sea captains, married men with white children in "the States"
as their fathers. As was said in a former chapter, there is no
such word in the Eskimo language of this country as virtue.
They have no need of the word as they do not know what it
means. The sea captains and the regular squaw men generally
feed the squaw a little lietter than the buck does, and give her
a little brighter material for her parka or other wearing ap-
l^arel. In return she gets the squaw man's wood and water
and cooks the little "cow-cow" for him. I suppose they, like
Tennyson's love -sick swain in Locksley Hall, think, "There
the passions cramped no longer shall have scope and breathing
space; I will take some savage woman; she shall rear my dusky
race. ' '

When he returns to his oil-scented cabin or native eglow after
his day's work at the mine, he finds this dusky face at the

114 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

door and perhaps two or three half-breeds, blood relatives of
his white children at home, hanging by their dirty black hands
to their mother's parka. ''Iron-jointed, supple-sinewed, they
shall dive and they shall run; catch the wild goat by the hair,
and hurl their lances in the sun."

How proud he must feel of his offspring here! How he must
love those at home!

It is a well known fact that nine-tenths of the half-breeds
die of consumption or like diseases before they are grown.
God thus seems to put the brand of Cain upon th«m.

Most of these men talk the native jargon well. There are
only about eight hundred words in the tongue as spoken in
this part of Alaska. There is no alphabet or written language.
Few, if any white men, understand the simon-pure spoken
language. What they do talk is a corrupt conglomeration of
Eskimo and English. The first white men who came to Alaska
were to some extent excusable for leading such a life. The
natives would not so readily give them food or other neces-
saries unless they were one of the tribe, so to speak. I know
it to be a fact, even today, that the squaw man has much more
influence over them than anybody else.

I never heard of any marriage ceremony between these
people. In fact, so far as I know, the natives have no such
thing, except that those near missions, who have listened to
the teaching of the missionary, follow our ceremony.

It sometimes happens that the "better-half" really loves
her lover; then, when the time for his return to the south
comes, and he is perhaps about to go to the other woman, who
has been, during the years of his absence after a fortune, a
good, pure, faithful wife to him, there are heartaches and wail-
ing in the smoke-begrimed eglow, for the poor native woman
has a heart as well as her white sister. I have known of one
or two such scenes myself. But the hand of Fate is upon her.
She, with her numerous progeny, has to return to her tribe
or relatives, and the squaw-man never sees his quondam wife
or beloved children again. As a rule, the squaw-man feels in
his own heart that he has degraded himself. He seeks the
company of natives more than he does that of his fellow white
men. He usually lives at the native village, and is apparently
in all but color, one of them.

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 115

THE LAMENT OF THE OLD SOUR DOUGH.

By Sam. C. Dunham.

I've trudged and I've starved and I've frozen

All over this white barren land,—
Where the sea stretches straight, white and silent.

Where the timberless white mountains stand, — •
From the white peaks that gleam in the moonlight.

Like a garment that graces a soul.
To the last white sweep of the prairies,

W^here the black shadows brood round the pole.

(Now, pray don't presume from this prelude

That a flame of poetical fire
Is to burst from my brain like a beacon,

For I've only been tuning my lyre
To the low sad voice of a singer

Who's inspired to sing you some facts
About the improvements in staking

And the men who mine with an ax.)

I've panned from Peru to Point Barrow,

But I never located a claim
Till I'd fully persuaded my conscience

That pay dirt pervaded the same;
And this is the source of my sorrow,

As you will be forced to agree
When you learn how relentless Misfortune

Has dumped all her tailings on me.

I worked with my partner all summer.

Cross-cutting a cussed old creek,
Which we never once thought of locating

Unless we located the streak ;
And when at the close of the season

We discovered the creek was a fake
We also discovered the region

Had nothing left in it to stake.

116 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

We traversed the toe-twisting tundra,

Where reindeer root round for their feed,
And the hungry Laplanders who herd them

Devour them before tliey can breed.
Here it seems that good claims might be plenty,

And we thought we would stake one— perhaps;
But we found to our grief that the gulches

W^ere staked in the name of the Lapps.

A hundred long leagues to the northward,

O'er the untrodden, sun-burnished snow,
We struggled, half blinded and half famished.

To the sea where the staunch whalers go.
We found there broad beaches of ruby

And mountains with placers and leads,
But all, save the sky, was pre-empted

By salt-water sailors and Swedes.

Then we climbed the cold creeks near a mission

That is run by the agents of God,
Who trade Bibles and prayer-books to heathen

For ivory, sealskins and cod.
At last we were sure we had struck it,

But alas! for our hope of reward, —
The landscape from sea-beach to sky-line

Was staked in the name of the Lord!

We're too slow for the new breed of miners.

Embracing all classes of men.
Who locate by power of attorney

And prospect their claims with a pen, — ■
Who do all their fine work through agents

And loaf around town with the sports.
On intimate terms with the lawyers.

On similar terms with the courts.

We're scared to submission and silence
By the men the Government sends

To force us to keep law and order,

While they keep claims for their friends,

And collect in an indirect manner

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 117

An exceedingly l)urdensome tax,
Assumed for a time by the traders

And then transferred to our backs.

We had some hard knocks on the Klondike
From the cub-lion's unpadded paws,

And suffered some shocks from high license
"' And other immutable laws;

But they robbed us by regular schedule,
So we knew just what to expect.

While at Nome we're scheduled to struggle
Until we're financially wrecked.

I'm sick of the screams of the eagle

And laws of dishonest design,
And I 'm going in quest of a country

Where a miner can locate a mine;
So when I've rustled an outfit

These places will know me no more,
For I'll try my luck with the Russians

On the bleak Siberian shore.

********** ****#**^*

CHAPTER IX.

ALASKAN SENSE AND NONSENSE.

. It would hardly be expected that there could be any humor
where there are so many hardships and trials and troubles as
there are in this northland, but there is considerable of it.
The average man does not feel like joking or making fun when
dangers beset him on every hand, but he is very ready to enjoy
it if somebody else makes it. Like everything else that is
scarce it is unusually enjoyable when he does come across it.

This chapter will necessarily be more or less disconnected;
it is my intention to make it a kind of ''pot-pourri" of different
scenes, incidents and customs that go to make up a miner's
life on this bleak shore.

One of the most laughable incidents I have heard of occurred
in one of the little mining towns near here. A friend of mine,
"Dick" Tracy, who had been spending the evening with his

118 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

mining friends, found himself, late at night, some distance from
home, so he thought he would stop at one of the numerous
^'bunk houses" in the camp; the clerk told him to go upstairs
and take the first room on the right, at the head of the stairs;
there were several turns in these stairs, and the hour being
late Dick's mind was not so clear as when he awoke in the
morning. The result was that he took the first room on the
left. When he entered the room he saw there was no lamp or
candle, and he had no matches; this made no dift'erence to him,

however. He could see, in the dim moonlight, that somebody
had gone to bed ahead of him. It very frequently happens
that entire strangers are compelled to bunk together in this
country, Dick undressed and retired, noticing as he crawled
into bed, that the other fellow was right in the middle of the
couch. After he had located himself on the outer edge
he gave the fellow a little nudge in the side to remind
him that he had taken his half out of the middle, but the
stranger did not budge. Dick gave him another punch in the
ribs, but this did not awake him. Getting out of patience, ne
waited a few moments, then landed a pugilistic upper cut on
the short ribs; the fellow did not move. Just at this moment
the door opened, and a man and woman came in; they sat down
on the sofa in the room, and began a low conversation; Dick
was at once all attention. Suddenly the lady said, "It's a
shame for us to sit here talking nonsense when that poor man
that was frozen to death yesterday lies there in bed." Dick,
upon hearing this, gave one jump and landed in the center of
the floor; the couple thinking the dead had come to life,
made a rush for the door, closely followed by our mining-
friend. They all tried to get down the narrow staircase at
once; the result was a broken shoulder for Tracy, and various
bruises and contusions for the other parties.

The smnmer after the rich "diggings" were found on the
world-renowned Anvil and other creeks, the newly appointed
district judge incurred the displeasure of the mining public
by ordering a receiver in almost every case where a valuable
mine was in controversy. Two Irishmen had been at work for
some time, sinking a shaft on a claim they had located. One
day the fellow at the windlass felt a jerk on the rope, evidently
given to attract his attention. Upon looking down the hole,

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 119

lie heard the voice of his partner from out of the darkness call
out, ''Say, Pat, send down a receiver; I've struck gold."

Speaking of courts, reminds me that it would indeed he
interesting to the person who is used to living in a country
where trials are conducted with strict formality to know how
these matters are frequently carried on in a mining camp. The
following from the Klondike Nugget will serve as an illustra-
tion; the story is absolutely true and not overdrawn. I have
talked with several of the parties who took part in it:

THE TRIAL OF A POLAR BEARSKIN.

A Rare Contribution to the Unique in Yukon Literature —

Graphic Description of the Efforts Made to Prove the

Ownership of a Robe — The Jury Unable to Reach

a Determination.

The following description of a court scene occurring recently
at Circle City was handed in for publication by a recent arrival
from that place. The truth of its statements is not vouched for
by us, though it is by the contributor, and it is publi^bed only
as a contribution to the unique Yukon literature.

Scene — Court-room; present about fifty residents of C'ircle.
Enter U. S. Deputy Marshal; walks up to desk and takes off
his hat, and everybody else does the same. The Marshal has
tears in his eyes, and presents the appearance of a man who
has just lost his grandmother.

Mar. (in a cracked voice) — "Well, I guess we'll go on with
this thing now."

And thus was the now famous Polar Bearskin trial opened.

Mar.—' ' Mr. Montifield, call the jury. ' '

Mr. Montifield reads — *' Messrs. Wadleigh, Levante, Hock,
Durand, Morency and Shropshire."

The first five answer to their names and take the seats of
honor to the left of the acting judge.

Mar. — ' ' Where 's Shropshire ! ' '

Mont. — ' ' He '11 be here in a minute. ' '

Mar. — Never mind him, we'll go ahead without him."
' Capt. Storey — "If it pleases the court, that's only five
jurors. ' '

120 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

Mar. — "Never yon mind; five's just as good as six; it's none
of your business anyhow."

Mar." — "Now, Captain, how about that bear skin!"

Storey — "What bear skin?"

Mar. — "The one I took from your cabin?"

Storey — "I don't know anything about it; you took it from
the Columbia Navigation Company; it was freight in transit
to Dawson."

Mar. — "Never mind that; what I want to know is, who owns
it?"

Storey — "Look here, Marshal, what am I in this case any-
how? Am I the plaintiff, the defendant, or a witness; and I'd
like to know by what right you, a Deputy XJ. S. Marshal, or
anyone else has to go to my cabin and take anything out with-
out any legal measures being taken?"

Mar. — "I knew j^ou'd kick. You're always kicking; you're
a regular calamity howler anyway. ' '

Storey — "That's just what I'm here for; I get paid for
that."

Mar. — "When we take anything we take it, and that's all
all there is to it."

Storey^ — "I know you do; that's just where my kick comes
in."

Mar." — "Well, shut up now and tell us who this robe be-
longs to."

Storey — "I don't know what robe you're talking about."

Mar. (getting hot) — -"I'll damn soon show you."

Marshal goes to his office and comes back with a Polar bear
skin rolled and tied with a rope.

Mar. — "There's the robe; now who owns it? That's the
question. ' '

Voice from the Audience — "Open 'er up, Frank, and let's
have a look at it. ' '

Note — The Marshal at this moment took a notion to inform
the jur}^ as to the reason they were in court, so he explained it
as follows-: "This case or suit is brought to prove that that
man French owns this robe. You see he owes the N. A. T. &
T. Co. $40 or $50 for rent or something and they have a claim
against him for that amount. I seized the robe for that claim,
and French now claims that it is not his. Judge Crance wants

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 121

to act fair in tlie matter, so lie is letting me decide this thing,
as he is an interested party. ' '

' ' Mr, Montifield, what do you know about this robe ! ' '

Moutifield — "I'm sure I can't recognize it to be the robe."

Mar. — "Didn't you ever see it before!"

Montifield — "1 can't say for sure. I'm supposed to be under
oath, ain't I?"

Mar. — "Well, 'er yes; you're supposed to be, but then it
ain't necessary to swear you in a case like this. It'll be over
in a minute."

Montifield — "I can't swear to that one; I can't say that I
have ever seen it before."

Mar. — "French tried to sell you a robe, didn't he? Tell us
Tall about it."

Montifield — "1 went to his cabin and saw a robe there, and
he asked me if I wanted to buy it, but I can't say that this
is the robe."

Storey — "That robe belongs to Scates, and when he went
to Dawson he gave it to Captain Seigass who entered it as
freight in transit to Dawson for the Col. Nav, Co. ' '

Mar. — "Never mind all that; have you got a receipt from
Scates?"

Storey — "No, I don't need one till I land the bearskin in
Dawson. ' '

Mar. — "Here, French, what do you know about this robe!"

French walks out from the audience and eyes the robe
critically.

French — "I don't know anything about it. "

Mar. — "Didn't joii ever see it before?"

French— "I don't know."

Here the jailor and his prisoners poke their heads out of the
cooler, and the Marshal turns to them with the query of:

"How's ever>i;liing in there, Jake!" (Then turning to
French ) : " What do you know ! " *

French — ' ' Nothing. ' '

Mair. — ' ' Don 't you own it ? "

French — "No, sir."

Mar.— "I think it's yours anyhow."

French — ' ' That 's j^our privilege, sir. ' '

Mar. — 'What do you know about this robe?"

French (with a long face)— "I know nothing."

122 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

Mar. — ''Well, gentlemen of the jury, you liave all the evi-
dence; now we await your decision; who owns this bearskin?"

Wadleigh (a juror) — "Nobody seems to own it; it don't be-
long to Scates or Storey or French or you. I'll take it; give
it to me."

Levante (another juror) — "Hold on there; we've all got a
finger in this skin. Let 's iDlay sluff for it. ' '

Just about this time the whole court — spectators, acting
judge and all — were in danger of going into convulsions from
continued laughter.

Mar. — "Well, you must decide. You can go into my office
and deliberate."

Storey — "I suppose you're through with me, and as I've got
work to do, I ask to be excused."

Mar. — ' ' You can just stay where you are for a few minutes. ' '

Storey (hot)— "What am I in this case, anyhow!"
. Mar. — "You're the defendant."

Storey — "Then as the defendant I move that the case be
dismissed and the bearskin be returned to where it was taken
from. ' '

Mar. — "We return nothing."

Storey- — "You're right; I never knew you to return anything
you once laid your hands on."

The jury files out. During the time the jury is out every-
body, Marshal, and all, indulge in a smoke. Big Theodore
AVhollers tries to impose on the Marshal's good nature by put-
ting on his hat, but the Marshal cut him short with the order
to ' ' Take off your hat ; take off that hat, or give me a cigar. ' '

The hat comes oif. At this time the Marshal must see his
prisoners in the cooler so he tries to open the door, but find-
ing it locked, he pushed in vain. Then he tried to tear off the
cheesecloth covering; when it was half off the jailer opened the
door and the voice of the Marshal was heard asking the same
old question, "How's things in there, Jake?" To reassure
himself he went to look, and while he was in there the jury
returned with their verdict.

Wadleigh (with a sheet of paper in his hands) — "Whar's
the judge?"

Just then the judge returns.

"What's your verdict, gentlemen?"

Wadleigh — "There it is on that paper on the desk." ,

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 123

Mar. (examining paper on both sides) — "Where is if?"

Wadleigh — "Here; I'll read it."

Wadleigh, as foreman of the jury, then reads: "Circle, May
4th, '99, we the undersigned jurors in the trial of a polar bear
skin find that it belongs to nobody in particular; so we'll keep
it for ten days and give the owner a chance to prove his prop-
erty. If it is still unsettled at the end of that time we will
play sluff and see who gets it for keeps. Signed, F. Wadleigh,
Charles Levante, Al Morency, Teddy Hock, Joe Durand."

The man who succeeds in Alaska is the fellow commonly
known as a "hustler". He has a finger in every pie that is
cut, and grabs as large a piece as possible; on the other hand,
the man who sits still with his thumb in his mouth will either
spend the balance of his days here or go out poor. The first
mayor of the town of Teller belonged to the former class, and
the following written for an entertainment in this mining camp
by Judge Charles Udell, is true in fact as well as amusing:

A BRIEF HISTORY OF TELLER.

Dedicated to the Founder of the Teller Masonic Club.

A year ago this icebound coast
Was solitude and ice and frost.
Lone mountains in chill snowpeaks lost,
White plains by human foot uncrossed,
Unconscious of the coming host.

But the Anglo-Saxon was seeking gold —

The days of the Esquimaux were being told —

A human tide toward the northland rolled,

Undaunted by storm, or famine, or cold,

For had they not Wilson, Tom Wilson, the bold?

A city was planned in which to allot

Space for a home to each brave Argonaut,

Then like true Saxons they staked, jumped and fought.

'Twas ruled that each could stake but one spot.

And Wilson,— well, Tom Wilson, he got a lot !

124 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

A Council was formed to raise revenue,

-'?

The townlet to care for, its future to liew,
And seven were chosen, our acts to review^ —
Seven wise Solons, all good men and true,
Tom Wilson, of course, was one of these few.

Then a mayor was needed to govern the town,
To levy our taxes and do things up brown^
And as only one could have that renown,
All of the others stepped quietly down,
And Tom Wilson donned the mayoralty crown.

Uncle Sam had provided a judge for the place,
Forgetting that Wilson was in every race.
The certain result was, of judges, a brace;
For Tom opened a court with infinite grace.
And presided o 'er many a lot jumping case.

But Uncle Sam grew wise from that little fight,
And knowing three postmasters wouldn't look right,
Messrs. Brevig and Morse made haste to alight
From the Postoffice chairs they were holding down tight,
And the government asked pardon for its brief oversight.

But time is short, the subject great,
The rest but briefly I '11 relate ;
How groceries started, large and new,
And Thomas AVilson started one too;
Stores for clothing and cap and shoe;

How each found AYilson a rival too;
How saloons were opened for mountain dew,
And how Tom Wilson was right there too;
How restaurants came where all could chew;
And Wilson promptly opened one too;

Hotels and lodgings not a few;

But both found AVilson in the business too.

Stables on alley and avenue,

And AA^ilson at once built stables, too;

'Gene Allen his news plant to Teller drew,

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 125

But found Wilson and Rickey with a 'paper too.
Kief, Rogers and Stephens did real estate too ;
Which cansed W^ilson to start in real estate too;
The lawyers arrived, but they all felt blue
When they found AVilson practiced and won cases too ;

How the Koogrock tiger came into view,
But found Tom with a limit of one and two ;
How Meacham came our souls to subdue,
But Tom, not content with engaging a pew.
Started sacred concerts at his place, too.

Good people of Teller, when you bid life adieu.
In a large corner of heaven ^^ou'll find Wilson too;
Yet the poets of Teller when their crimes they rue,
Condemned for bad verses to an eternal stew,
Will not be all lonelv with no one tliev knew,
For Tom wouldn't l)e happy unless there too.

Every miner knows that he can stake twenty acres of un-
appropriated Government land in Alaska for placer mining
purposes. The boundaries must be properly marked and also
the exact location of the claim given on the notice posted on
the ground, and a copy of which must be filed within ninety
days with the recorder of the local mining district. In the
spring of 1901 a native approached the recorder of the Good
Hope District on the Arctic, with the following for record:
"I claim Little River; maybe money; maybe not. Octuk,
Alaska. ' ' Another by a white man filed in the Nome country
was almost as bad. It read as follows: "I locate this (descrip-
tion of ground) for Ole and me." There was no name signed.
Some of the natives, however, are much brighter and better
educated than the one who wrote the location notice just quoted.
The following letter written by an Eskimo is in my possession;
the handwriting is fair — as good in fact as that of the average
white man.

''Penny, July 24, 1900.

Mr. Billee Langdon: — For you buy some of little rubber
boots; will come see von soon, Billie, and tell you my mamma
dead, Sunday, July 22, 1900. Verv trulv, '

EDDIE KORBLE. ' '

126 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

The local courts are kept busy in the winter time with dog
cases. In the summer these animals are not used frequently
and are therefore not so much of a ''casus belli". The con-
verse is true of mining suits, six or eight feet of snow puts a
damper on this class of cases, but the summer crop is numerous.
There are probably more dogs stolen in winter in Alaska than
in all the balance of Uncle Sam's dominions. I was very much
amused at a case which came under my notice a short time
since. A tall, gaunt-looking fellow was driving a beautiful
team of five dogs through the main street of Teller, when
another fellow about equally matched in size came rushing
out from a store, and grabbing the front dog, said to the
driver, "See here, you are the fellow that stole my leader, are
you?" He at once began to unhitch the animal from the sled;
we all looked for one of the customary rough and tumble fights.
But no! The driver assumed a broad grin, and as the dog was
being led away, sang in plaintive melody to the tune of a popu-
lar ballad, "Well, I guess I'll have to get a leader of my own."
A short description of winter life in an Arctic mining camp
may not be uninteresting to the reader. As before stated I spent
that season of the year during 1900-1 at the celebrated town of
Teller. The natives say it was the most terrible winter that
has been known for many years. The thermometer frequently
went as low as 45 degrees to 50 degrees below zero. This tem-
perature is as dangerous to life here as 80 degrees below would
be at Dawson, or any other place where the wind does not
blow; the snow was from ten to fifteen feet in some parts of
the camp, thus entirely covering up many of the cabins or
' ' shacks ' ' of the miners. The place had sprung up mushroom-
like late in the preceding fall, and there being no wood nearer
than eighteen miles, and coal being a very scarce and high-
priced article, the illy-prepared sojourner suffered terribly.
Not a day passed that from one to a dozen persons were not
more or less seriously frozen. Four were frozen to death in
the immediate vicinity of the town. One man froze his hands
while locking his cabin door. Two or three saloons kept a
hot fire going all the time, although coal was one hundred
dollars a ton, and thus furnished places where the freezing
miner could be somewhat comfortable. They each lost several
hundred dollars by this kindness, for there was little or no
money in the pockets of their guests to pay for drinks. The

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 127

men wlio spent the winter aronnd these public stoves were
called ''chair warmers" — stool warmers would be more appro-
priate, as chairs are almost an unknown luxury in a mining
camp. These men hugged the fire through the long, dark,
winter days, and cussed and discussed the country and its
hardships. Many a man had nothing but frozen canned beans
and hard tack all winter. He had no wood or coal some-
times, even to warm up the former article of diet. The
"meals" at the restaurants were from a dollar and a half up.
A meal consisted of reindeer meat, potatoes, onions and
canned fruit — all in a frozen state before being cooked; nothing
fresh except the breeze that entered every time some muffled
figure opened the double doors; then a cloud of vapor would
fill the end of the room, the result of the meeting of the low
tempered outside air with that of the room. The ice on the
windows inside would frequently be two or three inches thick.
The salutation that the new arrival from outdoors frequently
received was, "Hello, there! Your nose is frozen." This was
indicated by its marble whiteness. He would rush out, and
rub some snow over it, thus thawing it out. Sometimes the
whole face would be as white as a ghost— caused in coming a
distance of a block perhaps in the freezing cold. The dread
of the chair warmer was the hour when hunger or the closing
of the saloon drove Jiim to his ice-lined shack. It seems
almost impossible that human endurance could withstand the
cold that these men nightly passed through in their cabins —
some with few blankets and no robes.

One of the regular chair warmers came in one morning and
astounded all those sitting around the stove by announcing
that he had eggs for breakfast. Beans were the regulation
diet, so all were anxious to know about how he happened to
get the eggs. "Well," said he, "I will tell you how it was;
I was in a store yesterday, and the clerk told me that they had
a few unfrozen eggs. I sold an interest in a claim a few days
ago, and as I had not tasted eggs for so long I bought half a
dozen for a dollar. I only had a little wood in the shack, but
I put it all in my Yukon stove this morning and broke the
whole half dozen eggs into my frying pan; the wood burned
out about the time they were cooked on one side; when I
started to eat them I found they were frozen on the other side.
My cabin was not any colder than usual, either."

128 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

A few days after tliis another man, a real estate agent named
Stephens, came mto the saloon, his fnr cap and parka covered
with ice, and after standing before the fire a few minntes, re-
marked, ^'Well, hoys, I opened a can of beans for a change,
this morning," — he got no further; the continued roars of
laughter that broke forth drowned all explanations that he
attempted.

This same gentleman, at another time, told us that when he
was in an outfitting store, laying in his supplies preparatory
to coming to Nome, the clerk asked him what kind of shoe
wear he wanted — at the same time handing him a pair of
moccasins to examine. He looked them over a few moments,
and finally asked whether these were warmer than snowshoes.
He knows better now.

Ananias would have held up his hands in horror if he could
have heard a full-fledged Alaskan liar. I do not know whether
it is the climate or because of the great latitude here (71 de-
grees), but the fact is there are more liars to the square mile
in this country than in any other place on earth of an equal
population. Mrs. Eose H, Leech, an Alaska correspondent of
the Chicago Inter Ocean, once read an interesting essay on the
subject at a winter entertainment in Teller; it was as follows.

THE ALASKAN ANANIAS.

Some, wise man has said that there are three classes of liars
• — plain liars, liars and Yukoners. The plain liar is the man
who lies to protect himself, to please his friends, or to advance
his interests. The liar lies through spite, malice and envy;
to work injury upon some luckless individual who has been so
unfortunate as to incur his displeasure; the amount of harm
he does in the world is incalculable. His long suit is his ability
to take the truth, and by a few simple twists of the tongue, so
distort and change it that its own maternal relative would
not recognize it when brought face to face with it.

But the Yukoner! Ah, who can do justice to the skill, the
grace, the enthusiasm, and the unbounded industry, which he
displays in this, his chosen vocation. By this, of course, it is
not meant that all Yukoners are liars; far from it. But when
a man is a Yukoner and a liar the combination is one that is
a world beater. This Yukon liar is, as a rule, a lazy mortal;
he believes in always putting off until tomorrow what should

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 129

he done today. But wlieii opportunity offers he can be aroused
to an effort, which, if otherwise applied, would have elevated
him to the pinnacle of fame and fortune long ere this. Some-
where in the dim and distant past, he has heard that the devil
is the father of lies, and he has a laudable ambition to add to
Mephisto's large and interesting family. He has also been
told to ''tell the truth and shame the devil," but with a zeal
incomparable the Yukoner has thus far managed to avoid
bringing the blush of shame to the countenance of that ruler of
the under world.

He is a genial liar, this Yukoner, and for the ordinary lies
of life he needs make no effort; they roll from his lips as reg-
ularly and as smoothly as do compliments from the lips of a
sour dough man in conversation with a cheechako girl.

It is only when brought into conjunction with another sour
dough liar that the Yukoner is at his best. Then indeed are his
flights of fancy as high as Mount Olympus, and his fluency of
language unequalled by any save that possessed by the silver-
tongued W. J. Bryan. It has always been thought that no
cheechako could compete with him in the arena of prevarica-
tion but it now develops that a certain Alaska judge has a
friend from the outside — the cheechako lady in the sour dough
camp of Nome — whom he is willing to back against the
Yukoner any day, feeling confident that the Yukoner would
be humbled down to the tundra.

To the Yukoner lies are as beer and skittles, cakes and ale.
If 'twere possible to condemn him to pass three weeks with-
out indulging in Munchausen-like narratives, he would pine
away and soon be put up on sticks. He doubtless sometimes
soliloquizes after the following fashion:

"To lie or not to lie; that is the question. Whether it is
easier far to bear the lies and taunts of other sour doughs, or
to take arms against a score of lies, and by some bigger lying
end them." He always decides in the affirmative of course,
and after such soliloquy mounts his Pegasus with renewed
ambition.

Have you been on a hunting trip and killed 100 ptarmigan?
The Yukoner has many times killed three hundred in a few
moments. Have you caught forty tom cod in two hours?
The Yukoner makes you feel that as a disciple of Isaak Walton
you are a failure when he assures you he luis caught lOO in

130 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

the same time. Have 3^011 been out mushing and walked from
Shea's road house to Teller in a day? The Yukoner makes
you feel what a poor worm of a cheechako you are by telling
you that he made the trip from Mary's Eglow to Teller and
from there to Nome in one day. Have you found one and one-
half cents to the pan on a prospecting trip! The Yukoner has
found one and one-half dollars. Have you heard that three
hundred people are on the way from Dawson to Teller! The
Yukoner tells you that there are three thousand. I have heard
recently an expression which appears to nje to be very appli-
cable to this propensity of the Yukoner; where it came from
I do not know. It may be a recent arrival from the Bowery,
or it may have originated in the fertile brain of the young man
whom I heard use it. It is called, "Peddling the bull." I
think this expression fills a long felt want, as it were. Instead
of saying, "Sir, you are a liar; you are lying to me!" one can
say softly, sweetly, like the whispering of the spring winds
through the boughs of a pine tree, "Sir, you are a Yukoner!
You are peddling to me."

It is not expected that every Tellerite will understand this
dissertation; those who have lived in Dawson and Nome will
of course do so, but as yet the Yukoner does not dwell within
our gates, and it is possible that for that reason some may fail
to appreciate it. But as "all things come to him who waits"
we may yet point with pride to our progress, and Teller need
no longer rest under the ban of being the only Alaskan town
of any size without its own bright, particular Yukoner. ' '

There is a phase of life in the northland to which I intended
to devote a whole chapter. It is the moral, or rather the im-
moral side. I have changed my mind, however, and will take
it up briefly at this time. Morality in nearly all mining camps
the world over is almost an unknown quantity. The reasons
for this are manifold. Mining communities are generally made
up of young or middle-aged men of bold, adventurous spirit,
who, while generous and good-hearted, were not, even at home,
particularly scrupulous about their morals. There is always
more or less of a sprinkling of the real desperado present. The
conditions are all favorable to him. The law is not as strict
as it is in the older communities.

Again, he has more or less of a desire to make a good ap-
pearance before his relatives and friends, but in a mining

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 131

camp, especially one so far away as Alaska, lie is a stranger
among strangers. A miner's money comes easily, and is apt
to go in the same way. There are five saloons to any other
one class of business. Almost every saloon has from one to a
aozen gaml)ling games open night and day. With all restraint
off, the temptation to drink and gamble is almost irresistible
as long as the ''poke" (purse) holds out. The man who
comes to the dreary northland stakes his life against a fortune,
and very frequently loses.

Probably the most potent reason for the laxity of morals in
a far-away mining camp is the absence of the refining influence
of good women. I do not desire to be understood that there
are not good women in Alaska, but the ratio of women to men
is very, very small and the ratio of good women to immoral
ones is still smaller.

If a mining claim is of any value at all it is probably worth
a fortune. The miner who is in possession and thinks his title
is good will be apt to guard it with his life, after having under-
gone so many hardships to get it. The laws are loose and
there is no dearth of excuses for claim "jumping". During
the mining season, shooting scrapes are of almost daily occur-
rence. Frequently there are a number of men engaged on
each side, and a small but deadly battle is the result.

The sight of a drunken miner with a fat "poke" is more
than the cupidity of the desperado can stand, and murders are
by no means uncommon in the northland. There are compara-
tively few churches in the country — saloons, dance halls and
gambling houses are far more plentiful.

Gentle reader, in conclusion it is just this way:

WHEN A MAN'S IN ALASKA.

Of all the insidious,

Temptations invidious

Contrived by the devil for making men bold.

There's none more delusive,

Seductive, obtrusive.

Than the snare to a man in that land of coarse gold.

He feels such delightfulness,

Stay-out-all-nightfulness

Sure-to-get-tight-fulness,

I own it with pain.

132 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

A baclielor rakisliness,

^j

What-will-you-take-islmess

None can explain.

His wife may be beautiful,

Tender and dutiful,

'Tis not tliat lier absence

Would cause him delight:

But the cursed opi^ortunity,

Baleful immunity,

Scatters his scruples as day scatters night.

The spirit of sportfulness,

Full-as-a-goatfulness,

Upset-the-boat-fulness,

Goes with the gold seeker wherever he be,

A dare-devil jokefulness.

Bet the whole 'pokefulness.

So sad to see.

The girls may be plentiful.

Social and ventureful,

He 's sure that his family

Think 's him a saint.

But the wicked community.

Gives opportunity.

To the fellow whose habits are not under restraint.

CHAPTEE X.
THE DISTRICTS ADJACENT TO NOME AND TELLER.

When California was acquired by the United States as one
of the trophies of the war with Mexico, the calamity howlers
sat on their hind legs and wailed more dolefully than a dis-
consolate Malamoot dog. They said it was a barren waste of
rugged mountains and arid plains, the home of sage brush
and cacti, and the habitat of coyotes and grizzly bears. But
the discovery of gold in California worked a transformation.
The gold hunters found the most equable climate in North
America, and a soil of unexcelled fertility. Now grain fields

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 133

and vast orchards cover those arid phiins, and on the slopes
of those rugged mountains one can see the largest vineyards
in the world. California is the home of fifteen hundred
thousand people, and her exports reach every principal i3ort
of the world.

When William H. Seward completed the negotiations for
the purchase of Alaska, the same doleful dirge was chanted
by those who saw nothing in Alaska but icebergs and Polar
bears. Eventually, fur seals attracted the attention of capi-
talists and increased their riches. The salmon canners found
Alaska a profitable field to exploit, but they did not advertise
their discovery, because comxDetition would lessen their profits.
It remained for the miner, the true pioneer of civilization, to
tell the people who paid $7,500,000 for this territory, of its
great wealth; that it was habitable, that the opportunities for
making money and acquiring that competence we all hope
and strive for, are better here than in any other part of Uncle
Sam's domain. Gold is not the only mineral in Alaska. There
are veins of coal of good quality; there are quartz ledges show-
ing copper in profitable quantity; there are deposits of the
finest graphite; platinum, some pieces weighing an ounce or
more, have l)een found. There is an old silver mine between
Golovin Bay and Norton Sound that was worked by the Kus-
sians many years ago. There are great belts of good timber
in Southern Alaska, and better agricultural land in South-
eastern Alaska than there is in some of the New England
States, and a climate in many places not more severe; plenty
of game, and fish galore.

The discovery of gold in California and its subsequent de-
velopment, will be paralleled in Alaska. That great range of
mountains which extends in an almost continuous chain from
Cape Horn to the Arctic Ocean has proved to be an immense
mineral zone. The mysterious laws of nature that have de-
posited more wealth in some sections of this great zone than
others, have been lavish with Northwestern Alaska. Except
in some of the great belts of granite, there is gold everywhere,
not always in paying quantities, but sometimes in fabulously
rich deposits. The country has only been partially prospected,
and nothing beyond assays has been done to determine the
value of the numerous quartz ledges that have been located.
There are thousands of claims that have never been prospected,

134 ■ STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

and ricli strikes are frequently heard of near at hand on ground
that had been traveled over, and perhaps partially prospected.
The remote unexplored territory is extensive, and the unpros-
pected claims are in the ratio of 100 to 1.

What are the inevitable deductions of these facts? There is
a field here for men of good health, strength and industry;
there are opportunities for capital, opportunities for invest-
ments that will enrich the owner and help develop the country,
and possibly, chances to loan money and get as much interest
in a month as could be obtained in a year in some localities.
But the man who comes here takes his life in his hands, or,
in other words, stakes his life against a fair chance to make
a fortune.

North latitude 64 degrees and 32 minutes, west lougtitude
165 degrees and 30 minutes, on the northern shore of Bering
Sea, is Nome. A few years ago these treeless shores looked
bleak and cheerless enough. It was not a place where "every
prospect pleases," but by chance, gold was discovered, and
during the summer of 1900 there were fifteen thousand people
in Nome. The town has some fine buildings, telephone lines,
a railroad to the mines of Anvil Creek, a water system that
brings the water five miles from the mountains, and many
other improvements that belong to a modern city.

Nome is situated at the mouth of Snake River. No one can
realize how appropriate the name of this river is until he has
stood upon some of the mountains overlooking it and viewed
its sinuous course to the sea. The principal part of Nome is
east of the river. On the west side is a sandy spit or point,
covered with tents, dwelling houses, a number of small stores,
lumber and coal yards. The beach at Nome is 100 feet wide,
and very high water is 20 feet above mean low water. The
greatest altitude is the tundra, or flat land, that lies between
the sea and the mountains. The tundra is a moss-covered
marsh, full of pools and lagoons. In the dryest part of the
summer time, one can walk over it dry shod by avoiding the low
wet spots, but when it rains the "rocky road to Dublin" is pref-
erable. Long hip boots and a courage that does not fear
violent exercise are indispensable.

The tundra extends back to the mountains, a distance of
four or five miles. These mountains are not more than 600 or
700 feet high, and are covered with the same kind of mossy

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 135

vegetation that grows on the lowlands. The only evidence
of timber are thickets of small willows, perhaps waist high,
near the creeks. The country rock is a mica schist, and the
croppings are very conspicuous. If it is an evidence of age
to be gray and bald, then the hills of Nome belong to the
Paleozoic age. The greatest altitude of these mountains is
reached in the Sawtooth range, forty miles to the north. It
was in this range I had my dreadful experience. This side of
the range the water flows into Bering Sea, and numerous
streams with their feeders flowing from every compass point
cut these mountains into queer shapes, so that if one attempts
to follow a water course to the sea he would have a mazy road.

The theory has been advanced that in a comparatively recent
geological period, the earth's axis has been changed by a
cataclysm. The shifting of the poles converted a warm or
temperate zone into a frigid region, and made a complete
change in the forms of vegetable and animal life. In support
of this theory are found the remains of the mastodon im-
bedded in fields of Alaskan ice, traces of other animals in-
digenous to a milder climate, in addition to the geological evi-
dence in some of the substratas of the earth. The United
States Geological Survey, we are informed, states that North-
western Alaska belongs to a much earlier period than any other
part of the western section of the United States. It possibly
may be classified as belonging to the lower stratas of the
Paleozoic age. The tundra has probably been made by the
receding waters of the ocean. It is known that the waters of
the Pacific, on the west coast of America, are receding so that
in the course of a century several feet are added to the shore
line. In the tundra are found evidences of this in the form
of driftwood, remains of sea life and the sand stratas of the
ocean shore.

In Northwestern Alaska, and particularly in the territory
contiguous to Nome, the mountains are not precipitous, but
are cut up by numerous streams into a heterogenous mass of
varying altitudes, the ridges trending in the direction of the
principal streams. The highest point is thirty-five miles north
of Nome, Mt. Osborn, in the Sawtooth range, 4800 feet. Geol-
ogists assert that there is no evidence of glacial disturbance
in this country, but the sharp edges of float show that the
action of water has not been the principal agency in depositing

136 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

this kind of rock wliere it is found, and the twisted, contorted
condition of tlie hedrock and frequent displacement indicate a
disturbing force tliat can not be attributed to the numerous
slides.

Nome and Teller are situated in one of the greatest mineral
zones of Northwest Alaska. The country rock, mica schist,
is frequently found as bedrock, decomposed so that a pick and
shovel easil}^ removes it. The entire surface of this part of
the earth, except in the river beds and where rock crops, is
covered with moss, beneath which there is a very scant alluvial
deposit. The superstratas of bedrock, which is of varying
depth, but seldom very deep, are clay and sand. Many quartz
ledges doubtless exist in this formation but they are covered
w^ith moss and difficult to tind. Those that have been discov-
ered lay exposed by streams or the sea.

Between the mineral zones are belts of coarse granite, their
dark dykes cropping in rugged outline and sharp contrast to
the light shale of the mineralized part of the country.

One of the most agreeable surprises to the Nome or Teller
summer visitor is the climate. He expects to find cold, rainy,
disagreeable weather, and prepares for it with heavy woolen
underwear, and outer garments of oilskin and rubber. But he
finds the ordinary clothing worn in San Francisco and Seattle
more comfortable. The days are bright and warm and the
early summer is dry, too dry to please the miners.

The greatest variation of temperature is probably from 50
degrees below in winter to 70 degrees above in summer. For
these places of recent settlement an accurate meteorological
record can not be given. Such a record would not convey a
complete idea of the temperature and meteorological condi-
tions. It is possible for conditions to exist where 50 degrees
below zero is more comfortable than 30 below in some other
locality. Besides, simple figures do not tell the story of the
facts they record; so, if the reader will follow us through the
seasons we will endeavor to impart the knowledge of experi-
ence. ''All's well that ends well"; so we will begin with
autumn and end with summer.

September, and shorter days and colder nights are on picket
duty for winter; some mornings there are frost and thin ice,
while back in the mountains heavy snows fall. The wind
blows, sometimes furiously. The southeast gales sweep over

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 137

Bering Sea, and make the destructive storms of Nome. Teller,
being on a small bay, does not suffer so much. These gales
usually last two or three days, and are succeeded by a few
days of fair weather. The wind is unsteady, shifting to all
points of the compass. The atmosphere is laden with moisture
and frequent precipitations result. There are squalls and
drizzles, ])ut there are calms and sunshine. October differs
only in temperature, but frequently, the natives tell, there
have been weeks of splendid weather during these months.

During the month of November the snow falls thick and
fast. There is much ice in Bering Sea, and quietly the ice floats
downward from the north. Some mornings the people of these
towns awaken and behold this restless sea a silent field of ice.
Winter is here; the snow blows and drifts and the north wind
' 4s a nipping and an eager air. ' ' But so gradual has been his
approach, and so well prepared is everybody that business is
not suspended nor work impeded to any great extent, except in
bad winters like the one of 1900-1. The days are short and the
nights long, but the great white robe of the cold earth pre-
vents the darkness that otherwise would make the nights
dreary. Houses are made tight and comfortable. Men with
dog teams travel over the country, and the ordinary affairs of
life pursue the even tenor of their way, very much the same
as in New England or Canada. Some days are very cold, but the
thermometer in an ordinary winter is frequently and for days
above zero. And thus the winter passes.

Spring is heralded by cliinooks or warm winds, and, as
gradually as he approaches, winter departs. The longer and
warmer days are loosening the icy grip that clasps the earth
and holds the waters imperceptibly as seen from day to day,
but surely, as the weeks pass. The ice breaks, forms again,
and breaks until some fine day in May or June it floats away,
and the rythmical pulsebeats of Bering Sea are heard again.
The people wait anxiously and look longingly for the first
steamer that will restore commercial relations with the out-
side world. They had watched the last outgoing vessel with
a feeling of isolation, and as the desire for a nearer touch of
the great human family is soon to be realized there is pleasure
in its contemplation. The spring has passed.

The summer begins with fine weather. The sun is bright and
warm and the earth responds to his genial rays by sending

138 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

up grass where the moss has not protected the frost, and wild
flowers in astonishing variety and of tlie most beautiful and
delicate colors. During the month of June ' ' there is no night ;
what seems so is transition" from twilight to dawn. From
June until August, Nome and Teller might be seaside resorts.
The waves of the sea idly lap the shore. Women wear white
shirt waists and screen their faces from the sun with parasols.
The hills back of these towns are a delightful place for a ramble
if one loves pretty flowers. The atmosphere is invigorating.

This is a treeless country. For many miles back into the
mountains the only evidence of timber is willow thickets on
the creeks and gulches. These willows attain a height of
.three or four feet. They burn quickly, but make good fuel,
and are utilized by miners and prospectors. It is probably
fifty miles from Nome in the direction of Council City to the
timber line. The timber one finds here is spruce, big enough
for cabin logs, but not an inviting field for the lumber industry.

The great reach of bare hills and mountains does not make
the most charming perspective, but an agreeable surprise
awaits anyone who travels over this country during the month
of July. He will forget all about the perspective in contem-
plation of the beauty of his innnediate surroundings. The
moss is a carpet in all shades of brown, and verdant spots
adorn many places where there are soil and sunshine. The
flowers are beautiful; little ones that belong to the daisy family
are everywhere; forget-me-nots with the richest fragrance,
adorn the benches and in moist spots the stately fleur de lis
as they bend with the breeze, greet the passerby; buttercups
make one think of the Mikado air "The flowers that bloom
in the spring;" but the most beautiful flower of them all is the
pansy, a wee, delicate thing, hiding its rare beauty near the
earth and beneath the greater effulgence of its more gorgeous
sisters. The writer has never seen this little beauty, with its
delicate blending tints, except in the Santa Cruz mountains,
California. It grows there, but not to greater perfection than
it does in the hills of Nome and Teller. These are a few of
the old favorites you can find in this part of Alaska, but there
are many varieties. In a space of ten feet square twenty
varieties of wild flowers have been gathered. They are not
of such luxuriant growth as the same varieties in a more tern-

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 139

perate clime, but the loss in luxuriance is more than balanced
by the gain in delicate coloring and refinement.

Later in the season the moss is plentifully sprinkled with
salmon berries, and blueberries are abundant.

The story of the discovery of gold in this section of North-
western Alaska has been often told and need not be repeated
here. In 1898, when the tirst "j^rospects" were found, it was
not dreamed that a gold bearing area of country extending from
Norton Bay to the Arctic Ocean and for one hundred miles
inland from the coast of Bering Sea ever existed. Yet such
was the case; the developments since that time have amply
demonstrated the fact that here in this bleak country are
deposits of gold which for richness and extent have never been
equalled in the history of gold discoveries. And these do not
only include placer, but quartz as well. Prospecting for
quartz may be said to have only been begun, but enough work
has been accomplished to show the existence of both gold and
copper ledges, some of which promise to be exceedingly rich
and valuable. Galena mines in the Fish River country were
worked years ago, but these have long since been abandoned,
not because the ledges were exhausted, but because of the
''slump" in the price of silver and the cost of working these
mines under the difficult conditions existing at that time.

As has been stated the placer prospects extend from Norton
Bay over all Northwestern Alaska. The mining district which
has hitherto commanded the greatest amount of attention, by
reason of its discovery and development work, is Cape Nome.
The fame of Anvil, Snow, Glacier and Dexter Creeks has gone
abroad. Dozens of others have been added to the list of actual
producers, besides a large area of rich bench claims in the
neighborhood of Anvil and Dexter Creeks, and many of which
have proved phenomenally rich.

Very little work has been done in the Norton Bay country.
This section is well watered and wooded, and will undoubtedly
be added to the list of gold producers. Extensive quartz
ledges have also been found here, as well as a fine quality of
coal.

In the Council City, or Golvin Bay country, a great deal of
work has been done. There are many promising creeks in this
section, actual lu'oducers, among which may be mentioned
Ophir, Crooked, Sweetcake, Elkhorn, besides scores of others

140 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

upon which sufficient development work has been done to
establish the fact that they contain pay. Ophir is a rich creek
and has already produced hundreds of thousands of dollars in
dust.

Tributary to Council City, Teller and Nome is the great
Casa de poga country, embracing thousands of creeks and
river benches. A good deal of prospecting has been done, but
little actual mining work has been accomplished.

The origin of the name Nome has never been discussed in
print. People have speculated about it, and wondered if there
were natives here who believed in elfs and fairies and gnomes
and other sprites, and if this particular part of the peninsula
was the habitat of the gnomes. But the natives are not so
poetical and imaginative. The gnomes of fairyland are
strangers to the Eskimo. He is not as sublime as the ''Poor
Indian who sees God in the cloud and hears Him in the wind. ' '
His deities inhabit beavers and wolves.

The Eskimo equivalent for " No " is ' ' no me " ; for ' ' I don 't
know", "Ka no me."

In the earlier days, when there were but few white men on
the peninsula, a whaler or trader on landing would inquire of
the natives about something or someone. The answer was
almost invariably, "no me" or "Ka no me", and these terms
have been abbreviated into the monosyllable Nome. Hence
the name.

Probably, if a California miner had named Nome, following
the example of those who named Hangtown, Jimtown, Big Oak
Flat, and other places according to the Indian custom, he
might have called it Stringtown, because it is strung along the
beach for several miles. Nome town lots have been staked on
the shores of the Bering Sea for three miles, and Teller is
almost as long. During the summer of 1900 there were tents
five times that distance, and occasional stores, and saloons for
the accommodation of the miners. At one time, there were
fifteen thousand people in Nome and all day long the crowd on
the main street equalled any seen on the principal thorough-
fare of a metropolis.

When navigation closes the town is confined to an area of
three square miles, and consists of a population of probably
5000. Considering its age, it is substantially constructed.

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 141

The l)iiildiiigs have been put np for whiter use, and are pro-
vided with double floors, ceilings and storm doors.

Nome has two principal streets, First and Second, running
parallel to the beach. Most of the business is conducted on
First street. The principal cross street is Steadman Avenue.
Nearly every important business is represented at Nome. The
number of business houses and offices is not less than 400.
There is a telephone system connecting the leading business
houses and the town with the mines on Anvil and Dexter
creeks. The Nome water company has a pipe line from Anvil
mountain to Nome, and supplies the town with pure spring
water.

One of the most novel features of Nome, because one would
hardly expect to find such a thing in this remote region is the
wild goose railroad. This road is five miles long connecting
Nome witlr the Anvil mines. The cheerful whistle of the
little engine is heard with a feeling of pride and pleasure, as
a railroad indicates one of the most important steps in the
development of a country. The growth of Nome from a popu-
lation of 2500 in the winter of 1899, to 15,000 in 1900, is remark-
able. Nome has incorporated, being the only incorporated
town in Alaska. About 300 regular soldiers are stationed
there, and before incorporation, they afforded police protection.
But, at no time, has the camp been riotous or unruly. Con-
sidering the fact that a new mining camp is generally the
Mecca of many disreputable and hard-case adventurers, the
town has been remarkably quiet and orderly.

Nome has four churches, the Catholic, Episcopal, Congrega-
tional and Presbyterian, and a weekly meeting of Theosophists
and people interested in that line of thought, is held. There
is a school and good postal facilities. A large and commodious
court house has been built for the accommodation of the dis-
trict court. Considering all circumstances, Nome is an up-
to-date city, and an illustration of the wonderful enterprise
and capability of the progressive American.

A railroad to Teller, which is one of the probabilities of the
near future, will connect Nome with one of the best harbors
on the coast, and open up one of the finest mineral countries of
the world.

The facts unquestioned by those who know anything about

142 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

the country, that there are the most extensive gold fields on
this peninsula ever discovered, and that the country contiguous
to Nome and Teller is rich with the precious mineral, and will
not be worked out for many years, presage a future bright
from a commercial standpoint, and full of promise to all who
have been fortunate enough to secure interests here.

Teller is named after United States Senator Teller, the man
who has done so much for the miners of Alaska in particular,
and the other member of that craft, wheresoever dispersed
around the United States. It has the distinction of being the
most northern town on the American continent.

Within a month after the first tent was" put up, there was a
population of fully one thousand souls, the result of the wonder-
ful discoveries on the Bluestone, Krougarock, and other adjoin-
ing districts.

Unlike Nome, Teller is founded on a gravel bed. There is
little or no tundra on the town site. It has a most excellent
harbor. In fact, there is what might be called an outer and
an inner harbor, as the town faces both Port Clarence Bay,
itself well protected, and Grantley Harbor, a smaller body of
water, tributary to the Bay and a typical haven. Though a
year younger. Teller bids fair to rival and even outdo Nome
in growth. It has two wide business streets and is very neatly
laid out. There were six or eight stores, four hotels and
seventeen saloons in full 1)last before the camp was a month
old. Steps are being taken to incorporate, and no doubt before
this book goes to press this will have become an accomplished
fact.

There had not been a single death from disease in Teller
up to the time I left. This shows that the location is a healthy
one. It is the key city to the newly discovered gold fields, and
if they turn out as well as the prospects indicate, the future
of the camp will be a bright one.

When a person makes up his mind to go to Alaska, the first
question that presents itself is what to take along in the way
of provisions, clothing, etc. All the pamphlets on Alaska con-
tain a list of the things one should have. Some of these writers
have never been in Alaska, and the "cheechako" upon his
arrival here, finds himself provided with a lot of useless truck,
and unprovided with many things that are necessary.

The best way to obviate this is to bring only such articles as

OR, THE WORLDS LONGEST FAST 143

are necessary, and buy what you need after arriving here. If
one conies to prospect and mine there is a splendid opportunity
to get a second service out of old clothes. If one lives in town,
he should dress as he would in any other civilized and respect-
able comnmnity. But these are matters that can he easily
settled after he gets here.

HOMEWARD BOUND.

By Sam C. Dunham.

I am out upon the ocean.

Sailing southward to the Sound
With six hundred busted brothers,

Kicking hard, but homeward bound.
There are sixtv in the staterooms

And some eighty souls or so
Sleeping on the floors and tables,

While the rest seek sleep below.

Of the sixty in the cabin

Only thirty had the stuff,
While the others came on passes

Or some other sort of bluff'.
How the hundreds in the steerage

Got the gold to get them home,
Always will remain the greatest

Of the mysteries of Nome.

There's a siren from Seattle

Who is traveling in style,
Basking in the brilliant sunshine

Of the purser's dazzling smile,
She has jumped a first-class stateroom

That is simply out of sight,
And has oranges and apples

With her champagne every night.

There's a widow with two children
Who is trying to get home,

144 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

Having given up the struggle

When her husband died at Nome.
Both her kids exhibit cravings

For all kinds of fruit and things,
But they can't get 'nough of either

To distend their little strings.

There's a smooth absconding lawyer,

Wearing diamonds like a sport,
Who spends all his lucid moments

Praising Nome's imported court.
He has beefsteaks in his stateroom,

Purloined by the pantryman.
While his clients in the steerage

Eat cold corn-beef from a can.

There's a Topkuk sub-receiver

Who is smuggling like a thief
All the gold the gang could gobble

For their late transported chief.
He indulges in fresh oysters.

Fine cigars and foreign wines,
W^hile the man who first staked Topkuk

Tells us how they robbed his mines.

There are counts galore from Paris

And a few of them from Spain,
Who invaded Nome to traffic;

But they'll not do so again.
For they found their debts so heavy

That they had to leave them there,
While their unpaid dago valets

Had to come out on the Bear.

Late last night they gave a banquet,
And imposed some heavy fines

To defray the steward's charges

For his bummest brands of wines.

All the guests stood the assessment
Without making any kick.

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 145

But as soon as tliey get sober
They'll appreciate the trick.

I shall not recount the horrors

And the terrors of the trip,
For the same may be imagined

By all those who know the ship;
But I'll simply say in closing

That the most distressing fact
That has come to my attention

Is the wav the ladies act.

THE END.

146 STARVING ON A BED OP GOLD

AFFIDAVIT OF G. P. HALL.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

District of Alaska,

ss.

G. P. Hall, being first duly sworn, deposes and says:

"I know James A. Hall. I first met him on or about July
12th, 1900, and on July 15tli, 1900, he started in company with
Dr. W. T. S Vincent and myself on a three days' trip into the
mountains near the coast of the Arctic Ocean in search of a
quartz j^rospect that Dr. Vincent and I had information about.
On the evening of July 17th, 1900, we were separated from Mr.
Hall, on the top of a high, rough mountain, in a dense fog.
We expected to l)e back at Teller again within three days after
we started, so only took provision for that length of time.

"I know that Mr. Hall did not have as much as three pounds
of food left when we were separated, and had no compass,
gun or fishing apparatus. Shortly after we were parted from
liiij we were ourselves lost for some time.
' ''The day after our separation was a clear, bright one, and
from the top of that high mountain he could easily have seen
and mistaken a spit on the Arctic Ocean for one on the Bering
Sea.

''Distances are very deceptive in the atmosphere of this
country. Heavy, cold rain storms began about August 1st,

1900, and lasted until about the 1st of September, when it
began snowing.

"During August, there was one of the heaviest rain storms
I have ever seen in my several years in this country.
"Mr. Hall was clad in simnner clothing."

G. P. HALL.
Subscribed and sworn to before me this 24th day of July,

1901. T. G. WILSON,
Notary Public in and for the District of Alaska.

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 147

CERTIFICATE OF ERNEST G. ROGNON, EX-U. S.

COMMISSIONER.

Teller, Alaska, Aug. 20, 1901.
To Whom It May Concern:

Tlie experience of James A. Hall, as related in his book,
''Starving on a Bed of Gold," is so remarkable that many
people will no doubt find it difficult to believe that anyone
could survive such suffering and hardships and be able to tell
the story. On August 28th, 1900, Dr. W. B. Deas brought to
my office, when I was the U. S. Commissioner at Teller, the
valise and other personal effects of Mr. Hall, with the request
that I forward them to his relatives, since there was no doubt
that Mr. Hall had perished. I was here when he was brought
to Teller, and know that the main facts as narrated by him are
true. ERNEST G. EOGNON,

Ex.-U. S. Commissioner.

148 STARVING ON A BED OF GOLD

AFFIDAVIT OF WILLIAM M. WILSON, OF THE FIRM OF

"WILSON BROS."

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
District of Alaska,

William M. Wilson, being duly sworn, says:

''I know James A. Hall and have known liim since about
the middle of June, 1900.

''On July 15th, 1900, he started from the then town of Teller,
on Port Clarence Bay, Alaska, with two other men, to go oh
a three or four days' prospecting trip in the mountains near
the Arctic Ocean. I put up the provisions for him myself.
He took about three pounds of bacon, a few crackers, a little
salt and a half-pound can of coffee. He had no firearms nor
fishing apparatus with him. He was brought directly to our
house by his rescuers. I did not know him at first, though I
was so well acquainted with him at old Teller. He was a com-
plete skeleton, although he had weighed fully 225 pounds when
he left our store on July 15th.

"Mr, Hall's reputation for truthfulness is first-class and
there can be no doubt that he states all the facts just as they
occurred. It is not doubted in this community, in fact there
are dozens of witnesses as to the length of time he was lost,
the amount of food he had with him, the condition of the
weather he experienced and his physical condition when found.

W. M. AVILSON.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 11th dav of October,
1901. ROBERT M. PRICE,

Notary Public for the District of Alaska.

OR, THE WORLD'S LONGEST FAST 149

AFFIDAVIT OF THE MAYOR AND POSTMASTER OF

TELLER, ALASKA.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

District of Alaska,

Thomas G. Wilson, being first duly sworn, says:

"I know James A. Hall and have known him since about the
middle of June, 1900.

On July 15th 1900, he left the then town of Teller, on Port
Clarence Bay, Alaska, with two other men, to go on a three-
days' prospecting trip in the mountains, near the Arctic Ocean.
He took his x>i'ovisions for the trip from the store of 'Wilson
Bros.', of which I was one of the proprietors. He took some
bacon, crackers, coffee and salt — there not being over three
pounds of bacon and a very small quantity of crackers. I took
him and the two men who accompanied him down to what is
known as the Government Eeindeer Station in my launch, and
I know he had no firearms or fishing tackle,

"We had all given him up for dead many weeks before he
was finally brought in to our hotel, in the present town of
Teller (about seven miles from the town he left) on or about
September 26tli, 1900. He was a strong, healthy man, of about
225 pounds in weight, and six feet and an inch and a half tall,
when he started, and when brought into our place on a
stretcher, was as near a skeleton as it seems possible for a
living human being to l)e. Though I had known him inti-
mately before he went on the trip, it was some time before I
recognized him when brought in. It was about a month before
he could walk across the floor. He stayed at our hotel all the
terrible winter just passed, and it was predicted by a large
number of the residents of this town that he would not live
until spring. The last winter is reported to be the worst one
that has occurred in this part of Alaska for twenty years.

T. G. WILSON,

Subscribed ana sworn to before me this 11th day of
October, A. D. 1901.

ROBERT M. PRICE,
Notarv Pul)lic in and for the District of Alaska.

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