Read Ebook: Golden Alaska: A Complete Account to Date of the Yukon Valley by Ingersoll Ernest

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Nunivak, B-2. Okolnoi, C-3. Otter, C-2. Paul, C-4. Pinnacle, B-1. Pribilof, C-2. Prince of Wales, C-9. Punuk, B-2. Pye, C-5. Rat, A-9. Revillagigedo, C-9. Sand, B-2. Sannak, D-3. Seal, C-4. Seguam, A-10. Semichi, A-8. Semidi, C-4. Semisopochnoi, A-9. Shumagin, C-4. Shuyak, C-5. Simeonof, D-4. Sitkalidak, C-5. Sitkinak, C-5. Sledge, B-2. South, C-4. Spruce, C-5. St. George, C-2. St. Lawrence, B-2. St. Matthew, B-1. St. Michael, B-3. St. Paul, C-2. Stephens, D-9. Stuart, B-3. Sutwik, C-4. Tagalakh, A-10. Tanaga, A-9. Tigalda, D-3. Trinity Is., C-5. Tugidak, C-5. Ugamok, D-2. Ulak, A-9. Uliaga, A-11. Umga, D-3. Umnak, A-11. Unalaska, D-2. Unavikshak, C-4. Unga, C-3. Unimak, D-3. Ushugat, C-5. Walros, C-2. Wooded Is., C-6. Wossnessenski, C-3. Wrangell, C-9. Wrigham, C-7. Yakobi, C-8. Yunaska, A-10. Zaiembo, C-9. Zayas, D-9.

Lakes.

Aleknagik, C-3. Becharof, C-4. Iliamna, C-5. Imuruk, B-2. Mentasta, B-7. Naknek, C-4. Nushagak, B-4. Rat, A-7. Selawik, A-3. Skillokh, B-6. Tasekpuk, A-5. Tustumena, B-5. Walker, A-5.

Mountains.

Aghileen Pinnacle, C-3. Alaskan, B-5. Asses Ears, A-3. Black Peak, C-4. Boundary, A-7. British, A-7. Cathul, A-7. Deviation Peak, A-3. Devils, A-3. Four Peaked, C-5. Franklin, A-6. Gold, A-5. Iliamna Peak, B-5. Jade, A-4. Kayuh, B-4. Lionshead, C-9. Lower Ramparts, A-6. Makushin, D-2. Miles Glacier, B-7. Mt. Becharof, C-4. Mt. Bendeleben, A-3. Mt. Blackburn, B-7. Mt. Chiginagar, C-4. Mt. Crillon, C-8. Mt. Drum, B-6. Mt. Edgecumbe, C-8. Mt. Fairweather, C-8. Mt. Greenough, A-7. Mt. Hononita, B-4. Mt. Kelly, A-3. Mt. Kimball, B-7. Mt. Lituya, C-8. Mt. Olai, C-4. Mt. Sanford, B-7. Mt. Tillman, B-7. Mt. Wrangel, B-7. Mulgrave Hills, A-3. Palisades, A-5. Pavloff Volcano, C-3. Progromnia Volcano, D-2. Rampart, A-5. Ratzel, A-7. Red, A-5. Redoubt Volcano, B-5. Shishaldin Volcano, C-3. Snow, A-5. Spirit, B-7. Tanana Hills, A-6. Vsevidoff Volcano, A-11. Yukon Hills, A-4.

Rivers.

Allenkakat, A-5. Ambler, A-4. Anvik, B-3. Azoon, B-3. Baczakakat, A-5. Big Black, A-7. Black, B-3. Bradley, B-6. Bremner, B-6. Buckland, A-3. Cantwell, B-6. Chilkat. Chisana, B-7. Chitslechina, B-6. Chittyna, B-7. Chittystone, B-7. Chulitna, B-4. Colville, A-5. Copper, B-6. Cutler, A-4. Daklikakat, A-4. Dall, A-5. Delta, B-6. Doggetlooscat, A-4. Dugan, B-6. Fickett, A-5. Fish, A-3. Forty-mile, B-7. Gakona, B-6. Gersde, B-6. Goodpaster, B-6. Hokuchatna, A-4. Husstiakatna, A-4. Ikpikpung, A-5. Inglixalik, A-4. Innoko, B-4. Ippewik, A-3. Johnson, B-6. Kaknu, B-5. Kalucna, B-7. Kandik, A-7. Karluk, C-5. Kashunik, B-3. Kassilof, B-5. Kaviavazak, A-3. Kayuh, B-4. Kevwleek, A-3. Kinak, B-3. Klanarchargat, A-6. Klatena, B-6. Klatsutakakat, B-5. Klawasina, B-6. Knik, B-6. Koo, A-4. Kookpuk, A-3. Kowak, A-4. Koyuk, A-3. Koyukuk, A-5. Kuahroo, A-4. Kuguklik, C-3. Kukpowruk, A-3. Kulichavak, B-3. Kuskokwim, B-3. Kvichak, C-4. Liebigitag's, B-6. Little Black, A-7. Lovene, B-5. Marokinak, B-3. Meade, A-4. Melozikakat, A-5. Naknek, C-4. Noatak, A-3. Nushagak, C-4. Pitmegea, A-3. Porcupine, A-7. Ray, A-5. Robertson, B-6. Salmon, A-7. Selawik, A-4. Slana, B-6. Soonkakat, B-4. Stikine, C-9. Sucker, A-7. Sushitna, B-6. Taclat, B-5. Tahkandik, A-7. Tanana, B-6. Tasnioio, B-6. Tatotlindu, B-7. Tazlina, B-6. Teikhell, B-6. Traodee, A-7. Tokai, B-7. Tovikakat, A-5. Ugaguk, C-4. Ugashik, C-4. Unalaklik, B-4. Volkmar, B-6. White, B-7. Whymper, A-6. Woliek, A-3. Yukon, B-3.

Towns.

Pop. Afognak, C-5 409 Alaganik, B-6 48 Anagnak, C-4 Anvik, B-3 191 Attanak, A-4 Attenmut, A-4 Belkoffski, D-3 185 Belle Isle, B-8 Cape Sabine, A-2 Chilkat, C-8 153 Douglas, C-9 40 Dyea Egowik, B-3 Fort Alexander, C-4 Fort Andreafski, B-3 10 Fort Cudahy, B-8 Fort Get There, B-3 Fort Healy, B-5 Fort Kenai, B-5 Fort St. Michaels, B-3 101 Fort Weare, A-7 Fort Wrangel, C-9 316 Igagik, C-4 60 Ikogmut Mission, B-4 140 Initkilly, A-2 Jackson, D-9 105 Juneau, C-9 1253 Kaguyak, C-5 112 Kaltig, B-4 Karluk, C-5 1123 Katniai, C-4 Ketchikan, C-9 Killisnoo, C-9 79 Kipmak, B-3 Klawock, C-9 287 Kodiak, C-5 495 Koggiung, C-4 133 Kutlik, B-3 31 Leather Village, B-4 Loring, C-9 200 Mary Island, D-9 Metlakahtla Mitchell, A-8 238 Morzhovoi, D-3 68 Nig-a-lek, A-6 Nikolski, A-11 Nulato, B-4 118 Nushagak, C-4 268 Old Morzhovoi, C-3 Orca, B-6 Ounalaska, A-11 Pastolik, B-3 113 Redoubt Kolmakoff, B-4 Sandpoint, C-3 Seward, C-5 Shageluk, B-3 Shakan, C-9 Shaktolik, B-3 Sitka, C-8 1190 St. Orlovsk, C-5 Sutkum, C-4 Suworof, C-4 Taku, C-9 Tikchik, B-4 Ukak, C-4 Unalaklik, B-3 175 Unalaska, D-2 317 Unga, C-3 159 Village, C-4 Wrangel, C-9 Yakitat, C-8

Addenda.

Pop. Weare, B 5 Circle City, B 7 Dawson, B 7 Klondyke River, B 8 Klondyke District, B 8 Dyea, C 8

FOOTNOTES:

GOLDEN ALASKA.

ROUTES TO THE YUKON GOLD-FIELDS.

The gold-fields of the Yukon Valley, at and near Klondike River, are near the eastern boundary of Alaska, from twelve to fifteen hundred miles up from the mouth of the river, and from five to eight hundred miles inland by the route across the country from the southern Alaskan coast. In each case an ocean voyage must be taken as the first step; and steamers may be taken from San Francisco, Portland, Ore., Seattle, Wash., or from Victoria, B. C.

The overland routes to these cities require a word.

Regular routes of transportation to Alaska are supplied by the Pacific Coast Steamship Company, which has been dispatching mail-steamships once a fortnight the year round from Tacoma to Sitka, which touch at Juneau and all other ports of call. They also maintain a service of steamers between San Francisco and Portland and Puget Sound ports. These are fitted with every accommodation and luxury for tourist-travel; and an extra steamer, the Queen, has been making semi-monthly trips during June, July and August. These steamers would carry 250 passengers comfortably and the tourist fare for the round trip has been 0.

The Canadian Pacific Navigation Company has been sending semi-monthly steamers direct from Victoria to Port Simpson and way stations the year round. They are fine boats, but smaller than the others and are permitted to land only at Sitka and Dyea.

Such are the means of regular communication with Alaskan ports. There has been no public conveyance north of Sitka, except twice or thrice a year in summer, in the supply-steamers of the Alaskan commercial companies, which sailed from San Francisco to St. Michael and there transferred to small boats up the Yukon.

Whether any changes will be made in these schedules for the season of 1898 remains to be seen.

Special steamers.--As the regular accommodations were found totally inadequate to the demand for passage to Alaska which immediately followed the report of rich discoveries on Klondike Creek, extra steamers were hastily provided by the old companies, others are fitted up and sent out by speculative owners, and some have been privately chartered. A score or more steamships, loaded with passengers, horses, mules and burros to an uncomfortable degree, were thus despatched from San Francisco, Puget Sound and Victoria between the middle of July and the middle of August. An example of the way the feverish demand for transportation is found in the case of the Willamette, a collier, which was cleaned out in a few hours and turned into an extemporized passenger-boat. The whole 'tween decks space was filled with rough bunks, wonderfully close together, for "first-class" passengers; while away down in the hold second-class arrangements were made which the mind shudders to contemplate. Yet this slave-ship sort of a chance was eagerly taken, and such space as was left was crowded with animals and goods. Many persons and parties bought or chartered private steamers, until the supply of these was exhausted by the end of August.

Two routes may be chosen to the gold-fields.

To describe these routes is the next task--first, that by the way of St. Michael, and second--up the Yukon River.

Route, via St. Michael and the Yukon River.--This begins by a sea-voyage, which may be direct, or along the coast. The special steamers usually take a direct course across the North Pacific and through the Aleutian Islands to St. Michael, in Norton Sound, a bight of Bering Sea. The distance from San Francisco is given as 2,850 miles; from Victoria or Seattle, about 2,200 miles. The inside course would be somewhat longer, would follow the route next to be described as far as Juneau and Sitka, then strike northwest along the coast to St. Michael.

This town, on an island near shore in Norton Sound, was established in 1835 by Lieut. Michael T?benkoff, of the Russian navy, who named it after his patron saint. Though some distance to the mouth of the Yukon entrance, St. Michael has always been the controlling center and base of supplies for the great valley. The North American Trading and Transportation Company and the Alaska Commercial Company have their large warehouses here, and provide the miners with tools, clothing and provisions. Recently the wharf and warehouse accommodations have been extended, and the population has increased, but if, as is probable, any considerable number of men are stopped there this fall by the freezing of the river, and compelled to pass the winter on the island, they will find it a dreary, if not dangerous experience.

The vessels supplying this depot can seldom approach the anchorage of St. Michael before the end of June on account of large bodies of drifting ice that beset the waters of Norton Sound and the straits between St. Lawrence and the Yukon Delta.

A temporary landing-place is built out into water deep enough for loaded boats drawing five feet to come up at high tide, this is removed when winter approaches, as otherwise it would be destroyed by ice. The shore is sandy and affords a moderately sloping beach, on which boats may be drawn up. A few feet only from high water mark are perpendicular banks from six to ten feet high, composed of decayed pumice and ashes, covered with a layer about four feet thick of clay and vegetable matter resembling peat. This forms a nearly even meadow with numerous pools of water, which gradually ascends for a mile or so to a low hill, of volcanic origin, known as the Shaman Mountain.

Between the point on which St. Michael is built and the mainland, a small arm of the sea makes in, in which three fathoms may be carried until the flagstaff of the fort bears west by north, this is the best-protected anchorage, and has as much water and as good bottom as can be found much farther out.

The excitement of the summer of 1897 caused an enlargement of facilities and the erection of additional buildings, forming a nucleus of traffic called Fort Get There. Here will be put together in the autumn or winter at least three, and perhaps more, new river steamboats, of which only two or three have been running on the lower river during the last two or three years. These are taken up, in pieces, by ships and fitted together at this point. All are flat-bottomed, stern-wheeled, powerfully engined craft, the largest able to carry perhaps 250 tons, such as run on the upper Missouri, and they will burn wood, the cutting and stacking of which on the river bank will furnish work to many men during the coming winter. To such steamers, or smaller boats, all the persons and cargoes must be transferred at St. Michael.

For the last few years there has been no trader here but the agent of the Alaska Commercial Company, and a story is told of the building of a riverboat there in 1892, which illustrates what life on the Yukon used to be. In that year a Chicago man, P. B. Weare, resolved to enter the Alaskan field as a trader. He chartered a schooner, and placed upon it a steamboat, built in sections and needing only to be put together and have its machinery set up, and for this purpose he took with him a force of carpenters and machinists. On reaching St. Michael Weare was refused permission to land his boat sections on the land of the Commercial Company's post, and was compelled to make a troublesome landing on the open beach, where he began operations. Suddenly his ship carpenters stopped work. They had been offered, it was said, double pay by the rival concern if they would desist from all work. Weare turned to the Indians, but with the same ill-success. The Indians were looking out for their winter grub. Here was the Chicago man 2,500 miles from San Francisco and only two weeks left to him in which to put his boat together and then hope for a chance to ascend the river before winter came on. There was no time in which to get additional men from San Francisco. In the midst of his trouble Weare one day espied the revenue cutter Bear steaming into the roadstead. On board of her was Captain Michael A. Healy. That officer, on going ashore and discovering the condition of affairs, threatened to hang every carpenter and mechanic Weare had brought up if they failed to immediately commence work. The men went to work, and with them went a gang of men from the Bear. The little steamer was put together in a few days, and the Bear only went to sea after seeing the P. B. Weare steaming into the mouth of the Yukon.

The Weare was enabled that summer to land her stores along the Yukon, and was the only vessel available for the early crowds of miners going to Klondike.

The mouth of the Yukon is a great delta, surrounded by marsh of timber--a soaking prairie in summer, a plain of snow and ice in winter. The shifting bars and shallows face out from this delta far into Bering Sea, and no channel has yet been discovered whereby an ocean steamer could enter any of the mouths. Fortunately the northernmost mouth, nearest St. Michael and 65 miles from it, is navigable for the light river steamers, and this one, called Aphoon, and marked by its unusual growth of willows and bushes is well known to the local Russian and Indian pilots. It is narrow and intricate, and the general course up stream is south-southeast. Streams and passages enter it, and it has troublesome tidal currents. The whole space between the mouth is a net-work, indeed, of narrow channels, through the marshes.

Kutluck, at the outlet of the Aphoon, on Pastol Bay, is an Indian village, long celebrated for its manufacture of skin boats , and there the old-time voyagers were accustomed to get the only night's sleep ashore that navigation permits between St. Michael and Andraefski. On the south bank of the main stream, at the head of the delta, is the Roman Catholic mission of Kuslivuk; and a few miles higher, just above the mouth of the Andraefski River, is the abandoned Russian trading post, Andraefski, above which the river winds past Icogmute, where there is a Greek Catholic mission. The banks of the river are much wooded, and the current even as far down as Koserefski averages over three knots an hour. Above Koserefski , the course is along stretches of uninviting country, among marsh islands and "sloughs," the current growing more and more swift on the long reach from Auvik, where the Episcopal mission is situated, to Nulato.

The river here has a nearly north and south course, parallel with the coast of Norton Sound and within fifty miles or so of it. Two portages across here form cut-offs in constant use in winter by the traders, Indians and missionaries. The first of these portages starts from the mainland opposite the Island of St. Michael, and passes over the range of hills that defines the shore to the headwaters of the Anvik River. This journey may be made in winter by sledges and thence down the Auvik to the Yukon, but it is a hard road. Mr. Nelson, the naturalist, and a fur trader, spent two months from November 16, 1880, to January 19, 1891, in reaching the Yukon by this path.

The other portage is that between Unalaklik, a Swedish mission station at the mouth of the Unalaklik River, some fifty miles north of St. Michael, and a stream that enters the Yukon half way between Auvik and Nulato. In going from St. Michael to Unalatlik there are few points at which a boat can land even in the smoothest weather; in rough weather only Major's Cove and Kegiktowenk before rounding Tolstoi Point to Top?nika, where there is a trading post. Top?nika is some ten miles from Unalaklik, with a high shelving beach, behind which rise high walls of sandstone in perpendicular bluffs from twenty to one hundred feet in height. This beach continues all the way to the Unalaklik River, the bluff gradually decreasing into a marshy plain at the river's mouth, which is obstructed by a bar over which at low tide there are only a few feet of water except in a narrow and tortuous channel, constantly changing as the river deposits fresh detritus. Inside this bar there are two or three fathoms for a few miles, but the channel has only a few feet, most of the summer, from the mouth of the river to Ulukuk.

Trees commence along the Unalaklik River as soon as the distance from the coast winds and salt air permit them to grow; willow, poplar, birch and spruce being those most frequently found.

The Unalaklik River is followed upward to Ulukuk, where begins a sledging portage over the marshes to the Ulukuk Hills, where there is a native village known as Vesolia Sopka, or Cheerful Peak, at an altitude of eight hundred feet above the surrounding plain. This is a well-known trapping ground, the fox and marten being very plentiful. From Sopka Vesolia it is about one day's journey to Beaver Lake, which is only a marshy tundra in winter, but is flooded in the spring and summer months. From the high hills beyond the lake one may catch a first glimpse of the great Yukon sweeping between its splendid banks.

The natives call Nulato emphatically a "hungry" place, and it was once the scene of an atrocious massacre. Capt. Dall, from whose book much of the information regarding this part of Alaska is derived, describes the Indians here as a very great nuisance. "They had," he explains, "a great habit of coming in and sitting down, doing and saying nothing, but watching everything. At meal times they seemed to count and weigh every morsel we ate, and were never backward in assisting to dispose of the remains of the meal. Occasionally we would get desperate and clean them all out, but they would drop in again and we could do nothing but resign ourselves."

The soil on the banks of the Yukon and that of the islands probably never thaws far below the surface. It is certain that no living roots are found at a greater depth than three feet. The soil, in layers that seems to mark annual inundations, consists of a stratum of sand overlaid by mud and covered with vegetable matter, the layers being from a half inch to three inches in thickness. In many places where the bank has been undermined these layers may be counted by the hundred. Low bluffs of blue sandstone, with here and there a high gravel bank, characterize the shores as far as Point Sakataloutan, and some distance above this point begin the quartzose rocks.

The next station on the river is the village of Nowikakat, on the left bank. Here may be obtained stores of dried meat and fat from the Indians. The village is situated upon a beautiful bay or Nowikakat Harbor, which is connected by a narrow entrance with the Yukon. "Through this a beautiful view is obtained across the river, through the numerous islands of the opposite shore, and of the Yukon Mountains in the distance. The feathery willows and light poplars bend over and are reflected in the dark water, unmixed as yet with Yukon mud; every island and hillside is clothed in the delicate green of spring, and luxuriates in a density of foliage remarkable in such a latitude."

Nowikakat is specially noted for the excellence of its canoes, of which the harbor is so full that a boat makes its landing with difficulty among them. It is the only safe place on the lower Yukon for wintering a steamer, as it is sheltered from the freshets which bring down great crushes of ice in the spring.

At Nuklukahyet there is a mission of the Episcopal church and a trading store, but there may or may not be supplies of civilized goods, not to speak of moose meat and fat. This is the neutral ground where all the tribes meet in the spring to trade. The Tananah, which flows into the Yukon at this point, is much broader here than the Yukon, and it is here that Captain Dall exclaims in his diary: "And yet into this noble river no white man has dipped his paddle." Recently, however, the Tananah has been more or less explored by prospectors with favorable results towards the head of the river, which is more easily reached overland from Circle City and the Birch Creek camps.

Leaving Nuklukahyet, the "Ramparts" are soon sighted, and the Yukon rapids sweep between bluffs and hills which rise about fifteen hundred feet above the river, which is not more than half a mile wide and seems almost as much underground as a river bed in a canyon. The rocks are metaphoric quartzites, and the river-bed is crossed by a belt of granite. The rapid current has worn the granite away at either side, making two good channels, but in the center lies an island of granite over which the water plunges at high water, the fall being about twelve feet in half a mile.

Beyond the mouth of the Tananah the Yukon begins to widen, and it is filled with small islands. The mountains disappear, and just beyond them the Totokakat, or Dall River of Ketchum, enters the Yukon from the north. Beyond this point the river, ever broadening, passes the "Small Houses," deserted along the bank at the time, years ago, when the scarlet fever, brought by a trading vessel to the mouth of the Chilkat, spread to the Upper Yukon and depopulated the station. This place is noted for the abundance of its game and fish.

The banks of the river above this point become very low and flat, the plain stretching almost unbroken to the Arctic Ocean.

The next stream which empties into the Yukon is Beaver Creek, and farther on the prospector bound for Circle City may make his way some two hundred miles up Birch Creek, along which much gold has already been discovered, to a portage of six miles, which will carry him within six miles of Circle City on the west.

Meanwhile the Yukon passes Porcupine River and Fort Yukon, the old trading-post founded in 1846-7, about a mile farther up the river than the present fort is situated. The situation was changed in 1864, owing to the undermining of the Yukon, which yearly washed away a portion of the steep bank until the foundation timbers of the old Redoubt over-hung the flood.

Many small islands encumber the river from Fort Yukon to Circle City, and the river flows along the rich lowland to the towns and mining centers of the new El Dorado, an account of which belongs to a future chapter.

This voyage can be made only between the middle of June and the middle of September, and requires about forty days, at best, from San Francisco to Circle City or Forty Mile.

Route via Juneau, the Passes and down the Upper Yukon River. The second and more usual, because shorter and quicker course, is that to the head of Lynn Canal and overland. This coast voyage may be said to begin at Victoria, B. C. , where a large number of persons prefer to buy their outfits, since by so doing, and obtaining a certificate of the fact, they avoid the custom duties exacted at the boundary line on all goods and equipments brought from the United States. Victoria is well supplied with stores, and is, besides, one of the most interesting towns on the Pacific coast. The loveliest place in the whole neighborhood is Beacon Hill Park, and is well worth a visit by those who find an hour or two on their hands before the departure of the steamer. It forms a half-natural, half-cultivated area of the shore of the Straits of Fuca, where coppices of the beautiful live oak, and many strange trees and shrubs mingled with the all-pervading evergreens.

Within three miles of the city, and reached by street cars, is the principal station in the North Pacific of the British navy, at Esquimault Bay. This is one of the most picturesque harbors in the world, and a beginning is made of fortifications upon a very large scale and of the most modern character. This station, in many respects, is the most interesting place on the Pacific coast of Canada.

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