Klondyke Nuggets | Page 8

with this trip from Juneau to Dawson City, it is
perhaps better to give the reader the benefit of the trip of Mr. William
Stewart, who writes from Lake Lindeman, May 31st, 1897, as
follows:--
"We arrived here at the south end of the lake last night by boat. We
have had an awful time of it. The Taiya Pass is not a pass at all, but a
climb right over the mountains. We left Juneau on Thursday, the
twentieth, on a little boat smaller than the ferry at Ottawa. There were
over sixty aboard, all in one room about ten by fourteen. There was
baggage piled up in one end so that the floor-space was only about
eight by eight. We went aboard about three o'clock in the afternoon and
went ashore at Dyea at seven o'clock Friday night. We got the Indians
to pack all our stuff up to the summit, but about fifty pounds each; I

had forty-eight pounds and my gun.
"We left Dyea, an Indian village, Sunday, but only got up the river one
mile. We towed all the stuff up the river seven miles, and then packed it
to Sheep Camp. We reached Sheep Camp about seven o'clock at night,
on the Queen's Birthday. A beautiful time we had, I can tell you,
climbing hills with fifty pounds on our backs. It would not be so bad if
we could strap it on rightly.
"We left Sheep Camp next morning at four o'clock, and reached the
summit at half-past seven. It was an awful climb--an angle of about
fifty-five degrees. We could keep our hands touching the trail all the
way up. It was blowing and snowing up there. We paid off the Indians,
and got some sleighs and sleighed the stuff down the hill. This hill goes
down pretty swift, and then drops at an angle of fifty-five degrees for
about forty feet, and we had to rough-lock our sleighs and let them go.
There was an awful fog, and we could not see where we were going.
Some fellows helped us down with the first load, or there would have
been nothing left of us. When we let a sleigh go from the top it jumps
about fifty feet clear, and comes down in pieces. We loaded up the
sleighs with some of our stuff, about two hundred and twenty-five
pounds each, and started across the lakes. The trail was awful, and we
waded through water and slush two and three feet deep. We got to the
mouth of the canyon at about eight o'clock at night, done out. We left
there that night, and pushed on again until morning. We got to the
bottom of an awful hill, and packed all our stuff from there to the hill
above the lake. We had about two and a half miles over hills, in snow
and slush. I carried about five hundred pounds over that part of the trail.
We had to get dogs to bring the stuff down from the summit to the head
of the canyon.
"We worked two days bringing the stuff over from the canyon to the
hill above the lake. Saturday we worked all day packing down the hill
to the lake, and came here on a scow. We were out yesterday morning
cutting down trees to build a boat. The timber is small, and I don't think
we can get more than four-inch stuff. It rained all afternoon, and we
couldn't do anything. There are about fifty boats of all sorts on Lake

Bennet, which is about half a mile from here. I have long rubber boots
up to the hips, and I did not have them on coming from the summit
down, but I have worn them ever since.
"We met Barwell and Lewis, of Ottawa, to-day. They were out looking
for knees for their boats. They left Ottawa six weeks ago, and have not
got any farther than we have. There was a little saw-mill going here,
and they have their lumber sawn. We have it that warm some days here
that you would fairly roast, and the next day you would be looking for
your overcoat. Everybody here seems to be taking in enough food to do
them a couple of years.
"We are now in Canadian territory, after we passed the summit. I will
have to catch somebody going through to Dyea to give him this letter,
but I don't know how long before I can get any one going through. This
is the last you will hear from me until I get down to the Klondyke."
Mr. Stewart adds: "I wrote this in the tent at 11 o'clock at night during
twilight."
If you take this trip in winter, however, you have to purchase