Klondyke Nuggets | Page 9

a sled at
Juneau, and sled it over the frozen waterways to Dawson City.
For the benefit of my readers in Canada and for parties leaving for the
great Northwest Territory for the gold fields, I take pleasure in quoting
the following description of a Canadian route:--
"Canadians should awaken to the fact that they have emphatically 'the
inside track' to their own gold fields, a route not half the distance,
largely covered by railways and steamboats, with supply stations at
convenient intervals all the way. By this route the gold-fields can be
reached in two months or six weeks, and the cost of travel is
ridiculously cheap--nearly anybody can afford to go even now, and by
the spring it should be fitted out for the accommodation of any amount
of traffic.
"The details of the information in the following article are given by Mr.
A.H.H. Heming, the artist who accompanied Mr. Whitney in his

journey towards the Barren Lands, and the data may be accepted as
correct, as they were secured from the Hudson Bay officials.
"The details of the inland Canadian route, briefly, are as follows: By
C.P.R. to Calgary, and thence north by rail to Edmonton; from there by
stage to Athabasca Landing, 40 miles; then, there is a continuous
waterway for canoe travel to Fort Macpherson, at the mouth of the
Mackenzie River, from which point the Peel River lies southward to the
gold region. The exact figures are as follows:
MILES. Edmonton to Athabasca Landing 40 To Port McMurray 240
Fort Chippewyan 185 Smith Landing 102 Fort Smith 16 Fort
Resolution 194 Fort Providence 168 Fort Simpson 161 Fort Wrigley
136 Fort Norman 184 Fort Good Hope 174 Fort Macpherson 282 -----
Total 1882
"There are only two portages on this route of any size--that from
Edmonton to Athabasca Landing, over which there is a stage and
wagon line, and at Smith Landing, sixteen miles, over which the
Hudson Bay Company has a tramway. There are four or five other
portages of a few hundred yards, but with these exceptions there is a
fine "down grade" water route all the way. It is the old Hudson Bay
trunk line to the north that has been in use for nearly a century.
Wherever there is a lake or a long stretch of deep water river navigation
the company has small freight steamers which ply back and forward
during the summer between the portage points or shallows. With
comparatively little expenditure the company or the Government can
improve the facilities along the line so that any amount of freight or
any number of passengers can be taken into the gold region at less than
half the time and cost that it takes Americans to reach it from Port St.
Michael, at the mouth of the Yukon to the Klondyke, exclusive of the
steamer trip of 2500 miles from Seattle to Port St. Michael.
"Canadians can leave here on a Monday at 11.15 A.M., and reach
Edmonton on Friday at 7 P.M. From that point, a party of three men
with a canoe, should reach Fort Macpherson easily in from 50 to 60
days, provided they are able-bodied young fellows with experience in
that sort of travel. They will need to take canoes from here, unless they

propose to hire Indians with large birch bark canoes to carry them.
Birch bark canoes can be secured of any size up to the big ones manned
by ten Indians that carry three tons. But birch barks are not reliable
unless Indians are taken along to doctor them, and keep them from
getting water-logged. The Hudson Bay Company will also contract to
take freight northward on their steamers until the close of navigation.
Travellers to the gold mines leaving now would probably reach Fort
Macpherson before navigation closed.
"The letter from Rev. Mr. Stringer, the missionary, published in the
Spectator on July 2, shows that the ice had only commenced to run in
the Peel River, which is the water route south-east from Fort
Macpherson into the gold region, on September 30 last year.
"Any Canadians who are anxious to get into the Klondyke ahead of the
Americans can leave between now and August 1, reach Fort
Macpherson, and if winter comes on they can exchange their canoes for
dog trains, and reach the Klondyke without half the difficulty that
would be experienced on the Alaska route. The great advantage of the
inland route is that it is an organized line of communication. Travellers
need not carry any more food than will take them from one Hudson
Bay post to the next, and then there is abundance of fish and wild fowl
en route. They can also be in touch with such civilization as prevails up
there, can always get assistance at the