Klondyke Nuggets: A Brief Description of the Great Gold Regions in the NorthwestLadue, Joseph
History
Klondyke Nuggets: A Brief Description of the Great Gold Regions in the Northwest
Ladue, Joseph
Alaska -- Gold discoveries; Klondike River Valley (Yukon) -- Gold discoveries
The Little Salmon River takes him to Five Finger Rapids, a distance of
one hundred and twenty miles. In the Five Finger Rapids the voyage
should be made on the right side of the river, going with the current.
These rapids are considered safe by careful management, but the novice
will already have had sufficient experience in guiding his boat before
reaching them.
From Five Finger Rapids the traveller goes six miles below, down the
Lewes, to the Rink Rapids. On going through the Rink Rapids, he
continues on the Lewes River to Fort Selkirk, the trading post of Harper
and Ladue, where the Pelly and Lewes, at their junction, form the
headwaters of the Yukon. You are now at the head of the Yukon River, and
the worst part of your trip is over.
You now commence to go down the Yukon, and after a trip of ninety-eight
miles, you are in the White River. You keep on the White River for ten
miles, to the Stewart River, and then twenty-five miles to Fort Ogilvie.
You are now only forty miles from Dawson City.
Your journey is now almost ended. After a forty-mile trip on the Yukon,
you arrive at Dawson City, where the Klondyke empties in the Yukon.
All through this trip you have been going through a mountainous country,
the trees there being pine, a small amount of spruce, cottonwood and
birch. You have not seen much game, if any, as it is growing scarce
along that line of river, and very hard to find. The traveller had
therefore better make preparation to depend on the provisions he has
brought with him. If he has stopped to fish, he may have been successful
in catching whitefish, grayling and lake trout, along the lakes and
rivers.
The total journey from Seattle to Dawson City has taken about two
months. In connection 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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