USA > Alaska > Alaska, the great country > Part 9
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There are many fine peaks in this vicinity, from two to ten thousand feet in height.
The stretch of water where Stephens' Passage, Taku Inlet, Gastineau Channel, and the southeastern arm of Lynn Canal meet is in winter dreaded by pilots. A
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squall is liable to come tearing down Taku Inlet at any moment and meet one from some other direction, to the peril of navigation.
At times a kind of fine frozen mist is driven across by the violent gales, making it difficult to see a ship's length ahead. At such times the expressive faces on the bridge of a steamer are psychological studies.
In summer, however, no open stretch of water could be more inviting. Clear, faintly rippled, deep sapphire, flecked with the first glistening bergs floating out of the inlet, it leads the way to the glorious presence that lies beyond.
I had meant to take the reader first up lovely Gastineau Channel to Juneau ; but now that I have unintentionally drifted into Taku Inlet, the glacier lures me on. It is only an hour's run, and the way is one of ever increasing beauty, until the steamer has pushed its prow through the hundreds of sparkling icebergs, under slow bell, and at last lies motionless. One feels as though in the presence of some living, majestic being, clouded in mystery. The splendid front drops down sheer to the water, from a height of probably three hundred feet. A sapphire mist drifts over it, without obscuring the exquisite tintings of rose, azure, purple, and green that flash out from the glistening spires and columns. The crumpled mass push- ing down from the mountains strains against the front, and sends towered bulks plunging headlong into the sea, with a roar that echoes from peak to peak in a kind of " linked sweetness long drawn out " and ever diminishing.
There is no air so indescribably, thrillingly sweet as the air of a glacier on a fair day. It seems to palpitate with a fragrance that ravishes the senses. I saw a great, re- cently captured bear, chained on the hurricane deck of a steamer, stand with his nose stretched out toward the glacier, his nostrils quivering and a look of almost human
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longing and rebellion in his small eyes. The feeling of pain and pity with which a humane person always be- holds a chained wild animal is accented in these wide and noble spaces swimming from snow mountain to snow mountain, where the very watchword of the silence seems to be " Freedom." The chained bear recognized the scent of the glacier and remembered that he had once been free.
In front of the glacier stretched miles of sapphire, sun- lit sea, set with sparkling, opaline-tinted icebergs. Now and then one broke and fell apart before our eyes, sending up a funnel-shaped spray of color,- rose, pale green, or azure.
At every blast of the steamer's whistle great masses of ice came thundering headlong into the sea -to emerge presently, icebergs. Canoeists approach glaciers closely at their peril, never knowing when an iceberg may shoot to the surface and wreck their boat. Even larger craft are by no means safe, and tourists desiring a close ap- proach should voyage with intrepid captains who sail safely through everything.
The wide, ceaseless sweep of a live glacier down the side of a great mountain and out into the sea holds a more compelling suggestion of power than any other action of nature. I have never felt the appeal of a mountain gla- cier - of a stream of ice and snow that, so far as the eye can discover, never reaches anywhere, although it keeps going forever. The feeling of forlornness with which, after years of anticipation, I finally beheld the renowned glacier of the Selkirks, will never be forgotten. It was the forlornness of a child who has been robbed of her Santa Claus, or who has found that her doll is stuffed with sawdust.
But to behold the splendid, perpendicular front of a live glacier rising out of a sea which breaks everlastingly upon it; to see it under the rose and lavender of sunset
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or the dull gold of noon; to see and hear tower, minaret, dome, go thundering down into the clear depths and pound them into foam - this alone is worth the price of a trip to Alaska.
We were told that the opaline coloring of the glacier was unusual, and that its prevailing color is an intense blue, more beautiful and constant than that of other gla- ciers ; and that even the bergs floating out from it were of a more pronounced blue than other bergs.
But I do not believe it. I have seen the blue of the Columbia Glacier in Prince William Sound ; and I have sailed for a whole afternoon among the intensely blue ice shallops that go drifting in an endless fleet from Glacier Bay out through Iey Straits to the ocean. If there be a more exquisite blue this side of heaven than I have seen in Icy Straits and in the palisades of the Columbia Gla- eier, I must see it to believe it.
There are three glaciers in Taku Inlet: two-Wind- ham and Twin - which are at present "dead "; and Taku, the Beautiful, which is very much alive. The latter was named Foster, for the former Secretary of the Treasury ; but the Indian name has clung to it, which is one more cause for thanksgiving.
The Inlet is eighteen miles long and about seven hun- dred feet wide. Taku River flows into it from the north- east, spreading out in blue ribbons over the brown flats ; at high tide it may be navigated, with eaution, by small row-boats and canoes. It was explored in early days by the Hudson Bay Company, also by surveyors of the West- ern Union Telegraph Company.
Whidbey, entering the Inlet in 1794, sustained his repu- tation for absolute blindness to beauty. He found "a compaet body of ice extending some distance nearly all around." He found " frozen mountains," "rock sides." "dwarf pine trees," and "undissolving frost and snow."
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He lamented the lack of a suitable landing-place for boats; and reported the aspect in general to be "as dreary and inhospitable as the imagination can possibly suggest."
Alas for the poor chilly Englishman ! He, doubtless, expected silvery-gowned ice maidens to come sliding out from under the glacier in pearly boats, singing and kissing their hands, to bear him back into their deep blue grottos and dells of ice, and refresh him with Russian tea from old brass samovars; he expected these maidens to be girdled and crowned with carnations and poppies, and to pluck winy grapes - with dust clinging to their bloomy roundness - from living vines for him to eat; and most of all, he expected to find in some remote corner of the clear and sparkling cavern a big fireplace, " which would remind him pleasantly of England ; " and a brilliant fire on a well-swept hearth, with the smoke and sparks going up through a melted hole in the glacier.
About fifteen miles up Taku River, Wright Glacier streams down from the southeast and fronts upon the low and marshy lands for a distance of nearly three miles.
The mountains surrounding Taku Inlet rise to a height of four thousand feet, jutting out abruptly, in places, over the water.
I
CHAPTER IX
GASTINEAU CHANNEL is more than a mile wide at the entrance, and eight miles long ; it narrows gradually as it separates Douglas Island from the mainland, and, still narrowing, goes glimmering on past Juneau, like a silver- blue ribbon. Down this channel at sunset burns the most beautiful coloring, which slides over the milky waters, pro- ducing an opaline effect. At such an hour this scene - with Treadwell glittering on one side, and Juneau on the other, with Mount Juneau rising in one swelling sweep directly behind the town - is one of the fairest in this country of fair scenes.
The unique situation of Juneau appeals powerfully to the lover of beauty. There is an unforgettable charm in its narrow, crooked streets and winding, mossed stairways; its picturesque shops, - some with gorgeous totem-poles for signs, - where a small fortune may be spent on a single Attu or Atka basket; the glitter and the music of its streets and its "places," the latter open all night; its people standing in doorways and upon corners, eager to talk to strangers and bid them welcome ; and its gayly clad squaws, surrounded by fine baskets and other work of their brown hands.
The streets are terraced down to the water, and many of the pretty, vine-draped cottages seem to be literally hung upon the side of the mountain. One must have good, strong legs to climb daily the flights of stairs that steeply lead to some of them.
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In the heart of the town is an old Presbyterian Mission church, built of logs, with an artistic square tower, also of logs, at one corner. This church is now used as a brewery and soda-bottling establishment!
The lawns are well cared for, and the homes are fur- nished with refined taste, giving evidences of genuine comfort, as well as luxury.
My first sight of Juneau was at three o'clock of a dark and rainy autumn night in 1905. We had drifted slowly past the mile or more of brilliant electric lights which is Treadwell and Douglas ; and turning our eyes to the north, discovered, across the narrow channel, the lights of Juneau climbing out of the darkness up the mountain from the water's edge. Houses and buildings we could not see ; only those radiant lights, leading us on, like will-o'-the-wisps.
When we landed it seemed as though half the people of the town, if not the entire population, must be upon the wharf. It was then that we learned that it is always daytime in Alaskan towns when a steamer lands - even though it be three o'clock of a black night.
The business streets were brilliant. Everything was open for business, except the banks; a blare of music burst through the open door of every saloon and dance- hall ; blond-haired "ladies" went up and down the streets in the rain and mud, bare-headed, clad in gauze and other airy materials, in silk stockings and satin slippers. They laughed and talked with men on the streets in groups; they were heard singing ; they were seen dancing and inviting the young waiters and cabin- boys of our steamer into their dance halls.
"How'd you like Juneau?" asked my cabin-boy the next day, teetering in the doorway with a plate of oranges in his hand, and a towel over his arm.
" It seemed very lively," I replied, "for three o'clock in the morning."
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"Oh, hours don't cut any ice in Alaska," said he. " People in Alaska keep their clo's hung up at the head of their beds, like the harness over a fire horse. When the boat whistles, it loosens the clo's from the hook ; the people spring out of bed right under 'em ; the clo's fall onto 'em - an' there they are on the wharf, all dressed, by the time the boat docks. They're all right here, but say ! they can't hold a candle to the people of Valdez for gettin' to the dock. They just cork you at Valdez."
At Juneau I went through the most brilliant business transaction of my life. I was in the post-office when I discovered that I had left my pocket-book on the steamer. I desired a curling-iron ; so I borrowed a big silver dollar of a friend, and hastened away to the largest dry-goods shop.
A sleepy clerk waited upon me. The curling-iron was thirty cents. I gave him the dollar, and he placed the change in my open hand. Without counting it, I went back to the post-office, purchased twenty-five cents' worth of stamps, and gave the balance to the friend from whom I had borrowed the dollar.
"Count it," said I, " and see how much I owe you."
She counted it.
" How much did you spend ?" she asked presently.
" Fifty-five cents."
She began to laugh wildly.
" You have a thirty-cent curling-iron, twenty-five cents' worth of stamps, and you've given me back a dollar and sixty-five cents -all out of one silver dollar !"
I counted the money. It was too true.
With a burning face I took the change and went back to the store. My friend insisted upon going with me, although I would have preferred to see her lost on the Taku Glacier. I cannot endure people who laugh like children at everything.
Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau
ESKIMO IN BIDARKA
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The captain and several passengers were in the store. They heard my explanation ; and they all gathered around to assist the polite but sleepy clerk.
One would say that it would be the simplest thing in the world to straighten out that change ; but the postage stamps added complications. Everybody figured, ex- plained, suggested, criticised, and objected. Several times we were quite sure we had it. Then, some one would titter- and the whole thing would go glimmering out of sight.
However, at the end of twenty minutes it was arranged to the clerk's and my own satisfaction. Several hours later, when we were well on our way up Lynn Canal, a calmer figuring up proved that I had not paid one cent for my curling-iron.
From the harbor Mount Juneau has the appearance of rising directly out of the town -so sheer and bold is its upward sweep to a height of three thousand feet. Down its many pale green mossy fissures falls the liquid silver of cascades.
It is heavily wooded in some places ; in others, the bare stone shines through its mossy covering, giving a soft rose-colored effect, most pleasing to the eye.
Society in Juneau, as in every Alaskan town, is gay. Its watchword is hospitality. In summer, there are many excursions to glaciers and the famed inlets which lie almost at their door, and to see which other people travel thousands of miles. In winter, there is a brilliant whirl of dances, card parties, and receptions. "Smokers" to which ladies are invited are common - although they are somewhat like the pioneer dish of " potatoes-and-point."
When the pioneers were too poor to buy sufficient bacon for the family dinner, they hung a small piece on the wall ; the family ate their solitary dish of potatoes and pointed at the piece of bacon.
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So, at these smokers, the ladies must be content to see the men smoke, but they might, at least, be allowed to point.
Most of the people are wealthy. Money is plentiful, and misers are unknown. The expenditure of money for the purchase of pleasure is considered the best investment that an Alaskan can make.
Fabulous prices are paid for luxuries in food and dress.
"I have lived in Dawson since 1897," said a lady last summer, "and have never been ill for a day. I attribute my good health to the fact that I have never flinched at the price of anything my appetite craved. Many a time I have paid a dollar for a small cucumber ; but I have never paid a dollar for a drug. I have always had fruit, regardless of the price, and fresh vegetables. No amount of time or money is considered wasted on flowers. Women of Alaska invariably dress well and present a smart appearance. Many wear imported gowns and hats-and I do not mean imported from 'the states,' either-and costly jewels and furs are more common than in any other section of America. We entertain lavishly, and our hospitality is genuine."
Every traveller in Alaska will testify to the truth of these assertions. If a man looks twice at a dollar before spending it, he is soon "jolted " out of the pernicious habit.
The worst feature of Alaskan social life is the " coming out " of many of the women in winter, leaving their hus- bands to spend the long, dreary winter months as they may. To this selfishness on the part of the women is due much of the intoxication and immorality of Alaska - few men being of sufficiently strong character to with- stand the distilled temptations of the country.
That so many women go "out" in winter, is largely
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due to the proverbial kindness and indulgence of American husbands, who are loath to have their wives subjected to the rigors and the hardships of an Alaskan winter.
However, the winter exodus may scarcely be considered a feature of the society of Juneau, or other towns of southeastern Alaska. The climate resembles that of Puget Sound ; there is a frequent and excellent steamship service to and from Seattle; and the reasons for the exodus that exist in cold and shut-in regions have no apparent existence here.
Every business - and almost every industry - is repre- sented in Juneau. The town has excellent schools and churches, a library, women's clubs, hospitals, a cham- ber of commerce, two influential newspapers, a militia company, a brass band -and a good brass band is a feature of real importance in this land of little music - an opera-house, and, of course, electric lights and a good water system.
Juneau has for several years been the capital of Alaska ; but not until the appointment of Governor Wilford B. Hoggatt, in 1906, to succeed Governor J. G. Brady, were the Executive Office and Governor's residence established here. So confident have the people of Juneau always been that it would eventually become the capital of Alaska, that an eminence between the town and the Auk village has for twenty years been called Capitol Hill. During all these years there has been a fierce and bitte'r rivalry between Juneau and Sitka.
Juneau was named for Joseph Juneau, a miner who came, " grubstaked," to this region in 1880. It was the fifth name bestowed upon the place, which grew from a single camp to the modern and independent town it is to-day -and the capital of one of the greatest countries in the world.
In its early days Juneau passed through many exciting
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and charming vicissitudes. Anything but monotony is welcomed by a town in Alaska ; and existence in Juneau in the eighties was certainly not monotonous.
The town started with a grand stampede and rush, which rivalled that of the Klondike seventeen years later ; the Treadwell discovery and attendant excitement came during the second year of its existence, and a guard of marines was necessary to preserve order, until, upon its withdrawal, a vigilance committee took matters into its own hands, with immediate beneficial results.
The population of Juneau is about two thousand, which -like that of all other northern towns-is largely in- creased each fall by the miners who come in from the hills and inlets to " winter."
In the middle eighties there were Chinese riots. The little yellow men were all driven out of town, and their quarters were demolished by a mob.
A recent attempt to introduce Hindu labor in the Treadwell mines resulted as disastrously.
Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau
RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION, EYAK LAKE
CHAPTER X
TREADWELL! Could any mine employing stamps have a more inspiring name, unless it be Stampwell ? It fairly forces confidence and success.
Douglas Island, lying across the narrow channel from Juneau, is twenty-five miles long and from four to nine miles wide. On this island are the four famous Tread- well mines, owned by four separate companies, but having the same general managership.
Gold was first discovered on this island in 1881. Sorely against his will, John Treadwell was forced to take some of the original claims, having loaned a small amount upon them, which the borrower was unable to repay.
Having become possessed of these claims, a gambler's "hunch" impelled him to buy an adjoining claim from " French Pete " for four hundred dollars. On this claim is now located the famed " Glory Hole."
This is so deep that to one looking down into it the men working at the bottom and along the sides appear scarcely larger than flies. Steep stairways lead, winding, to the bottom of this huge quartz bowl; but visitors to the dizzy regions below are not encouraged, on account of frequent blasting and danger of accidents.
It is claimed that Treadwell is the largest quartz mine in the world, and that it employs the largest number of stamps - nine hundred. The ore is low grade, not yield- ing an average of more than two dollars to the ton ; but it is so easily mined and so economically handled that the
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mines rank with the Calumet and Hecla, of Michigan ; the Comstock Lode mincs, of Nevada; the Homestake, of South Dakota ; and the Portland, of Colorado.
The Treadwell is the pride of Alaska. Its poetic situ- ation, romantic history, and admirable methods should make it the pride of America.
Its management has always been just and liberal. It has had fewer labor troubles than any other mine in America.
There are two towns on the island -Treadwell and Douglas. The latter is the commercial and residential portion of the community - for the towns meet and min- gle together.
The entire population, exclusive of natives, is three thousand people - a population that is constantly increas- ing, as is the demand for laborers, at prices ranging from two dollars and sixty cents per day up to five dollars for skilled labor.
The island is so brilliantly lighted by electricity that to one approaching on a dark night it presents the appear- ance of a city six times its size.
The nine hundred stamps drop ceaselessly, day and night, with only two holidays in a year -Christmas and the Fourth of July. The noise is ferocious. In the stamp-mill one could not distinguish the boom of a can- non, if it were fired within a distance of twenty feet, from the deep and continuous thunder of the machinery.
In 1881 the first mill, containing five stamps, was built and commenced crushing ore that came from a streak twenty feet wide. This ore milled from eight to ten dol- lars a ton, proving to be of a grade sufficiently high to pay for developing and milling, and leave a good surplus.
It was soon recognized that the great bulk of the ore was extremely low grade, and that, consequently, a large milling capacity would be required to make the enterprise
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a success. A one-hundred-and-twenty-stamp-mill was erected and began crushing ore in June, 1885. At the end of three years the stamps were doubled. In another year three hundred additional stamps were dropping. Gradually the three other mines were opened up and the stamps were increased until nine hundred were dropping.
The shafts are from seven to nine hundred feet below sea level, and one is beneath the channel; yet very little water is encountered in sinking them. Most of the water in the mines comes from the surface and is caught up and pumped out, from the first level.
The net profits of these mines to their owners are said to be six thousand dollars a day; and mountains of ore are still in sight.
Our captain obtained permission to take us down into the mine. This was not so difficult as it was to elude the other passengers. At last, however, we found ourselves shut into a small room, lined with jumpers, slickers, and caps.
Shades of the things we put on to go under Niagara Falls !
"Get into this!" commanded the captain, holding a sticky and unclean slicker for me. "And make haste ! There's no time to waste for you to examine it. Finicky ladies don't get two invitations into the Treadwell. Put in your arm."
My arm went in. When an Alaskan sea captain speaks, it is to obey. Who last wore that slicker, far be it from me to discover. Chinaman, leper, Jap, or Auk -it mat- tered not. I was in it, then, and curiosity was sternly stifled.
"Now put on this cap." Then beheld mine eyes a cap that would make a Koloshian ill.
" Must I put that on ?"
I whispered it, so the manager would not hear.
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" You must put this on. Take off your hat."
My hat came off, and the cap went on. It was pushed down well over my hair; down to my eyebrows in the front and down to the nape of my neck in the back.
" There! " said the captain, cheerfully. "You needn't be afraid of anything down in the mine now."
Alas! there was nothing in any mine, in any world, that I dreaded as I did what might be in that cap.
There were four of us, with the manager, and there was barely room on the rather dirty " lift " for us.
We stood very close together. It was as dark as a dungeon.
"Now -look out !" said the manager.
As we started, I clutched somebody - it did not matter whom. I also drew one wild and amazed breath; before I could possibly let go of that one-to say nothing of drawing another -there was a bump, and we were in a level one thousand and eighty feet below the surface of the earth.
We stepped out into a brilliantly lighted station, with a high, glittering quartz ceiling. The swift descent had so affected my hearing that I could not understand a word that was spoken for fully five minutes. None of my com- panions, however, complained of the same trouble.
It has been the custom to open a level at every hundred and ten feet; but hereafter the distance between levels in the Treadwell mine will be one hundred and fifty feet.
At each level a station, or chamber, is cut out, as wide as the shaft, from forty to sixty feet in length, and having an average height of eight feet. A drift is run from the shaft for a distance of twenty-five feet, varying in height from fifteen feet in front to seven at the back. The main crosscut is then started at right angles to the station drift.
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