USA > Alaska > Our northern domain: Alaska, picturesque, historic and commercial > Part 9
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This giving of presents is called potlatch, and is often so extrava- gant as to ruin those giving them. The ceremony is thus described by Paul S. Luttrell: " The most prolific source of potlatching is the erec- tion of new houses. The location for the new building is selected at a ' smoking council ' of the tribe, after which the erection is commenced, the owner being assisted by such members of his tribe as are experts. As it draws near completion another council is held, at which is decided the date of the potlatch. The whole tribe is notified and each member is expected to contribute something toward the potlatch and the sub- sequent feast. On the eventful morning all assemble at the new house, each in his best, with the exposed portion of their bodies covered with paint and further embellished with wads of cotton pasted at irregular intervals on the face and in the hair. The festivities commence with a dance, the women executing a species of side-shuffle, while the men
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augment the enthusiasm by stamping their feet. Everybody sings. When the song and dancing are finished, some one hands up a bolt of calico, or some blankets, handkerchiefs, soap, or what not, at the same time mentioning the name of the person or persons to whom the donor desires the present to be given. (It is well to mention parenthetically, that the potlatch presents and feast are given to members of opposite tribes.) The present, whatever it may be, is divided or torn into as many portions as donees, and then presented, after which more singing and more presents, until everything is given away. This may last twenty-four or forty-eight hours, the women during this time never leaving the house, and eating nothing save an occasional cracker, which may have been presented to them, moistening their throats as they become dry with the juice of tobacco, made moist in a can of water.
" After the potlatch comes the feast. Rice has been cooked and seasoned with molasses and seal oil; boxes of sugar and biscuits are opened, and an abundance of the omnipresent seal grease provided. Every available receptacle, from a washtub to an old tin can, is used for passing around the food, and everybody eats until their stomachs rebel, go outside, relieve themselves by vomiting, and return to the attack, until all has been consumed. They know no such thing as an intermediate point. The potlatch and subsequent feast must exceed the cost of the simple structure in honor of which it is given many times."
The Thlinkit mythology is largely concerned with the adventures of Yeshl, who was able to fly in the skin of the long-billed kutzgatushl or crane. When his jealous uncle tried to kill him as he had killed all of his other nephews by upsetting them from a canoe, Yeshl walked along the sea-bottom and escaped. Then the wicked uncle, who seems to correspond to Saturn in Greek mythology, sent a great flood. Yeshl put on his crane skin and flew up into the skies until the flood subsided. His manner of giving mankind light is thus described :
A rich and powerful chief had the sun, moon and stars concealed in three strong boxes. He also had a daughter whom he loved and pam-
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pered but guarded with extraordinary care. Yeshl discovered that the only way to obtain possession of the treasures of light was to be born as the chief's grandson. He transformed himself into a blade of grass and when the beautiful maiden drank from her bowl he slipped down her throat, and in due time was born as a tiny infant. Her father took a great fancy to this mysterious grandson and there was nothing that he would not give to him. Once upon a time he began to cry and could not be quieted. He managed to signify that what he wanted was in the three sacred boxes. The grandfather to pacify him let him have one of them. He dragged it out of doors, opened the lid, and lo, the stars were shining in heaven! The ruse worked similarly well in re- gard to the moon, but when he tried to obtain the third box containing the sun the grandfather was inexorable. But when the boy refused to be comforted he let him play with it on the condition that he should not open the lid. As soon as he got it outside he transformed himself into a great raven and flew away with the box. As he flew he heard voices but could not see the people because the sun was still in the box. When at last he opened it, the inhabitants of the earth were frightened at the dazzling brilliancy and hid themselves and were changed into fishes, bears and other animals according to their hiding- place. But the Thlinkits were still without fire; it was only to be found on an island far out at sea. This Indian Prometheus flew thither, picked up a burning brand and hurried back with it; but the distance was so great that when he got back the brand was almost consumed and even his bill was scorched. Consequently he dropped the glowing coal and the sparks were scattered over the whole shore; that is why both wood and stone contain fire.
He also procured fresh water for his people from the sacred well guarded by Khenukh, the ancestor of the Wolf clan. Yeshl managed to gather up some in his bill and when he flew back wherever he dropped a drop of water spread lakes and ponds and rivers and brooks. Khe- nukh was represented as stronger even than Yeshl, though not so shrewd, as was proved by the larceny of the water. When he had
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accomplished all he felt was necessary for his people Yeshl disap- peared and went to his home in the far east.
The Thlinkits have many other gods and spirits, and the phenomena of nature - the Northern lights and comets and meteors - have their superstitious explanations, as interpreted by the shamans. They have also a legend of the flood where a great ship stranded on a sub- merged log and broke in two; those remaining in one half being Thinkit and the others drifting away becoming the people of other nations.
One of the last of the native chiefs was named Klo Kutz, a man of determined character and strong will. His people believed that he bore a charmed life. He was friendly to the new comers and when Professor George Davidson went to the head of Lynn Canal in 1869 to observe the eclipse of the sun he entertained his party and rendered him great assistance. The natives, who had not believed the profes- sor's prediction, were terribly alarmed when it came true. They came to the conclusion that he was a wizard and ran away from him as fast as they could go. Unfortunately, contact with immoral white men and drunkenness and disease has brought about the decadence of this tribe which was recognized by early visitors as among the finest of all In- dians. In less than forty years they have been reduced from thousands to hundreds. Pneumonia, the grip and measles have always been pe- culiarly fatal to savages.
Skagway, or more properly Skaguay, said to mean " the Home of the North Wind," is the terminus of the Inside Passage and, like the other large Alaskan towns, excepting Nome, challenges admiration for its beauty of situation. It is surrounded by an amphitheater of lofty mountains. It is reached by Taiya Inlet, another of the marvellous mountain-guarded waterways, offering continually changing views of snowy peaks, glittering glaciers, and numberless cascades. Skaguay lies at the mouth of the Skaguay River, which after its swift descent from the highlands flows winding through meadowlike flats and emp- ties into the inlet. The present permanent population of the town is
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upwards of a thousand, dwelling in comfortable houses lighted with electricity and surrounded with rival flower gardens.
General Greely speaking of Skaguay, "the best-known town of Alaska," says: " It will live in history as the base of operations for thousands of adventurous prospectors during the Klondike excitement of 1897-1898. Skaguay is a pleasant base for excursions for the lover of the picturesque, the admirer of scenery, the student of natural his- tory or ethnographical subjects. Reasonably near are the Chilkat and Chilkoot villages, with their native hats, baskets, and blankets. Over the White Pass, by rail, through scenery of beauty and grandeur, and along the way once marked by scenes of human misery and courage, one reached in a few hours the lake sources of the Yukon. Near by are also the glaciers of Davidson, Mendenhall, and others, which will richly repay a visit. Along the foaming rapids of the Skaguay River, with its flowery banks, or up the winding paths to the mountain for- ests, the flowery glades, and sylvan lakes, there is surprise upon sur- prise at the delights and beauties that hourly break in on one, while wandering in the delicious summer weather of the Alaskan wonder- land."
Only ten or twelve years ago, during the great Klondike excitement, it was a city of tents. From here the trail ran through to the mining regions of the upper Yukon and the Klondike. In the grim story of the Greed for Gold the chapter devoted to the founding of Skaguay is perhaps the fullest of exciting incidents and many a paragraph would have to be devoted to the depredation of " Soapy " Smith and his band of outlaws who murdered and robbed the unfortunate prospector who had been spotted in advance.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE MIGHTY YUKON.
S KAGUAY is the terminus of the White Pass and Yukon Railway, which was begun in May, 1898, and finished in January, 1900. The possibilities of the route were foreseen by M. J. Heney, but he could not interest American capital, so he went to England and there succeeded in raising the money needed. The first twenty miles from Skaguay, constructed over tremendous precipices, so steep that men working had to be suspended from above on ropes, and blasting away colossal cliffs, cost an average of one hundred thousand dollars a mile. All the materials had to be brought from Seattle at enormous expense. Thirty-five hundred men were employed in its construction, and in spite of the rigors of the mountain climate only thirty died from accident or disease. At one time, however, the report of the rich gold-strike having arrived, fifteen hundred of the men drew their pay and deserted. In the one hundred and eleven miles to White Horse the road passes through only one tunnel, although it climbs to such giddy heights above the valley that the trees along the foaming stream look like bushes. There is a steel cantilever bridge which is two hundred and fifteen feet high. Twenty miles up from Skaguay is the summit of the pass and here the Canadian and American boundaries meet with all the attendant annoyances of customs inspection. The little pond that flashes sapphire near the station, perhaps four thousand feet above the sea, is regarded as one of the sources of the mighty Yukon. The train passes several of these storage lakes; first, Lake Lindemann, which is seven miles long and half a mile wide, connected by a brawling stream three-quarters of a mile long and perhaps a hundred feet wide, with Lake Bennett, which is twenty-seven miles long, though not more
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than two miles wide, and the mountains across are nearly, if not quite, a mile high. They are of almost solid iron and give a peculiar rose color to the distance.
At Caribou Crossing one is told great stories of the days when droves of thousands of caribou passed here on their way to their feed- ing-ground through the hills and valleys of the Stewart, Klondike, and other rivers. The herd has been known to take ninety days at the rate of a thousand a day, sometimes even more, so that their track was five miles in width. Packs of wolves hung on their skirts and quickly despatched such as were lamed or weak. In many cases they proved the salvation of half-starving miners. The Crossing is now a lonely, desolate hamlet, where in the old days there must have been more activity than now, though there is some traffic by boat with the Atlin mining district which is reached by a chain of beautiful lakes set like jewels in the mountains. The saw-mill at the head of Lake Bennett used to furnish boards for this river traffic at the rate of one hundred dollars a thousand feet.
The traveller has a chance during the trip to see the great canon which was one of the passages most dreaded by the early Klondike gold-questers. The sides are perpendicular walls of dark basalt, rising one or two hundred feet, and crowned with sombre spruces that climb the mountain's sides. In five-eighths of a mile the river drops thirty feet, rushing at the rate of fifteen miles an hour between huge gray boulders which dash the foam in huge sheets and whirlpools.
Before reaching White Horse, rapids no less dangerous and treach- erous are also exhibited to the admiring tourist.
All along the railway there are pleasant and successful looking set- tlements where immigrants have started homes supported by hunting, fishing and farming. The summer, though short, allows the growth of many vegetables and a marvellous growth of rich and succulent grass.
White Horse is a new town, built principally of wood, housing fif- teen hundred or more inhabitants, most of whom are prosperous, and
NATIVE ALASKAN BOAT BUILDER.
-
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see to it that the town is kept in perfect order. In the vicinity are rich copper mines which the railway renders available.
Steamboats leave White Horse for Dawson three times a week in summer, the trip taking two days. The distance is three hundred and fifty miles. After river navigation is closed six-horse stages or four- horse sleighs make the trip in six days. As in all rivers, at least in their upper reaches, the channel shifts from side to side, and there are many changing sandbars where a boat is likely to go aground. The Lewes-Yukon flows through Lake Kluk-tassi or Lebarge, famous for its grayling and whitefish. This is thirty-two miles long and three and a half miles wide, with gray cliffs and columns of red rocks, adorned with a single island. The sweeping slopes are heavily wooded. Shortly after leaving the lake the banks of the river contract to less than five hundred feet and the stream pours swiftly among five huge columns of stone, giving the rapids its name of " the Five Fingers."
The Pelley River, rising in the Pelley Mountains, is joined at the old Hudson Bay station of Selkirk by the Lewes, which drains a num- ber of lakes, both of them being frequently reinforced by affluents draining other valleys, and there form the Yukon, which, after flowing twenty-three hundred miles, empties into Bering Sea in the far and frozen north. Any one interested in Alaska should certainly read Schwatka's account of his famous descent of this, the fourth largest river on the continent. At Selkirk the great river cuts through the mountains and offers the most magnificent scenery for one hundred and fifty miles.
Dawson is the capital of the Yukon territory, and being the financial and social centre of the Klondike region has attained eminence as a city. It has enormous storehouses for the transportation companies; it has banks and clubs, churches and library, hospitals and newspapers; good water works, but as yet poor sewerage. The city extends for about a mile along the river and is built back to the hill. The streets are wide and well cared for. Frame or log houses prevail, the uncer- tainty of foundation on frozen soil being adverse either to brick or
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plastered houses. Many of the roofs are covered with soil to a con- siderable depth and in summer these are gay with greenery or with brilliant flowers. A visitor in August is likely to be amazed at the display of vines and blooms, making the whole town seem like one great flower garden sloping up toward the hills. The public school- house cost fifty thousand dollars; the governor's mansion, which was built of British Columbia fir and most luxuriantly furnished, was des- troyed by fire in 1907. The governor's private office is now in the great administration building which is situated in the midst of a small park. The place is rather strictly governed, order being maintained for the ten thousand inhabitants by the famous Northwest Mounted Police.
From Dawson one can make excursions, perhaps by automobile, to the Golconda which served to create this metropolis in the midst of the frozen wilderness. The rich placers along the little streams that helped to feed the upper Yukon, typified by the Klondike, or Tron- Dieuck, which has given its name to the whole district and almost eclipsed Alaska itself, were speedily exhausted and had not expensive systems of hydraulic mining been introduced by the syndicates and combined companies, Dawson would have been deserted like so many other mushroom towns.
George Carmack, with two Indian brothers of his wife, was one day in August, 1896, fishing at the mouth of the Klondike River. They struck Bonanza Creek, and on prospecting washed out twelve dollars from their first pan. They immediately staked claims. On the site of Dawson they built a raft and floated down the river to Forty Mile Creek to file their claim. The first year three hundred thousand dollars were taken out. The yield in 1900 had risen to twenty- two million two hundred and seventy-five thousand; since then it has been steadily diminishing.
The traveller with plenty of time may take steamship at Dawson for the great trip down the Yukon to its mouth. Forty-Mile, which should have borne its native name of Chetondeg, was the first mining
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camp on the Yukon. It even boasted of an opera house, but the Klon- dike strike depopulated it. It has still some importance as the mining interests in the neighborhood are dependent on it for supplies. The source of the mighty Tanana River, the greatest tributary of the Yukon, having been navigated by steamboat for seven hundred miles, is not far away from the source of Forty-Mile. Fifty miles farther down the river, at the junction of the now famous Mission, is Eagle, the first town in Alaska proper. It has a population of several hundred people and is likely to grow in importance as soon as it is connected by railway, as it is now by telegraph, with Valdez, at the head of Prince William Sound. Companies of American soldiers are generally stationed at Fort Egbert and the presence of the officers and their wives gives the place a pleasant society. Although it is in the vicin- ity of the Arctic Circle, and more than three hundred miles from the coast, the inhabitants point with pride to their native vegetables, which attain great luxuriance by having the sun all day and all night during the short summer. Here one might if one pleased leave the steamship and return to the coast by the government trail, following the telegraph posts and crossing the wonderful Chugatch mountains ..
Circle City, so named because of its proximity to the Arctic Circle, is hardly a city now, though before the Klondike days the discovery of gold on Birch Creek, a few miles away, attracted more than a thou- sand miners. The most northerly point on the Yukon is at Port Yukon, established by the Hudson Bay Company in 1847, first at the mouth of the Porcupine River, which is navigable for light draft steam-boats for one hundred miles. It used to take two years to reach this place from York Factory on Hudson Bay, four thousand miles to the east. It was formerly a great centre for the fur trade among the Indians, but as that trade diminished there was nothing to keep it alive and now what is of chief interest is the lonely graveyard, said to be the only one in the Arctic Circle.
The river below Dawson is often called the Upper Ramparts and here is the finest scenery in Alaska, the stream being half a mile wide
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and flowing between lofty banks. Then for two hundred miles it winds through " the Flats," sometimes there dividing into several channels with sluggish current and offering great obstacles to the pilots from the shifting bars. It has been estimated that the islands thus formed are as many as ten thousand in number and many of these are covered with a dense growth of cottonwood, birch and spruce trees. The valley widens out into a comparatively level plain, in some places a hundred miles from escarpment to escarpment. Many travellers are wearied by the monotony, but others find a great charm in the wide spaces and the silence, the distant views of cloudlike mountains, occasional glimpses of Indian or Eskimo settlements as the steamship approaches the shore.
The third great division of the river is also called the Ramparts. Here it again contracts into a narrow swift current, in some places shooting down at an incline of more than twenty feet to the mile. The town of Rampart, founded by Captain Mayo in 1873, was formerly the headquarters of the Third Judicial District of Alaska; it has lost some of its importance but has a charm all its own. On the bluff runs the long winding street with log houses having the characteristic earth- and-flower covered roofs. It has a population of about four hundred and is the centre of trade for the Minook mining regions, which in 1906 produced three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, lying toward the south. On the other side of the river and half a mile away the Gov- ernment maintains a successful agricultural station which has proved that grain can ripen there year after year, while potatoes, cabbages, peas and other vegetables thrive wonderfully. Though the winter tem- perature sometimes reaches seventy degrees below zero the climate is not so severe as in Minnesota because blizzards are unknown.
Within a day's sail of Rampart, down at the junction of the great River Tanana is the town of Tanana, sometimes called Weare. It is regarded as the most beautiful place on the Yukon, being situated on a high intervale with a magnificent view of wide spreading waters. Cities at the junction of great rivers have always a peculiarly inspiring charm. Tanana has wide streets and the log houses, all adorned with
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summer blooms, are set far back embowered in lovely colors. Adjoin- ing Tanana is Fort Gibson, established in 1900. It is garrisoned by two companies of United States Infantry and a company of the Signal Corps. It would be no exile for a man to be stationed there even in winter, for the long nights are made gay by all sorts of athletic sports and the summers are a dream of delight - a clear sparkling atmos- phere perfumed with myriads of roses.
From Tanana one may make a side excursion up the Tanana River to the fine new town of Fairbanks, which is one of the largest centres of population in Alaska. In 1898 Mr. Alfred H. Brooks, one of the ablest attachés of the United States Geological Survey, predicted that gold would be found in the valley of this great river. Four years later Felix Pedro, following the indications, made the first discovery and by the autumn of the next year eight hundred men were staking claims in the various streams that are tributary to it. The district and prin- cipal camp were named Fairbanks, after the Vice President of the United States. By 1906 the output of gold had reached more than nine millions; its trade alone in 1907 had attained a volume of more than two millions, and that year a disastrous strike occurred. It was at- tended with great violence and put a temporary end to the prosperity of the place.
The town of Chena, although situated at the junction of the Chena and the Tanana, at the head of navigation for large steamships, has not kept pace with Fairbanks for the reason that it is eight or nine miles farther away from the gold-producing creeks.
The river is open generally for five months - from about the middle of May until the middle of October. From Chena one can go to Fair- banks by the Tanana Valley Railway; this also connects with the principal mines. A railway, possibly two, will soon connect it with the coast. Even now one can ride comfortably in summer, at least from Fairbanks to Valdez, in a little more than a week. That the rail- road is needed is shown by the fact that over the forty-five miles al- ready constructed as many as fifty thousand passengers are carried in
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a single season, while the freight transported amounts to fifteen thou- sand tons at a present cost of fifty-eight cents a ton per mile. When the material for the railway was first brought - some of it from a distance of six thousand miles - the local freight rate was nearly six times as much.
Fairbanks is one of the marvels of the North. It is a well-built town with a permanent population of upwards of four thousand. The town is lighted by electricity, a central steam plant heats the business section and many private houses. An excellent telephone service extends not only throughout the city, but also into seven adjacent towns and even to the mines in the neighboring valleys. There is a full water supply, enabling the fire district to boast of fifteen or more streams at one hundred and forty pounds pressure. There are three banks, each main- taining an expert assayer. Opposite the city, on Garden Island, on the left bank of the river, and connected by two substantial bridges, are situated five large saw mills which exploit the native timber, which consists of poplar, spruce, hemlock and birch, rafted down from the upper reaches of the river. Here also are the foundries and the ter- minals of the railway.
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