« PARTNERS WJTH THE QUEEN: A TRAIL STORY FROM ALASKA."

Otago Witness, Issue 2320, 18 August 1898, Page 49

« PARTNERS WJTH THE QUEEN : A TRAIL STORY FROM ALASKA."

St. James's Gazette.

Olaff Olsen made up his mind he would go to the Klondyke. It took him a long time to make up his mind. It took him a longer time to get to the Klondyke. In the first place he made a mistake. He selected the trail from Skagway over the White Pass- to Lake Bennett. Now that Wcis bad, but not; so bad as his next error. He would iot cnve it up and go by the Chilcoot Pa&s, though he heard Chilcoot was much easier. But iLat does not say much for the Chilcoot Pwa. " No," said Olaff, " I .started to go C'er the White Pass, and I is going to make «t over the White Pa,«s."

Olaff hsd a hard time on the trail, though he didn't know it — that is to say, any other man would have thought it a hard time ; but Olaff, expecting bad things, had no "kick," as he expressed it against adversity. Olaff was an exceptional man on the trail — phenomci.ally exceptional. For on a trail where each man had one partner at least and most

many, Olaff preferred having no partner. " Anoder man in the bardy besides me won't dv, ' he said ; " I might want to do one thing and him anoder; besides, I don't want no pardner nohow. Pardncrs always mean trouble."

The experience of many men on the trail confirmed the wisdom of Olaffs views. No thing discouraged Olaff. When misfortune overtook him he set to work to " do what he could for the best." Up before daybreak he cooked a substantial breakfast — for he believed in feeding himself well — and with 501b more on his back than any other man could carry started off on the trail climbing over rocks and wading through mud keeping at it all day with a short interval for lunch. It took him 10 days to move his outfit from slafion to station. Difficulties too great for other men never prevented Olaff from moving fonvard. If he could not make ten miles he made five; if not five he ui<ule tv c But he always kept moving forward When sume of his provisions were stolen lie " iiihtlwl, " as hi called it, and worke ' for others uuhl he hid earned enough to rep l lc what hadji'vu^ stolen. Then he moved on hi. 1 ovwi outfitT"*"" When at last he reached Like "Be:mot(. he built a boat and calmly s-et sail vvilhout my of the excitement which others e>hiii'ted. Men wanted to buy a passage in his boat, and assist him to manage her ; but Olaff said " No ; [ don't want no passengers, and I guess I can handle the boat myself." At the Tagish Lake Custom House Olaff woiked four days to pay for the duty on his goods, and went on his wav without the delay ruffling his temper. He sailed his boat round the point at Windy Arm when 30 other boats hauled up on the beach. Apprf aching Miles Canyon men shouted to warn Olaff to land and lighten his boat and wail for the pilot. "That's the Canyon." they shouted, "Miles Canyon." "Is it?" said Olaff, " I've been watching for it aIL day." And he took his boat through and on through the .White Horse Rapids without moving an eyelid. But now floating ice began to impede Olaff's progress. " I'll keep going till she freezes up," he said. And he did. She froze up when Olaff had got to Five Fingers, and Olaff went into camp. He built a sled and eat up his grub until ha hil left what he could pull. About Christinas Olaff started for Dawson on the ice with more on his sled than any two men could pull. He made slow progress;* but he said, ." I shall come Lhere some time • if I keep moving." Four miles a day doesn't, seem much ; but if persisted in it counts up, and at last Olaff arrived in Dawson. He immediately moved up the creek and went to work prospecting. To his surprise a leadpencil prospector jumped his claim. Olaffi moved to another location, found good prospects, and recorded. Then lie built a cabin, and settled down to work. He put in 11' solid Uows it da,v. His. ctoiua was {JQQ&.audl

as lv looked around he felt pleased. He had all the gold he wanted, he thought, and it was all his own. He congratulated himself daily on having no partner. Some stampeders camped one night at Olaff's cabin and discussed the Mining Regulations, as stampeders will. Yukon stampeders are strange. Yukon Mining Regulations are still stranger. Ol.iff learnt to his dismay that half his" claim did not belong to him It belonged to the Queen, the stampeders said. Olaff was mightily troubled. He stopped working and thought over the sitvation. Then he went down to Dawson, took his place in line behind some 100 others outside the commissioner's office, and waited patiently for admittance. The thermometer registered 53 below; but Olaff "wanted to see the Guld Commissari," and that was a detail he could not remedy.

Aftr waiting two hours and a-half he got in. "I want" to sec the Guld Commissari,'' said Olaff to a worried -looking man seated behind a roughly-made desk and some gold scales. "I am the Gold Commissioner," was the reply; "Avhat do you want?" "I want to know the Queen's' address," said Olaff. " Somebody's always wanting to know something,' 7 said the commissioner. "What, do you want with the Queen's address?" "Well," saiJ. Olaff, "the Queen and me is pardners on a claim up the creek, and I don't want to be pardners with the Queen no longer. x I don't ,-waut no pardners nohow. So I want to write to the Queen to know if she'll buy my 250 ft or sell her 250 ft to me. I don't want no pardners, and, anyhow, the Queen's not putting any work into the claim." The commissioner advised Olaff not to .write, but to wait and see what the future would bring, hinting at possible changes in the law. Olaff went back to his claim, but had no heart for work. It worried him to •have a pardner, more especially a lady, and one of so exalted a rank. But Olaff found it hard work; thinking and idling were stiange to him, so he gradually drifted into working regularly on his claim as hard as ever. As time went on Olaff sized up matters something as follows, and grew contented. " I don't want no pardner ; but my paidner's never here to bother me. She doesn't nut any work into the claim ; but there, she's a lady, and I wouldn't let her .•work nohow, even if she wanted. If a man must have a pardner, he can't have no better pardner than the Queen. She's all right as a pardner." Olaff is still working on his claim, and the only thing that troubles him is whether his paidner will come for her share of the dust after the wash-up, or whether it will be his duty to take the dust to her. - But Olaff is determined the Queen shall have her share, for he says " She's a good pardner."