KLONDYKE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6489, 16 May 1898, Page 4

KLONDYKE.

A CHRISTCHURCH MAN'S EXPERIENCES. The following extracts from letters received by the last San Francisco mail, by the Yen Archdeacon Lingard from his son, ]\tr W. Lingard, who is now in business in Dawson City, will doubtless be of interest to Mr Lingard's old friends in Christchurch, and will serve to show those who may intend to seek wealth in the Klondyke field what they must expect to encounter. "Dawson City, Nov. 14, 1897. "I wonder if this letter will reach you sooner tlran you expected, or whether you hnve been wondering why I did not write before. I know* well enough that you are, none of .you, pleased with this my last escapade; but, well, I am Wandering Will, anci that is about> all there is to say in the wi*y of an exi>lanation. As you must have noticed by my letters, I have been growing more and more restless and discontented with my late position for a year or more back, and have had my eye on Alaska, and when the gold craze struck San Francisco I just made up my mind, on short notice, that I Avanted" to go and try my luck in the far north once more. I resigned my position in the Canton Insurance Office one day, and left San Francisco two days later, en route for Dawson City ancl the Klondyke goldfields. I went by rail from San Francisco to Seattle, where I and Fred. Spencer, who is another. San Francisco man, joined Ealfdan Grotschier, who used to be secretary of the Norwegian Consulate in San Francisco. We agreed to be partners for one year, bought our outfit and went by steamer to Skagway, which is the most northerly of the inland waters of Southeast Alaska. There were 405 of us on board. The steamer is only a small one, and she was packed, men sleeping everywhere. We were among the fortunate ones who secured cabins, but even then there was small comfort on board; but when a man is heading for Alaska he does not bother much about comforts. We arrived at Skagway on August 3. There was no wharf there then, though I believe there is now. The whole cargo was landed on tlie beach with the ship's boats, and we had to sort it out as best we could. \\ c lost, or at least failed to find, a box that contained most of our hardware, saws, hammers, knives, forks, etc. ; we also lost a sack of flour and a sack of clothing; but many others fared the same way. Some, I presume, got stuff that- did not belong to them ; we, however, .were not in that lucky crowd! Can you imagine what it was like, 405 men, each with a year's provisions, clothing, tools, etc., and all the stuff muddled np in one big pile, and qach trying to get what belonged to him. I wonder we did not lose more than we did. We had about a ton each, which we had to cany an alleged distance of thirty-five miles, but actually not less than fifty, over -a trail that beggars description. Not half of those who started got through to their destination, viz., Lake Bennett. The trail led over mountains, through swamps and marshes: it was horrible. Tho worst stretch was one of about five miles, and it iiveraged three feet and a half deep in liquid mud all through. From the sea coast through to Lake Bennett we were fifty- two days, packing on our backs and with horses. We had seven horses; and three of them died from exposure before we got through. Oh, it was tough — rain, i*a in,, rain, and then snow. At Lake Bennett we built a boat ; and if you still have the map of Alaska which I sent home years ago, you will be able to trace out mir road, through Lake Bennett, which- connects, by a river about a mile long with Tagish L-ike-^six.. miles of river, ancl into Marsh Lak* — thirty miles of river, and into Lake Le B»rge, and then river right on down the Yukon to where the Klondyke river runs in, about eighty miles below Steward river ; and there, at the mouth of the Klondyke, is Dawson City. We were fifteen days on the way from Lake Bennett to Dawson City, where we arrived on Oct. 15. The last week on the river w.as cold to be travelling in an open boat. It was 12deg. below ■ zero, which is the same as 44deg. below the freezing point of water. The blades bf the oars were all covered up with ice, the boat leaked, and the bottom inside was covered with ice. It snowed hard, nnd everything got covered up with snow, and altogether we had a sweet time of it, but we got there, and there is quite a little -satisfaction in ths'tr-;* especially when so many failed. We went right to work, and built a log cabin about -ri mile and a half up the Klondyke river, as we .preferred to be a little distance away from Dawson City, which is mostly made np of whisky shops and gambling houses, without which, of course, no mining town could exist. When we commenced building there was only one other cabin near us ; now there aye at least a dozen, so we won't be lonesome. We have an iron box-stove in one corner of thie cabin to cook om, and a big rock open fireplace in another. corner, and firewood is plentiful^, and we have provisions enough and good fur robes, so we are well and comfort-ably-fixed for the winter. Our bill of fare is limited, our grub-supply consisting cliiefly of -flour, beans, rice, bacon, salt pork and dried fruit, but that is about as much as anybody else has, so we can do well enough. Of one thing we are short, light. We. have one little window in our cabin, lOin by 12in, and we were offered £_ for it ; and we have a dozen candles each to last us through the long,. 'dreary winter (candles here are wortn 5s each), and as we cannot afford to buy at that figure j and our window-pane is small, and covered all the time with ice, and as ye have work enough outside to keep us busy during the limited period of daylight, you can easily see that the facilities for letterwriting are worse than merely limited: Kerosene cannot be' bought; there is none for sale ; and candles are absolutely necessary for mining ; so if my letter seems short, you will know why it is. Flour sells here for 6s a lb, and other provisions in the same proportion ; but as I nave grub enough for nearly a year, I don't very much mind what it is selling for. I have a mining claim on Lindow Creek, which as yet I have not done any work on, but I have, good reasons for -being very hopeful that* it will turn out pretty well: Of course gold-mining is a very uncertain business, but at least there is more prospect about it than keeping hooks in San Francisco. The hardships connected with it are not trifling, I know, but I have fully weighed all that, and am satisfied to take chances." " Dawson City, Feb. 21, 1898. "I happened to hear this evening of a fellow who is intending to start to-morrow morning to go up the river on the ice, and cut by Way of Juneau, and am writing these few lines in the hope of catching liim in ths morning, and asking him to mail the letter when he reaches a post office. The mail service this winter has been a delusion ancl a snare ; the Canadian officials have kept telling us that the mail for the outside was liable to start any day ; and here is the winter more than half over, and as yet no Canadian mail has either arrived or left here. A letter that I wrote home three months ago, has been lying in the post office ever since, and it is hard to tell when ib will be sent forward. lam well satisfied that had this been in American territory instead of British, half-a-dozen mails would have left here by this time. The Yankees are rushers, whatever else they may be. British rule, in this far-off nor' -west is a sad disgrace. If I had paper and ink to spare, I could write page ••iter page, showing how insufficient and incompetent the Government officials are here to fulfil the duties which they are sent here for. The winter has been more or less uneventful and monotonous, as all Arctic winters are apt to be, especially so when i-r.e is so short of the means of producing artificial light. Many cabins had absolutely no window at all ; some used bottles, and so managed to let in a little light, if we Lad had money enough, we could have bought candles at the rate of one dollar each, but it cost us eveiy cent we haa v, i;* c line. W« landed in Dawson 'busted. Fresh meat could be bought for Udol per lb, but lack of funds forced us to deny ourselves that iuxurv also. Soon after 1 arrived here I staked out a claim, but as yet have not done unv work on it, as it was tod ate to go up there and build a cabin and do the necesm rv work preparatory to mining. It 1 ani able, I shall sell the claim .in the spring ; the kind of work which mining involves here is by no means to my taste, and I am not built for hard labour, anyway. I made a trip down the Yukon to a post known as _ ovty-

Mile " ; it ia fifty-two mites from Dawson. I went down to bring up sflolb of noun ;. - was seven days making the round trip, and the last day was a holy fright.. About midday I was seized with violent dysentery, accompanied by nausea and vomiting. Ihe dogs I had were not well-traine'di dogs, and, unless I kept them close np behind the sled of another man who was travelling the same way as I. the brutes would not go at all. We both of us wanted to reach Dawson that night, he cspeciallv.and lie just kept going on the jog trot all the way. W hat it is to run along over rough ice, and through deep snow, and guide a heavily-loaded sled, and vomit as you run along, is an experience I would not wish for my worst enemy. When 1 reached Dawson. that night at eight o'clock, I was the most miserable wreck I've ever been in my life. I must have frozen my poor old nose at least a dozen times that day. For a couple of weeks after,. I was as weak as a cat, and even now I feel the effects of it. I am unable to stand the cold as I used to, and I watch tin signs of approaching spring with no small degree ' of satisfaction. Until a couple of weeks ago we were living about . two ,miles up the Klondyke River, but we have gone into business in Dawson, and have moved down, and are living right in Dawson Cty. My two partners and I form the firm of ' Grotschier, Lingard and Spencer,' mining brokers, land agents, originators and compilers of tne 'Dawson City and Yukon Directory.' We have written to San Francisco, applying for the agency of the Bank of California, and of several fire and marine insurance companies. Whether we get them or not remains to be seen, but, in any case, we mean to act as general agents for anything and everything, and we all think that we have a very fair chance of success. Of course there is no fortune in it, but we can be our own bosses and fancy we can make more money than at our old jobs in San Francisco. vVe have made friends of many of the wealthy miners, of the Government officials, and the most important business men in the place, and if we don't do pretty well, it is merely because luck is against us. I would very much like to get out. of here next autumn, but considering the amount of money 1 spent to get in here, I feel that it would be foolish to remain only one year, unless my health is endangered by the climate, and as long as I don't expose myself too much, the agrees with me rather than otherwise. I always could stand cold better than heat. Although we are not so far north as I was the winter I spent on the Porcupine, the cold has been more intense. The coldest we ever had it on the Porcupine was 50deg below zero, while here, the night before last,the thermometer registered 62 deg below zero, which is equivalent to 94deg below the freezing point of water. Fortunately I have a good lynx skin robe, •which I brought with me from San Francisco, and although it cost lOOdol, I feel that I have already got my money back half-a-dozen times over. Some men say that a fur robs is not necessary in this country, but as the old chap said, ' That is just where Paul and I differ." Don't worry about me at ali, because I have good, reliable men for partners, plenty of friends, plenty to eat, and a comfortable cabin to live in. and prospects that are a whole lot better and brighter than 50 per cent of the poor fellows have who came in here last autumn, not to say anything of the thousands wno will flock in here next spring. It is distressing to think of the number of men who will spend their last cent to get here next spring and will find nothing, suffer hardships, and have to work their way out of the country again, sadder and wiser men. Never feel, uneasy when a long interval elapses between my letters ; as I said before, the mail service is scandalous. I have nrt received any mail from home since the last one I got in San Francisco last June, so I, too, am waiting anxiously for news of you all. I hope it will be nothing but good news when it does come. If my old friends ask why I don't send them a line, tell them that a sheet of note-paper sold today for 4dol (16s), and we are hampered in om* business from the fact that we have hardly any paper."