Part 3 (1/2)

”To carry the survey from the island across to Chilkoot Inlet I had to get up on the mountains north of Haines mission, and from there could see both inlets. Owing to the bad weather I could get no observation for azimuth, and had to produce the survey from Pyramid Island to Taiya Inlet by reading the angles of deflection between the courses. At Taiya Inlet I got my first observation, and deduced the azimuths of my courses up to that point. Taiya Inlet has evidently been the valley of a glacier; its sides are steep and smooth from glacial action; and this, with the wind almost constantly blowing landward, renders getting upon the sh.o.r.e difficult. Some long sights were therefore necessary. The survey was made up to the head of the Inlet on the 2d of June.

Preparations were then commenced for taking the supplies and instruments over the coast range of mountains to the head of Lake Lindeman on the Lewes River. Commander Newell kindly aided me in making arrangements with the Indians, and did all he could to induce them to be reasonable in their demands. This, however, neither he nor any one else could accomplish. They refused to carry to the lake for less than $20 per hundred pounds, and as they had learned that the expedition was an English one, the second chief of the Chilkoot Indians recalled some memories of an old quarrel which the tribe had with the English many years ago, in which an uncle of his was killed, and he thought we should pay for the loss of his uncle by being charged an exorbitant price for our packing, of which he had the sole control. Commander Newell told him I had a permit from the Great Father at Was.h.i.+ngton to pa.s.s through his country safely, that he would see that I did so, and if the Indians interfered with me they would be punished for doing so. After much talk they consented to carry our stuff to the summit of the mountain for $10 per hundred pounds. This is about two-thirds of the whole distance, includes all the climbing and all the woods, and is by far the most difficult part of the way.

”On the 6th of June 120 Indians, men, women and children, started for the summit. I sent two of my party with them to see the goods delivered at the place agreed upon. Each carrier when given a pack also got a ticket, on which was inscribed the contents of the pack, its weight, and the amount the individual was to get for carrying it. They were made to understand that they had to produce these tickets on delivering their packs, but were not told for what reason. As each pack was delivered one of my men receipted the ticket and returned it. The Indians did not seem to understand the import of this; a few of them pretended to have lost their tickets; and as they could not get paid without them, my a.s.sistant, who had duplicates of every ticket, furnished them with receipted copies, after examining their packs.

”While they were packing to the summit I was producing the survey, and I met them on their return at the foot of the canon, about eight miles from the coast, where I paid them. They came to the camp in the early morning before I was up, and for about two hours there was quite a hubbub. When paying them I tried to get their names, but very few of them would give any Indian name, nearly all, after a little reflection, giving some common English name. My list contained little else than Jack, Tom, Joe, Charlie, &c. some of which were duplicated three and four times. I then found why some of them had pretended to lose their tickets at the summit. Three or four who had thus acted presented themselves twice for payment, producing first the receipted ticket, afterwards the one they claimed to have lost, demanding pay for both.

They were much taken aback when they found that their duplicity had been discovered.

”These Indians are perfectly heartless. They will not render even the smallest aid to each other without payment; and if not to each other, much less to a white man. I got one of them, whom I had previously a.s.sisted with his pack, to take me and two of my party over a small creek in his canoe. After putting us across he asked for money, and I gave him half a dollar. Another man stepped up and demanded pay, stating that the canoe was his. To see what the result would be, I gave to him the same amount as to the first. Immediately there were three or four more claimants for the canoe. I dismissed them with a blessing, and made up my mind that I would wade the next creek.

”While paying them I was a little apprehensive of trouble, for they insisted on crowding into my tent, and for myself and the four men who were with me to have attempted to eject them would have been to invite trouble. I am strongly of the opinion that these Indians would have been much more difficult to deal with if they had not known that Commander Newell remained in the inlet to see that I got through without accident.

”While making the survey from the head of tide water I took the azimuths and alt.i.tudes of several of the highest peaks around the head of the inlet, in order to locate them, and obtain an idea of the general height of the peaks in the coast range. As it does not appear to have been done before, I have taken the opportunity of naming all the peaks, the positions of which I fixed in the above way. The names and alt.i.tudes appear on my map.

”While going up from the head of canoe navigation on the Taiya River I took the angles of elevation of each station from the preceding one. I would have done this from tide water up, but found many of the courses so short and with so little increase in height that with the instrument I had it was inappreciable. From these angles I have computed the height of the summit of the Taiya Pa.s.s,[2] above the head of canoe navigation, as it appeared to me in June, 1887, and find it to be 3,378 feet. What depth of snow there was I cannot say. The head of canoe navigation I estimate at about 120 feet above tide water. Dr. Dawson gives it as 124 feet.

[Footnote 2: The distance from the head of Taiya Inlet to the summit of the pa.s.s is 15 miles, and the whole length of the pa.s.s to Lake Lindeman is 23 miles. Messrs. Healy and Wilson, dealers in general merchandise and miners' supplies at Taiya, have a train of pack horses carrying freight from the head of Lynn Ca.n.a.l to the summit. They hope to be able to take freight through to Lake Lindeman with their horses during the present season.]

”I determined the descent from the summit to Lake Lindeman by carrying the aneroid from the lake to the summit and back again, the interval of time from start to return being about eight hours. Taking the mean of the readings at the lake, start and return, and the single reading at the summit, the height of the summit above the lake was found to be 1,237 feet. While making the survey from the summit down to the lake I took the angles of depression of each station from the preceding one, and from these angles I deduced the difference of height, which I found to be 1,354 feet, or 117 feet more than that found by the aneroid. This is quite a large difference; but when we consider the alt.i.tude of the place, the sudden changes of temperature, and the atmospheric conditions, it is not more than one might expect.

”While at Juneau I heard reports of a low pa.s.s from the head of Chilkoot Inlet to the head waters of Lewes River. During the time I was at the head of Taiya Inlet I made inquiries regarding it, and found that there was such a pa.s.s, but could learn nothing definite about it from either whites or Indians. As Capt. Moore, who accompanied me, was very anxious to go through it, and as the reports of the Taiya Pa.s.s indicated that no wagon road or railroad could ever be built through it, while the new pa.s.s appeared, from what little knowledge I could get of it, to be much lower and possibly feasible for a wagon road, I determined to send the captain by that way, if I could get an Indian to accompany him. This, I found, would be difficult to do. None of the Chilkoots appeared to know anything of the pa.s.s, and I concluded that they wished to keep its existence and condition a secret. The Tagish, or Stick Indians, as the interior Indians are locally called, are afraid to do anything in opposition to the wishes of the Chilkoots; so it was difficult to get any of them to join Capt. Moore; but after much talk and encouragement from the whites around, one of them named ”Jim” was induced to go. He had been through this pa.s.s before, and proved reliable and useful. The information obtained from Capt. Moore's exploration I have incorporated in my plan of the survey from Taiya Inlet, but it is not as complete as I would have liked. I have named this pa.s.s ”White Pa.s.s,” in honor of the late Hon. Thos. White, Minister of the Interior, under whose authority the expedition was organized. Commencing at Taiya Inlet, about two miles south of its north end, it follows up the valley, of the Shkagway River to its source, and thence down the valley of another river which Capt.

Moore reported to empty into the Takone or Windy Arm of Bove Lake (Schwatka). Dr. Dawson says this stream empties into Taku Arm, and in that event Capt. Moore is mistaken. Capt. Moore did not go all the way through to the lake, but a.s.sumed from reports he heard from the miners and others that the stream flowed into Windy Arm, and this also was the idea of the Indian ”Jim” from what I could gather from his remarks in broken English and Chinook. Capt. Moore estimates the distance from tide water to the summit at about 18 miles, and from the summit to the lake at about 22 to 23 miles. He reports the pa.s.s as thickly timbered all the way through.

”The timber line on the south side of the Taiya Pa.s.s, as determined by barometer reading, is about 2,300 feet above the sea, while on the north side it is about 1,000 feet below the summit. This large difference is due, I think, to the different conditions in the two places. On the south side the valley is narrow and deep, and the sun cannot produce its full effect. The snow also is much deeper there, owing to the quant.i.ty which drifts in from the surrounding mountains. On the north side the surface is sloping, and more exposed to the sun's rays. On the south side the timber is of the cla.s.s peculiar to the coast, and on the north that peculiar to the interior. The latter would grow at a greater alt.i.tude than the coast timber. It is possible that the summit of White Pa.s.s is not higher than the timber line on the north of the Taiya Pa.s.s, or about 2,500 feet above tide water, and it is possibly even lower than this, as the timber in a valley such as the White Pa.s.s would hardly live at the same alt.i.tude as on the open slope on the north side.

”Capt. Moore has had considerable experience in building roads in mountainous countries. He considers that this would be an easy route for a wagon road compared with some roads he has seen in British Columbia.

a.s.suming his distances to be correct, and the height of the pa.s.s to be probably about correctly indicated, the grades would not be very steep, and a railroad could easily be carried through if necessary.

”After completing the survey down to the lake, I set about getting my baggage down too. Of all the Indians who came to the summit with packs, only four or five could be induced to remain and pack down to the lake, although I was paying them at the rate of $4 per hundred pounds. After one trip down only two men remained, and they only in hopes of stealing something. One of them appropriated a pair of boots, and was much surprised to find that he had to pay for them on being settled with. I could not blame them much for not caring to work, as the weather was very disagreeable--it rained or snowed almost continuously. After the Indians left I tried to get down the stuff with the aid of my own men, but it was slavish and unhealthy labor, and after the first trip one of them was laid up with what appeared to be inflammatory rheumatism. The first time the party crossed, the sun was s.h.i.+ning brightly, and this brought on snow blindness, the pain of which only those who have suffered from this complaint can realize. I had two sleds with me which were made in Juneau specially for the work of getting over the mountains and down the lakes on the ice. With these I succeeded in bringing about a ton and a-half to the lakes, but found that the time it would take to get all down in this way would seriously interfere with the programme arranged with Dr. Dawson, to say nothing of the suffering of the men and myself, and the liability to sickness which protracted physical exertion under such uncomfortable conditions and continued suffering from snow blindness expose us to. I had with me a white man who lived at the head of the inlet with a Tagish Indian woman. This man had a good deal of influence with the Tagish tribe, of whom the greater number were then in the neighborhood where he resided, trying to get some odd jobs of work, and I sent him to the head of the inlet to try and induce the Tagish Indians to undertake the transportation, offering them $5 per hundred pounds. In the meantime Capt. Moore and the Indian ”Jim” had rejoined me. I had their a.s.sistance for a day or two, and ”Jim's”

presence aided indirectly in inducing the Indians to come to my relief.

”The Tagish are little more than slaves to the more powerful coast tribes, and are in constant dread of offending them in any way. One of the privileges which the coast tribes claim is the exclusive right to all work on the coast or in its vicinity, and the Tagish are afraid to dispute this claim. When my white man asked the Tagish to come over and pack they objected on the grounds mentioned. After considerable ridicule of their cowardice, and explanation of the fact that they had the exclusive right to all work in their own country, the country on the side of the north side of the coast range being admitted by the coast Indians to belong to the Tagish tribe just as the coast tribes had the privilege of doing all the work on the coast side of the mountains, and that one of their number was already working with me unmolested, and likely to continue so, nine of them came over, and in fear and trembling began to pack down to the lake. After they were at work for a few days some of the Chilkoots came out and also started to work. Soon I had quite a number at work and was getting my stuff down quite fast. But this good fortune was not to continue. Owing to the prevailing wet, cold weather on the mountains, and the difficulty of getting through the soft wet snow, the Indians soon began to quit work for a day or two at a time, and to gamble with one another for the wages already earned. Many of them wanted to be paid in full, but this I positively refused, knowing that to do so was to have them all apply for their earnings and leave me until necessity compelled them to go to work again. I once for all made them distinctly understand that I would not pay any of them until the whole of the stuff was down. As many of them had already earned from twelve to fifteen dollars each, to lose which was a serious matter to them, they reluctantly resumed work and kept at it until all was delivered. This done, I paid them off, and set about getting my outfit across the lake, which I did with my own party and the two Peterborough canoes which I had with me.

”These two canoes travelled about 3,000 miles by rail and about 1,000 miles by steams.h.i.+p before being brought into service. They did considerable work on Chilkoot and Tagish Inlets, and were then packed over to the head of Lewes River (Lake Lindeman), from where they were used in making the survey of Lewes and Yukon Rivers. In this work they made about 650 landings. They were then transported on sleighs from the boundary on the Yukon to navigable water on the Porcupine.

”In the spring of 1888 they descended the latter river, heavily loaded, and through much rough water, to the mouth of Bell's River, and up it to McDougall's Pa.s.s. They were then carried over the pa.s.s to Poplar River and were used in going down the latter to Peel River, and thence up Mackenzie River 1,400 miles; or, exclusive of railway and s.h.i.+p carriage, they were carried about 170 miles and did about 2,500 miles of work for the expedition, making in all about 1,700 landings in no easy manner and going through some very bad water. I left them at Fort Chipewyan in fairly good condition, and, with a little painting, they would go through the same ordeal again.

”After getting all my outfit over to the foot of Lake Lindeman I set some of the party to pack it to the head of Lake Bennet.

”I employed the rest of the party in looking for timber to build a boat to carry my outfit of provisions and implements down the river to the vicinity of the international boundary, a distance of about 700 miles.

It took several days to find a tree large enough to make plank for the boat I wanted, as the timber around the upper end of the lake is small and scrubby. My boat was finished on the evening of the 11th of July, and on the 12th I started a portion of the party to load it and go ahead with it and the outfit to the canon. They had instructions to examine the canon and, if necessary, to carry a part of the outfit past it--in any case, enough to support the party back to the coast should accident necessitate such procedure. With the rest of the party I started to carry on the survey, which may now be said to have fairly started ahead on the lakes. This proved tedious work, on account of the stormy weather.

”In the summer months there is nearly always a wind blowing in from the coast; it blows down the lakes and produces quite a heavy swell. This would not prevent the canoes going with the decks on, but, as we had to land every mile or so, the rollers breaking on the generally flat beach proved very troublesome. On this account I found I could not average more than ten miles per day on the lakes, little more than half of what could be done on the river.

”The survey was completed to the canon on the 20th of July. There I found the party with the large boat had arrived on the 18th, having carried a part of the supplies past the canon, and were awaiting my arrival to run through it with the rest in the boat. Before doing so, however, I made an examination of the canon. The rapids below it, particularly the last rapid of the series (called the White Horse by the miners), I found would not be safe to run. I sent two men through the canon in one of the canoes to await the arrival of the boat, and to be ready in case of an accident to pick us up. Every man in the party was supplied with a life-preserver, so that should a casualty occur we would all have floated. Those in the canoe got through all right; but they would not have liked to repeat the trip. They said the canoe jumped about a great deal more than they thought it would, and I had the same experience when going through in the boat.

”The pa.s.sage through is made in about three minutes, or at the rate of about 12-1/2 miles an hour. If the boat is kept clear of the sides there is not much danger in high water; but in low water there is a rock in the middle of the channel, near the upper end of the canon, that renders the pa.s.sage more difficult. I did not see this rock myself, but got my information from some miners I met in the interior, who described it as being about 150 yards down from the head and a little to the west of the middle of the channel. In low water it barely projects above the surface. When I pa.s.sed through there was no indication of it, either from the bank above or from the boat.

”The distance from the head to the foot of the canon is five-eighths of a mile. There is a basin about midway in it about 150 yards in diameter.