At low tide broad bands of russet hued5 algae6 border the sea-washed shores. Giant kelp break loose from their moorings and go floating about, their yellow fronds7 and orange heads contrasting strangely with the intense green of the water. The Indians say these kelp are the queues of shipwrecked Chinamen. Many eagles build their nests in the trees, while myriads8 of seagulls skim the water.
The scenery of the Stickine river is equally[73] grand. Three hundred glaciers9 drain their waters into this river.
The tourist meets the first tide water glacier10 in the Bay of Le Conte. The Stickine Indians called it Hutli, Thunder Bay. Here, they say, dwells Hutli, the Thunder Bird. To their imaginative mind the cracking of the ice and the noise of the falling icebergs11, is the cry of Hutli, and the roar of the falling water the flapping of his huge wings.
Juneau is located at the foot of Mt. Juneau, which is more than three thousand feet high. It is snow-capped and delicious water comes pouring down the mountain sides. Juneau is a newly built town and is the largest on the coast. It has a population of thirty-five hundred. Just below the town is a village of Taku Indians. Back of the village are the grave houses. Here we find totem poles and Indian offerings to the spirits. Steamers bring to this wharf13 fruits and vegetables. Radishes, lettuce14 and onions, also rhubarb, look tempting15 in the gardens. Juneau is the home of many miners and prospectors16. The chief mining interest in this vicinity is the Treadwell mines,[74] located on Douglas island, just across Gastineau channel from Juneau. The ore runs from two dollars and twenty cents to four dollars per ton only, but the water power coming from the mountains makes the working of the mines cheap, so that the company is enabled to pay large dividends17. Hundreds of sacks of gold, nearly free from rock, lay day and night on the wharves18, waiting for the steamers to carry it away to the stamping mill. On the wharf at Treadwell lay twenty thousand dollars.
The mill spoken of is the largest in the world. It runs eight hundred and eighty stamps day and night. There is enough ore in sight to run the mill twenty-four hours a day for thirty years. The mountains are being literally19 blasted down and carted away. The Indians work in the mines, but they cannot compete with their Anglo Saxon brothers, they earning only about half as much. They will not trust the white man over night, hence are paid at the close of each day.
The Indians wear citizens’ clothes and carry watches. Many of them sport canes20 when walking about the streets. The women and girls do the family washing on the rocks in the mountain streams. One little black-eyed,[75] brown-faced witch who said her name was Troke Lewis, was washing handkerchiefs on a big rock over which the water poured. She paused to talk to us, a cake of soap held high in one hand, while with the other she held her handkerchiefs down in the cold water on the rock.
Just around the cliff, back of Juneau, lies the beautiful Silver Bow cañon.
There are plenty of fine fish in the bay. Salmon21, trout22 and eels24 abound25. The writer caught a trout weighing ten pounds and an eel23 weighing one pound.
Skagway is located on the Lynn canal at the foot of Mt. Dewey, which rises sheer fifty-five hundred feet above the sea. The climate is very mild, the thermometer never being known to register over six below zero. A veritable Ganymede sends down a vast supply of the most delicious water. Skagway is the coming city of Alaska. It will be to Alaska what Chicago is to the Middle Western States, what St. Paul and Minneapolis are to the Northwest and what Seattle is to the North Pacific coast. Streets are being laid out and other improvements are going on. Log cabins covered with tar26 paper[76] are being replaced by more substantial buildings. People are coming here to stay and the representative inhabitants of this youthful town are men and women of refinement27 and culture from the Eastern and Middle States.
At Skagway all sorts of vegetables are growing in the gardens, lettuce, radishes, onions, potatoes, cabbage and tomatoes.
We spent the Fourth of July in this place. Congressman28 Warner invited us to join him and the senatorial party for the day. We went to the summit of the Selkirk mountains, to the head of the Yukon River on the White Pass and Yukon railway, after which the party was entertained in Skagway.
There are plenty of fine fish in the bay. Salmon, trout and eels abound. The writer caught a trout weighing ten pounds and an eel weighing one pound.
Skagway is located on the Lynn canal at the foot of Mt. Dewey, which rises sheer fifty-five hundred feet above the sea. The climate is very mild, the thermometer never being known to register over six below zero. A veritable Ganymede sends down a vast supply of the most delicious water. Skagway is the coming city of Alaska. It will be to Alaska what Chicago is to the Middle Western States, what St. Paul and Minneapolis are to the Northwest and what Seattle is to the North Pacific coast. Streets are being laid out and other improvements are going on. Log cabins covered with tar paper[76] are being replaced by more substantial buildings. People are coming here to stay and the representative inhabitants of this youthful town are men and women of refinement and culture from the Eastern and Middle States.
At Skagway all sorts of vegetables are growing in the gardens, lettuce, radishes, onions, potatoes, cabbage and tomatoes.
We spent the Fourth of July in this place. Congressman Warner invited us to join him and the senatorial party for the day. We went to the summit of the Selkirk mountains, to the head of the Yukon River on the White Pass and Yukon railway, after which the party was entertained in Skagway.
The wagon29 relegated30 the trail to oblivion. Then came the railroad and travel and commerce deserted31 the wagon road. Here they lie, the foot trail on one side, the wagon way on the other, and just above the road way, the[79] railway. Three path ways: that of the untaught, unskilled Indian, that of the enterprising pioneer and that of the modern engineer, traverse this play ground of the Titans.
At the summit of the mountains Old Glory waves beside the British flag. Several British red-coated police are on duty at this point. They live in one-room frame houses covered with sail cloth.
The Yukon river rises at this point and flows four thousand miles into Behring Sea. Just now the head is a bank of snow from which we made snowballs.
The railroad will shortly be completed to Lake Bennett. From that point, with the exception of White Horse rapids, is a clear, unimpeded water route to Dawson City, in the heart of the Klondike.
From the Dawson City Midnight Sun we learn that this metropolis32 of the Northwest Territory is quite a busy place.
Hundreds are leaving for the Cape3 Nome country by every steamer, and many are making the trip in open boats.
A disastrous33 fire occurred on the hill back of Dawson on Wednesday last, when about forty cabins were destroyed by the blaze. In[80] many cases the entire contents were destroyed, while some few were enabled to save their outfits34. The fire caught from a small bonfire down near the Klondike, and in the first ravine up that stream. It ran up the hill to the trail, and then burning down towards the ferry, also destroyed half the homes on the lower side of the trail. The loss is estimated to reach about five thousand dollars, and fell on a class who could ill afford the loss, some being left absolutely destitute35.
Scows and boats through from Lake Bennett began arriving in great numbers the last of the week, and are continuing to do so.
Trunks and bandboxes are taking the place of dunnage bags heretofore brought into the country. Every steamer is unloading cords of them.
Men who during the winter were spending hundreds of dollars over the gambling36 tables are now looking for a chance to work their passage out.
The suspicious actions of two strangers over on Gold Run has caused gold sacks to be guarded more carefully.
Two men while poling a boat up the river, were overturned near the mouth of the Klondike,[81] losing a valuable kit37 of tools. The men were picked up by a boat pushed off from the river bank.
The grand opera house, built by Charles Meddows, is to be the finest building in Dawson. It is three stories high. The auditorium38 has a seating capacity of two thousand and a double row of boxes, forty-two in number.
From present indication Dawson will celebrate the Fourth of July as it was never before celebrated39. Citizens of Canada are as eager supporters of this movement as are those of the States. There was a public mass meeting held in June at the A. C. warehouse40, when there was about five hundred people present, and an executive committee appointed. Since then the different committees have been appointed and are meeting even better support from all quarters than expected.
The foreman of the Gold Hill mine saved from his washup a thousand dollars’ worth of handsome nuggets. Over these he kept a jealous eye continually until last Friday. Between seven and eight o’clock that evening he went to a neighboring cabin to bid good-by to Sam Miller41, who was preparing to return to the States. During his temporary absence some[82] sneak42 thief entered the cabin and cutting open a valise secured the sack of nuggets, but in his haste overlooked fifteen hundred dollars in dust lying near by.
We learn that a responsible firm is organizing a properly conducted express company, which will be prepared to carry parcels, gold dust, and attend to commissions. Thus a long felt want will be supplied in connection with Dawson’s dealing43 with outside points.
The foreman of the Eldorado is doing the finest piece of mining yet seen in the Klondike. A passer by would think that his large force of men was laying off a baseball ground, so level is the entire five hundred-foot claim being stripped for summer sluicing44.
Cards are out announcing the marriage of two of Dawson’s most prominent young people.
A beautiful baby girl born over on Bonanza45 claim the other day is considered the most valuable nugget on the claim.
Patrick O’Flynn, a prisoner serving a six months’ sentence, escaped Thursday and has gone, nobody knows where. He, with other prisoners, was carrying water from the Yukon when he bolted among the tents along the river[83] bank, mingled46 with the crowd and was lost sight of. One hundred dollars reward was promptly47 offered for information leading to his capture.
The Yukon has been steadily48 rising for the past week, and the high water mark is not yet reached. Water is backed up in the Klondike, overflowing49 the island.
This little city came near having a Johnstown flood last winter. An eye witness thus describes how the ice went out at Dawson. The river had been frozen all winter. When a few warm spring days came, the melting ice and snow in the mountains sent down immense volumes of water the strain of which the ice could not long withstand. All day the people stood helplessly about discussing the situation. A flood seemed inevitable50; the greater part of the city was in danger of being swept away; until three o’clock in the afternoon the situation was unchanged, the ice gave no evidence of going.
Suddenly and almost simultaneously51 all along the city front the ice was seen to commence moving. A steamboat whistled and the cry went up, “The ice is moving,” and thousands of spectators rushed to the river bank[84] just in time to see it go. The dancing masses of huge pieces of ice weighing tons upon tons, reared high in the air and tumbling over each other as they fell, presented a most beautiful spectacle. At ten o’clock it jammed and raised the water about three feet, doing no damage except smashing the wheel of the steamer Nellie Irving. In ten minutes the jam broke and the next morning the river, which the day before was frozen solid across, was entirely52 free except for blocks of floating ice from above.
Last year ice jammed and, backing the water up, flooded the town, doing much damage.
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1
scenic
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| adj.自然景色的，景色优美的 | |
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delta
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| n.（流的）角洲 | |
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cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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portray
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| v.描写，描述；画(人物、景象等) | |
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hued
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| 有某种色调的 | |
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algae
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| n.水藻，海藻 | |
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fronds
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| n.蕨类或棕榈类植物的叶子( frond的名词复数 ) | |
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myriads
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| n.无数，极大数量( myriad的名词复数 ) | |
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glaciers
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| 冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 ) | |
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glacier
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| n.冰川，冰河 | |
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icebergs
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| n.冰山，流冰( iceberg的名词复数 ) | |
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guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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wharf
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| n.码头，停泊处 | |
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lettuce
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| n.莴苣；生菜 | |
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tempting
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| a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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prospectors
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| n.勘探者，探矿者( prospector的名词复数 ) | |
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dividends
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| 红利( dividend的名词复数 )； 股息； 被除数； （足球彩票的）彩金 | |
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wharves
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| n.码头，停泊处( wharf的名词复数 ) | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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canes
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| n.（某些植物，如竹或甘蔗的）茎( cane的名词复数 )；（用于制作家具等的）竹竿；竹杖 | |
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salmon
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| n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的 | |
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trout
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| n.鳟鱼；鲑鱼(属) | |
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eel
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| n.鳗鲡 | |
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eels
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| abbr. 电子发射器定位系统（=electronic emitter location system） | |
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abound
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| vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于 | |
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tar
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| n.柏油，焦油；vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于 | |
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refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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Congressman
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| n.（美）国会议员 | |
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wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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relegated
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| v.使降级( relegate的过去式和过去分词 )；使降职；转移；把…归类 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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outfits
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| n.全套装备( outfit的名词复数 )；一套服装；集体；组织v.装备，配置设备，供给服装( outfit的第三人称单数 ) | |
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destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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kit
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| n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物 | |
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auditorium
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| n.观众席，听众席；会堂，礼堂 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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warehouse
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| n.仓库；vt.存入仓库 | |
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miller
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| n.磨坊主 | |
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sneak
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| vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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sluicing
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| v.冲洗( sluice的现在分词 )；（指水）喷涌而出；漂净；给…安装水闸 | |
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bonanza
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| n.富矿带，幸运，带来好运的事 | |
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mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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overflowing
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| n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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