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WITH SACK AND STOCK IN ALASKA

PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON




                           WITH SACK AND STOCK
                                IN ALASKA

                                   BY

                      GEORGE BROKE, A.C., F.R.G.S.

                                 LONDON
                        LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
                    AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16th STREET
                                  1891

                          _All rights reserved_




                                Dedicated

                            TO THE MEMORY OF

                                  A⸺ M⸺

                        KILLED ON THE DÜSSISTOCK

                             AUGUST 16, 1890




PREFACE


The publishing of these simple notes is due to the wishes of one who is
now no more. But for this they would probably have never seen the light,
and I feel therefore that less apology is needed for their crudeness and
‘diariness’ than would otherwise have been the case.

                                                                    G. B.




CONTENTS


                                                                      PAGE

                                CHAPTER I

                             LONDON TO SITKA

    The summons—Across the Atlantic in the ‘Polynesian’—A deceitful
    car-conductor—The C.P.R.—At Victoria—On the ‘Ancon’—Fort
    Wrangel—Juneau—Sitka                                                 1

                               CHAPTER II

                            SITKA TO YAKUTAT

    The town—Ascent of Sha-klokh—Expedition to Edgcumbe—Dick’s
    dismissal—Enlisting recruits—Ascent of Verstovia—Arrival of
    W.—On board the ‘Alpha’—Miserable weather—Run ashore at Yakutat     20

                               CHAPTER III

                           OPENING APPROACHES

    Getting canoes and men—A false start—Icy Bay—Torrents of
    rain—On march—The Yahkhtze-tah-heen—A wet camp—More wading—Our
    forces—Camp on the glacier—Across the ice—The Chaix Hills           37

                               CHAPTER IV

                      AN ATTACK AND A COUNTERMARCH

    A long lie—Men return to the beach—We make a
    cache—Shifting camp—The Libbey Glacier—The south-east
    face of St. Elias—Right-about-turn—Lake Castani—The Guyot
    Glacier—Reappearance of the men—Wild-geese for supper               61

                                CHAPTER V

                     FURTHER ADVANCE AND MY RETREAT

    Across the Tyndall Glacier—Ptarmigan—Another bear—The Daisy and
    Coal Glaciers—A catastrophe—The others go on—Alone with Billy
    and Jimmy—More geese—The blue bear—Marmot hunting                   81

                               CHAPTER VI

                            BACK TO THE SHORE

    Ptarmigan with a revolver—Back to Camp G—The others
    return—Their narrative—The men turn up again—We start down—A
    wasp’s nest—Mosquitoes—Wading extraordinary—We leave Icy Bay—A
    luxurious breakfast                                                 99

                               CHAPTER VII

                             LIFE AT YAKUTAT

    Curio-hunting—Small plover—W. goes down on the ‘Active’—Siwash
    dogs—A great potlatch—Cricket under difficulties—No signs of
    the ‘Alpha’—I determine to go down in a canoe—The white men
    accompany me                                                       122

                              CHAPTER VIII

                            YAKUTAT TO SITKA

    Farewells—A drunken skipper—Cape Fairweather—Loss of our
    frying-pan—Mount Fairweather and its glaciers—Murphy’s
    Cove—Stuck at Cape Spencer—Salmon and sour-dough bread—We reach
    Cape Edwardes—The ‘Pinta’—Safe back—Height of St. Elias            137

                                 _MAPS_

    COAST OF PART OF SOUTH-EASTERN ALASKA, SHOWING THE ST. ELIAS
    ALPS                                                    _To face p._ 1

    THE SOUTHERN <DW72>s OF MOUNT ST. ELIAS                            〃 61





[Illustration: COAST OF part of SOUTH-EASTERN ALASKA showing the ST.
ELIAS ALPS.

_Longmans, Green & Co., London & New York. F.S. Weller._]




WITH SACK AND STOCK IN ALASKA




CHAPTER I

LONDON TO SITKA


On the twenty-fifth of April, 1888, I was playing golf on our little
links at home, and had driven off for the Stile Hole, situated on the
lawn-tennis ground, when I observed the butler emerge from the house
with an orange envelope in his hand, and come towards me across the
lawn. Having with due deliberation played a neat approach shot over the
railings on to the green, I climbed over after it, putted out the hole,
and then went to meet him. The telegram proved to be from my friend
Harold T., with whom at Saas in the previous summer I had discussed
Seton-Karr’s book on Alaska, and we had both come to the conclusion that
we should much like to go there. Finding that I should have the summer
of ’88 at my disposal, I had written to him at the end of March to ask
about his plans and now got this telegram in reply. It was sent from
Victoria, B.C., and was an urgent appeal to join him and his brother at
once, as they meant to make an attempt on Mount St. Elias that summer,
and must start northward by the end of May. I retired to the smoking-room
to consider the situation, and finally came to the conclusion that such a
hurried departure might be managed.

I crossed over to Brussels, where I was then posted, packed up all my
goods and chattels, left masses of P.P.C. cards, and returned again
three days later. The afternoon of May 11 found me on board the Allan
liner ‘Polynesian’ at Liverpool. I was fortunate in making some very
charming acquaintances among the few saloon passengers on board, and
though the good ship did not bely her sobriquet of ‘Roly-poly,’ we had a
very pleasant crossing till the 17th, when we got into a horrible cold
wet fog, the temperature on deck not rising above 34° for two days,
while for about twelve hours we ran along the edge of, and occasionally
through, thin field-ice, all broken into very small pieces. About noon
on the 18th we sighted land to the north, covered with snow, and entered
the Gulf of St. Lawrence next day. We stopped off Rimouski to pick up
our pilot at lunch-time on Whit-Sunday, a lovely day but very cold, and
having left summer in England, we seemed to have returned suddenly into
winter. Next morning we awoke to find ourselves at Quebec.

As we had brought nine hundred emigrants, and the ‘Oregon’ and
‘Carthaginian’ came in at the same time, there was a mob of over two
thousand despairing passengers at the landing-stage station hunting
wildly for their luggage. I abandoned the conflict and went round the
town, calling at the Post Office, in hopes of hearing something from
H., but there was nothing, which was not very wonderful, as, though I
had telegraphed to say I was coming, I had not indicated my route in
any way. So I returned and collected my things, and after a successful
interview with the Customs officials got the greater part of them
checked to Vancouver, and conveyed the remainder to the railway station,
where I found my friends of the voyage. There was a train to Montreal
at half-past one, but it was very crowded, and we fell victims to the
blandishments of a parlour-car conductor, who represented to us that his
car would be attached to the emigrant special which would leave at three
o’clock and reach Montreal as soon, if not sooner, than the ordinary
train, as it would run right through. We fell into the snare, deposited
our properties in the car, and went off into the town again, returning
punctually at three. Alas there was no sign of the emigrant train, and
it did not leave till six, while its progress even then was of the most
contemptible character, stopping for long periods at benighted little
stations, so that we did not reach Montreal till three in the morning.
Fortunately we had furnished ourselves with biscuits, potted meat,
etc., including whisky, and so did not actually starve, but we were all
very cross, the ladies especially; and though the train was going to
continue its weird journey we declined to have anything more to do with
it, and hurried up to the big hotel, where we were soon wrapped in
dreamless slumbers, which lasted so long that we very nearly came under
the operation of a stern rule which decreed that no breakfasts should be
served after half-past ten.

After seeing as much of the city as we could during the day, we had
an excellent dinner, drove down in plenty of time to catch the 8.30
Pacific train, and ensconced ourselves in the recesses of a most
admirable sleeping-car, the name of which was, I fancy, the ‘Sydney.’ The
C.P.R. berths are most comfortable, and so wide that in many cases two
people are willing to share one, but the greater part of dressing and
undressing has to be done inside the berth, as in all Pullmans, which
is inconvenient till you get used to it. In this respect the gentlemen
are better off than the ladies, as we were able to make use of the
smoking-room which was next our lavatories, while I fancy the ladies’
accommodation was much more circumscribed.

The next day was very hot, and was spent in running past little lakes
and through marshy forest, called ‘muskeg’ or peat land. Early in the
morning we picked up an excellent dining-car in which we breakfasted,
lunched, and dined most luxuriously, the intervals of the day being
occupied with whist, tobacco, and light literature. On the following
morning we found ourselves skirting the northern edge of Lake Superior,
enjoying superb scenery as the line followed the curves of the rock-bound
shore. That day we had the best dining-car of the whole trip, which
unfortunately was taken off after lunch, and we had to content ourselves
with high tea at Savanne; but a far greater disaster awaited us next
morning, for, on inquiring for our breakfast at a fairly early hour,
we heard that an ill-mannered goods train had run into it in the night
as it was peaceably waiting for us, and had reduced it to a heap of
disintegrated fragments. This was a pretty state of things, but I had
been warned beforehand that such calamities were sometimes to be met
with, and so our party were prepared. Setting up an Etna inside a
biscuit-tin so as to guard against the possibility of disaster from
the jolting of the carriage, we brewed our tea, and made a comfortable
meal off biscuits, potted meat, sardines, and marmalade, while the
rest of the passengers, who seemed to have neglected these precautions,
glared upon us in hungry envy. However, we reached Winnipeg at noon,
and they rushed in a tumultuous body to the refreshment-room. Here we
overtook that ghastly train in which we had started from Quebec, and
some waifs and strays were recovered which the ladies had left behind.
At Portage-la-Prairie a dining-car was attached, and we were enabled to
get our evening meal in peace. Next morning, Saturday, we secured our
travelling restaurant at a place called Moosejaw about six o’clock—at
least I was told so.

And here I wish to protest against the insane habit of early rising which
seems to possess the passengers on the C.P.R. I am an early riser myself,
in fact I pique myself on it, but in this car I was always the last,
with the exception of one of my friends, a young Englishman ranching at
Calgary. By seven o’clock the Babel of voices, and the noise made by our
 attendant as he stowed away the beds, compelled one to get up,
which was unkind if one had been talking and smoking till 1 or