How to go to the Klondike; how to live when you get there; what hardships must be endured; what the prospects of finding gold, and how one must go about - it these
and other questions hundreds of prospective Klondikers are anxious to hear answered were discussed at Tattersall's yesterday afternoon before an audience of several hundred people by Dr. E. O. Crewe, 4534 Evans avenue, who returned last fall from a three years' sojourn in the land of ice and gold.
It was a "plain, unvarnished tale" that was told by the young Englishman, and in the telling of it he took occasion to brand the British lion, as he appears in Klondike dress, as a hog with a lion's skin thrown over him. He advised his hearers, if intending to go to the Yukon region in search of gold, to shun the Klondike region and go
farther down the river, where he maintains there are equally promising opportunities to get rich, no prospective tribute to pay to an avaricious power, and less trouble from
lawlessness and depredations.
The stories of hardships suffered by travelers over the Chilkoot Pass, as printed recently in the newspapers, Dr. Crewe branded as exaggerations. He has made the trip on three occasions, and described in detail its various stages.
"From the head of the new navigation, six miles north of Dyea, where you are taken by steamer," said the speaker, "the overland trip to Lake Linderman is only twenty-eight miles. Traveling with a pack one does not go fast, and the trip generally takes three days, but there is only one hard day, and that isn't hard unless you think so. The first day - to Sheep Camp - is as pleasant as a walk in State street, and no harder if
State street happens to be crowded. The next stop is at the Stone House, as it is called. This is the last stop before the pass. There you get up early in the morning to get an early start, and at night you will camp three or four miles beyond the pass. Why, I have crossed the pass itself with 100 pounds on my back in three hours. Sometimes it was like climbing the roof of the house. Sometimes I was in snow and slush up to my knees. But there is no danger and no difficulty. You can't lose your way. There's a wall of rock on one side and a wall of ice on the other - no chasms to fall into, no crevices in the ice. It isn't as hard as climbing half way up Pike's Peak, a trick that hundreds of tourists do every year for pleasure. And that's all there is to the horrors of Chilkoot Pass that so
much is said about."
From the overland trip to Lake Linderman Dr. Crewe took his hearers through the chain of lakes - Bennett, Taku, and Marsh - telling them which shore to follow
at each stage in the journey to avoid sharp stones that might ruin their boats; telling
them also where and how to build rafts and boats; how to portage around rapids, and emphasizing through it all the necessity for taking care of food supplies in order not
to be left without any food. At Lake Lebarge at this season of the year, he said, game would be found in plenty, and a provident man, by proper care, can secure food supplies.
The cost of living in the Yukon region, he said, had been greatly exaggerated, and he told how every spring oranges could be bought for 50 cents a dozen at Dawson, fresh onions and potatoes for 15 cents a pound, and flour and other provisions much cheaper than they can be packed in. He advised any intending to go to wait until late next March, then take the Chilkoot Pass route, when they can haul 500 pounds over the pass on a sledge, when the snow is frozen at night, easier than they can pack fifty pounds over at this season. Next season, Dr. Crewe said, he expects to see 100 boats on the Yukon, where now are but twenty, and at St. Michael's Island, eighty miles from the mouth of the Yukon, he said there is now enough food supply to last 10,000 men five years.
"Many men will come back disheartened," said he, "but it will be because they are too easily discouraged, have too little pluck, or are unwilling to work. Alaska is the poor man's mining country. It is every man for himself, and thousands of men who have nothing will go there and in a year, by proper diligence, wash out $2,000 to $10,000, and many of them a great deal more, above all their expenses."
On Wednesday or Thursday of this week Dr. Crewe will leave for Alaska. He says he can reach Dawson City from Chicago in twenty-five days. He expects to go alone.
