Adventures in Alaska

The Copper River of Alaska flows from north to south into the ocean. The

Yukon River, which is farther north, runs from the east toward the west.

It was known that the waters of these two rivers must be near together at

the place from which they started in the mountains, but it was not known

whether anybody could pass from the valley of the Copper River over the

mountains into the valley of the Yukon. A scouting party was sent to find

out whether the crossing from one river to the other could be made. This

party returned, saying that it was impossible to pass from the Copper

River to the Yukon, because the mountains were too high and steep.

In 1885 General Miles sent Lieutenant Allen to try to find a pass from the

valley of the Copper River to that of the Yukon. Lieutenant Allen was a

very determined man. He set out with the resolution to find some way of

crossing the mountains, however much labor and suffering it might cost.

He took two soldiers, and had two other white men with him, and he got

Indians to go with him from place to place as he could. The party started

up the Copper River in March. From the first their sufferings were very

great. They had to travel day after day, and sleep night after night, with

their clothes wet to the skin. They soon found that they could not take

their canoe, on account of the ice. They had to leave most of their

provisions, because they could not carry them. Some nights they sat up

all night in the rain.

But when they got to a country where it was not raining all the time, they

had a way of keeping dry at night. They had brought along sleeping bags.

These were made of waterproof linen. Each bag was a little longer than a

man. It had draw strings at the top. They put a folded blanket inside, and

then pushed the blanket down with their feet so that it would wrap about

them and keep them warm. Then they drew the strings about the top.

This kept the body dry.

They suffered a great deal from hunger. There were very few animals in

the country where they were, and most of the Indians they found had but

little to eat. Lieutenant Allen's party were sometimes glad to pick up

scraps of decayed meat or broken bones about an Indian camp to make a

meal on. Much of the meat and fish they had to eat was badly spoiled.

They grew so weak that it was hard for them to climb up a hill, carrying

their guns and their food. They sometimes reeled like drunken men when

they walked.

They would have perished from hunger if they had not had a man with

them who knew how to stop the rabbits when they were running. This

man could make a little cry just like a rabbit's cry. Whenever a rabbit

heard this sound, he would stop and look round for a moment. Then the

hunter would have a chance to shoot him.

But these rabbits were so small and so lean that it took four or five of

them to make a meal for a man. At one place the party were so hungry

that an Indian who was with them fainted away. When they reached a

house soon after, where there lived a chief named Nicolai, they found a

five-gallon kettle full of meat boiling on the fire. They drank large

quantities of the broth, and ate about five pounds of meat apiece. Much of

this meat was pure tallow from the moose. They all fell asleep

immediately after eating. When they awaked, they were almost as hungry

as before.

At last they reached the head waters of the Copper River. Here they

found the hungry Indians waiting for the salmon to come up from the sea,

as they do every year. As long as the salmon are in the river, the Indians

have plenty to eat. So they kept dipping their net, hoping to catch some

salmon. At last one little salmon was caught. It was a thin, white-looking

little fish. The Indians now knew that in two or three days they would

have plenty. They hung their little fish on a spruce bough, and they kept

visiting it, singing to it with delight. The white men did not wait for the

salmon to arrive.

From this place they left the Copper River, and started to cross the

mountains. This was the pass through which it was said that nobody could

go. Lieutenant Allen and his men were obliged to carry provisions with

them. Part of the provisions they carried themselves: the rest they

packed on dogs. This is a way of carrying things used only in Alaska. A

pack is strapped on a dog's back just as though he were a mule, and with

this the little dog goes on a long journey through the mountains.

The party started over the mountains in June. At this season of the year

in that country the sun shines almost all night, and it is never dark.