20 HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



country/' in company with a large party of business 

 people from Seattle, visiting all the principal mining 

 camps on the way. We would arrive on the distant 

 coast in time to meet Kleinschmidt's vessel. 



Dr. Arthur W. Elting and Gilpin Lovering, both 

 sportsmen of wide experience, made their wills and 

 arranged to be our companions. Alfred M. Collins and 

 I were the rest of the hunting party. 



We traveled from the eastern seaboard of the United 

 States, three thousand miles to Seattle, as the first stage 

 of our journey. Thence we threaded the Inside Passage 

 for one thousand seven hundred miles to Skagway, at the 

 head of Lynn Canal. 



To go through this maze of waters we embarked at 

 Seattle, Jime 21st, on the Httle steamer "Jefferson.". 

 Dr. Elting and Collins were with us; Lovering was to 

 come later direct to Nome. Mrs. Elting was also going 

 with her husband through Alaska and back to Seattle. 



Now we found ourselves in a company of more than 

 one hundred, the first party that had attempted to make 

 a thoroughly comprehensive tour of Alaska in a single 

 summer. 



There was no particular difficulty of traveling in 

 Alaska, but the faciUties were so irregular, particularly 

 on the lower Yukon, that it would be hardly possible for 

 the independent voyager to cover the ground that this 

 excursion set for itself. Special steamers had been char- 

 tered, schedules of transportation companies devised 

 months beforehand to make close connections for our 

 convenience and arrangements made for us to inspect 

 all the mining and other industries at every point we 

 visited. It was an exceptional opportunity to see the 

 country. 



