102 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ALBANY MEETING 



"After much persuasion, we finally secured seven pack dogs and five Indians 

 who promised to go through with us to the country of Scolai (Copper River), 

 where the water flowed into the sea, and on July 9 our little party left Selkirk 

 and struck out into the great unknown." 



The journey now lay to the iiortlnvest; across the Yukon Plateau to- 

 ward the Saint Elias Eange. A large glacier had to be crossed. 



"It was curious and pitiful to see the terror with which the Indians regarded 

 the glacier. To them it was full of strange and unknown dangers. And in- 

 deed, with its weird, rumbling noises, its yawning crevasses, and the rushing 

 of hidden waters, it is not strange that to their superstitious minds it should 

 appear to be the abode of demons to be shunned or placated. Before venturing 

 on the ice, Jackson stopped to 'make medicine' in order to secure a safe pas- 

 sage, and the other Indians besought us not to speak or make a noise while 

 crossing." 



The little party was now close to the base of the range, and here the 

 Indians deserted them, fearful, as is so common with Alaska natives, of 

 entering a region whicli was out of their hunting ground. Nothing 

 daunted, the three white men shouldered as heavy packs as they could 

 carry and boldly struck out in the snoAV- and ice-covered mountains in 

 the hope of finding a pass to the Copper Eiver basin. In this they suc- 

 ceeded, and after many perilous adventures among the ice-covered slopes 

 reached a river flowing into the Pacific. 



. . . "It was deemed advisable to exchange our mode of travel for one 

 more expeditious, and near the point where the river turns again to the west 

 we stopped and built a boat. Our tools consisted of a very dull axe and our 

 pocket knives ; but with these we hewed out a keel and gunwales from spruce 

 sa])lings and fashioned ribs from willow poles, lashing the structure together 

 with twine raveled from our pack ropes. Over this frame, which looked some- 

 thing like an overgrown chicken coop, we stretched the canvas in which our 

 i)edding had been wrapped and finally smeared on a liberal coating of spruce 

 gum. 



"In this craft — the Forlorn Hope — we embarked, and in the next half hour 

 had made more progress than in our last day's march. We had also, at the 

 end of the first half hour, gained a large experience in the art of boating. It 

 was necessary to prevent the boat from striking bottom, for every time that 

 happened a hole was torn in the canvas and a patch necessitated. In jumping 

 out to prevent striking, both Mark and I had been thrown down in the water 

 and rolled over and generally maltreated. But when we learned the little 

 peculiarities of our craft her conduct was unexceptionable." 



Finally, after running the Nizina (*anyon, in which many prospectors, 

 even in well built boats, have since lost their lives, the party reached the 

 Chitina River, followed tliis to the Copper River, and reached the native 



