584 



LIFE ON A YUKON TRAIL 



all sought repose — all but Dan. the axman, and John, the cook. 

 They visited an improvised saloon that night, purchased Hud- 

 son's Bay Company rum, made acquaintances freely, and by 

 morning had a considerable clientele among-the Indians. 



Telegraph creek is an old trading center of the Hudson's Bay 

 Compan}'- with the Tahltan Indians. A small creek pours through 

 the rocky defiles of the mountains into the Stikine at this point. 

 There is not a telegraph line in 1,000 miles. The name, how- 

 ever, recalls the enterprise of connecting the Old World with the 

 New by a cable across the Bering sea. Work was actually begun 

 on stringing the overland wire through this regi on, and great coils 

 of rust-eaten wire still lie on the banks of the Stikine, precisely 

 where they were dropped when the successful laying of the At- 

 lantic cable killed the western project. 



The Tahltan Indians about Telegraph creek speak Chinook 

 and understand some of the most ordinary English words or 

 speech of " Boston men." The rich and aristocratic, whose for- 

 tunes were laid in-the packing industry twenty years before, in 



TELEGRAPH CREEK — 130 MILES UP THE RIVER FROM WKASGELI,, ALASKA 



