CHAPTER XIV.
ON THE SEWARD PENINSULA.
The voyagers left Fort Yukon the same afternoon and soon recrossing theArctic Circle, continued on the dreary Yukon Flats, where the riverbroadened to more than thirty miles. As there was almost perfect daylightat midnight they proposed to sleep on board and continue the journey.
In spite of the clouds of mosquitos, which managed to invade even thewell-closed in cabin, they passed a restful night, the engine workingperfectly, and soon passed into the narrower reaches of the Yukon, and inthe early morning came to the town of Rampart.
Here is a federal court which people come nearly a thousand miles toattend. There was also a telegraph station the end of the line to St.Michael's and Colonel Snow stopped only long enough to send certaindespatches to that point. Then, again aboard the launch, they put on allspeed, the purpose being to reach the mouth of the Tanana and Fort Gibbonthat night. The day's journey was almost as uninteresting as that throughthe Yukon Flats, for while the river was narrower, the banks were low,thinly wooded and monotonous. Along in the afternoon they reached themouth of the Tanana and landed at the town of that name, next to whichstands the military post of Fort Gibbon, where Colonel Snow was to be aguest until the arrival of the down river steamer from Dawson.
Two days later the steamer Amelia put in an appearance, and they boardedher, to find their aeroplane and baggage aboard. Swiftwater Jim, who wasto journey up the Tanana, had stayed to bid them gooybye, and the boysparted with him with real regret. He promised faithfully that after he hadmade his "stake" he would come out to the "States" again, and would visitthem at their homes. As the steamer backed out the boys gathered at thebow and gave him the Scouts' salute and a hearty cheer.
The journey down the lower Yukon, while unimpressive as to scenery, waspleasant in many respects, as the boys made many acquaintances who werethoroughly acquainted with the river, along which were many old missionsand Indian villages. At several of these stops were made, and the boysfound many curiosities along the shores. At one place they visited amuseum that contained three of the gigantic ivory tusks of the mammoth ofwhich they had read a good deal since finding the narwhal's horn.
"Gee," said Gerald, "they must weigh nearly a hundred pounds apiece. If weever find that cave with anything in it, it ought to be worth a gooddeal."
"Do you suppose that the chief will show up at Seward?" asked Dick.
"Oh, yes; I think so," said Rand. "I think he was very grateful for theway we treated him, and I understand these Indians are much like ours athome, and usually remember a favor."
"I don't care so much for the ivory as for the good story we will get outof it, if the whole thing turns out as we hope."
"There's you newspaper men again," said Don, "always after a good story,but why not take the ivory too if we find it?"
"Well," put in Pepper, "we'll soon know, for Colonel Snow said last nightthat we should remain in St. Michael's only until the Seattle steamercomes up to take us over to Nome, and he proposes to sail South with her,when she returns. Then we shall land at Seward, and meet the chief if heis there, and find out whether he has discovered the location of thecave."
The travelers were surprised to find the mouth of the Yukon spread outover an enormous expanse of country before it finally empties into BehringSea. The river, about ninety miles from the sea, begins to split up intoseparate streams, and is said to have nine or ten mouths.
Behring's Sea is very shallow, and the waters are most of the time veryrough, especially for the flat-bottomed boats that ply upon the Yukon. St.Michael's lies about seventy miles up the coast from the mouth of theriver which is used by the steamers, and the passage is uncomfortable, notto say, at times, dangerous.
The ground swell of the shallow sea tested the seamanship of the youngScouts to the utmost and one or two of them retired to their stateroom,but as a large proportion of the passengers were affected in the same waythere was very little disposition to deride the unfortunates, as had beendone on the trip up the "Inside Passage." They arrived safely, however,and were again accorded a warm welcome by Colonel Snow's comrades of thearmy, who at once took them to the post, which is the chief institution ofimportance in the small town.
St. Michael's is situated on an island which constitutes a militaryreservation of the United States. Russia, in 1833, established a tradingpost there, and one of the curiosities of the place is the old Russianblock house, a relic of primitive ideas in warfare. The town is the pointof departure for the Yukon River steamers, and the aeroplane and the otherluggage was taken off here to be placed on the Seattle steamer, which wasto take them over to the Seward Peninsula, the other side of NortonSound.
There are two small Indian villages on the island, and the boys spent partof a day in the inspection of these, buying large quantities ofcuriosities and looking on with interest at a "potlatch," an institutionwhich means the entertainment of a man's neighbors so long as his goodshold out, and the host generally finds himself ready for a receiver by thetime the entertainment ends.
The officers of the post were greatly interested in the aeroplane, and itwas uncrated for their inspection, but stormy conditions on Behring's Seaduring their stay prevented a flight.
Two days after their arrival, the steamer from Seattle to Nome came alongand they embarked and steamed the 112 miles across Norton's Sound to Nome,the metropolis of that great northwestern section of Alaska that borderson the Arctic Ocean and extends within forty miles of Asia. There is noharbor at Nome, and the ships must lie about a mile off shore, whilepassengers and freight are taken in on flatboats, from which everything israised on an elevator by a gigantic crane, and swung in shore.
Nome is one of the largest cities of Alaska, having a summer population ofnearly 8,000. It is a lively, public-spirited place, and the army officersand business men greeted with enthusiasm the proposal of an airshipexhibition.
Colonel Snow was especially in favor of it, as the army had already begunto take a great interest in aviation, and the officers desired anopportunity to inspect the workings of the machine. A popular subscriptionwas decided on for the boys, and a sum amounting to about fifteen hundreddollars was quickly provided.
The beach at Nome, from which most of the gold of that region has beenextracted, was found to make a fine starting field, and, as the countryback of the town is mostly flat "tundra" or moss covered ground, with notrees to interfere, the flights made by Gerald were the most successful ofhis career. He delighted the army officers by taking them up, one at atime for short flights, and the citizens were so enthusiastic that theyoffered the boys almost any price they might name for the airship. Theiraffection for it was too great, however, and they refused to sell.
The Scouts were shown every attention, and were taken for a ride on the"Farthest North" railroad, known as the "Wild Goose" road, leading up tosome of the most important placer mines on the peninsula. The Scoutuniform caught the fancy of some of the young men of the town, and whenthe organization had been explained to them they organized two patrols,and Colonel Snow administered the first degree of the ritual.
In three days the steamer for Seattle was ready to sail, and the boys bidfarewell to their new friends and started on the homeward leg of theirjourney. Steaming far to the westward to get around the long reach of theAlaska Peninsula they sailed a thousand miles south, and at Dutch Harboron Unalaska Island they transferred to the line of steamers which was totake them along the peninsula to Seward. Stopping part of a day on KodiakIsland, they visited the great salmon canneries at Karluk, where the boyswere told they could catch all the salmon they wanted. They saw the greatfish handled literally by the ton and canned by machinery. The boysdisembarked with the aeroplane at Seward and found the chief and three ofhis men awaiting them, with the news that they believed that they haddiscovered the cave.
"No can get him. Very high. Most to sky," the chief told Rand, andindicated in "pigeon" that the cliff was a pinnacle of three spires ofrock standing alone and ut
terly inaccessible from any side. He said it wastwo days' journey by easy trail, and that they would take horses.
Colonel Snow, deciding that the trip would be an interesting experiencefor the boys, provided them with pack horses and a trusty guide, inaddition to the Indians. He was opposed at first to their trying to takethe aeroplane into the mountainous regions, but finding that it could beconveyed by pack horses without trouble, and that the boys had someproject on hand which made it very desirable to them withdrew hisobjections. He exacted a promise, however, that if they got intodifficulties with it they would abandon it at once. He himself hadbusiness at Cordova and up the Copper River Railroad, and he agreed tomeet them at the steamer from Seward to Cordova at the latter port withina week or ten days at the utmost.
The United States Government has in recent years constructed a largenumber of miles of good wagon roads and trails in different parts ofAlaska, and nearly three-quarters of the distance to the point to whichthey were bound was thus equipped. The guide engaged for them was an oldminer of the character of Swiftwater, and he was employed as a mailcarrier and driver over the winter roads from Valdez to Fairbanks.
Horses were provided for the boys for such a distance as trails could befound, and from that point they would take only the pack animals and getthrough as they could. By taking out the motor, it was found that theplane could be easily carried by two animals, and the machinery wasdistributed between two others. Beyond some small food supplies and aquantity of strong rope no other luggage was taken.
The roads were found to be so good that although the trail ran right upinto the foothills of the Kenai range they made excellent progress thefirst day and camped in a little mountain meadow full of late flowers, andwith good running water.
They used gasoline for cooking, as they had brought along sufficient foruse in the aeroplane and the Indians fed by themselves on salmon and otherfish. Away in the distance, more than a hundred miles, could be seen thegiant peaks of the Alaskan range--the backbone of Alaska--Foraker,Russell, Spurr and McKinley, snow clad and dazzling.
"I'd like a chance to climb one of those big mountains," said Jack. "Youknow we didn't get an opportunity in the Canadian Rockies, although theyseemed to be very near."
"I guess," said Rand, "that we've got all we can do to climb the mountainwe're looking for. We'll be lucky if we do that."
"How did the Indians or whoever hid this ivory, if there's any there, getit up to the cave, if it is a cave?" asked Don the Doubter.
"That's what we've got to find out; also how we're going to get up thereourselves," said Dick.
"I think we have a way to do that," said Gerald, "but we've got to knowthe size and shape of this hill or peak or whatever it is, before wedecide how to climb it."
"Well," said Pepper, with a yawn, "I move we go to bed now and get upearly and get on the road and try and reach the place before night," andhe rose rather stiffly, for he was not known at home as a great admirer ofhorsemanship, and the day's journey had told on him.
"I'll keep watch for awhile yet," said the guide, "and then I'll put oneof the Injuns on. Don't get scared if ye hear a shot early in the mornin',for I'm goin' out to see if I can get a caribou. I hear they're prettythick up here in the foothills, and it'll tickle these Injuns to death.The poor fellers have been workin' the canneries all summer and ain't hada mouthful of fresh meat all that time. A little feast'll put more heartinto 'em for the work."
The boys camped under a cluster of small trees with ponchos and blanketsover them, and as the black flies had disappeared and mosquitos were few,enjoyed a good night's rest.