© Sheelor, Skaguay

Alaska, Atlin and the Yukon—The Incomparable Northland

LASKA, ATLIN and the YUKON are to our gen-
eration what California and the days of ’49 were
to the then generation. But the trail of ’49 is but
a memory, whilst in traveling to Dawson or Atlin
one sees not alone many evidences of the memorable

rush to the Klondike and here and there the old

trail, but the very route followed is that taken by these mad

seekers for gold.

Mr. J. L. Burnside, in an article; in the ‘““New West Magazine,’
has drawn a very vivid picture of these early days contrasted
with today, and we cannot refrain from quoting from his article:

“With the discovery of gold in the Klondike in 1896 there
resulted one of the greatest gold stampedes the world has ever
known. Thousands were lured from the.farm, and from the toil
and turmoil of the city, to this new Eldorado, little dreaming
the hardships they must endure, the sacrifices they would be
called upon to make, the blasted hopes. they would experience
in this mad rush for—just a chance to ae with Nature for
her golden treasures.

“The scenic beauty of the ocean voyage to Skaguay, which
for a thousand miles is an ever-changing panorama of Nature's
wonders, was little appreciated nor long remembered by these
men whose souls were filled with a lust for gold. They were in
spirit far away in the land of promise which they had idealized
in terms of gold, whose magic touch dispels all the ills of life.
They had neither time nor inclination to note the charm of land
or sea.

“(Men from the sands of Sunland;
Men from the woods of the West;
Men from the farms and the cities,
Into the Northland we pressed.
Gray beards and striplings and women,
Good men and bad men and bold,
Leaving our home and our loved ones,
Crying exultingly —Gold!”’
—Robert W. Service

“Upon their arrival at Skaguay what little pleasure, if any,
they had experienced faded from view, for it was here they came
face to face with the hard, cold facts of pioneer life. The trip
over the Pass meant days of torture and nights of anguish and
a weary trudge over a precipitous path where only too often a
toll of life was taken.

“And so, ever confronted by new hardships, they journeyed
for hundreds of miles, through the blizzards of the Northern
winter and across a country barren of human habitation.

“They suffered, starved and triumphed together. They
mingled their sorrows and their joys, their hopes and their
ambitions. And while fortune frowned on many, yet to others
she gave her sweetest smile. And in the hope that they might
some time be the favored ones, the less fortunate were inspired
with that grim determination to win, that faith and confidence
that are today attributes of the Alaskan and are the ‘prophecy
of a Mighty Empire to be.’

‘Since that time, however, the scene has changed; palatial
vessels ply the waters of the inside passage; the iron trail of the
White Pass & Yukon Route now follows in the very footsteps
of these hardy pioneers; river steamers of the most modern type
traverse the mighty Yukon and its tributaries for over three
thousand miles; lake steamers, whose speed and comforts equal
those of the ocean vessels, sail the waters of Lake Atlin, the
beauty spot of the world.”

There is probably no trip in the world so unusual —so inter-
esting—so intensely worth while as that to Alaska, Atlin and
the Yukon. Every mile is of vivid interest.

Here in this Northland Nature has risen to a supreme effort
and with a lavish hand strewn her gifts as nowhere else.

Here are mountains miles high. Here are mighty glaciers—
living giants eternally pushing into the sea—huge bergs breaking
off and floating away on the water. Here are verdant hills,
great rivers, countless islands, innumerable cascades and water-
falls, rapids, canyons and gorges. Here are lakes of wondrous
beauty. on whose mirror-like surfaces are reflected pictures of
inexpressible grandeur. And wild flowers are everywhere. Here,

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too, are Indians and their weird totem poles, interesting gold
mines and fox farms.

And here, too, the residents will greet you with a warm
welcome and many an interesting story they can tell of the
early days in Skaguay and Dawson when that greatest of all
gold stampedes was on to the Klondike.

Not only is there a most delightful and exhilarating summer
climate, but added to it all, especially as you sail down the
Yukon, is the fascinating charm of nightless days—yes, even
the unique experience of seeing the sun at midnight.

And all of this incomparable Northland scenery may be viewed
from the deck, or from one’s comfortable seat in the observation
room of the ocean, lake and river steamer, or from one’s arm-
chair in the parlor observation car on the railroad. At Dawson,
Atlin and Whitehorse, automobiles may be taken to various
points of interest.

The Voyage to Skaguay

The sail to Skaguay is one of 1,000 miles from Seattle and
about one hundred less from Vancouver and occupies about
four days. But this sail is no ordinary ocean voyage. It’s unlike
any you have probably ever taken before. It’s more like a sail
on a river for, as J. S. McLain in his book, ‘‘Alaska and the
Klondike,” says, ‘All the way practically the route lies among
the islands which guard the Western Coast like pickets of the
line, their lofty mountain peaks often obscured by the clouds,
or glistening white as the sunlight falls upon their snowy summits.
The channels are deep, the waters green and dark and wonder-
fully phosphorescent at night, but quiet as an inland lake, and
one may give himself over to the full enjoyment of the ever-
changing and evercharming panorama of sea and mountain, of
crags and peaks and softly wooded slopes, of vegetation at the
water's edge, dense and tropical in it’s luxuriance, suddenly cut
off for a space where a rigid stream of ice and snow, heading up

- among the mountain tops, fills the passage between and comes

down almost to the water’s edge—such contrast does Nature
delight in that she plants her fairest flowers at the feet of her

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