. Alaska and the Klondike. st northerly. Boatsfrom the upper river looking for a harbour must take thisnorthern channel and make all haste, if, fortunately, theyfind the sea quiet enough for river craft, to St. Michael,sixty miles up the coast from the mouth of the northernoutlet. It is a good deal like going to sea in a tub—thisthing of venturing out on Norton Sound in a flat-bottomedriver boat—and is never undertaken, without some degreeof trepidation even by the stout-hearted. There is alwaysthe serious consideration that Bering Sea can make troublefor river craft on short notice, and the s
. Alaska and the Klondike. st northerly. Boatsfrom the upper river looking for a harbour must take thisnorthern channel and make all haste, if, fortunately, theyfind the sea quiet enough for river craft, to St. Michael,sixty miles up the coast from the mouth of the northernoutlet. It is a good deal like going to sea in a tub—thisthing of venturing out on Norton Sound in a flat-bottomedriver boat—and is never undertaken, without some degreeof trepidation even by the stout-hearted. There is alwaysthe serious consideration that Bering Sea can make troublefor river craft on short notice, and the steady progresswhich the boat makes running at full speed while Captain 126 PHASES OF LIFE ON BERING SEA 127 Holscher stands in the wheel-house closely scanning theopen sea on his left, suggests the thought that we havecaught old Neptune asleep and are trying to sneak hywhile the drowsy fellow isnt looking. The harbour of St. Michael lies on the north end of theisland, and here the senatorial party arrived on the after-. Old Russian Blockhouse at St. Michael noon of July 27. Ihc whole island is a military reserva-tion and no commercial or transportation interest can get afoothold there, or even make a landing or pitch a tent, ex-cept by permission of the Ihiitcd States trading and transportation companies engaged in 128 ALASKA AND THE KLONDIKE the Alaskan trade have obtained concessions here and haveerected docks and storehouses and hotels and houses fortheir agents and employees, and for a time made this thegreat shipping centre of the far Northwest. That was inthe boom days of 1898 and 99 and before the WhitePass railroad diverted the larger part of the travel andtraffic to the Klondike to the shorter route. All these com-panies have now been consolidated into two or rather allbut one have been merged into the Northern Commercialcompany, the one declining to go into the combinationbeing the North American Transportation and Tradingcompany, which shares t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidalaskak, booksubjectalaska
