Cannot Get Over Pass

Port Townsend, Was., Sept. 7. - Captain Neilson of the tug Pioneer, just returned from Dyea and Skaguay, said: "The half has not been told of the miserable trails which the gold-seekers are striving to cross to Lake Linderman. Captain Wasson, banker and excollector of customs for the Puget Sound district, is reported as being camped on the beach at Skaguay, with not one chance in 5,000 of getting through this f all. He has ten horses. One man at Dyea offered $750 to have 1,200 pounds packed over, but the packers refused the offer. Crossing from Skaguay and Dyea the trail is practically closed on account of the mud." After an examination of thirty days of the Skaguay trail R. H. Stretch, mining engineer of this city, said: "Skaguay valley was once occupied by a huge glacier, near the lower end; the rocks ae ancient 'sedimentary or stratifled deposíts, with innumerable dikes and stringers of granite aspect, but all the upper portions of the valley and the summ.it of the range are nothing but a coarse granite without trace of any structure but with strongly marked narly horizontal bedding planes, cut by nearly vertical cleavage joints. GrouiKl to ï'olished Surfaces "The action cf the ice which formerly plowed its way down the valley has ground these rocks to polished surfaces, the vertical faces supporting only a few lichens, while the horizontal benches before the advent cf the gold-seekers were. covered with a thick carpet of moss and lichens which, though with but a frail hold on the rocks, gave a sure and satisfactory .foothold. Only in a few places are there pebbles or bowlders and but few rock slides, but where these do not exist the individual bowlders are so Iarge and massed so irregulaiiy that travel over them is more difficult than over the solid unbroken bunches. "Of earth there is practically none, but in the course of ages a black vegetable muck has accumulated in some of the crevices and in pot holes along the river bottom. Scrubby timber, spruce, birch and alder find a foothold in the crevices, the latter mainly in the wetter bottoms, and over such material the trail finds its way. v Dlstances from Skaguay. "Distances from Skaguay are: First crossing 'of river, one and one-half miles; end of road, three and one-half miles; small lake, flve miles; Porcupine creek, seven and one-half miles; second crossing of river bridge, eleven and one-half miles; third crossing of river bridge, thirteen and one-half miles; fourth crossing of river bridge, fourteen and one-half miles; fifth crossing of rivef ford, seventeen and one-half miles: summit, nineteen miles; meadows, twenty-six miles; Lake Bennett, forty-two miles. "Pive miles out at the lake the elevation is 460 feet. The trail quickly ascends to 810 feet, then sinks to 470 feet at Porcupine creek. In a short distance the elevation. is 1,400 and the path zigzags down to the second crossing, 1,000 feet. The fourth bridge is 1,400 feet above the sea, and the trail aimost at once goes upward to 2,100 feet. A descent is then made to the ford, 1,800 feet high, and then comes the climbing to the summit, an elevation of 2,600 feet. From this point to the lakes the trail is not extremely difiicult." Mr. Stretch says there is no danger to human life in making the trip. To Clean Out Gambling. From officers of the tug Pioneer, which arrived here direct from Skaguay, it is learned that previous reports relative to legal action to be taken in suppressing gambling and sale of liquors at that place is no joke, as Governor Brady has sent word that order must be preserved there, even if the entire Umte;i States navy has to be called upon tn enforee order. Old Alaskans here, who are persona"ly acquainted with Governor Brady, say he is a man who means all he says, a:.c that if he takes a stand he will carry out his promises.