“We met Barwell and Lewis, of Ottawa, to-day.  They were out looking for knees for their boats.  They left Ottawa six weeks ago, and have not got any farther than we have.  There was a little saw-mill going here, and they have their lumber sawn.  We have it that warm some days here that you would fairly roast, and the next day you would be looking for your overcoat.  Everybody here seems to be taking in enough food to do them a couple of years.

“We are now in Canadian territory, after we passed the summit.  I will have to catch somebody going through to Dyea to give him this letter, but I don’t know how long before I can get any one going through.  This is the last you will hear from me until I get down to the Klondyke.”

Mr. Stewart adds:  “I wrote this in the tent at 11 o’clock at night during twilight.”

If you take this trip in winter, however, you have to purchase a sled at Juneau, and sled it over the frozen waterways to Dawson City.

For the benefit of my readers in Canada and for parties leaving for the great Northwest Territory for the gold fields, I take pleasure in quoting the following description of a Canadian route:—­

“Canadians should awaken to the fact that they have emphatically ’the inside track’ to their own gold fields, a route not half the distance, largely covered by railways and steamboats, with supply stations at convenient intervals all the way.  By this route the gold-fields can be reached in two months or six weeks, and the cost of travel is ridiculously cheap—­nearly anybody can afford to go even now, and by the spring it should be fitted out for the accommodation of any amount of traffic.

“The details of the information in the following article are given by Mr. A.H.H.  Heming, the artist who accompanied Mr. Whitney in his journey towards the Barren Lands, and the data may be accepted as correct, as they were secured from the Hudson Bay officials.

“The details of the inland Canadian route, briefly, are as follows:  By C.P.R. to Calgary, and thence north by rail to Edmonton; from there by stage to Athabasca Landing, 40 miles; then, there is a continuous waterway for canoe travel to Fort Macpherson, at the mouth of the Mackenzie River, from which point the Peel River lies southward to the gold region.  The exact figures are as follows: 

Miles. 
Edmonton to Athabasca Landing                      40
To Port McMurray                                  240
Fort Chippewyan                                   185
Smith Landing                                     102
Fort Smith                                         16
Fort Resolution                                   194
Fort Providence                                   168
Fort Simpson                                      161
Fort Wrigley                                      136
Fort Norman                                       184
Fort Good Hope                                    174