Identifier: alaskaklondike00mcla (find matches)
Title: Alaska and the Klondike
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: McLain, John Scudder, b. 1853
Subjects: Alaska Klondike River Valley (Yukon) -- Gold discoveries
Publisher: New York : McClure, Phillips & co.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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n summer, or during the salmon season. In thehouse of William Pitgu, to which I was invited by thehospitable chief, and which in point of cleanliness andfurnishings was very much the best Indian habitation seenin Alaska outside of Metlakahtla, I found his son and hissons wife sewnng canvas and making a tent and the youngman displayed quite as much skill in running a sewingmachine as he had in the construction of the long-boat which carried me across the Minook to his fathersvillage. They say that in Alaska the worm never turns and thenthey rather tardily explain this departure from natures lawby the further statement that there are no worms. It isalso capable of demonstration that the cellars in Alaska arenever damp, but the course of reasoning is not quite thesame. The fact is the Alaska cellar is built about five feetabove ground. They call it a cache, and pronounce itcash. It is to all appearances a little log cabin set up onpoles, the entrance to which is by means of a ladder made
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112 ALASKA AND THE KLONDIKE out of a notched log, and here, high above the reach of thedogs and other prowling animals, are stored the familysupplies. Ihe white man, however, has not adhered strictly tothe Indian custom, for the leading refreshment place ofthe village has a refrigerator for the preservation of freshmeats and other articles which are improved by a lowtemperature. Here, as everywhere else in Alaska, thefrost never leaves the ground to a depth of more than twoor three feet, and all that is necessary to provide an iceboxis to dig to the depth of three or four feet where perishablefood supplies may be kept in constant cold storage. A boxis let down into the excavation where, surrounded by theperpetual ice, the temperature of a first-class refrigeratorplant is constantly maintained. The use of such devices inhotels and domestic establishments furnishes an obviousanswer to the query as to the desirability of being the ice-man in Alaska. In numerous places in Alaska the enorm

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