The Klondike Stampede - Softcover

Adney, Tappan

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Softcover

ISBN 10: 1230400729 ISBN 13: 9781230400723

Publisher: TheClassics.us, 2013

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt: ...are proof As these words are written news arrives that in March. 1899. one team of dogs has made the trip in ten days, and that the mounted police have sent mail out in less time by relays. HARDSHIPS OF A DOG-DRIVER enough that hardship, instead of something to be shirked, is necessary to the most vigorous health, to a vigorous body and a clear brain. Waldron told of his last trip on the river last winter. "Last winter, when grub was high, I went down with a dog-team to Circle. The wind blew so hard at one time that it blew the trail-sled, piled with stuff, clean over, and blew the dogs out in a string. You sweat like everything when you are travelling, and the Mackinaws freeze like a board. My coat froze, and I turned it to the fire and burned a hole in the back. I sews that up, but that made it so I couldn't button it in front; so I lets in a piece of gunny-sack in front. I had gunny-sacks around my legs and a mukluk on one foot and a moccasin on the other. I froze both feet, the tips of my fingers, and my nose, face, and ears. I was a pretty-looking sight when I got into Circle. The boys didn't know me. It is impossible to cover up the face so it will not freeze when it blows on the river. I didn't want any more of that, and I came up with a load and gave up freighting between here and Circle." One of these dogs is a Malamut, jet black, with a bobtail, and fur so thick that one can hardly separate the hairs to see to the skin. His fur is like that of a very thick black-bear-skin. He weighs eighty pounds, and he looks so much like a black bear that if a man saw him on the trail at a distance he would shoot him. He is as kind as a kitten, and loves to be petted, but is too heavy to get into Waldron's lap, as he tries to do....

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From the Back Cover

This classic in Yukon gold rush literature was originally published in 1900 and has long been out of print. Tappan Adney, a New York journalist, was dispatched to the Yukon in 1897, at the height of the gold fever, to "furnish news and pictures of the new gold fields". Adney joined the northward migration, chronicling the day-to-day experiences of the stampeders. He moved comfortably among the would-be miners, recounting their stories, the sights along the route, and the hopes and fears of the many men - and handful of women - who shared his journey to the gold fields. The book contains excellent descriptions of the people, places, events, and experiences of the Klondike stampede. The account of the Klondike gold fields, which includes pragmatic discussions of such things as mining techniques, cabin-building, and the operation of dog teams, is solid, reliable and fascinating. Adney was not only a good writer, he was also an accomplished photographer, and there are over 160 photographs and drawings in the text, adding an important visual dimension to the book. After it came out, The Klondike Stampede rarely received the attention it deserved, although northern specialists have long found much of value in its pages. Its re-publication will ensure that this valuable book will be read again by those seeking an insightful and accurate account of the world's greatest gold rush.

About the Author

Tappan Adney, born in 1868 in Athens, Ohio, was an artist, a writer, and a photographer. He was credited with saving the art of birchbark canoe construction and built more than 100 models of different types. During World War I, he was an engineering officer for the Royal Military College. His book about the Klondike Gold Rush has become a well-loved standard. He worked in Montreal, where he worked as a consultant on aboriginal lore, then retired to Woodstock, New Brunswick, where his wife, Minnie Bell Sharp, had been born. He died in 1950.

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