Only a few months after they were settled in Tacoma news came of the doings in Alaska: I allude to reports of the gold being got there, and the impetus that the trade of the country was likely to receive. There was nothing yet sensational, but it caused Mr Bell to be commissioned to take what they called "The Alaskan trip."
He did this successfully, returning in the autumn, enthusiastic about the scenery and the future of that country. He brought back many drawings, notably one of Sitka, the capital, and others of the famous Lynn Canal.
This so gratified his employers that they arranged he should take a still more extended tour the following season. He was to cross the Gulf of Alaska to Dutch Harbour, on Unalaska Island, some 2000 miles from Tacoma, thence 750 miles north to St Michael's in Behring Sea.
This place lies 80 miles north of the mouth of the Yukon river. Here he was to take a river steamer and proceed up the Yukon some 1600 miles to the Canadian frontier. He was to describe and picture all he saw.
The proprietors of the newspaper, in the open-handed manner of successful Americans, proposed that he should take his daughter with him, on what was considered to be a most delightful pleasure excursion—which is exactly what it was, up to a certain point.
At St Michael's a number of miners joined their steamer with whom they became acquainted.
Their talk was gold, gold—always gold. Our travellers were deeply interested in all they heard about it. By-and-by the idea occurred to them that it would be a grand thing for their paper if they accompanied one of these parties, lived with them, helped them in their work, and thus become able to write, from personal experience, about a Yukon miner's life.
By the time they reached Circle City all was arranged; from there Mr Bell sent back to Tacoma all he had done, and told them his intention in his usual enthusiastic style.
They had joined with four of the least objectionable of their fellow-voyagers.
At Fort Cudahy, which they did not then seem to know was in Canada, they bought a boat and some food, and ascended the Yukon to Dawson, at which, although merely a few shanties and a store or two, they were able to purchase a full outfit of provisions and necessaries, especially "Alaskan strawberries," that is, pork and beans.