Black Beaver, the Trapper

by James Campbell Lewis; George Edward Lewis

I'me a fathers only daughter,
Casting bread upon the water,
In a way I hadent oter,
I guess yes.
Casting it like rain,
Into the troubled main,
Hoping this sour bread
will not return again"

We landed in Skagway on the fifth day of May. Now there were no docks in Skagway at that time; so we were unloaded by lighters and run up where the water was about three feet deep, there we had to get on a man's back and be carried ashore. We were charged two dollars for the lighters and two dollars for the man craft, so it cost each of us four dollars to land after we had landed.

We arose early the following morning in another world. We knew the wild parts of the States and the beasts and the men, the lay of the cities, the course of thousands of the important rivers The climate, snow fall, cyclones and all other important things to know when your life is an outdoor life; but here we were in a new untried world. One of my failures is when I see a mountain to wish to know how the land lays on the other side, naturally given to adventure I had indulged, and it grew very rapidly upon me, till it got beyond my controll, so I was delighted to discover new fields.

After proper preparations we set out for White horse. After a few days we arrived at the Chilkoot Pass. The Chilkoot Pass, is a high pass about a mile high and steep as a house roof. And is also subject to very heavy snowslides. It was here where a short time before 148 soldiers in the British Army were all burried forever without any Sky-Pilot or Undertaker's assistance. We crossed through Jacobs Ladder where were six-hundred steps cut into the solid ice. There were several Men known as packers who lived at the foot of the ladder, they packed over loads for 45cts per lb. they wore spurs on the bottom of their moccasins; we were not tenderfeet, but used to the heaviest kinds of packing and you should have seen those sharks look with disdain on us when we made the pass carrying twice as many pounds up as they could. On this Trip I had The Coyote Kidd, The Galloping Swede, Taxas Tom. and Old Ed Scott. Four just as good men as I had had the pleasure of meeting during twelve years of rough life. And I was pretty sound then—my eyes were keen, my hearing alert my aim acurate, not like I am at this writing.

On the top of this Pass I had my last opportunity of buying a piece of mince pie which I never neglect—but this piece cost me a Pan or one dollar. The other fellows took lemonade paying the same price per glass. I had hunted all kinds of game, common or uncommon in the Western Hemisphere. had led the most daring and dangerous kind of a life, but little did I realize the tiresome dedious and indiscribable journey that now lay before me.

As we crossed Chilkoot pass and descended through the long indentations leading northward and eastward amid snow ice and severe weather Old Texas Tom. The terror of the West, the old steel man as he was often called grew tired for the first time since our acquaintance. Together we rode the great roundup, together we had braved danger hard-ships scores of times, at every other event he was cool faithful and ever on the spot; but now he sickened from fatigue to a terrorable back ache and head ache. That night he seemed to recover a little and the next morning shouldered his load and with less of his old time vigor and lightness began the day's journey. But about an hour later he had a relpase and we divided his load among us and he was able to travel till noon. then we camped as he grew worse and wrapped him in our blankest made him a good thick bed out of boughs, and fixed him up just as comfortable as possible. Four days later in the afternoon he called me up to his bed and began to talk about sunny Texas about his dear old mother his sweet young sister and his boyhood days. I tried to encourage him I told him he would soon get well and that he had only a bad cold—but he smiled and said he was not long for this world. He said this feeling was strange and unearthly and he felt the approach of death. Then he rested an hour and then called me up to him and said" Old Chief give me a pull at your pipe—I did he lay back on my knee where he seemed to rest the easiest gasped twice and died.

This was a hard blow on me and the other boys. The snow was deep and the ground frozen down a great depth, so we were forced to bury Our dear old Tom in the beautiful white purified crystal snow A purer and lovlier grave man never filled. we marked the place and summoned our courage and left the Old Texan who was reared amid the flecy cotton, sleeping his last long sleep amid the white flakes in far away Alaska.

We were unfamiliar with this kind of sickness but after we were experienced we knew our pard was afflicted with Spinal Fever. This is caused by the rubbing of a heavy load on the back, it causes perspiration then followed with fatigue the patient in weariness is constrained by this fatighue to lie down upon the ground, and a severe cold is contracted resulting in death. No traveler in that cold barren region should ever under any circumstances lie down upon the naked earth. Tom and we were all used to lying on the earth and thought nothing of. ignorance and eagerness caused his death, as it has the untimely death of many a mother's boy.

We took up our march sorrowfully and silently till we rached the Horalinqua River. Here he halted and searched for Gold. May I add that the craze for gold lead us into this region of ice and snow. We were unsuccessful but in our rambles we came to Pelley River and found Marten very thick, so we concluded to trap there the next winter. We left our outfit here and began the journey down to Dawson, we had to shoot the far famed Whitehorse rapids. there are seven of them and they are about 3 miles long, and run like lightling, we boarded a raft were cut loose by a half breed Mucklock and away we went almost a mile a minute riding on the crest of the rapid rooling river. Here after the passing of the rapids we first met Swift water bill. so named by the Sourdoughs because he would never shoot the rapids. His was a queer experience. he dug out his fortune amid the bars of the river and then went back to Seattle and married a daughter having three homely sisters, and his wife was twice as holely as them all. each year following for four years he returned to Seattle and married a sister every time. and at last having wed the last girl, he broke all rules of life and married his Motherinlaw.

In this locality we made quite a stay mining and prospecting for hunting and trapping till the following spring. which hardly shows his face when autumn drives him off.