A portage of thirty
miles, and then a highway for traffic one tenth the girth of the
earth!
As late as 1869, Frederick Whymper, fellow of the Royal Geographical
Society, stated on hearsay that the Chilcat Indians were believed
occasionally to make a short portage across the Coast Range from salt
water to the head-reaches of the Yukon. But it remained for a gold
hunter, questing north, ever north, to be first of all white men to
cross the terrible Chilcoot Pass, and tap the Yukon at its head.
This happened only the other day, but the man has become a dim
legendary hero. Holt was his name, and already the mists of
antiquity have wrapped about the time of his passage. 1872, 1874,
and 1878 are the dates variously given--a confusion which time will
never clear.
Holt penetrated as far as the Hootalinqua, and on his return to the
coast reported coarse gold. The next recorded adventurer is one
Edward Bean, who in 1880 headed a party of twenty-five miners from
Sitka into the uncharted land.
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