| Show WITH THE BEAR IN ALASKA herbert W spear of Quincy Who Is an engineer in the revenue cutter service of the government was suddenly oi ordered to go to alaska on the cutter bear toward the latter part of last november engineer spear had been serving ing on the gresham on the the great lakes when he was ordered to the grant at port townsend on the pacific coast when he arrived at his post poet he found government orders waiting him there which directed him to take command of the engineers department on the bear and accompany that vessel on her trip to the relief of the ice im prisoner whalers chalers at point barrow there was no time to make preparation for the voyage and engineer spear was obliged to leave without having baving a chance to write to his people in quincy his family have received messages thia week from alaska where the bear to in hi winter qu quarters artem this is the first opportunity that engineer spear has had to communicate with his people writing biting from Oun alaska engineer S says 1 I was wholly unprepared for this trip in the way of clothing but buit I 1 did manage to buy three flannel shirts a pair of trousers and some heavy beavy shoes and a few other articles of if mr whitworth who had been north last laa season you know this expedition W waa fitted out partly by the government and partly by the newspapers of san francisco the call and the examiner Ar aciner alner the newspapers furnished the toed food and most moat of the clothing and the government did the rest I 1 arrived so late that I 1 get much clothing though what they furnished the officers lent worn very much for they evidently expected we were going to spend the winter in a temperature of about SO 60 degrees below zero each officer was furnished with a suit of fur clothing consisting of a parkey a thing like a shirt with a hood bood to it and a pair of trousers one pair of malinky boots made of sealskin with the hair on and with rue hide soles three suits of underwear two of silk and one ond of chamois akin and some very heavy acks to wear with the abovementioned above mentioned boots and mittens and bips caps galore out of outfit I 1 got a fur suit the boots one suit of chamois skin underwear some gome socks and a cap As for food and provisions we were loaded to the hatches with it besides what we had below we had a deck load of barrels of salt beef and other truck we have stuff enough aboard now to feed men a year the distance from seattle up to this place is about 1700 miles and we made it in 10 davs the weather was as very good with the exception of about 30 hours when we were hove to in a gale and had to use oil to keep the spas sas from coming aboard we arrived here on Dee december ember ath th nd took some coal aboard and on saturday the lathat 1 in the ilie morning we left for sledge island bout 4 40 miles to the north of tbt this s PI place ace but we did not reach it for whan about aa 0 miles away we encountered heavy drift ice fee and the temperature of the tea sea water was 29 degrees so it was deemed best to hunt for some other place to land the party that was arts going dipti to point barrow on wednes any december ibah we anchored off vancouver and here we succeeded is im landing the relief parta at a lutle village I 1 of eskimos they wa were re fortunate enough to find a trader who had bad dogs sleds and all the nails naia necessary for an overland trip who would take them to st at michael the overland party consisted of liedts fawls and bertholf and dr call from st michael to port clarence they will take reindeer belonging to the government and drive them to point barrow a distance of miles after landing the party we came back here stopping at the seal islands st paul and st george arriving at noon on the of december here we are for the winter and spring for there is no chance of getting into the arctic until the middle of next july and we will probably not leave here till june there is nothing here only a trading station for the alaska commercial company and the north american company each company has its representatives here and a lot ot of mechanics building wheelbarrow boats stern wheel steamers for the yukon river one of the leading men of the N A T company said aboard here that there was between and of gold dust at st michaels to go to the states on the first boats we will probably be the first boat to get to st michaels and that will be in june some time of course we will try and get into the arctic as soon as possible and it will probably be august before we reach point barrow then if the whalers chalers are in destitute circumstances the orders are to take them aboard and bring them to frisco irl in that case we ought to reach frisco in september some time but the general opinion seems to be that on our return here from the Arct Arctic lethe the whalers chalers wh alers if we get them will be transferred to some other vessel and we will go to st michaels and stay there till the season closes in that event we will reach the coast about the first of november engineer spear has been in the revenue service tor for a number of years he was aboard the gallatin when she ran ashore a few years agnand he narrowly escaped with his life he was expecting a transfer from the lakes to the manning on the massachusetts coast when he got his orders t to 0 go to the frozen north but like a good her servant of uncle sam he went at once to his new and uncomfortable post of duty springfield mass republican |
