The party which left Haines, Alaska, a month ago for the purpose of meandering the route of the railroad it is proposed to build from salt water at Haines to Fairbanks by way of the Porcupine, the Kluane, the head of the White river and down the Tanana, completed the trip to the head of the Tanana last week. Those composing the party were John Rosene, H. R. Robbins and H. P. M. Birkinbine, the latter a civil engineer. Ed Benson acted as guide for the party, which had two other men, a packer and cook.
Mr. Robbins arrived here Saturday on the steamer White Horse which he boarded at Stewart, to which place he and Mr. Rosene floated down from the head of the White river in a small boat. Rosene went on to Dawson and arrived on the steamer Dawson yesterday. Birkinbine retraced the route back through the Kluane and will be here some time the later part of next week, it being his desire to obtain more accurate information as to the most feasible route than he got on the way out.
Mr. Robbins says that the country, after the first few miles back from the coast, is admirably suited to railroad construction and that the resources of the country are unexcelled in the West or North from a mineral standpoint.
Mr. Rosene is very enthusiastic over the country as a railroad proposition and says active work in the way of construction will begin at an early date. There is placer fields at both ends of the proposed line and almost a continuous quartz belt between them, to say nothing of the vast hydraulic propositions to be found in the Kluane district through which the road will run.
