Edward, Wm. Seymour. "In To the Yukon." Cincinnati: Robert , Clarke, 1905.

[David Robertson]

I could've also titled this message "The Chinook Jargon influence on
Yukon English."  Quite interesting stuff,here:

Page 82:  "On the way up we fell in with a very intelligent Swede....  He
had come in [to the Klondike] with the "mushers" (corruption of the French
m a r c h e), as the early foot-farers are called, and had succeeded."

Page 153:  "Day before yesterday I took the six-horse stage up Bonanza
Creek of the Klondike ... to "Discovery" claim, where a Cleveland (O.)
company is ... paying the Indian "Skookum Jim", whose house we saw at
Caribou, a royalty ...."

Page 166:  "And those who are homesick ... come ... to the tall,
well-gowned woman [who] ... has given new heart to many a lonely
"chechaqua" (tenderfoot), so far away from home!"

Page 191:  "When traveling with a dog team, or, indeed, when "mushing"
upon snow-shoes across streams and forests ...."

Pages 139, 168, 174, 203:  Same usage of "mush".  Note that Edwards *never
once* uses the word to mean traveling by sled-dog.  In fact he frequently
discusses that mode of travel, and yet pointedly says that "mushing" means
slogging across rough terrain, generally a long distance.  So as of 1905,
this presumable loan from Chinook Jargon had not yet acquired its
later and more widely known meaning.  So, I'd reckon that early Klondike
dog-sledders *told* their dogs to mush, but considered themselves apart
from "mushers".

Note also the variant on "chee chako" / "chxi chaku", and the presence of
"skookum" in the local English.

Hope you enjoyed this one!

Dave





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