From Taku River to Taylor Bay 



ice between the crevasses, dance to the boding music 

 of the winds and waters, and as I was already tired 

 and hungry I would be in bad condition for such ice 

 work. Many times I was put to my mettle, but with 

 a firm-braced nerve, all the more unflinching as the 

 dangers thickened, I worked out of that terrible ice- 

 web, and with blood fairly up Stickeen and I ran over 

 common danger without fatigue. Our very hardest 

 trial was in getting across the very last of the sliver 

 bridges. After examining the first of the two widest 

 crevasses, I followed its edge half a mile or so up and 

 down and discovered that its narrowest spot was 

 about eight feet wide, which was the limit of what I 

 was able to jump. Moreover, the side I was on 

 that is, the west side was about a foot higher than 

 the other, and I feared that in case I should be stopped 

 by a still wider impassable crevasse ahead that I 

 would hardly be able to take back that jump from 

 its lower side. The ice beyond, however, as far as I 

 could see it, looked temptingly smooth. Therefore, 

 after carefully making a socket for my foot on the 

 rounded brink, I jumped, but found that I had noth- 

 ing to spare and more than ever dreaded having to 

 retrace my way. Little Stickeen jumped this, how- 

 ever, without apparently taking a second look at it, 

 and we ran ahead joyfully over smooth, level ice, 

 hoping we were now leaving all danger behind us. 

 But hardly had we gone a hundred or two yards when 

 to our dismay we found ourselves on the very widest 

 of all the longitudinal crevasses we had yet encount- 

 ered. It was about forty feet wide. I ran anxiously 



[ 253 1 



