IN THE GOAT AND GLACIER FIELDS 



in this case, the dogs broke away and ran head- 

 long into the crevasse. Only the first eight of 

 the sixteen fell in, but their weight on the har- 

 ness was too much and it broke, letting them 

 down. "Too-Much" Johnson, in trying to get 

 the dogs straightened out, fell in also. Some of 

 these cracks are hundreds of feet deep and 

 Youngs felt something must be done quickly if 

 his partner was to be saved. So he hurried to 

 the relief camp (a camp the freighters maintain 

 on or near these glaciers where men and means 

 are kept to render assistance in such cases). 

 Returning with men, axes, picks, ropes and every 

 appurtenance necessary, they began the search 

 for Johnson. They worked along this crevasse 

 and down it (by lowering men with ropes) all 

 that day and during the whole night — using 

 "bugs," or electric lights — but no trace of the 

 man could be found. When dawn broke they 

 detected a dark object a half mile away climbing 

 over the top of the crevasse. They ran up and 

 found it was Johnson, who barely had strength 

 to drag himself over the top, where he lay ex- 

 hausted. They found both hands and part of his 

 face frozen and the fingers worn almost to stubbs 

 in trying to climb up over the icy sides. They 

 wrapped him up carefully, laid him on the sled 

 and started for McCarthy, but before they 

 reached the town he expired — thereby offering 

 up another life — the supreme toll — to the fas- 

 cinating but uncertain life of the frozen North. 



51 



