IN THE ALASKA-YUKON GAMELANDS 



might be gone several days for those pea-vine- 

 mad horses, I inwardly congratulated myself 

 that it was he and not I that was embarking on 

 that journey with such a scant outfit, and yet I 

 felt heartily sorry for that frail little man of iron 

 nerve and indomitable spirit, for even a seasoned 

 sourdough finds a limit to his perserverance and 

 hardship. 



We were very anxious to get away as soon as 

 possible in order to meet our boat, the North- 

 western^ going down. It was on this craft that 

 we had engaged berths, and if it were missed 

 there was no telling when we should be able to 

 leave Alaska owing to the vast numbers of people 

 migrating from there at that time. Therefore, 

 as evening approached we evinced a desire to 

 get away next morning if that were possible with- 

 out Jimmie and the four missing horses. By 

 estimating the quantity of non-perishable things 

 we had on hand, we figured that we had about 

 enough bones, horns and antlers to pack four 

 horses, and therefore it was decided to split up 

 our specimens, taking with us the hides, horns 

 in velvet and all other necessary and perishable 

 articles and leave the horns and bones for Jimmy 

 to pack in. 



Someone asked, after meditating on Jimmy's 

 inability to lead us across the Russell Glacier, 

 "Who'll lead us over the ice?" "Hell!" spoke 

 up Shorty, the "reader" of dangerous glacial 

 streams and the interpreter of soughing winds, 



190 



