FROM CANDLE TO FORT GIBBON 403 



their stiffness and unmanageableness. We had lost a whole 

 hour through our stupidity, and it was dark before we had 

 covered the twenty-five miles between Melozi and Kornings, 

 where we stayed with a native road-house keeper. 



A bright young fellow, Joe Indian, wanted to run " up the 

 line," and Mr. Adams, who was not accustomed to the hard 



KOKRINES TELEGRAPH STATION 



mushing on the trail, made an arrangement with Joe to ride on 

 his sledge. We started early on February 10 to make a fine 

 run, and for once the weather was splendid, calm and clear. 

 The intense cold had covered the snow with a thick crust of 

 ice, over which the sledges passed easily ; the trail was fairly 

 well marked, and everything was in our favour for making a 

 good run. In four hours we made sixteen miles ; then we stopped 

 for an hour and a half at the telegraph station at Kokrines, 

 started again, and when the sun set and the dusk commenced 

 to settle around us the moon rose over the tree tops, lighting up 

 our trail. At 7 P.M. we reached Wilson's road-house, having 

 covered forty miles during the nine hours and a half we had 

 been actually travelling. 



Next morning Joe Indian had left us. Our way of travelling 

 did not suit him ; there had been no time to talk with casual 

 natives, nor to take an hour's rest at every native house we 



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