428 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



But while we were enjoying the warmth we sped along as 

 fast as four strong horses could carry us. Every twenty miles 

 we changed horses, and the halt afforded us an opportunity to 

 stretch our legs before we again commenced speeding towards 

 the south, towards the high and rugged coast mountains which 

 came nearer and nearer. To the east we could see Mount 



HOTEL BELOW THOMPSON S PASS. 



Drum and Mount Wrangel quite clearly, as if they were 

 close to us instead of thirty-five miles away, and from the 

 middle of the large even dome of Mount Wrangel the smoke 

 of the crater was rising high in the calm air. The forests we 

 drove through were beautiful ; only now and again we came to 

 large tracts of land where destroying fires had robbed the trees 

 of their branches and only left the tall straight trunks. 



But finer still it became when night fell and the sun sank 

 behind the coast mountains. To the east the full moon rose 

 over the Alaskan range, lighting up the magnificent mountains 

 on either side of the trail. For miles and miles the mountains 

 were visible, showing every fissure, every snowdrift, in the soft 

 moonlight, while the tall trees, the tallest we yet had seen, 

 were rocking to and fro with large blotches of snow on their 

 branches. Not a sound was heard, except the tinkling of the 

 bells on the harness of the horses and the clattering of hoofs 



