IN THE ALASKA-YUKON GAMELANDS 



this gravel and rock coating, ofttimes goes 

 sprawling, depending on his skating ability and 

 balance to land right side up at the foot of the 

 slide. 



Cave-ins are almost constantly occurring ow- 

 ing to the movement of the glacier and the melt- 

 ing of the ice; therefore a good trail today may 

 be torn out by an ice-slide tomorrow. On .a great 

 part of Russell Glacier no trail at all is visible, 

 but over the most dangerous sections used by 

 prospectors, packers, trappers and guides, the 

 travelers have found it of advantage to follow 

 certain well-defined courses. The travel has in 

 these spots beaten down the rocks into a fairly 

 visible trail. Occasionally it was found neces- 

 sary to stop the outfit long enough to chop the 

 ice from a hillside to fill a dangerous "gulch" or 

 to hew down an impossible ice barrier, too slip- 

 pery to climb. For this purpose ice picks and 

 axes were always kept on top of the packs for 

 quick use. 



Four sheep were seen from this morning's 

 camp at Skolai Pass, and a band of some twenty- 

 five or thirty were later noticed on one of the 

 mountains flanking Russell Glacier as we passed. 



After six hours of very nervous travel on the 

 glacier, we came out on the bank of the ice-field, 

 which was in fact its east mouth. Down this 

 bank for 300 yards we scrambled, slid and rolled 

 to the flat gravel bed of the White River, and our 

 glacier travel was ended until the return. 



78 



