CHAPTER V 



THE TRIP TO THE FORKS OF THE MAcMILLAN 

 RIVER 1904 



BEFORE leaving Dawson for Coal Creek we had 

 arranged to join a party which had matured a plan to 

 rent a small steamer to take us up to the head-waters 

 of navigation on the MacMillan River. It was composed 

 of D. A. Cameron, manager of the Dawson branch of the 

 Canadian Bank of Commerce; Judge Dugas, of Dawson; 

 J. A. Patterson, a fine fellow, who, having crossed the 

 Rockies by the Edmonton trail in 1898, had subsequently 

 gained much experience in that northern wilderness, and 

 F. C. Selous, of England. Selous had arrived a short 

 time previously and had taken a short trip in the Ogilvie 

 ranges to the north-east of Dawson to employ his time 

 in hunting caribou during the ten days that he might 

 otherwise have been idling about Dawson. He had en- 

 gaged an experienced half-breed hunter, Louis Cardinal, 

 as assistant for the MacMillan trip, and the others had 

 two experienced French-Canadians, also Bob Hender- 

 son, one of the original explorers for gold in the vicinity 

 of the Klondike River. I had re-engaged Gage and had 

 arranged to get another man at Selkirk. Two hunters, 

 Dougherty and Horn, had taken a passage for the Mac- 

 Millan where they could kill a supply of moose meat and 

 bring it back to Dawson for sale. 



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