"The Stickeen River 



great care and the digging of slight footholds he 

 could be slid down to the glacier, where I could lay 

 him on his back and perhaps be able to set his arms. 

 Accordingly, I cheered him up, telling him I had 

 found a way, but that it would require lots of time 

 and patience. Digging a footstep in the sand or 

 crumbling rock five or six feet beneath him, I reached 

 up, took hold of him by one of his feet, and gently 

 slid him down on his back, placed his heels in the step, 

 then descended another five or six feet, dug heel 

 notches, and slid him down to them. Thus the whole 

 distance was made by a succession of narrow steps 

 at very short intervals, and the glacier was reached 

 perhaps about midnight. Here I took off one of my 

 boots, tied a handkerchief around his wrist for a good 

 hold, placed my heel in his arm pit, and succeeded in 

 getting one of his arms into place, but my utmost 

 strength was insufficient to reduce the dislocation of 

 the other. I therefore bound it closely to his side, and 

 asked him if in his exhausted and trembling condi- 

 tion he was still able to walk. 



"Yes," he bravely replied. 



So, with a steadying arm around him and many 

 stops for rest, I marched him slowly down in the star- 

 light on the comparatively smooth, unfissured surface 

 of the little glacier to the terminal moraine, a distance 

 of perhaps a mile, crossed the moraine, bathed his 

 head at one of the outlet streams, and after many 

 rests reached a dry place and made a brush fire. I 

 then went ahead looking for an open way through the 

 bushes to where larger wood could be had, made a 



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