The Journal of a Sporting Nomad 



or no information could, in those days, be 

 obtained of the conditions to be found in Alaska. 



One of the most useful things I bought a 

 similar one I have never seen before or since 

 was a small cooking-stove. It was made of thin 

 sheet iron, measuring across the top some three 

 feet by two feet and fourteen inches deep. It 

 had a compartment in which bread or a cake 

 could be baked, and was provided with a col- 

 lapsible chimney of the same material as the 

 main fabric. This stove proved of the greatest 

 assistance and comfort, as it could be kept going 

 splendidly with the smallest amount of fuel 

 such as chips or small sticks. It was very light, 

 not weighing more than ten or twelve pounds, 

 and therefore easily handled, and I used it 

 inside my tent, and was able on many occasions 

 to dry out my sodden clothes, a blessing in 

 itself, when I state that on one small trip, 

 after bears, the rain came down in a practically 

 unceasing downpour during all the time that I 

 was away. 



I left Victoria in the s.s. Cottage City, and 

 went by way of Wrangel, Juneau, Skagway, and 

 Sitka. At Skagway I met with an adventure 

 which might easily have cost me my life ; in 

 fact, had I not been an Englishman, I believe 

 that my wanderings would have reached an 

 abrupt termination. It seemed that here was 



one of the starting-places over the White Horse 



196 



