8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



were hovering about, only too certain of the meal which was being- 

 prepared for them. Oftentimes pack saddles, and sometimes even the 

 packs, were allowed to remain with the struggling or sunken animal 

 such was the mad race which the greed of gold inspired. 



On October 9th I was again at Bennett, this time returning from 

 my journey into the interior, and full of experience of what steam 

 navigation on the upper six hundred miles of Yukon waters might 

 mean. There was now a change in the sentiment regarding the qual- 

 ity of the two passes. The Pacific and Arctic Railway, the pioneer 

 of Alaska steam railways, was operating twelve miles of track, and 

 had thus materially reduced the " hardships " of the Skaguay trail ; 

 the Chilkoot, on the other hand, was represented to be in the worst 

 of mood, and prepared to put the passing traveler into the same con- 

 dition. It was more than late in the season, but the winter's blasts 

 had been stayed off by a full month, and there were still no signs of 

 their coming. A little ice had begun to form along the river's mar- 

 gin and over sheltered pools, and an occasional cool night made de- 

 mands for moderately warm clothing proper; but, on the whole, the 

 temperature was mild and balmy, and to its influence responded a 

 vegetation which in its full glory might easily have called to mind the 

 region of the Juniata. 



Although strongly warned against taking the Chilkoot Pass so 

 late in the season, many of the outgoers, whose recollections of events 

 in the early part of the year were still vividly fresh, and who could 

 not be persuaded that the period of a few months had so effaced the 

 conditions of the past as to permit a steam railway to enter for twelve 

 miles into the region, chose it in preference to the White Pass. My 

 own mind had been cast in the same direction; not, however, from 

 a point of judicious preference, but merely because I was anxious to 

 see for myself that which had become historic in the movement of 

 1898, and of instituting a direct comparison of the physical features 

 and general characteristics of the two routes. With no serious hin- 

 drance, the journey from Bennett out was that of a full day only, 

 and there was no particular reason to suspect that there would be 

 delay. Snow had fallen on the summit and whitened all the higher 

 points, but seemingly it hung in only a measurably thin crust, and 

 with not enough to necessitate breaking a trail. 



A crude steam ferry across Lake Lindeman cuts off about six 

 miles from the first part of the trail, after which a rapidly rising path, 

 sufficiently distinct to permit it to be easily followed, winds over the 

 rocks and among rock debris to Long Lake, situated at an elevation of 

 some twenty-six hundred feet, where night shelter is found in a fairly 

 comfortable tent. Up to this point we had encountered but little snow, 

 and the condition of the trail was such as to allow of rapid travel. A 



