THE WHITE WORLD 



had not known of his danger and taken precautions to 

 save his feet before it was too late. At that very moment 

 the questioner's own feet were frozen beyond hope of 

 recovery. 



I asked this man how it happened that he did not know 

 his own condition. He said that shortly after leaving his 

 tent that morning his feet had been very painful. He was 

 wearing lumberman's socks and rubbers. He had stamped 

 his feet, and presently the pain grew less and he imagined 

 the circulation had been restored, when as a matter of 

 fact the relief came from the total loss of sensation incident 

 to freezing. 



The pioneers of the ice trail fared the worst. Some left 

 Dawson at the middle of October, weeks before the river 

 closed. The mush ice which ran in endless stream past 

 the log city gorged temporarily, and, supposing it had 

 stopped for the winter, these men lashed their loads on 

 their sleds and started. The Yukon almost immediately 

 opened again, and they were caught in a trap. In the dark 

 canon-like valley marked on the maps as the Upper Ram- 

 parts, sledges were lost or broken and tents and blankets 

 were thrown away. With packs strapped on their backs, 

 the refugees struggled on, following the narrow rim of 

 shore ice when not compelled to scale the almost vertical 

 barriers of basalt rock. 



Supplies gave out, and after five weeks of travel the first 

 of the parties had only gotten as far as Fort Selkirk, four 

 hundred miles from food and safety. They were tantalized 

 by the sight of rafts laden with beef and mutton for the 

 Dawson market, aground and abandoned on bars in mid- 

 channel, a feast for the ravens, but separated from them 

 by a gulf as impassable as that upon which Dives gazed; 

 and but for the chance flotsam picked up at the river's 

 edge from wrecked boats, and Indians at the Nordenskiold, 

 these men of the vanguard would certainly have starved. 

 As it was, they were reduced to the last extremity: and, 

 insufficiently protected from the weather, they suffered the 

 Eskimo's hell of slow death by freezing. 



The old-timers in Dawson said the trip to the coast was 

 an impossible task for hand-sledgers, and " a gamble " for 

 the men with dog teams. They cited the case of George 



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