THE ICE TRAIL ON THE YUKON 



night without fire, it might be for a perpetual sleep; and 

 to avoid death by the cold some men built double camp- 

 fires, one on either side, and crouched between them during 

 the hours of darkness. It is wonderful how much cold a 

 man may accustom himself to endure. I have a vivid 

 recollection of a night of grim emergency passed lying out 

 in the snow, with only one thickness of blankets over and 

 one below, when the thermometer hung on a nearby tree 

 registered forty degrees below zero. 



At the height of travel, the long line of men journeying 

 over the ice trail was a gaily caparisoned procession, and 

 not at all suggestive of the desperate race with famine and 

 cold. The men who knew to a certainty that their pro- 

 visions would not last to the coast, and who had no idea 

 what they would do when the food gave out, wore carnival 

 colored " parkies " of yellow and white, or white and blue, 

 or tawny fox skins and the darker and richer furs. Even 

 the projecting hoods and the grim face masks when seen 

 at a little distance carried out the masquerade deception 

 and seemed fitting accompaniments to the domino-shaped 

 gowns, but a closer inspection of the faces, deep set behind 

 their fringe of ice formed by the congealed breath, showed 

 hard lines and little suggestion of mirth. 



And yet the men were far from conquered and despond- 

 ent. Once in a while, it is true, some poor frozen fellow 

 came along, half-crazed with fear, presenting a pitiful and 

 depressing spectacle; but with the majority the hardships 

 and dangers brought uppermost the masterful spirit char- 

 acteristic of the true pioneer. 



The Klondikers who passed the Pelly in 1897 were 

 nearly all from the States. Half of the men who regis- 

 tered at Fort Selkirk left homes on the Pacific coast. 

 Many were sons of California " Forty-niners." These men 

 will subdue Alaska and their sons will push on further to 

 Siberia or to the mountains of the moon. 



Of the victims of the ice trail little is known. Camps 

 have been found with silent blanketed forms lying just as 

 they had taken their positions months before, and the 

 ravens that infested the river all winter were surfeited at 

 other points than Dalton's abattoirs. 



The Yukon runs so swiftly that it would remain open all 



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