24 HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



We ventured the opinion that a strong swimmer 

 might go through the White Horse Rapids. ''No one 

 has ever succeeded," repUed Dr. Sugden. "Every time 

 that a boat capsized, or a man fell out and lost hold of 

 the craft, death followed. The current probably draws 

 downward in places. I once saw a large spruce tree, 

 about seventy feet long, come through. At one place it 

 was whirled up on end, drawn down straight out of sight 

 and cast out below the rapids, broken into three pieces." 



On the river bank, below the steamboat docks, a very 

 old man was making dories of rough lumber, the seams 

 calked and smeared with tar. ''I have been doing this 

 for nine years," he said, "and have built nearly a thou- 

 sand boats, ranging in value (at present prices) from 

 fourteen to thirty dollars." 



We rowed across the current in one of these, to a fox 

 farm on the opposite side. The two proprietors led us 

 through the alleys between the cages, which were about 

 four feet high. "We have invested some twenty thou- 

 sand dollars in our breeding stock," they explained. 

 "If one of the black ones gets away it is hke losing 

 $1,500 in the river; consequently we have buried the 

 lower edge of our wire fencing about four feet deep." 

 A number of foxes were running loose in the alleys. At 

 this moment one of them climbed upon a cage and 

 jumped for the top of the outside fence, which was some 

 nine feet high and six feet from the cage. He just 

 missed enough foothold to make his escape. "More 

 wire on top of that fence, Jim," said the man, looking 

 significantly at his partner. These men were bitterly 

 critical of the poUcy of the White Pass Route. It 

 charged, they said, exorbitant freight rates if the goods 

 were valuable. 



