2,000 MILES DOWN THE YUKON 25 



Fur farming, particularly fox farming, was thought by 

 many persons to have a lucrative future. But the high 

 price for breeders, the liabihty of loss or death, and the 

 probability that the price of these furs would come down 

 rapidly when many farms began to ship, discouraged 

 not a few. 



White Horse being one of the outfitting points for 

 big game hunting at the head of White River, we inter- 

 viewed Charles Baxter, a professional guide. He said it 

 took two weeks to go in, and two weeks to come out, 

 which, added to a forty days' hunt, made at least nine 

 weeks. He would follow a trail to Kluane Lake, traverse 

 the lake in boats and look for moose, sheep, caribou and 

 bear in the country between the Donjek and White 

 Rivers. We also heard of a well-recommended guide, 

 Tom Dickson, Kluane, Yukon Territory. 



We, however, boarded the steamer ''Dawson," an 

 old stem-wheel, wood-burning, shoal-draught river boat, 

 and headed farther down the stream. The swift current 

 wound through the hills, forming bends and shoals, 

 which required careful handUng at many points, and a 

 rather spectacular passage at Five Finger Rapids. 



Here four gigantic rocks sat in the stream, towering 

 above us, and made five channels, in roaring through 

 which the water dropped four feet. The captain chose 

 the right-hand pass. He brought the steamer opposite 

 to the rock which divided it from the next channel, back- 

 paddled and held her till she had shifted out fairly to the 

 passage, then drove her through at full speed. The 

 vessel swung as she made it and each end nearly touched 

 the vertical chffs. 



The Rink Rapids, a short distance below, were quite 

 different and more feared. This was a considerable fall 



