THE UPPER YUKON 



CHAPTER I 



HOW IT ALL CAME ABOUT 



"The way is long and cold and lone — 

 But I go — 

 It leads where pines forever moan 

 Their weight of snow — 

 Yet I go. 

 There are voices in the wind that call, 

 There are hands that beckon to the plain; 

 I must journey where the trees grow tall, 

 And the lonely heron clamers in the rain." 



— Hamlin Garland. 



IT has been my custom in recent years to 

 invite in the fall many of the big game 

 hunters living in Philadelphia to an evening's 

 mutual "Experience Meeting" at my home. 



There each one is expected to narrate 

 briefly the most exciting or the most novel in- 

 cidents of his latest hunting trip. 



When the hunting season of 1909 was over 

 and the participants in the hunting field had 



