66 THE UPPER YUKON 



the lake without doing anything in particular. 

 From some unknown reason the Chief did not 

 seem to care about getting into the power boat 

 to cross the forty miles to the foot of the 

 lake. 



The following morning the wind was blow- 

 ing a gale, and we loafed around until the late 

 afternoon, when, the wind having subsided, 

 we boarded the boat and were off at last. 



When a couple of miles had been passed, 

 another storm arose, blowing at right angles 

 to the boat, and we were forced to steer for the 

 shelter of the lee-shore, where we put in an 

 hour waiting for the subsidence of the wind. 

 It was by this time nearly dark and it looked 

 like rain. Some sail cloth was procured and 

 battened down over our heads and on each side 

 of the boat, so that we were sheltered from a 

 wetting. 



The threatened storm came quickly in the 

 form of a squall, which blew the hissing water 

 over the top of the canvas. The boat com- 

 menced to take water and as there were seven 

 of us in it, with a considerable weight of sup- 

 plies and dunnage besides, for a while it 

 looked dubious as to whether we could get 

 across. To make things worse, after a run of 

 four hours we ran head on upon a gravel bar, 



