196 THE UPPER YUKON 



"No," said he, "he rocked me once and he'll 

 never get a chance to rock me again." 



He eased himself by using some strong 

 "sulphurous" words about the mule, and then 

 quietly dropped behind in the procession. 



That evening we reached the foot of the 

 lake over which we had such a dangerous pas- 

 sage when we were coming in. The wind the 

 next morning was blowing a gale down the 

 lake. There was no boat to meet us, as we 

 had expected. Much time was lost in start- 

 ing a man on horseback, to go to the other 

 end of the lake to bring the boat down with 

 him, and still more time in starting a second 

 man off with a bunch of pack horses also to 

 go around the lake so as to be waiting for us 

 when we finally arrived at the head. 



In the meantime a rusty old shot-gun and 

 some cartridges were found in the cabin, and 

 I spent several days in bringing down a wel- 

 come supply of wild ducks, grouse, and 

 prairie chickens. The wild geese had now 

 commenced to fly southward, and many large 

 flocks passed over us during our enforced 

 stay. The pintailed ducks and butterballs 

 were also headed in the same direction. 



At the end of a three days' wait the man 

 who had gone to the head of the lake for the 



