CAMP FIRES IN THE YUKON 23 



The distance from Skagway to the summit is only 

 eighteen miles, and you make it in comfort by rail 

 in about three hours ; but in the times when the trail 

 was packed with gold-seekers in a solid stream it 

 took days to force their way to the top, and not all 

 who started were destined to arrive, as many died 

 or froze to death before they reached the top far 

 above timber-line. Here lies Summit Lake, no 

 bigger than a park pond, and here rises the mighty 

 Yukon. In the days that are gone the pioneers in 

 summer went down to timber and cut trees to build 

 boats, if they had not carried boats with them over 

 the White Pass trail, and following the waterways 

 through lake and canyon fought their way north. 

 In winter they built sledges to which they hitched 

 dogs, horses, or themselves, according to their 

 wealth. From the railway it is not an uncommon 

 sight to-day to look upon the wrecks of canoes and 

 boats and broken sledges that mark the northward 

 course of the empire. 



For twenty-seven miles the railroad follows along 

 the shore of the blue, sunlit waters of Lake Ben- 

 net, from whose surface rise mountains of old rose 

 color, with the snow peaks in the background. In 

 the late afternoon we came to Miles Canyon and 

 White Horse Rapids, where the pioneers of the 

 gold rush played with death as their unwieldy rafts 

 and ill-constructed boats were whirled into the leap- 

 ing cauldron in the mad race to the North. Many 



