42 CAMP FIRES IN THE YUKON 



to hunt game to supply the miners with fresh meat. 

 Of late years he has been engaged in trapping fur- 

 bearing animals and his reputation is that of a man 

 who knows game. 



Lake Kluane is forty-five miles long, and as part 

 of our horses are at the lower end of the lake and 

 the greater part are at the northern end, we decided 

 to take most of our provisions and outfit to the 

 upper end of the lake by two twenty-foot boats, 

 while some of us rounded up the horses at the lower 

 end of the lake. Accordingly late in the afternoon 

 Jim Baker and George Wright, with Hoyt and Wol- 

 cott, started for the lower end of the lake and suc- 

 ceeded in rounding up the horses preparatory to get- 

 ting them across the Slims River, a glacial stream 

 half a mile wide, with strong current and full of 

 quicksands. 



There is a skiff on either side of the river and one 

 horse was tied behind the skiff, and as the oarsmen 

 row across the rest of the horses are driven into the 

 water behind the towed horse; and as they usually 

 follow a lead horse, the crossing was successfully 

 made without much difficulty, except one horse was 

 swept down-stream about one hundred yards and 

 floundered around before he could reach solid foot- 

 ing on the bank; after reaching which the party pro- 

 ceeded to Jim Baker's cabin for the night, to make 

 an early start up the lake the following day. 



Dixon the guide, with Bettle and the writer, 



