CAMP FIRES IN THE YUKON 53 



Creek, flowing out of a small lake of the same name 

 near by our camp. We picked up many ptarmigan 

 as we went forward, and about eleven o'clock 

 reached timber line and in an hour descended to the 

 valley of the Donjeck River, where horses were un- 

 packed and turned out for two hours to feed upon 

 the pea vine called " Donjeck " by the Indians, and 

 which grows abundantly in the four-mile-wide bot- 

 tom land. 



The horses prefer this pea vine to grass, and 

 Bones winters his horses in this valley with no other 

 feed. Though hemmed by mountains of eternal 

 snow, rising from the river level, these horses simply 

 paw down through the white blanket and thrive on 

 " Donjeck " during the long Arctic winter. 



In the afternoon we made a fresh start for ford- 

 ing the Donjeck River, a glacial stream which we 

 found to be high by reason of the melting of the ice 

 above. In the morning these glacial streams are 

 low, but as the sun's rays linger upon the ice fields 

 they naturally melt and the rivers rise rapidly until 

 about six o'clock in the afternoon, when they begin 

 to subside until the next day. This river is exceed- 

 ingly swift and divided into many channels, all of 

 which have dangerous quicksands. After crossing 

 several branches, Dixon led the way into another, 

 but his horse struck quicksand and turned back, after 

 which we found a safe crossing. The pack horses 

 were brought to a crossing we had already tested, 



