CAMP FIRES IN THE YUKON 169 



Darkness fell upon the mountains, but still we 

 plodded along, until eight miles from the canyon 

 we descended into the timber and made our way 

 down to the Duke River, which we forded at once. 

 The horses were nearly spent and the rest of us had 

 nearly reached our limit, but we continued eight 

 miles further through the darkness with solid foot- 

 ing and finally reached Morley Bones' cabin at the 

 end of Lake Kluane. We have made thirty-five 

 miles to-day across the mountains and down the 

 rocky canyon, traveling most of the distance on foot, 

 and we are so entirely gone that we will not con- 

 tinue our journey until late in the morning. 



September 16. It has snowed all night and the 

 storm still raged as we came out of Bones' cabin 

 this morning and decided to make a start down the 

 trail along the shore of the Lake. It was ten o'clock 

 when we left the cabin and started south; the horses 

 are lame, but the footing along the gravel beaches 

 is solid, and there are no mountains to cross to-day. 

 We traveled very slowly, letting the animals take 

 their own time, and since the snow continued we 

 put up tent at four o'clock, having made twenty 

 miles, and turned out the horses to graze on some 

 very good grass, 



September //. Very cold and snowing as we 

 made our start this morning, but the north wind 

 drove off the storm and we made excellent progress 

 down the lake. As we went south the snow became 



