CAMP FIRES IN THE YUKON 185 



and devoted several hours to fleshing and cleaning 

 the goat trophies, after which we packed up and 

 started back. Part of the distance we walked and 

 gave the guides a chance to ride, as we only had two 

 saddle horses, and the guides were quite as sore and 

 weary as ourselves from yesterday's work. Three 

 o'clock found us back at Baker's cabin on the Slims 

 River, where we spent the night after a supper of 

 rice, bread, tea, and scrambled goat brains, which 

 were rather palatable since they were not tough. 



September 21. Taking but two of the horses, 

 Bullion and Jim, and leaving the other animals to 

 graze on the meadows until the rest of our party 

 should come along for them, we made our way 

 across the mud flats and came to the half-mile-wide 

 Slims River, where there is a skiff on either bank 

 for ferrying across. Loading the boat with our 

 outfit, Baker and Hayden started to row across and 

 soon found the craft spurting water through the 

 open seams; they rowed hard and the boat went 

 lower into the water, until it sank on a sand bar on 

 the other shore, where they saved everything, but 

 all the stuff was wet. Baker returned with the less 

 leaky boat, and the writer sat in the stern with a 

 long rope around the neck of the horse " Bullion " 

 for the purpose of towing him, so as to avoid quick- 

 sands. " Bullion," however, was not minded to 

 follow, and before we landed him on the bank he 

 nearly committed suicide in the quicksands. 



