DOWN THE PORCUPINE RIVER 239 



who were returning to Seattle after a season in the Alaska 

 gold mines. The captain offered these men a dollar an 

 hour if they would turn to and help the crew unload 

 the bags of oats, but it appeared that the miners had had 

 their fare paid by their employers all the way out to 

 Seattle and that this fare included board. They said, 

 accordingly, that they did not care how long they were 

 stuck; in fact, the longer we were stuck the better it 

 suited them, for they would get that much more free 

 board. Furthermore, they said they were through work- 

 ing for the season, and that they were miners anyhow and 

 not stevedores. 



There happened to be on the ship a number of pas- 

 sengers who were eager to get to Dawson and Seattle. 

 I was in no particular hurry to reach Seattle but I was 

 in a hurry to get to Eagle. Accordingly, I was one of the 

 passengers who volunteered and six or eight of us worked 

 hard with the crew for about twelve hours carrying ashore 

 bags of oats. I think we unloaded six hundred tons 

 before the Hanna was light enough to pass the shallows 

 above. 



We kept running aground again and again in spite of 

 our unloading, and all together we lost about fifty hours' 

 time. We should have reached Eagle September 5th but 

 actually got there September 7th. When I sent my 

 despatch out it got to the newspapers thirty-six hours too 

 late. In a sense I had won the race, for my reaching the 

 Yukon would have been in time if the steamer had only 

 kept to its schedule. As it was, my news did not prevent 

 the shock caused all over the world by the announcement 

 of one more polar tragedy, nor did it prevent the writing 

 of many editorials, some praising the heroism of the dead 

 and others declaiming against the futility of such hare- 



