50 CAMP FIRES IN THE YUKON 



We rested the horses for a few minutes and then 

 began our ascent of the Burwash Mountains, wind- 

 ing around the sides of the mountains through the 

 ever-dwindling spruce timber which we left behind 

 at noon, and came out upon the tundra-covered 

 mountains, where we stopped to give the horses a 

 rest while we ate sandwiches and kept a close watch 

 on the pack animals to keep them from lying down 

 and rolling with their burdens. 



A whole volume might be written upon the subject 

 of the tundras of the Yukon, and since they play an 

 important part in retarding exploration and travel 

 in this surprising land, we must take note of them. 

 This mountain covering of tundra is innocent enough 

 to look at; it appears to be simply a covering of 

 small, brownish-green bushes about twelve inches 

 high, growing so closely together as to form a con- 

 tinuous carpet, but when the traveler comes to step 

 on the carpet he finds the entire mass of vegetation 

 is simply floating upon a bed of watery mire into 

 which he sinks above his ankles. How the moisture 

 comes to be there the writer does not know and has 

 no theory, and its presence is too persistent a fact 

 to encourage much theorizing, as the tundra with 

 its muck and mire is found on the very tops of the 

 Burwash Mountains as well as on the steep slopes, 

 where according to all rules it ought to be drained 

 off, but is not. 



