70 CAMP FIRES IN THE YUKON 



supply of fresh sheep meat; so we collected dried 

 willows, made our fire, and roasted sheep meat on 

 sticks. Albert began to tell us the troubles of the 

 pack train to which he had been attached earlier in 

 the day. It seems a fording was tried at several 

 places, but the Wolverine was too high; finally a 

 swift but reasonably safe ford was found and the 

 horses all driven across except old Snorty, who per- 

 versely insisted on crossing about ten feet higher up. 

 What happened is best told in Albert's laconic de- 

 scription : " One time I see him, then no see him, 

 two time I see him, then no more see him, old 

 Snorty." We examined Albert at some length be- 

 fore the real story came out; when Snorty, with one 

 hundred pounds of flour in each pannier for side 

 packs and a large top pack, went into the creek, he 

 was struck by the torrent which rolled him under, 

 and he came up forty feet down-stream, minus one 

 hundred pounds of flour and the top pack, with the 

 second one hundred pounds of flour still fastened 

 to him ; almost immediately he went under again and 

 finally came up, barren of any pack, and climbed the 

 bank none the worse for his experience. Albert 

 found one pack of one hundred pounds of flour some 

 distance down-stream and salvaged it, but the rest 

 of the stuff could not be found. 



We sat around in the firelight and speculated not 

 a little as to the contents of that top pack, whether 

 it contained ammunition, camera, films, or sleeping 



