CAMP FIRES IN THE YUKON in 



September i. We spent a sleepless but rather 

 amusing night in our crazy shelter, as the blizzard 

 increased in power and the snow caused our piece 

 of canvas to sag under the constantly increasing 

 weight. At intervals of about fifteen minutes one 

 of us would strike the sides of the canvas to relieve 

 the weight and we kept this up all night, with the 

 result that the accumulation of snow at the sides 

 half buried us. In the morning we dug ourselves 

 out of the shelter, to find the country covered with 

 two feet of snow on the lowest levels, with still 

 greater depths as we rose above the river bottoms. 

 Everything was frozen tight and blanketed with the 

 white mantle ; our saddles had disappeared ; our wil- 

 low firewood, kettle, frying pan, and grub supply 

 were all lost in the white drift, and we kicked around 

 for some time kneedeep in the snow before we lo- 

 cated and fished up our outfit. 



We then discovered that our horses had even left 

 us in the lurch, and as this was a serious predicament 

 the Indian immediately took up their nearly ob- 

 literated trail and found them huddled in a canyon 

 to keep out of the wind. After bringing in the ani- 

 mals we managed to coax our willow fire into a flame 

 with the aid of chunks of sheep fat, and finally sat 

 down on our saddles for a respectable breakfast. 

 As we were eating, the storm began to moderate 

 and, between gulps of hot tea, Dixon managed to 

 tell us that he thought he saw a large caribou stand- 



