hkdlicka] WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 45 



by those dispensing and brought to this or that man or woman of 

 those who have gathered around. No song, no ceremony, no talks, 

 no thanking, no "wake" following. Just a poor shadow of some- 

 thing that formerly may have been a tragic, memorable, and meaning 

 occasion. 



Returned to Tanana near 10 p. m. and found lodging with a store- 

 keeper who kept a " hotel." Got a big room, big bed, and when 

 store closed was alone in the house, the storekeejjer sleeping else- 

 where. 



June 20. But, Alaska was evidently not made for sleepers. Had 

 not a wink until after 3 a. in. — daylight, people talking loud and 

 walking on the board walk outside, and heard so clearly in my 

 room — loud-laughing girls, the dogs, and at last another boat with 

 its siren: and every now and then a singing mosquito trying to get 

 at me through even the small opening left under the sheet for 

 breathing — there being no netting. Finally doze off, to wake near 

 9 a. m., but everything closed, deadlike. However, go to a little 

 frame house for breakfast, and in waiting until it is made find my- 

 self with two elderly men who go to-day down the river with their 

 boats. One is a former store clerk, etc., and now an " optician " — 

 peddles eyeglasses down the river; the other was a prospector, miner, 

 and blacksmith, now an itinerant " jeweler " and a reputed " hootch " 

 peddler. As the latter — otherwise a pretty good fellow — has a 

 good-sized though old boat, arrange to go down with him. See the 

 marshal, storekeeper, settle with my hotel man (had to go at 11 to 

 awake him), and ready to start. 



The outfit is largely homemade, not imposing, old, unpainted, and 

 unfit for the rough — but it could be worse. It consists of a scow, 

 a low, flat-bottomed boat, partly covered with canvas roof on birch 

 hoops, in which Peake (the owner) carries fresh meat to some one, 

 a stove, dishes, bedding, and many other things ; and the motor boat 

 proper, in which there is little room except for the machine and its 

 tender. The latter sits on a soap box ; I, on a seat extemporized from 

 a cylindrical piece of firewood with a little board across it, with my 

 two boxes and bedding within easy reach. Sit in front of the scow, 

 except when driven back by spray. But our motor works and so we 

 start quite well at some time after 11. The arrangement is to stop at 

 every white man's camp or settlement down to Ruby. I could have 

 gone on a better boat with its owner, but they charge here $15 a day, 

 with " keep." and twice the amount for the return of the man and 

 the boat, which is beyond my resources. 



Tanana — Ruby. The river is clearer than the Tanana, and much 

 broader. It is a great fine .stream and its shores, while mostly still 

 low on the left, on the right rise here and there into moderate loess 



