AN EXPLORATION TO MOUNT McKINLEY. 415 



mercy of the mosquitoes, Avliich follow him in clouds. While every 

 other hardship of Alaskan travel is often grossly exaggerated, it is 

 hardly possible to do this one justice. Men capable of enduring heat 

 and cold, hunger and fatigue without murmuring, will become almost 

 savage under the torture. However, the story told me bj^ an old 

 prospector of the days on "Fortj^mile,"' when he could wave a pint 

 cup over his head and catch a quart of mosquitoes, did seem somewhat 

 beyond the bounds of probaliility. 



As we could not know but that the part}" might be forced to retreat 

 along the same line as the advance, we left an emergency cache of 

 provisions at this point — that is, we placed bags of bacon and flour in 

 the branches of a tall spruce out of the reach of wolves. There they 

 will remain until the}^ deca}', for a cache is sacred to an Indian, and he 

 will not molest it even if he be at the point of starvation. 



On the 30th of June we Started up the Keechatna Kiver, taking 

 turns as axmen in the dense growth of alder and willow which clothed 

 the valley floor. Sometimes our trail lay perilously near the under- 

 cut river bank, and again it climbed along the valley wall to avoid 

 precipitous cliffs. The river seemed to have a strange fascination for 

 some of the horses, and more than once they deliberately jumped in. 

 A cr}' for help one da}" brought me to the rear of the pack train on a 

 run, and there was Prindle lying full length on a tree trunk which 

 overhung the water, clinging desperately to the halter of a horse 

 which the rushing current threatened to carry down. The loss would 

 have been irretrievable, for his pack contained nearly all the records 

 of the journey. A general alarm was sounded, and the united efforts 

 of seven availed at last to rescue the animal. 



On another occasion Medicine, one of our most troublesome horses, 

 deliberately jumped into the river and became mired in a quicksand 

 20 feet from the bank. The horse following, known as "'Grand- 

 father/' to whose pack was intrusted the folding boat, plunged in 

 after Medicine, as if to the rescue. Both were dragged out, but at no 

 small danger of both horses and men being engulfed in the treacher- 

 ous quicksand. 



One day the steep mountain wall closed in and forced us to ford the 

 river. This was not very wide, but its swift current tumbling over 

 huge Ijowlders looked anything but inviting. Climbing on top of a 

 pack. I essayed the first attempt, but my horse lost his footing and 

 rolled us l)oth over in the icy waters. A second trial proving more 

 successful, the other horses followed one by one, with the men lying- 

 flat on the tops of the packs. Odell, with characteristic recklessness, 

 had chosen the wildest one, which bucked him off' in midstream, giv- 

 ing us a bad scare, but he managed to gain his feet and clamber 

 ashore. 



