Alaskan Telegraph System 



359 



myself, with our teams of seven and 

 eight picked dogs, respectively, left Fort 

 Egbert, accompanied by three horses 

 and sleds carrying our rations and dog 

 food, which were to go with us as far 

 as possible for them. On the way out 

 we picked up the Indian Joseph, and 

 after some preliminary reconnoissance 

 work to determine a good pass on the 

 head of the Goodpasture, we reached 

 the source of that river on December 19. 

 There we sent back the horses, changed 

 our dog sleds for toboggans, and made 

 a cache on poles about 12 feet from the 

 ground, so that the wolves and wolver- 

 ines could not reach the provisions 

 which we stored there to use on our 

 way back. After loading our tobog- 

 gans with 600 pounds each, we started, 

 Indian Joe and I preceding the dogs, 

 breaking the trail, and chopping out 

 brush, while Scout De Hous managed 

 the teams, following in our tracks. We 

 started each morning as soon as there 

 was sufficient light and traveled for 

 eight hours steadily, averaging, with 

 stops, about two miles an hour. At 

 numerous points in the Goodpasture 

 warm springs are prevalent, the water 

 coming out at a temperature of 6o° 

 above zero, and many of these places 

 had only a thin skim of ice over them. 

 As they were covered with snow, it was 

 often impossible to discover them as we 

 ran along, until one or all of us would 

 fall through into the water, and as the 

 temperature was constantly falling, 

 great care had to be taken to prevent 

 freezing. At the end of the day's trip 

 camp would be made and a fire blazing 

 within ten minutes after we stopped. A 

 place would be chosen near some dry 

 spruce timber, the Indian would shovel 

 a place in the snow with his snowshoes 

 for the tent, get spruce boughs for the 

 beds, and put up the tent and stove. 

 Scout De Hous would chop the fire- 

 wood and I attend to the unharnessing 

 of the dogs and getting out our equip- 

 ment from the toboggans. 



By December 29 the temperature 



had fallen to 70 below zero, and it 

 was almost impossible to keep our 

 feet from freezing on the snowshoes, 

 but we pushed ahead in an attempt to 

 make an Indian settlement which we 

 knew to be at the mouth of the 

 Goodpasture. During the afternoon of 

 December 29 I observed that Scout De 

 Hous was lagging behind, and upon 

 asking him what the matter was I 

 found that he was in the stupor which 

 always precedes freezing. As when a 

 man is in that condition it only takes a 

 moment for him to freeze to death, I 

 halted and set the Indian to pull- 

 ing down some dry spruce boughs 

 for a fire, while I kept De Hous mov- 

 ing. Within two minutes we had the 

 fire going, and when De Hous saw it 

 he became distracted and jumped into 

 the middle of it, badly burning himself, 

 his moccasins, and clothing. It was 

 then necessary to camp. I merely give 

 this as an instance of what frequently 

 happens in the Arctic, and of the care 

 that has to be exercised to guard against 

 being frozen to death. Only a few days 

 before we left Fort Egbert, Scout De 

 Hous brought in on his sled a prospector 

 who had been careless and who had been 

 frozen to death. 



On January 1 , 1903, we at last reached 

 the mouth of the Goodpasture River, 

 where it empties into the Tanana, and 

 walked into a warm Indian cabin. Our 

 hopes had been realized ; an excellent 

 course for the line had been found, and, 

 as far as we could learn, we were the 

 first white men to traverse the length of 

 the Goodpasture. The Indians said 

 they were starving, and begged, as is 

 their custom. We gave them half of 

 our tea, which was not. much, and kept 

 guard over the rest of our scanty store 

 of provisions. These Indians are held 

 in bad repute by the other Indians and 

 white men, the white men saying that 

 they are thieves and the Indians that 

 they are ' ' bad medicine men. ' ' We re- 

 mained with them for one day, and then 

 turned back. As our loads were much 



