462 



LIFE ON A YUKON TRAIL 



loss. Failure was not more clearly written on the ranks of the 

 Grand Army in its retreat through the snows of Moscow. These- 

 pilgrims to the shrines of Mammon no longer expressed the 

 feverish, fanatical hopes of the inexperienced gold-seeker. Con- 

 fidence had waned, and they spoke of their mission apologetically ' 

 and not with enthusiasm. All regretted that they had chosen* 

 this route, and they told of men who, unable to take steamer 

 passage, were descending the Stikine in small boats to make an 

 attempt to reach the Yukon valley by other routes. , 



One naturally asks why these stranded Klondikers did not 

 have their outfits packed in to Teslin lake on horses. The con- 

 dition of the trail precluded this means. The minimum rates 

 for transportation over the 150-mile stretch of mountain forest 

 and swamp was $800 per ton. Horses were expensive and rarely 

 lasted through the journey. The sixty miles of high level trail 

 to a point beyond the Shesley river was easily passable for a pack- 

 train when we left the country, but the region beyond was a wild 

 chaos of willow swamps and muskeg morasses, permeated with 

 streams of all sizes, from tiny rivulets to the unfordable Nahlin. 



GO-DEVTL FLAT CAR IRAWN EY A HORSE — GOO POUNDS LOAD 



