LIFE ON A YUKON TRAIL 



463 



In some places in the lowlands the ice still lay intact beneath 

 a heavy carpet of moss and heather as late as the middle of June. 

 But for this moss the swamps would have rapidly dried out under 

 the 18 hours of sunlight. 



As to the class of men met on the trail to the Yukon, they were, 

 as a rule, rough and common-place, as might have been expected. 

 Nearly all had the outward appearance of desperadoes. Their 

 dress contributed to their savage appearance. Wolf-skin caps, 

 red mackinaws with penitentiary stripes, and yellow, blanket- 



ENGLISH ACTORS STRANDED OX TESLIN TRAIL 



lined, canvas jackets were most in vogue. The award for the 

 most ingeniously bizarre costume rightfully belongs to a man 

 from the Palouse country, in Washington, attired in a cowl and 

 toga of striped bed-tick lined with muskrat skins, the wearer im- 

 partially distributing novelty to the eye and malodors to the nose 

 at every stage of his progress. 



Two English actors were encountered who were depending 

 upon their voices for means of transportation in making a tour 

 of tin' world. They were stranded on Teslin trail. One soon 

 grows familiar with the type of old knock-about like Dan, the 



