
BSCS 
4 

AMATEUR PHOTO BY A. J. STONE. 
ALL READY FOR THE LOWER MACKENZIE. 
able tor whip-sawing and constructing 
boats. At this point, too, my equipment 
was beyond all difficulties of transporta- 
tion, as the river is easy of navigation 
from Hell Gate to the Mackenzie. 
I felt much relieved, for though I 
knew I should have this long portage to 
make, yet I felt a considerable anxiety con- 
cerning it, especially as experienced trav- 
lee warned me I should find it no easy 
task. 
I expect to take final leave of Lower 
Post during the first days of March. The 
traveling will then be much better, as the 
snow will be fairly well packed. I shall 
have about 300 pounds goods to trans- 
port, composed of blankets, guns, cam- 
eras, chemicals, etc. 
In the matter of dog-sleigh transporta- 
tion I was especially fortunate. A party 
of 4 young men, en route to the Yukon, 
by way of Port Simpson, on the Macken- 
zie, and up the Liard river, were at work 
below Hell Gate, transporting supplies 
with dog teams. This proved so slow that 
2 of their party came up the river to inves- 
tigate the route ahead of them, reaching 
the Lower Post the last of December. 
They desired to move up stream more 
rapidly, and I was anxious to move my 
outfit to the point they then occupied. 
Mr. Simpson readily equipped me with 2 
dog teams, and it was agreed we should 
accompany them back down the river, 
taking down 4 dog train-loads of my outfit 
and bringing up 4 loads of theirs. In 2 days 
273 
my baggage, with the exception of what I 
actually required at the post, was repacked 
and lashed on the sleighs. The round trip 
of 220 miles was made with entire satisfac- 
tion to both parties. I also secured from 
them and placed in my cache nearly 500 
pounds of their provisions, saving the 
transporting of so mutch weight to them 
and relieving me of the burden of sleigh- 
ing food supplies down. 
Almost every kind of travel known to 
the dog driver was experienced on this 
trip; glare ice, caused by the freezing of 
overflows, so smooth even the dogs could 
scarcely keep their feet on it; sections of 
the same kind of ice, with light snow cov- 
ering; slush overflows beneath deep snow 
not yet frozen, in which our sleighs would 
fasten as though in wet clay, and from 
which it would require the greatest pos- 
sible exertion to extract them; long sec- 
tions of ice jams, reset on edge, through 
which we sometimes were compelled to 
cut a road with our axes. Great stretches 
of deep, soft snow, through which we 
would have to force our heavily loaded 
sleighs for miles at the expense of ex- 
treme physical exertion. 
For to miles after passing Windy river 
on our downward trip, we encountered 
heavy wind, and the snow was alternately 
swept clear off the ice and piled high in 
huge solid drifts, over which we were 
compelled to climb. On our return trip 
at the same point we experienced the fury 
of a January storm for about 15 miles. 
