eS 
MY TRIP TO WOOD’S CANYON. 203 
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and lived on him for 4 days till we arrived 
at the Tonsena, where Mr. Fritts made us 
stop 2 days to rest and thaw out. He told 
us it was 35 and 40 degrees below zero. We 
had 3 horses and a mule, but had to shoot 
one horse there, as it could go no farther. 
Mr. Fritts treated us very kindly, giving us 
all the flour he could spare. He was short 
himself’ and as his cache was at Copper 
Center he could not give us much. We had 
lost all track of time. He told us it was 
about a week before Thanksgiving. 
We left there with 2 horses and the mule. 
We packed our grub on one horse and our 
bedding on the other horse and the mule. 
The first day in going down a hill from the 
Tonsena, Stewart led a horse half way 
down, when the mule slipped and rolled 
down on him, knocking him and the horse 
over. All 3 ‘went to the bottom together, 
but without damage. . The other horse 
turned and ran back on the trail, scatter- 
ing our grub and what was left of the. 
horse meat. I headed him off 3 times, but 
he dodged me and got away. We found the 
most of our grub. The horse meat we could 
not find. It was a very cold day and the 
night was much colder. We made Nicolai 
No. 2’s house at dark and were glad enough 
to sleep there. The next night we camped 
at an abandoned Indian shack. When we 
stopped we were so cold we could hardly 
light a fire’ My moustache and whiskers 
were frozen solid and as my mouth was 
open I could not speak until we started a 
fire and thawed out. 
The next day we had nothing to eat ex- 
cept 2 flapjacks, made of flour and water. 
At night we built a big fire. It was so cold 
we did not go to sleep, being afraid we 
would freeze. We had 8 large trees ablaze. 
Stewart froze his legs sitting on a log, 
and my heels froze. The next day we had 
half a flapjack each, and only flour enough 
left for another in the morning. The night 
was colder than the previous one. We built 
2 fires and stood between them. About 4 
o'clock in the morning we were half asleep 
when we heard a noise among the camp 
outfit and looked out just in time to see 
the mule eating the last of our flour. We 
got nothing to eat for the next 2 days un- 
til we came to Stickman’s house. The In- 
dians at that shack could not do enough for 
us. All they had was dried salmon and 
tea. They gave us all we could eat. They 
even tried to get the horses into the shack. 
We asked them how far it was to Copper 
Center. They said “halo sleep,’ meaning 
we could make it in less than a day. We 
were glad, as we were knocked out and the 
horses were in poor condition. We arrived 
opposite Copper Center Thanksgiving eve, 
and were obliged to leave the horses, as 
the Klutena river ice would not bear them. 
As it was, when we crossed, we broke 
through several times. When we got to Mr. 
Amy’s cabin they told us it had been 65 
degrees below zero the last 3 nights. We 
ate supper at Mr. Amy’s, then went to Mr. 
Fisher’s cabin and had another good sup- 
per. Then we went to the hotel and had 
another supper. ‘Notwithstanding this, we 
still felt hungry. The next day, Thanks- 
giving (and we felt thankful, too,) we 
took the horses over and left them in charge 
of Mr. Flynn. 
We then started for the Rapids camp, 
arriving at 5:30 p. m. As our cache was 
at the Rapids, we stopped 4 days and filled 
up on all the good things they had to 
eat. We then started over the glacier 
after some grain. It took us 2 days to get 
to Twelve Mile camp at the foot of the 
glacier. Klutena lake was frozen over. 
From the upper end of the lake we broke 
trail on snow shoes, the snow being one to 
12 feet deep. When we arrived at Twelve 
Mile camp the snow was so soft we would 
sink to our hips at every step. We stopped 
at Saw Mill camp for dinner and to thaw 
our moccasins. In going from Saw Mill 
to Twelve Mile camp, 3 miles, Stewart froze 
his feet so badly he could not move the next 
day. The people at the camp were glad to 
see us. They heard we had gone down 
for the horses, and, as the weather was so 
cold and stormy, they did not expect to see 
us again. I stopped with Mr. Nolan, of 
Jefferson City, Missouri, who treated me 
kindly and cautioned us not to go over the 
glacier. He showed us a Norwegian 
named Evyan, who had frozen his feet try- 
ing to cross and whom Dr. Logan, who 
afterward lost his life trying to get 2 sick 
men out in February, was treating. Dr. 
Logan came in that evening and I.helped 
him dress the frozen feet. He advised us 
not to try to go over the glacier. The 
doctor also treated Stewart’s feet. The 
next day, while Stewart was resting, I 
started to go to the foot of the glacier, a 
distance of 4 miles. It took me 4 hours to 
go 200 yards. The snow was 14 feet deep, 
and was light and dry. I would sink to my 
waist at every step. When I returned to 
camp, Dr. Logan told me that he would 
not allow us to make the attempt if he had 
to stop and watch us. That night Evyan 
died. The next day Stewart and I hit the 
back trail, as we were afraid of getting 
caught in a snow storm. Every snowfall 
averaged 3 or 4 feet up there. It was well 
we started at the time, as the next day it 
began snowing and it was a week before 
anyone could get from Saw Mill to Twelve 
Mile. We went back to the Rapids and we 
moved our cache to Copper Center. 
Christmas day I parted with Stewart, who 
went up the river to Forty Mile. I stopped 
at Copper Center for a time and helped a 
friend up as far as Gakona river with his 
outfit. The weather at Christmas averaged 
35 degrees below zero at Copper Center. 
