lkoot Pass, which they were to follow,
is five hundred feet lower. The task of climbing to the summit of this
pass is of the most trying nature conceivable, and many gold-seekers
have turned back in despair. Terrific weather is often encountered, and
men have been held in camp for weeks, during which the crest of the
mountains was hidden by clouds and tempests, and the whirling snow and
sleet were so blinding that they hardly ventured to peep out from their
tent. The weather was such as has baffled the most intrepid of
explorers for centuries in their search for the North Pole.

Our friends were unusually fortunate in being favored with good
weather, there being hardly any wind stirring, while, more wonderful
than all, the sun shone from an unclouded sky, in a section where the
clear days average less than seventy degrees in the course of the
entire year.

No one who has ever climbed Chilkoot Pass will forget it. Some, alas!
who have made the attempt never succeeded in reaching the other side,
but perished in the frightful region; while many more have become
disheartened by the perils and difficulties and turned back when on the
threshold of the modern El Dorado. At the foot of the pass our friends
met two men, bending low with the packs strapped to their shoulders,
and plodding wearily southward. Tim called to them to know what the
trouble was, and received a glum answer, accompanied by an oath that
they had had enough of such a country, and if they ever lived to reach
New York, they would shoot any man who pronounced the word "Klondike"
in their presence.

It is a curious fact regarding this famous pass that the snow with
which it is choked is what makes it possible for travel. The snow
sometimes lies to the depth of fifty or sixty feet, and from February,
through May, and often June, its smooth surface allows one to walk over
it without trouble. Should it be fine and yielding, the snow-shoes come
into play, but when the crust is hard, no better support could be
asked. The trouble lies in the steep incline, which becomes more
decided the higher one climbs.

Underneath this enormous mass rush violent torrents of water, which,
hollowing out passages for themselves, leave the snow white arches far
above, over which one walks upon a natural bridge. Later in the season,
when the effects of the warm weather are felt, these arches begin to
tumble in, and the incautious traveller who misses his footing and
drops into one