ore leaving, the new prospect hole was hidden from the view of
stragglers. A few tall saplings were felled, which, with foliage still
upon them, were pushed over the edge of the cliff with stems downward in
order that their leafy tops might rest against the prospected rock and
temporarily hide the new discovery. In case anyone happened that way it
would appear to them that the saplings had been felled and dropped over
the cliff for firewood.

By this time the White Pass trail had grown to be a veritable horror.
Men were ill and suffering from hard work and exposure. Animals lay dead
at the foot of cliffs, over the edges of which they had slipped or been
crowded with packs still strapped upon their sore and bleeding backs.
Others lay, stripped of all accoutrements, in the hot sunshine among the
buzzing flies, after a broken leg had necessitated a bullet in the head,
thus causing stenches to fill the nostrils of the already suffering and
oppressed passersby. No one had time to bury animals. If a man fell it
was, of course, obligatory to halt from their "packing" long enough to
dig a shallow bed among the rocks; but this done, and a handful of
granite fragments heaped above his head, the procession moved on as
before. No time could be spared for headstone marking; and long after
these strugglers of the argonauts on the White Pass Trail were forgotten
by all but the participants (who will never to their dying day forget
them) these lonely mounds of the fallen men could at intervals have been
seen flanked by bleaching bones of defunct animals.

Lonely indeed were these dreary resting places. The scream of the eagle
as he easily swung on powerful pinions from cliff to cliff on family
errands or to drink at the foot of some rushing cascade was the only
dirge that was sung. Ferns swayed gently in shaded nooks, and wild
flowers nodded familiarly to each other. Filmy winged bees flitted with
bustling movement head foremost into the cups of bluebells beneath skies
as azure as they, and in atmosphere as pure as God could make it.

In winter all this was changed. Snow covered the little mounds as well
as the whole surrounding region; and intermittently the falling flakes
whirled and drifted into ravines and canyons, making them level with the
steep mountain-sides; presently melting under the sunshine and
beginning a race to the sea.

However, the argonauts hurried on. They were not here to moralize--they
had something else to do.