alpine boots were sent--all too small to be worn with even a couple of
pairs of socks, and therefore quite useless. Indeed, at that time there
was no house in New York, or, so far as the writer knows, in the United
States, where the standard alpine equipment could be procured. As a
result of the dissatisfaction of this expedition with the material sent,
one house in New York now carries in stock a good assortment of such
things of standard pattern and quality. Fairbanks was ransacked for
boots of any kind in which three or four pairs of socks could be worn.
Alaska is a country of big men accustomed to the natural spread of the
foot which a moccasin permits, but we could not find boots to our need
save rubber snow-packs, and we bought half a dozen pairs of them (No.
12) and had leather soles fastened under them and nailed. Four pairs of
alpine boots at eleven dollars a pair equals forty-four dollars. Six
pairs of snow-packs at five dollars equals thirty dollars. Leather soles
for them at three dollars equals eighteen dollars; which totalled
ninety-two dollars--entirely wasted. We found that moccasins were the
only practicable foot-gear; and we had to put _five_ pairs of socks
within them before we were done. But we did not know that at the time
and had no means of discovering it.

All these matters were put in hand under Karstens's direction, while the
writer, only just arrived in Fairbanks from Fort Yukon and Tanana, made
a flying trip to the new mission at the Tanana Crossing, two hundred and
fifty miles above Fairbanks, with Walter and the dog team; and most of
them were finished by the time we returned. A multitude of small details
kept us several days more in Fairbanks, so that nearly the middle of
March had arrived before we were ready to make our start to the
mountain, two weeks later than we had planned.

[Sidenote: Supplies]

Karstens having joined us, we went down to the mission at Nenana
(seventy-five miles) in a couple of days, and there two more days were
spent overhauling and repacking the stuff that had come from the
outside. In the way of food, we had imported only erbswurst, seventy-two
four-ounce packages; milk chocolate, twenty pounds; compressed China tea
in tablets (a most excellent tea with a very low percentage of tannin),
five pounds; a specially selected grade of Smyrna figs, ten pounds; and
sugared almonds, ten pounds--about seventy pounds' weight, all
scrupulously reserved for the high-mount