ot arrive.
The writer was reminded of the time when he bought several two-pound
packages of rolled oats at a little Yukon store and discovered to his
disgust that every package contained a china cup and saucer that must
have weighed at least a pound. One can understand the poor Indian being
thus deluded into the belief that he is getting his crockery for
nothing, but it is hard to understand how the "gift-enterprise" and
"premium-package" folly still survives amongst white people--and Indians
do not eat zwieback. What sort of people are they who will feverishly
purchase and consume one thousand two hundred packages of zwieback in
order to get a "rolled-gold" watch for nothing? A sack of corn-meal
takes one's eye mainly by the enumeration of the formidable processes
which the "product" inside has survived. It is announced proudly as
"degerminated, granulated, double kiln-dried, steam-ground"! But why, in
the name even of an adulterous and adulterating generation, should rice
be "coated with talcum and glucose," as this sack unblushingly
confesses? It is all very well to add "remove by washing"; that is
precisely what we shall be unable to do. It will take all the time and
fuel we have to spare to melt snow for cooking, when one little primus
stove serves for all purposes. When we leave this camp there will be no
more water for the toilet; we shall have to cleanse our hands with snow
and let our faces go. The rice will enter the pot unwashed and will
transfer its talcum and glucose to our intestines. Nor is this the case
merely on exceptional mountain-climbing expeditions; it is the general
rule during the winter throughout Alaska. It takes a long time and a
great deal of snow and much wood to produce a pot of water on the winter
trail. That "talcum-and-glucose" abomination should be taken up by the
Pure Food Law authorities. All the rice that comes to Alaska is so
labelled. The stomachs and bowels of dogs and men in the country are
doubtless gradually becoming "coated with talcum and glucose."

[Sidenote: Sugar]

It was during this period of hope deferred that we began to be entirely
without sugar. Perhaps by the ordinary man anywhere, certainly by the
ordinary man in Alaska, where it is the rule to include as much sugar as
flour in an outfit, deprivation of sugar is felt more keenly than
deprivation of any other article of food. We watched the gradual
dwindling of our little sack, replenished from the base camp with th