ermine which should hit the hazardous
trail for salt water, and which should remain and endure the hazardous
darkness of the Arctic night.

There was never food enough to winter the whole population. The A. C.
Company worked hard to freight up the grub, but the gold hunters came
faster and dared more audaciously. When the A. C. Company added a new
stern-wheeler to its fleet, men said, "Now we shall have plenty." But
more gold hunters poured in over the passes to the south, more
_voyageurs_ and fur traders forced a way through the Rockies from the
east, more seal hunters and coast adventurers poled up from Bering Sea on
the west, more sailors deserted from the whale-ships to the north, and
they all starved together in right brotherly fashion. More steamers were
added, but the tide of prospectors welled always in advance. Then the N.
A. T. & T. Company came upon the scene, and both companies added
steadily to their fleets. But it was the same old story; famine would
not depart. In fact, famine grew with the population, till, in the
winter of 1897-1898, the United States government was forced to equip a
reindeer relief expedition. As of old, that winter partners cut the
cards and drew straws, and remained or pulled for salt water as chance
decided. They were wise of old time, and had learned never to figure on
relief expeditions. They had heard of such things, but no mortal man of
them had ever laid eyes on one.

The hard luck of other mining countries pales into insignificance before
the hard luck of the North. And as for the hardship, it cannot be
conveyed by printed page or word of mouth. No man may know who has not
undergone. And those who have undergone, out of their knowledge, claim
that in the making of the world God grew tired, and when He came to the
last barrowload, "just dumped it anyhow," and that was how Alaska
happened to be. While no adequate conception of the life can be given to
the stay-at-home, yet the men themselves sometimes give a clue to its
rigours. One old Minook miner testified thus: "Haven't you noticed the
expression on the faces of us fellows? You can tell a new-comer the
minute you see him; he looks alive, enthusiastic, perhaps jolly. We old
miners are always grave, unless were drinking."

Another old-timer, out of the bitterness of a "home-mood," imagined
himself a Martian astronomer explaining to a friend, with the aid of a
powerful telescope, the institutions of the eart