dyke on bicycles; if there were good boarding-houses on the
way, and if the Indians were troublesome.

For the instruction of the stampeders, the Honourable the Minister of
the Interior, then Mr. Frank Oliver, issued a special number of _The
Bulletin_, which was the farthest north newspaper, mapping out the
route and the distances between the points.

By the shortest and best travelled trails, the entire distance from
Edmonton to the Klondyke was 2,728 miles. This route was via the
Athabasca, Great Slave, Mackenzie and Peel Rivers. From thence it
crossed to Summit, La Pierre House, and down the Porcupine River to its
junction with the Yukon River. From this point to Dawson was the
home-run.

There are said to be sixty-eight roads to heaven, but this road to
Dawson is not one of them.

Each man had six pack-ponies to carry in his supplies, which consisted
of 900 lb. of food and 150 lb. of clothing and hardware, making in all,
1,050 lb. The ponies cost from twenty-five to thirty dollars, and it
was conservatively estimated that the supplies cost $250.00.

The food was calculated on the basis of the Mounted Police rations and
was supposed to last a year, being doled out at the following ration
per man, per day: flour 1-1/4 lb., beef 1-1/2 lb., bacon 1 lb., potatoes 1
lb., apples 3 oz., beans 4 oz., coffee or tea 1/2 oz., salt 1/2 oz., butter
2 oz., sugar 3 oz.

With praiseworthy discretion, many of the Old-Timers opened up depots
to supply the parties with outfits, but, on the whole, there was no
over-charging or money-grabbing such as one might have expected. On
the contrary, the prices that prevailed were from 25 to 75 per centum
less than those of to-day. Flour was $2.50 per hundredweight; bacon 11
cents per pound, evaporated apples 8 cents, rolled-oats 3 cents,
raisins 10 cents, and black tea from 25 to 40 cents. Pack-saddle
blankets cost $2.00 a pair, and large grey blankets $3.25. Long arctic
socks cost from 50 cents to $1.00, sweaters from $1.00 to $1.50, and
cardigan jackets from $1.00 to $2.00.

Many kinds of costumes were affected. Some men were clad in fur from
head to feet; others wore khaki, or sheepskin coats; and in one party
every man had a coonskin coat.

Nothing, however, caused so much excitement in the burgh as the various
modes of conveyance that were planned and built by the gold-seekers.

"Texas" Smith started alone on the longish trail with all his
provisions packed in three barr