r being one Captain Zoss and Dr. Barwaithe had
purchased at Juneau for mutual comfort. The tents were put up end to
end, and being both water and wind tight were almost as good to sleep in
as a cabin.

The outfits had been carefully parcelled out to the Indians, Salmon Head
carrying a load of over a hundred and twenty-five pounds, his squaw
carrying a hundred pounds, and the sons loads of about half that weight.
Relatives of these Indians carried the remainder of the loads; for these
Chilkoot people, like other redmen, believed in keeping all they could
in the family.

Usually the journey to Lake Linderman was made in two stages, the first
from Dyea to the entrance to Chilkoot Pass, and the second over the Pass
itself and down to the lake, which may fairly be called the southern
headwaters of the Yukon River. This course was to be pursued by the
present party, and bright and early on the following morning they
started out on what was destined to be the most perilous trip of their
lives. Captain Zoss went ahead with the Indians, while the boys and
their uncle and the doctor kept in a bunch behind.

At the start, the trip was along the bottom of a deep canyon, on either
side of which arose mountains and cliffs for the most part covered with
snow and ice. Down in this canyon flowed what is called the Dyea River,
a mere mountain torrent, dashing over rocks and crags and here and there
broadening out into a shallow flow over sand and pebbles. Walking was
rough, for at times they had to leap from one great rock to another or
else let themselves down, to wade through water and sand up to their
knees. The wind had calmed down, yet once in a while it sent upon them a
flurry of fine snow from the distant mountain tops.

"We are not getting ahead very fast!" puffed Randy, as he and the others
came to a halt on a flat rock to rest. "We've been walking for three
hours, and I doubt if we have covered more than five miles."

"I heard at Dyea that the thirteen miles to the entrance to the Pass is
considered a good day's journey," said Earl. "I'm rather glad I'm not
carrying that load Salmon Head has strapped to his back."

"It would take me a week to get that load up," said Randy. "I can't
understand how those boys get along."

"It's a matter of training," said Foster Portney. "I dare say either of
you can cut down a tree in half the time that those Chilkoots can do
it."

On they went again, the trail now growing steeper and m