h the passes, bringing down upon their heads a
veritable storm of snow, swept from the mountain tops above.

"I can readily understand how impossible it would be to make one's way
through this Pass during the winter," said Dr. Barwaithe. "A regular
fall of snow would mean a blizzard down here and a snowing in from which
there would be no escape until spring arrived."

"And think of the cold!" said Earl. "Phew! the thermometer must go to
about forty below zero!"

"It does go as low as that at times," replied his uncle. "No; travelling
through this Pass during the long Alaskan winter is entirely out of the
question. The man to undertake it would be a madman."

They had come to the end of the comparatively level portion of the
trail, and now climbing so dangerous was at hand that little more was
said. From one steep icy elevation they would crawl to the next, until
several hundred feet up. Then came a turn around a cliff where the
passageway was scarcely two feet wide, with a wall on one side and what
appeared misty, bottomless space on the other. Here the Indians had
fastened a hand-rope which each was glad enough to clutch as he wormed
his way along to safer ground.

"Well, I don't want any more of that!" said Earl, with a long sigh of
relief. "A slip there, and it would be good-by, sure!"

"Yes, and I guess they would never even get your body," added Randy.

There was no time left to halt, for the Indians were pressing on, their
endurance, and especially the endurance of the women and the boys,
proving a constant wonder to Randy and Earl, the latter declaring that
they must be tougher than pine knots to stand it.

"One more big climb, boys, and we'll be at the summit!" was the welcome
announcement made by Captain Zoss; but when Earl and Randy looked at the
climb he mentioned their hearts fairly sank within them and they
wondered how in the world they were going to make it without its costing
them their lives.

An almost sheer wall of ice and snow confronted them, rising in an
irregular form to a height of four hundred feet. This cliff, if such it
might be called, was more light at its top than at the base, and
consequently it appeared to stand out towards them as they gazed up at
it. Along the face the Indian pack-carriers were crawling, like flies on
a lumpy whitewashed wall.

"We can't do--" began Randy, when he felt his arm pinched by Earl.

"We must do it, Randy," came back in a whisper. "The Indians are