the wilderness they are the equal of the native inhabitant; in endurance
and enterprise far his superior. The more one learns by experience and
observation what life of this sort means, and realises the demands it
makes upon a man's resourcefulness, upon his physique, upon his good
spirits, upon his fortitude, the more one's admiration grows for the
silent, strong men who have gone out all over this land and pitted
themselves successfully against its savage wildness. Often in stress for
the necessaries of life, there are yet no men as a class more
free-handed and generous; trained to do everything for themselves, there
are none more willing to help others.

It is no small task to pull a four-ton boat out of the water with only
such wilderness tackle as we could devise. We made ways of soft timbers,
squaring and smoothing them; we cut down many trees for rollers; we dug
and graded the beach. Then, having altogether unloaded her and built a
high cache of poles and a platform for her stuff, and having chopped the
ice from all around her, we rigged a Spanish windlass and wound that
boat out of the water with the half-inch cable she carried, and up on
the ways and well into the mouth of the little creek. Then we levelled
her up and thoroughly braced her and put her canvas cover all over her,
and she lay there until spring and took no harm at all.

Arthur had meantime been making a sled of birch, intending to pull it
himself while the doctor and I pulled a Yukon sled borrowed from our
friend the prospector. By the 6th of October all our dispositions were
made for departure, and the ice seemed strong enough to warrant trusting
ourselves to it; but we waited another two days, the thermometer still
reaching a minimum each night somewhere around zero. When we said
good-bye to our friend Martin Nelson (sometimes one wonders if anywhere
else in the world can be found men as kind and helpful to strangers) and
started on our journey, it soon appeared that Arthur's sled was more
hindrance than help. There was no material to iron the runners save
strips of tin can, and these could not be beaten so smooth that they did
not drag and cut on the ice. So the load was transferred to our sled and
the little sled abandoned, and we took turns at the harness. This was
the order of the journey: one man went ahead with an axe to test the
ice; one man put the rope trace about his shoulders; one man pushed at
the handle-bars which had been affixed t