e of us did,
knew ice as none of us did, and we must put ourselves entirely in his
hands. The debate that had become usual at every doubtful course arose
at the portage just referred to, but it was at once suppressed by the
announcement that hereafter no one could have the floor but William, and
that when he had spoken the matter was settled. Day by day I think we
all came to a keener realisation of how very dangerous a journey we were
making; it lay heavily on my mind that I had brought these two young
men--whether by mishap or mismanagement--into real peril of their lives.
Again and again I blamed myself for the delays that had deferred our
start up the Koyukuk, again and again I wished that we had waited longer
before leaving the _Pelican's_ winter quarters. I had even contemplated
a week's stay at Atler's, to give the river a chance to get into better
shape, but unless there came a very much sharper spell than we had had
so far a week would not make much difference, and our grub began to run
short and Atler was none too well supplied. So it seemed best to push
on.

The next day was full of toil and difficulty. There was no good ice to
make fine time over that day. Starting in the grey dawn, for mile after
mile we had to haul the sled over crumbly shell-ice that broke through
to gravel; and when the shell-ice was done we came to a new bend where a
rapid current washed a steep mud bank. There was just a little shelf of
ice, but the brush overhung it so that the passage of the sled was not
possible. William and Arthur started with the axes to clear away the
brush, but it seemed to me foolish to do that unless the ledge held out
and led somewhere, for the turn of the bank threw it out of sight. So
they went forward cautiously along that ledge to the end--and an end
they found, sure enough, so that had we followed the axemen with the
sled we should have had to creep all the way back again. There was
nothing for it but to cut another land trail on a bench that we could
reach where the sled was stopped but that could not be reached at all
farther on. A long and slow and laborious job it was, that took most of
the morning, to cut that trail and then get the load over it to ice
again.

By noon we were opposite the Red Mountain, one of the well-known Koyukuk
landmarks, and on the site of an old Indian fishing camp. William and
Arthur had made a great fire when we came up, and we heated some beans
and made some tea and ate l