w, dry ice formed the
night before, with black, rushing water on the left, towards which the
slippery surface sloped. Presently as we advanced we began to encounter
a little overflow water, coming from the bank on the right, seeping up
between the ice and the bank; and that dog, to avoid wetting his feet in
the overflow, deliberately turned towards the open water and set the
sled sliding in the same direction. Without the crampons, which we had
not used for the past few days, it was impossible to hold the sled
against the dog's traction, and in another moment we should have lost
everything, for the dog paid no heed to our voices, when William with a
blow of his axe cut the rope by which the dog pulled, and, grasping the
sled and throwing himself full length on the ice, managed to stop it on
the very brink of the water. It was a close shave, but once more we were
safe; and the doctor, in the exuberance of his gratitude, said that
night: "If William wants a glass eye I'll send to New York to get him
one." But when William learned that the glass eye was a mere matter of
looks and would in no wise improve his vision, he lost interest in it.
Looks do not count for much amongst the Koyukuk Indians.

[Illustration: ARTHUR AND DOCTOR BURKE.]

[Illustration: SAINT JOHN'S-IN-THE-WILDERNESS, ALLAKAKET, KOYUKUK
RIVER.]

That night was a long way off yet, however; we had other risks to run,
other labours. Here were two islands in the river, and the current,
running like a mill-race and burdened with ice cakes, swept around the
shore of one of them leaving the passage between them quite dry. There
was no shore ice at all where the channel was, and it was so
ugly-looking a reach that had there been any there I am sure we should
not have ventured it. There was nothing for it but to drag the sled half
a mile over the gravel, and we did it, the most heart-breaking labour
of the whole trip. It took us exactly an hour to make that half mile.
William did not know the trick of the split willows either, so we all
four of us sweated for our ignorance. Shortly after, our guide pointed
out the spot where poor Ericson's frozen body was found, two years and
eight months before.

[Sidenote: A NARROW ESCAPE]

[Sidenote: RUBBER ICE]

Near the Kornuchaket (or the mouth of Old Man Creek), where the Koyukuk
receives a considerable tributary, we approached the most dangerous
travelling we had had yet. The river here is swift and deep, and there
a