id in the temperature; and they
were grateful to us for the trail we had broken. The hut was
uncomfortably crowded that night with seven people in it, but the
thermometer stood at -56 deg. and was rising, and gave us hope that we might
move along to-morrow. Augmented as our party was into seven men, three
sleds, and nineteen or twenty dogs, trail breaking would not be so
arduous and progress would be much accelerated. There was good hope,
moreover, that the heavy snow was confined to the Koyukuk valley and
that when we passed out of it we should find better going.

The morning found a temperature of 45 deg. below, and we sallied forth,
quite an expedition. Four, including myself, went ahead beating down the
trail; one was at each gee pole, our team last, getting advantage of
everything preceding. So far as the trail had been broken we made good
time, covering the nine miles in about four hours. Another hour of
somewhat slower progress took us to the top of a hill, and here the
mail-carrier's two Indians had run ahead and built a great, roaring fire
and arranged a wide, commodious couch of spruce boughs, and we cooked
our lunch and took our ease for half an hour. The sky had clouded again
and the temperature had risen to 28 deg. below.

[Sidenote: CLOSE QUARTERS]

It is strange how some scenes of the trail linger in the memory, while
others are completely forgotten. This noon halt I always remember as
one of the pleasantest of all my journeyings. There was not a breath of
wind, and the smoke rose straight into the air instead of volleying and
eddying into one's face as camp-fires so often do on whichever side of
them one sits. We were all weary with our five hours' trudge, and the
rest was grateful; hungry, and the boiled ham they had sent from the
mission was delicious. The warmth of the great fire and the cosiness of
the thick, deep spruce boughs gave solid comfort, and the pipe after the
meal was a luxurious enjoyment.

From that on the going was heavier and our progress slower, but we kept
at it till dark, and still far into the night, fortunate in having two
Indians who knew every step of the way, until at last we reached the hut
that marks the end of the second stage from the Koyukuk River, on the
top of a birch hill. We had made nineteen and a half miles that day and
had taken eleven hours to do it.

If the noon rest be remembered as one of the pleasantest episodes of the
trail, that night in the cabin on the