THE CHANDALAR GAP]

All the rivers that are confluent with the Yukon in the Flats enter that
dreary region through gaps in the mountains that bound the broad plain.
These gaps are noted for wind, and the Chandalar Gap, which had loomed
before us since daybreak, is deservedly in especial bad repute. The most
hateful thing in the Arctic regions is the wind. Cold one may protect
one's self against, but there is no adequate protection against wind.
The parkee without opening front or back, that pulls on over the head,
is primarily a windbreak, and when a scarf is wrapped around mouth and
nose, and the fur-edged hood of the parkee is pulled forward over cap
and scarf, the traveller who must face the wind has done all he can to
protect himself from it.

[Illustration: SUNRISE ON THE CHANDALAR-KOYUKUK PORTAGE.]

Unfortunately, in the confusion of striking the tent and packing in the
dark, my scarf had been rolled up in the bedding, and, since the wind
was not bad until we approached the Gap in the evening, I had not
troubled about it. Now, as we drew nearer and nearer, the wind rose
constantly. The thermometer was at 38 deg. below zero, and wind at that
temperature cuts like a knife. But to get my scarf meant stopping the
whole procession and unlashing and unloading the sled, and the man who
unlashed in that wind would almost certainly freeze his fingers. So I
gave up the thought of it, turned my back to the wind while I tied my
pocket handkerchief round mouth and nose, drew the strings of my parkee
hood close, and then faced it again to worry through as best I could.
The ice is always swept clear of snow in the Gap. The river narrows
within its jaws, the ragged rocks rise up to the bluffs on either hand,
and the blue-streaked ice stretches between. We all suffered a good
deal. Against that cruel wind it was impossible to keep warm. The hands,
though enclosed in woollen gloves, and they in blanket-lined moose-hide
mitts, grew numb; the toes, within their protection of caribou sock with
the hair on, strips of blanket wrapping, and mukluks stuffed with hay,
tingled with warning of frost-bite; the whole body was chilled. We all
froze our faces, I think, for the part of the face around and between
the eyes cannot be covered. I froze my cheeks, my nose, and my Adam's
apple, the last a most inconvenient thing to freeze.

[Illustration: COLDFOOT ON THE KOYUKUK.]

[Sidenote: A COLD LODGING]

The cabin was just the other side of