n. Our fellow travellers, therefore, lacked in numbers but not in
originality, for they included a millionaire in fustian, who preferred
to eat with the crew; a young and well-dressed widow from San Francisco,
who owned claims on the Tanana and worked them herself; a confidence-man
with a gambling outfit, who had struck the wrong crowd; and last, but
not least, Mrs. Z., recently a well-known _prima donna_ in the United
States, who, although in the zenith of her youthful fame and popularity,
had abandoned a brilliant career to share the fortunes of her husband,
an official of the "Alaska Commercial Company," in this inartistic land.
I found the conditions of travel on the Yukon as completely changed as
everything else. Even the technical expressions once used by the
gold-mining fraternity were now replaced by others. Thus the "Oldtimer"
had become "a Sourdough," and his antithesis, the "Tenderfoot," was now
called a "Chechako." A word now frequently heard (and unknown in 1896)
was "Musher," signifying a prospector who is not afraid to explore the
unknown. This word is of Canadian origin, and probably a corruption of
the French "_Marcheur_." Various passengers on board the _Hannah_ were
said to be returning to their homes with "Cold feet," also a new term,
defining the disappointed gold-seeker who is leaving the country in
disgust.

But a change which excited both my admiration and approval was that in
the accommodation provided on board the _Hannah_ and the really
excellent dinner to which we sat down every day, although enforced
teetotalism was somewhat irritating to those accustomed to wine with
their meals. It is no exaggeration to say that an overland journey may
now be made from Skagway to Nome City with as little discomfort as a
trip across Switzerland, if the tourist keeps to the beaten track by
rail and steamer. But the slightest deviation on either side will show
him what Alaskan travel really was, and he will then probably curse the
country and all that therein lies. The tourist may even experience some
trying hours on the river-boat, for although the latter is fitted with
cunning contrivances for their exclusion, mosquitoes invariably swarm,
and the Yukon specimen is so unequalled for size and ferocity that I
once heard an old miner declare that this virulent insect was "as big as
a rabbit and bit at both ends." But this is about the only discomfort
that travellers by the main route through Alaska need now endu