red soil and gaily painted buildings. There is a first-rate
hotel adjoining the railway station, which contained a gorgeous bar with
several billiard and "ping-pong" tables, the latter game being then the
rage in every settlement from Dawson to the coast. I mention the bar, as
it was the scene of a somewhat amusing incident, which, however, is, as
a Klondiker would say, "up against me." About this period a "desperado"
of world-wide fame named Harry Tracy was raising a siege of terror in
the State of Oregon, having committed over a dozen murders, and
successfully baffled the police. We had found Dawson wild with
excitement over the affair, and here again Tracy was the topic of the
hour. Entering the hotel with some fellow passengers, I took up a
Seattle newspaper and carelessly glancing at the portrait of a
seedy-looking individual of ferocious exterior, passed it on to a
neighbour, remarking (with reference to Tracy), "What a blood-thirsty
looking ruffian!" "Why, it's yourself!" exclaimed my friend, pointing to
the heading, "A Phenomenal Globe-trotter," which, appearing above the
wood-cut, had escaped my notice. I am glad to be able to add that the
portrait was not from a photograph!

As an instance of engineering skill, the "White Pass" is probably the
most remarkable railway in existence, and the beauty and grandeur of the
country through which it passes fully entitles it to rank as the "Scenic
railway of the world." In 1896, I was compelled to cross the Chilkoot
Pass to enter Alaska (suffering severely from cold and hunger during the
process), and to scramble painfully over a peak that would have tried
the nerves and patience of an experienced Alpine climber. Regarding this
same Chilkoot a Yankee prospector once said to his mate: "Wal, pard, I
was prepared for it to be perpendicular, but, by G--d, I never thought
it would lean forward!" And indeed my recollections of the old "Gateway
of the Klondike" does not fall far short of this description. And in
those days the passage of the White Pass, across which the line now
runs, was almost as unpleasant a journey as that over the Chilkoot
judging from the following account given by Professor Heilprin, who was
one of the first to enter the country by this route. The professor
writes:

"It is not often that the selection of a route of travel is determined
by the odorous, or mal-odorous qualities pertaining thereto. Such a
case, however, was presented here. It was not the d