er
could be made. This party returned, saying that it was impossible to
pass from the Copper River to the Yukon, because the mountains were too
high and steep.

In 1885 General Miles sent Lieutenant Allen to try to find a pass from
the valley of the Copper River to that of the Yukon. Lieutenant Allen
was a very determined man. He set out with the resolution to find some
way of crossing the mountains, however much labor and suffering it
might cost. He took two soldiers, and had two other white men with him,
and he got Indians to go with him from place to place as he could. The
party started up the Copper River in March. From the first their
sufferings were very great. They had to travel day after day, and sleep
night after night, with their clothes wet to the skin. They soon found
that they could not take their canoe, on account of the ice. They had
to leave most of their provisions, because they could not carry them.
Some nights they sat up all night in the rain.

But when they got to a country where it was not raining all the time,
they had a way of keeping dry at night. They had brought along sleeping
bags. These were made of waterproof linen. Each bag was a little longer
than a man. It had draw strings at the top. They put a folded blanket
inside, and then pushed the blanket down with their feet so that it
would wrap about them and keep them warm. Then they drew the strings
about the top. This kept the body dry.

They suffered a great deal from hunger. There were very few animals in
the country where they were, and most of the Indians they found had but
little to eat. Lieutenant Allen's party were sometimes glad to pick up
scraps of decayed meat or broken bones about an Indian camp to make a
meal on. Much of the meat and fish they had to eat was badly spoiled.
They grew so weak that it was hard for them to climb up a hill,
carrying their guns and their food. They sometimes reeled like drunken
men when they walked.

They would have perished from hunger if they had not had a man with
them who knew how to stop the rabbits when they were running. This man
could make a little cry just like a rabbit's cry. Whenever a rabbit
heard this sound, he would stop and look round for a moment. Then the
hunter would have a chance to shoot him.

But these rabbits were so small and so lean that it took four or five
of them to make a meal for a man. At one place the party were so hungry
that an Indian who was with them fainted awa