ess of packing, however, had at last fallen into less cruel
or at least more judicial hands, and though the trail was filled
with long pack trains going and coming, they were for the most part
well taken care of. We met many long trains of packhorses returning
empty from Bennett Lake. They were followed by shouting drivers who
clattered along on packhorses wherever the trail would permit.

One train carried four immense trunks--just behind the trunks,
mounted astride of one of the best horses, rode a bold-faced,
handsome white woman followed by a huge negress. The white woman had
made her pile by dancing a shameless dance in the dissolute dens of
Dawson City, and was on her way to Paris or New York for a "good
time." The reports of the hotel keepers made her out to be
unspeakably vile. The negress was quite decent by contrast.

At Log Cabin we came in sight of the British flag which marks the
boundary line of United States territory, where a camp of mounted
police and the British customs officer are located. It was a drear
season even in midsummer, a land of naked ledges and cold white
peaks. A few small pine trees furnished logs for the cabins and wood
for their fires. The government offices were located in tents.

I found the officers most courteous, and the customs fair. The
treatment given me at Log Cabin was in marked contrast with the
exactions of my own government at Wrangell. All goods were unloaded
before the inspector's tent and quickly examined. The miner suffered
very little delay.

A number of badly maimed packhorses were running about on the
American side. I was told that the police had stopped them by reason
of their sore backs. If a man came to the line with horses overloaded
or suffering, he was made to strip the saddles from their backs.

"You can't cross this line with animals like that," was the stern
sentence in many cases. This humanity, as unexpected as it was
pleasing, deserves the best word of praise of which I am capable.

At last we left behind us all these wrecks of horseflesh, these
poisonous streams, and came down upon Lake Bennett, where the water
was considered safe to drink, and where the eye could see something
besides death-spotted ledges of savage rocks.

The town was a double row of tents, and log huts set close to the
beach whereon boats were building and saws and hammers were uttering
a cheerful chorus. Long trains of packhorses filled the streets. The
wharfs swarmed with m