, and immensity are feebly told in words. Snow and ice
are everywhere, and that everywhere seems as great as the world. Hills
and mountains are here innumerable and majestic; while rivers and creeks
unlimited in number and of untold wealth lie safely locked in Nature's
storehouse by Nature's hand. The heavens are glorious! the noonday sun
making the whole earth to sparkle with diamonds like the gems on a
queen's bosom; followed by hours illumined by a moon so softly and
brilliantly beautiful as to appear like the eye of a god.

Fully as wonderful as in her gentler moods but far more terrible is
Alaska when the great blizzard rages. There remains then no signs of
serenity. Whirlwind follows whirlwind; gales from the ends of the earth
blow horribly and with frenzied swiftness, bearing upon their breath the
icy points of millions of keen needles which bite like the stings of
insects. Flying, sifting, drifting snow, which before formed jewels of
such exquisite beauty is now piled mountain high, or sucks itself with
savage fierceness through crannies and into deep gorges between high
hills, thus creating a fitting accompaniment in the dangerous crevasse.

Into this wilderness, north of the great Circle, and amid conditions
like these, one would scarcely hope to find white men penetrating.
Probably not from choice would they enter; certainly by force of
circumstances if at all; and these must have been the most desperate. Be
that as it may, a small trail of smoke one day made its way aloft from a
log cabin half buried in the snow; while a pack of a dozen malamutes
played about the door. A pile of logs and sticks of firewood, an axe, a
tin bucket, and dog-sleds near, gave undisputed evidence of the presence
here of someone besides natives.

Entering the door, a visitor would have been welcomed by two occupants.
One of them lay stretched upon his bunk in the corner of the room; the
other, a younger man, threw some sticks upon the fire.

They were arguing the question of breaking camp and pushing further
eastward.

"If we can reach the Crow Mountains by spring, secure a boat at Rampart
House and work along to the Mackenzie River we are all right," and the
speaker bent over a map of Alaska spread out before him.

"From there to the coast is an easy matter, and to secure passage on
some whaler for Point Barrow will not be difficult; but afterward--"

"Yes, afterward," interrupted the man upon the bunk, impatiently. "What
ab