erything else is in proportion."

Uncle Dick grinned at them as they bent over their books or notes.
"Well," he said, "you remind me of the methods of old Whiteman, a
trader out in the western country where I used to live. People used to
kick on what he charged for needles and thread, and he always pointed
out to them that the freight in that western country was very heavy
indeed. I suppose that's the answer of the Hudson's Bay Company to the
high cost of living among the Eskimos."

"How much farther north are we going, Uncle Dick?" asked Rob,
suddenly. "I mean, how soon do we leave the steamboat?"

"Quicker than you will like," said he. "This is the next to the last
stop that we'll make. On ahead eighty miles is good old Fort
McPherson, on the Peel River, and that is as far as we go. From this
time on you can make the memorandum on your photographs and your notes
in your diary that you are working under the Midnight Sun and north of
the Arctic Circle!"

"I didn't think we would ever be here!" said John, drawing a long
breath. "My, hasn't it been easy, and hasn't it been quick? I can
hardly realize that we have got this far away from home in so little a
while."

"Yes," said Rob, "when we were back there loafing around on the
portages and in some of the more important stops I began to think we
were going to be stranded up here in the winter-time. Well, maybe
we'll get through yet, Uncle Dick. What do you think?"

"Maybe so," replied Uncle Dick. "And now, if you've got your pictures
all fixed up, I think you'd better turn in. You've got to remember
that you sleep by the clock up here, and not by the sun."

X

FARTHEST NORTH

"Look!" cried Rob to his two companions as they stood on the far deck
of the steamboat. "Look yonder!"

He was pointing on ahead through the low-hanging mist and drizzling
rain which had marked the last few hours of their last day of
steamboat travel.

"What is it?" demanded Jesse, also crowding toward the bow.

"I know. It's the Rockies!" cried John. "Uncle Dick told me that those
mountains were the most northerly spur of the Rocky Mountains. It's
where they go farthest north. So, fellows, we've been somewhere,
haven't we? Uncle Dick was right--this is the greatest trip we've had,
as sure as you're born."

"But look yonder on ahead," resumed Jesse. "What river is that we're
turning into now?"

The booming whistle of the great steamer had called his attention to
the fact th