hat should have been the evening of the Arctic day,
there arose, as if expressive of the thought in the minds of all, that
strangest and most mournful sound that comes to the ears of man--the
united howling of the dogs of the Far North.

There may have been two or three hundred of them in all, perhaps more,
in the Loucheux village and the remainder of the Eskimo encampment,
but all of them in unison, if not in accord, raised their voices in a
tremulous wail which fairly made the blood run cold.

It was the voice of the far-off, mysterious, and unconquered North!

XII

THE RAT PORTAGE

Before our young adventurers now lay the most dangerous part of their
entire journey in the northern wilderness--that famous Rat Portage
over the Rockies, at which, twenty years earlier, so many parties
bound for the Klondike met disaster. Our young friends had no guides
to lead them through this unknown country, any more than had the first
Klondikers in the gold stampede which came down the Mackenzie and
undertook to get across to the Yukon. No map of that region existed,
or at least not in the knowledge of any of our party. They were,
therefore, as helpless as any explorers ever were in any portion of
the world, and were about to venture into a country as wild as any
upon the North American continent.

It was no wonder, then, that their leader, himself a wise and cautious
man and well versed in all the expedients of outdoor life, hesitated
and pondered, as, standing upon the high crest of Fort McPherson boat
landing, he looked out to the low, dull slopes of the Rockies, far
ahead. He had heard all the stories about this risky undertaking, and
had been cautioned repeatedly by the old trader at Fort McPherson
against endeavoring to get through with no companions but these young
boys. He knew that his supplies would be no more than sufficient, and
that there was no place to get further supplies. Above all, he
pondered over the dissimilarity of opinions expressed about the
distances and difficulties of the proposed route across the Rockies.
Some said it was a hundred miles to the summit, others said
seventy-five, others a hundred and forty. Some said it would take a
week to get to the top, others two weeks, others three, and yet others
said it could not be done at all. Some said there was one lake at the
portage on the summit, others said there were five. No one could give
any clear idea of the country that lay out yonder beyo