that age are as old as white women are at fifty. if
there is any beauty in Creoles, or Indians believe me it fades before
they are thirty, and leaves you a homely hag.

Well Her brother told me he had heard about me and If I would consent to
wed his sister he would tell me the road to a fortune. I saw he was
smart and disclosed considerable truth and displayed considerable
inteligence of the interior. He said he would go to that place but owing
to physical inability he could not. What could a trapper from the
flowery fields of the rockies, and broad basins of the Platte now of the
Snow hidden mountains ice bound rivers of Alaska do but inmediately
without consulting any parents--become engaged.

We sat down I dismissed the boys and he related to me the following "For
a thousand years my people have been kings in these parts. A Few indians
have been through the interior of Alsaka from Mt Mckinley to Point
Barrow. But no white man ever was. It is well nigh impossible but a
giant like you and like your men could go if you prepare properly And
have the money to chuck up for two years. Now the fortune lies in what
you could tell and what you would know and see rather than in what you
could bring back. But should you gain Point Barrow remember there is
plenty of gold.--but it can only be mined during the summer while the
frost is wore out of the ground by the sea. Now half way through this
wilderness of ice, snow, and bursting glasciers is a cave not in a
valley but on a mountain above timberline. This mountain lies about ten
miles westward of you main course as you go down Dead mans gulch. you
will know this gulch by its first horrorable appearance. it makes even
an indian shudder to look at it. After you emerge from the gulch take
the first indentation leading westward and by all means go to black
mountain and find the cave. Now why I wish you to find the cave is I
wish you to live. the Wether is extremely cold, you and your men will
need a relief from this extreme incessant atmosphere. this cave is of
black rock and is as warm underfoot as any soap stone you ever touched.
and when once in the cave you feel warm as in an oven. Here you may
recuperate patch up your clothes and make your journey safely." I
thought this was hash so parting said I would return and tell him how I
prospered. While time and weather would permit we went to Gnome and
picked up Black Dave. And purchased severel good Huskeys. sailed back to
St. Mich