ern Commercial Company, but I felt a security like that of being
in charge of an old and trustworthy friend, and was quite content.

I had a long journey before me. We should reach Dawson in fourteen days
unless we met with delays, but a fast rising wind warned us that we
might encounter something of the sort where we were, and we did. For two
days and nights our steamer lay under the lee of the island, not daring
to venture out in the teeth of the gale which buffeted us. Straining,
creaking, swaying, first one way and then the other, we lay waiting for
the storm to abate. No river steamer with stern wheel and of shallow
draught, could safely weather the rough sea for sixty miles to the
Yukon's mouth, and we tried to be patient.

Early on the morning of the third day we started, and for twelve hours
we ploughed our way through the waters with bow now deep in the trough
of the sea, now lifted high in mid-air, to be met the next moment by an
uprising roller, which, with a boom and a jar, sent a quiver through the
whole vessel.

When at last the Yukon was reached, another obstacle appeared and we
stuck fast on a sand bar. Soon two other steamers lay alongside,
waiting, as did we, for a high tide to float us.

By night we lay in a dead calm. Indians in canoes came with fish and
curios to sell, and we watched the lights of the other steamers.

When the high tide came, we floated off the bar, but the scene was one
of dull monotony, and it was not until the day following that we came
into the hill country, and I was permitted to again see the dear trees I
loved so well, not one of which I had seen since leaving California.

At Anvik there came on board a little missionary teacher bound for
Philadelphia, who had spent seven years with the natives in this
Episcopal Mission without a vacation, and her stories were interesting
in the extreme.

Our days were uneventful. A broken stern wheel, enforced rests upon sand
bars, frequent stops at wood yards with a few moments run upon shore in
which to gather autumn leaves, and get a sniff of the woods, this was
our life upon the Yukon steamer for many days. After a while the nights
grew too dark for safe progress, and the boat was tied up until
daylight.

Russian Mission, Tanana, Rampart, Fort Yukon and the Flats were passed,
and the days wore tediously on. We were literally worming our way up
stream, with low water and dark nights to contend with, but a second
summer was upon u