and into the stores. In less time than it takes to write it,
these places were filled with miners, each man pulling away at his
strong, old pipe, the companion of many weary months perhaps; while over
the counters they handed their gold dust in payment for the "best plug
cut," chewing gum, candy, or whatever else they saw that looked
tempting. Here we bought two pairs of beaded moccasins for seven
dollars.

As a heavy fog settled down upon us, our captain thought best to tie up
the steamer over night, and did so. Next morning by daylight we saw the
offices of the United States marshal; both log cabins with dirt roofs,
upon which bunches of tall weeds were going to seed. We hoped this was
not symbolical of the state of Uncle Sam's affairs in the interior, but
feared it might be, as the places seemed deserted.

Many of the one thousand cabins at Circle were now vacant, but it is the
largest town next to Dawson on the Yukon River.

During the whole of the next day our pilots steered cautiously over the
Yukon Flats.

This is a stretch of about four hundred miles of low, swampy country,
where the Yukon evidently loses its courage to run swiftly, for it
spreads out indolently in all directions between treacherous and
shifting sand-bars, fairly disheartening to all not familiar with its
many peculiarities.

We now learned for the first time that we were practically in the hands
of three pilots, two of whom were Eskimos, one of them on a salary of
five hundred dollars per month. This man was perfectly familiar with the
entire river, being an expert pilot, as he proved during this trip to
the satisfaction of all.

Owing to the near approach of winter, and the extremely low water at
this point, the captain, crew, and many others, wore anxious faces until
the Flats were well passed. Should our steamer stick fast on a sand-bar,
or take fire, we might easily be landed; but to be left in such a bleak
and barren place, with cold weather approaching, snow beginning to fall,
no shelter, and only provisions for a few days, with traveling
companions of the very worst type, and no passing steamers to pick us
up, we would indeed meet a hard fate, and one even the prospect of which
was well calculated to make strong men shudder.

CHAPTER V

AT THE ARCTIC CIRCLE.

We were now at the Arctic Circle. For three days we had no sunshine, and
flurries of snow were frequent. The mountain tops, as well as the banks
and sand-bars o