Perry,"--the way he told them,--who,
encouraged, would sit in our state-room, when he could, and, to our
great amusement, and most entertainingly, tell his history from the time
when he played the races a few years ago, in "dear old England," to
date. Before departing from San Francisco he had been dining with
friends in high-life fashion at the Palace, the swell hotel of the city.
There wasn't a more efficient steward on the ship, and he hustled for us
in good style. How these "Atlantic Ocean boys" sneer at the less
advanced conveniences of the Pacific!

Well, then, in the morning, seated on a load of freight and baggage,
the rest of the passengers, in a misty rain, traversed the intervening
two miles of then smooth water, and deposited themselves and their
hand-baggage upon the famous, and infamous, shores of Nome. The "golden
sands" at that time were partly covered by dead dogs and refuse, but
everything else seemed systematic and orderly; there were, happily, no
longer evidences of great waste and confusion such as prevailed the year
before. That the lessons of last September's storms, however, had been
unheeded was evidenced by the shacks and frame buildings rebuilt down
upon the beach itself, and there awaiting a like fate from another ugly
assault of the Bering Sea. One of the signs of the times which stood
forth familiarly, and recalled scenes of the past, was that of the "Gold
Belt Dance Hall."

While A---- guarded the baggage, W---- and I went in search of a
temporary abiding-place, and decided in favor of an unfurnished room at
the Gold Hill Hotel, situated in a less crowded part of the town. Into
this we soon placed our folding cots, blankets, and personal effects;
and as the bar immediately underneath us was not then doing a
land-office business, we considered ourselves lucky to be so well
settled thus soon. The sea, fortunately, was sufficiently calm to permit
discharging the freight, which was well cared for and put under cover by
the reliable Alaska Commercial Company, to which we had intrusted it and
ourselves.

The next object of concern, after having delivered certain papers and
seen several of the legal lights, was to determine whether one could
then proceed on the way to Council City, and, if so, how; but the
inevitable conclusion was soon forced upon me that I should have to
remain as cheerfully as possible in Nome until Golovin Bay should be
clear of ice. Several attempts had already been made