s, however, deep,--and thus, to
a large extent, obviated the heartbreaking and back-breaking experiences
of the preceding year.

The plan of travel was to proceed only a few miles that evening to a
temporary encampment where Trundy had arranged to pick up some
additional freight, and where we should spend the night, making an early
start in the morning. Arrived there, I imposed upon the good nature of
some agreeable fellows, lugging my blankets into their tent and spending
the night with them, packed like sardines. We made an early start in
the forbidding morning, our number being increased to nine, and not a
very choice company either. It was soon apparent that the expedition
included two parties who claimed the same mining property, toward which
they were heading with all despatch, and that there was bad blood
between them. Suspicious looks and whispered conversations were
corroborative evidence.

At two o'clock we arrived at Craft's Road-House, near the mouth of the
Neukluk River, where a halt was made for dinner. This was a good-sized
log cabin, with scrupulously neat interior, kept by Mr. and Mrs. Craft,
but the Mrs. was the presiding genius. Photographs of their restaurants
at Chicago and Dawson, and of family and friends, stiffly yet fondly
grouped, adorned the walls. And what a good dinner they gave us--a
perfect gorge for one dollar, and cheap at five times the price! Louis
was taken ill here with cramps in his arms and legs, due to overwork and
wetting, but only after much persuasion consented to take off his boots
and lie down on the reindeer-skins by the stove. While he was
recuperating, the good-natured and loquacious hostess, seated behind
(and with elbows upon) the bar, entertained us; for Mrs. Craft, as the
name implies, knows her business and enjoys the reputation of being a
"fine talker." Her entertainment for this occasion was a somewhat broad
and general discussion of the marital obligations which should exist
between "squaw-men" and their Eskimo (truly enough) better halves,
citing her observations of the Eskimo code of ethics and certain
instances where the informality of existing relations had been made
conventional by voluntary appearance before a United States commissioner
and a performance of the proper ceremonies by that officer.

Louis gamely enough responded, and soon the expedition, in
rain-and-wet-proof armor of slickers and hip rubber boots, set out to
gain that night Johnson's Camp, a