t
was, my name staring me in the face! Hastily mounting the three steps,
if you please, which led to the front entrance of the new log cabin, I
pounded the door, heard a familiar "Come in," and burst in upon my
partner, looking as fine as a fiddle and in the very act of laying down
the law to an unsuspecting client. Thus then, at last, after not a few
vicissitudes, some seven thousand miles had been traversed and the _au
revoir_ of the year before realized in the present. It had been, of
course, an easier undertaking than before, and at no time lacking in
interest; but the writer believes that, as regards the trip from Golovin
Bay to Council City, the physical labor of the previous year was
preferable to the lack of companionship in its successor.

VIII

THE COUNCIL CITY MINING DISTRICT--JOE RIPLEY AND OTHERS

Our quarters consisted of an excellent twenty-by-sixteen cabin, made of
whip-sawed spruce timber, the round log side of course being outside.
Half of it, partitioned off, was devoted to our office--a very complete
one, I may say, for Alaska. The other half, its wainscoting adorned with
pans, pots, saws, hammers, and the like, and its shelves and
box-cupboards holding various cooking and eating paraphernalia, answered
the purposes of kitchen and dining-room combined. A platform four feet
wide, and stretching across in the middle from wall to wall, formed the
base of an isosceles triangle with the peak of the roof, and thereby
made a loft or cache, convenient for storing provisions, etc. But, for
the life of me, I could discover no provisions for storing ourselves at
night. Immediately in the rear of the cabin was a tent, but that was
filled with miscellaneous stuff, and evidently was not intended for
sleeping purposes. At last the mystery was solved in looking behind an
apparently unnecessary hanging of drill tapestry which covered my side
of the partition, and discovering, neatly folded and caught up against
the concealed wall, an excellent home-made bed or bunk, whose only
springs, however, were the hinges from which it swung. Three fine,
friendly dogs, now enjoying their summer vacation, loafed about the
back door, near a sled upon which rested three old gold-pans from which
they fed. The cabin was but a little distance back of our old
camping-place, the marks of which were still very evident, and it
commanded a fine view of the tortuous river and the landscape beyond.
The appearance of the camp had i