part, completed the remaining distance in their rubber boots, or
got wet, or imposed upon the back and good nature of some accommodating
person.

II

THE HYBRID CITY OF NOME

The town forms dense right at the shore, extending back and along upon
damp and muddy soil hitherto covered by the deep and marshy moss. The
Snake River, a sluggish, unnavigable stream, coming from the back-lying
hills and through the tundra, empties into the sea where the town tapers
off at the north, and thereby forms a sand-spit.

The first impressions after landing were those of confusion, waste, and
filth. The shore was an indescribable mass of machinery, lumber, and
freight of all kinds, the greater part of which represented fortunes
thrown away. Scattered about and along the shore, looking for an
opportunity to steal, were as tough a looking lot of rascals as one
could meet. Upon walking into the center of the town one was greeted by
a sight which beggars description. Certainly it was a case of "whited
sepulcher." The whiteness viewed from afar disappeared. The main street
was lined with hastily-erected two-story frame buildings, with here and
there a tent--a series of saloons, gambling-places, and dance-halls,
restaurants, steamship agencies, various kinds of stores, and lawyers'
"offices." It was filled with a mass of promiscuous humanity. Loads of
stuff drawn by horses and dog-teams were being carted through the
narrow, crowded ways, and the cry of encouragement to the dogs of "Mush
on" (dog French for _Marchons_) was heard frequently. Miners with heavy
packs on their backs were starting out for the claims on the creeks and
into the unknown interior, but the "bar-room" miner was far more in
evidence.

It was not the typical mining camp where the population for the greater
part is composed of hardy, honest people who have undergone privation to
reach their destination, and thereby represent, in a measure, the
survival of the fittest; for this was a great impossible hybrid sort of
city, accessible by steamer direct from San Francisco and Seattle, where
the riffraff and criminals of the country were dumped, remote from the
restraints of law and order. I heard old-timers who had visited all the
principal mining camps in recent years remark that this Nome was the
"toughest proposition" they had ever encountered, and I must admit that
it would be difficult to picture anything tougher. However, it was soon
realized that the matter