ry stubbornly. The gold of this country consists mainly of
fine particles or "dust," and, compared with the Klondike, but few
nuggets are found. It is, however, purer than the Klondike gold, and
assays higher.

One day in August, with a large pack, and followed by an unattractive
but devoted-looking dog, there came into Council F----, whom we had
known on the _Lane_. He was only twenty-two years old, but financial
stress had compelled him to leave his university prematurely; and he had
been among the first to cross the Chilkoot Pass and undergo the rigors
of the Klondike. Late in the season of 1899 he had come from the
Klondike to Nome, and had acquired, as he believed, some valuable
interests there, which he had been obliged to intrust to a partner, as
he was carried out from Nome in the fall more dead than alive with
typhoid. Returning the next year, he learned that his partner had robbed
him, and that all that remained was this dog. So, with his pack and his
dog, and the aid of a compass, he had walked over the mountains and
tundra from Nome to Council,--sleeping, of course, in the open air and
upon the ground,--in quest of employment on one of the Wild Goose
properties, "No. 15 on Ophir." And he was rather a delicate-looking
fellow. He dined with us, and we extended to him the hospitality of our
kitchen floor for the night, for which he was very grateful.
Notwithstanding his continued ill fortune, F---- seemed to be in
first-rate spirits. He recited a verse which he had composed, after
"Break, break, break," etc., which began thus:

"Break, broke, bust, on the ruby sands of Nome,
Break, broke, bust--three thousand miles from home!"

The way he got it off caused general laughter. He endured for two weeks
work which very few strong men can keep up, working on the ten-hour
night shift shoveling frozen ground up and into a sluice-box; and then,
pretty well used up, but with enough money to take him home, he departed
for Nome, this time by way of the river, saying that he hoped to return
next spring. Certainly pluck was not lacking in his make-up.

There is no game in this country to speak of. Occasionally, however, one
would scare up a covey of ptarmigan or white grouse, and of course there
were fish in the stream. The government recently imported into northern
Alaska some reindeer with Laplanders to care for them, and there are
scattered reindeer-stations. But none of these animals were seen.

Very pretty wild f