to which one has
listened all the winter. On the other hand, the travelling is very
pleasant and the going usually very good, so that one may often ride on
the sled for long stretches.

By river and portage--one portage that comes so finely down to the Yukon
from a bench that there is pleasure in anticipating the view it
affords--in two days we reached the Nation road-house, just below the
mouth of the Nation River, a name that has always puzzled me. Here all
night long the wolves howling around the carcass of a horse kept our
dogs awake, and the whimpering of the dogs kept us awake. The country
beyond the Yukon to the northeast, the large area included between the
Yukon and the Porcupine, into which the Nation River offers passage, is
one of the wildest and least known portions of Alaska, abounding in game
and beasts of prey.

[Sidenote: THE GLARE OF THE SUN]

At the Charley River we visited the native village and held service and
instruction as well as inadequate interpretation permitted. Round Coal
Creek and Woodchopper Creek the scenery becomes bold and attractive, but
we found, as usual, that as we pushed farther and farther down the river
the snow was deeper and the going not so good. The sun grows very bright
upon the snow these days of late March and early April. Even through
heavily tinted glasses it inflames the eyes more or less, and a couple
of hours without protection would bring snow-blindness. Bright days at
this season are the only days in all the year when the camera shutter
may be used at its full speed. When the sun comes out after a flurry of
new snow in April, the light is many times greater than in midsummer.

[Illustration: "A PORTAGE THAT COMES SO FINELY DOWN TO THE YUKON THAT
THERE IS PLEASURE IN ANTICIPATING THE VIEW IT AFFORDS."]

[Illustration: FORT YUKON.]

We reached Circle in a day and a half from Woodchopper Creek, in time to
spend Sunday there. Circle had not changed much in the five years that
had elapsed since the first visit to it mentioned in these pages. The
slender trellis of the wireless telegraph had added a prominent feature
to its river bank; a few more empty cabins had been torn down for
fire-wood. Here it was necessary to shoot the Great Dane pup we got at
the Salchaket. His feet were still very sore and he quite useless for
the next winter, while Doc was returned to me from Fairbanks, not
much the worse for his severe frost-bite. Indian after Indian begged for
the dog