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AVERAGE LOAD TO CARRY.

the Dyea. Here travelers often have to wait many days for fair weather to cross the range.

It is at this point of the journey that the Indian packer is brought into service. For the actual crossing of the Pass he is absolutely indispensable. From long experience in crossing and recrossing this dangerous defile he knows its every nook and cranny, and can make the ascent and descent loaded down with provisions for his employer with considerably more ease than that same employer can without the embarrassments of a pack.

The average load for the men is 120 pounds, but thirty or forty pounds more is not uncommon, and as an example which may be taken as about the limit, one of these men of burden has been known to carry an organ weighing 220 pounds over the Pass. Not as many squaws as men are at work, and their loads average a little lighter. Generally every member of the family-and this may be understood to include the dogs-carries a pack. Every Indian wants flour or bacon, because they constitute the most compact and easily adjusted load to carry; but those who cannot get flour, having no special "pull" with the boss packer, have to be contented with camp-stoves, guns, shovels, rope, and other awkward things to carry. The dogs are loaded with from fifteen to fifty pounds, but it is necessary in some places for them to have assistance, and so their master puts down his pack and carries the dog and his load through some of the more difficult or narrow passages among the rocks or across streams.

CACHEING SUPPLIES ALONG THE TRAIL.

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The Indian's personal belongings that he usually takes with him are a bag of dried fish and a blanket and possibly a small bucket or a tomato can for a teapot. Dried salmon is both bread and meat to him and also to his dog, but the latter gets his share only at night. There is very little sunshine in the life of a Siwash dog. He is overworked, and it is only through a most unaccountable oversight that he ever gets enough to eat.

The rate which the Indians charge for packing is a variable quantity, largely governed by the demand for their services. For some years past the price has been comparatively stationary at 14 cents a pound, but during the last few months this has gone up to as high as $23 a hundred. And at the latter figure every packer in the district has been kept more than busy. Thousands of tons of provisions and freight are stalled at Dyea and Sheep Camp, owing to the scarcity of packers. Quite a few of the on-rushing miners have essayed the task of doing their own packing. But this involves return trips, and the work involved is very arduous to one unaccustomed to it.

A striking custom which is worthy of note is that of cacheing supplies along the trail. Flour, bacon, blankets, or whatever it may happen to be are left at any point to suit the convenience of the owner, A miner leaves a certain portion of the food upon which his life depends and goes on hundreds of miles in serene confidence that he will find it again when he comes back in the fall. Sometimes a tent or fly of ducking is put up for a shel

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ter.

DANGERS DESCRIBED.

If it is intended to leave the cache for several months, a platform on four posts is erected eight or ten feet above the ground to protect it from dogs and wild animals. Hungry Indians pass this food every day, and sometimes hungry white men, but it is rare indeed that a cache is maliciously violated. Of course there is a feeling of their dependence upon each other among these isolated men of the Yukon. If any one should come into the country without any supplies he would be received with poor grace, but should he come as the rest do, and by any misfortune lose his outfit, he is always welcome to a share anywhere he goes.

The trail from Sheep Camp becomes steeper and steeper as the Pass is approached. Vast snow-fields have to be traversed, great boulders of granite have to be avoided by long circular cuts, and steep ice-covered declivities scaled with a sure foot. The trip to Lake Lindeman is described as possessing all the dangers and excitement of mountain climbing among glaciers, snow, ice, and boulders.

Two miles above Sheep Camp is a very interesting glacier which has no local name. Its depletion from crumbling and melting has been faster than the onward progress of the whole mass, and consequently it has receded to a point 2,000 feet higher than the creek. The front wall or face of it is 200 or 300 feet high, and has a width of a half mile. The glacier is almost unapproachable.

The great body of ice creaks and groans almost con