Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

THE YUKON ADVENTURE 143point at tide-water. It was a steady climb over a hardwearing trail, and after the last steep ascent from "TheScales" to the actual summit, 1 where Canadian territory began,a night's rest was most welcome. The police officer in chargehere, Inspector Belcher, was most kind in his attentions tothe party, and so indeed were all the officers of the forceat the various posts along the trail to Dawson. That nightwas spent in a tent, and next morning the members of theparty woke to find that the snow had drifted in under thecanvas and had covered everything in sight.During the previous evening a dog team had been securedto carry the baggage, and about 4 a.m. on May 20 the partyleft the summit with a blinding sleet storm in their faces, andreached Long Lake about noon, having been up to their kneesand frequently up to their waists in the soft snow of the trail.The storm continued until about three o'clock in the afternoon,when Lake Lindeman was reached. As several other partieshad broken through the ice that day, "Three Fingered McKay,"the driver of the dogs, considered it foolhardy to attempt tocross Lake Lindeman until the following morning, when thenight'sfrost would have hardened the ice to some extent.Accordingly at 4 a.m. the following morning a start was made.One of the party went ahead, sounding the ice with a pole.Where he failed to jab the pole through the ice, there lay thetrail, and a zigzag one it was. Lake Bennett was reached inthe course of the morning, and there, after the bank-notes hadbeen deposited with Superintendent S. B. Steele, 2 of the North-West Mounted Police, the two parties met.Lake Bennett presented a really marvellous sight, with itsmany thousands of people and tents, and the whole place buzzingwith activity. Here was the starting point of the riverjourney to Dawson, and rude boats were to be seen in all stagesof construction; some, however, on being launched, would notlSee plate 21, facing page 142.The late Major-General Sir Samuel B. Steele, K.C.M.G., of the StrathconaHorse, knighted for his services in the Great War.