Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

THE YUKON ADVENTURE 151with only an inch or two of free-board showing. Everything,including flour and clothing, was soaking wet. Had the wavecome aboard when they first entered the rapids, the canoe couldnot have lived, and to swim ashore in that icy water and swiftcurrent would have been equally impossible. As soon as theywere on shore all turned in, wet as they were, and slept thesleep of the just.On June 3 a start was made in a heavy downpour, allhands being drenched. Fort Selkirk was reached at 3 p.m. andhere an attempt was made to put up some kind of a shelterand to get warm and less wet. While they were there, anempty boat, with the port side smashed in, drifted past;evidently some poor fellows had come to grief in the rapids.Selkirk was described by one of the party as a dismal hole withlots of Indians and cur dogs. The Indians looked like Japaneseand not a white man was to be seen. Some old cabins werestill standing, but, for "travellers' reasons," these were notused as shelters.Rain continued to fall on the two following days, notwithstandingwhich good progress was made. On June 4 they ranover one hundred miles in a day of seventeen or eighteen hours,thanks to the swiftness of the current. It is hard to describethe discomfort of those three days and nights inthe raineverything soaking wet; the members of the party crampedand stiff from cold and wet, and their hands swollen as aresult of mosquito bites and sunburn; while the only cookingpossible was the making of a pot of tea or coffee.About midnight on June 5 the lights of Dawson wereseen ahead, and in a twinkling all discomforts were forgotten.A landing was made at the police barracks, and everything,including the canoe, was taken into the square. The kit-bags,containing the bank-notes, were placed in the guard-house,and as usual, used for pillows on the floor. The police officerswere in bed, but the guard kindly provided a snack from itsscanty rations.The next day the bank-notes were locked up in a cell of the