Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-08-18
~ OR land travel or seafaring the
II world over companion is
usually considered desirable.

-
not by precept, but through bitter ex-
perience.
Never travel alone" is a precept of
the north. He had heard it many
times and laughed, for he was strap
ping young fellow, big boned and big
muscled, with faith in himself and in
the strength of his head and hands.
1t was on bleak January day when
the experience came that taught him
respect for the frost and for the wis
dom of the men who had battled with it.
He had left Calumet Camp on the
Yukon with light pack on his back,
to go up Paul Greek to the divide be-
tween it and Cherry Greek, where his
party was prospecting and hunting
moose.
The frost was sixty degrees below
zero, and he had thirty miles of lonely
fact he enjoyed it, swinging along
through the silence, his blood pounding
warmly through his veins and his mind
care free and happy. For he and his
comrades were certain they had struck
"pay" up there on the Cherry Creek
Divide, and, further, he was returning
to them from Dawson with CHEEKY
home letters from the States.
At Z o'clock, when he turned the
heels Of his moccasins toward Calumet
Camp it was still black night. And
when day broke at $50 he had made
the four-mile cutoff across the flats
and was six miles up Paul Creek. The
trail, which had seen little travel. fol-
lowed the bed of the creek, and there
was no possibility of his getting lost.
He had gone to Dawson by way of
Cherry Creek and Indian River, so
Paul Greek was new and strange BY
11.3o he was at the forks, which had
been described to him, and he knew he
had covered fifteen miles, half the dis
tance.
He knew that in the nature of things
the trail was bound to grow worse
from there on, and thought that, con-
sidering the good time he had made he
merited lunch. Casting off his pack
and taking seat on fallen tree he
unmittened his right hand, reached in
side his shirt next to the skin and
tished out a couple of biscuits sand
wiched with sliced bacon and wrapped
in n handkerchief-th only way they
could be carried without freezing cold.
He had barely chewed his first
mouthful when his numbing fingers
warned him to put his mitten ON again.
This he did, not without surprise at the
bitter swiftness with which the frost
bit in. Undoubtedly it was the coolest
snap he had ever experienced, he
thought.
He spat upon the snow-a favorite
northland trick-and the sharp crackle
of the instantly CONCEALED spittle star
tied him. The spirit thermometer at
Calumet had registered sixty below
when he left, but he was certain it had
grown much colder, how much colder,
he could not imagine.
Half Of the first biscuit was yet IN
touched. but he could feel himself be-
ginning to chill-a thing most unusual
for him. This would never do, he de-
cided, and slipping the pack straps
across his shoulders he leaped to his
feet and ran briskly up the trail.
A few minutes of this made him
warm again, and he settled down to Il
steady stride, munching the biscuits as
he went along. The moisture that ex-
hailed with his breath crusted his lips
and mustache with pendant ice and
formed miniature glacier ON his chin.
Now and again sensation forsook his
nose and cheeks. and he rubbed them
till they burned with the returning
blood.
Most men wore nose straps; his part
nerS did, but he scorned such feminine
contraptions," and till now he had
never felt the need of them. Now he
did feel the need, for he was rubbing
constantly.
Nevertheless he was aware of a
thrill of joy, of eXultation. He was
doing something, achieving something,
mastering the elements. Once he
laughed aloud in sheer strength of life,
and with his clenched fist defied the
frost. He was its master What he
did he did in spite of it. 1t could not
stop him. He was going to the Cherry
Creek Divide.
Strong as were the elements, he was
stronger. At such times animals
crawled away into their holes and re.
mained in hiding. But he did not hide
He was out in it, facing it, fighting It,
He was man, master of things.
In such fashion, rejoicing proudly, he
ramped on. After half an hour he
rounded bend, where the creek ran
close to the mountainside, and came
upon one Of the most insignificant ap.
pearing but most formidable dangers
In northern travel
The creek itself was frozen solid to
Its rock bottom, but from the mountain
came the outflow of several springs
These springs never froZe, and the only
effect of the severest cold snaps was
to lessen their discharge Protected
from the frost by the blanket of snow
the water of these springs seeped dowr