River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1915-01-21

a cup of coffee set aside to cool and
forgotten. ID few minutes later WAS
found coated with halt an inch OF ice.
At O'Clock. when Sprague and Slime.
already rolled in their blankets. were
sleeping the sleep of exhaustion. Kit
came back from a look at the boat.
IFS the freezeup shorty he an
noIncpd There's a skin of ice over
me whole pond already. The raP'd
current of the river may keep II oprH
for days This time tomorrow al
boat caught in Lake Labarge re-
mains there until next year"
"You mean we've got to get out
tonight? Now?"
nit nodded.
Tumble out you sleepres," was
Shorty's answer, couched in roar
as he began casting off the guy
ropes Of the tent.
They broke their way through
the thin ice in the little harbar
end came out on the lake, where
the water, heavy and CLASSY, froze
on their oars with every stroke.
The water soon became like mush.
ciogging the stroke of the oars
and freezing in the air even as it
dipped Later the surface began
t. form a skin, and hte boat pro
o,eded slower and slower.
OGten afterward, when Kit tried
Il remember that night and fail
ed to bring up aught but night
mare recOllectiOns he Wondered
u hat must have been the surrec-
ipgs Of Slime and Sprague. His
one impression Of himself was that
II struggled through biting frost
aid intolerable exertlon Tor
thousand years. more or less.
Morning found them stationary
Slime complained of frosted fingers
aud Sprague of bis nose, while the pain
III Kits cheeks and nose told him that
he too had been touched. With each
accretion of daylight they could see
farther, and as far as they could see
was icy surface The water Of the lake
was gone
A hundred yards away was the shore
of the north end Shorty insisted that
it was the opening of the river and
that be could see water He and Kit
alone were able to work. and with their
Inc boat along And at the Mst gasp
of their strength they made the suck
of the rapid river One look back
showed them several boats which had
fought through the night and were
hopelpssly frozen in: then they whirled
around bend in current running six
miles an hour.
Day by day they hoated down the
swift river. and day by day the shore
Ice extended farther out. When they
made camp at nightfall they chopped
81 space in the ice III when to lay the
boat and carried the camp outfit hun
dredS of feet to shore. In the morning
they chopped the boat out through the
new ice and caught the current
Shorty set up the sheet iron stove 10
the boat, and over this Slime and
Sprague hung through the long drift
ing hours. They had surrendered. no
longer gave orders, and theiT one de
sire was to gain Dawson.
The last night ashore was spent be
tween the mouths of the White river
and the Stewart. At daylight they
round the Yukon. halt a mile wide.
running white from ice trimmed bank
10 ICE trimmed bank.
Wen be the last boat this year to
make la wson." Kit said
But they amt no water, Smoke
Then wen ride the ice down.
Come on"
t'utilely protesting. Sprague and
Stne were bundled on board. For
halt an tour with axes Kit ana Shorty
struggled to cut way into the swift
but solid stream. When they did sue
coed in clearing the shore ice the float
ing ice forced the boat along the edge
for a hundred yards, tearing away nalf
of one gunwale and making partial
wreck of it. Then at the lower end OF
the bend they caught the current that
flung of shore.
They proceeded to work farther to
ward the middle. The stream was no
longer composed of mush Ice, but OF
hard cakes. In between the CAKES
only was mush ice that froZe soiidly
as they looked at it. Showing with the
oars against the cakes, sometimes
climbing out on the cakes in order TO
force the boat along, after an hour
they gained the middle.