In the Alaskan wilderness . eak in the right bankwhere a footing was afforded at the waters edgeand a means of ascent presented itself. By the time we had our tent pitched amongthe timber, our fire going and our bed of spruceboughs prepared, it was already dark. Beforewe had finished supper and made things snug,the wind was blowing a gale. It swept thespruce timber with a great roar. It was a cold,damp wind and our fire seemed very comfort-able, protected as we were by the thick growthand by the larger tree trunks. As the night woreon, however, we grew rather uneasy, for weheard one after anot
In the Alaskan wilderness . eak in the right bankwhere a footing was afforded at the waters edgeand a means of ascent presented itself. By the time we had our tent pitched amongthe timber, our fire going and our bed of spruceboughs prepared, it was already dark. Beforewe had finished supper and made things snug,the wind was blowing a gale. It swept thespruce timber with a great roar. It was a cold,damp wind and our fire seemed very comfort-able, protected as we were by the thick growthand by the larger tree trunks. As the night woreon, however, we grew rather uneasy, for weheard one after another of the big trees not faraway in the forest, snapped by the wind andcome crashing down. We did not sleep muchthat night, but preferred to sit by our fire, whichwas kept going till nearly dawn. The gale continued to blow all next day withheavy squalls of rain and we stayed in had overcome our anxiety on account of thefalling trees and spent a very cozy and comfort-able day in camp looking out occasionally from 122. OX THE LOWER KUSKOKWIM our safe shelter at the river, now whitened bythe wind and thrown in spray against the steepbanks. The canoe we had unloaded and draggedto a place of safety into the little gulley by whichwe had ascended. On the 30th the wind had moderated and,being fair, we ventured out under sail. Prettysoon the wind rose again and we found that wecould not carry so much canvas, so we ran undera bank, put in a reef and started out again. Theriver now spread out very wide and was fullof bad sand-bars that could not be seen. I thinkthis was the most exciting run we had. Thewind kept rising and the water became very roughand we had to feel for the deep water and dodgethe sand-bars as we sped along. Our good canoecarried her load and sailed well. After morethan two hours of the exciting chase we roundeda bend and the wind came dead ahead, drivingthe spray in our faces. By good luck a largesized slough opened on the left bank and we ranto it for shelter.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectalaskadescriptionand