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ALASKA AND THE KLONDIKE.
9
wise caution detained us here for the night, and the incoming of a solitary traveler warned us that a blizzard had struck the summit of the pass, and buried it beneath a heavy mantle of snow. Had we been a day earlier we might have crossed dry shod, a very exceptional condition
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/de/PSM_V55_D019_Pacific_and_arctic_railway_grade_cutting_at_white_pass.png/500px-PSM_V55_D019_Pacific_and_arctic_railway_grade_cutting_at_white_pass.png)
Cutting Grade for the Pacific and Arctic Railway—Tunnel Mountain, White Pass Route.
at this time of the year, but now the possibilities of a struggle gravely presented themselves. A light frost of the night had fairly congealed the soil, but the lake did not carry enough surface ice to interfere with the progress of a scow, and we reached the farther end without difficulty. The two-mile portage to Crater Lake was largely