of nature; it was a Presence, a tremendous and a terrifying
Personality which overshadowed the minds of men and could neither
be ignored at the time nor forgotten later. No wonder, then, that
Sheep Camp, which was a part of the Chilkoot, represented, a sort
of acid test; no wonder that those who had moved their outfits
thus far were of the breed the Northland loves--the stout of heart
and of body.

Provisions were cached at frequent intervals all the way up from
the sea, but in the open meadow beneath the thousand-foot wall an
immense supply depot had sprung up. This pocket in the hills had
become an open-air commissary, stocked with every sort of
provender and gear. There were acres of sacks and bundles, of
boxes and bales, of lumber and hardware and perishable stuffs, and
all day long men came and went in relays. One relay staggered up
and out of the canon and dropped its packs, another picked up the
bundles and ascended skyward. Pound by pound, ton by ton, this
vast equipment of supplies went forward, but slowly, oh, so
slowly! And at such effort! It was indeed fit work for ants, for
it arrived nowhere and it never ended. Antlike, these burden-
bearers possessed but one idea--to fetch and to carry; they
traveled back and forth along the trail until they wore it into a
bottomless bog, until every rock, every tree, every landmark along
it became hatefully familiar and their eyes grew sick from seeing
them.

The character of then--labor and its monotony, even in this short
time, had changed the men's characters--they had become pack-
animals and they deported themselves as such. All labor-saving
devices, all mechanical aids, all short cuts to comfort and to