suffering from snow blindness expose us to.  I had with me a white man who lived at the head of the inlet with a Tagish Indian woman.  This man had a good deal of influence with the Tagish tribe, of whom the greater number were then in the neighborhood where he resided, trying to get some odd jobs of work, and I sent him to the head of the inlet to try and induce the Tagish Indians to undertake the transportation, offering them $5 per hundred pounds.  In the meantime Capt.  Moore and the Indian “Jim” had rejoined me.  I had their assistance for a day or two, and “Jim’s” presence aided indirectly in inducing the Indians to come to my relief.

“The Tagish are little more than slaves to the more powerful coast tribes, and are in constant dread of offending them in any way.  One of the privileges which the coast tribes claim is the exclusive right to all work on the coast or in its vicinity, and the Tagish are afraid to dispute this claim.  When my white man asked the Tagish to come over and pack they objected on the grounds mentioned.  After considerable ridicule of their cowardice, and explanation of the fact that they had the exclusive right to all work in their own country, the country on the side of the north side of the coast range being admitted by the coast Indians to belong to the Tagish tribe just as the coast tribes had the privilege of doing all the work on the coast side of the mountains, and that one of their number was already working with me unmolested, and likely to continue so, nine of them came over, and in fear and trembling began to pack down to the lake.  After they were at work for a few days some of the Chilkoots came out and also started to work.  Soon I had quite a number at work and was getting my stuff down quite fast.  But this good fortune was not to continue.  Owing to the prevailing wet, cold weather on the mountains, and the difficulty of getting through the soft wet snow, the Indians soon began to quit work for a day or two at a time, and to gamble with one another for the wages already earned.  Many of them wanted to be paid in full, but this I positively refused, knowing that to do so was to have them all apply for their earnings and leave me until necessity compelled them to go to work again.  I once for all made them distinctly understand that I would not pay any of them until the whole of the stuff was down.  As many of them had already earned from twelve to fifteen dollars each, to lose which was a serious matter to them, they reluctantly resumed work and kept at it until all was delivered.  This done, I paid them off, and set about getting my outfit across the lake, which I did with my own party and the two Peterborough canoes which I had with me.

“These two canoes travelled about 3,000 miles by rail and about 1,000 miles by steamship before being brought into service.  They did considerable work on Chilkoot and Tagish Inlets, and were then packed over to the head of Lewes River (Lake Lindeman), from where they were used in making the survey of Lewes and Yukon Rivers.  In this work they made about 650 landings.  They were then transported on sleighs from the boundary on the Yukon to navigable water on the Porcupine.