"It appears to me," said Russell, "that for the inexperienced, and those who know little or nothing of roughing it, to venture into such a region as the Yukon is known to be at its best is the extreme of folly. Under the most favourable conditions it offers so many hardships, that those who have not what the Yanks call 'grit,' and endurance, should keep out of it."
"I quite agree with all you say," replied Fellows. "Yet I think," he added, "that much of the mischief and hardships we hear about have been due to the mode of travelling and the routes taken."
"Which, then, do you regard as the better way to go?"
"Certainly not through the passes over the mountains, in which so many hundreds are said to have met their deaths."
"How then would you propose getting there?"
"By what is now known as the 'All-Water-Route,' up the Yukon River to Dawson City."
"But isn't that a long and tedious way, which, if commenced when navigation opens, is completed so near the end of the season that you have practically no time left for operations that year?"
"I think that was so," said Fellows, "when the rush first began, but the conditions have now been rendered far more favourable."
"Is that so?" asked Russell.
"The agents say that through the passes it takes from forty to seventy days to get from San Francisco to Dawson City; but by the 'All-Water-Route,' although you have to start later from the same port, the time taken need never exceed about four weeks; so that with more comfort and convenience, at the cost of less time, you really reach Dawson City sooner than by means of what may be termed the overland route."