Page:The trail of the golden horn.djvu/149



HE GAP” is a natural opening between the Yukon River region on the east and the great mountains on the west. In fact, it is the one door through which people pass, Indians and whites alike, on mining, trading, or any other business. In former days native warriors passed this way to wage war upon some distant tribe. It was a regular Thermopylæe where a few men could hold an entire army at bay. Two huge shoulders of rocks, devoid of any vegetation, oppose each other. Through The Gap flows a little stream, draining a lake miles away. By the side of this runs the trail, worn deep by the tread of many feet, not only of human beings, but of moose, deer, bear, and other animals of the north. Just within The Gap on the Eastward side is a remarkable valley, several acres in extent, scooped, so it seems, out of the mountains. This is completely sheltered from every wind which blows, and had always formed a favorite camping-ground for Indians. It is a most desirable place, for apart from the shelter it affords from storms and enemies, mountain sheep and other game are abundant, while the little stream and various lakes teem with fish, especially the King Salmon.

It was, therefore, but natural that Charles Norris, a clergyman sent out by a great English Missionary Society, should choose this spot as the strategic point