It was a hard day's journey, up the

It was a hard day's journey, up the Dyea Canyon and into the mountains. They camped
that night at Lake Bennett. Here there were thousands of gold miners. They were building
boats to sail up the lake when the ice melted in the spring. Buck made his hole in the snow
and slept well, but was woken up very early and harnessed to the sledge. The first day they
had travelled on snow that had been hardened by many sledges and they covered sixty
kilometres. But the next day, and for days afterwards, they were on new snow. The work was
harder and they went slowly. Usually, Perrault went in front, on snowshoes, flattening the
snow a little for the dogs. Francois stayed by the sledge. Sometimes the two men changed
places, but there were many small lakes and rivers, and Perrault understood ice better. He
always knew when the ice across a river was very thin.