The Canadian government has already spent a great deal on this road, and its upkeep costs thousands of dollars a year. Within the last few years the trail has been much improved for the use of automobiles. The first time an automobile road was proposed many people scoffed at the idea and said that it could not be done. The matter came up before the Parliament at Ottawa and was discussed pro and con. An appropriation of fifty thousand dollars had been asked. The objections made were that automobiles could not be run in the low temperature of the Yukon, and that the road was so rough that the machines could never make their way over it. [Illustration: Built at the height of the Klondike gold rush, the White Pass Railway transported thousands of prospectors and millions of dollars’ worth of gold during the first few years of its existence. It is one hundred and eleven miles long and connects Skagway with White Horse.] [Illustration: For more than half the year the Yukon River is covered with ice, and then mail, freight, and passengers for the interior are carried on sleds by way of the Overland Trail from White Horse to Dawson.] [Illustration: “Our first stop was at the Tahkeena roadhouse, famous for its Irish cook. It stands on the banks of the Tahkeena River, which we crossed on a ferry.”] This discussion occurred in the midst of the winter, and while it was going on the Honourable George Black, who was then Commissioner of Yukon Territory, decided to show parliament that the undertaking was practicable. He made an arrangement with C. A. Thomas, the resident manager of the Yukon Gold Company at Dawson, to take a forty-horse-power automobile over the trail. With a chauffeur, the two men left Dawson when the road was covered with snow and the thermometer far below zero. The long winter nights were at hand and the sun shone only an hour or so every day. The darkness was conquered in part by a locomotive headlight on the front of the car. The trip to White Horse and return was made within fifty-six hours, of which thirty-six hours was actual running. The distance of seven hundred and twenty miles was covered at an average speed of twenty miles an hour for the running time of the round trip. During the journey the thermometer fell to fifty-six degrees below zero, but the air was dead still, and wrapped up as they were in furs, the men did not realize how cold it was until they came to a road house and read the thermometer.