Spell Of The Yukon Lyrics - Hank Snow

I wanted the gold and I sought it I scrabbled and mucked like a slave 

Was it famine or scurvy I fought it I hurled my youth into a grave 

I wanted the gold and I got it came out with a fortune last fall 

Yet somehow life's not what I thought it and somehow the gold isn't all 

No there's the land have you seen it it's the cussedest land that I know 

From the big dizzy mountains that screen it to the deep death-like valleys below 

Some say God was tired when he made it some say it's a fine land to shun 

Maybe but there's some that would trade it for no land owner and I'm one 

You come to get rich that's a good reason you feel like an exile at first 

You hate it like hell for a season and then you're worse than the worst 

It grips you like some kinds of sinning it twists you from foe to a friend 

It seems it's been since the beginning it seems it will be to the end 

I've stood in some mighty mouthed-hollow that's plumb full of hush to the brim 

I've watched the big husky sun wallow in crimson and gold and grow dim 

Till the moon set the pearly peaks gleaming and the stars tumbled out neck and crop 

And I thought that I surely was dreaming with the peace of the world piled on top 

The summer no sweeter was ever the sunshiny woods all a thrill 

The grayling a leap in the river the bighorn asleep on a hill 

The strong life that never knows harness the wilds where the caribou call 

The freshness the freedom the farness oh God how I'm stuck on it all 

The winter the brightness that blinds you the white land locked tight as a drum 

The cold fear that follows and finds you the silence that bludgeons you dumb 

The snows that are older than history the woods where the weird shadows slant 

The stillness the moonlight the myst'ry I'd bade them goodbye but I can't 

There's a land where the mountains are nameless 

And the rivers all run God knows where 

There are lives that are erring and aimless and deaths that just hang by a hair 

There are hardships that nobody reckons there are valleys unpeopled and still 

There's a land oh how it beckons and beckons and I want to go back and I will 

They're making my money diminish I'm sick of the taste of champagne 

Thank God when I'm skinned to a finish I'll pike to the Yukon again 

I'll fight and you bet it's no sham fight it's hell but I've been there before 

And it's better than this by a damn sight so me for the Yukon once more 

There's gold and its haunting and haunting it's luring me on as of old 

Yet it isn't the gold that I'm wanting so much as just finding the gold 

It's the great big broadland way up yonder it's the forest where silence has lease 

It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder it's the stillness that fills me with peace