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THRO LI CM run SUBARCTIC I-ORHST NORTHERN AFFAIRS « NATIONAL RESOURCES NOV 28 1955 Northern Research Lr ,y OTTAWA ^^J f F ', J n r •»*•-«■ J ^ THROUGH r 1 1 1-: SUBARCTIC FOREST A KKCOUD Ol- A (WOK JOUKNEV I'KOM I'OKT \vKAN(;i;i, III I UK I'kli.v i.akks and DOWN 11 IK MKON RIVKK TO TIIK IIKIIKIN(; ^KA BY WARHURTOX IM K K AllHiiK ol- ' IIIK l.AKKKN URoL'.NDs (JK CANADA WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS i:i)\VARI) ARNOLD ^Jublishcr to tijr EiiCia vDCGrr LOXDON NKW YORK .^7 nKDi-oRi) siki'i' 1 'o riiiii A \' i: N I • I-: I S () r, L^^^'4^ rRHFAcr In the summer of 1887 an CX| :iliti<'i was under- fakon and succcssRilly carried out by the Geolo^jical Survey IJepartment of Canada, with a view to gatherinfij sonu accurate knowledge of the liule- known tracts of country adjacent to the ?iortliern wat(;rways oi the Dominion. The (^.Npedition was conducted sptvjdily ird quietly, attracting little attention at the time, .iS ihe inhabitants of the well-setded [portions of Can.ida iiardly vealised what an enormous amount of work wj.s accomplished, and what loni,' distance > wjre covered in a comparatively short space of time by methods of travel which seem primeval to the creature of modern civilisation. The result of all this work has be<;n die correct mapping of several of the maik. n^ules through VIII iHROLuU THE SUHARCTIC lOKKUT the vast territory over which the Hudson's Bay Company have always held sway, so that in many cases the traveller or hunter whose tastes drive him lo the northern solitudes knows exactly what lies before him, knows when to look out tor the rapids, and knows the distance between points of importance, insteatl of havint; to depend on the vas^ue information afforded by Indians, who take little account of time or distance. The first i)art of the journey which I hive attemjJted to describe in the following pages, with the exception of the countr\ lying to the north- east of a line drawn from the north end of Frances Lake to the site of the Old Pelly Banks trading post, which I believe to be absolutely new ground, lies chiefly along the route followed by the Hlxplora- lory Survey party under the leadership of Dr. G. M. Dawson, and in his Report will be found an intert^sting and accurate account of the country travelled through. The only geographical discoxery of any import- ance that I made was rather of a negative character, namely, that the river draining the Belly Lakes, PREFACE ix n ii and marked as the Pelly on the maps prepared from Indian reports, is not really entitled to be considered the main stream of the Pelly, hut is only a small tributary of a larLje river headinqr towards the north-east, and probably havinjj^ its source on the western slope of the main range of the Rocky Mountains. I have, made some attempt to map this hitherto unexplored tract of country, but the sketch must be rei^arded as only roughly appro.ximate till a competent surveyor goes over the ground to correct the numerous errors. To the sportsman and man of the woods, tiiis book is offered as a rough descri[)tion of what hap{)ened on a long journey through a good game country, without any attemi)t to make a big bag or killing animals that w(;re not wanted to keep up the food supply. 1 have purposely dwelt more at length on the IV'lly and Liard district, though lying neanT at hand, which is but really less known than the often-described country of the Yiikon and the Behrirjg Sea. Rough geological and botanical collections were made in the course of the journey, and a descrip- THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST tion of them will he found in an appendix to this volume. They are not nearly so perfect as I could have wished, but allowance must be made lor tht; fact that I was my own steersman and hunter, and my attention was often drawn from more scientific pursuits by the perils of navigation or the emptiness of the larder. W. P. CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 Start for Fort Wranoki, Cast lincof Hrilish Columbia— K,.rt Wrangd and it> history- Miners of '49— I^ws of Alaska— The canoe and her refjuirements— Slikine River, .lifficultics of navi};ation— Iskoot triJnitary . CHAPTER II l)N THE STIKINK KivER Tin Stikine «iaci.r-Ovtrtaken t,y cwst Indians-Canoe drill at Little Caflon— Dirterence in climate on <)piH,site sides uf coast range- Salmon catching llaWits of l)cars-Klootcliman Canon The Chinook jari^on— Telegraph Creek— Freight charges CHAPTER III Thk District ok Ca>si ar Cassiar trail -I.aketon-A llu.Ison Kay trading ,x,sl-Deast I^-ikc- Drawhacks to mining - Sylvesters landing - Casca Indians - Abandon plan of wintering on Frances Lake SO Xlt THROl'GH THE SVli ARCTIC FOREST CHAI'IKK IV THK LIARI) I'OST I'AlJK Mdiint Ki>la-i;urii llylaml River -Indian siij)erslitions — Hijj game in particular localities— I- irst fall o( >n<>\v .... (>(> CH.M'IKR V MoosK HUNTI.\<; The country .south of I-iard River —Civiliseil Indians - Increase of number of moose — Habits of the moo.se .... 84 CH.M'IKR \I M.\ri.i.N(; SioRKs m i'k.wci.s I.aki. Ice set fast in the rivers — t'assiar sleiyh dogs — Disease among llv Liard Indians — Ideal day for a hunt — Difticulties of hauling supplies— Dangers of a really cold day— A process of freezing out . ')■; CH.M'I'KH VII .\ Ml.MNc; K.M'KIHI ION Return to Sylvester's Landing for sunnner supplies - Rabbits and grouse — .Murder by C'asca Ineditiun to ilyland River (^uaitz ledges — Chesi Hill, the home of the big-horn — Jealousy between Ca.ssiar Indians and Red Ri\er hali-bree1 I'l I.I V KlVKK nests- Drying; tish— Upper I'clly l-ake-OuIl I-akc-I'tarmigans nesting ami signs <,f sun.m.i - Acculent t.. rirte--A la.l n.iss-Dogs go a>.,ay ; thdr ins,i,u , . 158 THAI'IKR XI Down- ihk I'Ki.i.v Kivkk Salmon a long .iistancc from the sea Claims of IVll;. River to l,e c.n- si(leren Varieties uf mountain sheep— Ross River— Maomillan and .Stewart Rivers I )itticulties of prospecting- Granite Caiion-F.)rt Selkirk- The Lewes River— First run of Salmon— (iovernnicni officials anil gamljlers . • i Map ok Alaska siiowin,; the Author's Route ER C Is l'A(iK 5 2J 4J 53 7? •V 93 lOI 129 '49 161 191 ")3 l'»9 . At ciiii (.'». O: CO Va ter be; of it the atti COL of sup *««t.yv —•---"*- I CHAPTER I START FOR FORT WRANGEL (-..as. line ,.f British Colunil>ia-Fort Wrangcl .n.I its history-Miners of 4., -Laws of Ala,-,ka-The canoe and her requirements- Stikine River, (lirticuhies of navigation— Iskoot tributary. Ox a bright Sunday morning early in July 1892, we steamed out ol" the harbour of Victoria, Van- couver's Island, and before nightfall had left Vancouver — the thriving mainland town at the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway — far behind us. It is curious that this confusing name of Vancouver should have continued in use after it had once served its purpose in roughly locating the geographical position of the new city, and attracting the attention of land speculators ; more especially as there is yet another Vancouver a couple of hundred miles farther south, on the banks of the Columbia River. It is too late now, I suppose, to alter the name ; but it seems a pity that B ##^:.|*' THROUGH THE SUHAliCTlC FOREST the memory of the old sea captain should be asso- ciated with the bricks and mortar of a new railway town, instead of with the rugged mountains and dense pine forests which rise in lonely s^randeur from the waters of the Pacihc. After a four days' voyage through the rain- smeared islands that guard the gloomy coast-lines of British Columbia, with several calls at small settle- ments of little interest to any one but their inhabit- ants, we reached Fort Wrangel, a port of entry for the U.S. Territory of Alaska, situated on the west side of a thickly wooded island bearing the same name, about six miles from the mouth of the Stikine River. Fort Wrangel's existence dates back as far as the year 1834, when it was established under the name of Fort Dionysius as a military station during the Russian occupancy ot Alaska, to watch the proceedings of the Hudson's Bay Company, then trading on the Coast. Gold was discovered on the Stikine River in 1862; but Fort Wrangel's palmy days began with the rush of miners to the Cassiar District, on the Arctic Slope, which followed in 1874. But these good times are gone by, and the little town now presents a most desolate appearance, START FOR FORT WRASGEL Stikine 1 far as i^MBii^i ler the during :h the -^^1 \ then on the palmy lassiar /ed in M id the irance, lackin_Lj all natural beauty to atone for the absence of prosperity, while the almost perpetual rainfall makes it an undesirable place of abode. The small white population is, however, made up of the riijhl kintl of people ; ami they treated us with all the hospitalit)' that is so sure to be found amoni; men who have sp(Mit much of their time in western miniuLj camps. Fort Wrangel seems to have become a resting- place for the type of pioneer who is n(nv all too scarce on the Pacific coast — the man who has passed his life on the frontier, moving from California to Cariboo, Omeneca, Coutr d'Alene, and Cassiar, as each new field was discovered. Possessed of a happy, careless nature, he has borne good and bad fortune with the same equanimity ; he will tell you many a story of good claims sold for large ns ot money, which always disappeared in one good spree in the nearest town, shared with his fellows as readily as ever was the last kettleful of beans in the mountains. Doubtless his conduct on these occasions was none too orderly, and his sins were committed with great rapidit}- while the spree lasted ; but even so his record might show a much better average than that of many of the respectable !■' i imiOLGII TJJK SLJIAKCT/C JOiUCSl hypocrites w lio an; so easily sliocked at the miner's excesses in times of prosperit)'. There is not a belter-hearted fellow or a truer friend in time of need than a ^ood specimen of iIk, old class of genuine hard-wc^rkinj^Miiiners. lUit, alas! the tlays «»f '49 are j^^one, and our worthy friend has reached the time of life when the hardshi|)s of his youth beL,Mn to tell upon him, and his overworked knees will no lonj^ar do their duty. Too often he is encumbered with an Indian woman and a tribt.* of half-breed children — a state of affairs which has dra|L(ged many a good man down to a lower social level than he was intended to fill ; and every year makes it harder for him to leave the semi-civilisa- tion of the coast and plunge into the wilderness in search of the one more stake that is all he has to depend upon for the comfort of his declining years. But the younger part of the mining popu- lation has been drawn away to the new town of Juneau, a little farther up the coast, and close to the celebrated treadmill mine on Douglas Island — the only really paying mine in Alaska, whose reputation has been freely used to bolster up several rotten enterprises started on claims in close prox- imity to the Bonanza. So Wrangel is now almost iniiiLr )OpU- n of st^ to land hose veral )rox- most T f t t c s o o START FOR FORT WRANGEL t'ntirely supported by the Indian trade, which is still of some importance. A sawmill has been built to supply the local market ; but the export of lumber, which might under favourable legislation develop into a larger industry, is forbidden. The laws in force throughout Alaska are of the most unsatisfactory kind, and apparently no means are taken to improve, them. So far no land titles of any sort have been granted, and a man who builds himself a house does so without the least guarantee that the land on which he builds it will ever belong to him by purchase, pre-emption, or squatter's claim. The territory is supposed to be in some measure governed by the statutes of the State of Oregon, but for every existing law there seems to be another one eciLially powerful to nullify its effpi'ts. I'or instance, the whole territory is declared to be a prohibition country, antl the importation of liquor illegal ; if a sinugLiier is caught red-handed unloading a car^o ot whisky he is hned or imprisoned and his cargo confiscated. At the same time there is no law to prevent the sale of licjuor within the territory ; and when once the cargo is safely run, drinks are sold openly over the bar just as they would be in San Francisco. B1.I 8 THROUCn THE SUBARCTIC FOREST The Edmonds Act again sets forth that no white man may Hve with an Indian woman unless he is married to her, and yet most of the clergy of Alaska refuse to legalise such alliances by the reading of the marriage service. These two subjects occupy the greater portion of the time devoted to the carrying out of the laws by officials drawing good salaries from the United States government, as long as their own party is in power, but no definite conclusion has ever yet been reached. Our party consisted of Reed, an English friend, who was going to Cassiar for the big game shooting ; Gladman, a Canadian, ho had already made two trips to the north in the service of government surveyors, and myself. We had brought with us from X'ictoria about 1 500 lbs, of provisions and ammunition, besides a canoe built of light spruce — in the absence of bassvvood — on the Peterboro' model, as the most suitable craft for the long journey ahead. Her dimensions were — 18 feet length, 3 feet 6 inches beam, and 20 inches depth, with a total weight of 130 lbs. She was subjected to some criticism in Wrangel ; and being an inno- vation on the long-established methods of travel. STA/a' FOR rORT WRASGEL \S as at first universallv condemned. The fact that ready ce of had . of iltof the the "eet epth, ected nno- avel, she was painted a Hght blue colour started a sug- gestion that she was made of zinc, and this opinion took such a firm hold that I found it saved trouble to agree with it and admit that she was made of zinc ; but as Reed and Gladman continued to deny the statement, we were looked upon with some mistrust till the dispute was satisfactorily settled. She proved a lucky boat from the beginning, and maintained her reputation throughout the vovasTfe. As soon as she was finished she was moved from the building shed to more airy quarters to let the [jaint dry quickly, and the same night the shed, the moulds from which she was built, and a dozen boats and canoes were destroyed by fire. After a journey of 4000 miles of rapid and at times dangerous water ; after being carried over long rough portages on men's shoulders, and hauled on dog -sleighs through 200 miles of forest ; she reached the salt water again at the end of fifteen months to battle with the storms and tides of the Behring Sea. But she came through it all safe and sound ; only once hammer and nails were called into play to patch up a hole made at a simple little lO THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST I 1^1 rapid on the Dease River, which we ran on the wronqf side, through takinir the advice of a local man who had just come up stream, and should have been able to give us more correct information about the state of the water. In comparison with the other types of canoes in common use amoncf the different tribes of natives through whose territory we travelled, and who by long experience have learnt to construct the class of canoe most suited to their home waters, our little ship was inferior in some respect to each of them ; but, as a combination of good points, which enabled her to make the whole journey, and come safely through the varied conditions of travel which tested her capabilities to the utmost. I doubt if it would be possible to build a more suitable craft. The narrow dug-out of the Pacific coast rivers is easy to pole up a rapid current, but her weight forbids any attempt to make a long portage ; the birch bark of the Yukon and the northern lakes is light and easily repaired wherever birch trees grow, but she would be shaken to pieces by the rattling of a dog-sleigh through the forest, and would be too frail a vessel to land through the surf of the Behring Sea. The long skin bid?rka of the Esqui- ii!;; !i START FOR FORT \VR ANGEL II ; the 5i- START FOR FORT irRAAGEf. 21 little marmots which have their homes in the rocks, and thro\v stones at the ptarmigan which will hardly move out of your way. If the day happens to be clear, you will have a view of mountain peaks and forests, unnamed and untraversed, that it is useless to attempt to depict ; and, when the sun goes down, you may build your fire in a sheltered gulch, eat roasted goat-flesh, and spend a night among the grandest works of nature. But it seems unpractical. The hardest labour of all is to carry a load of meat down to the camp ; and the wily Indian asks himself why he should go to so much trouble when he can load his canoe with salmon in a couple of hours, or perhaps kill a fat bear close to the river, and pass the rest of the day lying on his back in the enjoyment of his pipe and such easy thoughts as present them- selves to his untroubled mind. So the gcats are not much molested, and many of them live out iheir pleasant existence without ever crossing the path of the hated human being. WW a CHAPTER II ox THE STIKIXK RIVER The Slikine glacit-r — Overtaken by coast Indians — Canne iliill at Little Canon — Difierence in climate on (ipiH)>ite sides of coast range — Salmon catching — Habits of hears — Klootclnnan Caiion — The Chinook iirgon — Telegi'iph Creek — Freight charges. For the first few clays after leaving Wrangel we had wonclertully fine weather, and in spite of all difficulties made fair progress by poling, paddling, wading, and pulling ourselves up by the bushes, till we reached the great glacier — by far the most striking of all — the Stikine glacier. It issues from a low pass in the mountains on the west side and comes right down into the vallev, broadenlno: out as it reaches the low ground, and presenting a base three miles in k;ngth towards the river, at no great distance from the bank. It would well repay any one to spend a week or two in thorouT;hly exploring the sources of this vast ice-field, especially as it IS so easily reached by water, and no l-:).Ya ^jif^* ^ I' J ■ o .';u-(.! n c u h w ?. o tl P' g' se th no the ing to the a t giv exi; side OCCc ox THE STIKINE RIVER 25 climbing is necessary. Great caution should be used though, as the only attempt tnat seems to have been made to explore this glacier was attended with most lamentable results. Before the sale of Alaska to the Americans, a Russian man-of-war once sent a boat's crew up the Stikine to examine the river as far as possible, and to report on its practicability for commerce. On arriving at the great glacier the officers in charge of the expedition set out to explore the ice-field and were never again heard of. A long search was made for them, but their bodies were not found, and no doubt they met their death by falling into a crevasse. According to some of the miners who remember the Stikine twenty years ago, the glacier is reced- ing from the river ; and the Indians have a legend to the effect that it once extended right across the Stikine, and the water found its way through a tunnel under the ice. The only fact that might give a slight aspect of truth to the story is the existence of a little ice-field high up the mountain side across the river, just opposite the great glacier. And now the clouds came rolling up from the ocean, the mountains were hidden, a gray curtain 1' (i 26 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST hung over the \alley, and day after day the rain poured down in an almost continual stream. The river, too, was more difficult, being broken up by islands and gravel bars into numerous winding channels, all more or less blocked by snags and drift piles We kept on travelling a few hours at a time, and every night found us a little farther ahead. It was useless to wait, as this sort of weather is known to last a month at a time on the lower Stikine, and there seemed no reason why the clouds should not remain penned between the high mountains and the downpour continue for ever. It was not an easy matter to find good camping places, for dry wood was scarce and not always convenient to a landing where the cargo could be unloaded and the canoe hauled up. This has to be done every night during high water, on account of the uprooted trees and masses of drift logs that are continually floating down stream to the great peril of any boat left moored to the bank for a night. The canvas lodge stretched over four or five leaning poles under the spreading limbs of a big spruce tree gave us shelter enough, but our camp fires were seldom satisfactory, and clothes ON THE STIKIXE RIVER 27 ;uk1 blankets when once wet, had to remain wet till the sun should shine again. The mosquitoes were another source of annoyance, but they were not nearly as bad as we had been led to expect bv the terrible accounts we had heard of them at Fort Wrangel. During this time we were overtaken by a large salt-water canoe manned by a crew of coast Indians, who were on their way to the dry country lying to the eastward of the mountains, with the intention of salmon fishing and berry picking. The Wrangel Indians are well provided with all the necessaries of life in their own country — salmon and a large variety of sea fish are to be caught in abundance, wildfowl are fairly plentiful, and the islands are wonderfully well stocked with the Alaskan variety of the little Virginian deer, and black bear; but the rain is so persistent that the curing of fish or meat by drying over the smoke of a camp fire is almost an impossibility. So the coast Indians make yearly expeditions to the upper waters of the Stikine, where the climate is much better, and the salmon are more easily caught than in the salt water. On these occasions they generally bring up a small stock of trading goods to barter with the interior tribes k i- % \ t > r 1^ 28 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST 'lil 1^: for moose-skin and othei commodities not procur- able on the coast. These Indians who now caught us up had left Wrangel two days after us, and had been lucky enough to get a strong fair wind which enabled them to run the first 40 miles under canvas without trouble. They had with them a white man, one of the pioneers of the Cassiar diggings, who, after seventeen years absence was now going back to examine a quartz ledge which he had discovered in early days. These tricks of memory, which exaggerate a trace of mineral in a mountain of rock into a valuable deposit of the precious metals, are a great source of consolation to the miner ; and a man must be wretched indeed who has not some dim vision of a rich quartz ledge discovered years ago to cheer him up under the many disappoint- ments to which the life of a placer miner is subject. The ledge is usually situated in an inaccessible country as far as possible from the discoverer's present position ; it was hit upon by chance, at a time when the approach of winter and general misery made it impossible to thoroughly examine the richness of the find. But if an expedition is fitted out to search for it again, the miner usually ON THE STIKIiWE RIVER 29 proves an incompetent pilot, or the ledge turns out as worthless as the thousands of other ledges which have held so much promise for the sanguine discoverer. We travelled in company with the other canoe, both crews taking things easily till we reached the Little Canon, 75 miles from the mouth of the river. The Little Canon, so called to distinguish it from the Great Caiion above Telegraph Creek, is the only real obstruction on the navigable part of the stream. During certain stages of water it is impassable for anything but a powerful steamer, and she must be carefully handled in the whirlpools to avoid collision with the cliffs on either side. When we arrived there, the water had fallen several feet from its highest summer level ; but the first glance showed us that it was doubtful whether we could get through in safety, even with the double crews — for it was obvious that white men and Indians were now on level terms, and must help each other, or wait for a week or two at the foot of the canon for the water to fall. We might, indeed, have portaged our little canoe by chopping out a trail a mile in length over a rough hill covered A' . '> ^ ( : 30 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC rOREST with burnt timber, but it would have been no light work. Professor Dawson describes this canon as being "three-fifths of a mile in length, and in places not more than 50 yards wide, bordered by massive granite cliffs 200 to 300 feet in height." Through this narrow gorge the whole volume of the Stikine waters rushes in wild swirls, while ragged points abutting from the bluffs create strong eddies to add to the confusion of water. The worst whirlpools are at the lower entrance, one on each side, at the meeting of the main current with the eddies that rush round the bays below the first points of the canon. We camped on the east bank, on the spot where many a Cassiar miner has waited for the water to go down, and passed four days in vain attempts to overcome the obstacle ahead. Our first trial was a most senseless affair, but the steers- man of the big canoe had great faith in it. So we discharged half the cargo from his vessel, boomed out a huge sprit-sail on each side, and holding our paddles in readiness, boldly attempted to sail through everything in front of a strong fair wind. The long canoe simply flew up the eddy ; but on striking the current, we were helpless. Nine men | working with oars and paddles made no impres- OA' THE STIKINE RIVER 31 sion, and the next minute the bow swung off, the sails |L,^ybed, and the whirlpool taking charge, carried us back to the (|uiet water below. Thiis pro- gramme was gone through several times, and always with the same result, till at last our steersman lost his enthusiasm and gave up the attempt for the day. The following morning we went to work in a more methodical manner, and, putting ashore at the first point, passed a long line to the top of the cliff. Three men were left in the canoe and the rest of us scrambled up, and, clearing the line from over- hanging rocks and trees to its full length, hauled the canoe bodily over the steep overfall at the point, .\bout a quarter of a mile was gained in this manner, but then we were obliged to cross and try to reach an eddy on the far side. We shoved off from the rocks with as much head\^'ay as pos- sible, but before we were half-way across, it was clear that we should miss the eddy. A timely order in English to "back water" saved us from being carried on to a jagged point, and in a couple of minutes we were opposite the camp that we had left three hours before. Every morning and after- noon, the Indian Captain Tomyot turned us out for I Y m > I' r F 3* 7 H no UGH THE SUIi ARCTIC FOREST this canoe drill ; but although we nearly got through sevf-ral times, a piece of wild steering, or the break- ing of a line or [)ole, always spoilt the result of many hours' work. Among the native crew was a fellow who pre- sented a typical combination of all the bad points in the Indian character, fully developed by a slight leaven of education and a remarkable aptitude for picking up the vices of the white man. Some years ago, in a drr.nken scuffle on an outlying island on the coast, he had bitten off a woman's ear, and after losing his nose in the same manner by way of taliation, had been taken in charge by the L authorities. He was sentenced to three years in a San Francisco gaol, but appears to have enjoyed rather an easy life of it while working out his time. Some benevolent person took him in hand, taught him to read and write, and made him a model red- man generally. On his return to Alaska, he was welcomed back by his people as a distinguished traveller and a man who had seen somethingf of the world, and has since been looked upon with great respect. He is cunning enough to make the most of this and turn it to his own advantage ; but, at the same time, he is doing a great deal of harm irough break- suit of lo pre- points \ slight ;ude for le years land on nd after yof le L . ears in njoyed lis time, taught el red- le was yuished of the :h great le most but, at )f harm Oy THE STIKLXE RIVER 33 .imong the Wrangel Indians — his little knowledge suggesting plans for ill deeds that would not be likely to occur to his more simple-minded com- panions. This man, when he was in the right humour, was as good a bowsman as could be found anywhere ; but he had little inclination for a long struggle with the strong water of the canon, and usually stayed in camp with the women while we were making our various attempts. On the fifth morning there were great prepara- tions, and the Indians painted their faces to ensure success. The noseless man meant business too, and his countenance was more repulsive than ever in the glory of a coat of scarlet. The others all preferred stripes of red and black, while the women went in for solid black, although they had no inten- tion of risking their babies in tiny baskets in the whirlpools of the caiion. Old Tomyot, the steers- man, told us we were sure to get through now, and drew our attention to the fact that the water had fallen several inches, which would no doubt help the powers of the paint. By this time we were pretty well perfect in our drill. We knew all the rocks and itlUllllJia^uii tliL ^NORTHEP^ AFFAI RS & NATIONAL RESOURCES iNOV 28 1955 Northern Research Library OTTAWA Jit A' V 34 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST summit of the cliffs that were lilcely to foul the line ; we knew the submerged ledges where the poles would reach bottom, and the cracks in the granite where the men in the bow could get a grip with their iron boathooks. Experience had taught us where we could cross the current, where the eddies could be worked, and where we could climb up and down the bluffs in safety. Everything went well ; not a mistake was made, and, late in the afternoon, we hauled clear of the canon, passed into compara- tively quiet water above, and landed our cargo. This had occupied over six hours ; and now, drift- ing down with the stream, and only paddling enough to keep clear of rocks, we reached the camp in eight minutes. The next day we brought up the rest of the cargo, and the small canoe at the same time, the women making an overland portage. The Little Canon is the crate into an entirely different country from that which we had passed through on the lower river. The coast range lay behind us, and the distorted peaks and glacier- covered gulches had given way to gently rounded summits of much less elevation, with very little snow upon them, and lying further back from the river. On the east side of the mountains there is I ON THE ST/KINE RIVER 35 the lint: ; the poles le granite grip with taught us :he eddies nb up and rt-ent well : afternoon. 1 compara- our cargo. now, drift- paddling 1 the camp ht up the the same ige. ui entirely id passed range la\ d glacier- V rounded verv little : from the s there is ' i r.. ■ i'i III ) ! ■ '■ iiU [m \\ THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST > wb?tes which is -ilways to be found in tht; minino camps. It is only a (quickly told chapter ir the story that was begun 400 \'ears ago on the Atlantic sea- board — the story of the red man gix'ing way to the white, and sinking through the various stages of disease and degradation into total extinctioi\. What other fate can be in store for a native race when the hunter>- leave '.he woods to work for wages an^i drink the forbidden fire-water, while th<^ women live in luxury o;i the proceeds of their immorality ■■' No pious mir.siont'ry has ever penetrated into Cassiar to point out these ma*-ters to the Indians, although the district is easily readied, and there is certainly a most hopeful band of sinners, white and Indian, waiting to be converted. Perhaps it is too late to begin, as. at tile present rate of mortality, the Cascas will be extinct in ten years' time, and the banks of the Dease and Liard depo[)ulated, unless minerals of sufficient value are discovered to induce the miners to permanently occupy the place of the natives they have so quickly e.vterminated. Apart from the minerals, the countrv is aljsolutelv worthless ; the soil is usually [joor and thickly covered with trees, burnt in man)' places, and of no commercial value on account of their distance from market ; these I \ \ alt wl wi to THE DISTRICT OF CASSIA R (^3 alternate with swamps and rocky lakes. Even where the land would repay cultivation, the long winter.^- and late summer frosts are serious obstacles to agriculture. The immediate neighbourhood of Sylvester's Landing is especially favoured in this :< .^pect, having a milder climate and producing better crops of hardy vegetables than any other part of the dis trict ; in fact, when the diggings on MacDame's Creek were prosperous, a large amount of garden produce was grown for the use of the camp, and potatoes are still raised in some quantity by the Chinese, who are mining 1 2 miles up the creek at China iiar. A couple of miles further on is a collection of log cabins locally knov/n as "town," where a store is kept up for supplyirg the wants of the few miners who are still working on ihe creek. Provisions are boated down from Dease Lake to Sylvester's Landing, and packed from there with horses along a good trail following the valley of MacDame's Creek. L'ourteen miles ao;ain above the town is Quartz Creek, a tributary of MacDame's, where gold is being taken out in some quantit) by two of the most enterprising miners in the country, who have spent many years in working the same r«l* f^ ^i it" i' ! i ^npoi mmmm 64 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST claim, and have spartd neither labour nor money in developing their property. Before leaving Victoria, we had written to Mr. Scott Simpson, the officer in charge at Sylvester's Landing, asking him to have a boat and ''crew ready for us on our arrival, to take a winter's supply of provisions and other necessaries to Frances Lake, but he had been unable to get a crew for the trip, although he had done his best to persuade any of the good boatmen who were within reach of the trading post to make- the expedition. It has become so hard to procure good men for boating that the Company have brought a crew of half-breeds from ^\'innipeg to boat the trading goods from Dease Lake, rather than rely upon the local Indians, who, besides being untrustworthy, have the strongest aversion to hard work, and e.xpect wages for what little they do at the rates that were in vogue when the diggings were paying and labour was scarce. Our original intention was to reach Frances Lake as soon as possible, to put up a cabin for winter quarters, and pass the time till spring in huntini; moose and exploring the surrounding country. On the last snow we expected to haul the canoe with dog-sleighs across the height of land, and to reach THE DISTRICT OF CASSIAR 65 money to ls\r. Ivester's w ready .ipply of >s Lake, the trip, e any of h of the ; become that the :eds from 11 Dease ms, who, trongest or what ue when irce. ces Lake r winter luntini;- ry. On noe with to reach the Pelly, or some of its tributaries, before the break up of the ice. But now our plans were all knocked on the head, as it was evident that our Httle canoe would not carry enough provisions to enable us to winter in case game should prove scarce, and reach the Pelly in the spring, to say nothing of the ammunition and other weighty necessaries. We spent a week at the Landing in the hope that some more enterprising Indians might turn up; and then started down stream with no very definite aim in view. Before we left, Simpson promised to send I : I; vvn a couple of Indians with their sleigh dogs to the Lower Post, at the junction of the Dease with the Liard, at the first opportunity, so towards Frances Lake igt jppli during the winter if we should make up our minds to do so. ^1 ,V*1 3i: CHAPTER IV THE LIARD rOST N'ount KL-la-!:;urn — Hyland River — Indian superstitions— Big game in particular localities — lir.it fall of snow. The river below MacDame's Creek is very crooked, and during its northerly course of lOO miles or so to its junction with the Liard, has less current than in its upper reaches. As we dropped down stream the mountains receded from the river, and grass benches, lightly clothed with black pine, made their appearance, rising in distinctly marked terraces sometimes to a height of several hundred feet above the river level. In other places the banks were covered with groves of well -grown spruce and Cottonwood ; and willow was everywhere abundant. Near the mouth of the river are two rapids, each with a clear open channel, but a heavy sea which cannot be avoided ; and if the canoe i.s at ail heavily loaded, it is advisable to portage part of the cargo THE LIARD POST 67 and int. ach hich vily ■rgo especially in the second rapid. A short way above the first rapid we met a boat-load of prospectors who were coming out after an unsuccessful summer's cruise. Among them was Henry Thibert, who L,Mve us an interesting account of his three years' expedition with M'Culloch from Minnesota to Dease Lake, in the course of which they made the first discovery of gold on the Arctic Slope. After we had done yarning, we inquired about the rapid below, and were told it was good, and that we should have no difficulty in running it on the right side. So without landing to pick out a course, I ran my canoe into the right hand channel, and found that we had entered a shallow rapid with a strong current, absolutely choked with boukUrs, and no room for the canoe to pass. \\\- bumped two or ihn c. times at the upper end, but luckily the crash did not come till we had nearly reached the foot of the bad water. Then a sharp stone tore a hole in the thin planking, the water rose over ilie bottom boards immediately, and only a hasty landing and discharge of cargo l^reventc'd a serious catastrophe. After we had 'ffected repaifs, I took a look at the rapid, and found .1 straight, deep channel on the left side, through which we could have run with perfect ease, if wc ai' II 68 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST had not taken the precaution to ask the way before- hand. We took the next rapid cautiously enough, and early on the morning of ist September reached the Lower Post, a most un[ :tentious establishment situated on the f;ir side of the Liard, half a mile above the mouth of the Dease. A small store, a log hut for the man in charge, and a few rough buildings belonging to the Indians, make up the last outpost of civilisation in this direction. In charge of the post was a man named Smith, a native of the half-breed settlement of Selkirk in Manitoba, and a capital specimen of his class. His term of contract with the Hudson's Bay Company had nearly run out, and he offered io engage with me for the next summer's expedition to the Yukon if I had to delay my start till the spring. He afterwards proved a most useful bowsman, besides being quiet and thoroughly reliable on emergency. At present he had to look after the trading post till a man was sent to relieve him. Standing on the bank of a river whose source is unknown, and with a stretch ol country lying to the northward several hundred miles in length anil breadth, on which the white man has nevei set his foot, the Liard Post may be regarded as one of the ' before- enough, reached lishment a mile store, a N rough up the 3n. In a native anitoba, term of my had kvith me on if I erwards quiet present 'g lan was )urce is ;: to the h and set his of the THE LIARD POST 69 best starting points for exploration of the North- West that are still open to the enthusiastic traveller. " La Riviere aux Liards " (Cottonwood River) of the early voyageurs, anglicised into the Liard, and further corrupted by the miners into the Deloire, although probably known even by name to com- paratively few people, is one of the most important features in the western water system of Canada. Rising, like the Peace, far to the westward of the Rocky Mountains, it cuts through the main range, and, after a wild course of some 800 miles, falls into the Mackenzie at Fort Simpson, mingling its waters with those of the Peace, the Athabasca, and innumerable smaller streams that drain the iuige Mackenzie basin. The Liard can scarcely be called a navigable river, although it has long stretches of quiet water. There are several bad caiions in the upper part of the stream, while the lower river is still worse, and has always enjoyed the reputation of being the most dangerous piece of water in the whole of the Hudson's Bay territory. It was by this route from ihe Mackenzie that the posts at Fort Halkett, Dease Lake, F Lake, and Pelly Banks were supplied ti fty ranees years ago ; but there were so many disasters v!, '^ 'W 70 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST from boat accidents and starvation, besides the great cost of keeping u[) the posts, that the route was abandoned ; so that of late years there has been but Httle intercourse between the two sides of the mountains. Mr. M'Connell, during the exploratory survey of the extreme North-West made in 1S87, ran down stream from the Lower Post to Fort Simpson. He gives a most interesting account of the river and general appearance of the country in his report to the Geological Survey Department. The Liard Post was our last chance of obtaining Indians, but here we were again disappointed, and decided to postpone our expedition to Frances Lake till the following spring. As there was still a month or six weeks of good canoeing before the cold weather set in. we left the post after a stay of a few hours, with the intention of mak- ing a short voyage up Hyland River, a tribut- ary entering the Liard from the north, about 12 miles down stream; and, dropping down with a strong current, we camped for the night just out- side the mouth of the smaller river. The scenery along the Liard is a repetition of that on the Dease, on a larger sale — the same gravel THE IJARI) POST 71 of Ivel bars and islands, backed by the same pine-covered benches on the banks of the river. Hyland River was named after Robert Hyland, the first miner who ascended it, in spite of the fact that it had been named the Macpherson many years before by the Hudson's Bay Company's explorers. It appears on some maps as "Highland" River; but if the commonly-used name is to be maintained, it should certainly be allowed its orthography. Hyland and his party prospected this river some years ago, but the results were not satisfactory. Gold was found on many of the bars, but never in sufficient quantities to pay for working in a country where provisions are so high-priced that four or five dollars to the man is not considered a "grub stake." For the first few miles the river is swift and broken up into small channels, making the ascent very difficult, but afterwards the current slackens, and there is no obstacle to navigation till the first rapids are reached, at a distance of some 30 miles from the mouth. The direction of the river valley is N.W. to N.N.W., but the stream itself is extremely tortuous. At the rapids the river makes a sharp bend to the eastward, and ihere >' ^„4 1 h' ' 72 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST arc a couple of reaches each a mile in length of really bad water ; several ledges of bed rock stretch across the stream, causing steep overfalls ; and at one corner the whole force of the current gets on to a high bluff which shoots it off in heavy confused swirls, dangerous to enter even with a big boat. We took the canoe up on the north shore, where there is an inside channel among the rocks which can be worked by a boat of light draught ; but even there the current is poverful. At one bluff the line had to be passed down on a float and hauled in from a little bay out of sight from the canoe — always rather a dangerous pro- ceeding, as the roar of the water prevents an order from being heard, and a capsize often happens by keeping too much strain on the line in case of a broad sheer at the edge of an eddy. During the height of the summer Hoods this must be a hard place to get through. As it was, with the water low in the early part of September, we had to make several portages before reaching the quiet stretch at the head of the rapids. And now the river became an ideal stream for canoeing — a slack current, with always good track- ing on one side, fine weather, and pleasant camping lor o y. ■J. o c I,- k- IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) /> ^^ V '' '/^% € '^A^ W^^ ■»/,>■ %.^. »i o ■'¥' //. Photograptiic Sciences Corporation iV ^ V fx^ ^ #1 ^^ % \\ ^ "<■■ o^ 23 WEST MAIN STREET VWEBSTER.N Y 14SB0 (716) 872-4503 r^ f^^ '^^ L6> L\ , ; its course is a quiet stream winding from side to side of a valley two miles in width. Long after- wards I had occasion to travel along this stream on a winter s journey to the main range of the northern Rockies. In the canon we put ashore to reconnoitre, with the result that we discovered a high, bare-topped mountain standing at some dis- tance back from the river on the west side, and decided on making an attempt to reach the summit to get a general idea of the country, and to trace the course of the stream as far as we could follow it with the eye from an elevation of several thousand feet. Taking provisions to last us a week, and caching the rest on a scaffold, we pushed on two or three miles with the canoe, portaging, wading, and hauling with lines over the numerous rapids, till we reached the bend of the stream which approached most nearly to the foot of the mountain. Here we landed, and shouldering our blankets and provisions, started through the forest for the bald peak, of which we could occasionally catch a glimpse. The walking was good enough, as there was not much underbush, but the distance was greater than it seemed to be from the river, and it was nearly sundown on the second day when, THE LIARD POST 77 I after some laborious climbing, we reached the summit, and were rewarded with a view that well repaid us for our trouble — a view of wondrous beauty, intensified, perhaps, by the tinge of mystery which always enshrouds the unknown land. Before us. to the north and east, was a vast stretch of country absolutely unexplored ; range after range of gently undulating mountain ridges culminating in the distant snow-capped peaks of what we sup- posed to be the western spurs of the Rocky Mountains. North-west ran the valley of the Hyland River, inclining a little more to the west- ward just before it disappeared behind a projecting mountain spur. A few miners have ascended the river some distance beyond the point at which we left the canon, and report it easily navigable above the canon to its source in a large lake. But the Indians deny the existence of a lake at the head of the river, and say it rises very near to the Frances, as also do the Black River and the Beaver — the two lower tributaries of the Liard, so that the four streams, although wide apart at their mouths, head close together on one plateau, like the ribs of an umbrella. But the Indians do not like the country. Something evil lives there ; and once, a long time %■ ', i ■■ iv. F W 78 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST ago, before the whites came to the Liard, a party of hunters met with a terrible fate at the head-waters of Hyland River. According to the story, they were working their canoe through a canon when a sudden darkness overtook them, and the evil thing rose out of the water, turned over the canoe, and dragged the unlucky hunters down into the depths of a whirlpool. Since then, the Indians are chary of going far up any of these streams, and turn back, by their own account, as soon as they see bones of huge animals lying on the river bars. From the top of our mountain, which the Indians call Ke-la-gurn, "the mountain of many sticks," we were now overlooking the approach to this land of evil repute ; but the month of September was draw- ing to its close, and prudence, coupled with the un- certainty as to our winter plans, bade us overcome the desire to push on up the river till a more favourable occasion. Our view to the west and south-west was blocked by high ridges similar to the one on which we stoid, but to the southward the Cassiar Range still showed up above the long stretches of undulating forest - covered plateau. Several lakes were in sight, but none of them were of any considerable size, the largest being a sheet THE UARn POST 79 of water lyini,^ close to the foot of the mountain on the north side, perhaps three miles in length, and drained by a short stream into the Hyland. There was no large game to be found on the mountain : although in appearance it was a perfect place for cariboo or sheep — long grassy stretches, with straggling clumps of timber, with sometimes a i)atch of broken rocks or a small precipice ; but we saw no sign or track to indicate that animals frequented the mountain at any season of the year. It is a remarkable fact that in these out-of-the-way countries, where one would expect to find game in every favourable spot, the wild animals are ex- tremely local in their distribution. Cariboo cer- tainly travel great distances, but they have their summer and winter ranges, and leave certain districts untraversed, although apparently offering equal inducement in the way of food with the country through which they take their course in their migrations. In the present instance, we learnt afterwards from the Indians that the cariboo are like mosquitoes — the universal Indian synonym for a large number — to the eastward of Hyland River, but do not cross to the west side, while on the Frances the west side is the favoured locality. \* s ,i.: ): : I If I \\: 80 THROUGH THE SUH ARCTIC FOREST yet neither of these streams present any obstacle to the cariboo's progress. The mountain sheep are much less inclined to travel if undisturbed, merely changing their elevation according to the season. It is for these reasons that a stranger without local knowledge stands such an uncertain chance of finding game ; and may easily waste a month or two in climbing mountains totally unfrequented by animals, when an Indian, familiar with the country from childhood, will make a straight line for the well-known haunts of the game he wishes to hunt. But birds were plentiful enough on our mountain — spruce grouse, the " fool hen " of the miners, on the lower slopes, blue grouse — the best and largest of all the Canadian grouse family — about the edge of the timber line, and great fiocks of ptarmigan in mottled autumn plumage on the sunny side of the open ridges ; so that we had no difficulty in keeping the kettle full. Two nights we passed under the shelter of a clump of spruce timber near the summit ; then, having no object in making a longer stay, turned our faces down hill and reached the canoe, in pour- ing rain, on the fifth day after leaving the river. cle to ;p are nerely eason. /ithout chance month uented th the ht Hne wishes oimtain lers, on largest le edge igan in of the eeping er of a ; then, turned n pour- ■ver. tllE UAI<1> /'OS/- Hi I'he water had risen a foot on account oi the heavy rain, and in consequence we hatl less trouble than we expected in running down the rapids, as we could float over many of the rocks which had been showing above water on our up-stream journey. While pottering about on the shore of the ui)per canon to pick out a course for the canoe, I stumbled across a ledge of remarkably pretty blue and white (jiiartz, evidently conti'ining mineral, and broke off a few specimens, which were the c<\use of my making a winter expedition to the spot to stake ofi the claim in accordance with the mining statutes. The run down the Hyland was pleasant and uneventful ; we had plenty of provisions and no occasion to hunt with any keenness. We met nobody, although we saw several spruce bark canoes hauled up on the banks in different places. The Cascas and Liard Indians are poor boatmen, .md do not make much use of the waterways, pre- ferring to pack heavy loads throLigh the woods to working a canoe up stream ; wliile, if they wish to run down a river, they can make a bark or skin canoe in a few hours, and lose nothing by throwing i*; away at the end of ihi! run. Tiie birch on the Upper Liard does not grow to a sufficient size to C I V; 1 ■ jl *■■'*' I i I f ■ w 83 THIiOUGH THE SUJiANCI/L /OA'/CSJ' if t \m\i supply bark suitable for the canoes so much used on the lower part of the river. The first fall of snow occurred on 20th Septem- ber, and a couple of days afterwards we arrived at the Lower I'ost. Here we met a Californian min- ing expert, who had come into the country on purpose to examine a quartz ledge on Ilyland River. Some samples of wonderfully rich ore, said to have comi^ from this ledge, had reached his office in San I'Vancisco ; and although it was already late in the year to start on such a long journey, he had set out at once to see if there was an)- truth in the story. He returned to the Lower I'ost after spending a couple of weeks on Hyland River, just in time to get out before the ice began to run ; and was so mysteriously reticent as to what he had seen that quartz ledges were the talk of the wintiM- from the banks of the Liard to Fort Wrangel. Gladman, our Canadian bowsman, went out with him, being anxious to reach civilisation before winter set in. He had told me before leaving that he would be unable to go the whole journey, as he had an engagement in Ottawa for the early spring. I was sorry to lose his services for the next summer, as he was a good man in the bow and a very handy run LI A HI) POST boat-buildcr and carpenter. As no Indians had yet turned iip, Keed and I pitched our lodge about lo miles up stream, at the head of a long canon, which is no doubt a wild stretch of river during the summer Hoods, but at low water is fairly easy to navigate. Here we awaited results, and occupied our time in getting out logs and putting up a cabin which would serve us for winter (juarters if neces- sary, besides making occasional moose hunts ; but we soon found out from the absence of tracks that we had cho.sen a hopeless piece of country to hunt in. There were plenty of grouse and rabbits to keep us in food, and two or three weeks slipped away pleasantly enough. Then a cold snap started the ice running in the river, snow lay several inches deep on the ground, and it seemed that winter had come already, but it was a false alarm ; in a few days the snow had gone and the river was clear of ice for another three weeks. f ii ! i l| I c { .! • , ! I; M i i ) X • •' * -r)^ f * ■RH! CHAPTHK V MOOSK IIUNTIXC m The cmintry siniili nf l.ianl KiviT ("ivilisi'il Indians — Incrensi' of nunilior of nuMjsc — llaliils of tlic nionsc. On iSth October wv. \\(mU into the post ami fouiul the Hudson's liay boat had arriv<;d from Sylvester's Landinjj;, with Simpson himself on board, also two Indians with their wives and famiii(;s, who professed themselves to be willing to stay with us for the wintctr and do any work we required of them in the way of moose huntini;, or hauling supplies up the Liard towards Frances Lake. We learned that several important changes had taken place in the little world of Cassiar through the action of the 1 Unison's Hav officials in Victoria. The great corporation had come to the conclusion that its business in Cassiar was not remunerative, and had decided to sell out all interests to a free- trader named La Montagne. who had been for MOOSE HUNTING 8S ur some years opposiiij^ the Coinp.my in the I trade willi an ('slabli.slhiu.iU o\\ llur Liarcl, 90 miles below the I.ower I'ost. The Manitoba lialf- bretnls. wlio hatl been ( mployed ill boatinj,^ on the 1 )ease, were to be ilischar;;eil aluir llic winter, and two of them had volunteered to ^o with me in the sprinL( to the Yukon, and take their ch.juf of eventually reachini,^ the sea coast in preferenre to W •I on the brt f jeinj^^ sent ilirect to \\ ranjj^el on the brea' ii}^ up o the ice. This was most satisfactory news to me, as Reed h.iil made up his mind to remain in Cassiar another summer, and I had become very doubtful whi;ther I should be able to ^et any men for tin: trip. Now 1 could rely on the half-breeds, and be quite inde- l)endent of the Indians should they all refuse their services, as usually happens when the;)- are called upon fo make a journ(*y beyond tlie limits of their own country. ihe boac left immediately for La Montajjjne's iradiiinr post, and a few days afterwards we startc;d titra moose hunt on the le\el bench country to the west of the Dease and south of the Liard. It was rather a bad season to set out, as there was no snow to enable us to travel with dot^-sleig.is and i| !t'i il I i i: R i > i ! -» .-J ■ * ! : ; i 1 lil 86 THROUGH THE SUliARCTIC FOREST H snow-shoes, yet at any time snow might fjiil heavily and make travelHng by any other method a matter of great difficulty. As we had no snow-shoes ready, we determined to take our chance, and sallied forth with loads on our backs and a couple of dogs, heavily packed, in attendance. Very peculiar individuals were our two Indians, Charley and Two-fingered Johnny — so named from .1 malformation of one hand ; a couple of good ex- amples of what might have been rather fine char- acters if they had never come into contact with the bastard civilisation of the mining camp. I don't believe the red man was ever the noble creature he has often been painted. We can only suppose that in time past he led a harmless existence, and un- consciously did his duty in the particular station of life to which he had been called ; but, dress him up in the white man's clothes, feed him on bacon and (lour, canned peaches, and molasses, give him a few drinks of whisky, and he becomes a despicable brute. He does not like being taken away from all these good things, and has a profound contempt for the few true Indians who still make a livin"- in the woods by trapping the precious fur. So it was with Charlie and Johnny. They were good enough MonsK //r\//.\\? 87 of up md men to track ,1 moose, or work round the canij) ; but on all the trips we went with them their hearts were never in the life — they did everything sulkily, (juarrelled with each other, and grumbled because A WIN IKK < AMI'. Ugh there was no canned fruit ; while their women would on no account go to the woods to dry meat or cure skins — thev were not that sort ot women, thev told us. but must dress in the finest that could be bought in the stor(; and sit through the glorious winter weather by the side of a sheet-iron stove. r i'y- I ^ I . *<3ji m ^^m 88 rilRol'C.ll THE Srii ARCTIC rORKST W^: u:in(l('r(Kl casually through the forest, camp- inj^ whcn.-vcr nii^lit overtook us, huntiiiLj^ for a clay or two from each camp, and then moving o.i to fresh ground. If we killed, the meat was cut up antl stout.'d away in strong log caches built on the spot, to he hauled into the fort whenevtM* it was wanted. Moose were plentiful ; we kill(;d eleven during the three weeks that we were out — this, too. without anv \erv enertietic hunting;. Besides rabbits, and the attendant lyn.x, there were a good many porcujjines, fat and easily killed by following a fresh track. These were objects of greater interest to our Indians than tlie moose, which are b}' no m(;ans a certainty, and often lead to much hard walking without any result. The porcupines real!)' are most excellent eating at this time of year ; but in the si)ring and summer, when they have lost their fat, their tlesh is only tolerable under the pressure; of necessity. Snow fell frequently while we were out, and 1)\' the end of the first week in November it was deep enough for snow - shoeing, so we were forced to give up our hunt till w(; were better erjuipped for winter work To rt;ach the fort, we cut across to the Liard, intending to buikl a raft and run the MOUSE HUNTING 89 20 miles down stream ; but vvlieii we came out on the south bank the river was lull of riMiniiis^ ice, antl w(' saw at once that wc; slioultl have to continue our journt.-y on toot. It was a lont^ and difticult walk, throuj^h falh^n timber, while the snowfall was already 18 inches in depth. Added to this then- was a chance ot not Ixnng able to cross the ri\(.:r at the Lower Post, but when we reached this point we were glad to find that the ice had jammed in the caiion, leaving the water compara- tively open below, so that we could cross in a boat without trouble. Twent) - (i\ e \ears ago there were v(;ry few moose along the; Lianl, and the animal was un- known to tin; Indians hunting to the westward (;f Dease Lake. i hen there began to be frecjuent rumours of a big track seen in the snow, and niomentary glimpses of a beast whose size varied according to the fancy of the startled himter. Then a young brave stood tace to lace w ith a moose, and slew it ; and the Cascas discovered that a new animal — larger and better than an\ thing they knew before had invaded their countr\-. To-da)-, tht; little- known r(!gion drained by the 1 )ease, the Upper Liard. the I'Vances, and the Pelly, is jjrobably the <'HI( I . I w mam II m THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST best moose country on the continent of North America. Where did all these moose come from ? and how far will they extend their wanderings towards the west ? Quite recently there were none between Dease Lake and Telegraph Creek Lake ; now moose are killed every year close to Telegraph Creek ; and there are even reports of tracks having been seen as far down as the Little Caiion of the Stikine. Northward, too, they extend, in increas- ing numbers, down the Great Yukon as far as the ju.iction of the Tanana, and up the latter stream to its head. There is a theory that the moose have been driven away from Peace River and the Lower Liard, and have crossed the mountains to Cassiar to avoid the continual hunting to ' hich they are subjected on the east side. But, as a matter of fact, there is very little hunting done in thai part of the country, as tlie Indians are not numerous, and are rapidly dying out, besides depending more and more every year on the provisions imported to the Peace River trading posts. Whatever may be the reason of this migration, it gives me the greatest pleasure to be able to report that, at this late date, when from almost every part of the world the cry MOOS/-: //c.vj/m; 91 arises that the wild animals are being exterminated, there is still a remote corner where the noblest animal of the whole deer family is increasing and multiplying at an almost incredible rate. And this state of affairs is likely to continue. The miner, having scraped out all the gold dust he could find in the creeks and on the river bars, has gone to seek new fields, leaving behind him the dread diseases which must infallibly kill out the native population. Then the moose will have everything their own way ; the cariboo and sheep will roam unmolested on the mountain tops ; and the country will relapse into the vast game preserve for which it is so eminently suited. As soon as the snow goes off in the spring, the moose comes out into the low-lying swamps and along the river banks, in search of the young shoots of the willow which constitute its principal food throughout the year. In the heat of the summer it frequents the open j^i.tvel bars, and may often be seen swimming across the rivers, or standing up to its belly in the cool waters of a lake. The rutting season begins about the middle of September, when the bulls travel continually and at a rapid pace in search of the cows, which are then ranging in the elevated i 1 i ;; i :» •1* i':' t i Mil 1 I ■ ; . m ■i [ 93 THRoicii nil-: suiiARcric i-okest III country hack iVom th(! rivers — ofton far up the mouiUain sides, in the willow-covered swamps when- the; little creeks have their sources. Mere the moose remain till the deep snow dri\es them down to the lowi-r LTrcnuid, and e\entua!lv back to the river hanks, where, if undisturhed, the\- pass the cold months without wanderini^ far from some hack- water or slouL;h runniuL;- up into the woods they have selected lor winter cpiarters. The old hulls shed their horns in the beginning of January, the young ones a month later. The horns of a young hull killed on the ist of I'ebruary dropped off in my hands when 1 was dragging the- carcass clear of the bushes to skin it. On 9th May the new growth of horns in a full-grown bull protruded about an inch from the head. The young are dropped in the beginning of June ; the cows and calves hcMn!>- usuallv fountl among the thick growth of willows along the river banks at that season. Where moose arc; plentiful, the)' are not difficult to kill; and none of the; I )ease and Liard Indians wouKl be considercxl expert hunters on the east side of the Rockies, where these animals are scarce and really hard to approach ; and if a moose is driven : « ! 1 's. ^ d n Ihi m MOOSE Hi NTliW. 95 away through carelessness, it may be some time before another chance is offered, But the Cassiar Indians know that they can always find another fresh track if they disturb the first moose, and consequently do not always use due precaution in approaching their game. Another reason for their inferiority as hunters is, that they are never really dependent on their guns for a living ; and if they have a dollar or two — or, better still, a little credit — they prefer buying canned beef from the nearest store to hunt- ing meat in the woods. In March and Apiil, when the snow is deep, the moose are easily run down by a man on big snow- shoes, and can often be driven in any direction the hunter pleases. The usual method is to drive the animal on to the river ice before killing him, to. avoid the trouble of taking the sleighs into the timber to bring out the meat. The snow is seldom deep enough in this country to force the moose to yard, as is their habit in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick ; so the system of wholesale slaughter which was formerly practised in the Eastern Prov- inces is impossible in Cassiar ; nor do the Indians here seem to have any knowledge of calling the moose during the rutting season — a method much \\ ;l .} ^ 96 rilROVCH THE sun ARCTIC FOREST I SflUsi U i I III III in vogue among the Mic-Macs; but they occa- sionally attract the attention of an old hull by scraping a bone against the hark of a tree, and thus imitating the sound of a rival polishing his horns. r hey occa- 1 bull by tree, and ishing his CHAPTER VI HAULING STORES TO FRANCES LAKE Ice set fast in the rivers — Cassiar sleigh dogs— Disease among the Liard Indians— Ideal day for a hunt— Uifficullies of hauling supplies— Dangers of a really cold day— A process of freezing out. Bv the middle of November the ice had set fast in the rivers, and snow-shoes and dog-sleighs were in fashion. Cassiar dogs are by no means true repre- sentatives of the northern race of hauling dogs, but show unmistakable signs of having civilised blood in their veins. Instead of the native semi-wolf of the Esquimaux and the Indians of the Mackenzie River, all the well - known civilised breeds may be recognised in various stages of degradation. Mongrel mastiffs, retrievers, setters, and pointers are the most frequent types to be met with, showing that the race is the offspring of any large dogs that could be stolen from the streets of San Francisco or Victoria just before the steamers started with H M a •* 1 it. \'i , if I*. i if ■' Ml 1 li ' ii m 98 TllROl'CH THE sun ARCTIC FOREST their loads of miners bound for the Cassiar gold- fields. We made several short moose hunts — some successful and some otherwise — cominjjf into the post for a few days and then going off into the woods for a fortnight. We went in every direc- tion — down the Liard, up the Liard, and up the Dease, but everywhere we found the same abund- ance of moose tracks. Once we visited a large lake 20 miles to the westward of the post, and laid in a supply of whitefish, which we caught in nets under the ice, in great quantities. Here we found a band of Liard Indians hunting and fishing. Sick- ness was prevalent in the camp — very few of the men were well enough to hunt moose, and they had come to the lake to be sure of making a living. A melancholy spectacle the camp presented ; half a dozen pits in the snow lined with pine brush, a little more pine brush stuck up as a wind-break, and no other shelter from the weather. Lying in their blankets were the sick men, some of them evidently never to get up again — dying among the moose hair and fish guts that were liberally scattered over everything ; and outside the filth of the camp the ice-bound lake sparkled in the winter sunshine that always seems so full of health and strength. iar ^old- ts — some into the into the :ry direc- d up the e abund- l a large and laid it in nets we found Sick- :\v of the they had ving. A ; half a brush, a nd-break, Lyini; in of them nong the scattered the camp sunshine strength. HAULING STORES TO FRANCES LAKE W What was the matter with them all? "Oh! we're always like this," the chief exjilained, "since the white men came to the country. In the old time, my tribe was powerful, but now many of my people die every winter. Some children are born, but they are no good — they die soon. " Now, in the interests of ethnology, if not of humanity, would it not be worth somebody's while to send a qualified doctor to patch up as best he might the remnants of the tribes of the Casca and Liard Indians, and pre/ent the spread of cc t:igIon } A good deal of money is spent annually by the Domin jn and the various Provincial Governments in doing whatever is done for the Indians of Canada — surely a little might be spared for this outlying part of the country ; and let the man whose salary it pays be a doctor and not an Indian agent. No surveys are wanted ; no reservations need be staked off; for, if the present state of affairs continues but a few more years, extinction will put every Indian beyond the limitar-on of the agent's reserve. The winters in Cassiar are mild in comparison to the climate in the same latitude to the eastward of the Rockies. The warm Chinook winds from the Pacific penetrate tl ^ Coast Ranges, modifying W 1 1 tf •* » }m MMWHBMMiaiM lOO THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST the intensity of the cold to such an extent that there is usually a thaw with rainfall during some part of the winter. Snow falls frequently but not heavily, and there is less sunshine than in the eastern winters, but there are occasional cold snaps when the thermometer falls extremely low, the weather being then always bright and calm. Frequent hunting trips made the weeks go by quickly till the shortest day was passed. This is always considered the turning point of the winter in the North, although in reality most of the cold weather comes after the new year. There is an indescribable charm in this winter hunting in the great northern woods — waste of time and unnecessary hardship, as many people would call it. I never know quite what the attraction is ; but after a couple of days' comfort and high living in a house, some feeling of restlessness is sure to drive you out into the snow and its attendant dis- comforts if you have any trace of the original savage left in your nature. The mere fact of being in the woods is sufficient to appease this craving. The actual killing of the moose is a minor point — unless you are short of provisions, and then the shot is taken anxiously enough. UAULISG STORES TO J'R.L\CES LAKE loi One of the pleasantest hunts 1 rcinenilx;r \v;is taken from a cam[j 20 miles U[) the Dease, where I spent a week with Beavertail Johnny — a much better fellow than his two- fingered namesake — hunting moose and setting traps for lynx. by lienig ang. |)Oint the HCh.-;. llM.'iKK IN WIMKN. New Year's r^ve was an ideal day for our s[;ort. A gale of wind was blowing and light snow falling — the time when the l^ig ears of the moose are blocked with snow, and he hears nothing but the loudest crackina of the branches ; while on a clear cold day the least sound is audible, and the creaking I.* C:: :ll ; i " 1 I t m II t 1^! I mi m :!*' 1 02 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST of the babiche lacing of the snow-shoes is loud enough to alarm the moose at a long distance. We had plodded along on snow-shoes up and down the rolling hills to the southward of the river, but it was well on towards evening when we discovered fresh tracks. Two moose had passed just ahead of us, and it was a question whether we could catch them up before dark. An hour was spent in following the tracks, and at last we saw the animals slowly crossing an open ridge a few hundred yards away. As soon as they disappeared, we started at our best speed, and came upon our game at close range, nipping the willow twigs that grew thickly on the other side of the summit. The shot wa. not easy in the falling snow and rapidly increasing darkness, but I dropped one, and there was a little blood in the track of the other. And then the wind fell suddenly, the snow stopped, and the full moon shone out brightly, lighting up the snow-laden spruce trees and willow bushes, with the distant peaks of the Cassiar range in the background. We skinned and cut up the moose by moonlight, and started back for the river with a sufficient supply for supper, picking out the best road as we went, for our tracks would be hard enough in the morning \.>: illi HAULING STORES TO FRANCES LAKE 103 to enable us to haul out the rest of the meat with the dog-sleighs. It was late when we reached the camp, and were heartily welcomed by the dogs, who knew in an instant that we had killed a moose, and that there was a good time coming for a few davs. A big ketde of fat meat brought the day to an end, and the New Year found us with our heads under the blankets and our feet stretched out to the blazing fire. The next day we brought in the meat, and fol- lowed the blood-track for several miles ; but the moose was evidently not much hurt, as he had never laid down, and presently the blood ceased altogether. In the middle of January, La Montagne came up to the Lower Post and left for Victoria, giving us a chance of sending out letters, and promising to be back by the beginning of April. Reed went with him to Dease Lake, and at the end of the month ! thought it advisable to begin hauling supplies up the Liard towards I^' ranees Lake ; so, late one afternoon, I left the post with four dog-sleighs loaded with all the provisions I could lay hands on, accompanied by three of the Manitoba half-breeds i..' fv4 ''pr \M IF i! 1 1 104 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST sent down from Sylvester's Landing by Simpson, and a good little Indian named Secatz in place of Charlie, who was, or pretended to be, too ill to travel. The weather set in cold from the start, and continued so for a fortnight —the only really cold snap that we had all the winter. The travel- ling with heavy loads was slow, as we had to go ahead every day to break the road through the snow, and wait till the nights frost hardened up our tracks before the dogs could pull the sleighs. In the soft snow we could make no headway at all, but sometimes we found long stretches of glare ice which helped us greatly. A good deal of time, too, was taken up in hunting, as, unless we killed moose, we had to fall back on our loads of provisions that were intended for use many months afterwards. It took us a week or more to reach the mouth of the Frances River, which joins the Liard from the north 45 miles above the Lower Post. It enters by two channels, one on either side of a large island ; and might easily be missed in the winter time, as the Liard is here much broken up by islands and gravel bars. Only two moose had been killed, and the weather HAULING STORKS TO FRANCES LAKE lo; Still increased in severity. 2nd February was the coldest day of the whole winter, the thermometer at Dease Lake, 200 miles to the southward, as we afterwards heard, standing at —68" Fahr. Secatz and I left camp before daylight that morning to hunt, leaving orders with the half-breeds to haul the loads up to the island, as we had broken the road ahead overnight. At the mouth of the Frances we separated, Secatz hunting along the Frances while I followed the Liard for several miles. I found two fresh moose tracks, but could not get a shot ; and it was long after dark when I reached the island again, fully expecting to find the cargo all up and the camp made. But there was no sign of anybody, except that the rille which Secatz had been using was stuck up in the snow where the road left the ice and turned up the bank. With the aid of a match I examined the road and saw that no sleighs had passed, and Secatz's snow- shoe tracks were leading down stream. It was only then that I realised how fearfully cold it was. I had eaten nothing since early morning, and had been sweating while running after the moose, always a bad thing to do in cold weather, as you are sure to get chilled as soon as you stop for a minute. • •'ij' *• ,1, ii '4::i> 1 I ; i io6 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST t It I expected to find the camp close, so would not wait to light a fire, but left my rifle and started down stream at a run. I could never get warm again, although I had still ten miles to go ; and my nose and cheeks were rather badly frozen before I saw the glare of the camp fire through the trees. I found the half-breeds having a good time, sitting round the fire rolled up in blankets, drinking tea and shouting the chorus of a highly improper song long popular in the Red River Setdements. They had only moved camp about a mile, as they began to freeze, and could not get the dogs along quickly enough to keep themselves warm ; so they had put ashore and made a fire as soon as they saw dry wood enough to camp with. Secatz had come in just ahead of me, with the same experience as my- self — a frozen nose and no moose meat. In this extreme cold it is never really safe for a man to go into the woods alone, as, if he meets with an accident severe enough to cripple him, or gets wet by breaking through a weak spot in the ice, he is absolutely certain to freeze to death unless he is very quick in lighting a fire. In any case he should always carry an axe in his belt and plenty of matches, so that he may still have a HAULING STORES TO FRANCES LAKE 107 chance if dry wood is close at hand. One of the greatest dangers Hes in the Aict that your fingers are likely to freeze, or at least become useless for lighting a match, as soon as you grasp the handle of an axe and impede the free circulation of the blood, as a layer of ice is sure to have formed between the moose-skin and the inside lining of your mittens. This sort of weather is good enough for travel- ling straight ahead on a good road with light loads on the sleighs, but in this case our clogs were over- loaded, and the snow was so soft that we could not keep warm while travelling slowly. At night we were comfortable enough, as we kept a big fire going. It was at first the coldest man's business to put on wood, but this led to trouble, and I finally had to establish a regular watch. One of the common tricks cf a winter camp is the habit men have of pretending to be sleeping, warm and snug, in the hopes of freezing some other poor devil out of his blankets to make up the fire. You can get up shaking with cold, and throw on big sticks from the wood pile, chop kindling, and make as much noise as you like, yet not a soul will be sufficiently awake to lend you a hand. But as soon as the fire burns up brightly, and i 1. i J . »' J. 5 ... i iiii ill |ia > 1 n ■ *t 1 * ; I , k i 1 , ft io8 THROUGH THE SUB ARCTIC FOREST the kettle; begins to boil, the least rattle of a spoon against a tin cup will rouse the whole camp as readily as a gunshot. The cup of tea in the small hours of these shivering mornings, with the return of warmth and the prospect of a few more hours' sleep, is one of the most pleasant recollections of northern travel, bringing back to the memory the intense brilliancy of the stars, the dim outline of the mountains, and the deathly silence of the snow • laden forest and ice-bound river. At the mouth of the Frances we were completely stranded, as the ice was flooded under the snow, and there was no chance of keeping our feet dry enough to avoid freezing. Camp was made on the island, and here we stayed for four days hunting moose ; but in this respect, too, we were out of luck, owing to the great cold. It was impossible to get about in the woods without making enough noise with our snow-shoes to scare away the most confiding of animals. Even the rabbits refused to let us get near them ; and, seeing that we should be obliged to broach our cargo if we remained longer, a strong cache was built and everything stowed away safely till a more favourable opportunity turned up. Then, with the advantage of a hard HAULING S'lORES TO FRANCES LAKE 109 spoon mp as : small return hours' ions of )ry the tline of I snow • ipletely I snow, eet dry on the lunting out of possible enough e most used to ould be onger, stowed )rtunity a hard road and light sleighs, we turned our faces down stream, and soon covered the 45 miles to the Lower Post, arriving there in straggling order, according to each individual's staying powers. ! " I .1 1 Ir I i I \ i « l|.. !«:" , l!^:: -^ *( 1 w T" HBan : :;. CHAPTER VII i\ ill ill; A MINING EXPEDITION Return lo Sylvester's Landing for summer supplies -kal)l)ils and grouse — Murder l)y Casca Indians — Expedition to Ilyland River — Quartz ledges — Cliesi I nil, the home of the big-horn —Jealousy between Cassiar Indians and Red River half-l)reeds. Mv next expedition was made in company with Beavertail Johnny and Secatz, to the Hudson's Bay Company's headquarters at Sylvester's Land- ing, to get additional supplies for the summer. The usual winter road follows the Dease for 30 miles, and then strikes off to the eastward, passing through an open grassy country, with numerous lakes, and skirting the foot of a high range known as the Horse Ranche Mountains. It is here that the horses used for packing provisions to the outlying mining camps in the summer pass the long winter, scraping away the snow in search of the bunch- grass, usually coming out in good condition in the ; II A .\fIi\ING EXPEDITION III s[)ring, although once or twice thiii<(s have gone wrong, and many of the band were missing when the snow went off. On the long portage between the two big lands of the Dease, rabbits were in great numbers. We killed thirty-five one day with our rilles withoit stopping to hunt away from the road, besides several spruce grouse — and this too with a penalty of a plug of tobacco for everything shot in the body. The rabbits are as white as the snow, and at first are hard to see till they run, but after a little practice the round black eye is spotted at once, and there is usually plenty of time for a shot. The spruce grouse is a most confiding bird, and will rarely leave its bough till its head is cut off by a bullet. Moose are seldom found far back from the river in this part of the country, as there is not much willow for them to feed on. The Horse Ranche Mountains used to be a good place for cariboo, but they were so much hunted when meat could be sold for a big price to the Mac Dame Creek miners, that they are now only to be found here during the spring and autumn migrations. We set traps for lynx as we went, and picked up several on the way back. In a good rabbit {■ % /; I . 1 • i ':r : \ ''t • M. " -'< J ' 1] - ''J % li i :i 11 ! fi 1^ i 112 THROUGH THE SUHARCTIC FOREST \ ^.l "1 Hii n I year lynx arc always plentiful, and are the simplest of animals to trap or snare. The Casca Indians have the greatest objection to white men trapping on their own account in their country ; gold dust they can take as much as they like, but the fur is the Indian's equivalent for gold, and must be left for the Indian. They are very firm on this point — so much so that a couple of white men who were trapping on the Liard some years ago were killed by the Indians because they refused to let the fur alone. They were repeatedly warned, and their traps knocked down or sprung every time they set them, but they persisted in bringing their fate upon themselves. The details of the murder are, I believe, partially known, and several Indians are still living who were implicated in the killing, but very little was done by the authorities to inquire into the matter. At the end of the Xoii'y^ portage we crossed the Dease agairj, having cu^ off its big westerly bend, and immediately dived into the woods on the other side, and, crossing seven or eight lakes that lie in a narrow pass between high mountains, reached the hard-beaten track from the Landing to MacDame's Creek mining camp. Another 8 miles took us to A MINING EXPEDITION "3 id the bend, other in a d the 'ame's us to the fort. The total distance by the winter road, troni tlie Lower Post to Sylvester's Landing, is not more than 75 miles — a great saving on the circuitous course of [lo miles pursued by the Dease. At the fort I found Simpson, who was just then very keen on quartz ledges and mining generally. He had come to the conclusion that the specimens of quartz I had brought down from Hyland River were of great value, and, as there was little fur- trading to be done at Sylvester's Landing just at present, he proposed that we should go and stake off a claim according to the miryng regulations, and take possession of a property that would quickly make our fortunes. It was only 150 miles or so from where we were. The snow was beginning to harden, and the days were getting long enough to enable us to make a good day's journey ; so I at once agreed, and it was arranged that I should go ahead to the Lowec Post, with our heavily loaded sleighs, and Simpson should join me there in a few days, as he had some work to finish before he could leave. Accordingly, the next day I went to "town" as the mining camp is called, to lay in my supplies. The winter road 11 :.. 1 V •I * ': 1 ' sir' ^> : lis ^' t ': '' ! H .....1.JJI!", Jl tl. J H^ .1^ II Ifp^^^f^^ mmmmmm 114 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST If i in i 41 II p^ ■I P llf ;iit followed the valley of Mac Dame's Creek closely, and was so hard from frequent trail that we could run on it without snow-shoes. About 10 miles up we came to China Bar, a collection of cabins oc- cupied by the Chinameii who are still mining on the creek. A little farther on is the " town," — mere log cabins, now deserted, but once the scene of great activity, and for a brief period a really paying camp. Now the sole resident is Mr. Buck- ley, an old timer, who keeps a store for the few white men who are working some distance above. Here I found I could get everything I wanted in the way of provisions, and also, on payment of five dollars, obtained a mining license, setting forth that I was a free miner of the Cassiar district, and giving me the right of ownership to any claim that I might consider it worth while to stake off in legal manner. Thus provided, we set out with the sleighs, and reached the Lower Post without event a day or two ahead of Simpson. It was now the beginning of March, and I saw that I must do something towards getting my supplies up to Frances Lake while I was away on the prospecting expedition, or we might be overtaken by an early spring and ;losely, ; could iles up ins oc- ing on _ )i wn, — I scene L really , Buck- ;he few above. nted in lent of g forth ict, and im that in legal IS, and day or ginning nething Lake lition, cc mir and A A/LYING EXPEDITION I \-- delayed by the breaking up of the ice. Accord- ingly, one of the half-breeds was despatched up the Liard with Beavertail Johnny and Secatz. tak- ing all the available dogs to move the loads by slow stages up to the lake, and wherever possible to provide against future emergency by killing moose. I was to start, hauling the canoe, as soon as I returned from Hyland River, and expected to overtake the advance pa:ty at Frances Lake. The days were long and the sun was getting powerful when Simpson and I left the post, accom- panied by a half-breed and the Indian, Charley. We struck out in a northerly direction, with the intention of falling on the Hyland River some 30 miles from its mouth, instead of making the long detour by following the course of the stream. A series of steep broken hills, covered with burnt timber and the new grov ih of pine, made hard travelling at first, but about 5 miles out we reached a chain of small lakes separated by short portages, and, of course, were able to make much better headway. Early on the second day we came to the bank of the river a couple of bends below the first canon. Here we found the snow deep, and the travelling became slow again. We usually I 'I I ■ U !;! I I ^1 I I I i hH I"' l! ii6 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST camped at midday, and each man took his turn to walk ahead as far as possible to make the road for the following day. With further delays to hunt meat whenever necessity arose, eight days were occupied in reaching the upper canon, where the ledge was situated ; and then we could not carry out our prospecting with any great accuracy, as the snow covered the ground to the depth of 4 feet. The canon looked very grand in its winter garb, but there was an ugly roar of swirKng water under our feet as we carefully picked our way round the steep bluffs, and the ice was dangerous in places. A difficulty arose, too, in the scarcity of provisions, and we were down to starvation point when Charlie killed a moose, and saved us from beating a hasty retreat upon a supply of meat we had left 50 miles down stream for our return journey. Finally we succeeded in marking off our claim, driving our stakes on what appeared to our limited knowledge to be most likely ground, and secured enough rock specimens to make an assay from. I have since learnt that these specimens proved to be fairly rich in silver and to contai.i a little gold, but not enough to justify the heavy expense of transporting mining machinery to sue; turn our our ind ssay lens tai .1 avy ,uc. A MINING EXPEDITION 117 a distance from salt water. Several claims have been taken up in the neighbourhood during the past summer ; but there seems little chance of these far - off ledges ever being worked to advant^.ge, unless oome of them should prove to be fabulously rich as they are opened up. Having accomplished our purpose, we lost no time in making our way back to the post, which we reached early on the fourth day, as little snow had fallen and the road was in good condition. The sun was strong in the middle of the day, and the snow began to ball on our snow-shoes ; so we travelled early and late to take advantage of the frost, and made long halts at noon. At the Lower Post we found Reed, who had bee<^;!ine, and had fully made up his mind to o;'.e' '^ *,e summer in Cassiar. La Montagne was not exj.:: rrl back for a fortnight; and, as he was to bnug my letters from Victoria. J decided to take the canoe and the rest of my summer su;jplies to Frances Lake and then make a hurried trip back to the post to meet him, thus making sure that C've-vthing should be at the lake before the ice bfv . - up on the Liard and Frances, although this i% w ,1 .»( »i I- n. i il ■ I r i ''I f] *' ^!l Si !;) Il ,f ll!; ii8 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST arrangement would give me an extra journey of 300 miles. The ice in the lake would continue sound long after the river had broken up, while there would probably be sufficient snow in the woods to enable us to use sleighs in crossing the height of land between Frances Lake and the head of the Felly. On the 27^. March I left the post with the Indian, Charley, and one of the AJanitoba half-breeds, Alick Flett, who had been with us on the Hyland. The canoe proved rather an awkward load for a dog -sleigh, especially on rough ice. Where the travelling was good she rode fairly well ; but when- ever the sleigh ran a little off the track, the outside runner buried itself in the soft snow, and a capsize was usually the result. On the third day we reached the mouth of the Frances, and found that all the cargo had been moved forward, and the cache was filled with the meat of two moose which our hunters had killed close to the bank of the river. This enabled us to push on without the delay necessary for hunting our own provisions ; and, as our advance party had been in luck with the moose, we found meat in several of their camps along the road. A MINING EXPEDITION 119 The Frances River is extremely crooked near its junction with the Liard, but Secatz had made portages wherever anything could be gained by so doing. Unfortunately, with the Indian's pru- dence, he had cut the road only wide enough to '.et his own sleigh pass ; and the extra width of the canoe entailed a good deal of chopping among the pine trees. The banks, too, were almost pre- cipitous, and great care was necessary to prevent the canoe taking charge in some of the steep hills at the end of the portages. Our general direction was N.N.W., and the appearance of the river banks, and in fact the whole surrounding country, was so e.xactly like the scenery of Hyland River that the half-breed Alick recognised several places seen on the latter stream, and came to the conclusion that we had entered the Hyland by some other mouth. The positions >f the canons, too, closely correspond, and even the False Canon on the Frances is faintly indicated by a small rapid on the Hyland. At the upper canon, on each stream, the rivers make the same sharp bend to the eastward in their descent, and ofter the suggestion that the geological obstructions to their easy courses are " iii" ill 1 '■ \ ii IP* i# ,1! . i ' til P \ '■ r" ! ..■: \ \ * '" t! ■ 0. **. ■<|{ \f. 120 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST ['■ I i '• I :: : if u INii continued through the country between the two streams. Just above the first canon on the Frances, the wide forest -covered plateaux begin to give way to the mountain ranges, and here low rounded hills with little timber show up on the east bank. One of these hills, known to the natives as " Chesi," was once a sure find for big-horn, but a few years ago, during a season of deep snow, they were nearly all killed by a band of Pelly River Indians, who made themselves very unpopular with the Liard tribes in consequence of this breach of the hunting laws, which require each hunter to keep within his own territory. Any sheep that survived the raid have '"nee avoided Chesi and sought security in the higher ranges to the north. We found an encampment of Indians 40 miles up from the mouth of the river, and obtained from them a supply of moccasins and babiche that we were rather short of. They also gave us a general description of the country, and the localities of the game. Some of the hunters had just returned from an expedition to the Simpson Mountains, lying at some distance to the wesitward of the Frances. They pointed us out some round-topped mountains A MINING EXPEDITION 121 where the cariboo were particularly numerous. The best moose country, they told us, lies to the east- ward of the False Canon — a constriction of the river without rapids, a few miles above *^heir camp. From the False Caiion it is an Indian's "not far " to Hyland River, a large lake occupying most of the space between the two streams. Simpson Lake — so named by Campbell many years ago — is drained by the upper of two creeks coming in from the westward below the False Canon, but does not nearly approach Frances Lake in size. Our informants also told us that we should be wise to leave the canoe above the upper cafion, as the head of the river is open in the spring long before the ice has begun to move on the Liard and Lower Frances. If we had to return to the trading post, we might afterwards find the canoe most necessary for reaching the lake. We acted on this advice, as the ice seemed already a little unsound in the upper canon, and with lighter loads on the sleighs we caught up our advance party within a few miles of the lake, on the eighth day's travel from the post. Secatz told us they had been having a good enough time of it, killing moose without much ,( .1'; ik k I) 1} I .) !:J!i; -,,-r '"mm 123 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST » s » II- l! *" trouble, and making double trips with the cargoes. He had been making the road ahead that day, but had not seen the lake, although from what the Indians had told us it could not be far away. On the following morning we loaded everything on the five sleighs and went to the end of the road, within a couple of miles of the lake, as we afterwards found out. Here we built a large cache, and, having stowed the whole cargo as securely as possible, started to retrace our steps to the Lower Post. By steady walking on a good track, we covered the distance of 145 miles in four days, the halts being enlivened by rather formidable quarrels between the Indians and the half-breeds. On the last night out I had great difficulty in keeping the peace, and possibly guns and axes would have been called into play if we had had much farther to qto. The importation of the Red River half-breeds has caused a good deal of jealousy among the Cassiar Indians, and they seldom make a journey together without more or less rows, arising usually from very trivial causes. The present generation of Indians have seen plenty of rough fighting and brutality among the worst class of miners, and the half- ■W-SrS'm'/Vf'Vrri . A A/LYING EXPEDITION i2i breeds have never known anything much better, so that a quarrel which starts with the kicking of heads and biting of noses may easily lead to a most disastrous finish. i^ii iiirl \i •i ^i I ^'i f n :| ir i! f ^ I :: ■ r, •■'' ki " ill I ill 11 CHAPTER VIII START FOR THE PELLV RIVER La Montaf^ne's arrival on iSth April. The Liard chiefs theory of the Un- known — Journey up Frances River — Frances Laue — The legend of the flying cariboo — I'elly Indians — Vus-ez-uh River — More stories of canni- bals across the divide. La Montagne had not yet returned from the coast, and as Smith — who was coming with me — had still charge of the post, I felt bound to wait as long as I possibly could. Of course every day would weaken the ice and lessen our chance of getting to the Pelly on the snow. We had not long to wait, however. La Montagne turned up within a few days of our arrival, and having an- swered letters and settled all business, we made a final start for the north on i8th April. My crew now consisted of Smith, Archie and Alick Flet-t, cousins, and Secatz, who was to come with us as interpreter till we reached the Pelly. The other Indians had all refused to go, but Secatz was willing START FOR THE PELL V RIVER I3J to take the risk of coming back alone in case he should not fall in with any of his friends on their way in to the post to trade their winter's catch of fur. Charlie and Beavertail Johnny at the last minute offered to come with us, but I had now no use for their services, so they were obliged to go to the woods for a living till the summer, when they expected to get employment in the traders' boats. I have heard since that they both died during the following winter. Charlie will be very little loss, as he was acknowledged by whites and Indians alike to be utterly worthless, but Johnny was, next to Secatz, about the best of the Liard Indians. The two half-breeds were willing enough fellows, not over-burdened with sense, and absolutely use- less as hunters, but always cheery and ready to do what they were told, which is really saying a good deal, as men of their class usually have their own ideas how everything should be done, and get sulky if they are not allowed their own way. By this time there was not much darkness, and the night and early morning, while the frost lasted, were the only times when travel was possible. : snow was m day ing rapidly 'I I ~" M' 126 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST e; •■ i • II- and the clogs could make no headway with the sleighs. We were more heavily loaded than we ought to have been, considering that our summer's supplies were already at Frances Lake ; but, as usual, there were many things forgotten till the last moment, and many things that were afterwards throvn away on account of their weight, which might just as well have been left at the post. In the spring, just before the ice breaks up, is the pleasantest time of all for travelling with dogs. A sharp frost in the night makes a hard crust over which the sleighs run without trouble, and a qu* step can be kept up with little exertion. When the sun gets strong in the morning, you can put ashore and sleep through the heat of the day, un- less provisions are low, in which case everybody must turn out and hunt moose or small game. On this occasion we had meat scattered all along our road, and beyond killing a few rabbits when we found them especially plentiful, we did no hunting till we reached the lake. The ice was weak enough by this time. The old road had collapsed in many places, leaving stretches of open water in its stead ; and on 20th April we saw the first sign of the wild -fowl re- START FOR THE PELLY R/VER 127 tiirniiifj, a single golden -eye swimming in one of these pools. A few more clays brought the mallard, widgeon, and teal, but the geese and swans were much later in arriving. The woods were full of small spring birds, and hawks and owls were in great abundance. At the mouth of the Frances we met the Liard Chief with his band of Indians, and from them secured a guide, who told us he knew the country to the north of Frances Lake perfectly, and would show us a short route to the Felly. lie described this route so thoroughly that I thought he must really know something about it, till we reached the end of Frances Lake, which we could, of course, have found easily enough for ourselves. Here our guide told us he had come to the end of his country and knew no more. The Liard Chief was full of anxiety for our welfare, and advised us to turn back at once, or we should surely come to an untimely end at the hands of the savages who inhabit the head-waters of the Felly. Such is the Indian's nature ; anything he does not know and has not seen is bad. No doubt, many years ago the Fellys and the Liards used to fight each other as frequently as did all the 11 \ I 9Rf "il 1 i J i iiM ! «•! ''\H t jiF' ) .11 lUIIIUJUUULIUi ^fmmmmmmm 128 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST V n other northern tribes, but in these clays the chance meetings between the Indians from the different sides of the watershed are extremely friendly. But far up among the mountains, the chief told us, there dwelt a band of cannibals, who would slay any intruder into their country more cheerfully than they would kill a moose. The foundation for this rumour seems to have been the disappearance of a miner named Munro, who pushed out alone on a prospecting trip towards the Felly, and was no more heard of. The Indians assume that he was killed by a nomadic band of hunters, who have since been afraid to come into any of the widely scattered Hudson's Bay Posts, and do their trading with the other Indians they may encounter in their wanderings. One of their favourite resorts is the. unknown land of all horrors lying between the sources of the Pelly and the Hyland. The rest of our journey up the Frances was uneventful. The ice in the upper canon wc ■ in a daniT-erous condition, with a wild stream running wherever open water was showing. Here we had to use the utmost caution, testing every step with an axe or pole. Spring ice lets a man through very suddenly, without the moment's warning that r I *^ iiKiAK-rr ci|- icK (i\ Tin: ihancks uivkr. I lii^r™-^ 12 iii Pi I I* » it P-il li 5 .,1 ! I ! START FOR THE RELLY RIVER 131 you get in the early winter ; and once under the ice in a canon of a swiftly flowing river you may as well give up all hope at once. Above the caiion we picked up the canoe, and pushed on at our best pace, to reach the lake before the break-up of the ice. Early on the morning of the 24th of April we came to the outlet of the lake, and made camp while we hauled up the rest of the load from the cache. Two small hand-sleighs were built here, so that we might move our cargo more rapidly over the smooth ice of the lake. Our supplies for the summer now consisted of 200 lbs. of flour, 70 lbs. of bacon, plenty of tea and tobacco, a nunition, fish nets and blankets, and a few clothes, besides picks and shovels, saws, nails, and a little quick- silver in case we should find any of the river bars rich enough in gold to pay us to work with sluice boxes. We had really a very fair supply of pro- visions if we could kill meat and catch fish as we wanted them, but of course the feeding of our five sleigh-dogs would be a great source of trouble if the game failed us. Frances Lake was discovered by Robert Camp- bell in the summer of 1840, and named by him in i '! ^^9F 132 THROUGH THE SUli ARCTIC FOREST M^ S r < I- honoLir of Lady Simpson, wife of the reigning governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. He estabHshed a post at the entrance 'o the east arm of the lake, and then continued his voyage of discovery to the banks of the Felly, where, two years later, the trading post known as Pelly Banks was built. These forts were maintained for about ten years, but the expense and risk of supplying them by the dangerous Liard route was found to be too great, and they were finally abandoned. Fort Frances being occupied till 1851. Since that time the lake has been seldom visited, and has remained the Ultima Thule of the Cassiar miners, few of whom have ever ventured so far ; while the crossing to the Pelly was untra veiled by white men from Camp- bell's time till Dr. G. M. Dawson made his Ex- ploratory Survey of the Upper Yukon district in 1887. The lake should more properly be called a group of lakes, as the two arms, which run nearly parallel to each other for 30 miles, are connected by a narrow channel through which a strong current runs ; and again, the upper end of the vest arm, a sheet of water forming a basin 5 or 6 miles START FOR THE TELLY RIVER 133 long, is only reached after passing up a narrow stream a mile in length. The Too-Tsho range of mountains, on the east side of the lake, are rough and broken in the extreme, the Simpson Mountains, to the westward, being more rounded, of less eleva- tion, and altogether more inviting. The long pro- moniory between the two arms is occupied by another high range, with one very conspicuous peak known as Simpson's Tower. The benches which rise from the lake are more thickly wooded than the cctuntry we had passed through in ascending the Frances, but in many places the timber has been burnt. Several small streams ct through these benches, and form pretty gravelly points, usually covered with cottonwood and small birch, where they enter the lake. On one of these points, a few miles from the outlet, a man, if he camps quite alone on any summer's night, may, according to the Indians' story, iiiterview the Flying Cariboo, who is sure to perch on a particular dead spruce leaning over the lake. If you treat it kindly, it will occupy its time till sunrise in telling you stories of the old days ; but if you are rash enough to shoot at it, it will make things very unpleasant for you. Our Indian guide told us a long yarn explaining ■i I .•4 :;i »«• ^ «■ I ii ":.'A '34 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST Mi^ ' how it was that this cariboo was gifted with wings, but Secatz, with the superior knowledge of a man who has Hved with the miners and tasted whisky, said it was all u nsense, and would not translate it into the Chinook jargon for our benefit. The ice on the lake was as yet perfectly sound, except at its outlet and at the mouths of the entering streams, where large stretches of open water were visible. As fresh provisions were rather scarce at this time, we set our nets in some of these places, but could catch no fish, although the lake is known to contain whitefish, trout, and suckers in fair quantities. But in every lake the fishing grounds vary with the seasons, and a stranger may be a long time in hitting oft the right place in which to set his net. An appeal to the guide produced the in- formation that he had once caught a good many fish in the summer time in another lake that lay among the Too-Tsho Mountains to the eastward, but he had no suggestion to offer with regard to Frances Lake as a fishing ground in the spring. The moose, too, were unapproachable just when we wanted them, and the cariboo were too far back from the lake to attempt to haul a load of meat to the camp. Even the rabbits and grouse had START FOR THE TELLY RIVER 135 deserted us, and the wild-fowl had not yet arrived in sufficient numbers to ensure a day's rations. So we had to feed the dogs on bacon and flour that would have been very useful later in the summer, and push on in the hone of killing game at any time. About 25 miles up the west am, through which our course lay, the Finlayson River enters from the west side, but being pressed for time, we passed wide of its mouth, and did not put ashore till we reached the upper end of the lake. The Finlayson was Camj^beH's route to the Pelly, and Dr. Dawson made his portage by following the same stream ; but I hope to discover a shorter portage by continuing up the river that enters at the head of the west arm, thus gaining the advantage of falling on the Pelly at a much higher point than that reached by the old portage, and having at the same time a totally unexplored country to travel through. There is always a special interest in going over ground which is absolutely new, although in Western Canada you know pretty well that it will be merely a repetition of forest, river, and lake, with high mountains in the background, the same old scenery which may be % \ k ¥ I I \'\ V'\ M ^f 136 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST HP '\ ». » s < .1 i: admired as well from the windows of a Pullman car as from the lonely hunting camp on the edge of the Arctic Circle. There is always a vague hope that you may come across a new kind of animal inhabiting a limited area of the vast wilderness, or see the dull glow of a monster nugget shining up through the waters of a creek which lies beyond the utmost limit of the miner's wanderings. That gold exists in the unexplored country to the west- ward of the northern Rockies can hardly be doubted. Some of the bars on the Porcupine and Liard Rivers, the northern and southern boundaries of this district, have already proved rich in gold, and the eastern tributaries of the Yukon, all, presumably, heading in the same range of mountains, show fair results as far as they have been prospected. There is plenty of ground left for the keen explorer, and a chance of his meeting with a fair reward for his labour. In the short stretch of running water which has been mentioned before as leading to the extremity of the west arm of Frances Lake, the ice had all disappeared, but the banks were only lightly covered with willow bushes, and a little chopping enabled us to get the sleighs through without START FOR THE PEl.LY RIVER 137 trouble. Here we found more wild -fowl than we had yet seen, and killed a few widgeon, teal, and golden-eyes. When we gained the solid ice, and looked over the 6 miles that yet remained to be crossed, we saw a column of smoke rising over the spruce trees, right in our course, but apparently some distance back from the lake shore. On reaching the mouth of the Yus-ez-uh, which enters the north end of the west arm, we were obliged to camp, as the sun was high and the snow melting quickly. Towards evening I sent the two Indians ahead to investigate the cause of the smoke, and try to trade some meat from the encampment they were sure to find. They returned during the night, having met a band of Pelly Indians, who were trapping beaver along the Yus-ez-uh, but they were short of meat themselves and very little in- clined to part with any. The next day I sent the men back to fetch up part of the cargo that we had If^ft half-way down the lake, and went ahead with Secatz, keeping one sleigh to haul up the loads to the Indian camp. The Yus-ez-uh was open in many places, and we had to make several portages entailing much chopping before we reached the camp. Here we \\\ I' I \ i it' J m ■n:.': \% ii' 138 THROUi-.H THE SUHARCT/C FORKST found two families, who had left the main band of the Pellys in the autumn and had passed the winter between the Frances and Pelly Lakes, a much finer lot of Indians than any we saw through the Cassiar country, and evidently unspoilt by association with the whites. They were clothed almost entirely in skin (garments of their own manufacture, and wore altogether a healthier and more genuine-looking outfit than the Cascas and Liards. None of them were able to speak Chinook, but Secatz could understand them well enough, though he told me there was a marked difference between their language and his own. One of the women wore a large brass ring through her nose — a custom that is rarely practised among interior tribes. It turned out that she had never seen a white man before, as these Indians seldom go into any of the trading posts, and, when they are forced to do so, generally send two of the best travellers ahead with the fur, while the rest of the band remain in the woods, at a long distance from the post, until their return. A moose had been killed the day before our arrival, so we were able to get a little more meat, though — as usual — we had to pay for it with the UT he ^ j'7^. b- re?)]?' H p |v{lA& I'V 5,'- >'\i ;\ < \"- - ^ 3^V '3 .^y #v vT- -^ .46on« e^ 25 >' i^^^S W ;iO' jc 129 si 1 J 1 i ! 1 i A r h i !! :i I! -J' 'Tr '>4w / aoliongilude "Wfestof Green-wich 131' ao £dwBrdj&r r. S.Weller , 42, Denmark JUJl. I'T^-'im^smmmmmmmsmmmimmmmmsmmm 't t. ' :C:; ^4 tali* .»». ;^*! START TOR THE TELLY RIVER 139 things we could least afford to do without. But. after all, the savage has reason on his side ^vhen he says, that what is most necessary for the white man is very good for the Indian. A black bear had also been seen, but after a long chase with dogs had escaped in the soft snow. It struck me that the first ci May was an early date for bears to be out of their winter quarters in such a latitude, but the Indians told me they always see them here when the ice in the Yus-ez-uh begins to break up. The beaver -trapping was going on successfully, and several were brought in during the two or three days that we camped with the Indians. Here we heard an improved version of the story about the cannibals across the divide. They had been on the warpath during the last autumn, and had killed a party of white prospectors far down the Pelly, leaving their bodies stacked up on a grax'el bar as a warnincr to all intruders. As soon as the lakes were open, they intended to bring their canoes across the portage and make a raid on all the white men and Indians whom they met on the Liard and Dease, and had e\en hopes of plundering the F.^udson's Bay Post at Sylvester's Landing. «- 1 . t iM''t \ I I T^ 140 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST .0 .*. We had better turn back at once, as we were sure to meet them at the I'elly Lakes, and should have no chance against them. As for trying to reach the source of the Pelly no sane men would attempt such a thing, for even if we were lucky enough to miss the cannibals, the Jevils in the black canons among the mountains would quickly put an end to our expedition. However, if we were really determined to go, the Chief of the Indians said he would send a guide with us to show us the main Pelly Lake, but that he should give him strict orders to return at once from there. The Yus-ez-uh is a fair -sized stream, and, as far as we could judge, easily navigable for a shallow draught boat, with little current at this time of year, winding backwards and forwards across a valley a mile and a half in width, bounded by low round hills which are backed at a considerable distance by mountains, increasing in height and ruggedness as the stream is followed to the north- ward. The valley itself is a spruce-covered swamp, abounding in small lakes and beaver dams. CHAPTER IX PTAKMICAN CREEK The thaw— Geese and heaver— MacpheisDii Lake-The divide— I'elly Lake— Wikl-fowl— A good pkace for winter quarters— Ruiininir the canoe down Ptarmigan Creek. As soon as all the cargo was up, we pushed on again, taking an Indian named Narchilla as guide. Our first guide, who had joined us at the mouth of the Frances, continued with us, as, although he admitted frankly that he knew nothing of the country, he was useful for hauling a hand -sleigh, and would be a companion for Secatz in his journey back to the Liard Post. We found the travelling difficult enough after leaving the Indians' encamp- ment, as the hours of frost were rapidly gettinc- shorter and the ice was becoming more rotten each day. Men and sleighs were continually breaking through, to the great detriment of our tea and other perishable articles, but the weather ii il m (.'■ I. > » < 1. 1 142 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST was warm and wood plentiful, so the men were nothing the worse for an occasional mishap. The snow was going off quickly, and it seemed doubtful whether there would be enough left on the portage to take us across the divide. We could only make 7 or 8 miles a day at our best speed, and after three days' struggling up the river, we were stopped about 20 miles from the mouth by a continuous stretch of open water. Here we put ashore to patch up the canoe, which had opened out in the seams during the long journey on the sleigh, but a little caulking with oakum and pitch, and a rough coat of paint, made her as tight as ever in a couple of days. We then loaded her up, and, sending the dogs overland with the empty sleighs, paddled 3 miles up stream to a small lake that lay in the course of the river, from which point we were to begin the portage towards the Pellv. During this time, although the travelling had been hard, we fared much better in the matter of provisions, as the geese were turning up in some numbers. Beaver, too. were remarkably plentiful, more so than I ever remember seeing them in any part of Canada. You may fmd a country where PTARMIGAN CREEK 143 there is every sign of beaver, where they have chopped down numbers of big trees, and the size of their dams shows that there must be plenty of workers, but they are seldom visible. But at the head of the Yus-ez-uh, on any fine evening, we could paddle along quietly in the canoe, and get two or three shots at them sitting motionless on the ice that still clung to the banks. Their fur and meat are at their best, too, in the spring, and, when Secatz killed a large bull moose close to the edge of the little lake, and many fat geese were brought into the camp, there was a time of plenty and general contentment for men and dogs. Our failure to kill moose for such a length of time had seriously crippled us in the matter of provisions, and the last two weeks had played havoc with our flour and bacon. At this camp the first rain of the year fell on 9th May, a heavy storm lasting all night, and washing away most of the snow. A sharp frost set in, however, as soon as the rain ceased, and formed a good crust, which helped us greatly during the next few days. As we stopped for a day at the lake, while the Indians were making the road on the first part I ^ !r ! W'K 144 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FORES' CI of the portage, I made a short expedition to try if I could find Macpherson Lake, which was known to lie at the head of the Yus-ez-uh, and after walking 5 miles, sometimes on the bank, some- times on the ice, and sometimes up the bed of the stream — which here becomes shallow and easily waded in many places — I had the satisfaction of reaching the lake. It is said by Henry Thibert, who visited it some years ago, to be 10 miles in length, but I could get no view of the far end, as the lake bends to the north -eastward about 4 miles from the outlet, and the ice was so deeply submerged by the melting snow that I could not wade out far enough to see round the intervening point. The lake is characterised by the same terrace -like formation of the forested- plateau which distinguishes F" ranees Lake ; but the high mountains approach much more closely to the water, and, as seen from a distance, the valley at the head of the lake seems to be little more than a narrow gorge between rough peaks of great elevation. There was a large patch of open water close to the outlet, and here wild-fowl were in great abundance — mallard, widgeon, pintail, teal, and golden-eyes being the most plentiful varieties. PTARMIGAN CREEK '45 I saw several otters, too, and they must be in- creasing in number rapidly in this part of the country, as very few of the Indians will touch them, although their skins fetch a good price from the fur-traders. A curious superstition prevails that if you kill an otter it is capable of '.ausing much trouble by coming to life again in your stomach. Only three winters ago a Frances Lake woman lay at death's door with this malady, but she was saved by the timely arrival of the only medicine man left in the tribe. He seems to have diag- nosed the case correctly at once, and holding a sheep's horn spoon to the patient's mouth, he proceeded to repeat a long incantation suitable to the occasion. As soon as he had finished, to the great joy of all the relations who had gathered to see the death, three little otters dropped out into the spoon. The old lady recovered rapidly, and afterwards confessed to having stolen and eaten an otter that she had found in somebody else's beaver trap during a long period of starva- tion in the early summer. A large tributary joins the Yus-ez-uh from the westward just below the lake, and at its head a lake, Ustus-a-tsho, is marked on Dr. Dawson's L # jP?^ II; I ■11 » • I- »• ■• 146 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST meip in dotted lines, from Indian report furnished him by Thibert ; but although we followed this stream in the course of our portage to its very source, we found no lake, and our guide, Narchilla, knew nothing of any sheet of water bearing that name. There are two large streams entering the Yus-ez-uh from the same side, at some distance lower down, one within a few miles of its mouth, and it is quite likely that the lake in question is situated on one of these tributaries. Our rate of travelling when we struck into the woods on the portage was still slow, as we had to make double trips with the loads, which had till lately been much lighter from the pressure of hard times, but were now increased by the weight of the moose meat. Our guide followed the south bank of the stream that I have men- tioned as flowing towar-'^s IMacpherson Lake, through a rolling country timbered with a thick growth of spruce that had been burnt before it had attained any great size. The actual valley of the creek — which we called Narchilla Creek for want of a better name — is extremely rough, following closely the base of a high, broken range of mountains, which appear to be a western PTARMIGAN CREEK 147 spur of the Too-Tsho range, and, according to our pilot, contain no game of any kind. The southern side of the pass, which here lies nearly east and west, presents a much more pleasing appearance. The undulating plateau is clothed with scattered bunches of spruce and black pine, and rises gently to the summits of grassy, bare- topped mountains, already clear of snow in patches. About 18 miles from the little lake we reached a large swamp, which forms the watershed of the streams that find their way to the mouth of the Mackenzie by the Frances and Liard, and those that reach the Behring Sea at the mouth of the Yukon. At the far end of the swamp the water was running to the westward, and after passing through two small lakes, and being increased by the junction of two or three little streams, had developed into a good -sized creek, within 6 miles of the summit. We named it Ptarmigan Creek, from the number of these birds that we found in the swamp at its head. The pass here turns more to the northward and 'continues in that direction for 16 miles by our reckoning, to the shore of the Pellv Lake. The mountains on each side become ! I . ! i . 1 1 ifr »' »« •• 1.4. I * 1^' 148 TIIROUCH rilE sun ARCTIC FOREST less connected, with many wide; passes through which small streams dniin into Ptarmigan Creek. But although the distance was short, we failed in our attempt to get the sleighs through to the lake, as on the far side of the divide we found the snow had almost entirely disappeared. Large grassy swamps covered with willow brush took the place of the heavy spruce growth, and in these swamps the sun had been able to exert its full power on the snow, and the ground was bare. The consequence was that we had to camp on the Lank of Ptarmigan Creek, within about 5 miles of the lake in a straight line, to await the breaking up of the ice, when we hoped to run down with the canoe to the lake if the creek should prove navigable. And here our three Indians turned back, Narchilla having approached near enough the haunts of the bad men. Secatz, too, who had really done very well in coming so far into a strange country, was much impressed with his danger, and made a final appeal to me to abandon the expedition, but, finding it of no avail, cautioned us to be on our guard with any Indians we might meet, and taking with him as much ammunition and tobacco as we would give him, started back for the camp on the Yus-ez-uh, . I I .*' II >'• Ml P TA RMIGA N CREEK '5« where he hoped to be able to borrow a canoe to run clown the Frances and Liard to the Lower Post. They all reached their destinations in safety, and thoroughly alarmed their friends with the story of the intended raid that was to be made on them by the Pellys in the summer. On 1 6th May, after stowing our cargo on a high scaffold above the reach of the wolverines and of the floods that usually follow the first movement of the ice, we started on foot for the lake, each man and dog carrying a light load. Snow-shoes were thrown away here, as the ground was bare in most places, and the snow that remained in the drifts was too soft to be of any service. We found no signs of a trail, although Narchilla had told us that there was a well-marked path used by the Indians in summer, so we forced our way through the willow scrub, and waded swamps and small creeks, till at last we reached the smooth gravelly beach on the south shore of the main Felly Lake and made camp at the mouth of Ptarmigan Creek. Our first move, as usual, was to try what means of subsistence the lake was likely to afford, and we went to work at once to build a raft from which to set a net in the open water at the mouth of the creek. The ice was already If.: 1 It; mimmmmmmmmmmimmm m ■, it UK, I, nil <2l; •■4' THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST showing signs of breaking li[), and a nar''ovv channel bad formed all round the weather shore ut' the lake, while the deep water ice, though still strong enough to travel on, was honeycombed with small holes, and the whole mass moved with every shift of wind. Subsequent exploration proved that the main Pelly Lake is a crescen.t-shaped sheet oi" water some 8 miles m length, and perhaps 2 in width, lying in r. general north-east and south-west direction. The east end of the lake is bordered by low conical h'lls alternating wiuh swamps, the whole couniry being covered with a light growth of spruce, taniiirac. and willrw, nowhere of sufficient density to be an impediment to travel. At the west end, a high range of grassy mountains rise^; nearly straight from the shore of the south side, and immediately opposite stands a single rocky pjinnacle, forming a conspicuous landmark for any one approaching the lake from below by way of die Pelly, which enters at the extreme ear*- end rmd finds its outlet at the extreme west end of the lake. Of the other entering streams Ptarmigan Creek is b)- far th^ iargesj, none of the others being of any importance, altiicugh swollen by melting snow to their utmost capacity at the time of our \ isit. The mouths of these P TA RMIGA N CPnEK '3.> I incoming creeks are all marked by the same gravelly points that are so noticeable on Frances Lake, aftording excellent landing-places for any canoe that has to put ashore through stress of weather. As soon as the net was in the water I set off across the ice to explore the mou'ii of the Upper Pelly, which lay about a mile away from the camp, and was disappointed to find it a much smaller stream than it was supposed to be from the account of it given to Campbell by Indians at the time of the existence of the Pellv Banks Post. It was wide enough, and apparently deep near its mouth, but there wa^ no current perceptible, and its valley, which was here a couple of miles in width, contracted rapid'y and appeared to be little better than a narrow canon at a distance of lo miles up-stream. The swamps and small lakes that lay near the mo'-.th of the river were occupied as a breeding-ground by an abundance of wild-fowl. Geese, mallard, widgeon, teal, pintail, scaups, golden-eyes, long-tailed and harlequin ducks, scoters, great wathern, black ami red throated divers, gulls, and terns, were all in plenty, with a few swans and many other \-arietic;s in less numbers. The common snipe of rVmerica {Scopo/ax II 'i/souii) was drumming overhead, and sandpipers and II r 5 ^m mmi mmmmm a :;;:!• '•■: ^ •4. '54 TNROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST phularopes kept up a continual screaming in the marches. The fishing ground at Ptarmigan Creek turned out to be no good, but fortunately we discovered two small dug-out canoes at an old Indian camp near the head of the lake, and, as there was enough open water round the edge of the ice for a canoe to pass, we shifted camp to the mouth of the Pelly, to be nearer the goose huntinq;-frround in case the fishinof proved a total failure. This seemed likely enough to happen, as we caught almost nothing till, on the fourth day of our stay at the lake, after shifting the nets half a dozen times, we hit upon a paying sp'.)t at the mouth of a large slough, a couple of miles up the Pelly. Here w(i caught a dozen white- fish and suckers before we had done setting the net, and afterwards had no difficulty in keeping up the fish supply, which was varied by a few jack and occasionally a large trout. We at once I)iiilt a drying stage, on which to smoke any fish that we could not eat, with the aid of the dogs, so as to have a stock in hand to fall back upon if any scarcity of provisions should arise during the journey we intended to make to the source of the river. The Pelly Lake would be a remarkably good ' \ PTARMIGAN CREEK 155 point at which to winter for anybody who had reason for so doing. Besides the fish I have mentioned, the salmon run up to the lake in great numbers in the autumn, and, though they must be in poor condition after their journey of over 2000 miles from the Behring Sea, they would be useful enough for dog-feed. Then, a little to the west- ward, there is a good cariboo mountain, and the moose are everywhere, so there should be little risk of starvation if the wintering party were properly equipped with fishing gear and ammunition. When we thought the ice had broken up in Ptarmigan Creek. I went back with Smith and Alick to the place where we had cached the canoe, leaving Archie to go on with the fish-drying and look after the dogs while we were away. A day was spent in pitching the canoe and dividing up the cargo, as the wild appearance of the creek made it too risky to hazard the whole load. On 21st May, late in the afternoon, we started to run down to the lake, with- out any knowledge of the stream we were going to navigate. We had made some ineffectual attempts to examine its course from the banks at different times, but the timber was so thick close to the water that we could see very little. We knew, however. i M^- .i"h 156 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST that there were some rapids to be run, as we could hear their roar in the distance while we were walking to and from the lake. The creek was much swollen by the melting snow, and a strong current swept us round the first few stretches of easy water in safety, but below this the reaches were so short that we could never see any distance ahead, and we had to use every pre- caution to keep clear of drift piles and the over- hanging ice which still lined the banks in several places. The current always seemed to set right on to these spots, where, besides the probability of the canoe being capsized if she ran under the hanging mass, there was always a chance of the ice fallinof on our heads and brincjino; us to utter grief. Sometimes a log had fallen across the stream, and a delay was caused by chopping out a channel. Only once we had to portage — over a drift pile which completely choked the creek for a distance of 300 yards. Below this, the rapids began, none of them very formidable, but with scattered boulders lying right across the stream, which kept winding backwards and forwards from one side of the valley to the other, and only getting a mile ahe.id after running three or four PTARMIGA.V CREEK 157 times that distance out of its course. At several corners we used a line, and dropped the canoe down carefully. At others, we turned her head up stream, and, keeping good steerage way with the paddles, dodged down stern first among the rocks and snags. We camped before reaching the lake, as a snow- storm increased the little darkness after sunset, and it was hard enough to keep clear of the various obstructions even in good daylight. The next morning brought a repetition of sudden alarms and narrow shaves, but at eight o'clock we ran the last rapid and shot out into the quiet water of the lake without even a scratch on the canoe. Durincr the whole of the long journey we made in the summer with this canoe, although we ran some big rapids, and had to face some bad weather on the Lower Yukon, and afterwards on the Behring Sea, we never encountereil .1 stretch of water that tested our capabilities as canoe men so much as the first short run of fifteen or twenty miles down the Ptarmigan Creek. \\ CHAPTER X EXPEDITION TOWARDS SOURCE OF PELLV RIVER i.i! .: ill ' Disease among the rabbits — Swallows' nests — Drying tish — Upper W'Uy Lake — Gull Lake — Ptarmigans nesting anil signs of summer — Accident to rifle — A bad miss — Dogs go astray ; their instinct. At the fish camp Archie had been doing pretty well with the nets, and thinking we had enough fish to start with, we set out on the following day to examine the source of the Pelly, taking with us, in addition to our own canoe, one of the little dug- outs that we took the liberty of borrowing from the old Indian camp. She was exceedingly useful as a hunting canoe, as I could paddle or pole her ap stream quickly and quietK" while the men wer V 6^ :i?^ -'^ ^ rv^ 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. MS80 (716) 872-4503 % 2. <^ s ^A I- i :'* i< ' ^ »1\ ! \/ '. i «... • l.r. I 164 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST on some of the maps, from Indian report, as the upper of the two Pelly Lakes, but it is of such inGlgnificant size that the Indians would have been hardly Hkely to make mention of it, unless it had the reputation of being a good fishing - ground, which we certainly found it to be. It is a curiously shaped little lake, consisting of two round basins, each half a mile in length, connected by a narrow, canal -like passage about the same length. The river does not pass through the lake, but just touches the north side of the we'.tern basin and leaves it immediately. The shores are everywhere swampy but rise at once into low irregular hills covered with willow scrub, which here seems to have entirely taken the place of the spruce timber. When the nets were set, and the pile of fish on the drying stages was increasing rapidly, I did a little exploration of the surrounding country. About 5 miles to the eastward I found that the river came through another little lake, and afterwards turned to the south-east. Leaving the main stream, I followed up a small tributary, coming in through a wide pass from the north, and soon crossed a swampy divide, on the far side of which was a creek, running to the north. Another SOURCE OF PELL Y iilVER 165 5 miles brought me to a lake about 4 miles in lengtli, which I called Gull Lake, from the numbers of black - headed gulls that had selected it for a breeding-ground. I camped for the night at the end of this lake, levying tribute on the gulls' nests for supper and breakfast, and intended to follow- down a good-sized creek that was flowing through a broad valley towards the north, but in the morn- ing it was alternately raining and snowing so hard that I turned back for the fish lake. I was sorry afterwards that I did not go on a few miles farther. At the time, I thought the creek would most prob- ably bend to the westward and join a tributary of the Pelly, the mouth of which we had noticed just below the canon, although the volume of wat*^r leaving the lake seemed rather too great to be accounted for in this manner. Judging by the light of our later discovery (made after we had passed through the Pelly Lakes on our down-stream journey) of a large river heading to the north-east- ward — and really entitled to be called the main stream of the Pelly — I have little doubt that if I had followed down the creek draining Gull Lake I should have reached the bank of this river at a point perhaps 50 miles farther up stream than its 'i U \ \t < ) ! '! Ei ^ 1: ■ CI..: 3 ^r i wt 1 1 u 1 < V i«u. is' 1 if i66 THROUGH THE SUR ARCTIC I- OR EST junction with the river running through the Felly Lakes. The r:aln poured down in torrents for a couple of days, accompanied by thunder and light- ning, interfering with our fish -drying operations, and preventing our start for the head of the river, but on 5th June we were able to break camp, and started with heavy loads for men and dogs in a south-easterly direction, reaching the bank of the river again after a straight cut of five or six miles. The thick willow scrub, with which the country is covered, interfered greatly with the rate of travel, making especially hard work for the dogs to get their bulky side -packs b( tween the bushes. They required constant watching, too, as they soon dis- covered that the easiest method of lightening their loads was to devour the dried fish they were carry- ing, and we sometimes found all the dogs playing havoc with a pack that had slipped off in forcing through the bushes. The river had now become very narrow, and was little better than a succession of rapids, quite unfit for navigation by even a small canoe. The valley, running south-east by south, is here about two miles in width, bounded by detached mountains, separated by broad passes, and increasing in height towards f T SOURCE OF PELLY K/VEK 167 • the head of the valley, which continues in the same direction, although the river makes a sharp i)end to the eastward about 20 miles in a straight line from our fish lake, and then heads back, with a sharp rise, to the north, winding from side to side of a swampy gorge less than a mile in width. At the head of this cul-de-sac, three torrents of melting snow collect their waters and form what we sup- posed at the time to be the source of the Pelly. This was rather a disappointing finish to our expedi- tion, as we had e.xpected to find the Pelly a larger stream heading in a more northerly direction, and had even some hopes of crossing the divide at its head and making an attempt to reach the Mac- kenzie by some stream flowing to the eastward. But the distance we had come by the river we had followed was so short, and in such an unsatis- factory direction, that we could not yet be very far away from Macpherson Lake, and, if we crossed the range of mountains ahead of us. wc should only find the water draining into Hyland River at the best, and more probably into the Frances. We camped at the head of the gorge in a patch of dwarf spruce, where ptarmigan were in great num- bers and afforded us an easy way of making a li t68 TllROl'C.ll THE SUBARCTIC FOREST V' " r.; • ••I' ■ Uf I... \ living. Our fish supply was nearly at an end, as we had been several days on the way, and a good many of the fish were lost or eaten by the dogs. Alick had missed the only moose that had been seen, although there were a good many tracks ; but we did very little hunting, as a moose is almost too big to handle when travelling on foot — either most of the meat is wasted, or a delay is caused by camping close to the carcass until it is finished, so it is really better to kill small game as required for the day's rations. The first ptarmigan's nest, containing five fresh eggs, was found on loth June, close to the camp ; in fact there were nests all round us, these birds seeming almost gregarious in their breeding habits at this particular spot. It was a place very suitable for their purpose, a steep side hill exposed to the full power of the sun, covered with a thick, low growth of willow and stunted spruce, the latter spreading out into a dense trailing bush within a couple of feet of the ground. The birds were, of course, in full summer plumage, look- ing their very best, and it seemed a great pity to have to kill any of them. They had no fear of us, and as soon as we turned into our blankets they pitched on the little bushes all round the camp and SOURCE OF PKLL Y K/VKR 169 1 discussed the strange invasion with evident dis- approval. The long laughing chuckle of the cock ptarmigan — a very different note to his poor little winter gurgle — is as suggestive of the coming of summer in the Canadian North as the cry of the cuckoo in an Ii!nglish copse. It may be heard in the first warm days of May, and speaks at once of running water loosed from the grasp of winter, of the green moss showing up in patches through the melting snow, and the little buds shooting on birch and willow. A few pairs of black-headed gulls were breeding down in the swamp, and small birds were much more abundant than one would suppose at this elevation and in such a northerly latitude. Among them were the Canadian robin and black- bird, apparently happy enough, but looking rather out of place among the ptarmigan and the snow that was still lying on the ground in patches. Vegetation, of course, was much later at this altitude than we had left it at the fish lake, where the willows were already in leaf; here the buds were only just formed, and no flowers were visible, although several varieties were in full bloom along the banks of the lower river. And now an accident happened that would have < I : 1 i ■- r 1 'I V 1 1 : t 1 . ; ! ; i ■' 1 t I m •«» ' < IX. ■ < •<;; u M <: !»■• •I' i li;; ■: ' \- tv , «» ■ 1" ,r • U 1 i{' i ', mt ■ ••I '. ' ' I -» f ! ; 170 THROUGH THI-: SVIiAliCTlC 1-0 REST been triviiil enoujijh if it had taken place in civilisa- tion, but very serious on an expedition of this kind. I had been to the top of a small mountain to collect some geological specimens, and get what view I could of the surrounding country, and reached the camp just in time to see Alick throw a large stick of firewood down on my Winchester rifle, which I had left with him to shoot ptarmigan for supper. The stock was broken and some of the inside mechanism bent so badly that, without any tools, it was hardly possible to repair the damage. We pulled it to pieces and patched it up as well as we could, with the unsatisfactory result that it would go off occasionally, but averaged three miss- fires to every shot — a most unreliable weapon for a man to depend upon when the rifle is his bread-winner. Smith had a small "44 Winchester, and I still had a Paradox with a very few ball cartridges, but the un- serviceable condition of my long range rifle was afterwards the cause of our hurried journey down the Pelly below the lakes, where I should like to have spent a month or two in exploring the heads of some of the tributary streams coming in from a range of mountains to the westward of the river. As there seemed to be no object in continuing our SOURCE OF PELL V RIVER I7« '\ journey to the westward, we turned back down- stream and reached the fish lake after ten days' absence, found it as reliable as ever, catchini; :wenty-five fish the same night. Amonc; them was a giant white-fish, weighing at least twelve pounds, though the men all put it down as over twenty pounds — a remarkable fish to come out of such a small lake. The Indians whom we met at the head of Frances Lake had told us of a fish they sometimes catch in the Pelly Lake, resembling the white-fish, but which they call the "Salmon's Cousin," on account of its size. The ordinary white-fish seldom exceeds five or six pounds in any lake, but there is little doubt as to the identity of this specimen, as I have seen white-fish in many different parts of Canada, and my crew were all Manitoba men who had worked at the fisheries on Lake Winnipeg. The overland portage and the inevitable pitching of the canoe occupied a couple of days, and then we started on our long down - stream journey. The water was higher than when we came up, and most of the rocks were covered, so that we had no difficulty in running all the little rapids. A few miles down, a moose jumped into the water and \ -si .i- f: ;; 7.' n I 'f., \ I*.. ^ •<;■ l.r I... rf' .*•' J ■•!' 1 ' X. : !■ I. 1 V ' ! t ,: !;■ cli 173 THROUGH THE SVIi ARCTIC l- OR EST ii crossed the river just in front of the canoe. In some unaccountable manner, the bowsman missed it altogether, though it gave him an easy enough chance. 1 tried a shot from the stern, as we were badly in need of meat, and if we could kill a moose now none would be wasted, but a miss-fire was the only result, and our promised feast went crashing through the willows. It is a good rule in a canoe to let the bowsman do all the shooting, and it is only in cases of emergency, or in still water, that the sternsman should hazard a shot, unless it is at an animal that appears behind the canoe, when there is no time to swing the bow round. There is usually plenty of work in looking after the safety of the canoe in swift-running water, without taking the risk of blowing the next man's head off if a swirl of the current happens to bring it in line with the animal you mean to shoot. During the excitement caused by the moose, all the dogs disappeared, but, thinking they would find their way down to the old camp, we did not waste much time in waiting for them, though we had afterwards a good deal of trouble to hunt them up. Everybody was rather gloomy at the loss of the expected meat feast, but a few geese were killed f sou/cc/c OF rEi.r.y rivf.k «73 In lower down, and the lake looked so pleasant, ;iOW that the ice had gone and the deciduous trees were all in leaf, that even the unlucky individual who had missed the moose recovered his spirits before we reached our old campinij-ground at the mouth of Ptarmigan Creek. As we still had part of our cargo stowed away at the place where we had first launch(*d the canoe — 5 miles up the creek — I sent the men to bring it down, while I made an expedi- tion to the foot of the lake in the dug-out, to find the outlet of the river, and sec if there were any Indians in the neighbourhood. My passage along the lake was interrupted by thunderstorms, with violent wind-squalls, and as my little canoe was hardly seaworthy, I had several times to run for the shore and wait for a more favourable chance. On reaching the outlet I passed into a swift-running stream, and within half a mile found myself at the head of a rapid. Here I landed to pick out a course, and discovered another lake just ahead. The dug- out ran gaily down through the broken water, and I crossed a round lake a mile and a half in width. After another short stretch of current with another rapid, I came to a narrow sheet of water 3 miles in length, and camped at its western extremity. An ' I- < fci ? if; ' if I m ^^Hre* «74 TUKOUUH Tllli SUBARCnC FOREST < 0:1 1: • ••' •«;■ u u. k ■ cvcninjj['s moose hunt productjil nothing, but from the top of a small hill 1 had an excellent view of the valley ahead, stretching away in a south-westerly direction through a Hat, forested country, broken only in one spot by an isolated group of bare-topped mountains. The shores of these small lakes are everywhere swampy, and thick moss covers the ground between the stunted spruce and the tamarac. In the stretches of riv('r betwjcn the lakes the banks are in places high and gravelly, and most of the timber has been burnt recently, but I could see no signs of Indians having been here since the previous autumn. In the course of these long expeditions, made in company with half-breeds, it is always a relief to get away by yourself for a night or two, especially in the summer, when there is no trouble about the cold, and you can lie down anywhere without digging out the snow and cutting a sui^ply of [)ine brush and fire- wood. The endless chatter of the half-breeds, good fellows enough though they may be for their work, becomes tiresome when you have once heard all their self-glorifying stories and the performances of the various dogs they have driven at different times K*.*' P- SOURCE OF PEI.l.Y KIVER '75 >> W of their lives. It is always the same indetinite yarn about some long day's jourpey they once made, the time at which they left camp, the number of halts they made to boil the kettle, .md the time of arrival at the next camp, after travelling an unmeasured distance. Or else they discuss the valiant '^' ds of some half-breed bruiser of Manitoba, and the punching of heads which seems greatly i i fashion along the Red River on New Year's Day and other festive occasions. A pleasant change from this is the quiet camp all to yourself, with )our little canoe hauled up on the shore of a peaceful lake, where the cries of the wild birds and animals seem far more in keeping with the surroundings than the guffaws of a crowd of tobacco- chewing half-breeds, lacking both the decency of the white man and the dignified reserve which still marks the true bred native of the Northern forest. I reached the main camp late on the following evening, after making a risky crossing of the lake, to learn that the men had found the cache un- touched, and had brought down half the load, but that no fish were to be caught at the mouth of Ptarmigan Creek, and that the dogs had not yet come in from the Upper Pelly, where we had aban- .1 »■ [ I ., 1 ' : i '' c • «1« i:; : i < '■ < ::.■« 176 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST doned them three days before. The next morning the men made another journey to the cache, with orders to bring down everything, and I paddled back up-stream to hunt up the dogs. I found two of them sitting gloomily in our old camp at the fish slough, a couple of miles from the head of the lake. They looked very wretched as, besides being lean and hungry, they had been rending each other, and the flies had irritated the sore places till the dogs were nearly crazy. The other two were not so easily found, and it was not till I had nearly reached the head of navigation, and the sun was long down, that I heard a dog howling in the woods. He came to the sound of a rifle-shot, but was in. a worse con- dition than the others, and refused to move any further till I had given him a duck and a white-fish to cheer him up. The canoe was so small that he would be nearly certain to capsize it if he came on board, so I drifted down slowly and made him run through the brush along the bank, after I had hunted a couple of hours for the fourth missing dog and finally given him up as lost for ever. It is worthy of record, as an example of what the faculty we call instinct can accomplish, that this other dog turned up at the Lower Post on the ORES T next morning le cache, with nd I paddled I found two mp at the fish id of the lake. es being lean ich other, and till the dogs were not so early reached IS long down, s. He came a worse con- move any 1 a white-fish mall that he he came on ade him run after I had irth missing ever. of what the h, that this *ost on the SOURCE OF PELL Y RIVER 177 Liard, very thin, and with his nose and mouth full of porcupine quills, late in the following October, having not only found his way, but also hunted his food, for a distance of 250 miles, and this, too, without the advantage of his back track to follow, as we had come up on the ice, which had all dis- appeared before the dog was lost. (! N I ■a: CHAPTER XI DOWN THE TELLY RIVER W ■ ci:: 1*1- l.r. 1.,.. Salmi m a long distance froir, the sea — Claims of I'elly River to be considered main branch of Yukon — Scarcity of provisions — A cow moose — Slate KapiJ — Iloole River — A grizzly bear and the residt of a broken rifle. I REACHED the camp at sunrise, and, after hauling up the dug-out in a she ly spot to keep her from cracking, we loaded up the canoe and started along the lake, with the dogs running on the beach, to continue our voyage down the Pelly. In the third lake we tried the nets off the point of a little island — the only island, by the way. in any of these lakes — but again without success. On the following day we passed out of the lakes and found the river running, with a good current, between low, gravelly banks, bearing many signs of old Indian encampments. The huge stages for drying fish, and the traps carefully stowed away for future use, suggested great abundance of salmon in the autumn. I 1 I" POir.V THE PELLV RIVER •79 while the skeletons of these fish were to be seen everywhere scattered along the banks of the little creeks. Every year, no doubt, the Pelly Indians camp here to gather their harvest, which needs no sowing, but comes of its own accord from the distant waters of the Behring Sea. I have never heard any satisfactory e.xplanation as to the reasons some of the salmon have for pushing on to the very head of a stream, when spawning grounds seemingly of equal attraction are to be found close to the sea up any of the tributaries. Why, for instance, do some of the Yukon fish turn up the first scream tiowing in from the tundra, and others run up the main river 2300 miles to the Pelly Lakes ? And what a river it is, to afford such a long run without a waterfall to stop the passage of a fish ! The country is here very level, and heavily wooded with spruce of larger growth than we had seen round the lakes, interspersed with a plentiful supply of small cottonwood. After following down the stream for about 8 miles in a general south-west direction, although with many turns on the course of the stream, we were suddenly surprised, on rounding a bend, by i! ri < I/'. I u < / ' 1 1 80 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST running into a big broad river heading a little to the eastward of north, with a strontr current swollen by the melting snows — fully three times the size of the stream that we had been following with the mistaken idea that we were exploring the source of the Pelly, whereas we had in reality only suc- ceeded in reaching the head of a comparativel\- small tributary. We put ashore at once and stretched the nets across the mouth of a small slough, where we hoped to replenish our supply of provisions, which was now very scanty. Our flour and bacon were practically finished, and the nets and rifles had produced hardly anything lately, so that there seemed to be some danger of a period of starvation setting in — and this, too, v hen we had a chance to explore a river unknown to any white man, and unmarked in any map, heading away towards the distant range of high snow-capped mountains that were just visible from our camp. This must be the river which the Indians speak of when they tell their stories of the evil spirits that live in the black canons among the mountains, as the natural features of the stream running through the lakes are rather tame, and not at all likely n> give foundation to romance. Secatz must have m DOWN THE PELLY RIVER i8i heard of this river from the Indians at F" ranees Lake, but either thought it was not worth while mentioning to us, or else considered it better for our own safety that we should know nothing about it. The high stage of the water, which was still rising, seemed to indicate that the river must have its source in mountains of great altitude, and at a considerable distance from where we first saw it, as by this time — 20th June — the stream draining the lakes had fallen several feet, and the mountains near its head had been nearly bare of snow a fort- night before. It is probable, therefore, that when the main stream of the Pelly is explored, it will be found to head directly on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, perhaps offering an easy route to one of the small streams falling into the Mac- kenzie between Fort Simpson and Fort Norman. Th* addition to the total length of the Pelly, which has always been calculated from the supposed position of the lakes, will help to prove that river's claim to be considered the main branch of the Yukon, although the Lewes, which joins the Pelly at Fort Selkirk, has usually been looked upon as the more important stream 'jf the two. ppp 182 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST I/. 1:.: u. .1' IS . i, i^ 2 ;f «t. , It soon became evident that we could make no use of the discovery we had made — our chance was missed when we turned up stream from the main Pelly Lake. If we had known anything about this stream, and had reached the spot at which we were now camped in the middle of May, we should have had a fortnight's low water just after the break-up of the ice, besides a sufficient supply of provisions to enable us to push on quickly while the bars were uncovered and the current slack. In that time we might have .penetrated a long way into a totally unexplored country, and have reached the source of a really important river, instead of wasting our time in exploring a miserable little stream that led to nothing. But now, apart from the provision question, it was almost impossible to travel up stream. The water was running high among the willows that fringe the banks, a savage current was bringing down huge rafts of drift logs, and all the numerous difficulties presented by a large river in flood-time were fully developed. The nets caught a few fish during the two days we waited to see if the water would fall, but hardly enough for our immediate use, and there was no prospect of a supply of dried fish to lay by for DOWN THE PELL V RIVER .83 emergencies. Moose-hunting was again a failure, and, as frequently happens, the geese and ducks all disappeared when there was most need of them. The periods of good and bad times are always very distinctly marked when the rifle and net are de- pended upon entirely for the supply of provisions. No matter how good a hunter or fisherman you may be, there are sure to be spells o{ scanty living if none of the party have any local knowledge as to the best places for game or fish, and you often come across a strip of country entirely deserted by birds and beasts. Fishing in a large river during high water is seldom satisfactory, as a net can only be set in some quiet backwater to be clear of the strong current and drifting logs ; and such places are not always to be found. On the third day I reluctantly gave orders to proceed down stream, as we had several hundred miles to go before we could reach any of the trading posts on the Yukon, and the first part of the dis- tance was through an unknown country, where we might encounter bad rapids and long portages enough to cause a delay that would be '•erlous, unless we had better luck in our hunting. At first our course lay through the same flat, !l I wr 184 THROUGH THE SUHARCTIC FOREST \\ < i 1 ■ • J -.. , IS 186 TIJROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST There are no matches that would light a fire to dry the soaking clothes ; no axe to build a raft with ; nothing to eat ; no ritle, ammunition, or fish-hooks with which to kill game or fish that would provide a means of subsistence to a properly equipped party. The only means of progression is a missha[)en ungovernable raft of drift timber bound together with willow twigs and turned loose down stream till it Hies to pieces on the first rock, or drifts under an overhanging log-jam, each accident being likely to further reduce the number of the crew. On this occasion, however, none of these un- pleasant things happened ; and by Jropping the canoe down carefully with a line from point to point, and making an easy portage of a quarter of a mile on the north side of the river, we avoided all the danger, and camped at the foot of the rapid. Leaving the men to carry over the cargo, I went for an evening's moose -hunt, and, finding a fresh track, was lucky enough to come across a big cow moose stripping the willow-bushes for her evening- feed on the edge of a small muddy lake. It was an awkward spot for a stalk, but, after a long detour, I managed to creep into a bunch of willows towards which she was heading. There I lay in a DOWN THE PELL V RIVER rfi7 pool of water for an hour at the mercy of the mosquitoes, which an; particularly bad along the Upper Pelly ; and knowing that, if the moose came within shot, there was an even chance of a miss-fire from my broken rille, to say nothing of the possi- bility of missing or lightly wounding the animal ; and that, if I did not kill, there would be little supper in camp that night, as we had absolutely nothing left but a few pounds of Hour that we had been using with great care. But everything went well ; the moose came straight towards me, and finally stood broadside at fifty yards. The ride went off at the first pull, and a death-shot was the result. I snapped the next cartridge three times in suc- cession as the moose ran into the lake. But it made no difference, as she turned over and la',' floating among a bunch of yellow water-lilies within ten yards of the shore. She was much too heavy for me to handle alone in the deep water, so I went back to camp at once to get the men to give me a hand. We hauled her out with a line, and little pieces of meat were cooking on sticks over a fire before the skin was fairly off the animal. The sun was rising again before we reached the bank of the river with our first loads of meat. I m » 1 < '14 7: u . 13:^ < ; 1 >4: , \ l i i ■ it 188 TIIIiOVGII THE SlliARCTlC FOREST To the sportsman who hunts for trophies of the chase from a well -provisioned camp and at the correct season of the year, this kiliin^^ of a cow moose in the middle of summer must no doubt seem a despicable i)erformance. Yet I can assure him that, although a big pair of antlers are a more lasting triumph, and long afterwards may serve to dispel the doubts of his grandchildren as to the fact of his having been a remarkably fine fellow in his youth, there is no present satisfaction like that of bringing a load of meat, cow or bull, summer or winter, into a camp where provisions have been all too scarce for a season. Your men are really pleased that you have been successful in your hunt, and instead of the growl that with half-breeds and Indians usually follows the order to go and bring in the head, everybody is glad enough to rush off and bring in as big a load of meat as he can carry. At the foot of the rapid, which we came to know as Slate Rapid, to distinguish it from others that we passed, we set up the lodge, and built stages for drying meat, as the weather was too warm and the flies too plentiful to keep fresh meat for any length of time. And then, for three days, we relapsed into the habits of the Indian, and held one of those m\ /)Ol!\y THE PEI.LY RIVER 1I9 meat orgies so dear to the heart of men who hunt their livelihood in the northern forests, and only to be really enjoyed after a lengthy i)eriod of hard times. During these three days it rained in torrents, and, in fi>ct, for the last month there had been very little fine weather. I should imagine this heavy rain- fall to be an exceptional occurrence, as the whole appearance of the country was typical of a dry climate. The water in the river reached its highest level on 25th June, and after that date ft 1 quickly and continuously. When the rain once stojiped, a spell of bright hot weather set in, which lasted till we neared the mouth of the Yukon, without any rain except an occasional thunderstorm. The gravel bars in the river were bright with (lowers of many varieties ; butterflies, especially the big black and yellow swallowtail, were in considerable numbers, and summer had fairly begun. Below the rapid, the river continued its course to the south-west, with many windings and a good current of about four miles an hour. Islands soon began to show up in mid-stream, and the gravel bars must be of great size during low water, although now they wei nearly wholly submerged. Cut banks of sand an(. stratified gravel, or some- IfVW I (JO THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST it tt 0-; kii^ji uf,,, ', times black clay, were frequent, and the timber increased in size and was more freely Interspersed with Cottonwood as we dropped down stream. Now that we had abundance of meat on board, we often saw moose swimmino^ the river, or standing up to their bellies in the water to keep clear of the (lies, but we always left them unmolested, and they seemed to take little notice of the canoe unless we happened to pasj to windward of them. It is a great pity we did not see all this game before we reached the main stream, as, if we had found means of supporting ourselves, I should certainly have waited a week or two for the water to go down, and then pushed on as far as possible towards the head of the river. I>ut it was too late to turn back now, as a day's run down stream means a long distance when you have to fight your way back against the current. A few miles below the rapid two large creeks come in from the north, but on the south side there is only one creek of any importance until the moiith of Campbell Crejk, which enters at a dis- tance, by rough reckoning, of 35 miles below the rapid, the main direction of the Pelly being now more westerly west. Campbell Creek was named by Dr. Dawson, who followed it down in 1887 .:v»r '*<'» I :est the timber interspersed )\vn stream. ;)n board, we or standing clear of the ed, and they 3e unless we tm. It is a le before we found means rtainly have ^o down, and s the head of ick now, as a stance when the current. larufe creeks south side ce until the rs at a dis- . below the being now was named n in 1887 nnUW THE PELLY RIVER 191 when making the portage from Frances Lake ; and close to its mouth is the site of the Pelly Banks Post. But we did not succeed in finding any trace of the old buildiniifs. We had now come to the end of the unexplored I'l.LLV KlVLk Al THE JLNCITUN WTlll IIOOl.i: KlVKk. part of the river, and the rest of our journe\- on the Pelly, a distance of over 300 miles, was made easy bv consulting 1 )r. Dawson's account of the river and the excellent maps which he has published with this report. V- ■" wmmr 192 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST tC;: I'll' \& 0;-; :} r JF A large stream, the Hoole River, so named by Campbell after his interpreter, joins the Pelly ■^■\, miles below Campbell Creek. It is a wide shallow river, coming in from the southward and heading among the Pelly Mountains, which here run parallel to the river at a distance of 10 miles, and seem to be an open grassy range, surmounted by square rocky summits of great elevation. At the mouth of the Hoole River there is a rather formidable rapid on the Pelly, with a heavy sea during high water. There is an easy portage on the north side, but, by lightening the canoe, we ran through in safety, though not withoi- shipping a good deal of water. This rapid should be run on the north side, with a sharp turn to the right just oft" the pitch of an overhanging bluft'; and, by keeping just outside the eddy, the water will be found com- paratively smooth. A good -sized boat might be allowed to follow the current, but for a small canoe the sea is dangerous on the left side of the channel. Here the appearance of the country suddenly changes, especially on the north side of the river. Open grassy benches covered with groves of small poplar take the place of the denser forests, and, at o named the Pellv 5 a wide vard and lich here lo miles, rmounted tion. At a rather eavy sea )rtage on e, we ran lipping a e run on It just oft keeping jnd com- night be a small le of the suddenly he river. of small s. and, at o V . i:;;: •<: <4 lli J)(>U W THE PELL J ' A7 / V; A' 195 a short distance back from the river, willow-covered swamps and little lakes are frequently met with. In these spots, on almost any eveninj.^, by climbing some small elevation, you can see a moose taking his evening feed, or, by watching the long grassy benches you may, towards sundown, see a couple of black spots shambling along the side hills, and know that you can probably get a shot at a bear if there is no meat in camp. One eveninsj, I saw a irrizzlv come out of the woods as I was smoking a pipe on a small hill overlooking the wild stream of Hoole Canon, a few miles below the Hoole Ri\-er. and, as he was so close. I thought I mifjht as well trv for some bear meat. But while I was stalking him, he h..d been travelling quickly towards me, and I was suddenly surprised to find him eating berries in a patch of wild -currant bushes within ten )ards of me. I raised the ritle quickly but coukl not induce it to go off. Five times the cartridge snapped, and the bear went on with his currants, but when I worked the lever to throw up a fresh cartridge, he came to the conclusion that he had given me enough chances, and ran like a rabbit for a thick grove of poplars. When he was well amon;;^ the ii < m 1 I;'- 196 TIIROUCU THE sun ARC lie FOREST trees the ritle roared off in (^rand style, and, of course, missed the bear. A fiL,diting grizzly, such as are always encountered by the whisky -shop bear - hunters of the West, would ha\'e had a splendid opportunity of displaying his powers that evening at Hoole Canon. iC < ">. . *■ i nd, of , such - shop lad a s that CHAPTER XII DOWN Till'. I'KLLV AND YUKON RIVKRS I'cirta^'c ni lldolc Canon - \ariflifs of nionntain sheep — Ross River— .Mac- niillan anil Su wnrl Rivers—Dilticiilties of prospectini;;— Granite Cafion— I'orl Selkirk -The Lewes River - I'irst run of Salmon —(invernnient officials and j^anihlers. HooLE Canon is by far the worst impediment to navio-ation in the w^hole cours(; of the Peliy-Yukon from the Lakes to the Behring Sea. It is abso- lutely impassable for any kind of boat. I after- wards met a miner at Fort)- Mile Creek, on the Yukon, who told me that a party of prospectors had once run through Hoole Canon in safety, but I think he must have been testing my credulity, as I took a good look at the water while we were making the portage, and feel sure that any man who enters Hoole Canon from above goes to his death. The current sets full on to the face of the bluffs in many places, there are several rocks in mid-stream, and besides a heavy sea, the whirlpools, as seen from ^ »1 (;■ ' i rA'oA' a7/7-;a'.v '99 Ten miles down stream tlu; lY-lly is joiiictl by a pretty little tributary named Ketza River, after one of Campbell's Indians. It comes down with a ra[)id current from the Pelly Mountains, which here approach the main river more nearly than at any iiii: m;Ai) uv iiuiti.i. canon. Other point in its course. These mountains are probably inhabited by mountain sheep, as they look to be splendidly suited to that animal's tastes, and in an old Indian camp at the canon I found two or three sheep's skulls, besides several scraps of skin. The horns were exactly like those of the big-horn r ^ P p t ! ! i 1 :( :^ :l 'c;:t'' i:,:: •(,1 <: :2V JCO ///A'Dri,// I III-: sir,ARCTic i-uREsr of more southiM'ii l.itituilcs, ami t!ie skin L;aN<- no si^ns of the urradatioii of colour known to exist between the true Ovis Montana and the Ovis Dallii of the northern moinitains, lint if my rille had been in nK^re serviceable condition, I should cer- tainly have hunted the P(;ll\' range, and tried to gather some information with regard to these sheep, as I cannot help thinking that too little attention has been paid to the widely different a[)[)earance presented by the mountain sheep in different locali- ties as higher latitudes are yained, and it is very rarely that any authority on North American fauna makes mention of the big-horn, except as he appears in his better known haunts in Wyoming, Montana, or British Columbia. It would take a man a long lifetime to follow up all the Indian stories he may hear in the North of a high mountain many weeks' travel from the nearest trading-post, whereon there exists a kind of a sheep which has onlv been seen bv the narrator ; vet a good deal of information might be ob'ained with regard to the distribution of the big-horn, and the variation in its appearance, if the men in charge of the outlying posts of the Hudson's Bay and Alaska Commercial Company were asked to collect a few />oir.y /■///■: rEi.i.y axd yikox rii-lrs 20\ ot tlic skins from the liulians who of course never bring unsaleable skins in without being specially told to do so— and to forward them, when they send out their yearly shipment of furs, to anybody who was interested in the subject. Ten miles below the Ketza, Ross River joins the Pelly from the north. It is about the same size as the Pelly, and is. as far as we could see, a fine, navigable stream, heading towards the north-east- ward, but its upper waters have never been e.xplored. The same remark applies to all the large tributaries entering the Pelly-Yukon from the north-east, with the exception of the Porcupine, which joins the main stream at old Fort Yukon just below the Arctic Circle, and has been used for ma.iy years by the Hudson's Bay Company as a trading route from the Mackenzie to the Yukon. The sources of the Ross, the iMacmillan, and the Stewart Rivers— three really large streams, draining an immense tract of country on the western slope ot the Rocky Mountains — remain quite unknown, although the lower part of the Stewart was for a few years the scene of a fairly prosperous mining camp. Of course, the prospecting and exploration of these streams is a matter beyond the capability ■i "m < < ::?v "!. , 203 rUROrC.ll THE sluarctic iukest of the miners, antl c;iiinot be carried out without a good deal of expense. The distances are so great, and the up-stream work so laborious during the few short months of summer, that it is a whole season's work to reach even the mouth of one of these rivers. The buying and transport of provisions for two summers and a winter would prove a heavy strain on the [prospector's pocket, and the second season would be again occupied in travelling, with little time for working the bars. So that there is really little inducement for miners to und(;rtake a long ex- pedition of this kind, and probably many years will have passed before the long strip of country between the Porcupine and the Liard attracts much attention, rhe assumption is that it is worthless except for the mineral wealth it may contain, and there are still large tracts of land more accessible, and presumably more fit for settlement in vaiioas parts of Canada, that will occupy the Governn\er t surveyors for some time to come. The tributaries entering from the southward are, of course, much smaller, as the strip of country lying between the Pelly and the Lewes is of com- paratively small extent. They are all of the same character — shoal, rapid, and rocky, contrasting /loir.v Tin: /'/:/./.]■ axd jtava' a'/i7-:a's 20- Strongly with the deep, steady tlow of the rivers that have their sources in the main ranoe of the Rockies. We prospected most of the streams, but nevei obtained any satisfactory result, although colours ot gold maj- be found on ner\rly all the gravel bars. The distance from the Ross to the IVIacmillan is given by Dr. Dawson as 173 miles, without any impediment to canoe navigation, although there are many small rapids. The worst of these is close to the mouth of the Glenlyon, which comes in from the south, midway between the two large streams, but it can be run without danger at any stage of water. In several places the river broadens out and is much broken up with islands separated by narrow, winding channels. Among these islands we were always sure of finding geese in great quantities. The young birds were well grown by this time and often gave us a good chase on the long gravel bars which were showing up as the water fell, but unless we could run them down in the open, they generally escaped in the thick growth of willows. Moose were still seen frequently, but as long as we could make a living with the wild-fowl we left them alone. Foxes are remarkably numerous all along the I i' I mm IM 1 1.14 "11 3', , uli i; 204 IH ROUGH THE SUBARCTIC I- OR EST Pcllx', I)iit, wilh ihc execution oi Ivnx and a verv few l)ca\cr, the other t\ir-bearing animals seem to be scarce. In this stretch of river we often noticed rafts tied up to tlie banks, evidently used l)y the Indians for crossinL{ the Pellv, but we did not fall in with anv of the wandering bands. It is curious that thev do not use canoes on such an easiU' navigable stream, but prefer to pack a load on their backs and make a strai"-ht course for their huniin<--<)rounds, crossinq; and rc-crossinr^ the main stream to cut off a detour, and onl\' camping on its banks when they know that tlie salmon are runninq'. Tlieir fish-dryincj stao-es mav l)e seen at eve/v suitable s|)ot, but it was as yet too early lor the salmon to have covered the long distance from the se-a. The couptr\' still maintains its pleasant appear- ance — open, grassy benches lie close to the river, and small cottonwoods cover the rolling hills in the background. The immediatt; banks of the river are sandw or o'ravellv buHs, with sometimes a lonLT stretch of !)lack, h'o/c:n earth. Tliexe places should be a\'C/ided when the oromul is thawino; out, as huo'e pieces of the l)t lay ahead, and should be able to buy pro- \isions from the trading-posts instead of hunting them for ourselves. The men were of the same way of thinking, and as soon as the first glamour of FOREST DOWN THE FELLY A\D YUKON R/VERS 209 acmillan, on 8th the Lewes, and Fort Selkirk an ; west side of the rselves in com- ) had just passed Lewes we heard de world. But n emers^inq: from on of a mining ciaily noticeable, encampments of I Lakes we had the Lower Post ly self-reliant in :h of wilderness, non highway to ng country lay se lay down an known countrv uncertainty as le to buy pro- sad of hunting e of the same rst glamour of the high living was over they came to the conclusion that paddling down the long stretches of the Yukon was too easy work, and everybody would have welcomed a rapid or even a portage as a change from the monotony of the long uneventful days that now ensued. Fort Selkirk stands in a convenient position for both the Indian fur trade and the con- stant summer trade of in-going and out-coming miners who have been tempted to try their luck in the far-off diggings of the great river of Alaska. Most of these miners leave the salt water at the head of Lynn Canal in May. and haul their summer supplies on sleighs across the high mountains by the Chilkoot Pass, aiming to arrive at the Lewes in time to build boats in readiness for the break-up of the ice. Several lakes lie in the course of this stream, and if the ice is still sound many of the miners continue hauling their sleighs till they reach the running water, as time is valuable in these northern l:^titudes, where the open season is all too short for a man who really means to work instead of being merely a hanger-on to a prosperous camp. After the ice has broken, the down-stream run of 600 miles to Fortv-Mile Creek is easilv made, as there are only two canons where portages are HI' < 4 J «*.• •lO THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST necessary, but of course the return in the autumn is a different matter altogether, and involves much labour and frequent hardships. If a man is working a paying claim, and yet does not wish to pass an eight months' winter in inactivity, the question naturally arises as to how long he is to continue mining and leave himself time to get out of the country before he is caught by the running ice in the upper waters of the Lewes, or exposed to the terrific storms which are said to be frequent on the summit of the coast range during the autumn months. The Lewes River was discovered by Campbell in 1842, during his exploration of the Pelly, and was named by him after one of the Hudson's Bay chief factors. A fort was established at the confluence of the Lewes and Pelly in 1S48, and maintained for several years, but it was finally pillaged b- the coast Indians from Chilkat and Chilkoot, who dis- covered that its existence interfered with their own trade with the tribes of the interior. No resistance was possible for the few inhabitants of the post, and they were ejected without bloodshed, the Indians taking off as many of the trading goods as they could jarry, and escaping the attack of the local ■\:.: w C FOREST 1 in the autumn is d involves much a man is working wish to pass an ty, the question le is to continue get out of the le running ice in r exposed to the 1 frequent on the ng the autumn red by Campbell le Pelly, and was dson's Bay chief t the confluence d maintained for pillaged h the lilkoot, who dis- with their own No resistance of the post, and ed, the Indians goods as they ;k of the local DOWN THE PELLY AXD YUKON RIVERS :ii Indians, who were friendly to the whites. No ex- ploration of the Upper Lewes seems to have been made at this early date, but the existence of a pass to the salt water was well known to Campbell, and irregular communication seems to have been held by means of travelling Indians with the Hudson's Bay steamer trading on the Alaskan Coast. Sir John Richardson, in the narrative of his voyage down the Mackenzie in 1S48, mentions having received Honolulu papers of late date, which had undoubtedly come by this route. Nothing is now visible of the old fort except the pile of stones that until recently formed one of the chimneys, but its place has been taken by the less romantic buildings of a modern trading-post, around which a few Indian shanties are clustered. There is also a Protestant Mission just established, an outpost of the new Yukon Diocese founded by the Church Missionary Society, and presided over by Bishop Bompas, so well known for many years as the Bishop of Mackenzie River ; but it is doubtful whether much success can attend the enterprise, as the Indians have been for some time exposed to the influence of the miners, which has always proved disastrous to the native tribes both morally and m 312 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST < •t U*l »K. ,' physically. Fort Selkirk is now supplied by one of the Alaska Commercial Company's stern -wheel steamers, which meets their deep -sea boat at St. Michael's Island, the nearest convenient landing to the mouth of the river, a very different state of affiiirs from the trading of Campbell's time, when a limited stock of the most necessary articles reached the old post by way of the Great Slave Lake and the Liard and Pelly, after a three years' journey from England. Some attempt has been made at Fort Selkirk to raise a crop of potatoes and other hardy vege- tables, but so far the result has not been satis- factory, owing to the late frosts in the spring, followed by the great heat and litde moisture of the summer. Lower down the river, however, in the rainy districts, as the coast is neared, although in a more northerly latitude, some of the Catholic Missions show well -stocked garden patches, and at the mission school at Korykovski a large supply of potatoes is produced every year. From Fort Selkirk to Forty-Mile Creek, a distance of 230 miles, we took advantage of the perpetual daylight to travel at night, and slept while the sun was high. 11 Donw Tin-: pfjj.v axd vrk'OA' r/i'eks Fort The scenery from the river is not strikingly grand, a succession of irregular mountains lightly covered with spruce and poplar, alternating with dried-up grass, bounds the view in every direction, and one misses the high snow-capped peaks that attract attention during a journey along the Liard or Pelly. On the night of 9th July we passed a large encampment of Indians, and learned from them that the first of the salmon had arrived. An all- important event is this annual run of salmon to the numerous natives who dwell along the banks of the Yukon and its tributaries. Three weeks before the fish reach Fort Selkirk, the various tribes of Esquimaux at the mouth of the river are laying in their provisions for the winter. Thou- sands of traps, to say nothing of the countless num- bers of scoop-nets, have to be passed by the salmon along the course of the river before they reach the Pelly Lakes, where the moose-hunters are lying in wait for them late in the autumn. Far up the Tanana, among the Alaska Alps, and in the foot- hills of the Rockies at the head of the Porcupine more traps and more nets are in readiness to work destruction on the salmon. On the lesser streams rm 1 1 I !^ 314 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST that head among the dreary swamps of the tundra encirding the Arctic and the Behring Seas, the same scenes are enacted year by year — men, women, and children engaged in killing and curing the fish that are the staple food of the vast native population of Northern Alaska. And the supply never seems to have failed. There are no stories of years of starvation, which are only too common among the meat-eaters to the eastward of the Rockies, and as yet there are no canneries to thin out the fish on the Yukon, as has happened on most of the salmon rivers of the Pacific. Doubtless before long there will be suggestions to establish canneries, but unless the strictest regulations as to their man- agement are enforced, there will be hard times for some of the upper river Indians. Along the Columbia and Fraser, neither of which streams were so thickly peopled as the Yukon, other means of making a livelihood were afforded to the Indians as the farming land was settled up, but there seems no likelihood of the same thing occurring on this northern river, as the country is worthless from an agricultural point of view, and if the salmon disappear, the Indian must go with them. At the encampment below Fort Selkirk we saw DOmV THE PELLY AND YUKOm\ RIVERS !»5 the finest birch bark canoes — shapely little crafts, longer and narrower than the bark canoes on the eastern rivers, as they seem to be built especially for poling up stream, and for this work are more easily handled than the broader canoes of the Crees and Chippeweyans, though less serviceable in rough water. The poling is always done by a man sitting amidships, with a short pole in each hand, and by keeping close in shore, a long dis- tance can be made in a day, even against a rapid current, l^rom these little canoes the salmon are caught by drifting down stream with the scoop- net held in readiness to strike as soon as the sharp eye of the fisherman detects the first slight wave of the advancing fish, which is soon after- wards in the hands of the women, undergoing preparations for the drying stage. On the same night we passed the mouth of White River, a wild stream that would be con- sidered a large river anywhere except in this land of great waterways. It heads away to the westward among the high glaciers of the Mount St. Elias range, and the reason of its name is at once obvious. Such a rush of thick, milky wash is discharged into the Yukon that the whole \ if h 2l6 THROUGH THE SUIi ARCTIC FOREST e: It .& >. li! volume of waL.T in the main stream is discoloured from the junction of the White River to the sea, and below this point it is always preferable to take drinking-water from any of the small incom- ing creeks, although the contribution from the White Ri^^er seems to possess no unhealthy pro- perties, and is freely used by the Indians along its course. A few miles below White River the Stewart enters from the opposite side. Mining operations have been carried on with good results for some years past on this stream, but at present little gold dust is coming out, and most of the miners have left the camp. An old trading -post at the junction of the rivers was unoccupied at the time of our visit. After another short run we came to another new establishment on an island opposite the mouth of Sixty- Mile Creek, and were told that if we wanted gold dust, we had better buy a supply of provisions here and start at once up Sixty- Mile Creek to the new diggings, which gave sure promise of proving immensely rich. The trader was incredulous when I told him that we were not mining, and were only running down w DOWX THE PEUA' AND Y U KG X RIVERS 217 the Yukon as the shortest way out of the country. He finally came to the conclusion that we were either Government officials or gamblers — appar- ently the only professions left open to the traveller on the Yukon who is neither miner, trader, nor missionary. While lying on the bank at Sixty- Mile Creek during the heat of the day we felt a very distinct shock of earthquake, and it seems that in the summer months these shocks are of rat! ;r frequent occurrence though never of great severity. These names of Sixty -Mile and Fct*:'.-Mile Creeks are at first somewhat misleading, as one would imagine that the two places lay within 20 miles of each other, but the distances are taken according to the miners' calculation from the inter- mediate point of Fort Reliance — once the head- quarters of the early traders. Further complica- tion has arisen since these stretches of water were measured and found to be considerably at variance with the estimated distances from which the creeks were named. ■4\ ! <■ CHAPTER XIII FORTV-MILE CREEK t-Q FORT YUKON I, 'I/. <■ '? ir <.' ! i';;, ii;! I'orty-mile Creek — Miners' law — ISoiindary line between Alaskn and IJritish Colunil-ia — Arrii'al of the Afclic — Coal Creek — Ovis Dallii — The Vukun I'lats — Route from Athabasca to Behring Sea. On iith July we reached Forty-Mile Creek, and, shooting out of the dirty flood of the Yukon into the clear water of the creek, pitched our lodge on its bank in a clump of willows a mile abov^e die cluster of log cabins which forms the capital of this northern mining district. The peculiar build of our canoe and our own ragged appearance created great interest in the little town, and we had many questions to answer as to the mining prospects of the country we had passed through. The lodge was full of visitors all day, and I soon made the acquaintance of all the leading citizens of the creek. The total summer population of the district was estimated in 1893 at a little under FORTY- MILE CREEK TO FOR f YUKON 219 400 miners, of whom perhaps 150 would remain to winter at Forty-Mile Creek, and the rest had come in to see what chance there was of making a stake, and intended to go back to the coast in September. Of course, at the time of our arrival, work was in full swing, and, as the diggings lie at a long distance up the creek, there were very few miners in the town. The latest excitement was liie new strike on Miller Creek, where three or four claims were really paying well, but there is no excuse for the grossly exaggerated reports that have lately been circulated in regard to the richness of the Yukon placers. During the last two summers, 1894-95, men have been crossing the Chilkoot Pass in hundreds, expending the little capital they had in the costly transport of supplies to Forty-Mile Creek. The result is sure to be disappointment in nine cases out of ten. and the unfortunates will have to depend on the charity of the storekeepers for provisions enough t( take them to the coast, h seems hard to uhJerstand who is to be benefited by these reports of great wealth to be found in hardly accessible countries, but it is certainly a fact that, the greater the dis- tance and the obstacles to be overcome on the \r m vp" THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST t (Ha -I •J "t." ^<:'^'' way, the greater the rush will be for the land of promise. Mr. MacOuestion, the trader at Forty- Mile Creek, who, by the way, is exceedingly good to anybody stranded in the country, does his best to issue true reports as to the state of the mining camps ; and the men of several years' standing on the diggings are also very careful not to over- estimate the yield of gold dust, but still once again it has happened that a few paying diggings on Miller Creek have caused an influx of a rather undesirable class. At present, the tone of the camp is distinctly good, the real workers are the old timers from the Californian and British Col- umbian mines — men who have seen the difference between camps that were run subject to lavv and order as administered by the late Sir Matthew Begbie in the days of the Cariboo diggings, and those where the whiskv bottle and six - shooter held sway. Up to the time of my visit, there had never been a killing on Forty-Mile Creek, although the law was not represented by gold commissioner or police, but was left entirely to the decision of the miners' meeting — an excellent court as lone as the better class of men are in the majority, but a dangerous power in the hands FORTY- MILE CREEK TO FORT YUKOX 221 ot the vile specimens of humanity who sooner or hiter get the whip hand in most of the mining camps. Whisky had at times found its way into the camp, and the frightful concoction known as " Hootchinoo," distilled from molasses, has caused some trouble. But so far the sale of intoxicating liquor to Indians had been almost entirely pre- vented. The miners' meeting has pronounced that whisky is good and shall be allowed for the whites, but if any man sells it to the Indians after he has been warned he shall be punished ; and the miner's idea of punishment is strictly Draconic. It is senseless to keep a man in gaol and pay another man to look after h'"m. It is f^ir better to warn him once and hang him for the next offence. Really, a very sound law this, in such an isolated district, where the Indians are in great numbers and are known to become hostile to the whites when under the influence of liquor, to make the man who is really respon- sible for any bloodshed that may occur suffer the full penalty in anticipation of the trouble that his degrading traffic is sooner or later sure to bring about. In the winter of 1887-S8, Mr. W. Ogilvie, 1 p c:i- 'Un K",; < 222 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST Dominion Land Surveyor, was sent by the Canadian Government to establish the boundary line between the United States possessions in Alaska and the Xorth-Webt Territories of Canada, in the neighbour- hood of Forty- Mile Creek, with the view o{ as- certaining on which side of the line the Yukon diggings were situated. His observations, corro- borated by those of the American surveyors sent to the north for the same purpose, gave the result that the boundarv line crosses Fortv-Mile Creek at a distance of about 8 miles from its mouth. The little town is therefore put in an anomaloas position, being distinctly an American town, getting its supplies from San Francisco in American bottoms, with an American post-office selling American stamps, and the whole town situated on Canadian soil. The mines on Forty- Mile Creek are well within Alaska, but the Stewart River camps are Canadian, as is also, of cour^.- , the site of the trading -post at Fort Selkirk. In 1S93 there was no Canadian or American customs officer on the whole length of the Yukon, and unless trade should assume greater proportions, there was little need to alter this state of affairs, whicl. seemed admirabiv suited to all whom it concerned. The FORTY-MILE CREEK TO FORT YUKON Canadian moderation in this respect contrasts favourably with the action of a United States officer at the old Hudson's Bay Post of Fort Yukon, at the mouth of the Porcupine, in 1869, who reported to his government as follows: "On the 9th of August, at 12 m. I notified the representative of the Hudson's Bay Company that the station is in the territory of the United States ; that the introduction of trading goods, or any trade by foreigners with the natives, is illegal and must cease ; and that the Hudson's Bay Company must vacate the buildings as soon as practicable. I then took possession of the buildings, and raised the flag of the United States over the fort." The account of the miners as to the output of gold dust on Forty-Mile Creek was discouraging, and all the men who had spent several years in the district agreed in saying that there never had been any rich camps on the Yukon, i.'o big fortunes had been made, but if a man was willing to work, and was contented with a mode'-ate reward for his labour, fair wages could usually be made during the short season that was available for mining. Most of the profits are, of course, used up in buying pro- visions for the winter, but with the advantage of li ii I'..' KM < 1.1. < 'i i: ■ c; |i 1' ■- ^ !24 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST continual water carnage from San Francisco, the price of provisions is not so high as might be expected, and the expenses of coming in from the coast ill the spring and returning in the fall are nearly as great as the cost of wintering in the interior, without taking into account the loss of working time. But it is no country for the lazy man or for the gamblers and tough characters that usually attend mining camps, and such people until lately were in no demand at Forty- Mile. But now this primitive method of self-rule is to be done away with. During the past summer news has come out from Forty- Mile Creek of a shooting scrape brought about by a dispute over a poker hand, and resulting in the death of two miners. It seems that the camp can no longer be trusted to govern itself. A detachment of North-West mounted police, though dismounted to suit the exigencies of the country, has been sent up to the Yukon to keep the peace. A customs-house officer went up at the same time to levy a tax on all American goods brought in to Canadian territory. The chief result of this move will unfortunately be that the wretched miner will have to pay a still greater price for his provisions, while the revenue of the Dominion can ill ^OREST Francisco, the 1 as might be ng in from the in the fall are ntering in the nt the loss of ry for the lazy characters that ch people until lile. f self-rule is to >t summer news k of a shooting ; over a poker wo miners. It r be trusted to West mounted le exigencies of Yukon to keep went up at the merican goods "he chief result It the wretched ;r price for his Dominion can FORTY-MILE CREEK TO FORT YUKON hardly be increased sufficiently to pay for the expense of keeping up officials on the spot. On the main stream of the Yukon, a little above the mouth of the creek, stand the church and other buildings of Bishop Bompas' Mission, and a mile or so below are the store buildings of c^ new com- pany which has lately started an opposition to the Alaska Commercial Company's trade on tne Yukon. A little competition will be welcome enough to the miners, but if the output of gold dust does not rapidly increase in value the trade will be hardly worth competing for. During our stay at Forty-Mile, the river steamer Arctic arrived, sixteen days out from St. Michaels, but she brought me no letters of credit, which I had been expecting to meet me here. MacOuestion, however, although he knew nothing at >"11 about me, kindly supplied me with provisions enough to take us down the river, and I expected to meet my letters at some jpoint farther down stream. By the way, it is most necessary in this part of Alaska to be properly provided with either money or some sort of credentials, as the old hospitality and readiness to accept a man's word for his respectability has been forced out of existence by the condi ' af former I <) rf 226 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST bit* t: u, 'I C ' Ir travellers ; and the Alaska Commercial Company have been so often imposed upon, that orders have been reluctantly given to the men in charge of the small posts along the Yukon to demand immediate payment for all supplies furnished to strangers, and if no money is forthcoming, to give them only pro- visions enough to make sure they shall not starve before they reach the next post. The direct cause of this edict was, I believe, the conduct of a large party of miners who had really done rather well in the diggings. They drifted down the Yukon to St. Michaels, where they declared they were destitute, and were fed for a week or two and finally given free passage by the company's steamer to San Francisco. On landing, they paid in $5000 worth of orold dust to the Mint, and were loud in their boasts as to the astuteness they had displayed in getting ahead of the Alaska Company. This sort of thing has made rather hard going for impecunious people on the 1500 miles run from Forty-Mile Creek to the sea. From the captain of the Arctic I tried to get information about the chances of getting away from St. Michaels in the autumn, but he could tell me nothing definitely. The company's steamer might call there late in September, or she might have FORTY MILE CREEK TO FORT YUKON 227 ,ompany ers have e of the imediate fers, and )nly pro- It starve ;ct cause a hirge ' well in Dn to St. lestitute, lly given to San o worth in their ayed in his sort tcunious e Creek irdic I getting le could steamer ht have got through her work by the first of the month. The United States Revenue ship Bear usually came into St. Michaels about the beginning of September, and would take passengers to Oun- alaska, if there was no chance of their bein'i^ able to catch any other steamer at St. Michaels ; but of course she had no fixed dates of sailing. I learned, however, that there was an alternative route, by leaving the Yukon two or three hundred miles from its mouth and crossing to the Kuskokvim River, which lies to the southward. From the mouth of the Kuskokvim we could coast along the sea to the head of Bristol Bay, and if there was no direct communication from there to Ounalaska, we might still be able to cross the portage across the great Alaska peninsula and reach the sea again at Katmai or Cook's Inlet. Before leaving Forty- Mile I secured good homes for all the sleigh-dogs. They had been of the greatest service of course while the snow lasted, but they had proved a great nuisance in the canoe, besides being a heavy strain on the provisions. Our pace of travelling down stream was too fast for the dogs to run along the densely wooded banks, so we had to take them on board, where they were always < I ii 338 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST in the way, and increased the danger of running a rapid by jumping on top of the cargo and adding to our instabih'ty whenever orders were given in a loud voice, mindful of the long winter days spent in harness when a shout was too often accompanied by a crack of the whip. On 1 8th July, late in the evening, we tore our- selves away from the luxury of the mining camp, and drifting down a few miles, pitched our lodge at the mouth of Coal Creek, an insignificant stream coming in from the eastward, with the intention of hunting a high range of mountains which were said to be frequented by mountain sheep. I had seen some of the skins at Forty- Mile, and, as they were very white, with the tips of the hair looking as if they had been singed by fire, I presume these sheep are referable to the variety Ovis Dallii. On the tops of the mountains I found plenty of tracks where the sheep had evidently been travelling in the spring, but their summer feeding-grounds must lie to the north- ward, in an extremely rough, irregular range which still carried patches of snow on the summits. I should have made a further expedition into this distant range, but Alick, who accompanied me as provision-bearer, utterly disappeared in the thick FORTY-MILE CREEK TO FORT YUKON 229 brush at the foot of the first hill, and I saw no more of him until my return to camp after two clays, during which time I made an easy living byshootincr marmots and ptarmigan, which are in great abun- dance on the grassy summits. From a very elevated position I had a good view of the surrounding country, which seems to consist of irregular rolling hills near the river valley, with high open plateaux in the distance. On some of these plateau.x the cariboo wander in their thousands, and, as they frequendy cross the river, form an invaluable winter food supply to the miners. Their passages are uncertain, however, and although sometimes they cross Forty-Mile close to the mining camp, and are then slaughtered in great numbers, there have been several winters when the want of fresh meat was severely felt, and scurvy played havoc among the bacon eaters. A few miles below Coal Creek I killed a moose, and a couple of days were spent in drying the meat. Moose or black bear supplied our wants all the way down the Yukon, although the bears had flavoured their flesh very strongly with the rotten salmon they find in such quantities on the river bars. As long as these animals stick to the berry patches, their I 330 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST >•:, : ^\ . < «s! lA 1 Cf ■' '^. iU. ^u < > 4'.' iMi' ill meat is really good, but when the salmon begin to run, they all come clown to the streams, and the fishy taste is noticeable in their flesh almost immediately. We saw no i^rizzly along the main stream, although we were told many and terrible stories of their deeds of violence. And now the navigation became most monotonous. There is something fascinating of course in the idea of running a couple of thousand miles down a big river, but the charm is lost as soon as the rapids are passed, and the element of danger is taken out of the day's work. We could make 8o to lOO miles a day with ease in twelve hours' actual paddling, with an early start and putting ashore to eat every four hours. But there was too much sitting down in a cramped position, and we missed the excitement that is always to be found in canoeing on a smaller stream. ; there were no sharp corners to round with the chance of running into something below the bend, but long smooth reaches stretching away to the horizon fringed by a dense growth of willows, and all so exactly alike that one loses his admiration for this immense river in the weariness which its monotony produces. After leaving Coal Creek we had a long steady •1 « FORTY-MILE CREEK TO FORT YUKON 231 run of 300 miles to Fort Yukon, situated on the peninsula between the Porcupine and the Yukon, at the lower end of a vast maze of islands and winding channels that must formerly have been a lake in the course of the river. The breadth of the Yukon at this point has never yet been determined, but is variously esti- mated at from 10 to 70 miles, according to the miners' fancy. As a matter of fact nobody has ever travelled much along the west side of the river here, as the best channels are on the Porcu- pine side, and no doubt, too, there is a great difference in the breadth of the Yukon in high water and low at this point. The current runs strongly through the narrow channels, which keep splitting up and rejoining so rapidly that it is very hard to pick out a practicable way through the labyrinth, as the smaller channels are choked with snags and fallen timber, besides being sometimes very shallow at the lower end. In the autumn, when the water is low, the steamer has great difficulty in passing up this part of the river, as the sand is continually shifting, and a bar may have been formed in what was deep water on the occasion of the previous voyage. Our little canoe frequently M ■BT ,...1 I I, 1 ii 4 ;^ i ii i t/5 < 2:^ 232 THROUuH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST grounded in some of the smaller channels, but we made no attempt to keep the main channel and took any opening in the bank that ffuicy dicta' :d, never with any worse mishap than ha\ing to wade a few hundred yards. The islands are covered with Cottonwood and willow, or more rarely with a scattered growth of spruce, and the whole country near the river is so level that no mountains are in sight for a distance of 200 miles along the course of the river. This district is locally known as the Yukon Flats, and is one of the best places for wild- fowl on the whole of the upper river. Geese were very plentiful, as were also mallards, widgeon, and teal, besides large numbers of gulls, terns, and divers. We did no fishing, as we could always get salmon from any of the Indian camps that we passed every day, and I noticed that the women were catching some fine whitefish in short rawhide nets, set in the small eddies, although they seemed to be thought of little value while the salmon were runnmg. In the early forties, while Cani;jljell was making his discoveries on the Liard and Felly, the Hudson's Bay Company, with characteristic en^igy, was send- ing exploration parties across the Rockies of the mummmmmmmm .s, but we inel, and dicta' :d, to wade covered •ely with t country IS are in le course m as the for wild- ese were eon, and rns, and vays get e passed en were ide nets, timed to on were making ludson's as send- > of the wir,i)-i-o\VL ON rm-. vukon ilais. nr ,:!;,Tj»:;*sji'-","w:r":r:^.,i,3MW..'..,.-L:-«.';M,«««OB* >\ •■I. • ) FORTY-MILE CREEK TO FORT YUKON =35 Lower Mackenzie to make an examination of the Porcupine, with the result that trading posts were established along its course as far as its junction with an immense river flowing to the westward. It was, however, left for Campbell to prove that this was the Pelly- Yukon of his own explorations, and this he satisfactorily accomplished by running down from Fort Selkirk to Fort Yukon, and re- turning to the Mackenzie by way of the Porcupine. It at once became obvious that this new route was preferable to the difficult navigation of the Liard, and to-day the traveller can leave the Hudson's Bay Company's landing on the Athabasca, and travel continuously dowrr stream, with the exception of the short ascent of Peel River and the Rocky Mountain portage to Fort St. Michaels, on the shore of the Behring Sea — a distance of 4000 miles — with scarcely any more trouble, and perhaps less risk than is involved in a transcontinental railway journey. Since the evacuation of Fort Yukon, there has been no trading carried on there till this last sum- mer, when a storekeeper has put up new buildings a short distance from the site of the old fort, to open up a trade with the Indians of the Porcupine. ^ V 1 1 il^ 236 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST On the latter stream the Hudson's Bay Company have just shut up their establishments, as the Yukon posts could easily undersell them, and the Indians think nothing of taking their furs 300 miles farther to reach the best market. And here we came to the most northerly point of our journey, for the Yukon, after just crossing the Arctic Circle at the mouth of the Porcupine, trends away in a south-westerly direction, finally reaching the sea in latitude 62' N. < .ompany as the and the oo miles point of sing the 2, trends reachinor CHAPTER XIV THE KUSKOKVIM RIVER Xanana River — Bones of the mastodon— Murder of Archbishop Seghers — Ikogmut — Kuskokvim River— A game country. A COUPLE of hundred miles broueht us to the Xanana, the largest of all the Yukon tributaries, having its sources in the unknown fastnesses of the Alaskan Alps. The Tanana is much used as a winter route by travellers from the Lower Yukon to Forty- Mile Creek, as it cuts off the big bend of the main stream, and there is only a short portage from its upper waters to the mining camp. Besides this, the number of native villages where salmon can be procured every night for the dogs save the carriage of extra weight — always a most important consideration to the dog driver. At the American Church Mission of Niklukyet, standing on the north side of the river below the confluence, we met a number of the Tanana Indians, (i I 7 238 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST IK :ii 1 who had come down to trade, the best looking natives that we saw among the fish eaters, and quite in keeping with their little birch-bark canoes, which I think show a prettier model than any other bark canoes that I have seen throughout Canada or Alaska. Thes' Indians told us of an easy way to the coast that might be found by poling for two days up the Tanana, and making a day's travel with many small portages up and down little streams and through several lakes, till a creek tributary to the Kuskokvim is reache The latter stream is a clear stretch of water passing through a good game country, and without dangerous rapids, to the Behring Sea. I should much like to have taken this portage, but I thought my letters might reach me at any point on the main stream, and without them our finances would not bear the strain of hiring guides. It is hopeless for a stranger to try any of these short cuts for himself, as the traveller possessed of local knowledge will vary his course every time he passes through the strange maze of slowly -moving water- courses that drain the level country adjacent to the Yukon and .he Kuskokvim. Below the Tanana we saw no moose, and after » THE K US K OK' VIM RIVER 239 looking ters, and c canoes, iny other anada or y way to for two r's travel A^n little a creek ^he latter through IS rapids, to have rs might iam, and he strain •anger to ", as the vary his : strange lat drain and .he md after another day's run no tracks were to be seen on any of the bars. The Xanana itself is said by the Indians to be a good moose country throughout, and there are rumours of great abundance of these animals in the district lying between that river and the head of Cook's Inlet. The isolated mountains lying in the tundra, which now begin to show up, are also said to be frequented by moose, but the valley of the Lower Yukon does not seem suited to their habits. Along this part of the river the Indians fre- quently brought us mastodon teeth and huge bones, which they were anxious to trade for tobacco. At one place they showed us a long stretch of high muddy bluffs, where these bones are frequently exposed as the strong current washes down the banks ; but we found nothing of interest, although we took a great deal of risk in peering about under the crumbling masses of muddy shale which keeps continually falling into the river. It is probable that the Indians had carefully picked up anything of value, as a good mastodon tooth will usually fetch a plug of tobacco from the passing miner. We put ashore early one morning at a little trading post to have a talk with a Russian Finn N >t '1/1 \m t < < ilJ \i 240 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST whom we had heard of, a man who had seen forty years of service in Alaska, and under happier cir- cumstances was, no doubt, able to give us reliable information about the portage to the Kuskokvim, and the journey along the sea coast that lay before us. He came out to welcome us kindly enough, but 1 saw he was not quite right when he began to shake hands with us from the top of a bank 30 feet high, and finally slid down to the canoe in a sitting posture, with his hand still stretched out in greeting. He had been drinking "hootchinoo" before the sun was up, with disastrous results, and judging from the amount of fiery stuff still left there was little chance of his sobering up that day. He was most hospitable, but could only talk of the glories of San F^rancisco, where he had spent the last winter, and refused to say a word about local matters that might have been o^ some interest. I thought it prudent to escape before the "hootchinoo" proved too much for my crew, and take the chance of finding the way for ourselves, so we pushed out into the current and left the old fellow waving the bottle on the bank. At Nulato, 200 miles from Niklukyet, the climate seems to change as the influence of the sea makes TT ORE ST had seen forty tr happier dr- ive us rehable e Kuskokvim, that lay before cindly enough, :n he began to a bank 30 feet oe in a sittmo- >ut in greeting. before the sun judging from bere was Httle He was most glories of San ist winter, and matters that I thought it linoo " proved :he chance of '^e pushed out )w waving the ^et, the climate the sea makes THE KUSKOKVIM RIVER 241 itself felt. At the time of our arrival the rain- clouds were driving up the river in front of the west wind, and the rest of our journey along the Yukon was made against a head wind and heavy sea, with nearly continual rain — a great change from the long spell of hot, dry weather that had lasted with hardly a break from the Slate Rapids on the Pelly to Nulato. On the bank of the Yukon, some 20 miles above Nulato, stands the cross erected to com- memorate the murder of Archbishop Seghers, who was here killed by his servant in 1886, while on a visit of inspection to the Roman Catholic Mission stations along the river — one of the most cowardly, purposeless crimes ever committed. A mild rebuke had been administered by the Archbishop overnight for negligence in some small matter, and that, according to the Indian who was travelling with them at the time, was the only reason to account for the murder. Early in the morning the serv^ant, a white man, got up and lit the fire, shouted " Breakfast ready," and shot his master as he raised himself up in his blan! et. At Nulato the old mining talk was again heard. Some new diggings had been discovered several R K^? f « Ml c;; C:', dta A u, < 7 A' u, (1 242 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREUT hundred miles up the Keokuk, and promised to be as rich as all other new diggings. A stern-wheel steamer was running right up to the mines, and several men were making preparations to spend the winter at the new camp ; but some who had returned gave less hopeful accounts, and complained that the gold dust was not to be found in the ex- pected quantity. The Keokuk joins the Yukon from the north- ward, a short distance above ulato, and forming a big northerly bend heads back towards the neighbourhood of Fort Yukon. The Indians from the head of the Keokuk were the perpetrators of the celebrated massacre of the natives of N ulato, and their name is still in bad odour among the lower river tribes, but of late years no disturbance has taken place. At this point there was a noticeable mixture of the Esquimau type of ftce among the salmon fishers, and a few long, slender, walrus-skin canoes were to be seen hauled up with the l)irch-barks in most of the camps. There was a difference, too, in the native dress, and here we first saw the parka, a long, sack-like garment worn by men and women alike in common use — usually made from the skins THE KUHKOKVIM RIVER 243 led to be ;rn-wheel nes, and ;o spend who had mplained I the ex- le north- forming ards the ans from rators of r Nulato, long the jturbance mixture e sahnon n canoes -barks in 2nce, too, he parka, d women the skins of cariboo or ground hogs, but the wealthier mem- bers of the Nulato tribes wore the skins of the Siberian reindeer, which are obtained from the Esquimaux, and fetch a big price among the Indians of the interior. Ahhough Nulato is, by the course of the river, many hundred miles distant from the salt water, its inhabitants are brought into close contact with the coast tribes by means of a short winter road that reaches the sea at Norton Sound. With the arrival of the steamer came another disappointment; there were no letters again, and it became evident that we must once more rely on our own skill as hunters and fishermen to keep the pot boiling, and limit our purchases to the barest necessities. Smith had a little gold dust that he had brought from Cassiar, which afterwards proved of the greatest service, as there was absolutely no credit to be had. All the trading- posts were in charge of Russian half-breeds, who could speak no English, and lost all interest in us when they dis- covered that we had no money with which to pay for what we wanted. The most serious incon- venience we felt was from the scarcity of blankets and clothing, as the weather was nearly always wet, and would, of course, be cold along the sea % < .i C:: 1.'., 2; !44 THROUGH THE SUli ARCTIC TOR EST ^^^y coast as the autumn approached. There was nothing to be done, however, except to continue our journey in the old rags that we had brought from the Liard. I afterwards heard that all this trouble had been caused by the carelessness of the postmaster at P^orty-iMile Creek, as my letters of credit from the Alaska Commercial Company's office in San I*"rancisco had been lying there at the time of our arrival. Another run of nearly 200 miles took us to the little village of Anvik, where a Protestant Mission has been established. It stands, like all the other settlements, on the north or sunny side of the Yukon, and is cut in half by the Anvik River coming in from the tundra lying to the northward, and available as a short route to St. Michael's. For any traveller who has a light canoe, and wishes to avoid the rough piece of coast work from the mouth of the river to the ocean steamer's landing on St. Michael's Island, lying some distance to the north of the delta, this Anvik River ensures a speedy and easy journey, as the long detours of the main river are avoided, and the portages throuixh chains of lakes are said to be short and not of frequent occurrence. J re was continue brought all this 3S of the etters of )mpany's re at the lU us to rotestant , like all y side of ik River )rth\vard, rlichael's. id wishes from the 5 landing ;tance to " ensures ; detours portages hort and THE KUSKOKVIM RIVER J45 Sixty miles below Anvik is Korejovski, the headquarters of the Roman Catholic missionaries, where the well-filled school buildings give evidence that good work is being done among the rising generation. The comparatively extensive farming operations give a more cheerful appearance to the place than is presented by any of the unkempt trading - posts that we had seen above, and the mission grounds are carefully fenced off from the filth of the native village, which seems usually accepted as a necessity. The children are kept neat and clean, in strong contrast to their friends and relations, but the tendency to fall back into the habits of long ages is hard to eradicate suddenly, and no doubt some time must elapse before cleanliness becomes tolerated for its own sake instead of merely as an irksome condition on which the good living at the mission school may be enjoyed. Hay-making was going on busily in the intervals between the rainstorms ; the cattle looked wonder- fully homelike after our long sojourn among the moose and bear. The potato crop was lookino- well, and would form an important item in the winter's supply for such a large establishment, '^mr^ ii"^^ < 'ft; 246 'IHROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST ^ % li i'-'i ! 1 ' though the children only really thnve on the ev^er- reliable salmon, and become quickly disgusted with a continuance of the white people's diet. After leaving Korejovski, we ran down to the Greek Church Mission at Ikogmut, a distance of about ;o miles, and camped just below the village in a iieavy storm of wind and rain. Here Father Belkoff has been in charse of the mission for many years, and is probably one of the best living authorities on the early history of the Russian traders on the Yukon. He gave me the only reliable information r.hat I had as yet received with regard to the porr.age to the Kuslcokvim, and told me that the chief of the Ujjper Kuskokvim Indians was at present at Ikogmut, and would be leavin^^ for home in a dav or two. This decided the question as to routes, and, fmding the men Oi.ly too glad to leave the beaten track and get away from the monotonous windings of the Yukon, even at the risk of not being able to get passage to San Francisco till spring, I interviewed the chief of the Kuskokvims with the satisfactory result that he agreed to act as pilot across the portage, Father Orloff, the assistant missionary at Ikogmut, interested me greatly with his descrii- m r the ever- sted with n to the stance of ;]o\v the 1. Here : mission the best Russian the only received slcokvim, iskokvim v'ould be decided the men and get 2 Yukon, passage wed the :'sfactory ross the issionary descrip- THE KUSk'OKVIM PA'ER 247 tion of the upper waters of the Kuskokvim, where he had wandered in the course of a winter's journey. From his account of the game in the high mountains toward the head-waters of the river, it must be one of the most attractive countries still left untouched by the sportsman- explorer. He mentioned the same old rumour of another kind of mountain sheep differing totally from the big- horn and the mountain goat, which is well known to the Kuskokvim Indians, but he could say nothing definite about it as he had neA-er seen it himself. Certainly the northern parts of the St. Elias and contiguous ranges are as likely a spot as anywhere on the American continent to find an animal un- known to science, for there is a \'erv large and difficult tract of country from tiie head of Cook's Inlet to the big bend of the Yukon t'lat has never been traversed. On the 15th August we left Ikogmut in com- pany with the chief and his family, who were travelling with a long, slim bic'c;rka or skin canoe, and a small birch -bark. A heavy sea prevented our crossing the Yukon till c\-ening, when we entered the mouth of a small creek with little current, windinof between low banks covered with 248 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST < a; "*.- •«.,' a thick growth of willows. Here we said good-bye to the river whose water had carried us so well on our long down-stream run from the Pellcy Lakes, and I heard regrets expressed that we were forcing our way through mud and wind and rain towards civilisation, instead of seeinof the leaves turn yellow in the dry uplands by those distant lakes where the moose and cariboo were fattenincr for other hunters. For a whole day we paddled up this winding creek, which split up so frequently that nobody without local knowledge could possibly keep the right course, and at sundown camped fairly on the edg(^ of the tundra, carrying the canoe and part of the cargo over the first portage to a small lake. A gloomy, desolate strip of country is this marshy tundra, with its countless lakes and sluggish streams, especially as we saw it this night in drenching rain, which only seemed to pause a few moments to give the mosquitoes a fair chance to annoy us. But there was still enough willow scrub for firewood, and even a few spruce trees were scattered about over the long strecches of morass, rendering the landscape far less weari- some than in other parts oi the tundra, where THE KUSKOKVIM RIVER =49 there is absolutely nothing to break the dull gray level. Two days were occupied in poling through shallow lakes, where the rushes and water-lilies almost prevented the passage of the canoes ; in making portages, sometimes by carrying, and some- times by dragging over the soft mud, and in following the windings of the creeks up and down stream, round sharp corners, where collisions with the bank were unavoidable. The lontr bidarka .', :s the worst offender in this respect, but the banks were soft and no damacje was done. Wild- fowl were in such numbers as are to be seen onlv in these northern breedincj-cyrounds, and our com- panions showed great dexterity in knocking down rising mallard or teal or swimming musk-rats at short range with a three-pronged spear. Often the women insisted upon being put ashore where the yellow berries of the muskeg were thickest, when bladders of unsavory seal oil and a few handfuls of su£i;ar that had been brought from the traders' store at Ikogmut were produced, to mix with the fruit. As the weather now became unusually hue, we took things easily, killing geese or ducks as we 'i THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST > IK; ft;- < < K- wanted them, and it was late on the third evening after leavincr the mission that we dracjQfed down t long slough with scarcely enough water to float us, and found ourselves at the Kusi-;okvini. Here our pilots left us, as their way lay up stream, and after a trifling present of tobacco, and many signs of mutual satisfaction — for the chief's half-dozen words of Russian conveved no meaning to me, although he had used them many times over in conversations on the portages or round the camp- fires — we shot out into the swift current and soon left our friends far behind. The Kuskokvim is by no means a small river, but. of course, does not approach the Yukon in size. It has more current than is found in the Lower Yukon, which runs a course of several hundred miles in windino; throufjh the low-Iving country adjacent to the sea. The Kuskokvim takes a more direct course, and its banks are drier and more pleasant to camp on than the swampy shores of the Yukon. The salmon run was nearly over, and few fish were being taken in the traps that were staked off at the head f>f nearly e\-ery gravel bar. Native villages were frequently met with, and the total population of the Kuskokvim THE K US K OK VIM RIVER 2;i evenins: down T to float Here am. and nv sicjns ilf-dozen to me, over in e camp- nd soon ill river, ukon in in the several )\v-lvincf skokvim ire drier swampy s nearly le traps iy e\ery itly met skokvim must mount up to a very respectable number, although I believe many of the fishermen we met were not residents, but had come from various parts of the coast to catch their winter supply of salmon. The villages are built 'n the typical Innuit style, a collection of half-underground barra- boras or earth-houses, each tlanked by one or two square wooden rooms raised on high stilts above the risk of floods, as a place of safety for the stores of dried fish and other treasures of the simple-minded native. Birch -bark canoes are entirely replaced by a great variety of models in walrus skin, from the great family boat in which the women, children, and household gods travel from place to place, down to the little kayak, in which the Innuit hunter spends most of his exist- ence during the summer months. An uneventful run of loo miles brought us to a trading - post built on the north bank of the Kuskokvim, just where the river begins to broaden out into the curious funnel-shajjed expan- sion by which it finds its way to the sea. Here, too, stands a Moravian Mission, offering yet another choice of creeds to the savage, who surely must be rather bewildered bv so manv conflicting 25: THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST I'. theories as to how his future welfare may best be ensured. The missionarv was extremely good to us in smoothing our way with the trader — a Russian half-breed speaking no English, and very loath to part with any of his provisions for the scanty supply of gold dust that represented our whole capital. We eventually secured a little flour and a fair sto^k of leaf-tobacco to trade with the Innuits for fish or any other necessaries we might be in want of. Everybody advised us strongly against the rash- ness of proceeding to sea in our little canoe, and doubtless the advice was well meant, but there seemed to be no way out of the difficulty, as nobody offered to give us a more suitable boat or to advance us a winter's supply of pru\ isions if we remained where we were. Ihe missionary gave us the best description he could of our route, and told is that we could avoid some of the rough water by making use of the small rivers and lakes, with a few portages, if we could pick up guides on the way who would pilot us to Nushagak. i u best be good to ader — a nd very for the ted our tie flour vith the s might be rash- oe, and t there •ilty, as suitable )ply of Ihe 2 could d some 2 small e could I us to CHAPTER XV ON SALT WATER Coast navigation — The Inniiits, their food, habits, and dress — Muses and i\aron — Good News Bay — A seene of desolation — Kayaks — Cape Newenham. On 23rd August, in rags and poverty, we started down the tidal water in an open canoe to navigate 300 miles of coast-line utterly unknown to us, and exposed to the fury of one of the stormiest seas in the world. At various distances along this coast were native villages, and from their inhabit- ants we were to obtain provisions if we ran short, and to gather information as to whal lay ahead, although we could not speak a word of their language. At the very outset we found that we had undertaken a task which wou.d involve a good deal of time and some risk. Only 50 miles down we were obliged to lie quiet on the marshy bank for a day and a half till the westerly gale moderated, and the sea went down enough to allow our canoe !54 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST 'A M U < 7 :; I j:': to make her way in safety. During this time we were surprised to see a large schooner running up the river in midstream, but the sea was too heavy for us to go out and speak her. No vessels had been expected at the trading-post, and I hardly liked to turn back on the chance of getting a passage to the southward by the stranger, so we continued down stream as soon as the weather was good enough for travelling. The Kuskokvim had now increased to such a width that the northern shore was invisible, but, as the country is a dead level, without any tall trees on either side, the distance across is probably not more than 7 or 8 miles. Villages were still frequent on the south bank, and continued at longer intervals along the sea coast till we reached Nushagak. The Innuits, as the natives of the sea coast are called from the mouth of the Yukon to the head of Bristol Bay, are probably the most numerous of all the Esqui- maux tribes. A simple, kindly race, hospitable to the passing stranger, but indescribably filthy in appearance and habit. They make an easy living off the salmon which run in thousands up every little stream of the tundra, the hair seals which his time we running up s too heavy- vessels had id I hardly if getting a nger, so we weather was jkokvim had the northern ry is a dead er side, the I than 7 or south bank, ong the sea le Innuits, as led from the Bristol Bay, ill the Esqui- hospitable to lably filthy iu in easy living nds up every r seals which Oi\ SALT IVATER 555 breed among the outlying rocks, and the walrus which are still fairly abundant in parts of the Behring Sea. The fur seals do not come in on this coast at all, and are too f^ir off at sea for the Innuits to reap any benefit from the decision of the Behring Sea Arbitration Congress, which for- bids the use of firearms for the killing of seals, in order to give the native a chance of employment. So far these people have pretty well escaped the contamination of the white men, as their settlements lie out of the track of whalers bound for the Arctic Sea, and the whisky sellers do not like to venture too near to the dangerous coast. It is a pity that the American Government is so fully occupied in watching the movements of a few- foreign sealers that it cannot keep an eye on the movements of its own whalers ; perhaps it is because the fur seal is a distinct source of revenue and the wretched Innuit is not. Of late years the San FranciFco whalers have been pushing on farther and farther round the shore of the Arctic Sea towards the Mackenzie River, and the damage done among the natives is already noticeable, but nothing is done to pre- vent it increasing. It is true that a very fiagrant I: ti «;6 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST t ■u. < I ■>«.,■ case a few years ago caused some commeni in the newspapers, but it seemed to be nobody's business to make an official inquiry into the case. Late one autumn a whaler on her return voyage brought up in front of a po[julous village on an island in the northern part of the Behring Sea. A lively trade ensued with the natives, who were anxious to make their bargains quickly and go in pursuit of the walrus which were now passing, and which every year provided the winter's food supply. But in addition to the legitimate articles of trade, a couple of kegs of strong rum were put ashore, and the schooner sailed away for San Francisco with all the wealth of the village in her hold. By the time the natives had finished the rum and got over its effects the walrus had all passed, there was no supply of food put up for the winter, and ice was beginning to drift in the sea. The result was inevitable. The next whaler that called at the island was able to take home an interesting collection of bones and skulls of the Esquimau type to an ethnological institution, but there was no man, woman, or child left ali\-e on the rum- stricken island to tell the storv of starvation and J death. iment in the ly's business ;turn voyage llage on an ehring Sea. s, who were r and go in passing, and food supply, es of trade, put ashore, 1 Francisco lold. id the rum all passed, the winter, sea. The that called interesting: Esquimau there was i the rum- •vation and ON SALT WATER 257 When we approached any of the Innuit villages the women always turned out and sat on the roofs of their turf- houses to get .i better view of the strange boat, while the men came down to show us the best landing, and help us run the canoe up quickly beyond the reach of the surf. They always lent us poles for setting up the lodge, and gave us firewood when there was no drift timber near. They have to make long expeditions up the small rivers for poles, as they require a good many for setting rheir fish traps in deep water, and none of a suitable length grow anywhere near the coast. The inside of their barraboras smelt too much of rancid seal oil and general filth to be comfortable quarters for a white man at this time of year, although they would make a snug enough shelter from the savage winds that sweep this dreary coast in winter. The natives were liberal, too, with their salmon, and would always give us a good supply for a leaf of most villainous tobacco. But they could never understand our preference for fresh fish to those in various stages o^ decomposition. Some of their freshly smoked salmon are really very good, but most of them are spoilt to a white man's taste by i^n-i IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) /. // 5^ fe <^ V. 1.0 !^'- « I.! 1.25 25 iii Uii IIIII2.2 :r 124 •IS 12.0 1-4 IIIIII.6 V] <^ /^ •c*i <$> > % /a /A '^ Y/j Photographic Sciences Corporation 33 WEST MAIN STKEET WEBSTER, NY MS80 (716)877-4503 S. 4? V iV \\ 'f^ 1. 6^ ^J'^ % ^ 9) %^ ^ $ xy> > l! '' 258 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST i») XL < d c:: being tied up tight in bales before they are properly dried, and allowed to turn sour. On one occasion I objected to some fish which an old man brought into the lodge as not being fresh enough, and made signs to that effect, chiefly with the aid of my nose. The old man went away and brought some more which were far worse. On these being rejected he beckoned me to come with him, and leading me to a swampy spot at the back of his barrabora pointed out what I took to be a newly made grave. I made signs of interrogation and deep sympathy, whereupon he scraped away the loose earth with a fish spear and lifted a board which covered the top of the pit. I fully expected to see the body of a dearly beloved relative, and experienced nearly as great a shock when I found the pit was filled to the brim with a seething mass of rotten salmon. The old fellow's next signs I fully understood ; they were to the effect that if I wanted something really good I must give him more than the usual amount of tobacco leaves, and I began to realise that he had misunderstood my sign language and thought I was objecting to his fish because they were too fresh. The salmon pit 1 afterwards found was a comn;on ON SALT H'ATER 259 occasion coniiKon institution at every village, its contents being usually reserved for winter use. The dress of the Innuits is simplicity itself, the parka being the only really necessary garment for either sex. On this part of the coast the ground- hog supplies all the clothing, and, after the salmon run is over, every Innuit woman makes a summer's expedition to the nearest mountain range to snare ground-hogs for the yearly wants of her family, while her lord and master is spearing hair seals, or perhaps hunting walrus under the high cliffs of Cape Newenham. A few of the women make their parkas by stitching together loon skins, which are pretty enough while new, but soon drop their feathers and are not nearly as serviceable as the ground-hog skins. A pair of shapeless sealskin boots reaching half-way up the leg completes the regulation outdoor costume, although members of both sexes wear a pair of white linen trousers as a tribute of respect to the advance of civilisation for a week or two after a visit to the nearest trad- ing-post. But once inside the barrabora even the parka is discarded, and men and women squat on the filthy mud Hoor as naked as their fathers and mothers did long ages before the trousered m 11 li ! H < 7 t t a6d THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST missionary .ippeared on the shore of the liehring Sea. At the mouth of the Kuskokvim immense mud- banks, which are dry at half-ebb, make the naviga- tion difficult for large vessels. A canoe or shallow draught boat should come out a little before high water, as there is then water enough to float her close to the shore, and the first of the strong ebb will take her to the southward across the banks before she grounds with the falling tide. We did just the wrong thing — as so often happens to strangers — and left the mouth of the river about three hours after high water. A seal hunter was coming in in his kayak, and gesticulated to us wildly to come ashore, but we took it for granted that he only wanted us to land to give him a leaf of tobacco — which is a common trick of the Innuit. Our mistake soon became evident, as we found we had to keep round a bank which ran off several miles to sea, and with a strong ebb meeting an onshore wind there seemed a good chance of getting into trouble. A landing through the surf meant prob- ably the loss of everything, a;id a long struggle through soft mud to reach the firm shore. The canoe behaved very well, and by occasional ON SALT WATJiK 261 liehring it: mud- naviga- shallow )re high oat her jiig ebb banks We did 3ens to r about iter was s wildly that he tobacco ;. Our we had il miles onshore ing into It prob- jtruggle casional baling we rounded the outside point in safety, and had both wind and tide in our favour till a bend in the channel brought us close to the mainland just as darkness came on Here we landed and carried the canoe and cargo to a pile of stranded logs which we made our home for the next four days, while the Behring Sea was swept by such a storm that many a bigger vessel than ours would have been glad of a snug harbour. In the morning we found that we had put ashore close to the warehouse used for storing the trading goods for the Kuskokvim district, which are here lightered ashore from the Alaska Commercial Com- pany's steamers and afterwards taken up the river in skin-boats. As it was evident that we could not move till the wind moderated, and rain was pouring down continually, we were forced to set up the lodge with poles borrowed from a native bury- ing-ground, where each man's grave was adorned with a row of spears and paddles, and in one case a wonderful specimen of an ancient Hint-lock gun. Poles are planted at the head of every grave to mark its position when the snow lies deep, as the natives have a dislike to walking over their dead. Here we struck up a lasting friendship with a ^^ w !!!i 262 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST !»' , ! V, I w XL < tt < < 7 couple of Innuits, who had also taken refuge from the bad weather, and, by means of the various signs which suggested themselves, made a bargain with them to act as pilots to Nushagak. It after- wards transpired that they had never been there, but apart from this they turned out to be good fellows enough, thoroughly trustworthy, ready to lend a hand in any emergency, and always cheery, except in heavy weather, when they became often needlessly alarmed for the safety of our canoe, which would ship water in a sea that broke harm- lessly on the skin decks of their own kayaks. They answered readily to the names of Moses and Aaron, bestowed on them by the half-breeds, who took a great fancy to them at once. Aaron had a shrivelled leg, which made him quite useless ashore, but in his kayak he was as good a man as anybody else. Some former traveller has conferred a great benefit on his followers by establishing the half-dollar as the standard of trade between whites and natives along this part of the coast, so that when an Innuit scratches a round mark in his palm with the fore- finger of the other hand, it means half a dollar, instead of the dollar always represented in this manner in other parts of America. But for small ON SALT WATER 263 trading, tobacco is universally used, as men and women are intensely fond of it and can never afford to buy any quantity from the traders. They seldom use a pipe, but soak the tobacco in seal oil, roll it up in a ball, and find great satisfaction in chewing it. When a gale of wind is blowing the rainclouds on shore, the meeting-place of the tundra with the water of liehring Sea presents a picture of muddy desolation that could hardly be surpassed in any part of the world. Land and water are so strangely intermixed at the various stages of the tide that it is difficult to choose a spot for the camp that will remain above the sea level, or to tell which pool will yield fresh water for the kettle. The llood- tide runs with a strong current far up the incoming rivers, which find their way across the tundra till the banks are overflowed and salt - water lakes appear where an hour ago there was nothing but an extra depth of soft mud to show that the land had recently been submerged. There is always an uneasy feeling, too, that there may be a big roller forming somewhere out at sea, a couple of feet higlier than its neighbours, which will presently break upon the beach and wash everything before it to the foot of the isolated range of mountains I ; .1 Mm < u. < c (1 4b 264 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST Standing far in on the tundra. And yet, directly the sun comes out and the wind moderates, it will be found that even this country has a charm of its own, in its suggestion of limitless extent, in the quiet colours of its grasses and Mowers, in the changing moods of the sea, and especially in the great abundance of bird life that frequents the breeding-grounds of the coast in the early autumn. On a fine evening, as you sit behind some great drift log that the Kuskokvim has borne hundreds of miles from the interior of Alaska, waiting for the evening flight of the geese which are to provide your day's rations for the morrow, and listen to the notes of the wild-fowl and plover out on the tundra, the beauties of nature seem to become more dis- tinctly visible than during the rush of travel, when your attention is occupied with pole or paddle ; and the attraction of the lonely desert at such a time will linger in your memory for many a day after the attendant storms and hardships are forgotten. When we left the warehouse, a spell of better weather set in, and we were able to coast along the level shore without any more delay till we reached Good News Bay. Here the land rises, and gravelly beaches take the place of the muddy shores that I" ON SALT WATER 265 characterise the estuary of the river. A pleasant enough shore to cruise by, with deep water close in, and usually plenty of driftwood to camp with, although there is absolutely no growing timber except the dwarf willow bushes. Whenever we had a fair wind we lashed the kayaks alongside, and, hoisting all available canvas, ran gaily as long as the water was smooth. In a heavy swell, the kayak: ploughed up such a high bow-wave that the water broke over our combings, and our companions had to be cast adrift, invariably falling a long way astern. In rough weather they had, of course, far the best of the fun, as the kayak can ship no water. The small round hatch in which the paddler sits is tied round with the lower part of a thin fish -skin coat, so as to be perfectly watertight. The coat is also tied closely round the neck and sleeves to keep water from entering by those means, and a round wooden hat renders everything secure. With his row of spears and a spare paddle lying on deck in a neat little rack ready to his hand, the Innuit will go to sea as long as he can force his little craft against the breeze. At Good News Bay the mountains come down to the sea and are continued for a long way to T 366 Til ROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST > 'Hit < t lllil^ the southward, till they terminate in the headland known as Cape Newenham. This appeared to be an ugly piece of coast for an open canoe, and I was rather pleased to find our pilots heading for the end of the bay, where a large village stands at the mouth of a river, whose course we were now to follow. For two days we pushed up this river, poling, towing, and wading in water that was already beginning to feel cold, through a dry roll- ing country with mountains of some elevation, till it became merely a deep little ditch, in some places too narrow for the canoe. When we could follow it no longer we began to abuse Moses for bringing us the wrong way, but he was quite equal to the occasion, and taking his kayak on his shoulders stalked oft" towards a grassy ridge that lay right ahead, making signs for us to do the same. About a mile away we found a little lake, but we had to cross the portage twice to bring everything over. Aaron of course was not much use here, but in spite of being crippled he always managed to carry over a light load. I took pity on him the first time and carried his kayak over for him, but never offered to do so again. The only way to carry one or These canoes is to put your head right inside the hatch ON SALT WATER 267 and let her rest bottom up on your shoulders ; but there is such a frightful stench of seal oil and rotten fish inside every kayak that was ever built, that one experience of a portage a mile in length is quite sufficient. We made altogether five portages in passing through a chain of lakes, and finally dropped on to another little ditch draining towards the south-west. During this part of our journey wood was very scarce ; in fact we had once or twice some difficulty in getting fire enough to boil a kettle. A big camp fire at night was quite out of the question, and we began to feel the want of blankets and better cloth- ing, as there was always a sharp frost on clear nights, and the early mornings were wretchedly cold. The stream we now had to follow was merely a repetition of the last, but with the advant- age of the fair current the navigation was much easier, and early on the third day after leaving salt water we reached a comparatively large river enter- ing the Behring Sea, well to the eastward of Cape Newenham. At the junction of the streams we met a party of Innuits, who were bound for a cariboo hunt in a range of mountains already in sight to the northward. i m 2^,8 THROUGtf THE SVliARCTlC I'OREST < < t it Som i' a < (t ii ct -^ i<« » w I Mm A u. 5 ki 1^ < t |: 7 t Ul 3' i> ^t ^ Hi. 270 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST nearly everything in the canoe was soaked. The poor Kodak camera, which up till now had been very lucky in keeping out of trouble, had to swim for its life, and all the photographs of the sea coast and its inhabitants were utterly ruined. In the morn- ing a recurrence of the disaster was only avoided by wading out the canoe through surf up to our waists and climbing in one at a time when we got outside the breakers, a bad beginning to a long, cold day's journey. About 10 miles away in a straight line lay the point of Togiak Bay, which we had to round, but the wind was too strong to try the cross- ing, and even in skirting the land we found the sea quite heavy enough. At the head of the bay a large stream, the Togiak, comes in from the east- ward, and at its mouth the ebb tide meeting a heavy swell made a confused broken sea on the shoal ground. Here we again shipped a good deal of water and had to bale out several times ; but once across the mouth of the river there was a little shelter close to the land, and without further trouble we arrived at the wretched little hut which does duty for a trac'ing-post, built close to the extremity of the point. A dreary, inhospitable place it seemed as we saw it, in wind and rain. Not a soul was to ON SALT WATER 271 be found, as the trader was away, and although we could see an abundance of flour and other good things through the window of the store, there was no chance of getting at them except by force. By peering through a crack in the boards of the dwell- ing house we could catch a glimpse of a neat little pair of shoes, standing side by side on the floor, with very high heels in the middle of the soles, such as can be seen in great numbers pattering along Kearny Street on any fine afternoon. So, perhaps, the trader of Togiak leads a less dreary life than the natural surroundings of his habitation might suggest. We were not sufficiently hard up for anything to feel justified in helping ourselves, so we pitched our lodge and ate salmon and ptarmigan contentedly, while we waited for the strong south-west wind and heavy sea to moderate enough to enable us to leave the shelter of the bay. The camp-fire was supplied by driftwood, but there was still a total absence of standing timber, and the willow bushes seemed even more stunted here than in other parts of the tundra. Ptr'nnigan were very plentiful and were beginning to band up into big packs, as is always their habit when autumn approaches. Geese were often seen 272 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST in large numbers, but were not easily approached except on the muddy flats at the mouths of the rivers. Of the sea birds, the most conspicuous on this part of the coast were the cormorants, gulls, guillemots, puffins, auks, divers, scoters, and eider ducks. The only small animals we noticed were the red and Arctic fox, the mink, the musk-rat, and a small variety of the ground-hog or siffleur. None of the larger animals seem to come out to the sea coast. The only tracks we saw were these of an occasional bear on the sand-bars o{ some of the small rivers alon^: which we travelled. EST approached Jths of the spicuous on 'ants, gulls, , and eider )ticed were jsk-rat, and iur. None to the sea hose of an me of the CHAPTER XVI VOVAGi; TO OUNALASKA A gale „f win.l-Karlukuk Uny-Inlan.l navigation ai;ain-\Vou,i Kivcr-Tlie schooner, her >kip,xr and crew of „,any nations-Uunalaska- Homeward bound in ihe Frisco steamer. The wind freshened up into a gale with continual rain, and two days were lost at Togiak on account of bad weather. On the third day, although it was a bright calm morning when we started, we were sharply reminded that our canoe was not the right sort of vessel in which to attempt a coasting voyage on the Behring Sea. The shore here changes its appearance, and instead of the low sandy or gravelly beaches on which a landing can always be made with safety to life in case of necessity, long stretches of rocky bluffs begin to appear, precluding all hope for the occupants of any boat not seaworthy enough to keep an offing. As we were passing one of these bluffs, a sudden squall from the westward T I 'TI IH: I. 4 I" KM 4 < 1*^ 7 si 874 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST ruffied up the long ground-swell into a dangerous sea, and for some time it was doubtful whether we could keep the canoe sufficiently clear of water to round the next point in safety. To turn back and run with the sea seemed to offer a worse chance than pushing on, as the distance to run was much greater, and if the squall continued it was only a question of a few minutes till one of the short steep waves would break on board and render the canoe unmanageable, even if there was not weight enough ill the cargo to make her sink at once. The kayaks stayed by us, and the Innuits gave us much advice that was no doubt well meant but utterly unintelligible. They were evidently greatly alarmed for our safef , and could ha\'e done nothing to help us in case of disaster. There was one little bight just under the pitch of the head where it might have been possible for an active man to climb the cliff if he were lucky enough to escape damage in the surf, and I had serious thoughts of trying it, although of course it meant total destruc- tion of canoe and cargo, but a few more minutes' struggle, with some desperate plunges into the head seas, took us round the point; in safety, and to everybody's relief a successful landing was made on VOYAGE TO Oi'N ALASKA 275 jerous ler we Lter to :k and chance ; much only a t steep e canoe enough . The rave us :ant but r greatly nothing ne little ,vhere it man to escape uohts of destruc- minutes' llhe head and to I made on a sheltered gravelly beach. We were only just in time, as the wind freshened up to the force of a whole gale, which blew with unabated violence for two days and nights, accompanied by heavy rain- storms. The canoe, propped up on her side, gave us a little shelter, but there was no driftwood to be found, and time hung heavily during the enforced delay. There was still a long ugly piece of coast ahead of us, but when the weather once moder- ated it continued fine until we had rounded the headland forming the west entrance to Karlukuk Bay, when the most perilous part of our journey was safely over. We paddled our best on this occasion, as everybody was an.xious to avoid any recurrence of our experience after leaving Togiak. At the head of Karlukuk Bay is another village, where our guides held a long interview with the inhabitants as to the best way of reaching Nushagak. Moses and Aaron had come to the end of their local knowledge, but still kept up their interest in us, and would not hear of our employing another pilot. They insisted too on acting as interpreters between the strangers and ourselves, and took great pride in showing their countrymen how well they could talk to a white man. It turned >iil »!, !76 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST out that another stretch ot inland navigation was available, a smooth - water route by which Cape Constantine — a promontory projecting far out into Bristol Bay — might be altogether avoided. Starting from the village at low water, we carried the flood tide up the innumerable windings of a river entering the head of the bay. At the end of the tidal water the land rises quickly, and of course a strong current was met with at once. Shortly above this point two or three small swampy lakes lie in the course of the stream, and here the salmon were rotting in thousands, some dead and some making their last struggle, unable to ascend the stream higher, and apparently unwilling to turn their heads down stream to the salt water. Several portages from lake to lake occupied a good deal of time, but by noon on the second day out from Karlukuk we had crossed the last height of land and entered a sheet of water 8 miles in length, lying south - west and north - east, drained by a stream flowing towards the Bay of Nushagak. Spruce timber now began to show up frequently (the first we had seen since leaving the Kuskokvim), and increased in size as we ran down stream. A few miles down is a second lake about 4 miles in VOYAGE TO 0U\ ALASKA 277 length, a very pretty stretch of water well wooded on all sides, and plentifully supplied with fish. At an Innuit camp the drying-stages were loaded with salmon of a much better quality than usual, besides a large stock of trout and whitefish. An old man, with a litde Russian blood in his veins, and two good-looking daughters, keeps a small trading post at the north end of the lake, where he is looked upon with great respect as the representative of the powerful Alaska Commercial Company. His whole stock consists of a few pounds of tea and tobacco, but he evidendy makes the most of these com- modities, judging by the pile of furs that was stacked up in one corner of his underground house where he entertained us at a salmon feast. The furs traded by the Innuits on this part of the coast are not of much value, being chiefly musk-rat skins and red foxes of poor quality. The beaver skins are very good, but these animals are not numerous, and the hunter has a long journey to make into the interior before he can expect to make a successful hunt. On leaving the lake, the river, which is locally known as Wood River, is at first a succession of small rocky rapids, but the navigation is perfectly I ' i r ^<^' : t c; ' \ •n ' S •» 1 ',( MM < :■ * < ■ 1. t: i- .1 :: i k '' i ^ ' 578 THROUGH THE SUH ARCTIC FOREST easy. Fifteen miles below the lake tidal water is reached, and from this point to the bay the course of the stream is exasperatingly crooked, while the flood rushes up with such force that it is more pro- fitable to camp and wait for high water than to waste labour by paddling against the tide. At last we reached the open sea and secured a local guide from a village at the mouth of the river, as the weather was foggy, and our own pilots had no knowledge of what lay ahead. After a little trouble with the broken water on the bar, we made our last camp on the gravelly beach of thv bay, and the following morning reached Nushagak in good time. As we paddled up to the trading post, a schooner came beating down the river which here enters Nushagak Bay, and we at once recog- nised the vessel that had passed us on the Kus- kokvim nearly a month ago. She was evidently bound for sea, but luckily stranded on a sand-bar, and we were able to communicate with her before the tide rose sufficiently to float her off. I had no time to examine the settlement, but it is doubtless a place of some importance, as there are several canneries on the river, and during the fishing season arrivals and departures of vessels connected yOVAG/-: TO OiWALASKA :!79 with the salmon trade are common events. But by this time (i8th September) the canneries were all closed and the summer's catch was well on its way to San Francisco. It was by the merest chance that we caught the schooner, and if we had reached the post a few hours later, we should hrve had several hundred miles farther to paddle, with some open sea work, besides the long fresh -water route by which the Alaskan Peninsula may be crossed to Katmai. At Katmai we should prob- ably have been no better off than at Nushagak, as communication with the south would certainly have been closed long before we could ha^'e reached that point. Our experience in coasting along the Behring Sea had shown us that as long as we were travelling on the salt water, delays, if nothing worse, would be of frequent occurrence. Of the twenty-five days that had been spent on the pas- sage from Kuskokvim Mission to Nushagak, when half the journey lay through fresh water, no less than nine whole days had been wasted in waiting for wind and sea to moderate. As the winter approached, the storms would most likely increase in duration and severity, so that there was every possibility of our being caught by the snow before h . '* !« I 280 THROUGH THE SUIiARCTlC FOREST y XL <• c LI < t :■ we reached Katmai. The schooner bound for Ounalaska was too good a chance to miss, so I at once interviewed the captain, with the view of obtaining a passage by his vessel. I found him very full of a wonderful reformation in his own character, which had just been brought about by the missionary at Nushagak. " I left 'Frisco in May," he told me before I had been on board five minutes, "a roaring, godless sinner, the same as I always was, but that's all changed now, and I am a new man." That his conversion was real there can be no doubt, as he confined his roaring to the singing of Methodist hymns all the way to Oun- alaska, and only showed symptoms of godlessness in moments of sudden excitement. The missionary deserves full credit for this, and it is a pity he could not have kept the worthy skipper long enough to teach him the rudiments of charity and goodwill towards his fellow-men. It proved no easy matter to get a passage in the reformed man's schooner, as he had no intention of helping stran- gers out of the country merely as an act of charity, and we were most unlikely -looking objects from whom to obtain the exorbitant number of dollars which he demanded for our passage to Ounalaska. VOV/lGfi: TO O UNA LAS A- A 381 The company's ;igent at Nushagak knew nothing about me, and as far as he was concerned we had done remarkably well in being able to pay off our Innuit guides at his store, leaving a very few grains of gold dust in our treasury. A compromise with the captain was at length struck. He held an examination of all our personal effects, and came to the conclusion that they were of sufificient value to cover the price of our passage to Ounalaska. On arrival there, if none of the Alaska Commercial Company's ofificials would guarantee my respect- ability, the captain was to take over my possessions and put us ashore. If, however, I should prove to be more solvent than he expected at present, I was to have the option of continuing the voyage to San Francisco in the schooner, at another exorbitant rate, in case the last steamer had alret..../ left for the south. We paddled alongside in a heavy rainstorm, and hoisted the canoe and cargo on board. Moses and Aaron came off in their kayaks to see the last of us, and received more treasures of dirty clothes and worn out knives, axes, and kettles than they had ever seen before in their lives. Our long journey was practically over, although there were still 400 w 1 i i Sii >■ I "^1 ■■ <^' ■V 5, V, ,1 C" 1 •M «» ;» \t\ 1 U ,! •m h- < ; 1 u. i^ \L z X V 2«2 THROLuH THE SUnAKCriC FOREST miles to be covered before w*; r(;achecl Ounalaska. Hut the method of travelling was changed ; a strong wind which might have obliged us to camp a day or two before, would now be welcome enough, and in this rainy sea the cabin afforded many comforts that were noticeably wanting on the beach. The schooner was one of those mysterious crafts that cruise in lonely waters without any ostensible business — a tiat-bottomed, centre-board scow, utterly unfit to work off a leeshore or to make a passage to windward in a seaway. I did not like to inquire too closely into the purposes of her voyage, and of course could only guess at the skipper's reasons for spending a long summer among the natives of the northern seaboard. The whole visible return cargo consisted of fifteen live reindeer and a couple of Arctic foxes. The crew were a strange mixture of human beings. The mate had begun life behind a counter in Glasgow, but was now Americanised into the worst type of blow-hard anti-Briton. He had committed some breach of discipline, which must have been fairly slack in such a ship, and had been put in irons for a week or two, till the cook refused to carry him his meals any longer. When I met him at yoyAGE TO OUN ALASKA tt% Nushagak he was under orders from the captain to consider himself in irons for the rest of the voyage. This seemed to suit him exactly, as he kept no watch at night and played cribbage with the halt- breeds all day. There were two deck hands, one a fair-haired Norseman of 6 ft. 4 in,, who would have looked more in place hurling spears from a viking ship than steerincr a rotten flat-bottomed American schooner, and a good little Scotchman who had served a rough apprenticeship in an east-coast herring boat. The cook was a fat German who talked a good deal about beer, and was always ready to leave his pots and pans to shout advice as to the naviga- tion of the ship. Yet this schooner had made a long summer's cruise, from San Francisco to the Siberian shore of the Behring Sea, always escaping damage from the numerous shoals on which she grounded, and eventually reaching San Francisco safely, late in the autumn. Th*^ voyage to Ounalaska was made in seven days, without any unusual incident : for two days we drifted in a fog off Cape Constantine, and for the same length of time beat against a head wind and sea, without gaining any distance. Then the wind h w i 284 THROUGH THE SUD ARCTIC FOREST CI < c:: 'U'l < "1' I (I <4., came fair out of Bristol Bay, and the schooner wallowed ?.Iong under the high volcanoes of the Alaskan Peninsula, and the outlying chain of the Aleutian Islands, with the sails wing and wing, the pumps working at intervals, and the captain roaring for " Beulahland " in the cabin, instead of looking after his navigation. When we had run our distance there was some difficulty in finding the enf.ance to Ounalaska harbour, as the gray clouds hung over the land, and only the foot of the long line of cliff was visible. A day was lost in standing off and on waiting for clearer weather to enter the bay. We saw a good many fur-seals on this day, and could have made a successful hunt, but our captain had enough on his conscience already, and would not take any extra risk of losing his ship by confiscation for having seal-skins aboard, when schooners engaged in the business were being seized on sit^^ht by the ever- watchful American cruisers. At the office of the Alaska Comm.ercial Company I was able to pay off the skipper, as my letters of credit had arrived a couple of months before. A steamer was expected down from St. Michael's in a week's time, and would sail at once for San t * VOYAGE TO UNA LA SKA i%S Francisco, so we deserted the schooner, as there was no object in continuing our rather uncomfort- able voyage. Ounalaska has for many years been a place of some importance, as besides being the northern headquarters of the Alaska Commercial Company, it lies directly in the track of whalers bound for Point Barrop and the Arctic Sea. Since the beginning of the Behring Sea dispute, Ounalaska has become the rendezvous for British and American ships engaged in patrol work to watch the movements of the sealing ;;chooners, and carry out the terms of arbitration. Recently a new company has started up in opposition to the Alaska Commercial Company, with large buildings at Dutch Harbour, within a couple of miles of Ounalaska ; and coal depots for supplying the gun -boats have been established. A fortnightly mail service to Sitka brings the settlement a little nearer to civilisation during the summer months, but in winter communication is altogether cut off. The United States Revenue cruiser Bear was lying in Dutch Harbour when we arrived, and her officers were always ready for duck -shooting and fishing expeditions, so that time passed '! 286 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST f9- I IMi 'i/i < 4 pleasantly enough till the middle of October, when the steamer from the north came in. After a long stormy passage on the North Pacific, with a call at KocHak, we finally landed at Nanaimo, the coal mining town on Vancouver Island, at the end of the month, and my crew immediately took the train for their homes in Manitoba. They had behaved wonderfully well during the whole trip, and proved reliable from start to finish, ready in emergency, and very little inclined to grumble. This is all the more creditable as they had never travelled on salt water before, and knew nothing of tides and storms and breaking seas ; but the ' took everything as it came without remark, and waited for an explana- tion of these strange things till the day's travel was over and a fire of driftwood lit up the surf that for ever plunges on the shingle beaches of the Behr'ng Sea. .,1 :r, when r a long I call at ;he coal id of the :rain for behaved proved urgency, 3 all the [ on salt 1 storms ig as it ixplana- s travel he surf > of the il F. S.Wellor, 43, OtnnujrkJK'l- 150 X.oiigitud»i We»t of Grxf uy EilwBircl Arnold, lonilmi *; Nei 160 I4iS 140 1.-1& UK 130 Ahandor"-^ ^;j- "^*W<^* A***'*"^. ■. nty lie^^ '''auaiis Klla ?4oao-^oOf ^^ir^iisr ie/a(' tfieli > «*'■' "***" f o %«- T ''«*i« u«in*'''ifr 'jftiin* ^"l '^lU/i* l,lfha'-9' '■''\Hijltl/C. **% 1. ....^X.Ar*'''i T ^y V* G U \l F OF A. z\a S K A "^ C " i^' •V ^ c I r I V ., ft'"'*' .M'"' J^' M/kP OF Showing the Aiithorls Route EngK-sb mina 5U loo 1M> son CAo aito ^-^^"^^ Aiithnra' Remit, ^- — 150 X.ongitud» Weat of Grfif in»iA 1* 150 Xiongitud» Weat of Ga-fif in»iA l*ft I'l^O inr. i;»o niTuirkHUL. It"' ,»1 .»■►•■ J' 1-.' APPENDIX I ri A List of Geological Specimens collected nv Mr. VVarburton Pike near the head-waters oe the Pelly River. Professor George M. Dawson, Director of the Geological Survey (jf Canada, has been good enough to arrange the collection. 1. Four specimens from low foot hills forming west side of valley of Yus-ez-uh. 4th May. Gray fine-grained cherty conglomerate, with greenish quartz, apparently forming veins. 2. Two specimens from bluff 10 miles up Vus-ez-uh. 6th May. Black slaty argillite. 3. Two specimens drift from rocky bar at outlet of Macpherson Lake. 8th May. Association of quartz and calcite, the former running through the latter in narrow ribs. Evidently from a vein. 4. Four specimen rocks from bluff forming canon on stream flowing towards the foot of ALicjAerson Lake from west, about 3 miles up. lolh May. Gray-green schist and fine-grained gray limestone. r ! 1 ■" > y!^: 91i ••^ m 1 1 ^ m THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST 5. Four specimen rocks from same spot. loth May. Clray fine-grained limestone and glossy gray schist. 6. One specimen from exposure on small hill on south side same creek, 5 miles up and half a mile back from creek. I ith May. Ferruginous and calcareous sandstone. 7. Two specimens from bluff on south side same creek, 8 miles on the portage. 12th May. Gray coarse-grained quartzite. 8. Three specimens from mountain across same creek, on portage 10 miles in, forming west spur Too-Tsho range. 1 2th May. Gray granite, containing both liornblende and mica, also pieces of small white quartz veins. 9. Two specimens drift from south shore of main Pelly Lake. 6th May. These are worn pebbles. One of dolomite and quartz, interpenetrating. The other a fine-grained red and greenish rock, probably an argillite. I o. Two specimens from exposure on side of low mountain on south side Pelly River, 2 miles above lake. 17th May. Fine-grained highly ferruginous sandstone, apparently associated with dark argillite. Also a rounded pebble of fine-grained grpet^ish felspathic rock. 11. Three specimens from track, east end of Pelly Lake. 23rd May. Fragments of rusty quartz and of quartz impregnated with a little green ferriferous dolomite. 12. One specimen from same spot. Fine-grained blue-gray limestone, with interbedded gray calcareous argillite. A pebble irregularly weathered. 13. Two specimens from exposure on conical hill, half a mile from west end of -econd lake. 25th May. APPENDIX I 289 lated Ided |larly iiile (irccn-gray quartzitc-likc rock. Fine grained, probably somewhat felsi athic. 14. One specimen from canon, iS miles above Pelly Lake, on south side river. 27th iMay. I'alc greenish-gray (luartzite, with schist of same colour. 15. Two specimens from north side, same canon. 27th May. Light gray cryptocrystalline quartz carrying pyrite. Found on assay to contain neither gold nor silver. J 6. One specimen from bar 1 5 miles above Pelly Lake. 27th May. A purplish fine-grained bedded rock, of which some layers are highly calcareous and some siliceous. 'I'he weathering out of the calcareous layers has given the fragment a form somewhat resembling that of a bone. 17. Two specimens from Ijluff 15 miles above Pelly. Boulders of similar rock scattered over the hills. 37th ^Liy. Purplish, slaty argillite. 18. One specimen from hill, west end second Pelly Lake. 28th May. Gray glossy schist, apparently felspathic. 19. Two specimens from hill north side of same. 28th May. Finely bedded blackish argillite schist, also a fine- grained felspathic rock. 20. Two specimens from bluff on small lake to south of same. 29th May. (Iray quartzite, ferruginous and slightly calcareous. White quartz veins. 21. Two specimens from canon above third Pelly Lake. 6th June. Green-gray glossy schist. 22. One specimen from bluff near source of Pelly. 7th June. Gray glossy schist. U 4. ■1 390 THROUGH THE SUIiARCTIC I-OREST 23. Eight specimens from mountain side at source of I'elly. Stli June. Fine (juart/ose conglomerate and slightly schistose quart/ites, composed of granitic debris. Small cjuartz veins. Also gray calcareous schist and gray limestone associated with schist. 24. Three specimens from heap showing through swamp near source of Pelly. yth June. Iron ochre, highly calcareous, porous structure, perhaps a gossan. 25. Two specimens from I'elly above third lake. Dark blue-gray fine grained limestone, also a i)iece of ferruginous (luart/.it'o with small (juartz veins cutting it. 26. Four specimens from bluff, north side of main lake, one mile from outlet. 1 7th June. Fine-grained gray calc-schist. 27. 28, 29, 30, 31. Collected from numerous bluffs along canon of Pelly, below the chain of lakes, and after junction with large streams coming in from northward during the day's run of 30 miles. 22nd June. 27. Black slaty argillite. 28. White cleavable calcite, with minute fissures holding compact limonite (var. glaskopf). 29. Black slaty argillite, slightly calcareou-s, small quartz veins. 30. Hard ferruginous sandstone. Gray where un- weathered. 3r. Green impure (sandy) limestone, sometimes dolomite. Veinlets of calcite and dolomite. 32. Seven specimens from rapid 35 miles below Pelly Lakes. Slate in greatest proportion. 23rd June. Gray and blackish schist, very slightly calcareous, holding numerous small cubial pyrites crystals. I' I h \ AI'PEM)1X 1 291 Also a fine conglomerate chiefly composed of gray chert fragments. 33. Four specimens from hluff 3 miles below rapid, s^th June. i'ine-grained greenstone (Diabase ?) also a fine-grained association of quartz and dolomite, evidently from a vein. 34. Two specimens from large bluff south side of Pelly. 28th June. White (|uartz with iron stair's. 35. Two specimens from dry canon entering Pelly from northward. 28th June. An association of white sub-translucent to opaque quartz, with bright green chromiferous serpentine. The specimens collected by Mr. Warburton Pike, about the head-waters of the Pelly River, include no fossils of any descrip- tion, nor are they accompanied by any notes on the strike or dip of the beds from which they were obtained. The locality of each is, however, marked uj^on a rough sketch map of his route, supplied by Mr. Pike. I.ithologically, they are somewhat varied, and are evidently derived from a region of considerable disturbance in which no one rock is continuously represented over any considerable area. (Generally speaking, they do not differ much from the series of rocks met with and described in my report ^ on the Yukon district, as occurring on adjacent parts of the Frances River and I^ke and the Pelly River, 'i'hey appear to show the continua- tion of a similar association of stratified formations throughout the new country traversed by Mr. i'ike in 1892. Unfortunately, the geological examination of all this part of the Yukon district has, so far, been insufiicient to establish the normal succession of formations vs it, and the clue which might ' Ceolo^s^ical Siitvev of Canada, Annual Report. New .Series vdl iii 1887-88. 292 THROUGH THE SUBARCTIC FOREST !»•■' .1' »■■"•- I-* ^\ I..- 7 /■■ ( I otherwise he estabhshed to the age of the rock series by means of the hthological character of the specimens is thus very sUght. It is probable, however, that the specimens represent series of rocks ranging in age from tlie Cambrian (Selkirk, (!astlc Mountain, and How River series) to the Carboniferous (Cache Oeck formation), while it is not impossible that some of the less altered argillites, etc., are even referable to the Mesozoic. The rocks which resemble most clearly those of the Cambrian of British Columbia come from the vicinity of the source of the branch of the Pelly particularly exi)lored by Mr. Pike. No Tertiary stratified rocks or basalts such as those found in some other parts of the Yukon district occur among the specimens. The only granitic mass represented appears to be that met with in mountains on the cast side of the Vus-cz-uli River, and it is notable that the granites of the Too-'I'sho Range (see report already referred to) thus seem to be discontinuous to the northward. The structure of all this northern part of the Cordilleran belt appears to be singularly irregular, and it may be a long time before it can be geologically examined in detail. The region traversed by Mr. Pike, however, evidently attaches to the northern con- tinuation of the Selkirk, Gold, and Cariboo mountains of British Columbia rather than to the massive and comparatively unaltered limestone ranges of the Rocky Mountains proper. These, from an almost uninterrupted eastern border to the Cordillera, and in the latitudes in which Mr. Pike's exploration lay, are represented along the Mackenzie River some 150 miles to the eastward of Mr. Pike's furthest point ir that direction. The intervening tract is entirely unknown biMh geogra])hically and geologically. ^1 CEORCls M. DAWSON. II A List ok Plants colm-xtrd hy Mr. Waruurton Pike in Alaska an'd thk North-Wkst Territory ok Canada. Classified by tlii.' kind assistance of Dr. Tiiiscltoii Dyer. Anemone multifuia, BC. «♦ )» ,, 7'af: „ Richardsoni, /^ooL „ parviflora, MicLv. Ranunculus nivalis, Z., 7w. Eschscholtzii. ,, lapponicus, Z. ? Aquilegia brevistyla, J/oo/c. Aconitum Fisclieri, /Mc/i. Papaver alpinum, Z. Arabis lyrata, Z. ? „ retrofracta, Graham. Barbarea vulgaris, R. Br. Erysimum sp. Viola palustris, /,. Silene acaulis, Z. „ Douglasii, Hook. Cerastium maximum, Z. „ alpinum, Z. Stellaria longipes, Goldie. Arenaria arctica, Stev. i il l!.|; it 1.1* 7 J ¥' 294 THROUGH THE S Hi ARCTIC FOREST Aienaria (mcrckia) physodes, Fisc/t. 1-inum perenne, L. Lupinus nootkatensis, 7'ar. borealis. Astragalus alpinus, Z. » «P- „ Lambertii, Piirsh. 1 Oxytropis splendens, Dougt. „ sp. Hedysarum boreale, iVui/. Dryas octopetala, Z. „ Drummonciii, //oo/c. Rubus chamaimorus, Z. „ arcticus, Z. Potentilla nivea, L. „ near P. Fragariastrum. ,, anserina, Z. „ fruticosa, Z. Rosa acicularis, Zi'/id/., Tar. Parnassia palustris, Z. Saxifraga tricuspidata, Refz. Ribes hudsonianum, Ric/i. Rpilobiuni latifoliuni, Z. „ angustifolium, Z. Huplcurum raniinculoides, Z. Cornus canadensis, Z. Viburnum Opulus, /,. Linnaja borealis, Groii. Galium boreale, /.. Haplopappus ? Aster sibiricus, Z. Krigeron glaucus "^ „ glabellus, Niiff., rar. Arnica montana, L. Petasites palmata, Gray'f APPENDIX II 295 Senecio liigens, Rich. Taraxacum officinalis, IVeh., var. Campanula sp., near C. Scheuchzeri, NilL Androsace Chama;jasme, Host. Dodecatheon media, Z. Primula mistassinica, Michx. ,, farinosa, L. Pyrola uniflora, Z. ,, rotundifolia, L. Andromeda polifolia, L. Cassiope tetragona, Don. Rhododendron lapponicum, Z. Vaccinium uliginosuni, Z. „ caispitosum, Michx. Gentiana campestris ? „ prostrata, ILenkc. Polemonium humile, Willd. Phlox subulata, /.. Myosotis alpestris, Lchm. Mertensia sibirica, Don. Pentstemon cristatus, N^iiit. „ confertus, Doug/., var. coeruleo-purpureivs. Pedicularis sudetica, IVii/d. Utricularia intermedia, Hayne. Pinguicula vulgaris, Z. Polygonum viviparum, Z. Allium Schiienoprasum, Z. Tofieldia palustris, Ilnds. Calla palustris, Z. Zygadenus glaucus, Ntitt. Cystopteris montana, Bernh. Pniitcdhy R. t>t R. Clakk, Limiied, Hdinhirgli.