From Taku River to 'Taylor Bay 



tinued the medicine-man, "unless his stolen soul is 

 restored to him and put back in its place he will die. 

 Your boy is really dead already; it is only his lonely, 

 empty body that is living now, and though it may 

 continue to live in this way for a year or two, the boy 

 will never be of any account, not strong, nor wise, 

 nor brave." 



The father then inquired whether anything could 

 be done about it; was the soul still in possession of the 

 crab, and if so, could it be recovered and re-installed 

 in his forlorn son? Yes, the doctor rather thought it 

 might be charmed back and re-united, but the job 

 would be a difficult one, and would probably cost 

 about fifteen blankets. 



After we were fairly out of the bay into Stephens 

 Passage, the wind died away, and the Indians had to 

 take to their oars again, which ended our talk. On we 

 sped over the silvery level, close alongshore. The 

 dark forests extending far and near, planted like a 

 field of wheat, might seem monotonous in general 

 views, but the appreciative observer, looking closely, 

 will find no lack of interesting variety, however far 

 he may go. The steep slopes on which they grow 

 allow almost every individual tree, with its peculiar- 

 ities of form and color, to be seen like an audience on 

 seats rising above one another the blue-green, 

 sharply-tapered spires of the Menzies spruce, the 

 warm yellow-green Mertens spruce with their finger- 

 like tops all pointing in the same direction, or droop- 

 ing gracefully like leaves of grass, and the airy, 

 feathery, brownish-green Alaska cedar. The outer 



I 237 ] 



