286 KALUTUN'AH PUZZLED. 



ble. The condition of the ice was very different from 

 what it was in 1853-54. Then the coast ice was 

 mainly smooth, and the hummocks were not met un- 

 til we had gone from ten to twenty miles from the 

 shore. Now there was no such belt. The winter had 

 set in while the ice was crowding upon the land, and 

 the pressure had been tremendous. Vast masses were 

 piled up along the track, and the wdiole sea was but 

 one confused jumble of ice-fragments, forced up by 

 the pressure to an enormous height, and frozen to- 

 gether in that position. The whole scene was the 

 Rocky Mountains on a small scale ; peak after peak, 

 ridge after ridge, spur after spur, separated by deep 

 valleys, into which we descended over a rough decliv- 

 ity, and then again ascended on the other side, to 

 cross an elevated crest and repeat the operation. 

 The traveling was very laborious. It was but an end- 

 less clambering over ice-masses of every form and 

 size. 



Kalutunah was much puzzled to understand my 

 object. He had never heard of a journey into that 

 region except to catch bears, and then only in great 

 emergencies ; and when bear-track after bear-track 

 was crossed without our giving chase, he became even 

 more and more concerned. He had a double motive, 

 — to have the sport and to see the effect of our rifles ; 

 but none of the tracks were fresh, and the chase would 

 have been too long to agree with my purposes. At 

 length, however, we came to a trail evidently not an 

 hour old, and which we might have pursued to a suc- 

 cessful issue, for the tracks were made by a mother 

 and a small cub. Kalutunah halted his team, and was 

 loud in his pleadings for leave to make a dash. He 

 argued for the sport, for the skin which would make 



