124 TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 



the water ran strong, and the eddies and rapids were 

 numerous. There was little for the paddler to do 

 but keep the canoe head on. We flashed down to the 

 coast in the shortest of short times, mud banks, gravel 

 reaches, stunted alders, rocky ramparts, and grass- 

 grown slopes passing in kaleidoscopic swift array. A 

 red fox stood by the river side as the first bidarka 

 raced by, and I saw him loping off, with bushy brush 

 held straight out, in flurried surprise. 



At the cove where the Lily lay we were quite aston- 

 ished to notice the numbers of hair seals, which had 

 arrived in their myriads since our departure. The 

 lure of the salmon so soon about to run up the river 

 had caused the influx. We did not try to shoot a 

 specimen, because when the seals are thin and in 

 spare condition it is impossible to recover the carcases, 

 which sink to the bottom like stones. The natives 

 kill these seals for bidarka coverings, shoes, etc., etc., 

 in the late season, August and September, when the 

 creatures are fat and rolling in blubber. Buoyed up 

 with good living the dead bodies float to the surface. 



" Once aboard the lugger " things were not exactly 

 halcyon. The cook, who was now a teetotaler from 

 force of circumstances, refused to make porridge, or 

 " mush," as they always called it, for the pilot, who, 

 being Scotch, required porridge to sustain his strength. 

 When asked why he did not make porridge without 

 so much fuss, the cook replied that the pilot could not 

 really need such a dish, and if he did he ought not to. 

 They were both at loggerheads of the most cross-, 

 grained variety. 





