192 THE WILDERNESS OF THE UPPER YUKON 



time they had not permitted a single one of their women 

 to mingle with a white man; the tribe, therefore, was in 

 that respect the single exception among all the tribes, 

 both coast and interior, in the whole north country. 



Their habits are exactly similar to those of other 

 northern Indians. Their country has been partitioned, 

 and sections are allotted to different members of the tribe, 

 who spend the fall, winter, and spring hunting and trap- 

 ping until the salmon arrive, when they catch and dry 

 enough to last them for a short time, until they again 

 begin to hunt. At that time, they differed from other 

 Indians in not having acquired the lazy habits usually 

 characteristic of life near a trading-post, nor had they 

 been in the least demoralized by whiskey. Neither did 

 they suffer from some of the habits acquired through well- 

 meaning, but short-sighted and misdirected missionary 

 enterprise. 



Walking into their camp I soon found one of them 

 who knew a few words of English, and after several had 

 gathered about me, we held a conversation. One had 

 the skin of a sheep, and as he handed it to me his dog 

 snapped at my leg, and immediately several dogs rushed 

 at me, while the squaws came running from the tents and 

 clubbed them away. Indian dogs dislike white men as 

 much as a white man's dog hates an Indian. Had I 

 been alone, those dogs might have killed me, especially if 

 I had fallen. 



As a result of the fragmentary information I could get 

 from the Indians, I decided to strike across the country 

 and reach the Lapie River at the point where it emer- 



