"The Return to Fort JVrangell 



unloaded the canoe, and stored their goods under 

 cover. Toward evening the old man came smiling 

 with a gift for Toyatte, — a large fresh salmon, which 

 was promptly boiled and eaten by our captain and 

 crew as if it were only a light refreshment like a bis- 

 cuit between meals. A few minutes after the big sal- 

 mon had vanished, our generous neighbor came to 

 Toyatte with a second gift of dried salmon, which 

 after being toasted a few minutes tranquilly followed 

 the fresh one as though it were a mere mouthful. 

 Then, from the same generous hands, came a third 

 gift, — a large milk-panful of huckleberries and grease 

 boiled together, — and, strange to say, this wonder- 

 ful mess went smoothly down to rest on the broad and 

 deep salmon foundation. Thus refreshed, and appe- 

 tite sharpened, my sturdy crew made haste to begin 

 on the buck, beans, bread, etc., and, boiling and roast- 

 ing, managed to get comfortably full on but little 

 more than half of it by sundown, making a good deal 

 of sport of my pity for the deer and refusing to eat 

 any of it and nicknaming me the ice ancou and the 

 deer and duck's tillicum, 



Sunday was a wild, driving, windy day with but 

 little rain but big promise of more. I took a walk back 

 in the woods. The timber here is very fine, about as 

 large as any I have seen in Alaska, much better than 

 farther north. The Sitka spruce and the common 

 hemlock, one hundred and fifty and two hundred feet 

 high, are slender and handsome. The Sitka spruce 

 makes good firewood even when green, the hemlock 

 very poor. Back a little way from the sea, there was 



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