XIII ON THE HOMEWARD TRAIL 255 



getting down to Saldovia. Hearing that the Marshal had 

 already gone there, and that the Judge was going down on 

 this steamer on the chance of apprehending some more 

 "game hogs," I decided to go and see the fun. Mr. 

 Vander Byl and Lord Elphinstone also accompanied us, 

 and we bade farewell to Kenai, leaving Glyn, Hanbury, and 

 Little to follow us to Saldovia a week later, when the 

 Tyonook made her last trip up and down Cook's Inlet 

 before winter set in. We found the Tyonook fairly full 

 with a number of miners and others coming down from the 

 head of the Inlet. Whilst on board we heard an item of 

 news which illustrated forcibly the stupidity of the Kenai 

 natives, and the consequences which may result from their 

 dangerous habit of firing blindly at anything which they 

 can see or hear moving in the brush. 



At the headquarters of a mining camp on Kussiloff Lake 

 there were two valuable cart-horses which had been con- 

 veyed up from Seattle at considerable trouble and expense 

 to their owners. These horses were allowed to roam loose 

 around the settlement by day and night. Soon after our 

 departure from the lake, a party of natives came there to hunt 

 moose for meat. They camped on arrival close to the mining 

 settlement. During the night, being aroused by the noise of 

 some big animal near their tent, they turned out with their 

 rifles. Seeing two large beasts a few yards away, they at 

 once opened fire, and on going to the spot found they had 

 shot one horse dead, and so severely wounded the other 

 that it was not expected to recover when we last heard news 

 of it. The staff of this mining company were on board the 

 Tyonook, and their feelings and language on receiving the 

 news can be better imagined than described. 



With half a gale blowing dead astern, the Tyonook made 



