2 56 BIG GAME SHOOTING IN ALASKA chap. 



the run from Kenai to Saldovia in nine hours, which, according 

 to the statement of her worthy skipper. Captain Shaw, was 

 her record run. 



We found the settlement already crowded with people 

 waiting for the Bertha, and almost every available cabin 

 occupied. In addition some prospectors had pitched tents 

 and were living in them. Fortunately our friend Mr. Cleg- 

 horn, the postmaster, had kindly lent us a cabin in which we 

 stored our bear skins before leaving Saldovia in August. 

 This was still unoccupied, and here Elphinstone, Vander Byl, 

 and I took up our quarters, finding a hut with a small stove 

 far preferable to a tent at night, as a sharp foretaste of winter 

 had already set in. A good lot of snow was now falling, and 

 the temperature at nights was down to zero. One enter- 

 prising man and his wife had started a small restaurant in a 

 big tent, where it was possible to obtain very decent meals, 

 and this place was duly patronised by our party and several 

 others who found a relief from the daily routine of doing 

 their own cooking. 



Rumours of stirring events filled the air at Saldovia. We 

 heard that Mr. Sexton, the Marshal, had arrived a few days 

 previously to us, and had hurried off up Kachemak Bay and 

 into the forest on the track of an American hunter, and of a 

 German gentleman, both of whom were reported to be doing 

 all kinds of dreadful deeds amongst the game. Concerning 

 the German we were given a graphic description of his arrival 

 at Saldovia, and reports of his apparent unbounded wealth, 

 and of his lavish expenditure in pursuit of sport. Articles 

 dealing with his trip to Alaska had already found their way 

 into the New York journals, and were even then to be seen 

 in Saldovia. The story as told, which was highly embellished, 

 but the main facts of which were true, was briefly as follows. 



