188 HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



" 'Oh, pshaw!' said Anderson, 'that ain't a fair track; 

 that was where he sat down.' 



" 'Well, is that a fair bear track?' I asked, taking him 

 to a place where the ground was dry when the bear had 

 walked on it. 



" 'Yes, by God!' said Anderson, looking down at it 

 closely, ' that's a track and you haven't even counted the 

 claws either.' 



"Well, I followed that bear for many miles and at last 

 I came up pretty close to him, about two hundred yards 

 away. He w^as so big that I looked at my little rifle, 

 a .30-30, and I said to myself, ' Olsen, this little gun is 

 too small to shoot at that bear,' so I turned around and 

 went home." 



In walking about the hills near Pirate Cove we came 

 upon two Uttle pine trees looking very lonesome in the 

 great waste of tundra. They were the first we had seen 

 since leaving the lower regions of the Yukon River, but 

 our pleasant feelings that we were once again in the land 

 of timber were dispersed when we learned that these had 

 been planted ten years before by one of the residents. 

 Westward of Kodiak Island, which still was several hun- 

 dred miles before us, there is in fact no natural timber 

 on the Alaskan coast. 



But the vast extent of the almost unknown Alaska 

 Peninsula, with its adjacent islands, is rich in minerals, 

 game and fur-bearing animals. The Apollo Mine, on 

 Unga Island, adjacent to our present port of call, had 

 produced about eleven milUon dollars in gold during its 

 existence. 



We cleared Pirate Cove with a good breeze following 

 us, and in several hours had made considerable head- 

 way toward Shelikoff Straits, when suddenly Captain 



