188 THE ARCTIC PRAIRIES 



or two places the Indians said it was only a mile to 

 Indian Mountain River (Der-sheth Tessy), where was a 

 camp of their friends. I was always glad of a reason 

 for pushing on, so away we went. My crew seized 

 their rifles and fired to let their village know we were 

 coming. The camp came quickly into view, and 

 volley after volley was fired and returned. 



These Indians are extremely poor and the shots 

 cost 5 and 6 cents each. So this demonstration totalled 

 up about $2.00. 



As we drew near the village of lodges the populace 

 lined up on shore, and then our boys whispered, "Some 

 white men." What a peculiar thrill it gave me! I 

 had seen nothing but Indians along the route so far and 

 expected nothing else. But here were some of my own 

 people, folk with whom I could talk. They proved to 

 be my American friend from Smith Landing, he whose 

 hand I had lanced, and his companion, a young English- 

 man, who was here with him prospecting for gold and 

 copper. "I'm all right now," he said, and held up the 

 hand with my mark on it, and our greeting was that of 

 white men meeting among strangers in a far foreign land. 



As soon as we were ashore a number of Indians came 

 to offer meat for tobacco. They seemed a lot of to- 

 bacco-maniacs. "Tzel-twee" at any price they must 

 have. Food they could do without for a long time, 

 but life without smoke was intolerable; and they 

 offered their whole dried product of two Caribou, con- 

 centrated, nourishing food enough to last a family 

 many days, in exchange for half a pound of nasty, 

 stinking, poisonous tobacco. 



