310 RECENT HUNTING TRIPS. 



After loading up as much meat as we could 

 carry on our canoe, we proceeded on our way, 

 and slept that night on an island just below 

 two rocks standing in the middle of the 

 river, kno^^^l as the Gull Rocks, as they form 

 the nesting site of a colony of American 

 herring gulls (Lariis argentatus smitJisonianus). 



As the current in the Pelly and Macmillan 

 Rivers is far too swift to make headway against 

 by paddling, the only way to get a canoe 

 along is by poling and towing. Only two 

 men are required for this, so I left the 

 management of the canoe entirely to Coghlan 

 and Thomas, both of whom are very experi- 

 enced men in this kind of work. They took 

 it in turn to pole and tow, and by working 

 very hard for nine or ten hours every day 

 made an average of about eighteen miles, a 

 very good rate of travel, I think, under all the 

 circumstances. 



I walked the whole way along the bank and 

 tried to keep a good distance ahead of the 

 canoe in the hope of seeing game before it 

 had been disturbed by the canoe, for poling 



