A HUNTER'S CAMP-FIRES 



again ; also the mouth of the Iskoot River, which flowed into the 

 Stikine from the northeast. It was on the headwaters of this 

 stream that we were to camp some weeks later. 



During the morning numbers of ducks and some geese were 

 seen, and about noon some of the party on the steamboat had 

 a momentary glimpse of a black bear on a sand-bar in the dis- 

 tance. At intervals of every few miles piles of fuel in the form 

 of cordwood were visited by the steamer, and were carried on 

 board by the good-natured Indian crew. At one time the 

 Hazelton was tied up to a sand-bar for an hour and a half while 

 her paddle-wheel, damaged by a collision with a sand-bar, was 

 repaired by the Indians. At dark we tied up for the night at 

 a gravel-bar on which were the fresh tracks of both grizzly and 

 moose, and next morning, as soon as it was sufficiently light for 

 the pilot to pick his course among the bars, the Hazelton was 

 again slowly steaming up-stream. 



Toward noon we passed through Kloochman Canon, which is 

 quite narrow and precipitous — not more than seventy yards 

 wide. It is really a pass through the first low range of moun- 

 tains. On the other side of the caflon the character of the 

 scenery changed abruptly. Here the spruce-covered mountains 

 on the warmer, moist coast-side of the range were replaced by 

 gravel - benches overgrown with poplar, and terminating in 

 rounded, moss-covered mountains in the distance. 



High up on one peak we saw several bands of mountain 

 goats, and during the afternoon a black bear was discovered 

 on a sand-bar about a quarter of a mile ahead of the steamboat. 

 A number of rifles were brought out on deck, but the combina- 

 tion steward and barkeeper of the Hazelton spoiled our chances 

 by taking a hurried shot out of the barroom window before the 

 bear was in range. It thereupon immediately made tracks 

 toward the shelter of the timber. Shortly before dark, and 

 before anchoring to the bank, near the cabin of an old pros- 

 pector, the steamboat nearly ran down a porcupine which was 



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