Sept., 1907 SOME EXPERIENCES OF A COLLECTOR IN ALASKA 131 



there are no beaver on the islands, so we hope that it is something new. One 

 specimen was 41 inches long and weighed 35 pounds. Another one was shot and 

 stunned, and when Hasselborg went to pull him into the canoe the rascal came to 

 and gave a big jerk and capsized the canoe. Hasselborg had to save the camera 

 from going down so the beaver got away. If we had used the kodak less we would 

 have had lots more skins. 



We went up to the head of the lake and soon located three bears up among the 

 alders on the mountain side above us. We had no grub and hadn't had any for a 

 day, so we didn't have energy enough to climb the mountain. We went back to 

 the first lake and about 5 o'clock lyittlejohn and I started to go down to camp. It 

 began to rain and the clouds came down so that we could scarcely see the tree tops. 

 The huckleberry and the devilsclub had leafed out wonderfully in the few days that 

 we had been over there and the first thing we knew we were off the trail. We tried 

 to get back but couldn't. Then we tried to climb one of the low rolling hills to see 

 if we could see out and tell where we were. After we had climbed several hills it 

 began to get dark and we started for what we thought was Mole Harbor, but it was 

 not long until we found that we were going round and round, for we came to our 

 old tracks. 



The wind was from the southeast when we started and that was all we had to 

 go by, as we were so sure that we couldn't miss the trail that we had left the com- 

 pass behind. Well, it was funny how that wind kept changing. First it came from 

 the southeast, then from the east, next north and then west. We were not exactly 

 lost; we just didn't known how we came, where we were, or which way we were 

 going! Finally I said that I was going to follow a creek down until it either came 

 to salt water or to the lake. We stumbled along thru the deviLsclub and huckle- 

 berry for miles. Then the creek went into waterfalls in a deep canyon and we had 

 more of a time After we had gone along for about four hours in this way we 

 began to look around for a place to hole up for the night, as we were wet to the 

 skin, tired to death and had had nothing to eat for 24 hours. It was so rocky that 

 we couldn't lie down, so we had to go a little farther and just then we saw water 

 ahead and came out on the beach right near camp! Yell? — well we tried to and 

 couldn't, but we forgot we were tired and soon got to camp. They had just got a 

 fresh supply of grub from Juneau, and we soon had our clothes changed and sat 

 down, and then I found I couldn't eat! I'd choke every time I tried to swallow, 

 but I managed to get a cup of cocoa down, read a letter and crawl into bed. 



When I tried to get up the next morning I promptly fell over and la}^ there a 

 while. I lay around for two days kind of dazed and kept wanting to walk, walk all 

 the time. Now I keep a compass chained to me all the time but expect to get lost 

 again as Hasselborg and Stephens both had compasses the other day and still missed 

 their way. 



Several days later Hasselborg, I^ittlejohn, Miss Alexander and I went back 

 again. We made camp about 6 o'clock, ate supper and then went out in the canoe 

 to look for bear, up on the mountain side. We soon saw one feeding in a gulch 

 and Hasselborg started up after it. lyittlejohn went up the creek and Miss Alex- 

 ander and I watched from the boat and motioned to Hasselborg when the bear 

 moved. He had to climb nearly 1000 feet, but part of it was up a snow slide. 

 He made it in 40 minutes. (It took us one hour and a half several days afterwards.) 

 Then we heard six shots and saw the bear disappear in the alders. Pretty soon we 

 heard a dull thump, thump, and the old bear came rolling down over the cliffs. He 

 fell about a quarter of a mile and would have rolled clear to the lake had he not hit 

 a log just right. 



