90 BIG GAME SHOOTING IN ALASKA chap. 



banks and shallows, over which it was necessary to haul and 

 push the boats by getting into the water. The weather also 

 on several days was vile. It alternated between gales of 

 wind and storms of rain and snow, with now and then a fine 

 warm day, and once following close on frost and snow, a hot 

 day ending in a thunderstorm in the evening. The thunder- 

 storm was regarded as a rare occurrence in those parts. The 

 lack of timber along the river- banks made it hard to find 

 suitable camping-places, and when found, the gales of wind 

 were a constant source of annoyance, frequently blowing down 

 our tents. The frost was, indeed, barely out of the ground, 

 certainly not more than three inches below the surface, and 

 in consequence to peg down the tents securely was a matter 

 of sheer impossibility. Taken as a whole, the days spent 

 towing up this river were not an unalloyed joy, but fortu- 

 nately they were the only ones on which we suffered any real 

 discomforts from the Alaskan weather, which we had been 

 led to expect far worse than the realisation. The actual 

 towing up to the head of the river occupied some four or 

 five days, but it was the 27th of the month before we finally 

 pitched camp by the side of the lake. For several days 

 previous to this a sharp look-out had been kept along the 

 hillsides of the river valley, in the vain hopes of seeing bear, 

 and several wide reconnaissances had been made in front and 

 on each flank of the line of advance. Our only rewards 

 were a few old tracks of bears on the snow patches in the 

 hills, and many old signs of the previous year where bears 

 had been digging for ground-squirrels, etc. We had been 

 led to expect plenty of caribou in the valley, and were 

 counting much on this form of meat. On. the third day up 

 the river it was therefore with some relief that I saw 

 through the glasses six or seven of them feeding near the 



