IN GREEN ALASKA 



final preparations for the trip. The steamer was 

 a large iron ship, specially fitted up for our party. 

 Her coal bunkers were full, and she was provisioned 

 for a two months' cruise. We had hunting parties 

 among us that expected to supply us with venison 

 and bear meat, but to be on the safe side we took 

 aboard eleven fat steers, a flock of sheep, chickens 

 and turkeys, a milch cow, and a span of horses. The 

 horses were to be used to transport the hunters and 

 their traps inland and to pack out the big game. 

 The hold of our ship looked Uke a farmer's barn- 

 yard. We heard the mellow low of the red steer even 

 in the wilds of Bering Sea, but the morning crow 

 of our cockerels was hushed long before that time. 

 And I may here anticipate events so far as to say 

 that the horses proved a superfluity, their only asso- 

 ciation with game being the two foxskins for which 

 Mr. Harriman traded them at Kadiak. But this 

 was no ignoble ending, as they were choice pelts of 

 the rare and coveted black fox. Besides the Kve 

 stock just mentioned, an inventory of our equipment 

 would include one steam and two naphtha launches, 

 boats and folding canvas canoes, tents, sleeping- 

 bags, camp outfits, and in fact everything such an 

 expedition could possibly need. Our completed 

 party now numbered over forty persons besides 

 the crew and the officers of the ship (126 persons in 

 all), and embraced college professors from both the 

 Atlantic and Pacific coasts — botanists, zoologists, 

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