The Grayling at Caribou Crossing 39 



The remaining colony — a little changed from the other 

 two through long isolation — is in Montana, at the head of 

 the Missouri River. The Montana grayling is most plen- 

 tiful in the Gallatin River, and if you look through the 

 mountains till you find Horsethief Creek you will be sure 

 of at least one day's good sport. It will take all day to find 

 the creek, no matter from where you start. 



And this brings me to describe my best day's sport with 

 the grayling. It so happened that in June, 1897, the present 

 writer was in the city of Juneau, the metropolis of Alaska. 

 That day the Canadian surveyor, Ogilvie, since noted in 

 history, had reached Juneau from up the coast, and across 

 the mountains, with a wonderful story of the happenings 

 in the Northwest Territory of Canada on the banks of the 

 middle Yukon. It seems that the Indian, Skookum Jim, of 

 Caribou Crossing, with his friend Tagish Charley, a 

 " squaw-man " named Siwash George, and his wife, who was 

 Skookum Jim's sister, were* wandering across the country, 

 supposed vaguely to be in the interest of one Anderson, 

 looking for gold. 



Away down the river beyond Lake Labarge, one of the 

 men took sick. He had eaten too much blubber of some 

 sort, and the wife of Siwash George went down to a brook 

 to get him a basin of water. In the bottom of the basin was 

 a streak of fine gold. They went down to the stream and 

 bailed out more. Then Skookum Jim, as his name would 

 indicate, started out swiftly at the top of his speed, " touch- 

 ing only the high places," to record with the Dominion offi- 

 cials the claim of himself and his associates. Skookum in 

 Chinook means swift ; hence Skookum Chuck — a waterfall. 

 Bonanza Creek, Klondike, Dawson at once became names, 

 and then realities, and all the world knows their story. 

 Skookum Jim, a millionaire, built himself a large house of 

 pine lumber at Caribou Crossing. He went to Seattle to buy 

 a Brussels carpet for its floor. When the carpet came it 

 was too broad by nearly a yard for Skookum Jim's best 



