D» . '27. 1888,] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



433 



it down the great river to where canoes or boats could be 

 t'ounrl to transport my whole patty, I was looked on us a 

 cross bet ween an idiot "and a huiatie, and when I added in- 

 sult to injury by hopiugto do it that summer, there was bo 

 mistaking Hie Looks thai 1 was considered a fitter subject for 

 a commi-svm of lunacy than I was for a commission in the 

 .irmv. 



' b arguments they used did look a little appttl- 

 liu.tr to a person who had never ridden a dozen yards on one 

 of these primitive craft, and I acknowledge tbat'lfelt a little 

 dubious myself as to the complete successor my plan. It 

 was represented in glowing language that there was no end 

 to the lakes that 1 had to cross, one of which was said to be 



■ a i. lies long, The prospect for paddling 



ok inviting. The method by which 1 

 did finally overcome them, that is by sailing, never occurred 

 tq my opponents. There were also many miles of boiling 

 rapids that I would have to shoot with my raft, and it would 

 a corps of coroners to collect my party after each if 

 I wanted an inquest. Unless I built a new raft after each of 

 ii Inactions' it seemed hard to comprehend how 1 

 would get along, and this would necessitate more work than 

 Stopping a week or two to build boats from whip-sawed 

 lumber, ft/Species of labor for which I was not prepared in 

 any way. Indian opinion strengthened that of the whites, 

 so thai I was left completely alone to fight my battles. They 



frilling enough to work, however, as long as they got 

 : reserving the right inherent in savage labor Of 



discharging themselves whenever they felt like it. These 

 ithersi any the principle about as far as any 

 I. have ever known. At any time thai it suits their feelings 

 they will declare a contract off, and even after a bargain is 

 consummated they think they have a perfect right to revoke 

 it "by bringing back the artiole or articles obtained and re- 

 ceiving those they gave, Years will not obliterate this right 

 of revocation, and obligations are as uncertain as au off year 

 in ejections, unless the article be eatable, wear-out-able, or 



way able to be gotten rid of. The cost incurred in 



these revocations may be charged up to the opposite side. 

 An army officer in Alaska gave an amusing incident where 

 a Si tkan Indian bad wasted several charges of powder attd 

 shot trying band of decoy ducks, and when bis mis- 



take v I, with an as urance that would nave 



commanded enough salary as lightning-rod agent to buy a 

 powder mill and snot tower, coolly demanded damages from 

 Hie mi nei Of the decoys sufficient' to reimburse his wastage., 

 While we have been led astray chatting about other matters 

 Hie little steam launch with its long string of canoes lied one 

 behind the other ha* been puffing northward up the Chilkoot 

 Inlet. Of course the connecting ropes near the little launch 

 had fenifnl strains on them, and several breakings took place 

 which seemed to be a real amusement to the Indians, until 

 the master of the lanuch commenced running on a half mile 

 mile or so before he would wait for t.hem, and the labor 

 necessary to paddle up alongside soon ceased to be 

 Blent, in fact some tour or five of the more sportive canoes 

 wore left to paddle and sail up the inlet to the point of dis 

 embarking. Leaving the Chilkoot we entered the Davaj 

 Inlet, still steaming Bquare to the north This iulel i i , 



general character as the inland passages in this parr of 

 Alaska, a river-like passage in between high hills covered 

 wifh pine and spruce to the top. capped with bate granite 

 mountains covered in gulches with snow and glaciers which 

 furnish water for innumerable waterfalls and mountain 

 streams. Sixteen miles from the Chilkoot. Mission we came 

 to Hie head of the Day/ay Inlet and mouth of the Dayay 

 River, where our effects Were hurriedly thrown into "the 

 ■ oid lightered ashore, and the steam launch ) luffed 

 away out of sight and our explorations were commenced. 



We '•tracked the canoes about a mile above the swampy 

 mud flats at the mouth of the river before we went into 



camp, and spent the rest of the evening assorting the packs 



into one hundred-pound bundles, to be assigned the different 

 packers, or in less weights for the few boys who had eagerly 

 solicited a load, some twelve in number. Here WH 

 found a camp of Tahk iieesh or "Stick* 1 Indians, who were 

 over here hunting hear, the black variety of which they say 

 are very numerous along this river, an asservation that the 

 number of tracks constantly met with made good, one or 

 two big brawny fellows were secured as puckers at the 

 eleventh hour, and another with a summer cut on bis hair 

 was hired at reduced wages to simply go along and to make 

 himself useful ii any one of the large party should be taken 

 sick. He. amassed a large Indian fortune from private 

 sources by ferry lie- the white men across Hie rushing Dayay 

 at the numerous places it had to be crossed in its winding 

 from bluff to bluff. It had been a splendid day. with light 

 soul iiern wind, and as the evening shades fell from a dozen 

 quarters on the hillsides, amid the fir and spruce could be 

 heard the hooting oi the blue grouse, a familiar sound to 

 those who have hunted the woods of Oregon or Washington. 

 Through the day a solitary cock could he heard now and 

 ' 1ml in the quiet evenings one would think that h* had 

 run across an assemblage of owls. 



On the sib we staried up tile Dayay, by far the greater 

 majority of our effects being placed in canoes and these 

 were "tracked'' along Indian" fashion, pulling wifh thongs 

 and pushing with stiff poles, and crossing backward and for- 

 ward according to which bank was the best for the purpose. 

 All of the stores could have gone into the canoes as well as 

 nor, luii those provided with these crafts atrenuonsly oh 



jeeieil to the loads Of those who had none: and the latter 

 were forced to carry their burdens on their shoulders the 

 lole ten miles to the head of canoe navigation— a fen mile- 

 that was nearly doubled for them by their being forced from 

 one mountain "side to another in following the meandering 

 of the streams, unless they plunged boldly in up to their 

 very middle and forded Ihcni at the imminent peril of their 

 lives and more valuable loads — for their comrades even re- 

 i hem the little favor of ferriage. When I saw this 

 ungenen ins ci induct of the Chilkats toward each other. I was 

 not at all M\-ry that I had brought along some extra help; for 

 I found them as slow iu assistance to a sick companion as to 

 any other, unless they received a Shy lock's share of the com- 

 pensation. Despite all this inherent, meanness in their 

 liaraclcr, they have the incongruous trait of a keen sense of 

 the ridiculous, and withal are a merry-hearted, laughing 

 race of people. Any ludieorus mishap tiial occurs to a com- 

 panion, if lie makes a noticeably poor shot, slips up iu the 

 water, tumbles oft" a log, and so on, is at once greeted with a 

 ml so suddenly sent up that it is hard to dis- 

 tinguish the originator, although only o u e or two may have 

 seen the mishap and there be a couple of hundred voices 

 combined to make the noise. [I tops as suddenly, and one 

 i i ■ m cd to think that it must have required a great deal of 

 exercise to acquire such perfection. Oue who has ever heard 

 the midnight serenade of a lot of Indian dogs on clear, cool 



moonlight nights, or the how Hugs of a cordon of contralto 

 coyoteB, he will see much resemblance in this Chflcal cry, 

 and may think it is borrowed from one or the other. 



The Dayay is a very rapid stream, from thirty to seventy- 

 five yards' in width, and often breaking into several beds 

 within the limits allowed it by the steep mountaiu banks that 

 determine its valley, which is from three-fourths of a mile to 

 a mile wide, containing great bars, and banks of boulders, 

 sand and coarse gravel, with here and there groves of poplars 

 forty to fifty feet high, hedged in by small birch uud willow. 

 There are very few places where it can be forded, owing to 

 its swiftness and slippery rock bottoms, while its waters are 

 icy cold fresh from the glaciers on the mountain tops. These 

 became more marked as wc ascended ike inlet, and river, and 

 one on the western side seemed through (be fog that it con- 

 densed on its side to last from about the mouth of the Dayay 

 (if not before), clear past the point where we left the river, 

 twelve or fifteen miles further on, and then branched off up 

 a western tributary ef the Dayay until it was lost in the clouds 

 that its cold sides' kept wrapped round them. 1 named it 

 after Prof. Baird, of Washington, a name familiar to the 

 readers of Fohest and Stceam. Like all streams fed by 

 glaciers, especially if they cut through calcareous rock, the 

 waters of the Dayay and its converging tributaries were 

 noticeably white and' chalky. Dr. Wilsou and Mr. Homan, 

 of the parly, fished a long distance up and down the river, 

 hut could not get a "rise" or a "bile" to eitker fly or bait, al- 

 though the Indians catch trout in their peculiarly constructed 

 fish weirs. At least some were offered us for sale, which 

 they said had been caught in this way. Their non-biting pro- 

 clivities may be due to the glacier water, or the fact that at 

 this season of the year salmon roe is their principal food, and 

 they find it in abundance when these fish commence running. 

 The first day's march up the river brought us to within half 

 a mile or so of the head of canoe navigation, a point wc 

 avoided as being destitute of wood for camping purposes, so 

 our Indians informed us. 



That evening our perfumed allies amused themselves with 

 a social gambling game, not inappropriately calli 

 although the philological deduction may be incorrect Any 

 number of these boreal brokers range themselves in a line, 

 sitting or kneeling down, with au equal amount of materia] 

 for missionary work directly opposite them, separated by a 

 narrow Wail street three or 'four feet wide. Each one gam- 

 bles (as far as property, gain or loss, is concerned) directly 

 willi his ,7'.'.-.7-e/s, although the particular loss or gain is 

 regulated by the rules of 1 he game played by the party as a 

 Whole, That is. each row is pitted against' the other, and 

 when the game is decided one whole row loses and the other 

 gains, but gains only that put up by his opposite fellow. 

 The "lay-out" in tins, game consists ol the bed of sand or 

 soft earth on which they sit >i /</ Tnir. There are two 

 small cylinders of polished hone, about the size of -mall 

 iien knives, and fen or a dozen sticks rive or six inches long 

 cut from some neighboring willow brush. One of the ivory 

 cylinders has a black ring or two cut around it rmd the other 

 is plain. The point of the game is to guess which is the 

 white oue. called "the king." after one of the men in a row- 

 has changed it backward and forward in his hands under an 

 apron or at his back or in any hidden way. During all this 

 legerdemain, so deep and incomprehensible as to almost rank 

 it with that brain-bursting game of faro, which requires 

 such intricate formulas lo" play ii properly, the savages on 

 both sides in-,- ~inging a low not unmusical 



"OhtOh! Oh! 



■ ' I hl>U .er-slioo,' 



I nfil one,,f i be opposite side, inspired by some revelation, 

 thinks he has defected the whereabouts of the "king," and 

 makes u sudden guess which, if successful, counts his side 

 one of the tally slicks of willow. This is kept up until one 

 side gets all the willow, when the other side loses.* These 

 orgies were often kept up until way past midnight. Several 

 dens running at a time, while the amount of property, pres- 

 ent and prospective, that, changed hands, would hi- immense. 

 The opposite parly w T ould often dictate what the other should 

 pledge; if he desired live stock, his cap was requested: if real 

 estate, even the shirt on his back was demanded; if movable 

 property, oue of the worm-eaten salmon he brought along 

 for food was staked, and so on through the list. To cap the 

 climax, they constructed caps of birch bark, on which were 

 rudely engraved sketches of such character, I hat they would 

 have 'to be sent by express. 



On the 9th wemade an aiiuoyingly short j»urncy of three or 

 four miles, all of the Indians now packing like mules; and 

 anticipating that this was a sample of all the packing days 

 across the portage, I felt that "dangers disappear as yim ap- 

 proach them," and also that I was being cheated out of a day or 

 (wo in time, if not in money. I had to change my mind. 

 however, before 1 was fairly on the head of the "Yukon. 

 Trout were seen at our new camp on the Dayay, bill could 

 not be caught, tn the dense fir forests some ol our Indians 

 real deal of their time (and lids probably accounted 

 for the Short march of the day) in cutting long lithe fir poles 

 which they cached away, intending to obtain, as they re- 

 turned, and use as the handles for salmon spears. 



The next day. the loth, our real treuuhie labor commenced. 

 the trail leading us up the Dayay Valley lo its very head 

 until the mountain pass of the coast range loomed up directly 

 ahead of us over four thousand feet above the sea level. The 

 day's travel was not much over len miles, but as the narrow 

 mountain valley forced us up and over the most abominable 

 ridges for walking, I think it was more than equal to treble 

 the amount OM an ordinary road. We consumed the time 

 from T;::t) in the morning till I in the afternoon, half of the 

 lime being spent in testing from Hie. labors ol the other hall'. 

 1 noticed- that nn Indian in getting over a log on Ids trail 

 never Stepped upon it, but always over it, and in crossing a log 

 over a stream pointed the toes of bolh feet in the same direc- 

 tion— to the right— although otherwise walking naturally in 

 crossing it. Grouse were booting and -mall birds twittering 

 in the woods through the warm pleasant day. and we wished 

 many a lime that we had some of the polar theorists of 

 Alaska's climate with us to give them a chance to change 

 their minds. Nearing camp, however, we passed over three 

 or four hundred yards of snow, and except lool 



along the densely wooded t life; * me was somewhal of 



mu Arctic character. We got into camp about "as tired as 

 tired could be," as the children would say, and I was think- 

 ing how much more exhausted the Indians must be after car- 

 rying a hundred pounds each over a trail (one fellow carried 

 a hundred and twenty seven; and a boy not over twelve or 

 thirteen carried sixty-five). .lust then it was reported to us 

 that a large mountain gont could be seen near the edge of a 

 glacier oil the western mountain side, some 2,500 to 3,000 



feet above us. If that goat had been on the top of .Mount 

 St. Ettas; I imagined he need not feel safer if our allies 

 fell any way near as completely fagged out as we did, but 

 Stteh v '. The identity of the game had not 



been classed as certain more than five minutes before one of 

 the "Stick" Indians that had carried about a hundred and 

 fifteen pounds over the trail, and the only one having his 

 gun with him (a flint-lock, smooth-bore ITudson Bay mus- 

 ket i, staned in pursuit and soon was seen across the valley, 

 making his way T up the steep snowbanks until he looked like 

 an ant crawling over a white wall. The goat in the mean- 

 time, having walked around once or twice to show that he 

 really was a goat, remained as immovable as if he had been 

 placed there Solely for statuary purposes. The "Stick," in 

 his maneuvers, bad gotten three or four hundred feet above 

 the goal, and I believe would have bagged him. if it had wot 

 been for a little black mongrel cur thai had followed him up 

 and evidently frightened "the game, which name trotting 

 down the mountain flank. The Indian followed him like a 

 chamois, stopping only when the goat would stop. The 

 animal, after running on a level for some time, changed his 

 course and came bolting straight for camp, within ionr or 

 five hundred yards of which he ran. getting every one excited, 

 one Indian borrowing the Doctor's carbine cartridges and 

 grabbing up my Winchester, another with a Springfield rifle 

 and a box of revolver cartridges, put out after him, but none 

 of them ahead of the indefatigable "Slick" (except the goat). 

 Two or three wild shots from" camp and the game started up 



n astern mountain side, as if he wanted promotion, the 

 "Stick" sticking to him about three hundred yards behind, 

 like a hero. On they went, until the goat was' fully as high 

 as he fiad been on the opposite side, when the "ietick'' and 

 the other Indians gave up the chase. A big Chilkoot brought 

 back my rifle, with the wrong cartridges jammed into the 

 feed magazine, chamber and muzzle. If I had been starving 

 I do not believe I would have wanted that chase for all the 

 goat meat iu Brooklyn. 



Early on Ibe mornmg of the 11th my packers commenced 

 Stringing but to ascend" the snowy pass that frowned down 

 on as at an angle of not less than sixty degrees. How these 

 Small Indians, not averaging over 140 pounds, could carry 

 100 pounds up such a precipitous mountain side wis marvel- 

 lous beyond measure. In many places the ascent seemed 

 almost perpendicular, the Indians crawling up on their hands 

 and knees and using the stunted spruce and juniper roots to 

 assist them along. In other places along the snow banks 

 probably covering glacial ice. the uuloaded packers had to 

 go forward and prepare the trail SO that footholds could be 

 had iu places where a misstep would have sent them many- 

 hundred feet down, and where those packers having bases 

 often scraped them on the ice, so sleep was the incline. One 

 or two hundred feet was climbed at a time, and then a rest 

 for a few moments alternated until by 10 o'clock we 

 stood in the little gully of snow thai the Indians said was 

 the top, for by this time wc were in a dense fog which 

 drifted along and hid everything from view, although it had 

 been as clear as crystal when we started. From the summit 

 we descended quite rapidly for a few hundred yards, which 

 brought us on a small lake two or three hundred yards 

 across, with not only ice upon it but the ice deeply covered 

 with snow. This little lake was discharging its waters to 

 the northward and was therefore one of the sources of the 

 Yukon. Proru here the walk was still on the snow for four 

 or live miles, and some of the packers put on their snowshoes 

 to keep I'fotn sinking in the softer places. Where the basin 

 Contracted to a narrow gorge we could hear the water 

 under us as we traveled on the snow, and a little further on 

 these snow-bridges' had caved iu, showing their abutments to 

 be twenty-live and thirty feet thick. 



At about five in the afternoon we caught a glimpse of the 

 lake at the Yukon's head, where the Indians, acting as 

 packers, would deposit our effects and return, and at seven 

 we landed out weary selves on its picturesque banks, thank- 

 ful that the worst was over. What was my surprise when 

 t he packers came straggling iu to have them sling I heir packs 

 before me losbow thai all was right, demand their money, 

 coolly remarking that they would return that night, some of 

 them" even fo the head of canoe navigation on the Dayay, I 

 was glad enough to get rid of them and to be left alone with 

 my own party and the Indians 1 hat were to go through with 

 me, so that we could construct our raft and commence that 

 journey which is more in keeping with my title Ihan this 

 hasty preamble has been. 



[TO BE) eoN-nxuED.] 



LIFE AMONG THE BLACKFEET. 



BY .t. WI1.I.VBD SCHTI.T7.. 

 H1TTH P.\rEB. 



U'ptlE method ot" Mythologic Phylosophy," says that 

 X eminent ethuologist. Major ,1. W. Powell, "is this: 

 All the phenomena of the outer objective world, are inter- 

 preted by comparison with those of the inner subjective 

 world. Whatever happens, some one does it: that some 

 one has a will and works as he wills. The basis of the phi 

 losophy is personality. The persons who do the things 

 whichwc observe in the phenomena of the universe are the 

 a;oi of mythology— tfu costt<4$ ii a pantk ! nderthis 



system, whatever may be the phenomena observed, Hie phi- 

 losopher asks ■Vv'ho'does it''" and -Why'.'' and the answer 

 comes -A god with his design.' : - :f * The actors in 

 ruvthologic philosophy are gods." Thus in the mythologic 

 philosophy of the Blackfeel: Jutbe beginning was a grijal 

 womb in which everything was conceived, animals, trees, 

 man, everything was iu this womb and they fought contin- 

 ually to see wiio should be born first. Once, when they 

 fought furiously, I bey burst the womb, and a man jumped 

 out first, So all the animals and everything called him Old 

 Man. and he named them my Young Brothers. The Old 

 Man made the people, but instead of putting bands on them, 

 he put on claws like the bears, and Ihcy dug roots and att 

 berries for food. In those days the buffalo used to drive the 

 people into pfs-kans, and then kill and eat them. On 

 the Old Man came along When the buffalo were feasting on 

 them, and when he saw what they were doing be sat down 

 and cried and lore his ban And lie said: "I have badly- 

 made the people, they cannot defend Ihemselves," And he 

 went to where were yet a few people, and with his stone 

 knife slit their paws.' making fingers thereon. And he 

 taught 1 hem to make bows and arrows, and knives. And 

 he made their right arms the strongest that they might bend 

 (he bow with great force. He talked to the people, saying: 

 "When the buffalo again come lo drive you bit o the. pis- 

 kan. goquietlj and hide your weapons under your robes. 

 When you kave come into the pls-kan. then draw your bows 

 and shoot rapidly." And the people did as they had been 



