■I US. 24, 1884.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



613 



and he proceeded at once to carry it out by constructing a 

 sort of cm-tail) out of mosquito bar with which be sur- 

 rounded our bed. At the Rppoioted Lime m went to bed, 

 but m SOOU found the CVrtaill was no protection. A 



Blued to he OB the fosidfi SB on Hie out J heie- 

 uponthe Judge declared that "there was noting 111 

 pbvrder for mraquiloas anyhow," and at one. i r 



to ei,:, ', tenti th tli i >m bunrl powder. With- 



=.-.;, i be procured bis powder and tpuchea it 

 Dffheneath the curtain, and as tfte lurid sheet of flame shol 

 thToiiirti the bar ami arly v I lie riflffe pole of the tent, 

 Die dozing Greek Professor plunged out of bed under the be- 

 lief that, the camp had blown up, and it was sometime before 

 we could make him understand tlutt nothing more serious 

 bad happened than the destruction Of a dozen yards of mos- 

 quito l>m'. , , . 



But the wind shifting from the south to Hie north during 

 our stay hen \ thereafter we bad no more trouble with the 

 iusecl I"! from another source came a disturber to cut 

 short our sleep. Hedgehogs are very numerous Inl- 

 and if there is one thing a hedge hog loves to do UOI1 

 .... .i i a hoard during the night hours, we ! i 



, No sooner had the tnsi ci nuisance ahated Men: «t 

 ti ibserve Lhc hedgehog! and the Judge, who is oxoeedingly 

 nervoua and easily disturbed of nights, KOOn had his fr- I On 



, B H theil persistent .wl exasperating gnawing. On more 

 than one occasion be went out and whipped the brute- oil'. 

 and finally he declared that at their text visit lie bit* oded to 

 go out and kill them outright. The "neXtvisrf J 

 'made, and out the Judge went, -breathin- tlmateiv ■;,,. 



slaughter:" The Greefi Professor and 1 were not. . . 'v 

 i s I tie Judge, and we rather enjoyed bis noc- 

 turnal raids, and never more so than this night. Wehernd 

 him thrashing on the ground and beating on the logs iiiau en- 

 deavor to Frighten thetn. off, and finally we beard! 



"bam _\ on'." We kucw then a crisis was about to come. 

 The .lodge never swears, but when greatly provoked he some- 

 times user, that, meaningless "darn." "Dam you'" suid the 

 irate Judge, and then there was a momenta* y pause. We 

 could not see the Judge, but lie was evidently getting Into 

 position, so as to hit something hard; after which came a 

 swill, sharp "zwcep." followed by such a clatter of a bound- 

 . nought- us both to o'nr feet. 



"M< leiftd fathers!" exclaimed the Greek Professor, as he 

 r;m mil of doors. "What is the matter?" 



"Darn it!" said the Judge; "I mistook the pot for a hedge 

 hug." 



Sad so v laughed ourselves to sleep that night, 



[| in,i be supposed that the Judge was lhc only man 



whose acts brought merriment to our camp. The Greek 

 Professor occasionally got in a little work which made sport 

 for us. He and the' Judge both were fishermen, and the 

 latter had killed a deer, several ot them in fact, but the 

 tormei had not. He was, as might be expected, peculiarly 

 anxious to add one to the list of bis achievements, and had 

 provided himself with a muzzle-loading squirrel rifle for 

 that purpose. Hard by our camp was a blind within con- 

 venient distance of a "lick," which the. Indians al some 

 previous time had made, and which, judging from the 



igU was then frequently "waited. The Greek Professor 

 expressed iiil tsi II .quite sure that if he could once get a 

 bead on a big buck the buck was his, arid when the Judge 

 hinted that the buck ague was apt to supervene at such crit- 

 ical moments the Greek Professor fairly "laughed him to 

 seoni." Pull of hope and confidence, the Greek Professor 

 went forth early one cool morning to kill his first deer. A'ot 

 long did he wait until a buck, the very buck the Greek Pro- 

 fessor had hoped to meet, suddenly made its appearance at 

 the root, of the pine 51 hue the salt iiad been strewn. "What 

 a, splendid mark! Leffi than 6 tj yards away and standing 

 hroad-idc to him. Bang goes The Greek Professor's gun. 

 The buck looks around a moment and then licks away at 

 that precious salt. The Greek Professor is in a tree and the 

 foolish buck neve, mice thinks of looking up into a tret; For 

 n Greek Erofesspr with a squirrel gun. The gun had gone 

 oil' before the Greek Professor was auitc ready. In fact, it 

 was not in position for shooting, and somehow it had gone 

 off of its own accord. A twig must Have torn::, .1 i la- 1 1 i;-.e 

 he thought, that is, if lie thought at ah. it is not quite sure 

 that he did any thinking just then. His heart thumped so 

 violently and' bis whole body trembled so that he was 

 , ,iv i : in i r.iMiion to think. But he loaded his gun 



again. He GOtdd QOt measure his powder in the charger, for 

 Iris hand trembled too violently for that, but he managed to 

 Stick the end of his horn against the muzzle of his gun and 

 poured the powder direct, from the horn. Then he rammed 

 n bullet down without a patch and dabbed on a cap. and this 

 time lie took aim. At least he Thought he did, but when 

 questioned and cross-questioned afterward about if, he had 

 no recollection of seeing any but the forward sight. Any- 

 how "bans" wen! his gun the second time, after which the 

 Cri-ek I'vot'essoi could tell no more. We heard three shots 

 fired, but the Greek Professor was so far gone in the deli- 

 rium that invariably follows a first attacked buck ague, that 

 we cannot make him believe that he shot three times at that 

 deer and then came home with a bullet in his gun and no 

 powder behind it '. 



In due time we procured a boatman to carry us further on 

 our way. The. Judge assured us that, on a high point of land 



at Iteaver Lid e al ' ■ ', been miles east di Mfttiising and 



beyond the eastern extremity of the Pictured Rocks, we 

 would surely be exempt from the insects, and Captain Jim 

 K ishkatog coming for us by previous arrangement . we -el sail 

 one bright morning and by the middle of the. aftemc II I, 

 in the ornate language of Bancroft, ihii biatori "sailed by 

 the cliffs of pictured sandstone,, which for twelve miles rise 

 this e hundred feet in height, fretted by the violence of the 

 chafing waves into arches and bastions, caverns and tower- 

 ing walls, heaps of prostrate ruins and erect columns, 

 crowned with fantastic entablatures," and had landed a| ib 

 month of the Abmeek-we-sc-pe or Beaver Creek, where we 

 made our camp on a wind-swept promontory, and for three 

 weeks made it our home. P. D. B.wta. 



A. KNOWING Pisn —A Philadelphia paper credits Rev. 

 Dr. Waylaud Hoyt with this: "I was in California. In San 

 Francisco, near the water works, was a large, tank, and in 

 that tank was a line large California trout". It was ve ry 

 tame ami the clerks used to catch flies and hold them ov er 

 the water, and the trout would come up to the surface and 



|,i be )1y from theil! fingers. Well, one day an idle clerk, 

 tired of the usual thing, placed a nice fat fly upon the book 

 bent pill. His troutsbip came up as usual and was 

 naught. The clerk released Him and enjoyed the joke. Put 

 would you believe it. afterthat daytweuty hotel clerks could 

 stand around that lank and that" fish would take flies from 

 every one except the. man who played the loaded fly on him." 



DOWN THE YUKON ON A RAFT. 



J3T LIEUT. VUEW'K SCHWATKA, II. S. AIWV 



Fourth Paper. 



We left our raft alongside the beach of Lake Tahk'-oin 

 the ]a-l article, and (caving it there tor a short wdiile a stroll 

 along its shores showed a great number of well -trimmed 

 logs' that strongly resembled telegraph poles, and would 

 ie.v: he. i' -..id bi. those necessary nuisances in a civilized 

 country bad they been there. They were dually made out 

 to ba the logs used by Indians in rsi ting down the stream, 

 and Well trimmed bv constant attrition on the rocky beaches 

 while held there by storms. Most of these were observed on 

 the northern shores ot the lakes where the current, slight as 

 if is, coupled with the prevailing south wind, naturally drifts 

 I hem. I afterward ascertained that rafting was quite a 

 usual thing along the headwaters of the Yukon, and that We 

 were not pioneers in this rude art by any manner of means, 

 ,:• had thought so from'the 'direful prognostica- 

 tions they were continually making as to our probable suc- 

 cess willi our own. The. "eoltonwood" canoes already 

 referred to are very scarce craft, there probably not existing 

 ov.-r ten or twelve' the whole length of lhc river to old Fort 

 Selkirk, and many of their journeys up the stream are por- 

 Pormi I i.'. tire natives on foot, carrying tie ir limited neces- 

 sities on {.heir hacks, mid when they return a small raft of 

 two |,. six or eight logs js roade ami they float down with 

 the current in the streams and pole and sail across the lakes. 

 Comparing their logs with telegraph poles gives one a good 

 idea of the usual size of the timber of these districts'. The 

 scarcity of good wooden canoes also is explained by this 

 smallncss of their size; while birch bark canoes are unknown 

 in Ibis part of the river until old Fort Selkirk is reached. 



This same Lake Tahk-0, or certainly one very near to it, 

 had been reached bv a Mr. Byrnes in the employ of the 

 Western Union Telegraph Company. Many of the readers 

 of the PO.KEST and STREAM arc probably not acquainted 

 with the fart that this great corporation, about ;lht* end Of 

 our civil war, conceived the ginnd idea of uniting civiliza- 

 tion in the eastern and West! rn Continents by a telegraph line 

 running by way of Ilehring Straits, and that a great deal of 

 the preliminary surveys, and even a vast amount of the work 

 had been completed when the SUCCESS of the Atlantic cable 

 put a stop to ihi' project. The Yukon River bad been ex- 

 amined from its mouth as far as old Fort Yukon (then a, 

 flourishing Hudson Bay post) some one thousand miles from 

 the mouth in their interest, although it bad previously been 

 explored by the Russian ami Hudson Bay trading companies. 

 Mr. Byrnes, a practical miner from the Caribou mines of 

 British Columbia, crossed the Tah-eo Pas-, already cited, 

 got on to one of the sources of the Yukon and descended it 

 to the vicinity of the lake of which I am writing. Here it 

 appears he was recalled by a courier sent on his trail and 

 despatched by the telegraph company, who were now 

 mournfully assisting in the jubilee of the cable's success, 

 and lie retraced his steps over Die river and takes and re- 

 turned to bis former occupation. 



Whether he ever furnished a map of this journey, so that 

 it eould'be called an exploration, f do not know, but from 

 the books founded in part on that trip I should say not, con- 

 sidering their gieat error. One of these already noticed by 

 its title said in a mournful wav that, had Mr". Byrnes con- 

 tinued bis trip only a dfly and a half further in the light 

 birch bark canoes of the country, he would have reached old 

 Fort Selkirk, and thus completed the exploration of the Yu- 

 kon. Had he reached Selkirk, ho would have had that credit had 

 he recorded it, however rough his notes may have been, but, be 

 would never have done so in the light birch bark canoes of the 

 country , for they do not exist, as already stated, a nd as to doing 

 it in a day and a half, our measurements from this point to 

 Selkirk show nearly 450 miles, and observations show that 

 the Indians seldom' exceed about six hours in their cramped 

 canoes, and would have to go at the rate of a, little over a 

 minute and a half for each niile. At this canoe gait along 

 the whole river, across Behriug Sea and up the Ainoor, the 



' " ra] b company need not have completed their line along 

 this part, but just turned their dispatches over to these 

 couriers and they would have only been a few hours behind 



,. lightning, if 'it would have been worked as slow as it is 

 now in the interest of the public. 



We passed out of Tahk-o Lake, some eighteen miles long, 

 (forty-live by one authority, who never saw it) a little after 3 

 in the afternoon, and entered the first considerable length of 

 river that we had yet met on the trip, abount nine miles 

 long, and quit it at 5, which was quite an improvement in 

 our lake gait even at the fastest, Whcu on the lakes a high 

 tree near the beach projected against the distant hill would 

 go creeping along its outline like an application for a "six 

 mouths" leave, and then suddenly entering a swift outlet 

 they would go buzzing along like an officer taking advan- 

 tage of the leave. On tiie right band bank we saw a tolerable 

 well built "Stick" Indian bouse about, four miles from the 

 entrance. Near it in the water was a swamped Indian canoe, 

 and one of our natives bailed it out, and in a manner as 

 novel as it, was effectual. Grasping it one side and near the 

 center, a roekiug motion, fore and aft, was kept up, the 

 bailer wailing until the recurrent wave was just striking the 

 particular end that he tipped down, and as this was repeated 

 the canoe was slowly lifted until it stood at his waist, with 

 not enough water in it to sink an oyster can, and in a space 

 of time not much greater than it, lias taken to relate it. This 

 house was desersed, but evidently for only a while, as a 

 great deal of their material of the chase and fisheries were 

 still to be seen hanging inside on the rafters, There were 

 also a great number of dried salmon in the house, one of the 

 staples that now commence appearing on this part of the 

 river, nearly 3,000 miles from its mouth. This salmon, when 

 drisd before putrefaction set- in. is bearable in its eating 

 qualities, ranking somewhere between Jjimburger cheese and 

 walrus hide, and collecting some of it occasionally from 

 Indians as we floated by, we would use it as a lunch in 

 homeopathic quantities, until some of us got so that we 

 really imagined we liked it. 



i ., down the river and coming near any of the low 



points we were at once visited by myriads of small black 

 gnats, whose pressing questions were very pointed, and 

 which formed a handsome addition to the mosquitoes that 

 did not diminish in the least as we descended the river. 

 The only protection from them was in being well out from 

 land und a good wind blowing, or when forced to camp on 

 ShoTE a heavy smoke would often reduce them to a bearable. 

 minimum, When we camped that evening on the new lake 

 the signal smoke of t he Tnhb-beesh Indians was still burn- 

 ing ahead of us some six oi -■•-. m mil which showed how 

 much we had been mistaken in estimating file distance to if 

 the day before. A tree has Something definite iu its-size, 

 and even a butte or a mountain peak has something tangible 



on which a person can base a calculation for distance, even 

 a cloud has a form which can be grasped by an average 

 mind, but when one comes down to smoke I think the maxi- 



mum of iudciinitencss h 

 one wants to estimate hi 

 ticed this of 



- far 



ay it. 



had. 



West 



before whcu on the' plai 

 i hilly country, where oni 

 1 the bill back of which 

 river valley often no sue 

 er when traveling throue 

 ka that a smoke that wa 



•specially whcu 



still 

 say 

 ben 

 . be 



be sand hills of 

 lated to be ten 



id.-, i 



wade ashore in oil 



r rubbc 



line whenever we 1 



ranted t 



wind of no light 



-haraetr 



loaded, was gradu 



ally lift 



and brought a few 



inches f 



of yards had been 



made. 



The next month 



g when 



o.i fifteen and possibly twenty miles away t«ok two days' 

 long traveling in an army ambulance to reach the blackened 

 .is i is, . -here it, had been. 



The shores of the new lake— which I named Lake Marsh 

 after a well-known scientist of our couutry— was composed 

 of clay stones, jumbled together in a rocky confusion, and 

 where the water reached them and beat upon them it had 

 reduced them to a sticky clay, not easy lo walk through. 

 This, accompanied with the vast amount of mud that the 

 glacier streams had brought down, aud which was distin- 

 guishable by its whiter color and impalpable character of its 

 ingredients," nearly tilled the new lake, at least, tor wide strips 

 along the shores where it bad been beaten up by the storms. 

 Thc'raft stuck several times, although drawing a little less 

 than two feet of wafer, at distances from the shore ot front 

 fifty to a hundred yards, and the only alternative was to 

 boots and tie the raft by a. long 

 camp. One night, an inshore 

 coming up, our raft, while un- 

 1 by the high waves coming in, 

 further each time, until a number 



loaded, the work to pry it off is 



easier to conceive than to describe, but it taught us a lesson 

 that we took to heart, and thereafter a friendly piod or two 

 was generally given at the ends of the cumbersome craft to 

 keep it afloat as the load weighted it down, When the v, hid 

 was blowing vigorously from some quarter — and it was only 

 whcu it was blowing 'that wc could set sail and make any 

 progress — these shallow mud banks would tinge the water 

 over them with a dirty color that was in strong contrast with 

 the blue water over the deeper portion, and by watching this 

 demarcation line closely when under sail, the" most favorable 

 points could be made out lo reach the bank for camping 

 purposes. 



Going into camp on the lakes was generally quite an easy 

 affair. Sailing until 9 or 10 o'clock in the evening if the 

 wind was fair,' it was still light enough to see from the raft 

 where a probable camping place would be, and when we got 

 close into the shore, if it did not suit us we would keep along 

 near by until we found one that did. There was always 

 plenty 'of wood, and, of course, water, almost, everywhere. 

 so about all that wtis needed was a dry place large em ugh 

 to pitch a couple of tents for the while people aud a tent fly 

 for the Indians, but, simple as the latter seemed, it was. yen 1 

 often quite difficult lo obtain. It was really seldom that we 

 found places where tent-pins could be driven in the ground, 

 and when rocks large, enough to do duty as pins, or fallen 

 timber or brush for the same could not be had, we generally 

 put the tent, under us, spread our blankets thereon, crawled 

 in, and sticking our nose in. the air (not from pride, but be- 

 cause wc. had to), we went to sleep— whcu the mosquitoes 

 would let us. The greatest comfort in pitching the tent was 

 in keeping out (he mosquitoes, for then we could spread our 

 bars witlisome show of success, although the constantly re- 

 curring light rains made us often regret that we bad made a 

 bivouac, not particularly on account of the slight wettings 

 we got, but for the constant, fear that it was going to be 

 really much worse than it ever occurred. I defy any person 

 to sleep out with only a blanket or two over them, and have 

 a great cloud sprinkle a drop or two of rain in their lace and 

 not imagine that the deluge was coming next. I have tried 

 it foi ten or twelve years, and have not got over the feeling 

 yet. If, alter camping, a storm threatened, a couple of 

 skids lore and aft were placed under the beached logs to 

 prevent breaking it off. Both ends of the raft were, of course, 

 secured by ropes. When the wind set in from ahead v. e, ot 

 course, rowed ashore to the nearest, point so as to lose as lit tie 

 as possible of our gaining. The baggage on the raft, like 

 that in an army wagon or of a pack-train, in a few days so as- 

 sorted itself that the part necessary for the night's camping 

 was always the most handy, and but a few minute- v. as 

 required after landing until the evening meal was ready. 



So important was it to make the entire length of the river 

 (over 3,000 miles) witbiu the short time encompassed be- 

 tween the date we had started and the probable date of de- 

 parture of the last vessel from St. Michaels, near the mouth 

 of the river, for civilization, that but little time was left for 

 rambles through the country, and much as I desired to take 

 a hunt, inland, and most of all make an inspection of the 

 nature, of the country, 1 felt over my shoulders the constant 

 fear that by so doing" 1 might be compromising our chances 

 of «e!ting out of the country before winter would effectu- 

 ally veto 'it. Therefore, from the very start it, was one con- 

 stant fight against time, to avoid such an unwished for con- 

 ti agency, and the readers of the Fomkst AKD Stheam must, 

 expect "only such incidents as would arise from starling 

 early, going all day, camping late at night, arid renewing 

 this' programme from day to day. On the 38th of June a 

 good fair breeze on Lake Marsh, continuing past sunset 

 (which it seldom did), we kept on our way until well past 

 midnight before it died out with us. So bright was it at 

 mid night that type the size of Forest and Stream could 

 easily lie read, ami but one star in the blue unclouded sky 

 made its appearance, and that was the brilliant Venus. 



Lake Marsh was the first water that we could trust in 

 which to take a bath, and even then— and for that fact the 

 whole length of the river — it was only on still, warm, sunny 

 days tbat'one could do so. Below old Fort Selkirk on the 

 Yukon, where the White (so called on account of its muddy 

 waters) Kivei comes in, bathing is almost undesirable on ac- 

 count of the large amount ot sediment the water holds, its 

 swift current and muddy banks allowing it to bold much 

 more, and furnishing a "ready base of supplies, therefore, 

 than any river of the western slope, that I know. Its tem- 

 perature also seldom reaches that point that will allow one to 

 plunge in all over with any comfort. One annoyance in bath- 

 ing in Lake Marsh in the warm, middle portion of the day 

 was the large number of "horse 1 ' flics — if they could be 

 called such— that made it unsafe for a person to stop swing- 

 ing a towel in the air, for if they did it was uncertain when 

 a descent would be made by LbcTji and apiece bitten out that 

 a few days later would look" like a United States brand on a 

 QOVi rimieiir, mule. One person's hand bitten by one of 

 them was completely disabled for a week, and at the moment 

 of infliction it was hard to comprehend that you were not 



