SPRINGTIME ON THE YUKON. 597 
Americana), receiving therefor the usual perquisite of a 
pound of tobacco for the first goose of the season. From 
this time forward, wild fowl might be expected in abundance. 
On the twelfth of May the ice came down with a rush in 
the small rivers; and that on the Yukon grew every day 
more unsafe. No salmon were to be expected for some 
weeks, but large numbers of “blanket fish” (a species of 
Thymallus) were to be seen ascending the small rivers. 
They would not take the hook, though the greatest induce- 
ments were offered, nor will any other fish found in the 
Yukon, as far as I know. 
The ice on the Yukon breaks up about the twentieth of 
May. The earliest season known for many years brought 
open water on the sixteenth, and the latest on the twenty- 
fifth of the month. 
On the twentieth of May I saw a fine specimen of the 
Camberwell beauty ( Vanessa antiopa) and after that other 
butterflies were not uncommon, though they are more plenty 
toward the middle of June. 
Waiting until the ice and logs are well out of the river 
and the freshet has somewhat subsided, let us take a small 
skin canoe and spend a day on the river. The sun is bright 
and warm; the weather clear and delightful; every living 
thing is pulsating with the energetic life of the Arctic spring. 
A gun, ammunition, axe, teakettle, and a few other indis- 
pensable articles constitute our equipment. 
Shoving off from the muddy shore of the Nulato river- 
bank, the blood springs, and the nerves tingle with the 
smart strokes of the paddle, which send us shooting over 
the turbid waters; laden as they are with sticks, refuse, and 
small cakes of ice, the remnants of the freshet, which last 
has carried the heavier logs and larger fragments seaward 
some days ago. f 
Hugging the bank to avoid the swifter current, the 
feathery willows and glistening tender leaves of the poplar 
(P. balsamifera) overshadow us, and small curculionid 
