Al'IM! 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



183 



tore we could navigate across we were nearly half a mile be- 

 low them, but in a much better place for a camp after all. 

 It almost seemed as if we had landed iu New York city, so 

 welcome did it appear to be on land where explorers had pre- 

 ceded us, for now we knew the "coast was clear," clear to 

 the coast, and it was a mere matter of drifting with the cur 

 rent to our destination and completing our work while en 

 route. 



The history of old Fort Selkirk has been slightly outlined 

 iu previous articles, so important a spot was it with regard to 

 our expedition as a point of reference. Here we ceased to 

 be explorers, and became only surveyors to old Fort Yukon, 

 some 500 miles beyond, and from there the river had been 

 very well surveyed to its mouth, {mother 1,000 miles in dis- 

 tance. In 1851 a party of Chilkats and Cbilkoots that had 

 crossed the Kotu.sk Mountains to trade with the Tahkheesh, 

 exasperated by fiadingsO few of the latter on the old trading 

 grounds, and rightly conjecturing from the reports of these 

 few that this falling off of their commerce was due to an op- 

 position that had been started at the junction of the Pelly 

 and Yukon some few years before, and was slowly makiug 

 inroads upon their business, trading had at last reached the 

 point where it was no longer remunerative to bring a hun- 

 dred pounds of trading material on their backs over the snow 

 and ice of the mouutain passes for nearly as many miles. So 

 these Iudiaus made a sudden resolution characteristic of 

 Indian action, and exchanging their goods for canoes instead 

 of furs, and well armed, they made a descent on the unpro- 

 tected fort, if it cOUld be called such, surprised it early one 

 morning in the summer just after the annual supply of goods 

 had been brought in. Finding but three or four white men 

 in attendance they were securely bound, the store was pillaged 

 of all its contents" and then burned to the ground. The white 

 meu were then released and allowed to return to Fort Pelly 

 Banks, an older trading station on the head of the Pelly, and 

 from which Fort Srlkiik had been thrown out as an advance 

 post. Much of the plunder was given to the local tribes or 

 traded to them at a profit they had never dreamed of, and a 

 thirst was planted in them for such easy methods of collect- 

 ing necessaries from civilized traders, which finally culmin- 

 ated in the destruction of the fort at Pelly Banks,"and thus 

 the "coast" was completely cleared. 



The adventures of these' old Hudson Bay posts and their 

 daring traders would be an intensely interesting volume 

 could it ever be collected and written. " Many a hunting and 

 fishing adveuture could be told that would absorb the atten- 

 tion of the readers of Forest and Stream as they read of 

 these, adventurers shoving their merchandise through the 

 great unknown Northwest territory to the Arctic Ocean 

 itself, Every one is familiar with the Canadian voyageurs, or 

 French ha 1 ! breeds that formed the great bulk of the Hudson 

 Bay Company, under the direction of hardy Highlanders, 

 who, in their" turn, lorded it over the Indian workmen under 

 them, Along the great broad streams like the Athabasca, 

 the Peace River, the Mackenzie and manj r others their work 

 was simple enough, and strongly resembled the good old 

 boatmen's days on the Missouri and Mississippi, yet pre- 

 served in many a tale aud story, but as the heads of these 

 sub- Arctic rivers were reached in the hills and mountains 

 and rapids and cascades commenced, they found obstacles to 

 surmount that were not easy. Such was the road that led 

 from Pelly Banks to Selkirk. Everything was carried in 

 bundles of a hundred pounds, called a "pack." 



I met an old Hudson Bay trader on the Lower Yukon, who 

 told me a laughable incident connected with his first 

 initiation into the duties of the company, some thirty orforty 

 years before. Having determined to join it and, in the ex- 

 uberance of youth, to work his way to the most northern 

 posts where the adventure which he sought was most likely 

 to be found, he presented himself at a station on the Red 

 River, and being a strapping young fellow, he was at once 

 enrolled. He knew a little about the company, having 

 "knocked around" iu its neighborhood from a boy, aud had 

 seen many a "pack" handled, and thought himself perfectly 

 presentable for a situation when he could do the same, and 

 not until that time did he solicit employment. Everything 

 was arranged, and he had been booked as a "voyageur" at 

 $35 a month, i think, and everything went on swimmingly 

 for a week or two when the first portage was reached. This 

 extended around a series of boiling rapids some five or six 

 miles long, and his heart sank within him at the thought of 

 carrying a number of the huge "packs" this long distance. A 

 num her of boats had gotten in ahead of the one to which he be- 

 longed, and as their loads were taken out he saw their crews 

 uf voyageurs without any delay prepare to carry across, for 

 the army-like discipline of the company allowed no loitering. 

 His surprise may be imagined when he saw one, two, three, 

 and even a half a dozen of the men put two of the 100 

 pound packs on their backs; but no pen can portray his con- 

 sternation as he saw them one after the other take up a good 

 steady run over the hills and far away, and before he was 

 really ready with his first "pack" be back for another load. 

 He struggled with the new developments manfully, how- 

 ever, but before he had gotten half way across, amid the 

 jeers and taunts of his fellow packers, he had to give it up, 

 and depositing his 200 pounds against a stone, he walked 

 back to the. trader iu charge and^after a short preliminary 

 conversation stating the case, said he was yvilhng to pay $35 

 instead of receiving it, if he could only be counted as a pas- 

 senger thereby. A proposal which was accepted, and the 

 chief trader pocketed the money. 



In the burning of old Selkirk in 1851, the Chilkats kuew 

 that they had the sympathy of the Russian traders at Sitka 

 and otker posts on the Pacific, who were rivals to the Hud- 

 son Bay Company, but to say, as has been done, that these 

 traders instigated" and concocted the plan is carrying state- 

 ments further than the evidence will warrant. "Much has 

 been said regarding the efficient and admirable manner' iu 

 which the HudsonBay Company has, in the past, conducted 

 its relations with the Indian tribes, with which it has from 

 time to time found itself in contact, these criticisms, ninety- 

 nine cases out of a hundred, arising from a discussion of our 

 own Indian question, and with deductions, as a general result, 

 badly against us as a nation. The pioneer fur traders of a 

 wild country have but one object as regards the Indians in 

 their front and civilization at their back, and that is the 

 closest and most friendly and intimate terms with the former 

 and the most deadly hatred to the latter. As civilization 

 crowds forward on his ground, the trapper takes his place 

 as well as that of the Indian, and the two— the trapper and 

 trader — are often spoken of as synonymous, although as far 

 apart in their feeling toward the Indians as the two poles. 

 The true trader is uever a trapper, the Indian doing that 

 business for him. With the latter he therefore has no object 

 but that of friendship, or to be more accurate, apparent or 

 superficial friendship, for no man on the frontier has more 

 contempt for the very Indians that have made him rich than 



the fur trader, as eviuced by their conduct and con 

 versation after abandoning or 'retiring from the business. 

 In ease of possible hostilities with a tribe, or even 

 an individual member of it that stands well among 

 his savage brethren, he is the most cringing creature on 

 face of earth, and when actual hostilities are inevitable, 

 however brave he may be personally— and all the elements 

 of bravery are needed in their peculiar craft — their actions 

 must be governed by the monetary object in view, and the 

 most cowardly surrender of the field often takes place. • The 

 trader knows that, if no blood is shed, sudden and transitory 

 outbursts of Indiau wrath soon pass away, and he can then 

 return to his money getting. Should an Indian be killed, 

 however,, it may take decades to settle the matter with the 

 tribe, while as a family feud it never would be settled by less 

 than an equivalent life, and this is too much to spare, when 

 but two or three often make up the sum total of post or sta- 

 tion. Much as the trader hates the Indians, he hates civiliza- 

 tion much more. One simply interferes with them now and 

 then, while the other completely obliterates his employment, 

 and it is with zealous eye he keeps all his disagreements 

 with the former from the ears of the latter. It is no wonder 

 then that the relations between the trader and his Indians 

 are so little known that they are held up as a model to those 

 who know still less, when, "if the truth were known, these 

 relations are in many respects abominable. Such has been 

 the historv of the Hudson Bay Company to a greater or less 

 extent, and such has been the history of all fur-trading com- 

 panies, and such were the musings brought forth by a 

 revery in the shadows of the blackened chimneys of old 

 Fort Selkirk, and over which the poplars waved their tops, 

 so long had they battled with the elements. 



Not far from here was another sign of death, in the shape 

 of an Indian grave peculiar to this part of the country. 

 Knowing a little something of the mode of burial of white 

 men from ancient intercourse with them, they had made 

 some very rude and rough attempts at imitating it in the 

 shape of an inclosure not unlike our own, hut made of 

 rough-hewn boards. It was impossible to completely rid 

 themselves of savage ideas, and from poles near by, so close 

 that any one would know they were a superstitious part of 

 the grave, flaunted red and white rags, while on the top of 

 one was an image of a bear or a fish or a goose, I have for- 

 gotten which. Approaching to see if there was anything 

 else on the rough board fence or elsewhere expressive of 

 savage rites and ritual, a combination of hieroglyph ics met 

 my eye on one of the upright planks that looked as if it 

 might have been done by a lead pencil, or in the absence of 

 such articles of civilization in this vast wilderness, the untu- 

 tored savage might have used a piece of graphite from some 

 mineral source near by. A sketch of the inscription is given 

 as near as I could draw it. Running from left to right like 

 English writitig it ran : 



: "NOT DED YeT BY A DAM SITE OLE AKESONY. JuLY 83." ; 



And in fact had some resemblance to ancient English in a 

 few words. Looking across the river at the islands there 

 could be seen more than enough drif twaod on their upper 

 ends to make a good dam, but it was a very poor place for 

 a dam site, as far as I had been taught iu hydraulic engi- 

 neering, if this was what the inscription referred to; and in 

 general the whole effect was so intangible that one could 

 not pin it down to that exactness of meaning that is de- 

 manded by modern science, and it was passed by. For- 

 merly, so mv Indians informed me, these same natives 

 buried in scaffolds in the trees, not unlike the Indians on 

 the great Western plains, and inscriptions were rare. 



It is at about this point on the river that birch-bark canoes 

 commence, and were first seen among the Ayans, a band al- 

 ready alluded to, and whose principal village was some 

 twelve miles below, and it might also be said that where they 

 are first encountered. They are decidedly the neatest, the 

 trimmest, the smallest, and the best in workmanship and 

 construction, and from here down the stream all of these 

 qualities slowly become less noticeable, although it would 

 hardly be proper to say at any time that the majority of 1 

 canoes among any tribe on the river are uot of a substantial I 

 build. The sewing is done with long withes so fine and pli- j 

 able that the work looks as if it had been done with smew, 

 and even this characteristic degenerates as we'descend the 

 river. These withes are made fiom the roots. I think, of 

 some trailing plant, and are minutely sub-divided before 

 being used. These pretty canoes, as light and graceful 

 as a bird on the water, were a wondrous change from the 

 heavy, cumbersome, water-logged canoes of wood that we 

 bad been used to up to this point. As with his cottonwood 

 brother, so is the birch-bark canoe patched with spruce gum, 

 but it does not seem to be done on such a wholesale scale, 

 and it is worked down and polished off until it looks like a 

 patching of glass when completed. 



The river down which we had drifted so far on the raft, 

 and which I have constantly mentioned as the Yukon, was 

 called by the old Hudson Bay traders the Lewis River, they 

 knowing it in and around old Fort Selkirk, and it was sup- 

 posed to join the Pelly and form the Yukon. In fact, in the 

 very oldest accounts the Lewis River ran into the Pelly, a 

 smaller stream, and it was called Pelly to its junction with 

 the Porcupine, at old Fort Yukon, and from there was called 

 the Yukon. The comparative sizes and volumes of water of 

 the Lewis being unknown, I had decided to make the most 

 thorough investigations, should they be necessary, to deter- 

 mine which was really the Yukon proper. In sight of the 

 two rivers, at their junction, it was quite evident that the 

 Lewis was the larger; but Mr, Homau, being sent across to 

 make measurements of the other, and ascending the Pelly a 

 short distance, even gave up that part, so evident was it that 

 this Pelly was the smaller of the two. Of course I was glad 

 enough to get such news, for the Pelly was an uusurveyed 

 stream, and had it been the greater I would have had to con- 

 tent myself with exploring one of its tributaries and only a 

 part of its course, whereas 1 now had, and would have, all 

 the data for a survey of the whole Yukon from source to 

 mouth. 



Trout lines put out over night caught a sort of nasty look- 

 ing eel pout, each hook baited with meat having one, that 

 were so uninviting in appearance that one would have to 

 border on starvation before taking them by any of the usual 

 methods of cooking. Grayling were st'ill to be had in 

 limited numbers, and one big salmon trout gave the Doctor a 

 scientific struggle lasting nearly half an hour before he could 

 be induced to "come in out of the wet." Fresh moose tracks 

 were to be seen but no one seemed inclined toward moose 

 meat with mosquito accompaniment. Astronomical obser- 

 vations were taken to determine the point and everything 

 was prepared f »r another movement forward on the morrow. 

 [to be continued.] 



?#%#/ ]§i$tat£. 



PRESERVATION OF SONG BIRDS. 



Editor Forest and Strewn : 



Haviug read with considerable interest the article over the 

 signature of "X.," I must say that I indorse the whole. Let 

 us have a law to prevent the shooting, by men as well as 

 boys, of the insect-eating and song birds of our fend. That 

 ornithology consists in tilling the skins of slain birds is the 

 merest, nonsense. Let, as your correspondent remarks, men 

 as well as boys, go into the fields andAvoods without gun, but 

 with note book and pencil, study the habits of the birds, and 

 they would gain more information in a week's time well 

 spent than from a whole life spent, in stuffing skins. How 

 many persons who fill the skins of birds with cotton, tow and 

 straw, could draw the forms of the same? There was one 

 English artist who excelled, in drawing the human form ; that 

 could, and did, draw the human skeleton in one colored ink 

 and clothed it with muscles in another colored ink. Such 

 perfection is rarely attained. Still, young men, and older 

 ones also, might do a little to rob their killing propensities 

 of its sting. The dialogue of "X." is a complete answer to 

 all quibbles. Let bovs and men learn. X. Z. 



Utica, N. Y. 



Editor Forest and Strewn: 



"A bird never flutters unless it is hit." As I wish to flut- 

 ter, I will begin by considering myself hit, although as I am 

 not a taxidermist nor milliner's collector, and am somewhat 

 past the age of sweet sixteen, where the average "boy with 

 a gun" is supposed to do his worst, it is evident that it is 

 only by a stray pellet and not by the center of the charge. 

 which "X" in your issue of March 20, and which others in 

 previous ones, have fired promiscuously among all who desire 

 to make even a limited collection of skins, or eggs, or both. 

 Why is it that all unite against youth ? Is youth a crime to 

 be laid at the door of its possessor? Were Wilson, Audubon, 

 Baird, Coues and others, never young? Did they not begin 

 their stndies as young inexperienced boys? There must be a 

 beginning. There must have been a first awakening of that 

 love of nature, of that irresistible desire to know more of her 

 feathered subjects, which has caused our most distinguished 

 naturalists to turn away from the masses who strive only for 

 the "almighty dollar," and to take to themselves want* dis- 

 comforts, bodily peril, and sneers and the rebuffs of their 

 more practical money-making fellow-men. 



When we remember the earnest re&arches of Wilson and 

 Audubon, the many days of patient study they devoted to 

 live birds, let us also remember that one of them at least 

 was a nest- robbing boy, without any show of scientific pro- 

 pensities, for wo read of his "strings" of birds' eggs. To 

 read some of the articles which appear from time to time, 

 one would suppose that every one who shot a bird or took a 

 set of eggs did it either from a wanton desire to destroy, or 

 for money. It is this sweeping condemnation which I re- 

 sent as unjust to some of our young collectors, who, I think, 

 are actuated by as sincere motives as ever moved Wilson, 

 Audubon, or any of their successors. I believe that among 

 the rising generation may be found some of our most observ- 

 ing ornithologists. Many have already been mentioned in 

 various publications as having made important discoveries. 

 The subject of the migrations of birds, which is now receiv- 

 ing more than ever before, the attentions of naturalists, both 

 in Europe and America, depends largely on the observations 

 of collectors in different parts of the country. The Forest 

 and Stream has a natural history department of constantly 

 increasing interest. How many of the notes contained- 

 therein are contributed by the younger members of the fra- 

 ternity? There are those now, who are no doubt working 

 faithfully, though unknown to fame, who will yet win their 

 laurels, but who are young and so inexperienced that they 

 deserve the censure administered about a year ago by "H omo, 

 when he complained that they were shooting birds whose 

 sex they were Unable to decide. 



I do not believe the bond proposed in the Massachusetts 

 law will have the desired effect any more than the plan sug- 

 gested by some of your correspondents of taxing the gun to 

 prevent market hunting. The professional market hunter 

 would pay the tax, the sportsman, who could use his gun at 

 most but a few times each year, would not pay it. Result — 

 market hunter gets all the more birds, the limited sportsman 

 gets none. The professional "hat bird" collector will find 

 some means of evading the consequences and will shoot all 

 the more during any opportunity that presents itself, while 

 the student, who desires specimens for the specimens them- 

 selves, will be the sirfferer. 



And now, speaking of hat birds, do the ladies themselves 

 really care for the birds? Are they sincere? Let any one 

 walking our streets notice the ladies' hats and he will have 

 strong reasons for doubting the sincerity of the fair sex. 



I have no doubt that if. it could be positively known how 

 many birds were killed for private collections and study, 

 and how many were killed for ornament, that it would ap- 

 pear that the latter far exceeded the former. I know I am 

 taking sides against public opinion, but I don't blame pub- 

 lic opinion; I blame those unsci'upulous persons who, to put 

 a penny in their pockets, will destroy anything: w T ho while 

 pretending to be interested in the study of the birds are in- 

 terested only in the dollar* and cents their stuffed skins wMl 

 bring to them, and I sincerely believe that it is this whole- 

 sale shooting for the purpose of supplying milliners and 

 other similar purposes that has caused* a decrease in the 

 number of our song birds. It is the old "front hog" in a 

 new form, the pot-hunter bringing disgrace on the sports- 

 man. 



Suppress, if possible, the barter in skins, in hat birds, and 

 other similar "gewgaws," but don't shut out the earnest, 

 diligent student, who, if he occasionally shoots a bird or 

 takes a set of eggs, does so with a higher purpose than that 

 for the love of money. The birds have no*better friends 

 than are those who study their habits, and I doubt if any 

 class would more deeply deplore the loss of the birds than 

 the very class so often unjustly assailed, young and inex- 

 perienced though they may be. * Sialia. 



[We are sure that a large majority of the writers on this 

 subject are animated by a sincere desire to protect our in- 

 sectivorous birds from wanton slaughter. The honest, faith- 

 ful student should undoubtedly be permitted to collect bird 

 skins, but how is it to be determined that any supposed 

 student is honest? How do we know that he is hot collect- 

 ing merely for the hat men? Since our correspondents are 

 working for the same end, it is not worth their while to 

 waste their ammunition on each other.] 



