242 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[April 24, 1884. 



3th* Mpwtetyxn H[otm<lt. 



DOWN THE YUKON ON A RAFT. 



BY LIEUT. PRED'lC SCHWATKA, V. B. AP.MT. 



Tenth Paper. 

 \\7~ HEN our miners were encountered they were packing 

 » T on their backs their scanty supplies of "grub," ac- 

 cording to frontier parlance, and' anxiouslv inquiring the 

 distance to the next lake, where they hoped "to find a canoe 

 or two, and thus make better time back. So dense was the 

 undergrowth and fallen timber in the valley of the Yukon 

 and its tributaries, that they had been forced back along the 

 mountain ridges, where the fires had partially cleared out the 

 underbrush, and although the fallen timber was a little worse, 

 in the sum total it was the least of the two evils. So abso- 

 lutely impregnable had it become in places for them that, 

 waiting for a favorable wind or one sweeping before them, 

 they then set fire to the woods and again waited until it had 

 cleared a way for them, and then proceeded through the 

 burning path. They also confirmed the Indian reports that 

 the moose and caribou (woodland reindeer) follow the snow 

 line in the spring and summer as it retreats up the mountains 

 under the effects of the warm weather, and this undoubtedly 

 from the dense swarms of mosquitoes that appear all over the 

 face of this country as soon as the snow is lifted, as if lhat 

 mantle, held them down in layers several inches thick. 



During the 9th of July in the afternoon we had seen 

 dense volumes of smoke ahead, showing the pine forests to 

 he on fire, probably set by the miners, although we after- 

 ward ascertained that Indians often do this, not only care- 

 lessly while camping, but also in a premeditated manner to 

 drive, game to certain runways. This firing of the woods, 

 however, is more likely to take place in the winter, when 

 the runways of game are limited to fewer trails, and the In- 

 dians can, therefore, stand better chances of intercepting 

 them on these few, than in the summer months, when, after 

 all, their principal diet is fish and fowl when the latter are 

 moulting. I also heard that when a brown or grizzly bear 

 invades a neighborhood -which is of value to the Indians for 

 purposes that fire will not destroy, they do not hesitate to 

 burn out the woods when a favorable wind makes them 

 think that the blaze will be carried in the direction of the 

 bear. 



The 10th of July we got away early and about ten in the 

 forenoon, passed through forest fire's on both sides of the 

 river (here from 300 to 400 yards wide), and the natural 

 query was how it could have crossed unless set fire on both 

 sides, for there was so little wind that great billows of smoke 

 went lazily upward directly for the zenith, and these, when 

 seen in the morning, looked like vast banks of cumulus 

 clouds arising up from that direction. At 1 :15 in the after- 

 noon we passed the mouth of a large river coming in from 

 the eastern or right bank and was the one the miners had 

 been prospecting before their party broke in two. They 

 said they had ascended it nearly 200 miles and that from its 

 width at that point they believed it to be 50 to 75 miles 

 further to its very source. At this point the caribou tracks 

 had been very thick and so recent that the deer could have 

 only migrated but a short time before. One active Nimrod 

 among them, maddened by so much sign, had taken his gun 

 and kept tramping for 30 or 40 miles up one of the branches 

 of the river until he overtook a herd and killed two, and 

 putting their meat on a raft started down to join his party. 

 The raft was a very rude affair and finally brought up on a 

 big boulder in the center of a rapid, where it stuck until it 

 was liberated in two sections. The miner not being a double 

 bareback rider abandonded his twin rafts and walked home 

 with one saddle of venison and a couple of reindeer tongues. 



It was not until well past eight that we camped in a dense 

 grove of small poplars. A great number of them had their 

 bark chipped around by rodents at an altitude of eighteen to 

 twenty inches from the ground, and as there was a considei- 

 able amount of rabbit (hare) sign about the place it must 

 have been these little gnawers, when food was the scarcest 

 at the deepest snow, which therefore could not have been 

 much deeper than that during the past winter. Among the 

 grove were many trees that had been killed in previous 

 years, and probably in this very way, but the thicket was 

 so dense that the intertwining branches with live ones on all 

 sides held them erect. From the slight depth of snow, I im- 

 agined that the winters must be ushered in with a sort of 

 Arctic suddenness peculiar to polar regions, rather than like 

 the nearer coast country where the snow falls deep and 

 nearly all winter. Rummaging around, we found a couple of 

 places where a number of dead tiees were standing in a clus- 

 ter, and readily pulling them up by the roots, we turned them 

 over to the cook, and spreading our canvas and blankets in the 

 spots, bivouacked as well as the weather and mosquitoes 

 would permit us. We had passed a small family of abject 

 Takh-heesh a mile or so before camping, and the man hav- 

 ing mustered up the remaining courage of his life, managed 

 to walk dow r n to our camp, where he stood around with his 

 mouth wide open, almost paralyzed with astonishment, and 

 I think if I could have only deodorized him and varnished 

 him up, I could have gotten a fortune out of him at a San 

 Francisco Chinese "josh" house, be looked so much like one 

 of their idols. 



Shortly after starting on the morning of the 11th we saw 

 a magpie or two sailing around near the bank and finally 

 disappear across an opening into the groves near the foot 

 hills. Only once after that were magpies seen on the Yukon 

 River. Several owls were seen during the day. During 

 the day we passed several "Stick" or Tahk-heesh families (a 

 family seems to be about the highest organization they can 

 get together at any one place), and at every point there were 

 seen small rafts of logs bound together with willow withes 

 tied up at the shore in front of their brush houses, and no- 

 where would there be seen any canoes. 



As we approached the last' rapids on the river, a huge 

 number of gulls rose in swarms from the rock towers where 

 they were breeding and gave us the most discordant recep- 

 tiou of screechings and splashings that I had heard for some 

 time. When the ice breaks up in the spring (although I 

 doubt if these rapids are frozen over at all during the winter 

 so swift is their current), tnese castles of rock become im- 

 pregnable to foxes, wolves and all other carnivora not sup- 

 plied with wings, and here these gulls find a safe and secure 

 breeding place. As we rushed by some of the small gulls 

 just from their calcareous bandbox were standing around 

 with that stupid astonishment characteristic of the young 

 of all species, from an oyster to a man. 



Daring the day we had passed the mouths of two rivers; 

 one I called Daly River, after Chief Justice Daly, of New 

 York. Some twenty miles below this the river became very 



tortuous. About forty miles beyond the Daly River came 

 in another of quite formidable dimensions, about 200 yards 

 wide at its mouth, and, to change the order of things, came 

 in from the west, the first noticeable stream on that side 

 since we had passed the mouth of the Tahk River, a few 

 miles below Miles's Canon. Nearly opposite its mouth was 

 a bold bald peak that we caught a glimpse of a few miles 

 away. It seemed to be on the river bank directly ahead, 

 but a sharp bend in the river sent us well off in another way, 

 and showed it, as we supposed, to be inland. Another 

 curve, and we started for it and ran up much closer, but not 

 past it, before we were again hauled back along another 

 stretch of the river, as if there, was some repulsion in its 

 great mass, and this oscillation we kept up until no less than 

 seven times we had pointed our raft toward it on as many 

 different "reaches" of the river. It appears on the map as 

 Tantalus Butte, and the river opposite I named after 

 Sweden's great Arctic explorer, Baron von Nordenskiold. 



A few minutes past two a crackling of brush was heard 

 on our right, and in a few moments a big buck moose came 

 bolting out into an opening of slight scrubby willows, and 

 before a gun could be brought to bear on him again disap- 

 peared, but still kept persistently parallel with us as he 

 struggled through the brush. Occasionally through the 

 brush a vista of his dark brown sides and swaying horns 

 was seen, but directly ahead of him was a small creek put- 

 ting in with wide grassy banks, aud here I felt sure of a shot. 

 Just as he reached the open creek bottom, he whirled like a 

 flash and once more buried himself in the deep brush of its 

 upstream side. This animal and another about two hundred 

 and fifty miles below this point were the only moose the 

 party saw the whole length of the great river, a stream noted 

 for the large number of these animals iu its valley. The In- 

 dians of this country know nothing about "moose yards," 

 and when described to them say they are not made by the 

 moose of this part of the world. I afterward heard this 

 corroborated by an old Hudson Bay trader, who had hunted 

 them in lower latitudes and knew by experience what "moose 

 yards" meant. Again a Mr. Carr, a very intelligent miner, 

 who had wintered on the river a good ways below this 

 point, spoke of this. From what I could learn from 

 the Indians 1 do not believe their sense of hearing is 

 so acute in these parts as in the southeastern districts 

 of the moose, as they are said to be easier to 

 approach and kill in the summer than the caribou, and the 

 stories of their sense of hearing as told by hunters from 

 Maine and Nova Scotia borders almost on the miraculous. 

 The greatest number of moose are killed in this end of Amer- 

 ica while crossing rivers where they are completely at the 

 mercy of their pursuers in their swift birch-bark canoes. Mr. 

 Hearn, who was an Arctic explorer in these northern regions 

 of the Hudson Bay Company, by whom he was sent over a 

 hundred years ago wben everything was purely primitive, 

 says that he has seen an Indian paddle his light canoe up to 

 one of the moose calves after its mother had been killed, and 

 take it by the nape of the neck without its showing any re- 

 sistance or apparent fight whatever, the doomed defenseless 

 animal seemed, at the same time, as happy and contented 

 alongside of the canoe as if it was swimming by the side of 

 its mother, and looking up into the faces of those who w T ere 

 about to be its murderers with the most apparent innocence, 

 using its forelegs and feet every now and then to clear its 

 eyes' of the numerous mosquitoes which alighted upon them, 

 and which seemed to be intent on eradicating as preventing 

 its keeping up with the canoe. This reminds me of a very 

 similar incident occurring with a little buffalo calf whose 

 dam had been chased and killed by some cavalrymen, the 

 little creature following the company on its scout for several 

 days when, there being'nothing to feed it, and the scout ahead 

 but little prospect of termination for a long time, it was 

 lulled out of sympathy for its forlorn condition. 



OWLING. 



ON several occasions during my morning or afternoon 

 rambles through the lower meadows, I had awakened 

 from his midday sleep a great white and brown horned owl, 

 just as during more than one night in the past summer 

 and autumn he and others of his fraternity had disturbed 

 the midnight and early morning slumbers and dreams of a 

 dozen or more cowpunchers. Frank, the ranch cook, being 

 quite a skillful amateur taxidermist, had frequently expressed 

 a wish to get him and see what kind of an appearance he 

 would present with his wings and tail spread on the wall 

 and his head peeping through them. I promised Frank that 

 I would locate Mr. Blink and capture him; and though fin- 

 ally succeeding in fulfilling my contract, it was only after 

 considerable hard work and hard luck in connection with 

 some thoughtlessness that I redeemed myself. 



My first attempt at finding him was a successful venture, 

 so far as the simple finding was concerned; but the capturing 

 of him proved quite a dismal failure. I had tramped for a 

 couple of hours through snow, from one to two feet deep, 

 meanwhile carefully and thoroughly inspecting every tree 

 that seemed likely to afford him a hiding-place and shelter. 

 Finally, on the banks of the creek I came to a large beaver 

 dam, and while inspecting it and the signs of recent work 

 done by the beavers, had laid my gun aside and stepped out on 

 the ice above the dam, when from a tree close by my intended 

 victim darted away with almost the speed of a woodcock. 

 I watched him as he dodged his course among the cotton- 

 woods and box-elders. Up stream he went for nearly half 

 a mile and alighted in the top of a tall cottonwood, where 1 

 sighted him when about three hundred yards away. But he 

 was wide awake, and again hit the breeze, this time going 

 down stream by a circuitous route; and he was lost to me for 

 ttaat day at least. However, he had divulged one of his 

 hiding-places, which was a great point in my favor, as they 

 are almost invariably difficult to find, as they hug the trunk 

 of the tree very closely. The first day was not barren of results. 



The owl is considered a wise bird, vide the old saying, 

 "wise as an owl;" but this individual was a foolish one in at 

 least one respect, inasmuch as he chose for his perch a tree 

 with a dark background, which, on one's coming toward 

 him from the right direction, showed him up perfectly ; but 

 he was a lucky bird. 



The following afternoon I strolled down to the old place, 

 taking no special precautions to conceal my movements, and 

 not expecting that the foolish bird with the magnificent orbs 

 had come home so soon. The first time I was in search of 

 him he was indebted for his life to the beavers; this time it 

 was to a jack rabbit, which sprang out from a cluster of 

 willows, and on my making a quick snap shot cliught the 

 rabbit and lost the owl, for at the report of the gun he was 

 again wending his way by the air-line toward the Eastern 

 States. I had learned that there was no use in following him 

 at the time. 



Before owls are followed they must be given a long rest to 

 divert any suspicion, and when they find that they are not 

 pressed too closely they may resume their doze and give you 

 another chance. They can be approached very closely before 

 they are aware of any danger, hut after once awakening to 

 the situation, it is a most difficult matter to get anywhere 

 near them, for we verily believe that their eyes are-able to 

 detect any hostile or other advance, and being fortified by 

 ears more capacious in proportion to their weight than a 

 burro, a second approach to them is rendered almost impos- 

 sible, If their night sight is any better than their day sight, 

 they would not be able to answer as Sara Welle r did, "Yes' 

 I have a pair of eyes and that's just it. If they wos a pair 

 o' patent double million magnifyin' gas microscopes of 

 hextra power p'raps I might be able to see through a flight 

 o' stairs and a deal door ; but bein' only eyes, you see m y 

 wision's limited." The owl can pretty nearly do those things 

 at midday. 



A few days after the rabbit had forfeited his life and 

 thereby saved the owl, I went out again in search of him. 

 Coming in sight of the tree which had by this time become 

 quite a familiar object, I carefully slid down the bank on to 

 the creek a few rods above the beaver dam ; quietly walked 

 down on the ice, and soon had him in sight, There he was, 

 perhaps seventy yards away, peacefully and contentedly 

 sleeping on his perch, all unaware of the danger he was in; 

 and so was I in as blissful ignorance of my own danger. 

 Sinners, it is said, stand on slippery places, but I could not; 

 for while trying to reach the little snow drift on the edge of 

 the ice my feet suddenly went from under me, and again the 

 owl took his departure toward the east, but not soon enough 

 to save all his feathers, for from a sitting posture I had a 

 chance to "turn loose" (pardon the quotation) one barrel. A 

 couple of feathers floated a while in the still air, then came 

 softly down like two big yellow brown snow flakes and 

 anchored themselves in the willows. His splendid run of 

 good luck was nearly over, the charm was about to be 

 broken and my unlucky stupidity at owling was also draw- 

 ing to a close. A wise owl would have changed his habita- 

 tion after the repeated interruptions he had experienced, but 

 this hunted and persecuted bird dreaded not the fire, though 

 he had been slightly scorched at long range, 



The love of home was strong within him, and heedless or 

 forgetful or ignorant of the danger menacing him, he would 

 hoot "Home, Sweet Home," and return to the hospitable 

 shelter of his own box-elder which was soon to know him 

 no more, and no more would he contribute his hoot to dis- 

 turbing the slumbers of wearied "cowpunchers." Over the 

 same ground 1 tramped again, and this time succeeded in 

 administering to him part of an ounce and a quarter of No. 

 4 shot backed up by four drams of powder, just as he was 

 spreading sail for another voyage down the stream. 



There he is — what remains of him— with wings and tail 

 outstretched, and looking down at me through a pair of 

 glass eyes from over the mantle-piece, and he is the hand- 

 somest ornament in the room, looking as wide awake and 

 fife like as when he was darting among the trees, with only 

 the one instinctive idea of escaping danger. Millaed. 



Bear Creek, Wy. 



WHERE THE BUNG TREE GROWS. 



*) r I "* \V AS early in July, the Professor and I left the land of 

 X Gotham to the bulls and the bears of barter and trade, 

 for a couple of weeks sojourn in the land where the bung 

 tree grows. Our quest was rest and recreation Iroin the cor- 

 roding cares of business, and like many another, who some- 

 times got bit by a trout, we felt the old longing stealing o'er 

 us, and when I whispered the magic word "trout" in the ear 

 of the Professor, he suffered himself to be led oft* without 

 remonstrance. 



The land where the hung tree grows? "Now what in the 

 name of goodness is a bung tree?" says the Professor. 



"What, John don't know what a bung tree is? A bung 

 tree is — is — is — John, did you ever casually observe men, of 

 doubtful mien and wistful expression, cautiously approach 

 something standing on the sidewalk like, which looked very 

 like a beer keg, and stealing a quick, apprehensive glance up 

 and down the street, slowly remove that protuberance dis- 

 cernible under his coat, which might be a tomato can, and 

 witness the intense satisfaction with which he gloated over 

 the find if it were large, or the all-gone hopeless look if the 

 reverse? John, did you know a beer keg had a bung hole, 

 and the same is stopped by a bung, and these bungs are made 

 from hard wood, such as beech, maple, and other bung trees, 

 which grow away up in the mountains, way up where the deer, 

 the bear, and the wily trout, do disport themselves and propa- . 

 gate their species, and furnish enjoyment to such miserable tal- 

 lows as you and I, John — grow, along with hemlock, the same 

 you once essayed to walk, when the peeler had just left it, and 

 John, you "got left,' didn't you, old boy? I could wipe the 

 tears from my eyes now, just thinking about it. I can see 

 the spray fly way above the pile of old driftwood, as your 

 gravity and inine was upset, aud how cold the water was, 

 and how scared the trout who took my fly, almost at the 

 same instant you took yours, dear John. That was the. 

 most sagacious trout I ever saw, for he evidently foresaw 

 what was coming down 'among him' when he took his place 

 in your element and you took your place in his. Do you 

 remember that pole you carried into the woods? That pole, 

 vou had builded it a purpose for the occasion. Your expe- 

 rience down on the Shrewsbury doubtless led you into this 

 conceit, and you had the last big weakfish in your mind 

 while you were building it. Well, the first trout ymi treed 

 with it went about twenty feet straight up into the blue 

 ethereal, and there took two or three turns round the limb 

 of a bung tree, and I reckon it is hanging there yet. When 

 you first exhibited the production I could see the look of 

 pride on your face as you drew it from it's case, and fondled 

 it before the astonished 'natives.' Never shall I forget the 

 emphatic exclamation, joined in by all hands simultaneously, 

 and one old fellow with a sadness he could scarcely control, 

 tremblingly muttered, 'Hanged if 1 haint seen most every 

 kind of pole brought inter these woods to ketch trout 

 with, but that 'ere beats 'em all, blamed if it don't.' " 



That pole was a short time ago still to be seen, being pre- 

 served in the family like some huge two-handed, prehistoric 

 sword, handed down to posterity to excite its wonderment 

 and surprise. 



And now we were once more at the haven where we won in 

 be, and these old scenes came back upon us— reminiscen- ea 

 of other days— and the trout were rising ever and anon ::< 

 the pool just in front of the. house, as some luckless fly or 

 insect hovered temptingly over their hungry maw. The 

 June bugs had not all gone yet and a few had been drawn 

 inside the house on a tour of investigation, and were now 

 buzzing round a light which our host had kindly placed in- 

 side, in the gloaming. 



