2^ 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sbpt. 18, 1897. 
ON THE WAY TO THE KLONDIKE. 
Fi-oni the FoBEST AUD Stream's SpeciaJ Correspondent. 
On Boaud Steamship Islander, Skaguay Bay, Alaska, 
Aug. 31. — Editor Forest and SPivam: We are anchored at 
Skaguay Bay, on tlie east side of Chilcoot Inlet and five or 
six miles from Dyea, at the upper end of the inlet and foot 
of the pass of the same name. Precipitous, rocky hills and 
low mountains, none of them apparentlj' over 2,500 or 
3,000ft. high rise from the inlet on both sides, and on one of 
the tallest there is a fine glacier. 
In front is the infant town of Skaguay, the port of entry 
for the White Pass. Picture a level plain half a mile wide 
between enflanking hills that gradually come closer together 
at the north as the pass narrows behind, and on the beach 
and scattered' among the trees beyond an army of tents, 
with here and there a frame or log house half completed . 
This is the town, and lots 50X 100ft. already conamand a 
good price. 
The plain is formed from gravel and sand that a small 
glacial stream has brought down from the mountain beyond. 
It has a perfectly square edge at right angles with the bay, 
and at any stage of the tide (which has a rise here of 18ft.) 
boats ground long before dry land is reached and one has to 
jump over and wade ashore. At anchor in the bay are half 
a dozen steam vessels discharging freight and horses, and 
most of these have carried passengers also. 
Last night, soon after reaching this point, we went ashore 
and walked in two and one-half miles on the trail. We 
found the road in excellent condition, and things in general 
had a prosperous and business-like appearance. 
There is plenty of food for man and beast. "Wagons are 
being used on this end of the trail, and freights are 1 cent a 
pound for the first five miles — that distance the road is level 
and dry, the sandy soil drawing easily. After that there is 
an ascent of 3,600ft. in thirteen miles, and the conditions are 
not so good. 
However, there are no serious difficulties to be surmount- 
ed, and the only complaints we hear are from a few men 
who have no horses. Yesterday a man came back who had 
packed ITolbs. per animal across to the lakes, on mules, mak- 
ing the round-trip in four days. 
The timber in the Pass is very much like that in the Adi- 
rondacks — for instance, if Cottonwood be substituted for 
poplar. Some of the cottonwoods are 3ft. in diameter. 
There is fine spruce timber and a great deal of balsam. I 
also noted beach and yellow birch. 
For game, there are said to be a great many goats on the 
mountains facing the water. They are only killed to bait 
traps, as their skins have no commercial value, and their 
meat is not cared for. There are no deer here on the main- 
land, and no moose, caribou or sheep on this side the range. 
Bears are very abundant, particularly the common black 
bear. 
I had a talk with Mr. P. A Smith, Inspector of Customs 
for the District of Alaska, about the bears. He is a good 
sportsman and a capable officer. In the last three years, 
among other game, he has killed fifteen bears. He shoots a 
.38-55 repeater, and in no case fired more than four shots to 
kill his bear. On the average it only required two shots to 
accomplish his purpose. Mr. Smith aims at the neck, when- 
ever possible, and thinks this the best shot for bear. 
The brown bears, he says, are pretty tough customers. He 
knows personally of three men who have been killed by them 
recently. At Burners Bay, just below this place, two pros- 
pectors loaned their rifle to an Indian one day, and shortly 
afterward one of them passed an old she-bear, which attacked 
him without any provocation, and in their defenseless con- 
dition made short work of her victim, His mangled remains 
were taken to Juneau. 
Still more recently an Indian was killed on Admiralty 
Island. His little boy was discovered alone in a canoe, cry- 
ing for the father, who had been gone a long time, and who 
at that moment was cold in death beside the dead carcass 
of one of these giant bears. He had shot the bear at short 
range with his old Hudson's Bay musket, but had been 
unable to check its charge in time. 
Mr. Smith said that these bears are alike fearless of man 
and firearms. A friend of his shot at one and missed, as 
was discovered afterward, but the bear charged him just the 
same, and was only killed by a lucky shot in the brain at 
shortest kind of range. 
The Indians get quite a number of hides, but all have the 
bullet mark in the top of the back, showing that they shoot 
them from trees when the bear comes down some favorite 
runway to a stream in search of salmon. 
Captain, or Inspector Harper, of the Canadian Mounted 
Police, is aboard this vessel. He has a very fine double Lee- 
Metford rifle. The gun is a hammerless automatic ejector, 
weighing 91bs., and beautifully engraved and finished. It 
shoots the regular .303 English ammunition, which is a 
strong charge, and one that holds up remarkably well. 
Judging from shots fired over the water, its trajectory is su- 
perior to the U. S. Army cartridge. It is certainly away 
ahead of the .30 30 smokeless. 
Tappon Adney, whose name is familiar to readers of Fos- 
EST AND Stream, is- here as corresijondent for Harper's 
WeeUy. In Juneau we each bought some strychnine for 
foxes, and hope to get some good furs this winter. 
AH goes well so far, and the prospects are bright, 
J. B. BUBNHAM. 
THE ANGEL OF THE GUARD. 
(.Continued from page 
The next morning the wind was again strong from the 
northwest, and, as our boat could make only leeway against 
a head wind, we decided to take advantage of the occa- 
sion to haul her down and stop some of the abundant 
leaks. 
Before breakfast I started out to the river side of the 
lagoon with Pancho to get a load of oysters. We soon 
found the bed, and loaded the dorv with a kind of oyster 
quite different from the excellent Yaqui River oysters you 
get at Guaymas. The oysters at the corral had an in- 
dented shell something like a scallop shell, and had a bit- 
ter, disagreeable taste when raw; but they were very good 
when roasted or stewed. 
Very large, coarse oysters are found further up the coast 
of Guarda Island, and at one place Pancho tells me that 
there is a deposit of fossil oyster shells, many of which are 
2ft. long. Besides these varieties, living and extinct, you 
meet on the beaches frequent examples of the "concha 
nacre" (pronounced nacker, as in English) or pearl oyster. 
This species, besides giving the only valuable kind of 
r/3 • 
GOLF OF CALIFORNIA. 
pearls, is almost the sole source of mother-of-pearl, the 
shells having a beautiful luster both, inside and out. The 
pearl fisheries are at present suspended by Government 
decree, but many romantic stories are told about the dis- 
coveries of "placeres," as the beds of these oysters are 
called, and Pancho said that twenty years ago his father 
found a placer on Guarda Island from which he collected 
IBlbs. of pearls, which were sold to a Guaymas merchant 
for $16,000. 
There were many things here new and strange to me, 
though no doubt familiar to naturalists. One was a star- 
fish with twenty-three fingers. At first I thought that 
some "sport" or accident might have caused this unusual 
number of fingers to sprout on the ordinary starfish, but 
as I found several more instances of the twenty-three- 
fingered animal, I became convinced that this was not the 
work of chance. 
On the boulder points we saw several dabs of seaweed 
among the rocks, which Pancho said were the nests of 
gulls. These birds, however, had not yet begun laying. 
On these spits were also relics of some old sealers' camps. 
Hunting for oil, though not a very profitable trade, is 
somietimes extensively carried on. Oil brings at present 
from 50 to 60 cents a gallon (Mexican money), and is got 
from several sources. 
Young pelicans afl"ord a large supply of oil. These are 
caught in great numbers on the breeding grounds when 
they are as large as hens, but unable to fly, and are then 
largely composed of oil. 
Then a good deal of oil is got from turtles, which are 
harpooned and cut in two, when each half is tried out 
over the fire in its own shell. 
The liver of the shark is another source of supply, and 
is very rich in oil, though the rest of the fish gives none 
at all. 
The principal resource, however, is the seal. The hunt- 
STONE CIRCOES IN FLAT BETWEEN RIDGES 
ers invade the hauling grounds and try to shoot whatever 
seals they can on land. When the animals take to the 
water it is necessary to shoot them in the head to get 
them at all, for they are very tenacious of life under these 
circumstances. The males alone a^e sought, and princi- 
pally the larger males, some of which yield exceptionally, 
as much as forty gallons of oil, while many others will not 
give a gallon a piece. 
In the afternoon the wind changed, and we sailed over 
to Guarda and carried on our researches. 
Pancho and I landed in a small bay, where an ancient 
trail led over the foot of a boulder-covered hill. It was 
traced very distinctly for a few yards and then was lost 
in the flat that stretched up the coast. 
We followed northward parallel to the beach for two 
miles and a half over flat country, old mussel, clam and 
oyster beds and cobble-strewn stretches, then the shoulder 
of a hill, ending a long ridge of high land, came right down 
to the sea, and over this the trail was again well marked, 
climbing perhaps 150yds. on the south side and winding 
down as far on the north. 
From the crest of this hill I took some pictures of the 
country north and west, and then photographed Pancho 
in the distance, standing amid some stone piles like those 
I had formerly found, and examples of which were seen 
on or near the summits of the ridges for a mile back from 
the sea. 
The boys in our absence had caught two fine fish they 
called bacocos, which proved good to eat. 
We madfe a long trip inland next morning, scanning 
GUABDA— FROM COAST SURVEY CHART. 
STONE CIRCLES NBAB TRAIL, IJ^ MILES FROM COA.ST. 
every visible locality with the glass for traces of antiquity. 
This part of the interior had no remains of man's work, 
hut we saw indications of old beaches and beds of shells 
that seemed to show that the coast here had been some- 
what elevated in a time that, in a geological sense, could be 
called recent. 
We found no fresh water, nor trace of any, nor did we 
see any sign of four-legged thing except the iguanas, which 
were common. These lizards, which are said to feed 
solely on vegetables, must endure a tough and scanty diet 
in this place. 
When we got back to the boat about noon Pancho was 
visibly anxious. The wind was hauling to the northwest, 
with a rising sea, and we went aboard at once and made 
sail for our little harbor, reaching there in a heavy roll 
and a hard blow. 
In order to employ the afternoon profitably, I set out 
over the islet with the captain to visit the "lobera" or 
hauling ground of the seals. We climbed down to the 
beach about a quarter of a mile away from the "lobera," 
and wormed ourselves through the rocks until I got a good 
view of the animals, some 150yds. distant. 
Partly through a desire to test seal meat, and partly in 
hopes of getting a good skin, I fired at a small seal, and the 
whole herd (variously estimated by the captain at 200, and 
by me at fifty seals) took the water with a great noise. I 
could see no result to my shot, and as I had fired at the 
chest, while the captain now told me it was "head shot or 
no seal," I supposed that I had failed to score. On getting 
nearer, however, we found a victim lying on the stones. I 
was struck by the unfitness of my disposition for a sports- 
man's career, for while I feel chagrined to miss a fair shot, 
I am almost always filled with regret and pity when I suc- 
ceed, and this instance was no exception. The herd stayed 
bravely around in the breakers, howling their sorrow and 
indignation, and I quite sympathized with them. I tried 
to take a photograph that would show the masses of yel- 
low bodies lying in the wave as it heaved up, but I only 
got the heads and necks that were above the water. 
We skinned our seal and took some meat, and then 
