3 4 8 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct, 29, 1898. 
They had struck the right spot for crappies, and while 
the most of them were the big-mouth species, they 
had three of the other kind, P. sparoides, which is more 
common in the North, and I was glad to note it. I 
fished with them for an hour, and then we started for 
home. I had taken about fifteen, and was surprised to 
see that they had over two bushels of fish, mainly crap- 
pies, and those many species of the sunfish which shade 
off into the rock bass, or red-eye, warmouth, etc., so 
common there. 
"Oh, no," said the Doctor, in reply to a question; 
"there will be no waste: you overlook the colored con- 
tingent, which will use every fish that is left after our 
small family is provided for." 
"Yes. and we let a lot go," said George, "because they 
were red-horse and suckers, and it is not cold enough 
to eat them now; they're too soft. 
"An' we'd 'a' had more only I got snagged in the 
tree top three times," said Jack, "and lost tune when 
they were biting fast, an' then I got hold of a turtle 
'at wouldn't come in for I don't know how long, and 
I had to cut the line and rig new hooks. We used up 
all the bait-fish and then had to cut chunks out of 
suckers, and that took time, an' I think I lost a bushel 
of fish in that way." 
"Jack," the Doctor slowly remarked, we were not 
fishing against time, nor to see how many bushels of fish 
we could catch. Never regret the time lost in freeing 
your line, even if the fish are biting freely. Remember, 
my boy, that we do not want to catch the last fish m 
the pond, if we could, and that it would be a sin for us 
to take as many as we have if vour grandfather did not 
have so many people to feed." 
My Little Sermon on Killing Things. 
The Doctor looked my way, as if he wanted approval 
of his sermon. He got it in this way: "Jack, never take 
the life of any creature unless you need it for food, 
clothing or other use, or because it injures you in some 
direct or indirect manner. Every insect, bird, beast, 
fish or reptile is part of nature's great balance wheel m 
keeping down other forms of animal or vegetable life. 
Destroy the pond and river fishes and the turtles would 
starve, the frogs would multiply until they had de- 
voured all the insects which either destroy vegetation 
or act as a check upon those which do, and the entire 
balance is upset. Even an alligator has its uses, Jack, 
in the economy of nature; T don't mean in furnishing 
man with purses and things from its skin, nor jewelry 
from its teeth, but in keeping down other forms of 
life. 
"Look at our little summer yellowbird, Jack, the 
American goldfinch; its mission is to keep down the 
thistle by feeding on its seeds; the woodpecker destroys 
the grub, which in their turn would destroy our forests, 
and the swallow, the martin, the bull bat, the whip- 
, poorwill and the bat keep down the innumerable hordes 
of insects which make life a torment for us but for their 
unceasing work, night and day; and it is the same all 
through animal life, down to the earthworm. 
"Jack, I want you to give this matter some serious 
thought, for it deserves it, and please do not hate 
me for putting these things before you in this way. I 
fully realize that it is not a boy's way of looking at the 
sport of shooting and fishing, and will confess that 
it was not my way of viewing it when I was your age, 
and thought it my right and privilege to kill every living 
thing that came in my way. I have learned better in 
the course of time. I have come to know that man 
is only one in the great plan of nature, and that he is 
dependent for his existence on the balance which is 
kept up among what he is pleased to call the lower 
forms of life, even down to the angle worm with which 
you catch a fish. Do you follow me, Jack?" 
"Oh, yes; and I suppose it's all true; but when I go 
to hunt or fish I want all I can get, and I have no 
time to speculate on the balance of life or on any other 
theory." 
"Boy fashion," remarked the Doctor, "but the seed 
has not fallen on barren ground; it will take root in 
time." . 
Holding a Council. 
When we reached the mansion it was near dinner 
time. The boys selected the fish for the family break- 
fast, all crappies, and gave the rest to be divided 
among the help. When we had made ourselves pre- 
sentable for the table, the Colonel was also presentable, 
for old Tom had dressed him, hunted up a pair of 
crutches, and there he was. Said he: "Tom is a better 
nurse than Dr. Gordon, for he does what I tell him 
to do, while the Doctor gives me orders to obey. If 
the Doctor had been here to-day I would have been 
kept in bed just to show me that I was under his orders, 
and with only a slightly sprained ankle. No, sir! Tom 
is a good enough nurse for me, and here I am." 
The Doctor made no reply; but Mrs. H. said: "I 
told father that it might be injudicious for him to get 
out of bed so soon, even though he does not touch the 
injured foot to the floor. I told him, Doctor, that he 
had better await your coming and advice, and what 
do. you think he said?" 
"I can't imagine." 
"He looked at me in a pitying sort of way and replied: 
'My dear girl, it's very kind of you, and you mean 
well, but don't know, and Dr. Gordon also means well 
but this is my ankle that is sprained, and I know how it 
feels much better than Dr. Gordon does — and I've 
ordered Tom to brush my clothes, get crutches and 
I will be with you at dinner.' Now, Doctor, what can 
be done with a patient, or an impatient, like that? I 
believe you take two. lumps, Doctor." 
"I| you please. Don't worry about your father: I'll, 
talk with him to-night in his room." 
"Very well; and I think you take your tea clear, Major, 
do you not?" 
"Yes, thanks, I take it straight; I beg pardon, I mean 
clear." 
The Colonel was in fine fettle when we assembled in 
his- room after dinner. He had defied the Doctor, and 
virtually turned the case over to old Tom. who slept 
. on a cot in a spare room next the Colonel, where he 
had his meals sent from the family table, and that was 
good enough for him. The boys were allowed to be 
with us until 10 o'clock, and we were five, in council. 
After a general talk on the events of the day I spoke 
my piece in this manner: "Colonel B., I have no words 
to thank you for * * * That such a trifling inci- 
dent as that on the Red River steamer should cause 
vou to open your house to me as a guest seems like 
fiction In a review of the events which are recent his- 
tory it seems like a dream; but one of those happy 
dreams which we cherish and wish might come true, 
I must leave you. * * *" 
Then the Colonel said something which I would not 
like to repeat, but it ended in an intimation that I would 
be welcome under his roof at any time. 
Jack broke in, boy fashion, and asked: When must 
you go?" 
"Day after to-morrow, my boy." , 
"Then let's have another hunt! What shall it be, deer, 
turkeys or bears?" ^ 
"Why not partridges? asked George. 
"There's lots of 'em in the berry patches, Jack re- 
plied "and the old orchard and the cornfields are full. 
"All right, boys, I will hunt partridges with you to- 
morrow, and then I must leave." . 
"Before we go to bed, will you please tell us what that 
funny name is that you have for partridges in your 
country?" 
"We call them quail." 
"Oh, yes! Good night!" 
Said the Doctor; "May I ask you where you drift 
to when you leave us?" . 
"Certainly. I go to look over the drowned lands 
where Red River, when in flood, overflows into the 
Atchafalaya, and then down into the rice country and into 
the brackish water, then home." 
The Doctor thought a moment and remarked: Ine 
Colonel is doing well, and it is safe to predict that he 
will not go on another bear hunt until I return. He will 
be glad to be rid of me, won't you, Colonel?" 
"Since you put it in that form, and dare me to say it, i 
will say yes, but come back on the old terms of friend- 
ship as soon as you can." 
[to be continued.] 
There, perched on a high bank, less than a mile below, was 
the trading post of Fort Selkirk — ten or a dozen houses, 
including a mission of the Church of England (tem- 
porarily abandoned), and the stock yards where Dalton 
slaughtered his cattle in summer after their long over^ 
land journey from the coast. 
Fort Selkirk and the Agent. 
r 
Yukon Adventures. 
(Continued /rom page 880.) 
Visions of Starvation. 
We made ourselves as comfortable as possible in the 
grove we had selected for a camping spot, but our 
sleep was far from restful. We did not know that there 
was a human habitation between the spot where we 
found ourselves and Dawson, nearly 200 miles away. 
Dr Dawson's report on the exploration of the Yukon 
district, N. W. Territory, which furnished most of our 
information regarding the country, gave the particulars 
of the burning of the old Hudson Bay Post at Fort 
Selkirk by the Indians years before, but did not men- 
tion the fact that Harper had since established a store 
at the same point. We knew we were not more than 
eight or ten miles from the Pelly River and Selkirk, but 
for the reasons given we derived little comfort from the 
fact. We came to the conclusion that our boats would 
not go any great distance down the river, but that they 
would either sink or lodge on some bar. In the latter 
case they were very likely to be covered over by the 
ice, which had a wonderful faculty for piling up on any 
stationary object that hindered its progress. 
In our sack of dishes we found a few scraps of horse 
meat and a handful of cornmeal. We made a scanty 
supper from this, which, as a matter of fact, only, whet- 
ted our appetites, and made us realize how hungry we 
were. 
For breakfast we determined to shoot some red squir- 
rels. Shortly after daybreak one ran to the top of a 
spruce directly in front of camp, and sitting on our bed- 
ding I dropped him almost in the ashes of the camp- 
fire. A short walk gave us two more, and we fried the 
three in the skillet and ate them, bones and all. After- 
ward I felt sorry we hadn't eaten the skins. 
Caching the majority of our goods on the site of the 
camp, we made packs of the bedding and some of the 
clothing, and set out down the river in search of our lost 
boats. It seemed better to go on foot than in the remain- 
ing boat, as if the missing boats were ^stranded on an 
island we might not see them from the water till too 
late, and so be carried past. After we had located 
them would be time enough to lay plans for reaching 
them in the boat. AH day we followed the edge of the 
hurrying ice pack, scanning bars and islands for a trace 
of our missing craft, and seeing nothing to encourage 
us. At the heads of bars great masses of ice had ac- 
cumulated, and any of these might be the tombstone of 
our lost hopes. 
Late in the day, tired, hungry and heartsick over the 
continued disappointment, we came in sight of the high 
lava cliff which runs from the mouth of the Pelly for a 
considerable distance down the north bank of the Yu- 
kon. Three hundred yards out in the river we caught 
sight of a dark object stranded at the head of a bar 
and nearly covered with ice, The object exerted a 
strange fascination over us, and neither Mac nor I could 
take our es from it, though for a while at least we 
hardly realized its import. 
W T hen opposite the strange object we dropped our 
packs and without a word waded out into the river. Two 
other bars intervened, and between these the cur- 
rent swept like a mill race, carrying great cakes of ice a 
foot thick and many feet in diameter. For all we 
knew the water was over our heads. There were no two 
ways about it, however. We had to know then and there 
the secret of that black object. 
We dodged the cakes of ice as well as we could, get- 
ting near the outer edges when it was impossible to 
escape them altogether, and letting them turn on bur 
legs as a tangential pivot. And so we crossed from 
bar to bar and finally reached the last. 
Thank God! it was one of the missing boats, sure 
enough. The provisions were intact and not even wet. 
We sank on our knees and from our hearts returned 
thanks to an all-merciful Providence. 
Good things never come singly. From our position in 
mid-Stream we could see around the next bend of the river. 
We reached Selkirk just after dark, and a little man 
moccasined and wearing a beaver skin cap with ear 
tabs Sin. long, came out to meet us and heard in silence 
our story. When we were quite through he opened his 
lips for the first time and said: 
"What you fellows want by coming into this country 
I can't understand. Isn't home good enough for you 
that you should be risking your lives in such cockle shell 
boats on a river whose every stone is likely to be the 
tombstone of some man? Go over to that cabin and 
make a fire, I will get a 4a mp and see what I can do forj 
you." 
This was H. H. Pitts, the man who has had charge of" 
Harper's store at Selkirk for four years. I should like 
to write a book on Pitts. He has the softest heart, the 1 
sanest judgment and the growliest conversation of any 1 
man on the Yukon. 
We made our fire, and Mr. Pitts came over presently with 
flour, caribou liver, bacon and tea for our supper, and if 
ever two hungry men appreciated eating it was then and 
there. Everything in sight' disappeared, and afterward 
we turned our chairs to the fire and meekly listened to 
what Pitts had to say. He had an idea that God in- 
tended the Yukon for Indians and traders, and perhaps a 
few old hardened prospectors that had found by ex- | 
perience nothing would kill them. He said no man that . 
didn't know how to starve and be cheerful, or roost ! 
on the warm side of a slab of ice, should ever be admitted 
to the country, and he told us the story of the Thorn 
boys, of New York City, who spent several months at ! 
Selkirk last summer. The brothers, two in number, 
worked a while for Jack Dalton on condition that he 
would take them out with him on his return to the coast, 
but at the last there was some disagreement, and they 
started up the river on their own hook. They were 
athletic fellows, used to the refinements of civilization, : 
but weren't practical enough for a country which has so J 
many more square miles than square meals. One of 
them told Pitts that lie hated walking over rocks and 
asked him if there were as many up river as there were at 
Selkirk. 
It was plain to be seen that the little man had had 
the brothers on his mind. Outwardly he repudiates the 
men who come to him in need of assistance — and their 
name is legion — but in his heart he takes up each separate 
burden and does what he can to lighten it, though al- 
ways in a method and manner calculated to make the 
beneficiary vituperate rather than bless him. There is 
nothing Pitts dreads more than to be accused of a 
kind action, 
The Thorn boys cleared out and went up river, and for 
manj' days Pitts could get no answer to his inquiries 
regarding them. He worried, as came natural, though, 
no doubt the Thorns thought he was only glad to be ridj 
of them. 
A few days before our arrival news at last was r$fi 
ceived. The Thorns had missed the Indian trail, upon 
which Dalton has foisted his name, and which no white 
man can follow when the snow is on the ground, and for 
days had wandered around aimlessly, wearing out shoe 
leather and consuming their scanty supply of food. Re- 
port had it that Swiftwater Bill had picked them up in a 
starving condition, and one out of his mind as a result 
of privations endured. 
Pitts is well informed on all subjects connected with the 
outer world, and knows whatyellow journalismis. A news 
paper correspondent brought his pretty nineteen-year- 
old wife to Fort Selkirk, and while living near by later 
in the winter she froze both her feet so badly that it was 
at first thought they might have to be amputated. The 
agent was greatly worried over the case, and particular- 
ly so as he had reason to believe that the couple were 
short on the grub account. He remarked: 
"I suppose that fellow has brought his wife into thu 
country to freeze her and starve her, and then write ur 
her sensations for some Sunday paper. He ought to be 
in a lunatic asylum or the penitentiary." 
That night before we turned in Mr. Pitts thorough!) 
convinced us that he could furnish us no provisions ever 
if we came to the last extreme. No trading steamer 
had reached the Pelly for two years, arid during th( 
summer everything edible except some condensed mill 
had been cleaned out. The refugees from Dawsor 
had bought the milk and there was nothing left excep 
a very few pounds of flour and beans and sugar, whicl 
could not be bought. The agent himself was reduced tc 
a very scant menu, and had practically nothing saved fo? 
the support of the hundred and a "half Indians whe 
rounded up at the post after hunting and trapping ex 
cursions that took them across hundreds of miles o 
unmapped virgin country. We found out afterward tha 
he was doling out flour to them in pound paper bag 
long after he had shut down on the white men. He sau 
it w T ould soon be gone, and that the Indians would starvi 
and die like sheep in the spring, but while the little lastec 
he felt his obligation to the copper-colored men rathe 
than the white. "The Indians were gathered here b.j 
traders, who promised them food," he said, "while thes 
chechacoes (tenderfeet) have rushed in here after gob 
as if they were storming Hell, knowing they couldn" 
get grub, and deserve to suffer the consequences." Then 
was the hardest kind of an inflection to his words, am 
yet that very day, when Renaud- came in with frozeij 
feet and empty stomach, it was Pitts who brought ove 
his bean pot and ladled out the contents till the worn mai 
said enough, and who bound up and poulticed his feet. 
At Selkirk we came in daily contact with Indians. I: 
another article I shall have something to say of th 
vanishing Yukon tribe. J. B. Burnham. 
1! 
Throw a bit of alum, about the size of a marble, infc 
a small bowl of water, and wet the hands and face an 
any exposed parts lightly with it. Not a mosquito wi 
approach you. They hum about a little and disappear 
—Bombay Guardian. 
