S42 
[Sept. 23, 1899. 
Yukon Notes. 
(Contiifiiled fr«m :pa-ge 204.) 
The Scurvy Sign. 
When T said good-by to Col. Fred Mather in the office 
of P'oRKST AND Stream just bcforc leaving for Alaska 
the white-haired old sportsman, whose circle of personal 
friends is only exceeded by those who have learned to 
love him from bis writings, said several things which 
have lingered in memory. Next to his hearty "God 
bless yoix" at parting, and the old wai^horse's wish that 
he were going too, I remember most keenly some grue- 
some details of prison experiences in the South during the 
jvar, in which scurvy figured, men's teeth dropping out 
and the calves of their legs slufi&ng oflf, and the like — 
the idiole treated m a kindly half humorous way that in 
no wit detracted from the force of the picture. 
The moral was: Take plenty of dried fruit, lime juice, 
vinegar, etc., and go light on salt meats. 
We remembered Uie advice, and lo«t neither our teeth 
nor our limbs. 
The Cheechakoes all had a wholesome fear of the 
disease, and the cases which occurred were confined 
either to men who were short of supplies or to the old- 
timers, who had gotten used to living on little or noth- 
ing, and who seemed to think things weren't just right 
unless they had a touch of scurvy in their systems. 
Sore and swollen limbs are an indication of the disease, 
as are also brown patches on the skin; but there is one 
.sure sign that never fails, and that is when the flesh 
loses its elasticity and becomes putty-like, retaining, for 
instance, the impress of a finger for some moments after 
the spot has been touched. 
When a man gets in this condition there are various 
ways .of treating him in use among the old-timers, all 
more or less of a kill-or-cure nature. Hughy Day, a 
mail carrier, says a decoction made by pouring boiling" 
water on a mixture of quaking asp bai'k and spruce 
boughs is efificacious. 
"The first year of the Forty Mile excitement," (1886), 
says Day, "I remember that a man named Holmes had 
the scurvy. We took and gave him his quaking asp 
and spruce drink, and then we bathed him and rubbed him 
with canvas till he yelled for mercy. It cured him, all 
right enough, and in the spring he pulled his own stuflf 
to the mines." 
A Modecfi Esau. 
The day after leaving Five Fingers we found some 
very rough going late in the day. The pioneers of the 
trail had become discouraged b}^ a more than commonly 
bad stretch of jammed ice, and had taken to the bank 
of the river. The pull was up an almost perpendicular 
bluff, over a series of icy ledges. Just as Mac and f 
landed the last sled at the top we Avere surprised to sec 
an Indian j-^outh appear, as though he had dropped from 
the cT'ouds. The boy caught hold of the rope and gave 
a final tug to assist us, and then, as we continued on our 
way through a sparse popple growth, he trotted along 
between the sleds, stooping and pushing on the back of 
each in turn to help us over fallen trees or up the not 
infrequent rises. 
"The boy seems willing enough," I remarked to Mac, 
''but if I wasn't looking I couldn't tell he was pushing, 
as far as the help he gives is concerned." 
"Can't yon see, man, he's sick?" Mac replied. "The 
poor devil's weak as^a rat, and for my part I wish he'd 
leave the sled alone. Did you notice the color of his 
lips?" 
I had. They were a chalky white, and had 6 burned 
appearance. Mac turned to the boy, who had not 
volunteered any information about himself, and learned 
that he came from the Indian camp at Cormack's, two 
miles' awa3^ Mac asked him if his people had meat or 
fish to barter, and the boy replied in the negative. 
"No moose meat. No fish. No muck-muck," said 
the lad. "Injun go hunt. No come back." 
My first impression of the boy had been that he was 
a runner sent out by tke Indians to solicit trade, for on 
our -way down the river the Indians at this point had 
been particularly noisy trying to get us to come ashore 
and buy their meat, but this opposition Was no longer 
tenable. 
As the next most plausible hypothesis I decided that 
the boy had come to buy flour or sugar, and resolved 
to be on my guard. 
In coasting down a 50ft. bluff near the point where the 
trail again took to the surface of the river Mac's sled 
struck a tree and had a part of the top and several itp- 
rights carried away. The boy seemed sorry for us and 
did what little he could to assist in repairing the break. 
It was already growing dark, and finding an old camp 
site near by we resolved to stop where we were for the 
night. 
r werit off to get some wood, and on rgy return found 
the Indian still there. He had taken up his position near 
Mac, who was working over the broken sled, and his 
teeth were chattering with the cold, though the night was 
considerably milder than the average. 
Mac was trying to get rid of him, much as he would 
have talked to a dog who had followed him unbidden. 
"Go home, now, like a good fellow," he was saying. 
/ "Ve'll get your death of pneumonia standing there in the 
cold. Go 'long, now, and clear out of here." The 
Indian avoided his look and said nothing. 
Having split some wood and gathered up the chips 
and splinters I struck a match on the handle of the 
pocket revolver I happened to be carrying at the time 
preparatory to lighting the fire. The boy had observed 
the action, and a moment later was at my side. 
"Gun, how much?" he asked. 
"No sell," I replied; but a moment later an idea oc- 
curred to nie, and I added, "You can have it for slbs. 
of moose meat." The boy shook his head sorrowfully, 
and from the longing glance he cast at the pistol I felt 
convinced he did not have the meat. It was plain that 
he would have given anything to procure the weapon. 
He inquirpfl jf T hf|<i fi- "machine" for re4og4ing, and 
how many cartridges I had, and he seemed to be making 
a mental calculation of some kind. 
When our meal was nearly ready Mae drew me aside 
and said that the boy had told him he was starving and 
had had nothing to eat for several days. 
"It takes away my appetite to see him hanging around 
looking so hungry," said Mac, "and yet we can't tell 
whether he is lying or not, and for my part I believe we 
are more likely to starve in the end than he is. Now, 
I've got something to propose. There's that particularly 
bad lot of burned beans that you wanted to throw away, 
but that I thought we could get down some way or 
other. Shall we try him on them? What do you say, 
man ?" 
"It's a pretty good test whether he's starving or not," 
I replied. "If he can eat those beans, I'll guarantee he's 
no impostor." 
And so the bov got the beans, and we watched him 
wade into the horrible half-charred mess and consume 
ii. till not so much as a bean was left. After that he 
got up of his OAvn accord and went home, and Mac and 
I had our supper in peace. 
The last thing Mac said that night before we turned in 
showed that he was still pondering over the case and try- 
ing to assure himself that we had not been improvident in 
parting with the beans. 
"I know no common man could have eaten them," he 
said. "But I'm not so sure about this Indian chap. 
When these savages are real hungry they browse on the 
bark of trees, and perhaps the beans were a luxury to him 
after all." 
I was hardly- 6f Mac's dpinion, and consequently the 
next morning when we catne in sight of the Indian camp 
I was considerably shocked to find the boy and an old 
man waiting for iis on the ice with pieces of meat, evi- 
dently intended for barter. 
Though a self-confessed liar, the boy did not seem at 
all abashed, and he at once began bargaining for the 
revolver that had so taken his fancj'^ the previous day. 
We were badlj' in need of the meat, and swallowing my 
indignation as best I could, I turned to the old man and 
asked him how mttch money he would take for the four 
lean ribs he held in his hand. He answered that he 
would not sell for money at all. 
At our last camp Mac and I had decided to lighten our 
loads by getting rid of a part of the bedding and .some 
small articles which were not absolutely necessary. 
.Among the latter was a $7 hand satchel, containing my 
papers, besides hair bru.sh and comb and a few knick- 
knacks. I unfastened the satchel from the .sled and tak- 
ing out. the papers and the comb, signified to him that he 
could have satchel and contents for the meat. At first he 
shook his head. Then his curiosity got the better of the 
bargaining spirit and he put his dirty hand into the open 
satchel and drew out a key chain and ring with a few 
keys on it. Next he opened a small phial of sugar-coated 
laxitive pills, and smelt them, and last of all he rubbed 
the hairbrush over the back of his hand. He could resist 
the seductive argument no longer, and thrusting the 
meat into my haxid he seized the satchel, turned, and hur- 
ried up the steep bank. 
"He's like the monkey in the 200, who's jerkl!,ti a lady's 
hat through the bars of his cage," said Mac. "He's off 
now to find a quiet spot to pull his plunder to pieces." 
The boy remained behind, and again began his argument 
for securing the little gun, I looked at the piece of meat 
in his hand, which was about all gristle and bone, and told 
him it was no good, and that he must get something 
better if he wanted to talk with us. After a moment's 
hesitation he turned and made his way up the bank, giving 
us to understand that he would soon return. "Man, man ! 
but he's a fraud !" said Mac, feelingly. "He ate our beans 
to economize in his meat, and now he's doing the same 
thing as selling us back our own food over again." 
The boy returned a moment later with a fair sized piece 
of caribou haunch, and a trade was consummated. By 
throwing in a red blanlcet we succeeded in securing all 
the meat the Indians had shown. After that we con- 
tinned, our journey, but for some reason we did not take 
muf^h satisfaction in our augmented larder. 
There is a sequel to this story, otherwise it would never 
have been told. We learned afterward that the Indians 
really were starving at the time they traded us the meat, 
and it is very likely that, unknowingly, we took the last 
food they had in the world. The incident illustrates a 
remarkable characteristic that only those who are 
familiar with the North Pacific Coast Indian can under- 
.stand. It is their inborn passion to acquire desirable ob- 
jects for the purpose, later, of giving them away in a 
grand potlatch as a means of acquiring rank and position 
in their tribe. So strong is this characteristic and so 
deeply is it rooted that governmental intervention has been 
unable to stamp it out. 
pur information came through the NortTiwest Mounted 
Police, who told us that a few days after we passed Cor- 
mack's word reached the post at the Little Salmon that 
the Indians were in a very bad way, and would die if they 
did not soon receive aid. Relief was sent, and it reached 
the Indians not a moment too soon, for they were weak 
and emaciated from starvation. We were told that they 
would not resist the temptation to trade for such desirable 
articles as we had shown them, even though it involved 
giving up the last hoarded remnant of their food. The 
hunters of the tribe had been gone for many days in search 
of caiibou at some point up the Nordenskiold, and though 
no news whatever had been received from them, the re- 
maining Indians, with characteristic happy optimism, had 
confidently counted on their return each day. 
The Yukon Indian has no strong hold on posterity. The 
race is dying out. and the advent of the white' man is 
hastening its extinction. The white man in this hungry 
country naturally takes to hoarding his food like a chip- 
munk, and it is little wonder that he cannot understand 
the Indian's recklessness of the future. In other matters 
he finds the Indian a shrewd, natural bargainer, and he 
bas no scruples in trading him out of his food and his 
dogs, which are the next m.ost important factor in the 
Indian's struggle for existence. Afterward, when the In- 
dian in his extremity tries to trade back, nothing comes 
more natural for the white man than to view him as a lazy, 
improvident beggar, and kick him out. 
Cabins on the River. 
Th? Indians at this point occupied a couple of cat)ms> 
one of which had formerly belonged to Siwash George 
Cormack, the discoverer of the Klondike. Cormack was 
said to be a deserter from the United States marines at 
Sitka, and was a squaw man, having taken to himself an 
Indian wife. Apparently he was unable to quite reduce 
himself to the level of the Indians, for he exhibited 
various signs of civilized enterprise, operating as a trader 
in Harper's employ, and also opening a seam of coal in 
the bluff a few miles below his post. 
For three days after leaving Cormack's, Mac and I 
saw no one to speak to. When we came to prepare our 
meat for cooking we found that it was frozen so hard it 
was impossible to cut it with our knives, and after a 
fruitless attempt to thaw it, which only resulted in burn- 
ing the outside, we hit upon the plan of dressing out our 
steaks with an axe. The chunk was thrown on the 
ground, and with one moccasined foot on it to hold it 
still, the operator split off the smaller slabs by repeated 
strokes of the axe. The bone was but very little harder 
to cut than the rest. 
The second day after leaving Cormack's, we found the 
recently deserted cabins of. several parties of miners. Two 
of these, built side by side on a wooded flat that evi- 
dently was flooded at the time of the spring freshets, were 
of a kind that our ancestors in the stone age miglit hji,ve 
lived in. These primitive structures were two-thirds be- 
low the surface of the ground. The roofs had been made 
by a rude framework of poles covered by the earth, taken 
from the excavations. Access was gained to each by a 
slanting passageway, and aside from the rude door and 
the wooden support of the roof there was nothing to give 
evidence that the builders of the dtigouts possessed an 
axe. There was no window and no furniture of any 
description inside. For a bed a mass of earth aft. high and 
perhaps 5 by 7 in superficial area had been left at one 
side of the cabin, and this took up fully half the flooi- 
space. At the foot of the bed was a hole through the 
roof, and a pile of ashes and charred fragments of wood 
below showed that this had been the fireplace. Opposite 
the bed the wall had been nitched and a rude shelf con- 
structed. The dirt floor was covered with chips, old 
shoes, broken suspenders, empty bottles and the like, a 
litter that no self-respecting bear would have permitted in 
his den. Mac and I left the place in a decidedly mis- 
anthropic frame of mind. The musty hole suggested the 
abode of brutes, and it would have fittingly suited our 
mood to find evidence of cannibalistic feasts or to see it 
occupied by creatures of the type of Swift's Yahoos or of 
Victor Hugo's Han, the "man beast of boundless 
savagery," 
A little further on we drew up our sleds for lunch at 
the spot where a large scow had been wrecked in the ice. 
Above the hull of the boat a canvas water break 2ft. in 
height had been rigged. This was tacked to the gunwale 
at the lower edge, and had no doubt served to keep the 
waves in lakes and rapids from breaking over the heavily 
loaded boat. The ice, however, had ridden rough-shod 
over the flimsy construction, and it was like building up 
the perfect skeleton of an unknown animal from scattered 
remains to recall the fact that we had seen this boat twice 
the previous October on Lake Bennett. 
Eagle's Nest and the Oxbow, 
Isolated buttes are a feature of this part of the Yukon, 
Notable examples are Eagle's Nest, Tantalus Butte and 
Hoocheekoo Bluff. 
The former is a mass of light gray rock rising abruptly 
to a height of about sooft. It is smooth and regular in 
its general contour as an animal's skull, and only here and 
there have a few dwarf firs gained root, 
Tantalus Butte was named by Schwatka, and if all of 
this traveler's other arbitrary names had been as appro- 
priate, the majority of them would not have been con- 
signed to oblivion, as is the case at the present time. 
The river makes at this butte from all points of the com- 
pass, lapping its base at one place and then running eight 
miles away before it again returns on the far side. Ogilvie 
says that it is only half a mile across the neck of land at 
this point. The distance appears to be greater, and as the 
country is pretty much on edge just here, we did not try 
to engineer a cut off, and traveled for two days in sight 
of the butte. 
The Great Oxbow, just above, involves another annoying 
series of detours. As the country bordering the rivei- 
here is very low and level, it would seem easily possible 
to make an advantageous cut off through the woods, which 
would reduce the twelve miles circuit to a mile or two at 
the most. 
Major Walsh, the Governor of the Provincial District 
of the Yukon, told us, at the Big Salmon, that he had 
such improvements in view, and as a matter of fact bis 
Indian scouts, acting under his instructions, liad already 
made several important cut olTs above and below his 
headquarters. J. B. Burnham, 
A Maine Head, 
Lowell, Mass.— "Forest and Stream: T have 
mailed you under separate cover a photograph of a 
mounted moose head, which you may consider of suffi- 
cient merit to warrant publication, While there is noth- 
ing remarkable about the head itself, unless the length of 
the bell might be considered so, yet it seems to me thai 
the appearance of the whole, mounted as it is upon a 
magnificently carved solid mahogany base board, is par- 
ticularly fine. The photograph is by Mr. C. F. Morse 
and the carving by Mr. F. A. Sturtevant, both hunting 
companions of mine. 
The -spread of antlers is 48in., with 20 points, every one 
perfect,, and are unusually even and well balanced. The 
bell measured when green 24in. (on the back), and is now 
22in. in length. The animal was shot on the headwaters 
of the East Branch Penobscot in 1898, in the vicinity of 
Curren & Howe's Trout Brook Farm, the region which 
jA'lr. Burnham wrote so entertainingly about a couple of 
years ago. Bay St,\te. 
[The head is illustrated on the opposite page.] 
No Equity About It.— "Fate doesn't order these, things with aay 
degree of equitjt,'' satd the young man with the up-and-down 
collar, 
"Why not?" said the girl, 
"For instance," said the youth, "the oyster retires lor four Hlonths 
«V*. ''^^T^'^''^*'" 3?! open season fill the yepr found,''— Cleveland 
