442 ^ 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 2, i8g^. 
7/f ^^arhnimi ^onmt 
Sam's Boy.— L 
When the little boy who had so long been known only 
as Bub actually acquired a name. Uncle Lisha thought 
him worthy of more particular attention, and at once be- 
gan to instruct him in the art being a boy. 
One soft blue and golden morning the plover was wail- 
ing his heart out in the pasture, hovering on arched wings 
above the spritiging sward that shone beneath the azure 
vault like another sivy of green with its spangles of dande- 
lion stars. The red-headed woodpecker was hammering, 
squawking and croaking in the tall elm, and now and then 
turning fly-catcher to make an airy loop and gather in 
a passing insect. Down by the brook the thronging 
blackbirds gurgled and chattered louder than the pebble- 
bottomed water that foamed and sparkled beneath them. 
The old man gazed Avistfully out of the open door and 
eagerly sniffed the breath of sweet fresh air that drifted 
in among the odors of leather, wax and stale tobacco 
smoke. The hammer fell more and more listlessly on the 
lapstone the more merrily the Avoodpecker's taps resound- 
ed, the more plaintively the plover wailed, and the louder 
the blackbirds gurgled and chattered, and the more ab- 
stractedly the old shoemaker's eyes wandered from his 
work out across the green fields to the climbing sweeps 
of woodland and the beetling crests of the ancient hills. 
In spite of all virtuous resolutions his heart would go 
a-loafing and he was fain to follow it out of the shop, 
though customers went barefoot. Then, when no 
more than a plume of a butterflj'^'s wing was needed 
to tip the scale, there was a quick patter of little feet 
along the path and the child appeared at the door pant- 
ing with excitement as he held forth a new-found prize — a 
big, fat angleworm that wriggled and squirmed about the 
soil-stained fingers no bigger than itself. 
"Oh, see what me got, Unc' Lisher! Great big worm. 
An' me want to go fishin' right off!" 
"So you du, dear heart; an' so you shall if Mammy'U 
let us!" the old man shouted, never gladder of a pretext 
to quit hammer, last and lapstone; and tumbling them 
unceremoniously on to the iioor with a clattering thud as 
they rebounded from the heap of leather chips. "'Ju' look 
a' that, naow!" he said, regarding with admiration the 
brave grip of the little fingers on the lithe worm. "If that 
'ere was a snake not no bigger, haow quick he'd drop it! 
It's nat'ral, an' the boy is a horned fisherman. He shan't 
be nipped in the bud if I can help it." 
Uncle Lisha sloughed off his leathern apron upon the 
■ leathern-seated bench and went into the kitchen. 
"Huldy!" he called, hearing the mother busy in the 
pantry above the splash of his scrubbing in the sink, "I 
wanter take the boy a-fishin'. He's got liis bait" 
"Why, Uncle Lisher, .he's tew leetle, hain't he?" Huldy 
half protested, appearing at the door with whitened hands 
and a smutch of flour on her face. 
"Not tu go along wi' me," said the old man. "Why, 
Sammy's a horned fisherman if ever the' was one. He's 
be'n an' got him a worm half as long as his arm, an' he's 
a-teasin' tu go. I tell ye; fishin's good for a boy. It 
I'arns 'em patience, an' dependin' on the'selves, an' ob- 
sarvin,' an' a-thinkin' aout things. The' hain't no fool 
never goin' tu make much of a fisherman. Naow, you du 
him up a maou'ful t' eat, an' we'll be off tu rights, I've 
got it in my bones tu go fishin' tu-day." 
Huldah made no further objection, but began preparing 
a bountiful lunch for the two, while they went behind the 
woodshed with an old spade and a battered tin tobacco 
can. Uncle Lisha turned up great clods of moist soil 
aiTd pounded them to pieces with the back of the spade, 
and Sammy, eager-eyed and alert, pounced on every 
worm that was uncovered, learning to pinch the black 
heads and draw forth with a humoring pull such as clung 
to the stiff soil. Now he nibbled a leaf of catnip or held 
up a young leaf of motherwort to shine yellow-green be- 
tween his eyes and the sun. 
"There, we've got enough, duckie," said Lisha, 
. straightening his back before shovtldering the spade, and 
leading the way to the house. 
They presently set forth, Sammy holding on to one 
big waxy finger and making his short legs fly briskly to 
keep up with the longer strides of his companion. They 
made their way toward the merry babble of the brook 
where it glistened in the full light of the sun as it came 
out of the dark woods, and leaped over an obstruction of 
logs into a gray, green and golden water. When Uncle 
Lisha had cut and trimmed a shapely pole for his pupil 
and affixed the line and carefully baited the hook he ap- 
proached the pool with the greatest caution, cast in the 
hook and directed Sammy to do the same. There was a 
wild rush and the two hooks were struck by a simul- 
taneous electric shock; there was a twitch and pull, two 
upward flying streaks of iridescent light and two gaping 
trout were threshing the dry, hard leaves among the 
squirrel cups. 
The boy's exultation over his exploit was as great a 
delight to Uncle Lisha, who saw his own experience re- 
peated and in some measure felt the thrill of his first cap- 
ture, so long ago. yet only yesterday, with all the hard 
realities of a long life but as a night of troubled dreams. 
"Where's the Httle fish's mammy, Unc' Lisher?" the 
child asked, beginning to pity his gaping victim. 
"Oh, I do' know. Mebby someb'dy's ketched her an' 
mebby she's in there a-wonderin' what's come o' him." 
"You s'pose she's sorry, Unc' Lisher?" 
"Oh, I guess not. Bub. She'd jes' as soon eat him as 
not. Mebby she's sorry she didn't." 
"Don't mammy fish ta' care o' their little boys? Birds 
does. I seen 'em — the robins in the apple tree does." 
"No, I don't believe they do — not as your marnmy does. 
Le' me bait yer hook, Sammy — there, chuck it int' the 
T)ile ag'in. He was hatched aouten an aig 'way up in the 
shallers. an' he had tu look aout for hisself as soon as he 
was horned; an' a tough time he hed on't, I tell ye. One 
f\a.y a crawfish jumped aouten a hole an' made a grab for 
him an' ketched one o' his brothers. Another time a 
kingfisher come a-rattlin' along overhead an' stood stock 
still in the air. right over him an' a mess o' others, an' 
then come daown kerslosh right amongst 'em. head fust; 
an'one leetle feller got in his big bill; an' some on 'em 
was washed ashore, high an' dry; an' sotne went a-scootin' 
ev'ry which way, so scairt they didn't know which eend 
was a-goin' fust. 
"Then one day, when he got bigger, he,was swimnn'n' 
along comf'table, lookin' up tu see 'f they wa'n't a fly or 
suthin' t' eat, an' he seen a black head a-pokin' aout above 
a rock, an' tew little black eyes a-shinin' at him, an' then 
daown it ail come, an' a long slim body arter, ju' like a 
black arrer, an' arter the leetle traout that went a-skivin' 
this way an' that, until he run 'n under a stun an' got 
away ; an' that 'ere was a mink. So that 'ere leetly traouty 
he hved 'long, one way 'n' other, sometimes a-gittin a 
water snail, an' sometimes a worm 'at come a-tumblin' 
an' squirmin' 'long the bottom; an' sometimes a gmss- 
hopper 'at ondertook tu jump acrost the brook at tew 
jumps an' never done it; an' sometimes it was a fly 
a-buzzin' along on top o' tlie water, an' that was the most 
fun; or a white miller in. the evenin' that made his thrut 
as dusty as the middle o' the rhud, so's he hed tu drink 
more water 'n he wanted tu; or mebby it was a big 
maou'ful of a bumble bee 'at gin him a jab in the Hiaouth 
as he went along daown — an' that wa'n't so much ftin. 
"Ho got so he thought he knowed it abaout all, when 
one day along come an'ol' man an' a leetle mite of a boy 
'at hadn't never be'n a-fishin' afore; an' he dropped a 
worm int' the water, an' that 'ere traout he grabbed it, 
an' next he knowed he was a-flyin' aouten the water like a 
l)ird, an' lit in the grass, where he never was afore; an' 
then he wished he hedn't; an' arter the leetle boy got oyer 
his fust bein' tickled I guess he, wished he hedn't, tew." 
"Was that 'Bub,' Unc' Lisher?" 
"Wal, mebby so. I guess it's all right; he was made 
a-puppes tu be eat some time or 'nother, an' it's jest as 
well for him tu hev his insides took aout for a crow t' eat 
an' his head cut off for a mink t' eat an' his body fried 
brown by Mis' Lovel for a good leetle boy t' eat as for 
him tu be swallered hull by a mink or a kingfisher an' not 
du any good tu only one. Yep! Good airth an' seas! I 
guess here's his mother!" And Uncle Lisha tore a big 
trout from the pool and dropped it beside the othei\ 
"I guess not," said Sammy, mournfully, "She don't 
act a mite glad tu see him, but jes' slaps him an' jumps on 
him. Oh, I got another, Unc' 'Lis'er!" and he fell to re- 
joicing over a fresh victim. ~ 
So the two happy comrades pursued the gentle craft, 
steahng along the brink of the brook where it cooled its 
waters in the scented shade of evergreen and wound 
among sprawling alders and babbled merrily over pebbly 
shallows, braiding itself in a many-stranded ribbon of sil- 
ver, gold and blue and green, caught from sun and sky, 
overhanging tree, sheen of sands and pebbles. 
They met a winged fisherman announcing his progress 
with noisy clatter, and turning back as he came upon his 
plodding rivals; and also a mink gliding along behind 
the rooty screen of the bank, lithe and sinuous as a sei"- 
pent, now disappearing, now thrusting his vicious head 
from a hole, now galloping across a point, now taking a 
pool, swift and silent as a fish. 
Concerning both Uncle 'Lisha projinised stories to be 
told some evening or rainy day; and at last, having all the 
fish they needed, strung on slender withes of elm. Uncle 
Lisha proposed that they should taste the first fruits of 
their skill. Four trout were dressed, a fire burned to a 
rosy bed of coals, the fish spitted on sharpened sticks, 
each with a slice of pork laid inside him. and so broiled, 
dift'using a fragrance that might awaken hunger well laid 
to rest, but sharpening theirs, not yet a jot abated. 
It was Sammy's first taste of outdoor cookery, and its 
new, unaccustomed relish was never forgotten. Years 
afterward, by camp-fires under Southern stars, in the hun- 
ger of prisons, the odor of the broiling trout, the breath 
of the May day air, the ever-changing yet monotonous 
babble of the brook came back to him through all the 
years of change, over all the weary, weary miles that lay 
between him and childhood and home. 
What a proud boy he was when he showed his catch 
at home, and how sweet the unstinted praise that grand- 
father. Aunt Jerusha, father and mother gave the little 
fisherman! Ro\\^.AND E. Robin-son. 
[to be .continued.] '' 
Recent Discovery in Alaska and 
Game Distribution* 
The Klondike excitement, which drew the attention 
of the world to the semi-Arctic northwest portion of the 
continent, has resulted in by far the most systematic 
exploration of the interior of Alaska which has yet been 
undertaken. Hardy prospectors have ranged the coira- 
try from the Rockies to Bering Sea and from Dixon 
Entrance to the Arctic Ocean, and the secrets of a vast 
extent of unknown territory have been unlocked and 
given to the public, largely through the mediiim of the 
newspapers of the Pacific Coast. 
More important still, because more exact and trust- 
worthy, are the results obtained by the Government ex- 
peditions embodied in the U. S. Geological Survey's 
"Report on Maps and Descriptions of Routes of Explora- 
tion in Alaska," which has recently been published by 
the Department of the Interior. 
The work was provided for by an appropriation of 
$20,000 passed by Congress in January, 1898. Early in 
April members of tlie Geological Survey sailed from 
Seattle. At Skagway a division of forces was made, and 
during the summer there were four parties in the field. 
The last of these parties to return did not reach Seattle 
til! Nov. II, after an absence of seven months. 
The extent to which our definite geographical knowl- 
edge of Alaska has been increased by these Government 
expeditions may be inferred from the following extract 
from the report: 
"The map of that portion of Alaska lying south of 
the Yukon has been almost completely reconstructed. 
Rivers previously known have been for the first time 
accurately surveyed, and many new lakes and rivers 
have been discovered. The source of the Kuskokwim 
has been found far distant from where it was supposed to 
be In high mountains where a swampy plain had pre- 
viously been believed to exist. The mountain systems 
have been traced out, and magnificent ranges 12.000 to 
20,000 feet in altitude have been found where previously 
the maps presented blanks." 
A comparison of the gener*! map of Alaska accom- 
panying the report with the map issued by the U. S. 
Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1897, known as Chart T, 
forcibly illustrates these changes. The new map is based 
on the other; but parts have been taken out and new 
material supplied by the aid of photography, and a large 
portion of the interior south of the Tanana and north of 
Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound now bristles with 
close-set mountain ranges. 
The mountains have an intricate and rugged topog- 
raphy and an approximate average height of 8,000 to 
10,000 feet, but they are sharply saw-toothed and re- 
lieved by numerous peaks of a considerably greater 
height. The' loftiest and most rugged mountains are 
those constituting the Sushitna-Tanana divide, which 
culminate in the highest peak on the North American 
continent. Mount McKinley, 20,464 feet in elevation. 
Mount McKinley is about 120 miles in an air line from 
the head of Cook Inlet, and a little further from Wearc 
at the confluence .of the Tanana with the Yukon. Mownt 
St. Elias, which formerly claimed the honor of the high- 
est elevation with its 18,024 feet, is now reduced to third 
place with a good prospect of sliding still further down 
the list. Mount Logan, just behind it, has been ascer- 
tained to reach more than 1,500 feet further skyward. 
An important part of the work of exploration was 
with a view of locating a practical ail-American trail 
from the coast to the upper Yukon. The chief point of 
the dispute in the recent boundary controversy between 
representatives of the United States and Canadian gov- 
ernments centered at the last on the concession to Can- 
ada of a port on the Pacific which should give her free 
access to the headwaters of the Yukon. Fully 80 per 
cent, of the travel into the Yukon mining country at 
present crosses White and Chilcoot passes to Lake Ben- 
nett, and must pass through both American and Cana- 
dian territory, and as the customs duties of both coun- 
tries are very high on the classes of goods taken in, the 
importance to Canada and the United States of routes 
free to their own citizens or to those who trade with their 
citizens is apparent. Not only are these routes to the 
headwaters of the Yukon 60 per cent, shorter than the 
water route up the river via St. Michael's, but they are 
also open to general travel twice as long, and in fact never 
become impassable, as does the St. Michael's route for 
practically nine months in the year. White and Chilcoot 
passes are the door to the Canadian Yukon. The near- 
est practical crossings through American territory are 
from Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet, which are 
about 300 miles distant from the upper Yukon. The 
Geological Survey map, published in January, 1898, just 
as last year's expeditions were being organized, shows a 
"Copper River Trail," as it is called, from Port Valdez, 
on Prince William Sound, through Scoloi Pass to the 
headwaters of the White River, an affluent of the Yukon 
for the most part in Canadian territory. This route was 
undoubtedly put down on the map for want of better in- 
formation. It possessed two vital defects, one being that 
it was not an all- American route and the other that it 
was impassable For men having the ordinary miners' out- 
fit to carry into the country. Allen in 1885 and Hayes and 
Schwatka in 1891 had crossed over the chief portions of 
this route, and aside from their explorations almost 
nothing was known of the country south of the Yukon, 
which comprises nearly half of the main area of this great 
domain. It wiould be unfair to attempt to trace any part 
of the incalculable misery that resulted from the rush to 
the Corner River country to the Government publica- 
tions of this utterly impractical trail, for the reason that 
the publication was made after the rush had already 
begun; but it certainly was a serious error — apparently 
a concession to the popular misinformation fostered by 
various unscrupulous transportation enterprises. 
Scoloi Pass is over S,ooo feet high and is occupied by a 
great glacier, and White River abounds in rapids too 
rough for loaded boats. 
As a matter of fact, the difficulties of surmounting the 
cataracts of the lower Copper River on the one hand 
and the Valdez Glacier on the land trail sapped the 
strength of the miners at the very outset, and very few 
succeeded in crossing to the Yukon by the much more 
practical Millard trail through Mcntasta Pass. 
At the present time the United States Government has 
settled upon the Mentasta Pass route, and a trail through 
to the Yukoti at Eagle City or Forty Mile and already 
the portion of the pack trail from Port Valdez to Copper 
Center has been completed, avoiding altogether the Val- 
dez Glacier .and gaining the interior by a pass of much 
lower elevation. 
This work has been in charge of Capt. Abercrombie. 
The Geological Survey expeditions co-operated in part 
with the military expeditions and had men with both 
Capts. Abercrombie and Glenn. 
In addition to the Mentasta Pass route two other 
routes to the Yukon have been explored as far as the 
Tanana, beyond which river their probable continuation 
would be by way of the trail to Circle; and still another 
has been followed up the Kuskoquim River to a point 
where there? is a rumored Indian trail to the lower Tanana 
near Weare. The unexplored section of Alaska south of 
the Yukon has thus been cut in four places at average in- 
tervals not much in excess of a hundred miles, and only 
the country west of the Kuskoquim and the McKinley 
range is now marked as "unexplored," The Tanana it- 
self, though fairly well known and mapped before, has 
been explored from the head of Mirror Creek a distance 
of over six hundred miles, and the results accomplished 
by the expedition making this trip are not among the 
least important. 
Particular attention in all tliese explorations has been 
paid to determining the food resources of the country, 
and the information relating to the game, though neces- 
sarily meager, is of considerable interest. 
Tfae Cook Inlet Coontfy. 
The Cook Inlet section is probably the best game coun- 
try in Alaska. Cook Inlet is a structural basin of vast 
size, open to the North Pacific at its southern end. At 
present the sea occupies about_ half the total area, the 
remaining portion having been tilled and elevated until it 
now forms a broad valley 75 to 100 miles wide by 150 to 
T75 miles long. The inlet passes through and behind ihe 
harrier of rangfes which confront th<; navigator in a nearly 
continuous line from British Coktmbia north to Prince 
William Sound. 
The country is well timbered^ with poplar, spruce and 
