Dec. 27, igo2.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
811 
was two or three hours after dark before they reached 
camp again, hungry, tired and in rags. They had 
scrambled ahnost to the top of Citadel, had found where 
the bears had been, and had followed the trail where they 
had raced madly along a ledge, and then up a ravine into 
a basin back of the mountain, but the men had found no 
blood. Then startiiig back for camp they had been over- 
taken by night, and had clambered, fallen and rolled 
down tlie mountain side. Th'ey were tattered, wet, 
scratched and bruised, but still cheerful. 
The next day I said to Jack, "That was- ?L -pfetty tough 
climb you gave Ashbel last night." 
"So it was," he said, "about as tough as I ever made,'' 
"How did he stand it?" I asked. 
"Oh, he's all right," said Jack. "He never squeaked 
or weakened. He'd fall down a place and roll along until- 
the bushes stopped him and then get up and find his gun 
and come on again." 
The next day we traveled on up the stream, reached 
the extreme head of the river and spent a few days there, 
huntmg, traveling backward and forward over the mighty 
glaciers that furrow the mountain sides and climbing two 
or three peaks. Then turning our faces down the stream 
again, we reached the camp wdiere the bears had been 
seen. 
This is unmedialely below a stupendous shoulder of the 
main range which runs out from Mount Reynolds, one of 
its most impressive peaks. Rejaaolds had been in sight 
during ranch of our journeying up the river and it had 
.ippealed strongly to the imagination of one of the moun- 
lt<in climbers. He proposed that we should spend a day 
here and make a prospecting trip to see how close we 
could get to Reynolds. The suggestion was agreed to, 
for wc all washed to reach the top of Hairy Cap from 
which it was believed that a large number of the king- 
doms of the earth could be seen, Moreover there was a 
prospect that game might be found there. 
Early next morning, five or six men might have been 
PC-en on hands and knees digging their fingers and toes 
into the almost vertical sides of Hairy Cap, and trjnng 
to reach its crest. A portion of the way chosen w^as bare 
i t timber, and being covered with soap grass and dry 
\ t gelation was so slippery that it was with very great 
difficult}'- that it was climbed. At last, however, a clump 
uf pine trees was reached on the shoulder of the moun- 
tain, and from here upward there was what seemed to be 
an old game trail, rough, rocky and sometimes steep, to 
be sure, Init offeritig good footing. It held to the crest 
<if the ridge, and occasionally extended views were had 
on either hand; on the right, the valley of the North St. 
Marjf's, and on the left, that of the river we were camped 
rm. At one point a bevy of great blue grouse was started 
from the ground, and all the birds flew into the pines and 
stood there looking down at us. It was not deemed wise 
10 kill them on account of the possibility of big game 
being in the neighborhood, and when their curiosity was 
satisfied, one by one they whirled ofi^ into the valley, 
h-aving the trees just as we sometimes see a wild ruffed 
grouse pitch from a tree in which he has taken refuge. 
At last the summit of the ridge was reached and the 
walking was more or less level, though constantly ascend- 
ing. It was a prettj'- country, with open pine timber and 
little lakes, and grassy meadows now partly covered with 
snow, furnishing an attractive feeding ground for deer 
or elk, or for sheep in winter. These animals must have 
been abundant here until killed oft' or frighteiaed away 
by the prospectors, w^ho in recent years have overrun the 
ccitntry on the lower river. Mounting steadily, but by a 
^-c^y gradual ascent, at last tlie pines grew smaller and 
fewer and a wide outlook was had over the country to the 
north. It was a great basin beginning at the foot of 
Mount Reynolds, nearly a mile wide, and sloping grad- 
ually down between ]\It. Martin and Hairy Cap, toward 
the valley of the north fork of the St. Mary's, which, 
however, it did not seem to reach, but descending abruptly 
appeared to break off in a precipice a thousand feet 
high. 
As we sat down near the edge of one of the cliffs to 
Gat our lunch, the west wind blowing down from the 
-heights above us felt cold. The basin into -which we 
looked seemed from this great height to be level. It was 
intersected by many little streams, each of which had its 
source in some snowbank or ice field, and was dotted 
by many groups of pine trees, and looked like an ideal 
summer pasture for game. As we sat there, looking over 
it, the keen-eyed Ashbel exclaimed: "I see a goat. I see 
two goats." Sure enough; there they were on the other 
side of the basin, coming through a low saddle between 
a shoulder of Reynolds and Mt. Martin, working along 
slowty, feeding as thej' went, but a mile or more away 
and as safe as if gun powder had never been invented. 
After watchit-ig them for a time, we went on, now quite 
aliove timber line and walking over finely broken rock, 
wlaich in many places was covered with snow. And here 
was seen something more encouraging to the hunter; the 
track of a large goat, sometimes in the rocks, again in 
the snow; going in the direction which we were follow- 
ing, and made some time during the day. 
AVhile one man followed the track, the others spread 
out more or less on- either side of him, so as to cover as 
much ground as possible. After perhaps half an hour 
of this search, all the time climbing higher, a cheerful 
Mdiistle was heard, and looking up I saw, twenty-five or 
or thirty yards above me. Jack, who inade signs that he 
had seen the goat. I hurried up to his altitude — signing 
meanwhile to the others of the party, all of whom scram- 
bled toward the heights— and Jack showed me where the 
goatj but a moment before, had walked under a ledge otit 
of sight. Presently we were all in position, and Ashbel, 
for Avhose success we were all anxious, stood with his rifle 
ready, waiting for the animal to appear. I wondered 
whether the sight of his first goat might give him buck 
fever and grasped a rifle in order to be ready to do any- 
tliing that might be necessary. Jack shouted at tlie goat, 
and when it did not respond, threw down a stone or two 
ruid presently the majestic male walked slowly out from 
under the ledge and .stood there, knee deep in the luxu- 
riant grass, lie made a pretty picture, his white body 
outlined against the green grass and the darker firs; and 
his sharp black horns, curving back toward liis shoulders, 
shone in the afternoon sun as he slowly ttirned his face 
toward us. Ashbel was ready. The gun went to his 
shoulder. There was an instant's pause ; the crack oi 
the smokeless load, and the goat stumbled forward and 
slipped out of sight beneath the evergreens. It had been 
a good shot — instantly fatal. 
While Ashbel and one of the men went down to skin 
the goat the others kept on along the crest of Hairy Cap 
toward Reynolds. It was far too late in the day to 
attempt to climb the peak, which still towered fifteen 
hundred or two thousand feet above us, and after a hasty 
inspection of its base, w-e set our faces toward camp. 
Before we had reached the worse part of the descent 
darkness was upon us. How we fell down the mountain 
and tumbled over down timber and snagged ourselves 
on dead branches and generally had an unhappy time, 
I will not ti-y to tell. It was near the middle of the night 
when we reached camp, and Ave were very weary and 
very hungry. But Ashbel had his goat. Yo. 
Dawson Yesterday and To-day. 
A tliousand dollars in gold dust Avas stolen last niglit from the 
home of John McDonald, a tailor and dry goods dealer, while the 
family was at the theater. No arrests have been made. — ^Dawson 
news item. 
One of the few suggestions of the untamed days of 
■97 and '98 is the gold dust still in circulation as 
money. This, too, will soon be a thing of the ^ast, as 
the trading companies have put forth their fiat against 
the uncoined metal, and will only accept it at a con- 
siderable discount below its true value. 
In other respects, the story of the tailor's thou- 
sand stolen while he saw the play might as well applj^ 
to the oldest as to the j^oungest civilized city in the 
Avorld. 
Things move at a rapid pace just now. How soon 
Dawson's past has been relegated to the legendary 
days! 
It seems only yesterday that we heard that Fog- 
horn George, the squaw man, with his Siw'ash brother- 
in-law, had washed the first Klondike gold. Civiliza- 
tion in four thousand years hardly made greater 
progress than Daw^son accomplished in four. The 
man who travels to Dawson by steamer and palace 
car, laughs when you ask him if he saw any dead 
men on the trail. There isn't even a horse skeleton 
to be seen in White Pas.s, where three thousand 
horses perished in three months in 1897. Starvation 
has been switched off to the back counti^ — to the 
headwaters of the Koj'ukuk and Kuskokwnm, and a 
thousand unmapped streams that lace the Arctic waste. 
It is no longer a familiar spectre on the Klondike. 
Here the wilderness blossoms with potted geraniums 
and schoolmarms from New England, women of 
education, nurses, bookkeepers, and the like, have 
hard work finding employment, not becatise there is 
no employment for business women, but because the 
field has alread}'- been occupied. Dawson City now has 
fine municipal buildings, including a court house, a 
residence for the Governor, and a handsome new 
school house for the accommodation of upward of 
two hundred pupils. The Presbyterians have erected 
a moderia church, after the style of the English coun- 
try church, with a seating capacity for several hun- 
dred. Three of the churches of the city have pipe 
organs. 
Dawson now has telegraph communication with the 
outside world, as well as telephones and a district 
messenger service, with electric call boxes. Its elec- 
tric lighting system is thoroughly modern and up to 
date. The coal strike has not affected Dawson as it 
has three separate sources of supply above and be- 
low- on the Yukon, independent of outside conditions. 
There is not much indication of hardship about this 
paragraph clipped from a Dawson newspaper last fall: 
"Potatoes, which for a while were scarce, are again 
becoming plentiful. Fresh grapes, peaches, apples, 
Vv-atermelons and other such fruits are common in 
the market. The first shipment of potted flowers ever 
brought from the otttside arrived from Seattle a few days 
ago, including blossoming geraniums and the like. 
They came in good condition, and sold well." 
The boulders from the Thirty-Mile River have 
been removed, and the channel of the Upper Yukon 
greatly improved by draining and dredging. At Hell 
Gate, nine miles above Fort Selkirk, a dam 680 feet 
long has just been completed to concentrate the river 
in one channel and deepen it by the scouring that is 
bound to come Avith an increased head; and at Lake 
Le Barge jetties with sections measuring 400 feet, 
2,800 feet, and 3,400 feet, respectively, have been con- 
structed for like purpose. At Five Finger Rapids 
hundreds of tons of obstructing rock have been 
blasted away, and White Pass has no terrors now that 
the railroad has conquered its grades. 
The questions bothering Dawson nowadays are 
much the same as elsew'here in civilization — elections, 
franchises and the like. As regards dissipation in its 
exuberant manifestation, Dawson long ago settled 
that. Gambling CA-en has been tabooed, and DaAA'Son 
is an ideal Sunday-school picnic ground to-day. The 
question is, Shall the Klondike Mines Raihvay be per- 
mitted to traA'erse the Avest side of First avenue to 
gain access to the wharves and quartz mills; and it 
can be stated for the. benefit of New York city that 
the city gOA^ernment is not holding up the ra^easure 
like their aldermanic prototj^pes in the Avicked East. 
Twelve millions in gold Avas DaAA'SOii's contribution 
from her creeks in 1902; but the city is also important 
iia trade. For the three months ending Oct. i, Daw- 
son's customs receipts amounted to $227,144, and 
during September, she receiAred and distributed goods 
to the value of a million and a third. 
During the year 1902 Dawson has spent $60,000 im- 
proA'ing the city streets. Many blocks of eight-foot 
sideAvalks haA-^e been built, and extensiA^e Avork has 
been done macadamizing streets and laying permanent 
sidewalks. ' ScA^enty thousand dollars Avas spent for 
the maintenaiice of the fire department. 
The total assessed A^aluation of DaAVSon property, 
as shown by the report just compiled by the city 
assessor, is $12,038,740 — not bad for the precocious 
six-y.ear-old! J.-.B.- Burnham, 
— » 
Squids in Fresh Water, 
A SHORT time since a newspaper story went about, 
telling of a citizen of Syracuse, who had captured, while 
draAving a net in Onondaga Lake, a strange looking 
fish. This, when submitted to a local teacher of science, 
was identified as a squid. Another specimen was after- 
Avard taken by another individual, and this last has 
come into the possession of Prof. John M. Clarke, who 
Avill submit it to an authority for examination in order 
to learn what it actually is. 
The squids are marine animals, while Onondaga 
Lake is a body of fresh water, and it would be very 
astonishing to find squids actually living in that water; 
but on the other hand, a considerable number of cases 
are knoAvn Avhere marine animals are found living in 
fresh water lakes, having in some way adapted them- 
selves to new conditions, and appear to flourish under 
them. 
Onondaga Lake, as is Avell known, is a shallow body 
of fresh water resting on strata which contain salt in 
abundance. From these strata it receives a certain 
amount of salt, for there are salt springs on the bor- 
der of the lake Avhich pour their briny waters into it. 
It is near such a spring that these squids are alleged 
to have been taken. Beside that, this body of water 
had not very long ago— in post glacial time — a con- 
nection with the sea by way of the St. Lawrence 
River, and at this time its waters may have been salt. 
It is possible, of course, that these two specimens 
may have been introduced into the waters of the lake 
by some practical joker, though this seems hardly 
possible, since both are alleged to have been alive 
Avhen taken. 
Squids, or if not squids, at least members of the 
great Class Cephalopoda, to which the squids belong, 
have inhabited the earth since very early geological 
time, and to-day various forms of this class are known 
as the food of different fishes, as the famed nautilus, 
fossil as ammonites, and most impressive of all, as 
those giant squids whose arms may be 30 or 40 
feet long, which have been described chiefly by Prof. 
A. E. Verrill, of Ncav Haven, and which have given 
rise to so many stories of sea monsters and sea ser- 
pents. 
One of the earliest descriptions of these vast crea- 
tures is that of Pontopidian. The animal Avas long 
regarded as a myth, although figured by the learned 
bishop, and described in the folloAving language: 
"This monster Avas taken at Dingle-I-cosh in the 
county of Kerry, being driven up by a great storm in 
the month of October last, 1673; having two heads, one 
great head (out of Avhich spring a little head tAvo foot, 
or a yard from the great head), with two great eyes, 
each as big as a pewter dish, the length of it being 
about nineteen foot, bigger in the body than any 
horse, of the shape represented by this figure, having 
upon the great head ten horns, some of six, some of 
eight or ten, one of eleven foot long, the biggest 
horns as big as a man's leg, the least as big as his 
Avrist, which horns it threw from it on both sides; 
And to it again to defend itself having two of the ten 
horns plain, and smooth that were the middle and 
biggest horns, the other eight had one hundred 
CroAvns a peece, placed by two and two on each of 
them, in all 800 croAvns, each croAvn having teeth, that 
tore anything that touched them, by shutting together 
the sharp teeth, being like the wheels of a watch, the 
CroAvns were as big as a man's thumb or something 
bigger, that a man might put his finger in the hollow 
part of them, and had in thern something like a pearl 
or eye in the middle; over tliis Monster's back was^a 
mantle of a bright Red Color, with a fringe round it, 
it hung doAvn on both sides like a Carpet on a table, 
falling back on each side, and faced with Avhite; the 
croAvns and mantle Avere glorious to behold ;_ This 
monster had but one bone about him, nor skin nor 
scales, or feet, but had a smooth skin like a man's 
belly. It swoom by the lappits of the mantle; The 
little head it could dart forth a yard from the great, 
and draAV it in again at pleasure, being like a haAvk's 
beak and having in the little head two tongues by 
Avhich it is thought it received all its nourishment; 
Avhen it was dead and opened the liver wayed 30 
pounds. The man that took it came to Clonmel the 
4th of this instant December, Avith two of the horns 
in a long box Avith the little head, and the figure of 
the fish drawn on a painted-cloth, Avhich Avas the full 
proportion of it, and he went up to Dublin, with an 
intent to show it to the Lord Lieutenant." 
The identification and further history of the squids 
from Onondaga Lake will be looked for with much 
interest. 
Connecticut Wintet Bitds. 
Beaver Bp.ook Farm, Milford, Coon., Dec. 18. — Editor 
Forest and Stream. After an exceptionally cold ten days, 
during which the thermometer rarely reached the point 
of TO deg. F., the weather became quite mild. 
Yesterday, Dec. 17, I obseiwed a large number of robins 
and blue birds and a few song sparroAvs and white 
throated sparrows, also a pair of common crossbills and 
some smaller finches Avhich I could not identify. Again 
to-day I saw^ some of the aboA'e and in addition a spar- 
roAA^ haAvk. Does this portend a mild and open winter? 
• ^ M. G. 
[All the birds mentioned commonly winter in southern 
Connecticut, except the crossbills; and these are such 
thorough A'agrants that their presence does not necessarily 
mean anything more than bitter cold Aveather to the 
northward. We do not believe that the appearence of 
these birds portends anything meteorological.] 
Teacher — "Bessie, name one bird that is now ex- 
tinct." .Little. Bessie— "Dick!" Teacher— "Dick? 
What sm-t of a bird is that?" Little Bessie— "Our 
canary — the cat extincted him!" — Puck, 
