56 
FOREST AND STREAM 
February, 1919 
Each new vista, as the trail unwound, 
seemed to fit into the mood of the mo- 
ment. The sunlight sifted through an 
occasional vent in the mountains and 
shone with dazzling brightness on the 
great patches of snow that lingered on 
the higher peaks. The air was fragrant 
with the scent of wet earth and fresh 
with the coolness of the late night. Wild 
cranberries dotted the bushes with crim- 
son and the alder leaves were fringed 
with yellow that shone like pale gold. 
Far above us the barren slopes of rock 
strewn wastes were lightened by occa- 
sional patches of scarlet bunch grass, all 
glorious in the morning sunlight. The 
spell of the wilderness lay like balm upon 
our spirits and w'e were happy in its 
quiet beauty. Finally we left the open 
spaces and entered the timber. After 
viewing for so long wide tracks of high, 
open country one descends into the nar- 
rowed vision of timbered places with a 
sense of relief. 
The deep twilight of the woods 
stretched away on all sides and the roar 
of Killey river became ever louder as we 
dropped down the trail toward its banks. 
We passed many a likely place for bear- 
great rock slides covered deep with the 
moss of centuries revealing gaping caves 
and alder thickets, the barbed-wire en- 
tanglements of the fighting Brownie; we 
had passed many a tree-trunk marred 
with deep scratches higher than a man’s 
head and had seen footprints in the soft 
places along the trail, so we were ever 
alert for a coveted glimpse of game. 
About noon we came out on the river 
and followed it down stream to where it 
joined Benjamin Creek. Here we decided 
to pitch camp and rest for a few days, 
hunt bear and maybe find a moose whose 
horns were sufficiently tanned and of a 
size to tempt capture. As yet the moose 
we had seen while on our sheep hunt all 
had horns that were still in velvet and 
Andy said they would not be suitable for 
trophies for some time to come. 
A fter we had put up the tent and 
eaten lunch Walter and Tom went 
back up the trail to our last sheep 
camp to bring down some things we had 
left and the rest of us spent a lazy after- 
noon about the camp. The next day 
we crossed the river and Mackay and 
Andy started up on the mountains to 
hunt for bear, while Ben and I took an- 
other direction with the same object in 
view. We had not gone very far before 
we spied two black bears feeding high 
above timber-line, so we altered our 
course and began to climb rapidly in 
their direction. 
It was a stiff climb, but in an hour or 
two we came out at timber-line, but saw 
nothing of our two bears. They had evi- 
dently gone down while we were going 
up, so we rested a while on a pinnacle 
of rock and began to study the country 
round about. Presently we observed a 
lynx creeping stealthily along within easy 
gun-shot, but as the fur was poor and 
the law was good we let him depart in 
peace. A little later we discovered a 
wolverine. He was loping along about a 
hundred yards away, traveling fast, with 
a long, rangy stride, stopping every once 
in a while to take in the country, swing- 
ing his head in a jerky fashion, tongue 
hanging out, then lowering it again 'with 
a quick motion and continuing on his 
way. It was interesting to watch one 
of these strange animals without being 
observed by him, as they are very timid 
and seldom seen by man. “They are 
great travelers,” said Ben, “always going 
some place in a hurry.” During the rest 
of the day we wandered about on a table- 
land of wide extent, looking across to the 
land of our sheep hunt, and picking out 
with our glasses little groups of white 
dots which we knew were sheep, moving 
slowly about in the sunshine. 
The long trail stretched ahead 
W E ate lunch by a little spring of ice- 
water, which gurgled from beneath 
a snow field. I picked up a caribou 
horn, white and weather beaten, quite 
rare to find now on the Kenai as the 
caribou, which once were so prevalent 
throughout this peninsula, have all mi- 
grated to another land. We also noted 
an absence of small game — the friendly 
ptarmigan and the usually inexhaustible 
hare, were very scarce. 
It was quite , windy and cold on the 
plateau so we started downward toward 
camp. While resting along the way Ben 
caught sight of a black bear moving 
about at the edge of timber about a quar- 
ter of a mile below us so we started down 
after him in a hurry. 
When we entered the thick timber we 
moved more cautiously until we had de- 
termined the course the bear had taken 
and then decided that a still-hunt was 
the proper means to adopt in bagging our 
quarry. So we picked out a sheltered 
spot among the rocks w’hich commanded 
a fairly good view of the adjacent ground 
and waited patiently for the bear to make 
his appearance. We had not very long 
to wait before Ben pressed my arm and 
at the same moment I saw the alders part 
about a hundred yards away and a black 
bear came lumbering into view. I quietly 
raised my rifle and at its sharp report 
there was a great commotion in the un- 
derbrush with much squealing. 
We ran forward to the spot where the 
bear had disappeared and found him 
mauling up the ground in an angry rage. 
Another shot quieted him in short order 
and we soon had him ready for skinning. 
He was fairly good sized and had a 
wonderfully glossy coat for that time of 
year. We managed to remove the pelt 
and, taking as much of the meat as we 
could carry, tramped the few remaining 
miles to camp in rare good humor. We 
found Andy and Mackay preparing sup- 
per, so we slung the bear hide over a limb 
and rescued our share of the meal. 
M ackay and Andy had seen some 
moose on their trip but both agreed 
, that it would be at least two weeks 
before their horns were fully tanned, and 
as the great brown bear were protected 
by law from shooting until October first 
and the black variety didn’t offer enough 
sport, we decided to break camp in a day 
or so and make for Seward. The next 
day we spent about camp and on the ad- 
jacent mountains, observing many moose 
and an occasional brown bear moving 
about just above the timber-line — thanks 
to the alert eyes of Ben who was ever on 
the lookout for a sight of one of these 
great brutes. Early the following morn- 
ing we shouldered our packs and took the 
trail for the outside. Toward noon we 
reached the summit, and by a little emer- 
ald lake of glacier water we found the 
cache and stopped for lunch. We ate all 
the remaining eggs in our supplies — 
about eight to the man as it worked out 
— and drank a pot of coffee. 
As we lay resting afterward we ob- 
served with much interest two sheep, a 
ewe and a lamb, feeding quite low down 
by a long snow slide above us, and swing- 
ing our glasses out over the wide valley 
we had just left we were able to pick out 
a number of moose scattered at different 
points over the bottomland below. They 
were feeding quietly; only an occasional 
swing of the head as they warded off the 
flies which no doubt swarmed about them 
enabled us to detect their position. Usu- 
ally they were standing by one of the 
little lakes which abound throughout that 
region and make the Kenai such a won- 
derful habitat for game. One old bull 
was lying down in the long wet grass of 
a swamp not very far below us, dozing 
away the long noontide hours in placid 
contentment. We were loath to leave 
such an enchanting scene of wilderness 
life ; but a long trail stretched ahead 
and the mountains were casting warning 
shadows, so we adjusted our packs once 
more# and turned our backs on the great 
valley of lonely beauty. We crossed a 
