806 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 2, 1911. 
Later holding a lieutenant’s commission in the 
British Army in India, then inheriting a large 
fortune, traveled extensively, played bull and 
bear in the stock pits until he faced financial 
ruin, then retrieved his fortune by marrying a 
rich American girl, only to squander her for¬ 
tune at the same old game, and as a last resort 
started for the Klondike gold fields. He had 
got as far as the summit of the White Pass, 
where he accepted a good position in the com¬ 
missary department of the railway, and later a 
position with a meat importing firm in Skagway. 
During his stay in my camp I became very 
warmly attached to him. Stories of elephant, 
lion and tiger hunts in Asia and Africa; de¬ 
scriptions of the famous gold and diamond 
mines of Africa; explorations in search of the 
sacred precincts where the Queen of Sheba ex¬ 
tracted the mythical treasures of the ancients 
were of much interest to me and helped to while 
away the long hours spent in our isolated camp. 
As the season drew to a close he seemed to 
become very restless. He gave up the intention 
of going to Dawson, and decided that he would 
go to Japan instead the following summer. He 
often referred to Japan as the ideal country of 
the world. He seldom mentioned his family 
or home life. 
One Sunday he left camp and visited the 
Boulder Creek section, where a hydraulic plant 
was being installed. On his return he was very 
much elated over the promises that several 
prospectors had made him in regard to locat¬ 
ing on what they thought to be a very rich, un¬ 
explored creek, over in the Sucker Lake coun¬ 
try, some seventy miles north and east in the 
vicinity of the north end of Teslin Lake. He 
seemed determined to visit that section in the 
interests of these men, who had promised to 
pay him $100 for each claim located for them. 
I warned him of the approaching winter, and 
the risks he was taking in making the trip. I 
directed his attention to the falling frost-bit 
leaves of the willows; to the ptarmigan in their 
winter coats of snowy white flying from the 
high rocky ridges to the lower sheltered val¬ 
leys; to the great whistling marmots and the 
small ground squirrels that had all taken to 
their burrows to sleep during the long winter 
that was fast approaching; the nights getting 
bitterly cold; sluice boxes freezing up every 
night, and the tell-tale gray misty snow clouds 
hanging like a great white shroud over the 
high ranges ready to envelop them in deathly 
burdens of white at the slightest provocation 
of the elements. Such were the conditions 
when I left our camp for Discovery, for pro- 
\isions and our last mail for the season. I 
directed my foreman to prepare for the wind¬ 
up of the season’s work. The mine was pay¬ 
ing well in coarse placer gold, and the boys 
were working night and day shifts in order to 
work out the pay streak by the time I re¬ 
turned. Imagine my surprise when, three days 
later, I returned and found Fred gone to the 
reported rich creek he had told us about, where 
he was to locate the strangers. He had taken 
five days’ rations, pick, shovel, pan, my six- 
shooter, blankets, etc., making a very heavy 
pack. Fie had promised to return in five days. 
I was much surprised to find that he had made 
this foolish move, and did not hesitate to rep¬ 
rimand the boys for allowing him to go with¬ 
out a companion. I had been hunting with 
him several times and had noticed that he was 
easily lost, and his eyesight was very poor. 
Naturally I was very uneasy in regard to 
his welfare, and when the five days expired and 
he failed to return, I organized a party to search 
for him. We took his track and followed him 
over the high divide between Wright and 
Dicksie creeks, then across a high plateau or 
valley and up into the high mountain range 
forming the great watershed. On the very 
crest of the divide we found his last tracks, 
headed in the direction of Teslin Lake. Here 
I divided our forces, sent two men to each of 
the highest peaks of the range, overlooking 
the treacherous rolling hills, valleys and moun¬ 
tains to the eastward, where we expected to see 
the smoke of our lost comrade’s camp-fire, or 
perchance his wandering figure, by the aid of 
our glasses. I directed the men to carry up to 
the summits any inflammable matter—moss, 
twigs, etc.—and at night, if the weather was 
clear, to keep fires going if possible, so that 
they might perchance be seen by Fred. We 
kept up this work for two days and nights 
without seei-ng any trace of him. We were re¬ 
warded with interesting sights of moose, cari¬ 
bou, mountain sheep and a bear or two. On 
the third day we retraced our steps to camp. 
Next day I went to Discovery and notified 
Constable Owens of the disappearance of F'red, 
and asked him to render assistance at once. 
He laughed, and asked me into his tent. There 
in a confidential little chat, he told me that 
Fred was wanted in Skagway on a serious 
charge; that he had secured money there under 
false pretense and had gambled it away; that 
I need not be uneasy, that Fred had simply 
adopted this ruse to evade suspicion and skip 
the country. I was surprised to learn this, 
and Constable Owens seemed surprised to think 
that I was not familiar with Fred’s past career. 
I thought seriously of the matter and told Mr. 
Owens that I still believed that Fred had gone 
prospecting and that he must consider it his 
official duty to organize a relief party. Owens 
laughed and said that I need not fret, that Fred 
was all right. On returning to camp, I dis¬ 
cussed the matter with my men, many of whom 
were experienced frontiersmen. Opinions 
seemed about equally divided. I still believed 
that Fred was lost. I argued that if he wanted 
to leave the camp unnoticed, he never would 
go in the direction of Teslin Lake, where escape 
at this season of the year was impossible. I 
P ROBABLY there is no single county in 
Michigan that contains so many pretty 
lakes dotted with summer hotels and cot¬ 
tages as Cheboygan, the largest and central one 
of the three counties that form the north end 
of the southern peninsula, and many summer 
visitors find their way to the resorts about 
Mullet, Burt, Black and Douglas as well as the 
smaller lakes that are found in this locality, and 
enjoy the salubrious air, the great facilities of- 
decided to go and look for him once more, and 
determine, if possible, whether or not he was 
starving and freezing in the mountains, or if 
he had gone as far as the divide, cached his 
heavy pack, and by a circuitous route came back 
to Atlin and had escaped disguised or other¬ 
wise to parts unknown. Taking his trail the 
second time alone, I followed it as we had 
followed it before, in the direction of Teslin 
Lake, at the same time carefully inspecting 
every rocky ledge, bunch of willows, etc., where 
he would be likely to conceal part of his heavy 
burden, but without success in finding any¬ 
thing left behind. LIis gait had been firm and 
steady. I noticed various places where he had 
stopped to rest. I traveled on past the peaks 
where we had had our signal fires three days 
previous, and over into some high granite 
mountains to the east and north. With much 
difficulty I climbed the highest peak of the 
range. Here I camped for two days and nights, 
keeping a sharp lookout for Fred. 
The weather grew bitterly cold. My storm 
nest lay at an elevation of 5,000 feet above sea 
level and was directly in the midst or strong¬ 
hold of a band of mountain sheep. The sheep, 
a few ptarmigan, a family of silver-gray foxes 
were my only companions. At night the howl¬ 
ing of a pack of wolves on their nightly raids 
after the sheep; the barking of the foxes and the 
hooting of a solitary snowy owl lulled me to 
sleep, while the great Northern Lights sent 
their fiery rays like chains of flaming swords 
through the heavens as far as the Polar Star, 
which was almost directly overhead. I was a 
strange mortal in a strange land, where I was 
not feared, but looked upon and watched with 
much interest by the big old rams that guarded 
their little herds from their natural enemies, the 
wolves, but seemed to have no fear of me, not 
even after I had killed one of their number. 
Two days came and went. I said to myself, 
“If you don’t want to leave your bones in the 
Teslin Mountains, as poor Fred has probably 
left his, you had better be getting out of this.” 
I returned to camp, where I was warmly 
greeted by Billy West, Andrew Nylund, George 
Libby and Walter Wills; the balance of the 
crew had gone to Discovery for the winter. 
After making the final clean-up, which, by the 
way, was very satisfactory, we having found a 
number of large nuggets weighing as much as 
four ounces each, I closed the camp and went 
to more congenial climes for the winter. 
fered for boating and fishing, and later for the 
flights of ducks and geese. It is in the heart of 
the old Indian encampment ground, and is full 
of romance, besides being very picturesque, and 
in parts almost as in its virgin state. 
While many prefer the crowds and fashion 
that are drawn to the great hotels of the larger 
lakes, it is much more to my taste to avoid them 
and enjoy my weeks of vacation in more re¬ 
tired and less pretentious localities where, as at 
A Vacation in Northern Michigan 
By E. S. WHITAKER 
