Oct. io, 1908. 
FOREST AND STREAM 
569 
and frequented the beach, feeding principally 
on material washed ashore. The tides rose and 
fell enormously, usually ten to twelve feet, but 
at the spring tides the difference was seventeen 
feet. At our camp a gravel bar gave the beach 
a gentle slope and the range of the tide covered 
a width of nearly a hundred yards. This often 
necessitated our carrying the boats quite a dis¬ 
tance to keep them safely ashore. Water birds 
were plentiful, comprising geese, many species 
of ducks, loons, gulls, murres, guillemots, sand¬ 
pipers and other waders, but such oceanic birds 
as petrels and fulmars were entirely wanting. 
Soon after we made camp we had a call from 
some of the Indians from the camp on the 
island. When they saw that we intended stay¬ 
ing some time they objected, saying this was 
their trapping ground and that we would drive 
the game away with so much shooting. We 
found later that the Indians divided the region 
among themselves, each individual claiming the 
right to hunt and trap along a certain portion 
of the beach several miles in length, and that 
single white trappers were often driven away. 
The game laws of Alaska are very strict, but 
I had a permit from the proper authorities in 
Washington allowing me to collect scientific 
specimens. I showed this to the Indians. One 
of them could read very well and he inter¬ 
preted it to the others. These Indians have a 
great respect for official documents coming from 
Washington, and they gave us no more trouble. 
We had told the Indians and the few white 
people we had seen that we would buy fresh 
bear skins with the skulls. On April 28 two 
white hunters brought in a fine bear skin. It 
was not very large, but was in fine condition. 
It was a male of the brown bear group, but 
was as black as any black bear. They had killed 
it twenty miles south of our camp, high on the 
mountains, hunting on snowshoes. A few days 
later an Indian brought in the skin of a smaller 
animal killed near the beach on the opposite 
side of the canal. We had expected to find 
tracks on the beach, but found none at this 
camp. 
We tried trapping for minks without success, 
but purchased several in the flesh from Indians 
who had caught them in deadfalls. We found 
the Indians well posted on values and sharp 
traders. The only cheap thing we got from them 
was venison. We saw a few deer tracks, but 
did not succeed in killing any at this camp. We 
saw the first bat the evening of May 1. We 
found them scarce all summer and difficult to 
shoot, as they seldom ventured far from the 
shelter of the trees. 
Just north of camp was the mouth of a good 
creek about a hundred feet wide, swift and about 
knee deep on the riffles. D. and I studied the 
matter a little and concluded that we could pad¬ 
dle, pole or tow the canoe two or three miles 
up the creek. Accordingly one morning we put 
our guns, blankets, some traps and provisions in 
the canoe and started out bravely. We had hip 
length rubber boots and soon found that in the 
shallower places we could best wade and tow 
the canoe and in the deeper place we could pole 
it along. Paddles were useless in such swift 
water. About a mile from camp we came to 
a place where we could make no headway with 
the poles; it was too deep to wade and the deep 
snow and thick brush on the high bank pre¬ 
vented our “cordelling,” so we tried pulling up 
by the overhanging brush. We got about half 
way across the bad place when a surge of the 
current caught the bow of the canoe and swung 
it away from the bank, pulling us away from 
the bushes. 
Away we went down stream, the canoe lying 
across the current. Below us a big boulder in 
mid stream showed its tip above the white water. 
We saw that a crash against it would break the 
canoe in two and piled overboard hurriedly to 
prevent it. I landed on a boulder and slipped, 
falling on my side. Fortunately I retained hold 
of the canoe with one hand and scrambled to 
my feet. ■ The canoe partly filled as we swung 
it around and it barely carried us across the 
deep pool below. In a few yards we landed 
on a bar and tipped the water out. Our blankets 
were wet and I was thoroughly soaked in the 
icy water, so we gave up and went back to 
camp, having been away scarcely more than 
At the time of our first visit, May 21, the 
lakes were free of ice. Apparently this had not 
long been the case and patches of snow were 
still plentiful in the surrounding forest, while 
the higher parts of the mountains were bare 
only on the ridges exposed to sun and wind. 
I he border of the lakes was a dense forest of 
spruce and hemlock with some alder and a little 
willow where the shores were not too steep. 
The underbrush was very thick and overhung 
the lake shores, while there was very little beach 
anywhere. This made exploration by land too 
difficult for us, so we portaged our canoe from 
Mole Harbor through thick forest, over logs, 
up hills, through underbrush and thorny “devil 
clubs.” By the way, these “devil clubs” are an 
unmitigated nuisance. They are sprawling 
shrubs or plants, deciduous, but before the 
leaves come out in early summer, looking like 
some of our desert cactuses. They are an inch 
I 
7 ' 
HASSELBORG LAKE. 
an hour instead of the three days we had in¬ 
tended to be absent. The joke was on me. 
At the end of a month at Windfall Harbor 
we had obtained specimens of everything readily 
obtainable. These included good series of the 
birds, two species of mice, one or more of 
shrew's, etc., and my wife had made a fine col¬ 
lection of the shells. This was particularly rich 
in bivalves. We wanted to try a fresh collect¬ 
ing ground, but our overdue launch had not 
arrived. Finally we employed a fishing launch 
to move us to Mole Harbor, which looked promis¬ 
ing on our way in. We found this a warmer 
locality, with more low ground accessible. The 
snow was nearly gone in the low' ground so 
that we could get into the forest wuth some 
comfort. 
We were fortunate in being able to employ 
A. Hasselborg, a local hunter, who was familiar 
with the region and the game. He told us of 
a chain of lakes in the interior of the island 
and advised us to take a look at them. He said 
they were unknown to the whites and that the 
Indians rarely visited them. We made inquiries 
later and could not learn that any other white 
men had seen them. Our party made several 
visits to the lakes and explored that region fairly 
thoroughly. The accompanying sketch map 
shows their location. 
to an inch and a half in diameter, six to fifteen 
feet long, holding their thickness nearly to the 
end, fork here and there and the ends rise four 
or five feet off the ground. They are thickly 
covered with nettle-like spines half an inch in 
length. Sometimes they are so abundant that 
one cannot get through them without touching 
them one side or the other. In passing through 
the timber one is apt to step on the stem of one 
where it is covered in the coarse moss that 
covers the soil to the depth of a foot or more 
everywhere; probably just beyond where one’s 
foot presses on it the stem takes a turn down 
until it rests on the soil, then turns up until 
the end of the “club” is five or six feet in the 
air. One’s weight springs the end against him 
with a whack that leaves dozens of sharp spines 
sticking in his arm. The safe way is to wear 
thick buckskin gloves and grab everyone as it 
is passed. 
The pass over the divide proved to be about 
550 feet in altitude and the lakes are slightly 
more than 300 feet above sea level. We named 
the first one Alexander Lake, in honor of Miss 
Alexander, the first white woman to visit it. 
It is two miles long by about half a mile wide. 
A short and narrow strait connects it with 
Beaver Lake, which is a mile and a quarter long 
bv a third of a mile wide. The water of these 
