IN 
FOREST AND S T R E A M 
CASSIAR, THE NEW GAME 
March, 1918 
COUNTRY 
THE SECOND PART OF AN AUTHORITATIVE AND INSTRUCTIVE STORY OF THE 
FINEST BIG GAME HUNTING TO BE HAD ON THE AMERICAN CONTINENT 
By HENRY BANNON 
W E left Telegraph Creek 
on August twenty-fifth 
for the Nahlin region at 
which point it was said that 
both the Stone and Fannin 
sheep have their range. Nahlin 
means “water-fall” and is mere¬ 
ly a station on the telegraph 
line maintained for the re¬ 
pair of the line and in charge 
of an operator who can han¬ 
dle messages. We arrived there 
shortly before noon on the 
thirtieth. Nahlin is ninety-six 
miles from Telegraph Creek 
and one hundred and seven¬ 
teen miles from Atlin. Here 
we reorganized the outfit and 
cached a large portion of our 
supplies at the station. 
Leaving Nahlin we reached 
the hunting grounds for moun¬ 
tain sheep on September second. The trail 
to Nahlin is the best I have ever traveled 
and was constructed by the Canadian Gov- 
Patient under a load of forty pounds 
eminent to aid in relieving the stampede 
to the Yukon gold fields, ffeyond Nahlin 
the trail is poor and occasionally the horses 
would go down to their bellies in the 
muskeg, but they always pulled 
out all right. The entire trail 
leads through basins, uninter¬ 
esting in scenery, and through 
much burnt timber. We saw 
no game and no game trails. 
Very few birds or small ani¬ 
mals were seen and the entire 
region seemed devoid of ani¬ 
mal or bird life, all giving 
little evidence of the game 
fields beyond. There were ex¬ 
tremes of temperature. At 
Nahlin the mercury dropped 
from 90° in the sun (there 
was no shade) at 5:30 P. M. 
to 34 0 at 8:30 P. M., and the 
next morning it was 22°. The 
temperature of the streams 
coming down from the moun¬ 
tains was 42°. Montana and 
Wyoming streams are about 
Big game hunting outfit leaving Telegraph Creek 
.. * 
47° at the same time of the year. Later ditions. 
I found streams registering 40°. 
Observations on the Trail 
B UT the trail had its interesting obser¬ 
vations. The Indians were constantly 
joking with each other, their soft 
voices being quite musical. Occasionally 
they sang their native songs, the favorite 
seeming to be the love song of the Bear 
Lake Indians, w T hich was very sweet and 
full of expression; sometimes they were 
whistling, usually the River Shannon. 
We passed many pairs of snow shoes 
cached in the trees, sleds by the wayside 
where they were left when the spring 
thaws rendered them useless, and dog har¬ 
ness equipped with bells. All sorts of 
relics of the rush for gold still lined the 
way, such as wagon’wheels, carts, skele¬ 
tons of horses, machinery and the like. 
There were the occasional remains of 
sweat houses, such as were used years ago 
by the Indians of our western plains. 
A few years ago this region was the 
home of countless grouse and rabbits. 
These attracted many foxes and lynx to 
feed upon them. The foxes and lynx in 
turn attracted the fur trapper. 
But all are now gone. Great 
expanses of small pine and wil¬ 
low killed by the rabbits that 
had eaten them off at snow line 
were at every hand. It is said 
that some disease kills the rab¬ 
bits every seven years. This is a 
good thing, for if there were not 
some such limitation of nature 
there would be no vegetation 
left. But the vegetation will 
come again and with it the rab¬ 
bit, lynx, fox and trapper. Thus 
does nature rotate her crops. 
Grouse are now so scarce their 
killing should be prohibited. 
We passed some Indians fish¬ 
ing for salmon and drying the 
fish for winter food. They use 
dogs to carry their outfits on 
their fishing and hunting expe- 
In the summer the dogs carry 
packs and in the winter draw sleds. These 
dogs are faithful and obedient and they 
The scalps should be fleshed and thoroughly salted 
The Indians are zealous fishermen 
trudge along under a load of forty pounds 
as though they liked it. An Indian’s dog 
is usually smart, but he could hardly be. 
otherwise as he is one of the family. At 
one place I saw a litter of 
pups and some small children 
eating out of the same pot. 
At several of our camps the 
Indians caught salmon and 
Dolly Varden trout for our 
table. These were taken with 
a gaff hook or, when in shal¬ 
low water, caught with the 
hands. The zeal of the Indian 
in fishing is most interesting. 
In the season for angling the 
streams in this vicinity must 
be an angler’s paradise. Oc¬ 
casionally we saw salmon 
strand themselves on the creek 
bars and it was pitiful to thus 
see these fish give up their 
lives after their struggle in re¬ 
production. They had, with 
persistent labor, worked their 
way from the ocean up rivers 
