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Title: Young Alaskans in the Far North
Author: Emerson Hough
Release Date: May 5, 2009 [EBook #28694]
Language: English
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YOUNG ALASKANS
IN THE
FAR NORTH
BY
EMERSON HOUGH
_Author of_ "YOUNG ALASKANS
IN THE ROCKIES" ETC.
ILLUSTRATED
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
YOUNG ALASKANS IN THE FAR NORTH
Copyright, 1918, by Harper & Brothers
Printed in the United States of America
[Illustration: THE FIRST PORTAGE--SLAVE RIVER. "THE SCOWS WERE HAULED
UP THE STEEP BANK BY MEANS OF BLOCK AND TACKLE"]
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. THE START FOR THE MIDNIGHT SUN 1
II. THE SCOWS 12
III. THE GREAT BRIGADE 32
IV. THE GRAND RAPIDS 51
V. WHITE-WATER DAYS 64
VI. ON THE STEAMBOAT 79
VII. THE WILD PORTAGE 89
VIII. ON THE MACKENZIE 112
IX. UNDER THE ARCTIC CIRCLE 132
X. FARTHEST NORTH 149
XI. THE MIDNIGHT SUN 164
XII. THE RAT PORTAGE 176
XIII. DOWN THE PORCUPINE 192
XIV. AT FORT YUKON 212
XV. THE FUR TRADE 222
XVI. DAWSON, THE GOLDEN CITY 231
XVII. WHAT UNCLE DICK THOUGHT 246
ILLUSTRATIONS
THE FIRST PORTAGE--SLAVE RIVER. "THE SCOWS
WERE HAULED UP THE STEEP BANK BY MEANS
OF BLOCK AND TACKLE" _Frontispiece_
AN ENCAMPMENT OF ESKIMOS ON THE BEACH AT
FORT MCPHERSON _Facing p._ 55
HUSKY FLEET--FORT MCPHERSON " 172
HUSKY DOG--RAMPART HOUSE " 206
YOUNG ALASKANS IN THE FAR NORTH
I
THE START FOR THE MIDNIGHT SUN
"Well, fellows," said Jesse Wilcox, the youngest of the three boys who
stood now at the ragged railway station of Athabasca Landing, where
they had just disembarked, "here we are once more. For my part, I'm
ready to start right now."
He spoke somewhat pompously for a youth no more than fifteen years of
age. John Hardy and Rob McIntyre, his two companions, somewhat older
than himself, laughed at him as he sat now on his pack-bag, which had
just been tossed off the baggage-car of the train that had brought
them hither.
"You might wait for Uncle Dick," said John. "He'd feel pretty bad if
we started off now for the Arctic Circle and didn't allow him to come
along!"
Rob, the older of the three, and the one to whom they were all in the
habit of looking up in their wilderness journeyings, smiled at them
both. He was not apt to talk very much in any case, and he seemed now
content in these new surroundings to sit and observe what lay about
him.
It was a straggling little settlement which they saw, with one long,
broken street running through the center. There was a church spire, to
be sure, and a square little wooden building in which some business
men had started a bank for the sake of the coming settlers now
beginning to pass through for the country along the Peace River. There
were one or two stores, as the average new-comer would have called
them, though each really was the post of one of the fur-trading
companies then occupying that country. Most prominent of these,
naturally, was the building of the ancient Hudson's Bay Company.
A rude hotel with a dirty bar full of carousing half-breeds and rowdy
new-comers lay just beyond the end of the uneven railroad tracks which
had been laid within the month. The surface of the low hills running
back from the Athabasca River was covered with a stunted growth of
aspens, scattered among which here and there stood the cabins or board
houses of the men who had moved here following the rush of the last
emigration to the North. There were a few tents and lodges of
half-breeds also scattered about.
"Well, Uncle Dick said we would be starting right away," argued Jesse,
a trifle crestfallen.
"Yes," said Rob, "but he told me we would be lucky if 'right away'
meant inside of a week. He said the breeds always powwow around and
drink for a few days before they start north with the brigade for a
long trip. That's a custom they have. They say the Hudson's Bay
Company has more customs than customers these days. Times are changing
for the fur trade even here.
"Where's your map, John?" he added; and John spread out on the
platform where they stood his own rude tracing of the upper country
which he had made by reference to the best government maps obtainable.
Their uncle Dick, engineer of this new railroad and other frontier
development enterprises, of course had a full supply of these maps,
but it pleased the boys better to think that they made their own
maps--as indeed they always had in such earlier trips as those across
the Rockies, down the Peace River, in the Kadiak Island country, or
along the headwaters of the Columbia, where, as has been told, they
had followed the trails of the wilderness in their adventures before
this time.
They all now bent over the great sheet of paper, some of which was
blank and marked "Unknown."
"Here we are, right here," said John, putting his finger on the map.
"Only, when this map was made there wasn't any railroad. They used to
come up from Edmonton a hundred miles across the prairies and muskeg
by wagon. A rotten bad journey, Uncle Dick said."
"Well, it couldn't have been much worse than the new railroad,"
grumbled Jesse. "It was awfully rough, and there wasn't any place to
eat."
"Oh, don't condemn the new railroad too much," said Rob. "You may be
glad to see it before you get back from this trip. It's going to be
the hardest one we ever had. Uncle Dick says this is the last great
wilderness of the world, and one less known than any other part of the
earth's surface. Look here! It's two thousand miles from here to the
top of the map, northwest, where the Mackenzie comes in. We've got to
get there if all goes well with us."
John was still tracing localities on the map with his forefinger.
"Right here is where we are now. If we went the other way, up the
Athabasca instead of down, then we would come out at the Peace River
Landing, beyond Little Slave Lake. That's where we came out when we
crossed the Rockies, down the Finlay and the Parsnip and the Peace.
I've got that course of ours all marked in red."
"But we go the other way," began Jesse, bending over his shoulder and
looking at the map now. "Here's the mouth of the Peace River, more
than four hundred miles north of here, in Athabasca Lake. Both these
two rivers, you might say, come together there. But look what a long
river it is if you call the Athabasca and the Mackenzie the same! And
look at the big lakes up there that we have read about. The Mackenzie
takes you right into that country."
"The Mackenzie! One of the very greatest rivers of the world," said
Rob. "I've always wanted to see it some time. And now we shall.
"I'd have liked to have been along with old Sir Alexander Mackenzie,
the old trader who first explored it," he added, thoughtfully.
"I forget just what time that was," said Jesse, hesitating and
scratching his head.
"It was in seventeen eighty-nine," said Rob, always accurate. "He was
only a young Scotchman then, and they didn't call him Sir Alexander at
all until a good while later--after he had made some of his great
discoveries. He put up the first post on Lake Athabasca--right here
where our river discharges--and he went from there to the mouth of the
Mackenzie River and back all in one season."
"How did they travel?" demanded John. "They must have had nothing
better than canoes."
"Nothing else," nodded Rob, "for they could have had nothing else.
They just had birch-bark canoes, too, not as good as white men take
into that country now. There were only six white men in the party,
with a few Indians. They left Athabasca Lake--here it is on the
map--on June third, and they got to the mouth of the great river in
forty days. That certainly must have been traveling pretty fast! It
was more than fifteen hundred miles--almost sixteen hundred. But they
got back to Athabasca Lake in one hundred and two days, covering over
three thousand miles down-stream and up-stream. Well, we've all
traveled enough in these strong rivers to know how hard it is to go
back up-stream, whether with the tracking-line or the paddle or the
sail. They did it."
"And now we're here to see what it was that they did," said Jesse,
looking with some respect at the ragged line on the map which marked
the strong course of the Mackenzie River toward the Arctic Sea.
"He must have been quite a man, old Alexander Mackenzie," John added.
"Yes," said Rob. "As you know, he came back to Athabasca and started
up the Peace River in seventeen ninety-three, and was the first man to
cross to the Pacific. We studied him over in there. But he went
up-stream there, and we came down. That's much easier. It will be
easier going down this river, too, which was his first great
exploration place.
"Now," he continued, "we'll be going down-stream, as I said, almost
two thousand miles to the mouth of that river. Uncle Dick says we'll
be comfortable as princes all the way. We'll have big scows to travel
in, with everything fixed up fine."
"Here," said Jesse, putting his finger on the map hesitatingly, "is
the place where it says 'rapids.' Must be over a hundred miles of it
on this river, or even more."
"That's right, Jess," commented John. "We can't dodge those rapids
yet. Uncle Dick says that the new railroad in the North may go to Fort
McMurray at the foot of this great system of the Athabasca rapids.
That would cut out a lot of hard work. If there were a railroad up
there, a fellow could go to the Arctics almost as easy as going to New
York."
"I'd rather go to the Midnight Sun now," said Rob. "There's some
trouble about it now, and there's some wilderness now between here and
there. It's no fun to do a thing when it's too easy. I wouldn't give a
cent to go to Fort McPherson, the last post north, by any railroad."
John was still poring over the map, which lay upon the rude boards of
the platform, and he shook his head now somewhat dubiously. "Look
where we'll have to go," he said, "and all in three months. We have to
get back for school next fall."
"Never doubt we can do it," said Rob, stoutly. "If we couldn't, Uncle
Dick would never try it. He's got it all figured out, you may be sure
of that, and he's made all his arrangements with the Hudson's Bay
Company. You forget they've been going up into this country for a
hundred years, and they know how long it takes and how hard it is.
They know all about how to outfit for it, too."
"The hardest place we'll have," said John, following his map with his
finger now almost to the upper edge, "is right here where we leave the
Mackenzie and start over toward the Yukon, just south of the Arctic
Ocean. That's a whizzer, all right! No railroad up in there, and I
guess there never will be. That's where so many of the Klondikers were
lost, my father told me--twenty years ago that was."
"They took a year for it," commented Rob, "and sometimes eighteen
months, to get across the mountains there. They built houses and
passed the winter, and so a great many of them got sick and died. But
twenty years ago is a long time nowadays. We can do easily what they
could hardly do at all. Uncle Dick has allowed us about three weeks to
cover that five hundred miles over the Rat Portage!"
"Well, surely if Sir Alexander Mackenzie could make that trip in
birch-bark canoes, over three thousand miles, with just a few men who
didn't know where they were going, we ought to be able to get through
now. That was a hundred and twenty-eight years ago, I figure it, and a
lot of things have happened since then." John spoke now with
considerable confidence.
"Well, Uncle Dick will take care of us," said Jesse, the youngest of
these adventurers.
"Yes, and we'll take care of ourselves all we can," added Rob. "Uncle
Dick tells me that the trouble with the Klondikers was that they
didn't know how to take care of themselves out of doors. A lot of them
were city people fresh to all kinds of wilderness work, and they
simply died because they didn't know how to do things. They were
tenderfeet when they started. A good many of them died before they got
through. Some of those who did get through are the prominent men of
Alaska to-day. But we're not tenderfeet. Are we, boys?"
"No, indeed," said Jesse, stoutly. "As I said, I'm ready to start."
And he again puffed out his chest with much show of bravery, although,
to be sure, the wild country in which he now found himself rather
worked on his imagination.
It had required all the persuasion of Uncle Dick, expert railway
engineer in wilderness countries, to persuade the parents of these
three boys to allow them to accompany him on this, his own first
exploration into the extreme North, under the Midnight Sun itself. He
had promised them--and something of a promise it was, too--to bring
the young travelers back safely to their home in Valdez, on the
Pacific Ocean, in three months from the time they left the head of the
railroad at Athabasca Landing.
"Well, now," said John, folding up his map and putting it back in his
pocket, "here comes Uncle Dick at last. I only hope that we won't have
to wait long, for it seems to me we'll have to hustle if we get
through on time--over five thousand miles it will be, and in less than
ninety days! I'll bet Sir Alexander Mackenzie himself couldn't have
beat that a hundred years ago."
II
THE SCOWS
"Well, well, young gentlemen," called out the tall and bronze-faced
man who now strode toward them across the railway platform, "did you
think I was never coming? I see that you are holding down your
luggage."
"Not a hard thing to do, was it, Uncle Dick?" said Jesse. "We haven't
got very much along."
"That all depends. Let me tell you, my young friends, on this trip
every fellow has to look out for himself the best he can. It's the
hardest travel you've ever had. You must keep your eye on your own
stuff all along."
"What do you mean--that we must be careful or some one will steal our
things?" demanded Jesse.
"No, there isn't so very much danger of theft--that is, from the
breeds or others along the way; they'll steal whisky, but nothing
else, usually. But it's a rough country, and there are many portages,
much changing of cargoes. Each chap must keep his eye on his own kit
all the time, and look out for himself the best way he can. That's the
lesson of this great North. It's the roughest country in the world. As
you know, there is an old saying among the fur-traders that no man has
ever whipped the North.
"I was thinking more especially about the dogs," he added, nodding
toward the luggage on which the boys were sitting.
"And what do you mean about the dogs, Uncle Dick?" asked Jesse.
"Well, those are the beggars that will steal you blind. They'll
eat anything they can swallow and some things they can't. I've had
them eat the heels off a pair of boots, and moccasins are like pie
for them. They would eat your hat if you left it lying--eat the
pack-straps off your bag. So don't leave anything lying around, and
remember that goes now, and all the way through the trip."
"Are there dogs all the way through?" asked John, curiously.
"Yes, we're in the dog country, and will be for five thousand miles
down one river and across and up the other. You'll not see a cow or a
sheep, and only two horses, in the next three months. North of
Smith's Landing, which is at the head of the Mackenzie River proper,
there never has been a horse, and I think there never will be one. The
dogs do all the hauling and all the packing--and they are always
hungry. That's what the fellows tell me who have been up there--the
whole country starves almost the year round, and the dogs worst of
all. I'm just telling you these things to be useful to you, because
we've got nothing along which we can afford to spare."
"When are we going to start, Uncle Dick?" demanded Jesse, once more,
somewhat mindful of the recent laughter of his companions at his
eagerness.
"Well, that's hard to say," replied his elder relative. "I'd like to
start to-morrow morning. It all depends on the stage of the water. If
a flood came down the Athabasca to-morrow you'd see pretty much every
breed in that saloon over there stop drinking and hurry to the scows."
"What's that got to do with it?" asked John.
"Well, when the river goes up the scows can run the Grand Rapids, down
below here, without unloading, or at least without unloading
everything. If the river is low so that the rocks stand out, the men
have to portage every pound of the brigade stuff. The Grand Rapids are
_bad_, let me tell you that! It is only within the last fifty years
that any one has ever tried to run them. I'll show you the man who
first went through--an old man now over seventy; but he was a young
chap when he first tried it. Well, he found that he could get through,
so he tried it over again. He and others have been guiding on those
rapids ever since. That cuts off the old Clearwater trail from here to
Fort McMurray, which used to be their old way of getting north.
"So now you see," he continued, "why these breeds like high water. It
means less work for them. It's hard work for them at best, but a breed
would rather risk his life than do any work he could escape. They know
there is danger--there is hardly a brigade goes north which brings
back all its men again.
"But come on now," he added. "It's almost time for supper. We'll go
fix up our camp for the night."
The boys, each stoutly picking up his own pack-bag, followed their
tall leader as he strode away. Their camp was far enough removed from
the noise of the hotel bar to leave them in quiet and undisturbed.
"My, but the mosquitoes are thick!" said Jesse, brushing at his face
with the broken bough which he had caught up. "I never saw them so
bad."
"Well, Jesse," said Uncle Dick, smiling, "just you wait. Before you
get back you'll say you never saw mosquitoes before in your life. The
traders tell me that they are worse the farther north you go. They say
it takes about two or three years for a new man to get used to them so
that he can sleep or work at his best--it's a sort of nervousness that
they stir up, though in time that wears off. I think also when they
keep on biting you you get immune to the poison, so that it doesn't
hurt so much."
"Don't they bite the half-breeds and Indians?" asked John.
"Certainly they bite them. You watch the breeds around a camp at
night. Every fellow will cover up his head with his blanket, so that
he can sleep or smother, as it happens. As for us, however, we've got
our black headnets and our long-sleeved gloves. Dope isn't much good.
No one cares much for mosquito dope in the Far North; you'll see more
of it in the States than you will in here, because they have learned
that it is more or less useless.
"Our big mosquito tent is just the same as the one we took down the
Columbia River with us--the one that the Indians cut the end out of
when we gave it to them! I've tried that tent all through Alaska in my
work, and everywhere in this part of the world, and it's the only
thing for mosquitoes. You crawl in through the little sleeve and tie
it after you get inside, and then kill the mosquitoes that have
followed you in. The windows allow you to get fresh air, and the floor
cloth sewed in keeps the mosquitoes from coming up from below. It's
the only protection in the world."
"But I saw a lot of little tents or bars down in the camp near the
river a little while ago," said Rob.
"Precisely. That's the other answer to the mosquito question--the
individual mosquito bar-tent. They are regularly made and sold in all
this northern country now, and mighty useful they are, too. As you
see, it's just a piece of canvas about six feet long and one breadth
wide, with mosquito bar sewed to the edges. You tie up each corner to
a tree or stick, and let the bar of cheese-cloth drop down around your
bed, which you make on the ground. When you lie down you tuck the edge
under your blankets, and there you are! If you don't roll about very
much you are fairly safe from mosquitoes. That, let me say, is the
typical individual remedy for mosquitoes in this country. Of course,
when we are out on railroad work, map-making and writing and the like,
we have to have something bigger and better than that. That sort of
little tent is only for the single night. No doubt we'll use them
ourselves, traveling along on the scows, because it is a good deal of
trouble to put up a big wall tent every night.
"The distances in this country are so big," he added, after a time,
explaining, "that every one travels in a hurry and spends no
unnecessary work in making camp. We'll have to learn to break camp in
ten minutes, and to make it in fifteen. I should say it would take us
about thirty minutes to make a landing, build a fire, cook a meal, and
get off again. There's no time to be wasted, don't you see?"
"I suppose Sir Alexander Mackenzie found that out himself when he
first went down this river," said Rob.
"I'll warrant you he did! And his lesson has stuck in the minds of all
these northern people to this day."
"Well, anyhow," commented Jesse, as one mosquito bit his hand, "I wish
they wouldn't bother me while I'm eating."
"Now if John had said that," said Uncle Dick, "it wouldn't be so
strange."
They all joined in his laughing at John, whose appetite made a
standing joke among them. But John only laughed with them and went on
with his supper. "There can't anybody bluff me out of a good meal,"
said he, "not even the mosquitoes."
"That's the idea," nodded his older adviser. "But really these insect
pests are the great drawback of this entire northern country. Perhaps
they will keep the settlers out as much as anything else. Fur-traders
and trappers and travelers like ourselves--they can't stop for them,
of course. We'll take our chances like Sir Alexander Mackenzie--eh,
boys?"
"I'm not afraid," said Jesse.
"Nor I," added John.
And indeed they finished their evening meal, which they cooked for
themselves, in fairly comfortable surroundings; and in their
mosquito-proof tent they passed an untroubled night, each in the
morning declaring that he had slept in perfect comfort.
"We'll leave the tents standing for a while," said Uncle Dick, "until
we know just when we are going to embark. The brigade may pull out any
day now. We'll have warning enough so that we can easily get ready.
But come on now and we'll go over to the boat-yard," he added. "It's
time we began to see about our own boat and to get our supplies ready
for shipping."
They followed him through the straggling town down to the edge of the
water-front, where the Athabasca, now somewhat turbulent in the high
waters of the spring, rolled rapidly by.
Here there was a rude sort of lumber-yard, to all appearance, with the
addition of a sort of rough shipyard. Chips and shavings and fragments
of boards lay all about. Here and there on trestles stood the gaunt
frames of what appeared to be rough flatboats, long, wide, and
shallow, constructed with no great art or care. There was no keel to
any one of these boats, and the ribs were flimsily put together.
"Well, I don't think much of these boats," grumbled John, as he passed
among them slowly.
"Don't be too rough with them," said Uncle Dick, laughingly. "Like
everything else up here, they may not be the best in the world, but
they do for their purpose. These scows are never intended to come
back, you must remember; all they have to do is to stand the trip
down, for a month or two. All the frame houses of the Far North are
made out of these scows; they break them up at the ends of the trips.
Our boat may be part of a church before it gets through.
"Come now, and I'll introduce you to old Adam McAdam, the builder and
pump-maker." He nodded toward an old man who was passing slowly here
and there among the rude craft. "This old chap is no doubt over
seventy-five years old, and he must have built hundreds of these boats
in his time. He makes the pumps, too, and a pump has to go with every
scow to keep it from sinking at first, before the seams get swelled
up."
The old man proved pleasant enough, and with a certain pride showed
them all about these rude craft of the fur trade. Each boat appeared
to be about fifty feet in length and nearly twenty in width, the
carrying capacity of each being about ten tons.
"Of course you know, my lads," said the old man, "a scow goes no
faster than the river runs. Here's the great oar--twenty feet it is in
length--made out of a young tree. The steersman uses that to
straighten her up betimes. But there's nothing to make the boat run
saving the current, do ye mind?"
"Well, that won't be so very fast," commented Rob, thinking of the
long distances that lay ahead.
"Oh, we're not confined to scows for much more than two hundred and
fifty miles," replied Uncle Dick. "At McMurray we get a steamer which
carries us down-stream to Smith's Landing. That's the big and bad
portage of the whole trip--that is to say, excepting the Rat Portage
of five hundred miles over the Yukon. But when we get below the
Smith's Landing portage we strike another Hudson's Bay Company steamer
that takes us fast enough, day and night, all the way to the Arctic
Circle. That's where we make our time, don't you see? These boats only
get us over the rapids.
"Of course," he explained, a little later, "a few of them go on down,
towed by the steamboats, because the steamboats are not big enough to
carry all the freight which must go north. There are only two
steamboats between us and the Arctic Circle now, barring one or two
little ones which are not of much account. The scows have to carry all
the supplies for the entire fur trade--trade goods, bacon, flour, and
everything."
"Who's that old gentleman coming along there, Uncle Dick?" demanded
Jesse, turning toward the end of the street.
"That's old Father Le Fèvre," replied his uncle. "He's the purchasing
agent for all the many missions of the Catholic Church in the Far
North. Each year he comes in with ten or more scows, each carrying ten
tons of goods. He may go as far as Chippewyan, and then come back, or
he may go on to Great Slave. I understand there are two good Sisters
going even farther north this year. No one knows when they will come
back, of course; they'll be teachers up among the native schools.
"Well, now you see the transport system beyond the head of the rails
in the Athabasca and Mackenzie country," he continued, as, hands in
pocket, he passed along among the finished and unfinished craft which
still lay in the shipyard.
Outside, moored to stumps along the shore, floated a number of the
rude scows, some of which even now were partially laden. The leader of
the expedition pointed out to one of these.
"That's our boat yonder, young men," said he. "You'll see that she has
the distinction of a name. Most scows have only numbers on them, and
each post gets certain scows with certain numbers. But ours has a
name--the _Midnight Sun_. How do you like that?"
"That's fine, sir!" said Rob. "And we'll see to it that she doesn't
come to grief as long as we use her."
"Well, it will only be for a couple of hundred miles or so," said
Uncle Dick, "but I fancy there'll be nothing slow in that two hundred
miles."
"Where will we eat?" demanded John, with his usual regard for creature
comforts.
"That's easy," said Rob. "I know all about that. I saw two men loading
a cook-stove on one of the scows. They took it out of a canoe, and how
they did it without upsetting the canoe I can't tell, but they did it.
I suppose we'll cook as we go along."
"Precisely," nodded Uncle Dick. "The cook-boat is the only thing that
goes under steam. The cook builds his fire in the stove just as though
he were on shore. When he calls time for meals, the men from the other
boats take turns in putting out in canoes and going to the cook-boat
for meals. Sometimes a landing is made while they eat, and of course
they always tie up at night They have certain stages which they try to
make. The whole thing is all planned out on a pretty good system,
rough but effective, as you will see."
"Is he a pretty good cook?" asked John, somewhat demurring.
"Well, good enough for us, if he is good enough for the others,"
replied his uncle. "But I'll tell you what we might do once in a
while. They do say that the two good Sisters who go north with the
mission brigade know how to cook better than any half-breed. I've made
arrangements so that we can eat on their scow once in a while if we
like."
"What's that funny business on the end of our boat?" asked Jesse,
presently, pointing to a rude framework of bent poles which covered
the short deck at the stern of the boat.
"That's what they call a 'bower' up in this country," said Uncle Dick.
"They have some curious old English words in here, even yet. Now a
bower is simply a lot of poles, like an Indian wickiup, covering the
end of your boat, as you see. You can throw your blankets over it, if
you like, or green willows. It keeps the sun off. Since the Hudson's
Bay Company charges a pretty stiff price for taking any passenger
north, it tries to earn its money by building a bower for the select
few, such as we are."
"I don't think that we need any bower," said Rob, and all the other
boys shook their heads.
"A little sunshine won't hurt us," said Jesse, stoutly.
"But think of the style about it," laughed Uncle Dick, pleased to see
the hardiness of his young charges. "Well, we'll do as we like about
that. One thing, we've got to have a chance to see out, for I know you
will want to keep your eyes open every foot of the way."
"Well, I wish the breeds would hurry up and get the boats loaded,"
added Jesse, impatiently, after a while. "There's nothing doing here
worth while."
"Don't be too hard with the breeds," counseled Uncle Dick. "They're
like children, that's all. This is the best time of the year for them,
when the great fur brigade goes north. It couldn't go without them.
The fur trade in this country couldn't exist without the half-breeds
and the full-bloods; there's a half-dozen tribes on whom the revenues
of this great corporation depend absolutely.
"You'll see now the best water-men and the best trail-men in the
world. Look at these packages--a hundred pounds or better in each.
Every pound of all that stuff is to be portaged across the Smith's
Landing portage, and the Mountain Portage, and even at Grand Island,
just below here, if the water is low. They have to carry it up from
the scows to the steamboats, and from the steamboats to the shore.
Every pound is handled again and again. It's the half-breeds that do
that. They're as strong as horses and as patient as dogs; fine men
they are, so you must let them have their little fling after their old
ways; they don't know any better."
"How many of the fur posts are there in the North, Uncle Dick?" asked
Rob, curious always to be exact in all his information.
"Well, let's see," pondered Uncle Dick, holding up his fingers and
counting them off. "The first one above here is McMurray; that's one
of the treaty posts where the tribes are paid their annuities by the
Dominion government. It's two hundred and fifty-two miles from here,
and there's where we hit our first steamboat, as I told you.
"Then comes Chippewyan, on Athabasca Lake. It was founded by Sir
Alexander Mackenzie in seventeen eighty-eight, and from that time on
it has been one of the most important trading-posts of the North--in
fact, I believe it is the most important to-day, as it seems to be a
sort of center, right where a lot of rivers converge. That's four
hundred and thirty-seven miles from here. When you get that far in, my
buckos, you'll be able to say that you are away from the hated
pale-faces and fairly launched on your trip through the wildest
wilderness the world has to-day. It is a hundred miles on to Smith's
Landing--sixteen miles there of the fiercest water you ever saw in all
your lives. Wagon portage there, but sometimes the boats go through.
Fort Smith is at the other end of that portage.
"Next down is Fort Resolution, and that's seven hundred and forty-five
miles from here. Hay River is eight hundred and fifteen, and Fort
Providence nine hundred and five miles, and Fort Simpson, at the mouth
of the Liard River, is a thousand and eighty-five miles from here.
Getting along in the world pretty well then, eh?
"There are a few others as I recall them--Fort Wrigley, twelve hundred
and sixty-five miles from here, and Fort Norman, fourteen hundred and
thirty-seven miles. Now you come to Fort Good Hope, and that is right
under the Arctic Circle. It is sixteen hundred and nine miles from
here, where we are at the head of the railroads. If we are fast enough
in our journey we'll get our first sight of the Midnight Sun at Good
Hope, perhaps.
"The next post north of Good Hope is Arctic Red River, eighteen
hundred and nineteen miles; and of course you know that the last post
of the Hudson's Bay Company is Fort McPherson, on the Peel River, near
the mouth of the Mackenzie. That is rated as eighteen hundred and
nineteen miles by the government map-makers, who may or may not be
right; being an engineer myself, I'll say they must be right! In round
numbers we might as well call it two thousand miles.
"Well, that's your distance, young men, and here are the ships which
are to carry you part of the way."
"And when we get to Fort McPherson we're not half-way through, are we,
sir?" asked Rob.
"No, we're not, and if we were starting a hundred and twenty-eight
years earlier than we are, with Sir Alexander Mackenzie, we would have
to hustle to get back before the snows caught us. As it is, we'll hope
some time in July to start across the Rat Portage. That's five hundred
miles, just along the Arctic Circle, and in that five hundred miles we
go from Canadian into American territory--at Rampart House, on the
Porcupine River. Well, it's down-stream from there to the Yukon, and
then we hit our own boats--more of them, and faster and more
comfortable. I have no doubt, John, that you can get all you want to
eat on any one of a half-dozen good boats that ply on the Yukon to-day
from White Horse down to the mouth.
"Of course," he added, "this trip of ours is not quite as rough as it
would have been twenty years ago when the Klondike rush began. The
world has moved since then, as it always has moved and always will. I
suppose some time white men will live in a good deal of this country
which we now think impossible for a white man to inhabit. Little by
little, as they learn the ways of the Indians and half-breeds, they
will edge north, changing things as they go.
"But I don't want to talk about those times," he added, shrugging his
shoulders. "I'm for the wilderness as it is, and I'm glad that you
three boys and myself can see that country up there before it has
changed too much. Not that it is any country for a tenderfoot now.
You'll find it wild enough and rough enough. It has gone back since
the Klondike rush. In travel you'll see the old ways of the Hudson's
Bay Company, even although the independents have cut into their trade
a little bit. You'll see the Far North much as it was when Sir
Alexander first went down our river here.
"And as you go on I want you to study the old times, and the new times
as well. That's the way, boys, to learn things. As for me, I found out
long ago that the only way to learn about a country is not to look it
up on a map, but to tramp across it in your moccasins.
"So now," he concluded, as they four stood at the river's brink,
looking out at the long line of the scows swinging in the rapid
current of the Athabasca, "that's the first lesson. What do you think
of our boat, the _Midnight Sun_?"
"She's fine, sir!" said Rob, and the other boys, eagerly looking up
into the face of their tall and self-reliant leader, showed plainly
enough their enjoyment of the prospect and their confidence in their
ability to meet what might be on ahead.
III
THE GREAT BRIGADE
"Roll out! Roll out!" called the cheery voice of Uncle Dick on the
second morning of the stay at Athabasca Landing.
"Aye, aye, sir!" came three young voices in reply. The young
adventurers kicked off their blankets and one by one emerged through
the sleeve of the mosquito tent.
"What made you call us so early?" complained Jesse. "It's raining--it
began in the night--and it doesn't look as if it were going to stop."
"Well, that's the very good news we've been waiting for!" said Uncle
Dick. "It's been raining somewhere else as well as here. Look at the
river--muddy and rising! That means that things will begin to happen
in these diggings pretty soon now."
For experienced campers such as these to prepare breakfast in the
rain was no great task, and they hurriedly concluded their preliminary
packing. It was yet early in the day when they stood on the
river-bank, looking at the great fleet of scows of the north-bound fur
brigade as the boats now lay swinging in the stiffening current.
The river was indeed rising; the snow to the west was melting in the
rains of spring. Time now for the annual fur brigade to be off!
At the river front already there had gathered most of the motley
population of the place. Everything now was activity. Each man seemed
to know his work and to be busy about it. The Company manager had
general charge over the embarkation of the cargo, and certainly the
men under him were willing workers.
A long line of men passed over the narrow planks which lay between the
warehouses and across the muddy flats to the deep water where the
boats lay. Each man carried on his shoulders a load which would have
staggered the ordinary porter. All went at a sort of trot, so that the
cargo was being moved rapidly indeed. It was obvious that these
half-breeds, but now so lazy and roistering, were very able indeed
when it came to the matter of work, and easy to see that they were, as
Uncle Dick had said, the backbone of the fur trade of the North.
One after another a young half-breed would come hurrying down the
street, his hair close cut and his face well washed, wearing all the
finery for which he had been able to get credit, now that he had a
prospect of wages coming in erelong. The resident population joined
those idling about the warehouses and the boat-yard, for this was the
greatest event of the year for them, with one exception--that is, the
return of the much smaller brigade bearing the fur down from the
northern country. This would come in the fall. Now it was spring, and
the great fur brigade of the Company was starting north on its savage
annual journey.
Here and there among these were strange faces also to be of the
north-bound company now embarking. Good Father Le Fèvre passed among
them all, speaking to this or that man of the half-breeds pleasantly,
they having each a greeting for him in turn. This was by no means his
first trip with the brigade, and hundreds of the natives knew him.
The boys stood wondering at the enormous loads which these men carried
from the warehouses out to the boats. Here a man might have on his
back a great slab of side-meat weighing more than a hundred and fifty
pounds, and on top of that a sack of flour or so. It was not unusual
to see a slight young chap carrying a load of two or three hundred
pounds, and some of the older and more powerful men engaged in a proud
sort of rivalry among themselves, shouldering and carrying out
literally enormous loads. It was said of one of these men that he once
had carried a cook-stove weighing five hundred pounds on his back from
the boat landing up the hill to one of the posts, a distance of many
hundred yards.
"Well, at this rate," said Rob, after a time, "it won't take long
before we'll be loaded and on our way. These men are simply wonders.
Aren't they?"
Uncle Dick nodded his quiet assent.
"Our boat's getting loaded, too," said Jesse, pointing to where the
_Midnight Sun_ stood swinging in the current. "Look at them fill her
up."
It was true; the factor in charge of the embarkation-work was checking
out the cargo for each boat. Each scow had its number, and that number
was credited to a certain fur-post along the great route to the mouth
of the Mackenzie River. The supplies intended for each boat,
therefore, went into the proper boats. All the cargo intended for
Uncle Dick's party was marked in black, "M. S.," in courtesy to the
name of this boat, the _Midnight Sun_, which carried no number at all.
"We'll not go as heavily loaded as some of the others," Uncle Dick
explained, "although it is only courteous that we should take all we
can, since transportation is so hard. We need only enough to take us
to the mouth of the river and over the Rat Portage to the Yukon. Of
course we'll forget all about our boat when we get below the rapids,
but they'll tow her down alongside the steamer.
"I have told you," he went on, "that this is a starving country. Now
you can see why. They can't possibly carry into that far-away region
as much stuff as they need to eat and to wear. The Company does the
best it can, and so do all these mission men do the best they can.
"Now you see how the brigade goes north--not in birch-bark canoes, but
in scows, to-day. The scow has even taken the place of the old York
boat. That was the boat which they formerly used on the Saskatchewan
and some of these rivers for their up-stream work. It's a good deal
like a Mackinaw boat. You'll see here, too, one or two scows with
blunt ends, such as they call the 'sturgeon' nose. They tow a little
easier than the square-ended scow. But these new square-facers are
the best things in the world for going down-stream with the current."
"Hadn't we better get our packs ready?" asked Rob, methodical as ever.
"Yes," replied their leader, "you ought to get the bed rolls made up
and the tent in its bag before very long. I don't think we'll be
started a great while before sundown, but we'll get ready.
"It's enough to get ready," he continued. "Don't carry your own stuff
down to the boats."
"Why not?" asked John, curiously. "We can do it easily enough."
"Well, you're in another sort of country now," said Uncle Dick to him,
quietly. "Follow customs of the country. You must remember that the
Hudson's Bay Company is a very old monopoly, and it has its own ways.
Always it treats the natives as though they were children and it was
the Great Father. A factor is a sort of king up here. He wouldn't
think of carrying a pound of his own luggage for anything in the
world. If he began that sort of thing the natives would not respect
him as their _bourgeois_."
"_Bourgeois?_ What does that mean?" asked John, again.
"Well, about the same as boss, I suppose. It's always necessary in
dealing with ignorant and savage peoples to take the attitude that you
are the boss, and that they are to do what you tell them. If you get
too familiar or lower yourself too much with primitive people, they
don't respect you, because they think you're afraid of them.
"Now, that has always been the custom of the Hudson's Bay Company in
this work. In the old days, when things were more autocratic, when a
factor went on a journey his people picked him up and carried him into
his boat, and when he went ashore they picked him up and carried him
out again. If anybody got wet or tired or hungry be sure it wasn't the
boss!
"You see, young gentlemen, while I don't want you, of all things in
the world, ever to be snobbish, I do want you to be observant. So just
take this advice from me, and let these men do your work right at the
start. They expect it, and they will treat you all the better--and of
course you will treat them well."
"Who is that old pirate standing over there by the boat landing?"
asked Jesse, presently, pointing to a tall, dark, and sinewy man with
full black beard, who seemed to have a certain authority among the
laborers.
"That's Cap. Shott. I've told you that he was the first man who ever
ran the Grand Rapids of the Athabasca River. His real name is Louis
Faisoneure. He's seventy-seven years old, but still he likes to go
down with the brigade, part way at least.
"The quiet young man just beyond him is his son, François. He is the
real captain--or commodore, as they call it--of the brigade, and has
been for several years. He'll be the steersman on our boat, so that in
one way you might say that the _Midnight Sun_, although not a Company
boat, will pretty much be the flag-ship of the brigade this year.
They're treating us as well as they know how, and I must say we'll
have no cause to complain."
"Cap. Shott," as they nicknamed him, did indeed have a piratical look,
as John had said. He stood more than six and a half feet in his
moccasins, and was straight as an arrow, with the waist of a boy. His
face was dark, his eyebrows very heavy and black, and his dark, full
beard, his scant trousers held up with a brilliant scarf, and his
generally ferocious appearance, gave him a peculiarly wild and
outlandish look, although personally he was gentle as a child.
"Well, Cap. Shott," said Uncle Dick, approaching him, "we start
to-day, eh?"
"Mebbe so, _oui_," replied the old man. "We load h'all the boats
bimeby now. Yes, pretty soon bimeby we start, mebbe so, _oui_."
"Well," said Uncle Dick, smiling, as he turned to the boys, "that's
about as definite as you can get anything. We'll start when we start!
Just get your stuff ready to be embarked and tell the manager where it
is. It will be on board all right."
"But what makes them start so late in the day?" demanded John, who was
of an investigative turn of mind. "I should think the morning was the
right time to start."
"Not so the great fur brigade," was his answer. "Nor was it the custom
in the great fur brigades which went out with pack-trains from the
Missouri in our own old days when there were buffalo and beaver. A
short start was made on the first day, usually toward evening. Then
when camp was made everything was overhauled, and if anything had been
left behind it was not too far to send back to get it. Nearly always
it was found that something had been overlooked.
"Now that's the way we'll do here, so they tell me. We'll run down the
river a few miles, each boat as it is loaded, and then we'll make a
landing. That will give each boat captain time to look over his stuff
and his men--and, what is more, it will give each man time to run in
across country and get a few last drinks. Some of them will come back
to be confessed by their priest. Some will want to send supplies to
their families who are left behind. On one excuse or another every man
of the brigade will be back here in town to-night if we should start!
Of course by to-morrow morning they'll be on hand again bright and
early and ready for the voyage. You see, there are customs up here
with which we have not been acquainted before."
It came out precisely as Uncle Dick had said. Very late in the
afternoon--late by the clock, though not so late by the sun, which at
this latitude sank very late in the west--there came a great shouting
and outcry, followed by firing of guns, much as though a battle were
in progress. Men, hurrying and crying excitedly as they ran, went
aboard the boats. One after another the mooring-ropes were cast off.
The poles and oars did their work, and slowly, piecemeal, but in a
vast aggregate, the great Mackenzie brigade was on its way!
The first boat of the fleet, as had been predicted, ran no more than
three or four miles before it pulled ashore at a landing-place which
seemed well known to all. Here the scows came in slowly and clumsily,
but without disorder and without damage, until the entire bank for a
half-mile was turned into a sort of shipyard of its own.
Here and there men were working the little wooden pumps, because for
the first day or two the scows were sure to leak.
The boys made their own camp that night aboard the boat. At each end
was a short deck, and that in the rear offered space for their blanket
beds. Rob undertook to sleep on top of the cargo under the edge of the
great tarpaulin which covered all. They had their little Yukon stove,
which accompanied them, and on the front deck, where a box of earth
had been provided, they set this up and did their own cooking, as they
preferred.
In the morning Father Le Fèvre paddled over to them in a canoe from
his own scow.
"_Bon jour_, gentlemen!" said he. "I called to ask you if you would
not like to have breakfast with us. Sister Eloise is known for her
skill in cookery."
The leader of our little party accepted with great cheerfulness, so
that they all climbed into the canoe, and presently were alongside the
mission scow. All over the great fleet of scows everything now was
silent. Each boat had its watchman, but he alone, of all the crew,
had remained aboard.
"My poor children!" said Father Le Fèvre, smiling as he looked about
him. "They indeed are like children. Presently they will come. Then we
shall see."
Our young travelers now became acquainted with yet others of the
north-bound party. Sister Eloise, stout and good-natured, proved
herself all that had been promised as a cook.
"Yes, yes, she has gone north before," said the good Father. "But
always she has fear of the water. When we go on the rapids Sister
Eloise knits or tells her beads or reads--very hard indeed she reads
or knits or prays! She is afraid, but does not like me to know it,"
and his eye twinkled as he spoke.
"Sister Vincent de Paul goes north for the first time," he said,
smiling now at the other of the gray-habited nuns who found themselves
in these strange surroundings. "She is called to Fort Resolution, and
may stay there for some years. We do not know.
"And here," he added, pulling up by the ear a swarthy little boy who
seemed more Indian than white, "this we will call Charl'. We are
taking him back to his father, who is the factor at Resolution. His
mother is native woman, as you see, and this boy has been at Montreal
for two years at school. _Eh bien_, Charl', you will be good boy now?
If not I shall tell your papa!
"You see," he explained to the others who now for the first time were
getting some acquaintance of this mission-work, "we try to do the best
we know, and to make life easier for these people in the Far North. It
is a hard fortune that they have. Always they starve--never have they
enough. And every year the great brigade goes north so that they may
last yet another year."
Presently there came down overland to the fleet yet other men who made
part of the strange, wild company. Cap. Shott, friendly and paternal
in his way, brought on for introduction to the party the Dominion
judge, who every year goes north to settle the legal disputes which
may have arisen at the several posts for a considerable distance to
the north. The judge had with him his clerk and secretary, and there
was also a commissioner, as well as another official, a member of the
Indian Department, who was bound north to pay the tribesmen their
treaty money.
There came also the wife of a member of the Anglican Church, which, as
well as the Catholic Church, has missions all along the great waterway
almost to the Arctic Sea. So that, as may be seen, the personnel of
the brigade that year was of varied and interesting composition.
All came out as Uncle Dick and Father Le Fèvre had said--by the time
breakfast was over the half-breed boatmen began to come down at a trot
overland from the town. Few of them had slept. All of them had been
drinking most of the night. They came with their heads tied up, their
eyes red, each man looking uncomfortable, but they all went aboard and
made ready for their work. Father Le Fèvre shook his head as he looked
at them.
"Too bad, too bad, my children!" said he, "but you will not learn, you
will not learn at all. However, two days on the river and your heads
will be more clear. Providence has arranged, I presume, that there
shall be two or three days' travel between the landing and the Grand
Rapids. Else fewer of our boats would get through!"
As the scows swung out into the river, under no motive power excepting
that of the current, the men arranged themselves for the long journey,
each to suit himself, but under a loose sort of system of government.
At the long steering-sweep, made from a spruce pole twenty feet in
length, stood always the steersman, holding the scow straight in the
current. The ten tons of luggage was piled high in each scow, and all
covered with a great tarpaulin to protect the cargo of side-meat,
salt, sugar, flour, and steel traps, cloth, strouds, other rough
supplies, as well as the better stock of trade goods--prints, powder,
ball, rifles, matches, a scant supply of canned goods--and such other
additions to the original stock as modern demands instituted by the
independent traders for the most part had now made necessary in the
traffic with the tribes. That year, indeed, a few hand sewing-machines
went north, and some phonographs--things of wonder to the ignorant
native of that far-off land.
The progress of the boats, although steady, seemed very slow, and, as
there was no work to do, the men amused themselves as best they might.
There were several fiddlers in the fleet, and now and then, as the
_Midnight Sun_ swept down, well handled by the commodore, François,
they passed a scow on whose bow deck a scantily clad half-breed was
dancing to the music of the violin. Now and again across the water
came the curious droning song of the Cree steersmen, musical but wild.
The great brigade was off on its start for the long journey from the
Rockies to the icy sea, continuing one more year of the wild commerce
which had become a part of the land itself for more than a century
now.
"It's wonderful--wonderful!" said Rob, looking about him at the
strange scene on that morning of their first day of actual travel.
"I've never seen a thing more fascinating than this. I'm sure this is
going to be the best trip we've ever had.
"I tell you what," he added, a moment later, turning to the leader of
their little party, "I believe I'll try to keep a little diary for a
little while at least; it might be nice to have a few notes to refer
to. I doubt if any of us will ever make this trip again."
"An excellent idea!" said his uncle. "That's the way to get your
information soaked into your head. Write it down, and be careful what
you write. Your notes, together with John's maps, are things you will
prize very much indeed, later in life."
Rob, indeed, did fulfil his promise, beginning that very day, and
perhaps a few notes taken from his diary may be of interest, as
showing what actually happened as recorded by himself.
"_May 29th._--Off late. Ran three miles. Men went back to
town. Found sacks of sugar made a hard bed. Mosquitoes.
"_May 30th._--The grand start of the big brigade. Running
maybe four or five miles an hour. Banks getting lower.
Cottonwoods, some brûlée (burned-over forest). Supper 6 P.M.
Ran until 9.45 P.M. Damp camp.
"_May 31st._--Off at 6. In the morning men on the first boat
killed a cow moose and two calves. No game laws north of
53°. Men rejoice over meat. Eight mission scows in fleet,
which carry eight to ten tons each. Father Le Fèvre says,
except for whitefish, all northern missions would perish. At
2.15 stopped at Pelican Portage, at head of Pelican Rapids,
120 miles below the landing. Head winds yesterday, but
favorable now. Two boats collided, and one damaged. Saw two
dogs carrying packs--first pack-dogs I ever saw. Priest
baptized an Indian baby here. I suppose this is what the
brigade goes north for, in part. Lay here until 7 in the
evening, and then off for our first rapids, the Pelican.
Rough, but not so bad as Columbia Big Bend Rapids. An
eighteen-foot canoe would go through; twelve-foot doubtful.
Scows do it easily. Fast work close to the shore part of the
way. Men know their business. Some system to the brigade.
Camp at foot of rapids. Much excitement. Scows crowding one
another. Many mosquitoes.
"_June 1st, Sunday._--No travel to-day. All of the boatmen
are Catholics. The priest put up a little chapel and said
Mass. Curious scene to see all these half-savages kneeling,
hats off, on the ground. After Mass a good many of them got
their hair cut; one or two men can do barbering-work. The
judge and legal party played cards all the afternoon. John
seems to eat more than ever. A good many mosquitoes.
"_June 2d._--Off at 6, which seems regular starting-time.
Ashore for lunch 11.30. Slow and lazy work floating down,
but pleasant. Tied up at 6 for supper. Much excitement now,
as we are coming down to the head of Grand Island, where we
make the big portage. After supper made a mile or so through
shallow water among many rocks, to the head of the island.
It is low and rocky, covered with cottonwoods, should think
about a mile long, and not over half a mile wide. Very
fierce water to the left, with quiet water above. No boat
ever ran the left channel alive. Many lost here in the
Klondike; they went into that quiet and deep water on the
left and got caught. They say we will try to run the
right-hand side. Did not put up tent to-night, but slept
under mosquito tents. A hundred and sixty-five miles from
Athabasca Landing. Now we begin to feel as though we were to
see the real work."
IV
THE GRAND RAPIDS
It was much as Rob had predicted in the last entry of his diary
previously quoted. Uncle Dick hurried them through their breakfast.
"We'll see some fun to-day, boys," said he.
"How do you mean?" asked Jesse. "Are they going to try to run the
boats through?"
"They'll have to run the scows through light, so François tells me.
There isn't water enough to take them through loaded, so practically
each one will have to unship its cargo here.
"You see that wooden tramway running down the island?" He pointed
toward a crooked track laid roughly on cross-ties, the rails of wood.
"That is perhaps the least expensive railroad in the world, and the
one which makes the most money on its capital. I don't think it cost
the Company over eight hundred dollars. It couldn't be crookeder or
worse. And yet it pays for itself each year several times over, just
by the outside trade which it does!
"They built this railroad after the Klondike rush came through here.
Previous to that all the goods had to be taken over the 'short
portage'--you see that place over on the steep hillside at the right
side of the river--a mile and a half of it, and every pound of the
Company and Klondike baggage that went north had to be carried on
men's backs along that slippery footing. It was necessary to run these
rapids and to build this railroad. You will see how both ideas will
work to-day."
Some of the boats had been loaded so heavily that part of the cargo
had to be left above the shallow water--one more handling of the
freightage necessitated in the north-bound journey, but each boat,
carrying as much as could be floated, now came poling down through the
rocks to the head of the island.
The men, half in and half out of the water, began to unload this cargo
and to pile it in a great heap at the head of the wooden railroad.
There were two flat-cars, and rapidly these were loaded and pushed off
to the foot of the island, half or three-quarters of a mile. There
every pound of the baggage had to be unloaded once more, and after
that once more carried from the landing into the boats at the foot of
the island.
"Well, are they going to take the boats down on the cars, too?"
demanded Jesse.
"They have done that for others," answered Uncle Dick, "and charged
them ten dollars a boat for doing it, too. But as I said, we'll have
to run our scows down on the right-hand passage. That's the fun I was
talking about."
Rob came up to him now excitedly. "Tell me, Uncle Dick, can't I go
through--couldn't I go through with you in the very first boat?"
His uncle looked at him for a time soberly before he replied. "Well, I
don't like to mollycoddle any of you," said he, "but I'll tell you
what we'll do. We'll have to leave John and Jesse here on the island.
If François says it's safe I'll let you go through with me on the
first boat. It's no place for us to be in this country if we're going
to sidestep every little bit of risk there is. That isn't a manly
thing to do. But the other two boys will have to wait for a while.
"There's bad news," he said to Rob, a little later, aside. "Word has
just come up by canoe from the Long Rapids below here that four men
were drowned day before yesterday. They were going down to McMurray,
and although they had a native pilot they got overturned in the
rapids and couldn't get out. The Mounted Police are looking for the
bodies now."
It was with rather sober faces that our young travelers now watched
the boatmen at their portage-work, although the latter themselves were
cheerful as always, and engaged, as before, in friendly rivalry in
feats of strength. Everything was confusion, yet there was a sort of
system in it, after all, for each man was busy throughout the long
hours of the day. As a scow came in its cargo was rapidly taken out,
as rapidly piled up ashore, and quite as rapidly flung on top of the
flat-cars for transport across the great portage.
Our young adventurers saw with interest that a good many of the
boatmen were quite young, boys of fifteen, sixteen, and eighteen years
of age. Some of these latter did the full work of a man, and one
slight chap of seventeen, with three sacks of flour, and another youth
of his own weight on top of it all, stood for a time supporting a
staggering weight of several hundred pounds while Jesse fumbled with
his camera to make a picture of him.
At about eleven o'clock in the morning of the second day Uncle Dick
came to Rob and drew him aside.
[Illustration: AN ENCAMPMENT OF ESKIMOS ON THE BEACH AT FORT
McPHERSON]
"The first boat is going through," said he. "François will take it
down. It's a Company scow with about a quarter of its cargo left in.
Cap. Shott says it is all right. Are you still of a mind to go, or do
you want to stay here?"
"Not at all, sir!" rejoined Rob, stoutly. "I'll go through, of
course."
So presently they both stepped into the lightly loaded scow which lay
at the head of the island. The men consisted of the steersman,
François; a bowman, Pierre; and four oarsmen. They all were stripped
to trousers and shirts. At a word from François the boat pushed out,
the men poling it through the maze of rocks at the head of the island
to a certain point at the head of the right-hand channel where the
current steadied down over a wide and rather open piece of water.
The bowman carried in his hand a long lance-like shaft or pole, and
stood with it upon the short bow deck. At the stern of the boat there
was a plank laid across which acted as a bridge for the commodore,
François, who walked back and forward across it as he worked his great
steering-oar, which ran out at the back of the scow.
If the men had any anxiety about their undertaking, they did not show
it. François smoked calmly. It was to be noted that Cap. Shott did
not go through on the first boat, but remained on the shore. The skill
of his wild calling had been passed down to the next generation.
François at last gave a short word or so of command in Cree. The
oarsmen straightened out the boat. François motioned now to all the
occupants to keep to the side, so that he would have a clear view
ahead.
Little by little, as the current caught it, the scow began to slip on
faster and faster. By and by waves began to come up alongside, almost
to the gunwale. Rob had the vague impression that this boat was made
of astonishingly thin boards, and that the water made a great noise
upon it. Under the oars it creaked and strained and seemed very frail.
The men were silent now, but eager. François, pipe in mouth, was very
calm as he stood at the oar, his eyes fixed straight ahead.
About half-way down the side of the island came the most dangerous
part of the run. Suddenly the bowman sprang erect and cried out
something in Cree, pointing sharply almost at right angles to the
course of the boat. François gave a few quick orders and the oarsmen
swung hard upon one side. The head of the scow swung slowly into the
current. The channel here, however, passed between two great
boulders, over the lower one of which the river broke in a high white
wave. It was the duty of the steersman to swing the boat between these
giant rocks, almost straight across the course of the river, a feat of
extreme difficulty with such a craft or indeed with any craft. This
was the bad place in the channel always known as "The Turn."
It seemed to Rob as if the whole river now was eager to accomplish
their destruction. He was certain that the scow would be dashed upon
the rocks and wrecked.
It was dashed upon the rocks! The turn was not made quite
successfully, because of the too great weight of the cargo left in
this boat. With a crash the scow ran high up on the lower rock, and
lay there, half out of water, apparently the prey of the savage river.
Rob felt a hand laid upon his shoulder.
"Steady, old chap!" said Uncle Dick. "Keep quiet now. We're still
afloat."
This accident seemed to be something for which the men were not
altogether unprepared. If they were alarmed they did not show it.
There were a few quick words in Cree, to be sure, but each man went
about his work methodically. Under the orders of François they shifted
the cargo now to the floating side of the boat. All of the men except
two or three pole-men took that side also. Then, under command, with
vast heaving and prying on the part of the pole-men, to the surprise
of Rob at least, the boat began to groan and creak, but likewise to
slide and slip. Little by little it edged down into the current, until
the bow was caught by the sudden sweep of the water beyond and the
entire craft swung free and headed down once more! It seemed to these
new-comers as an extraordinary piece of river work, and such indeed it
was. A stiffer boat than this loose-built scow might have broken its
back and lost its cargo, and all its crew as well. As it was, this
boat went on down-stream, carrying safely all its contents.
Rob drew a long breath, but he would not show to the men any sign that
he had been afraid.
Here and there among the rocks the oarsmen, under the commands of the
steersman, picked their way, the lower half of the passage being much
more rapid. On ahead, the river seemed to bend sharply to the left.
Now Rob saw once more the bowman spring to his feet on his short
forward deck. Calling out excitedly, he pointed far to the left with
his shaft. Rob looked on down-stream, and there, a mile and a half
below, he saw erected against a high bank a diamond-shaped frame or
target. At this the bowman was pointing directly with his lance. It
was the target put up there after the Klondike disasters by the
Mounted Police, and indicated the course of the safe channel at the
lower end of the chute.
François, pipe in mouth, calmly swung his sinewy body against the
steering-oar. The bow of the boat crawled around to the left, far off
from the island, toward the shore, where was a toboggan-like pitch of
very fast but safe water for a distance of some hundreds of yards.
As they entered the head of this chute, the bowman still crouching
with his pole poised, it seemed to Rob that he heard shouts and cries
from the island, where, indeed, all those left behind were gathered in
a body, waiting for the first boat in the annual brigade to go
through--something of an event, as they regarded it.
But Rob's eyes were on ahead. He saw the boat hold its course straight
as an arrow toward the great target on the farther bank. With
astonishing speed it coasted down the last incline of the Grand
Rapids. Then, under the skilful handling of steersman and oarsmen, the
boat swung to the right, around a sort of promontory which extended
around the right-hand bank. Rob looked around at Uncle Dick, who was
curiously regarding him. But neither spoke, for both of them knew the
etiquette of the wilderness--not to show excitement or uneasiness in
any unusual or dangerous circumstances.
François, who had narrowly regarded his young charge, now smiled at
him.
"Dot leetle boy, she is good man," he said to Uncle Dick. "He'll is
not got some scares."
Rob did not tell him whether or not this was the exact truth, but only
smiled in turn.
"Well, here we are," said he. "But what good does it do us? There's
the foot of the island up there, three or four hundred yards away at
least. And how can we get a boat up against these rapids, I'd like to
know? Right here is where both the big chutes join. It would take a
steamboat to get up there."
François, who understood a little English, did not vouchsafe any
explanation, but only smiled, and Uncle Dick gravely motioned silence
as well. Rob could see the eyes of François fixed out midstream, and,
following his gaze, he presently saw some dark object bobbing about
out there, going slowly down-stream.
"Look, Uncle Dick!" he cried. "What's that? It looks like a seal."
The latter shook his head. "No seals in here," said he. "That must be
a log."
"So it is," said Rob. "But look at it--it's stopped now."
No one explained to him what all this meant. François sprang to his
steering-oar and gave some swift orders. The boat swung out from the
bank, and under the sweeps made straight out midstream, where the
black object now bobbed at the edge of the slack water. Rob could see
what had stopped it now--it was made fast by a long rope, which was in
turn made fast somewhere up-stream, he could not tell where.
With a swift pass of his pole the bowman caught the rope as the boat
swung near. Rapidly he pulled in the short log and made fast the rope
to the bow of the boat. The scow now swung into the current, its head
pointed up-stream, and hung stationary there, supported against the
current by some unseen power. To Rob's surprise, the oarsmen now took
in their oars.
"Well, now, what's going to happen?" he asked of Uncle Dick.
But the latter only shook his head and motioned for silence.
Slowly but steadily the scow now began to ascend the river, to breast
the white waters which came rolling down, to surmount the full force
of the current of the Athabasca River in its greatest rapids!
Rob glanced on ahead. He could see a long line of men bending under
the great rope which had been floated down to them in this curious
way. They walked inshore, steadily following the line of the railroad
track for almost a quarter of a mile, as it seemed to the other boys
who watched this proceeding ashore.
Steadily the boat climbed up the river, and now, with the aid of the
oarsmen and the steersman, it finally came to rest at a sheltered
little cove at the foot of the island, in slack water, where the
landing was good and cargo could easily be transhipped.
Rob and his older companions stepped ashore, and each smiled as he
looked at the other.
"Don't tell me, son," said Uncle Dick, "that these people don't know
their business! That's the finest thing I've ever seen in rough-neck
engineering in all my life--and I've seen some outdoor work, too."
He stood now looking up the white water down which they had come, and
at the rough hillside beyond where the old portage had lain in earlier
days.
"It's the only way it could have been done!" said he. "You see, these
fellows don't carry a pound that they don't have to, but they don't
risk losing a cargo by trying to run through with full load when the
water won't allow it. They don't get rattled and they know their
business. It's fine--fine!"
"That's what it is, sir," said Rob. "I never saw better fun in all my
life."
By this time Jesse and John came running up, and the boys fell into
one another's arms, asking a dozen questions all at once.
"Weren't you awfully scared?" said Jesse, somewhat awed at Rob's
accomplishment.
"Well," said Rob, truthfully, "I did a good deal of thinking when we
went fast on that rock out there in the middle. That was pretty bad."
"Uncle Dick," called out John, excitedly now. "Say, now, it's no fair
for Rob to go through and us others not. Can't we go with the next
boat?"
Uncle Dick stood looking at them quietly for a time, his hands in his
pockets.
"You wait awhile," said he. "There'll be forty or fifty boats going
through here. Time enough later to see whether it's safe for you two
youngsters to risk it."
V
WHITE-WATER DAYS
For three days the work of portaging on the Grand Island continued
steadily, boat after boat going down to the head of the island to
discharge, then taking the run through the channel of the right-hand
side. Some excitement was shown when in the still water at the head of
the murderous left-hand chute, which never was attempted by the
_voyageurs_, a roll of bedding with a coat tied to it was seen
floating in the current. It was supposed that somewhere up the river
an accident had occurred, but, as it was impossible to tell when or
where, no attempt was made to solve the mystery, and the labor of
advancing the brigade northward went on without further delay.
As the boys watched the river-men at their hard and heavy work, they
came more and more to respect them. Throughout long hours of
labor--and in this northern latitude the sun did not set until after
nine o'clock--there was never a surly word or a complaint heard from
any of them.
John, who seemed to care for facts and figures, began to ask about the
wages which these men received for this hard labor. He was told that
they were paid by the trip from Athabasca Landing to McMurray, which
covered the bad water to the head of steamboat transport. The
steersmen for the round trip received about eighty dollars and their
board, and the river-men forty to fifty dollars. All walked back
across country, a shorter distance than that by water. Some of the men
had along on the scows the large dogs which they used in the
winter-time, and which they now purposed to employ in packing a part
of their loads on the return journey.
John also discovered that the cargo of a scow averaged about
twenty-five hundred dollars in value, and that it would cost sometimes
almost a third of that amount to deliver the freight at its
destination. For instance, the charge of the Hudson's Bay Company for
freight from Athabasca Landing to Fort McPherson was thirteen dollars
and fifty cents per hundred pounds. For the use of the little railroad
a quarter of a mile in length on the island itself the charge to
outsiders was one dollar a ton, and ten dollars for every boat taken
across on the cars.
All the boys now began to learn more of the extreme risk and waste of
this, the north-bound transit. It was not unusual, as they learned,
for a scow to be lost with all its cargo, in which case the post for
which it was destined would need to go without supplies until the
brigade came north in the following year. Damage to goods from
wetting, damage to boats from collisions--all these things went into
the large figures of cost which were to be set against the figures of
the large gain in this commerce of the Far North.
John got many of his figures from the Hudson's Bay Company clerk, a
young man stationed here on Grand Island throughout the season, who
was very friendly to all the strangers in the country. He expressed
himself as very glad to see the brigade come north, for it was the
only interesting time in his season's work. He and one associate
remained here, cut off from the world, all through the summer season,
and he was not very happy, although, as he said, he was president and
general traffic-manager, as well as superintendent and board of
directors, of his railroad, and section boss as well. His duties were
to have general charge of the transport of cargoes at the island, and
to keep a record of the day's doings.
Boat after boat now went through, as has been said, but without
accident, although one or two hung up at The Turn, as the dangerous
passage between the two great rocks in midstream now was called by
all. Below that, as Rob expressed it, the bottom dropped out of the
river and the boat traveled very fast.
John timed some of the boats through, and found that it took about
eight minutes from the head of the eddy to the bottom of the chute.
This Rob could hardly believe, as he said that when he went through it
seemed not more than two minutes at the outside.
John and Jesse grew very grumpy over the prestige Rob had gained by
his journey through the rapids, and besought Uncle Dick to allow them
also to make the passage. Late in the third day, when most of the
boats were through, they renewed their importunities, and he finally
replied:
"Well, young men, I've about concluded to let you go through with the
last boat. François says that he has been watching you all, and
believes that you would not get 'some scares.' He says he will take
you through in your own boat, which will be the last one of the
brigade. The river has come up three or four inches since we struck
in, and he says we can run through without unshipping much, if any, of
our cargo, which doesn't amount to very much. Rob has made the trip,
and I figure now that we are all in the same boat together. Sometimes
it is necessary to be either a man or a mouse. I want to see you grow
up men. Well, are you ready now?"
All the boys gladly said that they were, Rob insisting on accompanying
the boat once more, as indeed was necessary, since there would be no
transport after that.
They took ship at the head of the island, and were tooled across the
shallow water to the head of the rapids on the farther shore. Here the
men all disembarked and sat silently along the edge of the bluff,
taking one of the pipe-smokes which make so regular a part of the
_voyageur's_ day's employment. They seemed to get some sort of comfort
out of their pipes, and almost invariably when undertaking any
dangerous enterprise a quiet smoke was a part of the preparation.
François talked to them, meantime, seeing that they were eager to
learn about the customs of this strange and wild country into which
they now were going. He told them, motioning to the steep hillside on
the right of the channel, that in the old times he used to pack stuff
across the mile-and-a-half portage there for fifty cents a hundred
pounds. It was hard work, and yet he made it pay. When they began to
portage on the island, and not along the mountain-side, he had made as
much as fifty dollars a day, for he got five dollars for taking a boat
through the rapids, or thirty dollars for running it down to Fort
McPherson; so that a season's work would bring him, in very good
years, over a thousand dollars, if he worked.
"But yong man, she spend the mon'," said he, smiling.
John set down in his book the facts and figures, the date of 1871,
which was the time when old Cap. Shott first ran a boat through the
Grand Rapids. Since that time a few other pilots had come on who
proved able to handle scows in white water. But old Cap. Shott
and his long-time friend, Louis La Vallee, were now both of them
old--"h'almost h'eighty year, she is, each of him," said François.
"Well, now," he added at length, "we will ron h'on the _rapide_."
He rose and motioned to his men, who once more took their places at
the oars, as they had in the boat which carried Rob through. Again the
bowman squatted on his short fore deck. François, the steersman,
stood on his plank walk at the handle of the great steering-oar.
Gently they pushed out from shore, the last boat of the brigade.
"Here goes the _Midnight Sun_!" cried Jesse, waving his hat.
Uncle Dick watched them closely as the boat advanced. The boys spoke
little or not at all, and John later accused Jesse of trying to pinch
a piece out of the side of the boat, he held on so tight. But not one
of them showed the white feather, nor made any trouble for the men in
their work of running the fast water.
The boat at first ran along gently, the little waves lapping along the
sides smartly, but not excitingly. Then at the end of the lower third
the water gained in speed very much. At The Turn the waves were no
doubt ten feet high. François, with a great sweep of his oar, fairly
flung the boat athwart the current here, and the passage was made with
no more than a scraping on the dangerous lower rock--the one which
Uncle Dick called Scylla. The upper one he called Charybdis.
"You'll learn what those two words mean when you go to school a little
later," said he, smiling.
Once beyond The Turn John and Jesse understood perfectly well what
Rob had meant by saying that the bottom fell out of the river. They
were excited, but had no thought of fear by the time they entered the
last chute where the scow tobogganed down to the foot of the island. A
moment later it was at rest once more in the eddy below the
promontory.
Rob explained now about the log float which had carried the rope down
to their boat when he first went through. There was, however, no
longer need for the float to carry down a line to the boat. The
brigade was through and the last scow below the island. The clerk and
his taciturn companion were left alone. They stood now, both of them,
waving their hats to the occupants of the _Midnight Sun_ as, after a
little, at the command of François, she pushed out from the eddy and
took her place in the long procession of the north-bound brigade,
every man of which now felt a sense of relief, since the most
dangerous part of the early journey, the portage of the Grand Rapids
of the Athabasca, had been safely accomplished.
The flotilla was now strung out over many miles of water, but it was
the intention to make several miles additional before stopping for the
night. In the late twilight, here strangely long and bright, Rob went
on with his notes in his diary, while John worked at his map, charting
as best he could the right-hand channel through which they had made
their exciting journey. Rob's notes later proved of interest to his
friends, as they explained very much about the journey of this
dangerous two hundred and fifty miles of the white-water transport.
"_Wednesday, June 4th._--Everybody busy all day. At 5 P.M.
most of the freight on the island, and getting loaded on
cars. Slept in the little mosquito tents. Very busy day.
"_Thursday, June 5th._--Many pictures to-day, and we all
were busy. Curious work running boats through the rapids and
getting boat back to end of island. I think that rope that
they let down to the boat is almost a quarter of a mile
long. It takes twenty men or more to haul a boat up against
the rapids, empty, of course.
"Off in the _Midnight Sun_ below the island late afternoon.
Ran the little Grand Rapids, and swung into the Second Eddy
for supper. After that ran seven miles. Camp ground very
bad. Mosquitoes getting worse.
"_Friday, June 6th._--A great many rapids to-day. The
Buffalo seems mild to us after the Grand. The Brûlé Rapids
we liked because they had some pep to them. At about 3 P.M.
we hit the Boiler Rapids, which is one of the worst. Name
because a scow was lost here that was carrying a boiler up
north. The boiler has never been recovered. Rapids full of
boulders, and in low water very bad. Not very dangerous at
this stage. Everybody was still as we went through this
place and came into what they called the Rapids of the
Drowned. They say a great many men have been drowned there,
and it certainly looked bad. These two rapids are about a
mile and a half altogether.
"Four boats were tied back because not everybody can run
these rapids. Our boat was in the lead. Then four pilots
walked back to bring through the boats which had been held
up. We made pictures of them as they came through. Supper at
5 as we floated along, and then we dropped into the Middle
Rapids and had a beautiful time.
"One or two canoes ran through with breeds. Pretty exciting.
They say few of these breeds can swim, but they don't seem
to mind that. Saw several wrecks of scows along the shores
here, and one boat upset in the middle of the rapids. Some
machinery on shore below rapids, very rusty. Begin to
understand why freight comes high. Sometimes half a cargo is
wasted or lost. No farms, no horses, no cows. A good game
country. They say the game and fish keep the white men
alive. The little boy Charl' keeps with the good Sisters. He
was scared going through the rapids, and so were they.
"On the Long Rapids, as we passed through, we saw the fresh
grave of one of the men who was drowned here the other day.
Only one body was found. Their canoe was all broken up.
"On the Crooked Rapids we saw where the men have to track
the boats going up-stream. Don't see how they keep from
falling off the bank. Below the Crooked come the Stony
Rapids, and what the boatmen call the Dive, a sudden dip
down of three or four feet. Sometimes boats ship seas.
Scenery this evening bold and interesting. Some cliffs. Fast
water all day. Camp at 8 o'clock on a good high bluff.
Mosquitoes not quite so bad. Nights cool. This ended the
most glorious day I ever spent out of doors, I believe.
"_Saturday, June 7th._--Beautiful weather. Passed cliffs
where they say there is oil. I don't know. We heard heavy
rapids below, and at 7 A.M. got into them. They call this
the Little Cascade. A ledge runs across the river. At 9
o'clock we came to one of the big jumps on the river known
as the Grand Cascade. About the worst man-trap there is in
low water, they say. We concluded to run her. Our boat goes
first. Some boats tie back to wait for our pilots. There are
three good pilots to eight boats. Many pictures of boats
running the Cascade, which drops eight or ten feet like a
mill-dam. Wonderful what these men can do with the boat.
"Now three or four small rapids which I don't mind, then at
11.45 we struck Mountain Rapids, which made little Charl'
'get some scares,' as François says. Sometimes we eat on the
boat. I asked Father Le Fèvre if he had prayed for high
water, and he said yes. Then I asked him what he did if high
water didn't come. He said, 'My son, although in that case
I prayed for high water, perhaps God likewise took another
way to show His power, and so saved us out of even greater
danger and discomfort.' He's a bird.
"The Moberly Rapids don't amount to much. We ran them at
1.30--the last on the great chain of rapids, so they say. In
about fifteen minutes we could see Fort McMurray on ahead.
Many scows were lying along the shore, mostly loaded, some
empty. Climbed up a steep hill to a fine flat on top of the
bluff. Woods all around. A fine site for a town, and the
Indians have it. The flat was covered with tepees, also some
tents. There were dogs and dogs and babies and babies
everywhere, with squaws and Indian men walking around all
dressed up in their best. The Indian agent is going to pay
their treaty money. It is only eight hundred and fifty
dollars altogether--not very much, I think. Hear a lot of
talk about lands and towns and railroads and oil.
"There are some Chippewyans here, and a lot of Crees, but
these northern Indians don't speak the Cree language. Got
my moccasins mended. Made some pictures. The _Grahame_ is
the name of the H. B. steamboat which is going to take us
down the river from here. We will tow our scow and sleep on
the steamboat. Monday morning is when we start.
"_Sunday, June 8th._--The treaty payment goes on, although
it is Sunday. Indian men sitting down on the grass before
the commissioner. He asks each one what right he has to
claim money from the Great Father, I suppose. Once in a
while he turns to the clerk and says, 'We'll give this old
duffer twenty bucks.' This doesn't look to me like very much
money. I don't think they get much help. They are poor and
dependent. If they couldn't rustle well out of doors they
all would die. Much trade finery among the natives, who
dress very bright. Several Northwest Mounted Policemen in
red-jacket uniform who go north with us on the boat. She is
going to be crowded. The judge and his party are going on
the scows.
"Well, this is the end of the scow-work for us, so it seems.
Uncle Dick thinks we will be more comfortable on the
steamer, and will see more people to talk to than if we
stuck to our own scow. We will tow her alongside. I hope
they will let us run through the Smith's Landing portage, on
the Little Slave, a hundred miles below here. I never had a
better time in my life than the first 250 miles. The
mosquitoes don't bother us quite so much. John eats a great
deal, and Jesse is getting fat. Having a bully time."
VI
ON THE STEAMBOAT
As Rob indicated in his diary, the start from McMurray was made early
on Monday morning, but the stop was long enough for the boys to gain
an idea of the importance of this busy frontier settlement. Here also
came in the Clearwater River, down which, by way of a chain of lakes,
all the brigade traffic used to come before the discovery that the
Grand Rapids themselves could be run. When it is remembered that the
start was made from Athabasca Landing on May 29th, and the arrival at
McMurray on June 7th, it will be seen that, crude as the system and
the means of transport had been, a great deal of results had been
attained. Rob figured that at the rate of two hundred and fifty miles
a week they would not get very far, but Uncle Dick pointed out that
now, since they had reached steamer transport, the journey would
advance very rapidly.
The steamboat, after its start, passed the string of scows, among
which were some boats of independent traders, and a few hardy
adventurers bound north, for what purpose they hardly knew.
The _Grahame_ advanced steadily and rapidly down-stream. Some of the
passengers excitedly tried to point out to Uncle Dick the value of the
oil-lands in this part of the world, but Uncle Dick only smiled and
said he was out for a good time, and not building railroads now.
The weather grew quite warm, and in the state-rooms the boys found
that the thermometer stood at ninety degrees. With one stop for wood
at a yard where the natives had piled up enormous quantities of
cordwood, the boat tied up after making perhaps sixty miles.
On the following day she continued her steady progress down-stream
between the green-lined shores. The banks of the river now grew lower
and lower, and by nine o'clock in the evening, at which time it still
was light, there began to show the marshes of the Peace River Delta,
one of the most important deltas in all the world. The boat ran on
into the night, and before midnight had passed the mouths of the
Quatre Fourches, or Four Forks, which make the mouth of the Peace
River.
The boys wondered at the great marshes which now they saw, and Uncle
Dick explained to them that here was one of the greatest wild-fowl
breeding-grounds in all the world.
"If there were any way in the world for sportsmen to get up here,"
said he, "this country would soon be famous, for it certainly is a
wilderness. Here is where the natives shoot wild geese for their
winter's meat. And as for ducks, there is no numbering them."
Every one sat on the decks of the boat late at night, and we may rest
assured that the boys were on hand when finally the _Grahame_ swung to
her moorings along the rocky shore of historic Fort Chippewyan.
In the morning they went ashore eagerly and gazed with wonderment over
the wild scene which lay all about. The point where they landed was a
rocky promontory. Before it lay high, rocky islands, among which ran
the channels of the two great rivers which here met in the great
waters of Athabasca Lake.
"Just to think," said Rob to his friends, "this post here was founded
a hundred and forty-three years ago. My, but I'd have liked to have
been with old Sir Alexander at that time! He ought to have a monument
here, it seems to me, or some sort of tablet; but there isn't a thing
to tell about his having found this place or done anything
extraordinary."
"I wonder how much these natives here are going to get in the way of
treaty money," said John, as he saw the commissioner again putting up
his tent with the flag of his country above it. "There are a lot of
canoes coming in from everywhere, so they say--fifty Cree boats from
their camp. They tell me that the Crees and Chippewyans don't mix any
too well. I think the Crees have got them scared when it comes to
that."
"Well, these dogs have got me scared," complained Jesse. "I never saw
so many dogs in all my life. And there isn't a cow anywhere in the
world, nor even a goat or sheep."
"They have to have these dogs in the winter-time, you understand,"
said John, paternally. "They pull as much as a team of horses would in
the snow."
"Yes, and they eat as much as a horse would," said Jesse. "The bacon
for Fort Resolution was unloaded here last night, and the dogs ate up
more than a ton of it; there's nothing left there except a lot of
paper and pieces of canvas! I'll bet it's the first time these dogs
here ever had a square meal in their lives!"
"I don't know about that," said Rob, laughing. "Look over yonder." He
pointed to where an Indian woman sat on the ground, cleaning a lot of
fish. Around her squatted a circle of gaunt, wolfish creatures which
seemed ready to devour her and her fish alike.
Uncle Dick joined their group as they wandered around, and explained
such things as they did not understand.
"This is one of the greatest posts of all the fur trade," said he. "It
is the center, as you have learned, of a lot of the native tribes in
this part of the world. It ships from here an enormous amount of fur
which the traders collect. The independent traders are breaking in
here now, but the natives learn to catch more and more fur, so it
seems. I suppose in time it will be exterminated. Then the natives
will go, too.
"Over yonder is a tombstone, but not any monument for Sir Alexander.
It tells about the life-history of an old factor who lived here for so
long in this wilderness. It's all old, old, old--older almost than any
city in the United States, or at least older than a great many of our
considerable cities. But you would think this was at the beginning.
There are the natives, and there are the dogs, just as they were when
Sir Alexander came through. Perhaps they didn't have so much calico
then. Of course they didn't have repeating-rifles then, and surely not
steel traps. But they talked the same language, and in my opinion they
had about as much religion then as they have now."
"What's that boat out there with a sail on it?" demanded Rob, after a
time, pointing to a small craft which was moored near by.
"Goodness only knows," replied Uncle Dick. "There are all sorts of
fool adventurers in the world, and they take all sorts of fool
chances. I have heard that there are a half-dozen prospectors in that
schooner, going north, they don't know where nor why.
"Well, at least we can say we're in the North here," he added. "They
get just nine mails a year at Chippewyan, about four mails in and the
rest of them go out. In the summer-time mail service runs about once a
month.
"They say they did have a horse in here two years ago, and that it ran
off, and they did not find it for two years. They had a team at Fort
McMurray, and it was lost, too. I wouldn't call this a good horse
country myself! No, it's a fur country and an Indian country. That's
why it's interesting to us, isn't it?"
"Well," said John, "we ought to get some pictures of the treaty
payments to the Indians to show our folks back home how they live up
here. I wish I had brought along twice as many rolls of film as I've
got. I never get tired of making pictures of dogs and Indians."
"Well, when you are photographing Indians study Indians, too," said
Uncle Dick. "Most people look at Indians just as an object of
curiosity, but he may be quite a fellow, even so. For instance, there
are these Crees sitting over there in the grass before the flag,
waiting for their treaty money. They flock by themselves, quite
distinct from the Chippewyans; they don't camp within three miles of
each other. As you know, the Crees are of the Algonquin family. They
have pushed west all the way from eastern Canada, following the fur
trade. They have followed up the Red River and down the Athabasca, and
they have overrun all the intervening tribes and elected themselves
chiefs and bosses pretty much. You may call the Cree half-breed the
mainstay of all the northern fur trade.
"But now," he added, "we are getting beyond the country even of the
Crees. Here at Chippewyan is the farthest north of the Cree so far.
Now we are going to find a lot of other different tribes."
The boys passed here and there along the rocky shore among the
villages of the natives and among the stoutly built log houses of the
fur-post itself. Here and there a woman was sitting in front of her
tent, trying to operate one of the little cheap hand sewing-machines
which had been brought on for the first time that year. In another
tent strange sounds came which seemed familiar to the boys. They
discovered that a proud family had purchased a cheap phonograph, and
under the instruction of one of the clerks was proceeding to produce
what is sometimes called melody. These things, however, did not
interest the young adventurers so much as the more primitive scenes of
the native life.
Here they saw a boatman fresh from his nets, with half a boat-load of
fish still alive, throw out some of the live fish, among them a number
of pickerel, or Great Northern Pike, to his dogs, which sat waiting on
the shore for his arrival. A dog would seize a five-pound fish by the
head, kill it, and eat it outright, bones and all.
"They never get enough to eat," said John. "They're hungry all the
time."
"Well," said Jesse, laughing, "that's the same way with you, isn't it,
John?"
"That's all right," said John, testily. "I'm growing, that's why I eat
so much. But as for you, Jesse, you'd better keep away from these
dogs. Do you know what I heard? It was old Colin Frazer, the
fur-trader, told me. He said there was a child killed last winter out
on the ice by dogs, and they ate it up, every bit. You see, it had on
a caribou coat, and it was alone at the time. The dogs killed it and
ate it. Sometimes they eat little dogs, too. They'll eat anything and
never get enough. But I suppose they have to have dogs here the same
as they have to have Indians, else they could have no fur trade."
"The old trader up at the post is mighty crusty, it seems to me,"
complained Jesse, after a time. "He won't let me go up in the
fur-loft, where he keeps his silver-gray foxes and all that sort of
thing, to make any pictures. What's the reason he won't?"
Rob smiled as he answered: "The Hudson's Bay Company is a big monopoly
and it keeps its own secrets. You'll have to ask a good many questions
before you find out much about its business. And if you should try to
buy even one skin of an ermine or a marten or a fox or a mink in here,
you couldn't do it. They wouldn't sell you anything at all. Perhaps
some of the independent traders who are coming in might sell you some
furs for yourself--at a very good price. But the old Company stands
pat and runs its affairs the way it used to. It doesn't tell its
secrets."
The boys stood, hands in pockets now, toward the close of their
interesting day at Chippewyan, looking in silence at the squared logs
of the whitewashed Company buildings. A certain respect came into
their minds.
"It's old," said John, after a time. "They don't seem to rustle very
much now, but they have done things--haven't they?"
VII
THE WILD PORTAGE
According to Rob's diary, it was on Friday, June 13th, that the
steamer _Grahame_ left the ancient trading-post of Chippewyan on the
rocky shores of Athabasca Lake. Rob also made the curious entry that
as the boat left shore two ravens flew across its bow, and that the
Indians and half-breeds were very much distressed over what they
considered a bad omen. Uncle Dick and his two companions, Jesse and
John, laughed with Rob at this, and, indeed, no ill fortune seemed to
attend them.
By this time the great brigade had begun to thin and scatter. Several
scows were unloaded and left at Chippewyan. Yet others were despatched
for the post at the eastern side of the lake. The legal party and the
Indian Commissioner now parted company with our travelers. But
occasionally, as the steamer swept away from the high and bold shores
on which the old trading-post lay, and passed the vast marshes where
the wild-fowl nest in millions every year, they found in the main
current of the river scattered odds and ends of river traffic, now and
then a brigade scow, or the shapeless boat of some prospector going
north, he knew not how or where.
Continually, however, the impression of the deepening of the
wilderness fell upon our party as they pushed on steadily down-stream
between the low timbered banks of the river. John now noted on his map
that this river, the outlet of Lake Athabasca, which received the
combined floods of the Peace and the Athabasca, was known as the Slave
River, or sometimes the Little Slave River.
As had been the Athabasca all the way down, this river was very much
discolored and stained by the high waters of the spring.
"Now, young men," said Uncle Dick to his charges as they stood on the
fore deck of the steamer in the hot sun of midafternoon, "you can say
that you are getting into the real wilderness. It runs every way you
can look--west, north, south, and east. From where we are now, draw a
circle large as you like, and you will embrace in it thousands of
miles of country which no man really knows. Trust not too much even in
the Dominion maps. I'd rather trust John's map, here, because he
doesn't have to guess."
"Well," said John, looking up from his own work with his papers, "it
doesn't seem such a very wild trip now, traveling along on the
steamboat. It might as well be along the Alaska shore, or even on the
Hudson River--if the things we had to eat were better."
"Never you mind about all that," rejoined his uncle. "If you want to
see wild work with a thrill to it, you shall have all you care for
within the next few days. To-morrow we'll be at Smith's Landing, which
marks the sixteen-mile portage of the Slave River. I suppose in there
you'll see the wildest water in the world, so far as boating is
concerned. I'll warrant you you'll think you are in the wilderness
when you see the Cassette Falls and any of a hundred others between
Smith's Landing and the Mountain Portage. I've been talking with the
boat captain about those things."
Rob looked up from the book which he was reading. "It says," remarked
he, "that Sir Alexander Mackenzie knew all this country as far down as
the big portage here."
"Quite likely," replied Uncle Dick. "The truth is that all of this
early exploration which comes down to us in history was perhaps not
so difficult as it sounds. There is continual trading back and
forward among the Indian tribes, even when they are hostile to one
another. Sir Alexander no doubt heard from each of these various
tribes all about their country as far north as the next tribe. Then
that tribe in turn could give him advice and guidance. So he was
passed on, much as Lewis and Clark were, or Major Long, or Captain
Pike, in our own explorations. Nearly all the time he had a native
guide to tell him what he might expect on ahead.
"One thing sure," he added, "from all they tell me about the rapids of
the Slave at Smith's Landing, he would have had a hard time if he had
run directly into the big current at the head of the falls without any
warning. But I suppose for hundreds of years the natives hereabouts
have known about those falls, and naturally that would be the first
thing they would tell any new man in the country."
It was seven o'clock in the evening of June 14th, at the end of a cold
and dull day's travel, that the boys found themselves in the Big Eddy
along the bank of the post known as Smith's Landing. This spot is
directly above the Great Falls of the Slave River, and marks the place
for unloading of the cargoes of the boats which must be portaged
across the sixteen miles of land, or taken down by the hazardous
passage through the rapids themselves.
As the boat with its warning whistle drew up alongside the shore there
thronged down to the side of the landing the usual crowd of natives, a
few white men, many half-breeds, and countless dogs. On the bank above
stood the usual row of whitewashed buildings which marked the Hudson's
Bay post, not very many in all, even counting the scattered cabins of
the population which had drawn in about this upper post.
"Two things you will observe here," said the leader of our young
adventurers. "Smith's Landing has a sidewalk, and Smith's Landing also
has a team of horses! You may mark this place as farthest north for
the domestic horse--you will not see another one north of here. They
have to have this team to get the goods across by wagon. Sometimes,
too, they track a scow over, I believe, although the road is not very
good."
"Well, how did they come to have that sidewalk?" asked John, pointing
to the narrow and unimportant strip of walk which lay in front of one
of the warehouses.
Uncle Dick smiled. "The captain of the boat told me that they wanted
some telephone-poles to string a wire from here across to Fort Smith,
over the portage. So the wise authorities of the Company had Montreal
send out enough square-sawed four-inch joists to make poles for fifty
miles of telephone--and right in a country where there are better
telephone-poles than you could get at Montreal! So they were all
brought through, with what trouble you can imagine, since you have
seen the sort of transport they must have had coming this far. The
factor could not use them all, so he put up a few and laid the others
in the form of a sidewalk. I'll say it's lasting, at least!
"As for those horses, however," he continued, "we'll take a crack at
them ourselves if we have luck. You've been complaining that things
are not exciting enough, and I propose to give you a touch of life.
After we get done our work here--that is to say, after everybody has
drunk up all the Scotch whisky that has come north on this boat--we'll
be getting on about our business. We'll take our scow through.
"I'm going to contract with old Johnny Belcore, the traffic-handler
here, to take our boat and an extra scow around through the rapids of
the Slave River. You'll see he'll ship his horses along to use on the
portages, and there'll be more than one of them. It would take a lot
of men to track one of these boats up the bank and along a mile or so
of dry ground. They tell me that he uses rollers and pulls the boats
by horse power. So, as that is one more example of the way the brigade
gets its goods north, we'll use that, if only for the sake of our own
information."
"That'll be fine," said Rob. "I'd much rather do that than climb on
top of a lumber-wagon and ride across sixteen miles of muskeg. If we
did that we'd miss all the excitement of seeing the Big Rapids of the
Slave. I've been reading about them. You're right, this is perhaps as
bad boat water as any actually used by men."
"Do you suppose it is worse than the White Horse Rapids up on the head
of the Yukon?" asked John, looking up.
Uncle Dick laughed at this. "Son," said he, "the White Horse Rapids
could be lost a thousand times here in the falls of the Slave River,
and no one would know where they went. Those rapids got their
reputation through the stories of tenderfeet, for the most part. They
don't touch the Grand Rapids of the Athabasca, and the Grand Rapids
don't touch the Slave. She drops a hundred and sixty-five feet in
sixteen miles! You can figure what that means, and if you can't figure
it we'll see it with our own eyes."
"I read once in some sort of a magazine story," said Rob, "that the
Peace River buffalo herd is somewhere up in this country, and that
when people want to find out about it they go to Smith's Landing."
"That's true," said Uncle Dick. "That somewhat mythical herd has been
under the more or less mythical charge of the Dominion government in
here for some time. It isn't worth while for us to make a trip out to
see it; that is usually done by parties who are going back from here.
Nor do we care to see the celebrated Dominion government reindeer herd
which is out on the promontory of the Mountain Portage below here.
"I understand there were about a dozen of these reindeer once, but
most of them got into the river and swam across. The last report was
that the keeper of this herd had only one reindeer left, and he was
sitting tight, with several Lapland dogs which had been sent out by
the government!"
"The trouble with people that run things," said Rob, judicially, "is
that sometimes they don't know about the things they are running."
"Well, I don't see why they sent reindeer up into the caribou
country," said Jesse. "Of course I'm only a boy, but I can't see why
they do that."
Uncle Dick grinned. "We may see a good many things we can't understand
before we get done with the trip. But all the same we'll have a good
time finding out.
"You may sleep ashore to-night, young men," he said, later,
"for perhaps you would rather not lie in your berths on the boat.
The captain tells me that Smith's Landing is famous for its
mosquitoes--they are supposed to be worse here than anywhere else
on earth."
"Well, that's saying a good deal," said John. "I didn't know there
were so many mosquitoes in all the world. What makes them, anyhow, and
what do they have them for, Uncle Dick?"
That gentleman only shrugged his shoulders and spread out his hands.
"It's all in the game," said he. "You must learn not to kick. Look at
the half-breeds all around. How hard their life is, and what
punishment they have to take all the time. Well, they don't kick. One
great lesson of this trip ought to be to take your medicine and be
game and quiet as well."
The boys did not find the stop at Smith's Landing of special
interest, for there was so much drunkenness among all the population
that they became quite disgusted at the sloth and noisiness of it all.
They learned through the captain that while liquor is not allowed to
be sold generally at the Hudson's Bay posts, among natives, the
government does allow a "permit" to any one going into that country,
so that each traveler might legally take a gallon of liquor for
"medicinal purposes." Sometimes a white trader or employee would be
allowed to import each year a gallon of liquor on a "permit." The
captain told one instance, more gruesome than amusing, which had just
happened that week. A man at Smith's Landing had ordered his annual
gallon of liquor, but meantime he had died. As he could not use the
liquor, the question arose to whom did it belong. That was decided, so
he said, by a game of cards in the warehouse on the bank. That the
contents of the dead man's liquor-case found use was easy enough to
see.
The tales regarding the mosquitoes at Smith's Landing proved more than
true. Our young travelers found that the best of their mosquito dope
was of little or no avail, so that they wore headnets and long gloves
almost always.
By this time they had learned to manage their sleeping-tents so that
they could keep out the insects at night, and lost but little sleep,
even amid the continual howling of the dogs and the carousing of the
half-drunken population of the place.
Meantime, albeit slowly, the cargoes of the scows and of the steamer
were being portaged by wagon over the sixteen miles of flat timbered
country. This work went on for nearly a week. It was Thursday, June
19th, when Uncle Dick announced to Rob and John and Jesse that now
they would be off for the exciting enterprise of taking their boat
down the rapids of the Slave. Johnny Belcore, as the freight
contractor was named, had finally secured a Cree pilot who knew the
ancient channel, used time out of mind by the Hudson's Bay boats which
risked this dangerous passage. He agreed to take the _Midnight Sun_
across the portage for fifty dollars, and to charge seventy-five cents
for each hundred pounds of freight. During the short season of the
brigade's passage north, at which time most of the amateurs and
independents were crowding northward, Belcore made a very considerable
amount of money. Our party, however, thought his charges entirely
reasonable, and, indeed, would not, for any money, have foregone the
pleasure of running these redoubtable rapids. They learned now that
three other scows were going through also. Belcore had his team on one
of these, and had brought along twenty-seven men to man the boats, to
handle the team, etc.
In the early evening his little flotilla pushed off, with few regrets
at leaving Smith's Landing behind. On the left lay the dangerous and
treacherous falls of the Priest Rapids, so called by reason of the
loss there of a Catholic priest and a companion years ago. The boats,
however, were rowed in slack water across above these big falls, then
took two fast chutes upon the farther side. After this smart water the
commodore of the little fleet pulled in to portage the Cassette Falls,
that tremendous cascade of the Slave River which so terrifies the
ordinary observer when first he sees its enormous display of power.
There are perhaps few more terrifying spectacles of wild water, even
including the Whirlpool Rapids at Niagara.
That night our party lay in bivouac, and were up early in the work of
the portage. All the goods had to be unloaded and all the scows were
hauled up the steep bank by means of a block and tackle. Once up the
bank, the team, which had been brought along in one of the scows and
forced to climb up the bank, were hitched to a long rope, and with the
aid also of men tugging at the ropes they rapidly hauled the boat over
the high and rocky ground which made the portage--a distance of some
four hundred yards in all.
It was about four o'clock that afternoon when the boats had finished
this first portage and had been again loaded below the sharp drop at
the farther end.
The boys continually hung about the men in this curious and
interesting work, and plied Belcore with many questions. He explained
to them that the Cassette Falls are on one of four or five different
channels into which the Slave River breaks hereabouts. Many of these
chutes could not be run at all, nor could a boat be lined down through
them by any possibility. In spite of all this, as he explained, one or
two boats of ignorant prospectors actually had found their way down
the rapids of the Slave, preserved by Providence, as Belcore piously
affirmed.
After the Cassette Portage there came a curve in the rapid run of
water where a canoe hardly could have lived, as the boys thought, then
five miles of very slow water where all the men had to row, the Slave
River being nothing if not freakish in its methods hereabouts. At
times far to the left, through the many tree-covered islands, the
boys could see the fast channel of the Slave River proper, a
tremendous flood pouring steadily northward to the Arctic Sea.
Belcore said the drop of the Slave was two hundred feet in the entire
length of the portage, but the government estimate is a hundred and
sixty-five feet.
"Well," said John, doing a little figuring on the margin of his map,
"we're going downhill pretty fast, it seems to me, as we go north. The
Grand Rapids drop only fifty-five feet. From Athabasca Landing to
McMurray there is a drop of eight hundred and sixty feet in the two
hundred and fifty-two miles. That's going some. And here we drop a
hundred and sixty-five feet in about sixteen miles. It's no wonder the
water gets rough sometimes."
Belcore pointed out to them, far to the left, late that evening, the
Middle Rapids, whose heavy roar they could hear coming to them across
the distance. They could not really see these rapids, as they bore off
to the right to make the second portage. The pilot found his way
without any chart through a maze of slack water and blind channels
hidden among the islands. Belcore told them that no one knew all of
the Slave River at this point, but that the Indians remembered the
way they had been following, which their fathers and their fathers'
fathers had handed down to them in the traditions of the tribes.
At this second portage, or traverse, the goods were carried across by
the wagon and team, the boats meantime making two portages in a
quarter of a mile. At the last run of the boats the men stopped calmly
no more than fifty yards above a chute which would have wrecked any
craft undertaking to make the run through.
For yet another day the block-and-tackle work on the scows, the
horse-and-wagon labor with the goods, continued. The boats were
sometimes hauled over wide ridges of rough rocks, till the wonder was
that they held together at all. There was one ancient craft, a York
boat of earlier times, which the Company was taking through, and this,
being stiffly built with a keel, was badly strained and rendered very
leaky by the time it got through the rude traverse of the rocky
portage. The men took tallow and oakum and roughly calked the seams of
this boat, so that it was possible to get it across the river to Fort
Smith eventually. A wagon-tire came off, which left the wagon
helpless. The half-breeds did not complain, but carried its load on
their own backs.
"Well," said Rob to John, as they stood apart at one time, watching
this wild labor, "Uncle Dick was right. We are in the wilderness now.
This is a land of chance--every fellow has to take his risks without
grumbling, and his work, too. I like to see these men work; they are
so strong."
"They tell me that they are not going to drag all the scows across,"
said John. "They're going to try to run that bad chute below our
landing with a couple of scows. The men say it takes too long to wagon
them across, and they would much rather take the chance."
"Fine!" said Rob. "We'll go make some pictures of them as they go
through."
"Hurry on, then," rejoined John, "and get Jesse. We ought to get some
fine pictures there. I've been down and seen that place, and the water
drops higher than the roof of a house and goes through a narrow place
where you could touch both sides with the oars."
It was indeed as they had said--the half-breeds, careless ever of
danger, and willing only to work when work was necessary, actually did
run two scows down the narrow chute of the Middle Rapids. The boys,
cameras in hand, did their best to make pictures of the event, and
stood hardly breathing as they saw the boats go down the toboggan-like
incline between two great boulders which the poles of the boatmen
touched on either side.
As the scow struck the level water at the foot of this chute or
cascade, her bow was submerged for almost a third of the length, and
the men in front were wet waist-high. She still floated, however, as
she swung into the strong current below, and the men with shouts of
excitement rowed and poled her ashore. To them it seemed much better
to take a half-hour of danger than a half-day of work. As a matter of
fact, both boats came through not much the worse for wear, and perhaps
not as badly damaged as they would have been if dragged on the rollers
across the rocky hillside.
"Well, boys," said Uncle Dick to them, as at length he found them
returning from this exciting incident, "it's time to eat again. It
ought to please you, John. These men have to work so hard that they
are fed four times a day. This is meal Number Four we're going to have
now."
John laughingly agreed to this, and soon their party were seated
cross-legged, with their tin plates, around the stove which the
contractor's cook had set up on the shore. The delay was not very
long, for now, after finishing the second portage of the boats, the
men fell to and slid the last of the scows down a twenty-five-foot
bank and once more into the current of the stream.
The next great labor of this short but strenuous sixteen miles was, so
they were informed, to come at the Mountain Portage, a spot historic
in all the annals of the north-bound Hudson's Bay traffic.
The boats, now assembled safely and once more reloaded, followed their
leader through a number of blind channels which caused the boys to
marvel, across the Slave River to the left, rowed up in slack water
for a time, and at last dropped down below the Pelican Rapids. Now,
under the excited cries of the pilot, the men rowed hard. The boats
crossed the full flood of the Slave River for a mile and a half, then
slipped down on fast water, using the eddies beautifully, and at last
dropped into the notch in a high barrier which seemed to rise up
directly ahead of them. Off to the right, curving about the great
promontory, foamed the impassable waters known as the Mountain Rapids.
All the north-bound freight which was not traversed by wagon across
Smith's Landing must be carried on manback over the Mountain Portage.
The hill which rose up from the riverside was crossed by a sandy road
or track, the eminence being about a hundred and fifty feet on the
upper side and perhaps two hundred feet on the lower.
Of course here every boat had to be unloaded once more. A little
settlement of tents and tarpaulins and mosquito bars rapidly arose. It
was a rainy camp that night, and most of the men slept drenched in
their blankets, but in the morning they arose without complaint to
begin their arduous labor of packing tons of supplies across this high
and sandy hill.
The party here was joined by a group of four prospectors who had
brought their scows in some way down this far by the aid of a pilot
not accredited by the traders. All these boats, therefore, had to take
turns at the Landing in the discharge of their cargoes. As to the
mission scows and Father Le Fèvre, they were left far behind, nor were
they heard from for some time.
"The wonder is to me that there isn't more trouble and quarreling on
this far-off trail," said Rob to Uncle Dick as they stood watching the
men toiling up the sandy slope under their heavy burdens, each man
carrying at least a hundred pounds, some of them twice that. "I
should think every one would lose his temper once in a while."
Uncle Dick smiled at this remark. "They do sometimes," said he,
"although I think there is no country in the world so good for a man's
temper as this northern wilderness. A fellow just naturally learns
that he has got to keep cool. But the parties like the Klondike
tenderfeet were always quarreling among themselves. I heard of one
party of four on the Grand Rapids who concluded to split up. So they
divided their supplies into two halves exactly, and even sawed their
boat in two, so neither party could complain that the other had not
been fair!
"Well, anyhow," he continued, as the boys laughed at this story--a
true one--"we cannot accuse any of our men here of being ill-tempered.
They are using this haul as they have for maybe a hundred years or so.
This is the Hudson's Bay Company's idea of getting its goods north.
With the use of a few hundred dollars and the labor of a few men they
could improve all these portages through here so that they could save
a week of time and hundreds of dollars in labor charges each season.
Will they do it? They will not. Why? Because they are the Hudson's Bay
Company--The Honorable Company of Adventurers of England trading into
Hudson's Bay."
"That's right. That's the trouble," said John. "I saw that name on a
little bottle which had a little cocktail in it, just about one drink,
the man said who had it. They seem to be rather proud of their name.
It went clean around the bottle."
"I suppose so," said Uncle Dick, "and they have a right to be proud in
many ways, for it covers a wonderful record. You can't call it a
record of enterprise, however, and that's why the independents are
coming in here, and going to steal the land out from under them before
very long. I could take two men and a team, and in two days' time cut
the top off this hill here at the Mountain Portage. It takes our
twenty-four men and a team four hours to get one scow up the hill. To
an American engineer that doesn't look very much like good business.
But inasmuch as it isn't all our funeral, we'll take our medicine and
won't kick--remembering what I've told you about the lessons we ought
to learn from all this.
"But now remember one thing," he went on. "In the old times, before
there was any steamboat on the Mackenzie or on the Slave River, every
bit of the fur had to go out in boats under the tracking-line. They
tell me the old tracking-path ran yonder around the promontory. A
jolly stiff pull, I'll warrant you, they had getting up through here.
But think of it--they did it not only one year, but every year for
more than a hundred years!"
Rob continued his diary more or less impatiently during the time they
lay at the Mountain Portage, but noted that on Monday, June 23d, at
seven-thirty in the evening, the work was all concluded. His notes
ran:
"We are off. Fort Smith is next. Fast water. Pilot Boniface
in bow. River very wide below the Mountain Rapids, and
wanders very much--every which way. Shallow so the boats
have trouble. They say no one could run the big water below
Pelican Island off to the right. Crossed the river in a wide
circle. Could hear roar of heavy rapids on both sides.
Boniface says if the water was high we would run the big
rapids on the left straight through, but we cannot do it
now. Our channel is crooked like a double letter S, and I
don't see how he follows it. It takes fancy steering.
"We are following what they call the old Hudson's Bay
channel. This carries us to the right-hand side of the
river, and it looks a mile or two across. Storm came up and
we got wet. Over to the left we could see lights. They said
it was the steamboat _Mackenzie River_ lying at her moorings
at Fort Smith. Jolly glad to get done with this work.
"Dark and wet and late. Went on board steamboat. Quite a
post here. A good many strangers besides the Company people.
Well, here we are at the head of the Mackenzie River, or the
Big Slave, as they call it here. I'm pretty glad."
VIII
ON THE MACKENZIE
The three young companions stood in the bright sunlight on the high
bank of Fort Smith at the foot of which lay the steamer which was to
carry them yet farther on their northwest journey. About them lay the
scattered settlements at the foot of the Grand Traverse between the
Slave and the Mackenzie. Off to the right, along the low bed of the
river, lay the encampment of the natives, waiting for the "trade" of
the season. Upon the other hand were the log houses of the Company
employees, structures not quite so well built, perhaps, as those at
Chippewyan, but adapted to the severity of this northern climate.
At the foot of the high embankment, busy among the unloaded piles of
cargo which had been traversed from the disembarkment point of Smith's
Landing, trotted in steady stream the sinewy laborers, the same
half-breeds who everywhere make the reliance of the fur trade in the
upper latitudes. They were carrying now on board the _Mackenzie
River_, as the steamboat was named, the usual heavy loads of flour,
bacon, side-meat, sugar, trade goods, all the staples of the trade,
not too expensive in their total.
There were to be seen also the human flotsam and jetsam of this
northern country--miners, prospectors, drifters, government employees,
and adventurers--all caught here as though in the cleats of a flume,
at this focusing-point at the foot of the wild northern waters.
"John," said Jesse, at last, as he drew a full breath of warm yet
invigorating air, "how is your map coming along?"
"Pretty well," replied John. "I've got everything charted this far.
Look here how I've put down our journey through the rapids of the
Slave River; we zigzagged all about. I put down the rocks and the
biggest headlands, so I think I've got it pretty close to correct. I
wonder how we ever got through there, and how the old Company men
first went through."
"Two boats came through directly over the big rapids which we didn't
dare tackle," said Rob. "They were tenderfeet, and they don't know to
this day how lucky they were."
"Well, we were lucky enough, too," said John, "for in spite of our bad
omens at Chippewyan, everything has come through fine. Here we are,
all ready for our last great swing to the North. Look here on the map,
fellows--I always thought that the Mackenzie River ran straight north
up to the Arctic Ocean, but look here--if you start from where we are
right now, and follow the Great Slave River on out through Great Slave
Lake, you'll find it runs almost as much west as it does north. It
lurches clear over toward Alaska, although it's all on British
ground."
Jesse expressed his surprise at seeing so many "common-looking
people," as he called it, up here in the fur country, where he had
expected to find only gaudily dressed traders and trappers; but Rob,
who had observed more closely, explained some of this to him.
"A good many of these people," he said, "are simply drifters who
intend to live any way they can. They make a sort of fringe on the
last thrust of west-bound settler folk; there is always such a wave
goes out ahead of the permanent settlers.
"Not that they can settle this country permanently. They tell me that
they raise potatoes even north of here, and, as you know, they raise
fine wheat at Chippewyan; but this will never be an agricultural
country. No, it's the country of the fur trade--always has been, and I
hope and believe always will be."
"Well," said John, drawing himself up to his full height, "I'm for a
little more excitement. It's getting slow here, watching the people
load the boats."
As to what did happen in the way of interest to our travelers, Rob's
diary will serve as well as anything to explain their experiences for
the next few days:
"_Tuesday, June 24th._--Not quite a month out from Athabasca
Landing. Have come 553 miles. Steamboat now for the rest of
the way north. She is a side-wheeler, pretty big, with
several berths and a dining-room. I think she will be pretty
well crowded.
"More dogs here. To-day three or four big huskies ate up a
little Lapland dog puppy which one of the men had brought
along to take home with him. They broke through the bars of
the crate and hauled out the puppy and ate him alive! Don't
like the looks of them after dark.
"There is a mission school here. The Church people are
against fur-hunting. I don't see what else the natives can
do. If you wanted to buy any fur here you would have to go
to the independents and pay a big price. This place had very
little to eat left in it when we got here. Not much fish
just now, as the river is too high. The cargo of the mission
scows is not over the portage yet. Some people of the
Anglican Church go north with us, too, also four Northwest
Mounted Police, who go to Fort McPherson and Herschel
Island. They relieve others who will go out. Lonesome life,
I should think.
"_Wednesday, June 25th._--Loaded and got off 3 P.M. They
call this the Big Slave, then Mackenzie River, but I can't
see why it isn't just the same river that starts back in the
Rocky Mountains. Passed the little steamboat _St. Marie_.
The bishop of this country is on it, also many Indians. Our
boat asked him if the ice was out of Great Slave Lake, and
he says yes. Tied up very late at night.
"_Thursday, June 26th._--Have seen no game. The banks are
low and very monotonous. Not very pretty. Most people are
playing cards on the boat. No one to talk to but ourselves.
Have to slow up because the head wind is filling the scows
with water.
"There is very little darkness now, even at midnight,
although there is a sort of sunset even yet.
"_Friday, June 27th._--Tied up twelve miles from Resolution,
in delta of the Slave River. Low marshes all around. Some
men on the boat, traders and others, took canoe and paddled
over to the post.
"_Saturday, June 28th._--This is my birthday. If I were home
might have a cake or something. Other boys and Uncle Dick
very nice to me. Went out into the lake, but did not dare to
chance the waves, so came back in the channel. Our captain
is uneasy because he is afraid the independent traders will
get into Resolution before we do. Some competition even
here. Wind dropped at 9 P.M. We could have gone on, but the
Hudson's Bay always waits if it gets a chance.
"_Sunday, June 29th._--The _St. Marie_ and the _Caribou_, an
independent trading-boat, both sighted. Both probably will
beat us in to Resolution.
"_Monday, June 30th._--Loafed another day. Other boats
passed out at night. We started out late. Pulled the nose
out of our sturgeon nose scow and she began to settle. All
that the men and three pumps could do to keep her from
sinking. Got her in shallow water at last and tried to patch
her up. This was the Fort Nelson cargo, and it is ruined.
Boat covered with smeared calico and blankets and everything
else, hung up to dry. Pretty mess they will have at Fort
Nelson--but this is all they'll have for another year!
Nobody seems to care.
"_Tuesday, July 1st._--Anchored off Fort Resolution, and
went ashore. Indian tepees all over the beach. Hundreds of
dogs. Two trading-posts here, a mission school, and a
church. Mixed scenes, mostly savage. There is a York boat
down from Fort Rae. Says they are starving there. Plenty of
fish here. Hudson's Bay boat lost in this race. Independent
goods are now eighty miles farther down the river than we
are. Left a Mounted Policeman and a scientist here. No
Mounted Policeman ever had a horse up here.
"They say that the damaged cargo in the Fort Nelson boat
will lose half its value. Fort Nelson is up the Liard
River, and it takes twenty-five days of tracking from the
mouth of the Liard in the Mackenzie.
"As we go down the edge of the Great Slave Lake--the big
river runs through it--everything is quiet and the sky is
bright. Once in a while we see a belt of clear water now.
Have been on muddy water ever since we started out at
Athabasca Landing. Fort Resolution as we leave it under the
morning sun makes a pretty picture.
"All sorts of people on the boat. One Oxford man, an
interpreter and Indian agent, and his five breed children.
Another ex-Indian agent who is going north with the last of
the treaty payments. These old-timers in the north country
tell us all kinds of stories. Wish I had time to put them
down. People up here get about one mail a year. One winter
mail comes across the mountains from Dawson. They say a mail
goes into Fort McPherson from Dawson every winter, too.
Three years ago four members of the Mounted Police were lost
trying to make it across from McPherson to Dawson. Their
names were Inspector Fitzgerald, Constables Taylor and
Kenny, and Carter, a special constable. They all starved.
They are buried at Fort McPherson. Their guide was Carter,
and he got lost. The inspector of the Mounted Police who is
to go to Fort Herschel was in the Boer War, in Africa, far
south of the Equator.
"Uncle Dick tells me that the names of the tribes through
which we will pass on our big journey are, first, the Crees,
who go as far north as McMurray and Chippewyan; then the
Great Chippewyan people, scattered here over a big country;
then the Dog Ribs, the Yellow Knives, the Slavies, the
Mountain Slavies, the Rabbit or Hare people, the Loucheux,
and the Eskimos. The Loucheux and the Eskimos lap over along
the southern edge of the Arctic. We are among the Dog Ribs
here. Their canoes are very small, made out of spruce and
birch bark, and so narrow you would not think they could
float anything at all. That's as big as they can get the
bark up here.
"Now we begin to see sledges and snow-shoes and meat-racks.
They have to put everything up high so the dogs can't get
them. Dried fish everywhere, or what is left of the last
winter's supply. Looks like we were in the North at last.
Father Le Fèvre told me that at Chippewyan they put up over
a hundred thousand 'pieces of fish'--that means a whole fish
each--every year for the people and the dogs.
"English mission at Hay River has seventy scholars. They are
put in red coats. They live on fish and potatoes. We leave
at Hay River the wife of the Anglican minister. There are
two young ladies stationed there also. The minister's wife
had been gone for two years--outside, as we call it in
Alaska. Found a garden here, quite a potato-field, also
fresh pie-plant, lettuce, and radishes, all big enough to
eat on July 1st. Many fat dogs. Don't know whether the
natives eat these or not. This country under the Arctic
Ocean is different from what we thought it was--not so cold,
and more civilized in some ways.
"Our ex-Indian agent leaves us here to pay treaty money. A
young teacher leaves us also here for the Anglican mission.
We find here, much to our wonder, on one of the little
mission steamboats which beat us out from Fort Smith word
from the two good Sisters with whom we traveled on the scows
up to Fort McMurray. One was left at Chippewyan and one at
Resolution. Here also is the judicial party which we left
back at Fort McMurray. They have come down on the _St.
Marie_. We say good-by here to Father Le Fèvre. Several
church dignitaries about here. The Anglican Church seems
more prominent here than at most of the posts.
"I went out with an Indian boy here to run his nets, and we
took out an awful lot of fish--one lake trout of
thirty-three and a half pounds, and one of twenty-five
pounds, five fine whitefish, and four fish that I never saw.
The boy called them 'connies.' _Inconnu_ is the real name
for this fish. The first French _voyageurs_ who saw this
fish did not know what it was, so they called it 'unknown.'
It looks something like a salmon and something like a
sucker. Its mouth is rather square. Its flesh is something
like that of a whitefish, and it is used a great deal as
food. We don't like any fish as well as the whitefish right
along. They tell me a lake trout has been caught here
weighing forty-four and a half pounds. The boat captain
says he has seen one weighing sixty-three pounds.
"Our steamer left at 1 A.M., but when well under way
remembered that it had forgotten the mail-bags! So we turned
around and went back. If we had not done so the people north
of here would not have had any mail this year. The Hudson's
Bay Company has funny ways.
"_Wednesday, July 2d._--Off for Fort Providence. Running
better, for scows are lighter loaded now. In the morning
came into Beaver Lake, which they say is the head of the
true Mackenzie, not at Fort Smith. I suppose the lower point
is more correct; at least the other map-makers say so, in
spite of what John believes. But it's all one river.
"Many ducks, and this seems a breeding-ground. A great many
islands. Shores are broken. The river or lake is about
three-quarters of a mile to three miles wide. At 2.40 in the
afternoon we got into what they call the Mackenzie River
proper. It is only about a half to three-quarters of a mile
wide. It is bold and clearer than the other waters we have
been traveling on.
"Late in the evening reached the shores of Fort Providence,
a very sightly spot. The mission school formed their
red-clad girls in a platoon on the bank, waiting for us.
Every girl had her hands folded in front of her. The boys
were in ranks, too. They wore a gray uniform. The balcony of
the building back of them was filled with the older girls
and with the Sisters in a dark sort of uniform. All the
flags were flying. The sun was very bright. This made a
striking picture. Crowds of Indians came and sat on the
bank, waiting for us to land. A good many tepees on the flat
ground. There is a mission garden in a stockade, the best
garden we have yet seen. Here there are many onions,
potatoes, rhubarb, and a hedge of rose-bushes--a very
beautiful sight in this far land, and one I did not think we
would find.
"A good many men on the boat are trading with the Indians
for bead-work. A pair of moccasins is worth from a dollar to
a dollar and a half. One man bought the leggings of a squaw
and _off_ the squaw--for she was wearing them when he bought
them. They say the trade situation here is bad--too much
competition. Independents sometimes pay three hundred
dollars for a silver-gray fox, which is only worth a hundred
and twenty-five. The people here are Slavies, and are not
much good. The post was out of goods when we got in, and had
mighty little fur to send out, too. Indian village starving,
living on rabbits and dried fish. No fish running now. These
people seem a lazy lot.
"At Fort Resolution there were Chippewyans, Dog Ribs,
Slavies, and Yellow Knives, all mixed. At Hay River there
were Dog Ribs and Slavies. At Providence they are all
Slavies, and the Indian commissioner says they are the worst
lot on the whole river. Independent traders very angry here
because their clerks have not made any money.
"_Thursday, July 3d._--On the Mackenzie. Reached the 'head
of the line'--that is, the country where they have to track
boats on the line. At 3 P.M. reached the mouth of the Liard,
which seemed as big as the Peace River. It comes in on the
left. A grand scene here. On ahead is Fort Simpson on a very
high bluff--the most picturesque spot we have seen yet on
this trip. They say they once had electric lights here, but
not now. Some farms and gardens, much to our surprise.
Frost comes about September 1st. They all say there will be
a city here some time. Maybe, but I wouldn't like to live
there.
"Slavies at this post. Two villages, very wild and
barbarous-looking. A great many fine canoes. The life is
very wild about us here. One canoe comes in loaded down with
rabbits which they have shot along the shores. Much gaudy
clothing and savage finery now. Every one wears moccasins.
One woman here does fine porcupine-quill work. She is Mrs.
McLeod, and is the daughter of Old-man Firth, who is the
factor at Fort McPherson, so they say. She is the wife of
the factor at Fort Nelson, and knows how to trade.
Quill-work costs a lot.
"At this point we lost the wife of an Indian trader who had
come this far north with us, also two Mounted Policemen, the
ex-Indian agent and his family, a preacher and his son, and
several others. The boat company is getting lighter now.
"There was a scow-load of supplies for treaties to be used
up the Liard River. Now we find that the Hudson's Bay
Company has left all this stuff at Fort Smith, away behind
us! This shows what sort of transport it is. The Northwest
Mounted Police grub, due last April, is not here yet. No
wonder this is a starving country. It is very wild and
interesting around here. John and Jesse and I are having a
splendid time. This is the best trip we ever had.
"We had a bishop on board here. We boys talked quite a while
with the post factor. He says there are many records written
in the Company books here which go back seventy-five years
and more. We bought a few things here which we thought we
could take along with us.
"_Friday, July 4th._--It looked funny to see the British
flag, and not the Stars and Stripes, to-day. We three boys
celebrated, just the same--we went out in the woods and shot
off our rifles several times. Weather is beautiful, soft,
and warm. Made many photographs. The river here is about a
mile wide.
"We left at 4 P.M., and soon stopped to take on wood. Ran
till 8 o'clock before we could begin to see the outlines of
the Nahanni Mountains. Suppose they are a spur of the great
Rockies wandered this far away from home. A veil of smoke
seems to hang over them. We boys could not sleep very well,
and were up till 1 o'clock looking at the scenery. Uncle
Dick has been talking with the captain of our boat about the
Nahanni River, which comes down here through a notch in the
mountains. The Indians go up to the North Nahanni, portage
across to the South Nahanni, run down to the Liard River,
and come down it to the Mackenzie. This is a trip no white
man has ever taken. It must be a wild country in there. John
is honest with his map, so he just marks this place
'Unknown.' Prospectors have gone up the Liard to the
Nahanni. The geologists say there is no chance for gold in
there.
"_Saturday, July 5th._--Fort Wrigley at 7.35 in the morning.
One independent post besides the H. B. post. A good deal of
fur in these two posts, and some very fine fox skins. The
marten seem rather yellow, the lynx good, beaver and bear
good. We saw one wolverine skin here, a good many mink, and
one otter skin. This otter skin was not cased, as we fixed
them in Alaska, but was split and stretched like a beaver
skin. They say the Indians do that way with their otter
here. Did not stop long at this post, as we are beginning to
hurry now.
"It is a strange thing to us that we have not seen any game
on all this trip. No one has seen a moose since the one that
was killed above the Grand Rapids of the Athabasca. I
suppose the game country is back in farther. The Indians get
plenty of moose for their leather-work.
"In the evening we came to Fort Norman, which marks the
entry of the Bear River. I should call that the gate of
another land of mystery--up in there somewhere Sir John
Franklin perished. They say the white Eskimos are
descendants of some of his men. They say a man was taken
captive by the Indians up in there, and lived with them
several years, and then got out. He lives now somewhere in
Saskatchewan.
"At 9.45 we saw a burning bank on the Mackenzie River. It is
said to have burned forty-five years. It was in some sort of
tar sand, of which we have seen a good deal on our journey.
Tied up at 10 o'clock. There is a whole village of Mountain
Indians here at the foot of the bluff. A wild sight. The
tepees are pitched very close together. Hundreds of dogs.
Children are eating and running around everywhere. The boat
whistled, and the dogs all ran off up the hill and the
children screamed. They say that five years ago these wild
Indians left this place and went across the mountains to the
Stuart River to trade. They brought back Yukon stoves for
their tents, the same as they have up in Alaska. They came
down the Gravel River here in skin boats. Their birch-bark
canoes look like Eskimo kayaks. They have a short deck fore
and aft, and sharply slanting stem and stern posts. The bow
does not curve back.
"Fort Norman is on a high bluff. The H. B. Company has put
in some stairs. Not very many buildings, very little goods,
and little fur. We did some trading with the Indians for
trinkets. There is an Anglican church here, a very small
building. The little bell rang, and our bishop started over
to hold services. It was said that these Indians who had
come back from the Stuart River wanted to go to church
again, so this service was held for them. It was the first
time in five years in this church. There was a wedding
there to-night, they tell me, and several children were
christened, three or four years of age. One child was named
Woodrow Wilson Quasinay. We did it for a joke, but the
parents thought it was a fine name! He was four years old,
and very dirty, and cried a good deal when he got his name.
"We are getting to where the sun does not stay down very
long. The bishop read his services to-night by the natural
light of the window. With the bishop's consent we made a
flash-light picture of this scene in the church. Then there
was Holy Communion. The services were not done when the
whistle of the boat blew and everybody had to run to get on
board. The captain scolded the bishop for being so late!
This is a funny country, I think.
"This closes a week which has been quite full of events, I
think. Jesse and John very happy. The pictures around us
seem more savage. We are getting into the Far North of which
we have read so much. It is fine!"
IX
UNDER THE ARCTIC CIRCLE
Of the motley assemblages which thronged the capacity of the steamer
_Mackenzie River_ our three young companions were usually the first to
arise in the morning. Morning, however, had come by this time to be a
relative term, for the steady progress into the northern latitudes had
now brought them almost under the Midnight Sun, so that there was but
a brief period of darkness at any hour of the night. On the morning of
July 6th they stood conversing on the fore deck, looking down the vast
river as it passed between its bold and broken shores.
"Well," said Rob to the others, "here we are, not quite forty days out
from our start, and we have come more than sixteen hundred miles
already! We're beginning to add now to our daily mileage, traveling
this way day and night."
"Well, even at this rate," rejoined John, "I am not sure that I see
how we will get out of this northern country inside of our three
months' schedule. If we don't, we'll have to pass the winter, won't
we?"
Jesse looked a little bit gloomy at this idea. To tell the truth, he,
the youngest of the party, was at times just a little homesick. The
country through which they passed seemed so stupendous, so awesome, as
almost to oppress the spirits of those not used to it.
"Cheer up! Jess," said Rob, clapping him on the shoulder. "There will
be something happening now before long. We're almost up to the Arctic
Circle, and to-day, if I'm not mistaken, we run into the best scenery
on the Mackenzie River, what they call the Ramparts. The captain was
telling me about it yesterday."
They did not, however, reach this portion of their voyage until very
late in the evening, when they arrived at the head of that long and
gentle bit of water called the Sans Sault Rapids. The river here was
about a mile wide, but offered no bad chutes. The captain told them
that it only took eight minutes to run through, but that the time
coming up with the steamboat usually had averaged one and
three-quarter hours.
The strange, luminous twilight of the sub-Artic day continued until
midnight. It was, indeed, after eleven o'clock when the steamer struck
that narrow shut-in of the Mackenzie River where the great flood,
compressed between high and rocky shores, runs steadily and deep for a
very considerable distance. Above the actual beginning of the narrower
channel lay a great, deep pool, many hundreds of yards wide, while at
the right hand of its lower extremity sprang up a bald white rock face
of limestone.
So sharp was the bend of the great river here that at the turn it
seemed as though the river itself had come to an end or had dropped
out of sight. The walls on the left seemed perhaps a trifle higher,
ranging in height from one hundred to a hundred and eighty feet, the
crest in places broken into crenelated turrets.
"Well," said Rob, "this is the celebrated run of the Ramparts. I must
confess I am disappointed. I think the Yukon beats this in a great
many places. They may tip this off as a big attraction for tourists,
but it's too far to come for the show, in my estimation."
John, busy charting the channel on his map, nodded his head in
affirmation. "How wide do you think it is here, Rob?" he asked, and
Rob was obliged to ask some of the boat officials as to that. They
told him that the river was from three hundred to five hundred yards
wide at this place, and that there were two great bends in the six
miles of the run between the shut-in walls.
"How far is it to the Arctic Circle, Uncle Dick?" demanded Jesse of
their leader when finally he came on deck after finishing his work in
his state-room.
The latter rubbed his chin for a time before he could reply. "Well,"
said he, "I don't know just where it is, but it's somewhere on ahead
of Fort Good Hope, and we'll strike Fort Good Hope now just beyond the
foot of the Ramparts. We'll say that some time in the night we'll pass
the Circle."
"Hurrah for that!" exclaimed Rob, and the other boys also became
excited.
"What does the Circle look like?" asked Jesse, with much interest.
"Well," replied his uncle, "I don't think it looks like anything in
particular. But I think we'll feel the bump when we run over it in the
night. I can assure you of that. Also I can assure you that, once you
get above it, at the end of our northern journey, you'll see a country
different from any you have seen. You hardly realize, no doubt, the
great extent of this tremendous run from the Rockies to the sea."
Meantime the boat had been continuing its progress steadily. It
required about forty-five minutes to complete the run of the bolder
part of the shores known as the Ramparts. Once below, there was to be
seen, even in the faint midnight light, the scattered buildings of
that far-northern post known as Good Hope.
The boys, with all the rest of the passengers, went ashore here and
prowled about the curious old place, examining with much interest the
mission school, the church, and the garden. Rob was able to make a
picture of the interior of the church, putting his camera on a pile of
hymn-books and making a long-time exposure.
The post trader told him later something of the history of this
curious building which for some time had stood here upon the utmost
borders of civilization.
"You see all the decorations and frescoes of the church, just like
those in a cathedral of the Old World," said he. "It was all done by a
young priest known as Brother Antel, now gone to his rest. The church
was built thirty years ago by Bishop Clute, of Little Slave Lake, who
brought up Brother Antel from that lower mission. The altar is
considered an astonishing thing to be found here, almost directly
under the Arctic Circle."
They all stood with their hats off in this curious and interesting
structure of the Far North, hardly being able to realize that they
were now so far beyond the land where such things ordinarily are seen.
"The decorations are fine and the frescoes splendid," said Jesse to
John, as they passed outside the door, "but I don't see why Father
Antel has the angels playing on the mandolin. I didn't know they had
mandolins that long ago."
"Never mind about that, Jesse," said Rob, reprovingly. "You mustn't
make light of anything of the kind. You must remember that these
Slavie Indians, who are the only people who come here for services,
are most impressed by pictures which they can see and understand. I
suppose it's all right. At any rate, it's an astonishing thing to find
such a church away up here, even if it had angels listening to an H.
B. phonograph."
The boat remained at Good Hope all too short a time to suit them,
because all our young travelers were anxious to go to the top of a
certain hill, from which it was said they could have a view of the
Midnight Sun, which had disappeared behind the ridge of the hills
back of the fort itself. Indeed, one of the crew ascended this
eminence, and claimed that he had made a photograph of the Midnight
Sun. Certainly, all of the boys were able to testify that it was still
light at four o'clock in the morning, for they had remained up that
late, eagerly prowling around through the curious and interesting
scenes of the far-northern trading-post.
So wearied were they by their long experience afoot on the previous
day that on the morning of July 7th they slept a little later than
usual, although their total hours of rest were no more than two or
three. Uncle Dick was before them on the deck this time, and
reproached them very much when they appeared.
"Well, young men," said he, "did you feel any heavy jar, or hear a
dull, sickening thud, some time about half an hour or an hour ago?"
"You don't mean that we've passed the Circle, do you, Uncle Dick?"
queried John.
"We certainly have. I don't know just where it was. It's seven-thirty
o'clock now, and somewhere between here and Fort Good Hope we crossed
the Arctic Circle!"
"I can't believe it!" said Rob. "Why, look, the weather is perfectly
fine, and there isn't any ice to be seen. On the other hand, there are
plenty of mosquitoes. What's more, just back at Fort Good Hope we have
seen that they can raise things in their gardens. I would never have
believed these things about this northern country if I had not seen
them myself."
Through the soft, mild light of the sub-Arctic morning the great
steamboat churned on her north-bound way. At ten o'clock they passed
an Indian village which they were told was called Chicago--no doubt
named by some of the Klondikers who were practically cast away here
twenty years earlier. John put it down on his map under that name, as
indeed it is charted in all the authentic maps of that upper region.
They were told that a good number of Indians come here to make their
winter hunt.
An uneventful day, during which the boat logged a great many miles in
her steady progress, was passed, until at ten o'clock they tied up at
the next to the last of the Hudson's Bay posts on the Mackenzie River,
known as Arctic Red River, located at sixty-seven degrees and thirty
minutes north latitude.
"Oh, look, look, fellows!" exclaimed John, as they pulled into the
landing here. "Now we're beginning to get some real stuff! I feel as
though we were pretty near to the end of the world. Look yonder!"
He pointed to where, along the beach at the foot of the bluff, there
lay two encampments of natives.
"Look at the difference in the boats!" exclaimed John, running to the
side of the boat. "There are whale-boats with sails, something like
those we saw out on the Alaska coast. What are they, Uncle Dick?"
"Those are Eskimos, my young friend," said their leader, "and what you
see there are indeed whale-boats. The Huskies come up the river this
far to trade with the other Indians, and with the white men at this
post. This is about as far as they come. They get their boats in trade
from the whale-ships somewhere along the Arctic. As John says, this is
really a curious and interesting scene that you see.
"Over yonder, I think, are the Loucheux. I don't think they are as
strong and able a class of savages as the Huskies. At least, that's
what the traders tell me."
"Well, they've got wall tents, anyway," said Jesse, who was fixing his
field-glasses on the encampments. "Where did they get them? From the
traders, I suppose. My, but they look ragged and poor! I shouldn't
wonder if they were about starved."
By this time the boat was coming to her landing, and the boys hurried
ashore to see what they could find in this curious and interesting
encampment.
There were two trading-posts at Arctic Red River--the Hudson's Bay
Company post, and that of an independent trading company, both on top
of the high bluff and reached by a stairway which ran part way up the
face.
Some of the tribesmen from the encampment now hurried down to meet the
boat--tall and stalwart Eskimos in fur-trimmed costumes which the boys
examined with the greatest of interest and excitement, feeling as they
did that now indeed they were coming into the actual North of which
they had read many years before.
"Uncle Dick is right," said Rob. "These Eskimos are bigger and
stronger than any of the Indians we have seen. I don't think the women
are so bad-looking, either, although the children look awfully dirty."
"It's like Alaska, isn't it?" said John. "Look at the parkies they
wear, even here in the summer-time. That's just like the way Alaska
Indians and white men dress in the winter-time."
"Well," said Jesse, "maybe that's the only clothes they've got. I'll
warrant you they have on their best, because this is the great annual
holiday for them, when the Company boat comes in."
Rob looked at his watch. "Twelve o'clock!" said he. "I can't tell
whether the sun is up yet or not, because it is so cloudy. Anyhow, we
can say that we are now under the Midnight Sun, can't we?--because
here we are right among the Eskimos."
Uncle Dick joined them after a while, laughing. "Talk about traders!"
said he. "No Jew and no Arab in the world would be safe here among
these Huskies! They are the stiffest traders I ever saw in my life.
You can't get them to shade their prices the least bit on earth.
"These boats," he continued, "are crammed full of white-fox skins and
all sorts of stuff--beaver, marten, and mink--and some mighty good fur
at that. But those people haven't seen any white men's goods for at
least a year, and yet they act as if they hadn't an intention in the
world of parting with their furs. Look here," he continued, holding
out his hand.
The boys bent over curiously to see what he had.
"Stone things," said John. "What are they?"
"What they call 'labrets,'" said his uncle, taking up one of the
little articles. "They make them out of stone, don't you see?--with a
groove in the middle. If you will look close at some of these Eskimo
women, or even men, you will find that they have a hole through their
lower lip, and some of them wear this little 'labret.' Here also are
some made out of walrus ivory."
"Well, now I know what it was I saw that tall Husky had in his face
awhile ago," said John. "Something was sticking through his lower lip,
and I know now it was the glass stopper of a bottle of Worcester
sauce."
Uncle Dick laughed. "Correct!" said he. "I saw the same fellow, and,
now that you mention it, I gave him three dollars for that glass
stopper from the bottle! I don't suppose any one will believe the
story, but it's true.
"If you get a chance to trade any of these Huskies out of one of their
pipes, do it, boys," said he, "especially if you can get one of the
old bluestone pipe bowls. Pay as much as five dollars for it--which
would be ten 'skins' up here. I don't suppose you could find one for a
hundred dollars anywhere in the museums of our country, for they are
very rare. I have my eye on one, and I hope before we get out of this
northern country to close a trade for it, but the old fellow is mighty
stiff."
"You say that five dollars is ten 'skins' up here, Uncle Dick,"
commented Rob. "At Fort Smith and Fort Simpson a 'skin' was only
thirty cents--three to the dollar."
"That custom varies at the different posts," was Uncle Dick's reply.
"Of course you understand that a 'skin' is not a skin at all, but
simply a unit of value. Sometimes a trader will give an Indian a
bowlful of bullets representing the total value in 'skins' of the fur
which he has brought in. Each one of those bullets will be a 'skin.'
The Indian doesn't know anything about dollars or cents, and indeed
very little of value at all. You have to show him everything in an
objective way. So when the Indian wants to trade for white men's
goods, he asks for his particular bowl of bullets--which, child-like,
he has left with the trader himself. The traders are, however, honest.
They never cheat the Indian, in that way at least. So the trader hands
down the bowl of bullets. The Indian sees what he wants on the shelves
behind the counter, and the trader holds up as many fingers as the
value is in 'skins.' The Indian picks out that many bullets from his
bowl and hands them to the trader, and the trader hands him his
goods.
"You can see, therefore, that the Indian's bowlful of bullets in this
country would not buy him as much fur as he would have gotten farther
down the river. At the same time, this is farther north, and the
freight charges are necessarily high. Perhaps there is just a little
in the fact that competition of the independents is not as keen here
as it is farther to the south!
"But whatever be the price of a 'skin,'" Uncle Dick went on, somewhat
ruefully, "these Huskies take it out of us cheechackos when we come
in. We passed the last of the Slavies at Fort Good Hope. Now we are
among the Loucheux. But these Huskies run over the Loucheux as if they
were not there."
There was plenty of time given to the passengers at this landing to
visit the boats and encampments of the natives, so that our young
investigators were able to obtain considerable information about the
methods of the country.
They went aboard one whale-boat and discovered that its owner, a
stalwart Husky, had brought in a hundred marten and a hundred mink,
and half as many white-foxes and lynx. He explained that he was going
to buy another whale-boat of the Hudson's Bay Company, and that he had
to pay yet seventy marten, besides all this other fur, in order to get
his boat, which would be delivered to him next year. The boys figured
that he was paying about twenty-five hundred dollars for an ordinary
whale-boat, perhaps thirty years old, and, inquiring as to the cost of
such a boat along the coast, found that it rarely was more than about
three or four hundred dollars new!
"Well," said Rob, "I can begin to see how there's money in this fur
business, after all. A sack of flour brings twenty-five dollars here.
A cup of flour sells for one 'skin,' or fifty cents. These people,
Huskies and all, know the value of matches, and they jolly well have
to pay for them. I've been figuring, and I find out that the traders
make about five thousand per cent. profit on the matches they sell in
the northern country. Everything else is in proportion."
Uncle Dick grinned at them as they bent over their books or notes.
"Well," he said, "you remind me of the methods of old Whiteman, a
trader out in the western country where I used to live. People used to
kick on what he charged for needles and thread, and he always pointed
out to them that the freight in that western country was very heavy
indeed. I suppose that's the answer of the Hudson's Bay Company to the
high cost of living among the Eskimos."
"How much farther north are we going, Uncle Dick?" asked Rob,
suddenly. "I mean, how soon do we leave the steamboat?"
"Quicker than you will like," said he. "This is the next to the last
stop that we'll make. On ahead eighty miles is good old Fort
McPherson, on the Peel River, and that is as far as we go. From this
time on you can make the memorandum on your photographs and your notes
in your diary that you are working under the Midnight Sun and north of
the Arctic Circle!"
"I didn't think we would ever be here!" said John, drawing a long
breath. "My, hasn't it been easy, and hasn't it been quick? I can
hardly realize that we have got this far away from home in so little a
while."
"Yes," said Rob, "when we were back there loafing around on the
portages and in some of the more important stops I began to think we
were going to be stranded up here in the winter-time. Well, maybe
we'll get through yet, Uncle Dick. What do you think?"
"Maybe so," replied Uncle Dick. "And now, if you've got your pictures
all fixed up, I think you'd better turn in. You've got to remember
that you sleep by the clock up here, and not by the sun."
X
FARTHEST NORTH
"Look!" cried Rob to his two companions as they stood on the far deck
of the steamboat. "Look yonder!"
He was pointing on ahead through the low-hanging mist and drizzling
rain which had marked the last few hours of their last day of
steamboat travel.
"What is it?" demanded Jesse, also crowding toward the bow.
"I know. It's the Rockies!" cried John. "Uncle Dick told me that those
mountains were the most northerly spur of the Rocky Mountains. It's
where they go farthest north. So, fellows, we've been somewhere,
haven't we? Uncle Dick was right--this is the greatest trip we've had,
as sure as you're born."
"But look yonder on ahead," resumed Jesse. "What river is that we're
turning into now?"
The booming whistle of the great steamer had called his attention to
the fact that they were now altering their course. The _Mackenzie
River_ was entering the narrow mouth of a swift stream against which
it took all their power to make any headway at all.
Along the banks of this river the trees seemed to be growing taller
and stronger, whether willows or spruces that lined the banks, and the
shores themselves were bolder.
"Call Uncle Dick," said Rob. "He's writing in his room. He knows all
about this, I expect."
So they called Uncle Dick and asked him about the new river.
"Yes," said he, "this is the Peel River. It comes down out of the
Rockies, as you see. You are now pretty near to the upper end of the
whole entire Rocky Mountain system. We are going to cross the most
northerly part of the Rockies, and the lowest pass--it is only about a
thousand feet above sea-level, and only about a hundred miles south of
the Arctic Sea itself.
"This river here, the Peel," he continued, "no doubt offered the old
traders a better building-site for a post than the big river would
have done below the mouth. The Mackenzie wanders on down for a hundred
miles through its delta. Of course the natives trap all through this
country for a hundred miles or more, but they tell me the site of
Fort McPherson is a favorite one with them, and they all know it.
Pretty soon we'll be there."
It was about 3.15 of that same day, according to Rob's diary, when at
last the steamboat, after gallantly bucking the stiff current of the
Peel River for some hours, pulled in at the foot of a high bank at the
summit of which there was located the most northerly of all the
Hudson's Bay posts, and the one with least competition to-day--old
Fort McPherson of venerable history.
On the narrow beach at the foot of the hill lay an encampment of
Eskimos, their huts rudely built of hides, pieces of wall tents, and
canvas stretched over tepee-like frames. Several of their whale-boats,
well rigged and well cared for, lay moored to the bank. All along the
beach prowled the gaunt dogs which belonged to the Eskimos, and yet
other young dogs were tied to stakes so that they might not escape.
These stalwart savages, twenty or thirty of them, came now and joined
the motley throng which crowded down to the boat landing. Here might
be seen the grizzled old post trader who had been here for forty
years, and near to him the red uniforms of a pair of Mounted
Policemen who were waiting for this boat to take them back to
civilization. A few others of the mounted force, one or two
nondescripts, and a scattered and respectful fringe of Loucheux
Indians who held back at the rear went to make up the strange throng
who greeted the last and only boat of the year.
It was a great event for these far-northern dwellers when the steamer
came. A great event it was, too, for these young adventurers who had
gone north with the brigade, who now had seen that brigade dwindle and
scatter over more than fifteen hundred miles of unknown country; and
who now saw the remnant of the brigade proper, one steamboat and a
scow, come to anchor here at the farthest north of the fur trade of
this continent!
The boys were quickly on shore, running around with their cameras
among the savages. They found the Huskies, as they always were called,
a much more imposing tribe than any of the Indians they had seen. The
men were taller and more robust, more fearless and self-respecting,
even arrogant in their deportment. The women were a strapping lot.
Some of them wore the blue line tattoo on the lower lip, showing them
to be married women; others, young girls not uncomely to look upon.
All were clad in the fur garments of the North, even though it now
was summer-time, the date of their arrival being July 8th. Over the
fur garments most of them wore a dirty cotton covering, supposedly to
keep their fur garments clean. The women usually slipped their arms
out of the sleeves of their loose, chemise-like jackets, so that with
their double coverings it was sometimes difficult to tell where they
kept their hands.
To the surprise of the boys, the Eskimos insisted on receiving money
or presents of some kind before they would allow themselves to be
photographed. They were willing to trade, but, as their Uncle Dick had
warned them, they proved to be most avaricious traders. A "labret" of
ivory or even of wood they valued at four or five dollars--or asked so
much as that at first. A bone-handled drill, made of a piece of seal
rib with a nail for a point to the drill, was priced accordingly. A
pair of mukluks, or native seal boots, was difficult to find at all,
while as for the furs with which their boats were crowded they
professed indifference whether or not any one purchased them.
"Wait awhile," said Uncle Dick. "Be as indifferent as they are. About
the time the boat turns around to go back south again you'll see them
begin to trade. I might have bought my bluestone pipe if I'd had
time."
"I'll tell you," said Jesse. "That big fellow down there--I call him
Simon--he's got one of those bluestone pipe bowls that you told about.
He says it's old, and he wants ten dollars for it. They understand
what a dollar is; they don't trade in skins like these other tribes."
"Well, you see," said Uncle Dick, "these men all have met the
whale-boats which come around through Bering Sea. They know more about
the white men's ways than the inland tribes. As you see, they are a
much superior class of people."
"That's so," said Rob, who was just back from photographing among the
Loucheux villages located on top of the hill, timidly remote from the
Eskimos. "Those people up on the hill are about starving, and so
ragged and dirty I don't see how they live at all."
"They've got religion, just the same," said John. "I've been down
making a picture of the mission church. I bought two hymn-books for
one 'skin' each of the native preacher. Here they are, all in the
native language, don't you see? And I bought a Book of Common Prayer,
printed in Loucheux, too."
"Well, I've got three bone fish-hooks and a drill," said Jesse,
triumphantly. "I don't know whether I'll have any money left before
long. You see, it's hard to wait till the boat starts back, because
some one else might get these things before we do."
"Is any one going out?" asked Rob.
"Yes, the inspector of the Mounted Police and one man are going
out--the first time in two years," replied Jesse, proud of his
information. "Two new men that came with us are going up to Herschel
Island. There is a four-man post up here, with the barracks beyond the
trader's house. They have to travel a hundred miles or so in the
winter-time, and it's more than a hundred miles by boat from here to
Herschel Island. The Inspector of Police who is going down there told
me he was going to hire one of these Huskies to take him down in his
whale-boat."
"They tell me the old trader has not been outside for more than forty
years, or at least not more than once," added Rob to the general fund
of information. "He came from the Scotch Hebrides here when he was
young, and now he's old. He has a native Indian wife and no one knows
how many children running around up there."
"I suppose he's going to take care of the district inspector who came
down from Fort Simpson with us on the boat," ventured John, who had
made good friends with the latter gentleman in the course of the long
voyage.
"Well," said Jesse, dubiously, "it looks to me like there was going to
be a celebration of some sort. All the white men have gone up to the
trader's house, and they don't come out. I could hear some sort of
singing and going-on in there when I came by."
Rob smiled, not altogether approvingly. "It's easy to understand,"
said he. "All these people at the trading-posts wait for the boat to
come. It's their big annual jamboree, I suppose. There's many a bottle
of alcohol that's gone up the hill since this boat landed, I can
promise you that; and it's alcohol they drink up here. Some one gets
most of the Scotch whisky before it gets this far north."
"They won't let them trade whisky to the natives, though; that's
against the law of Canada," said John. "The first thing this old Simon
man down the beach asked for was whisky. As for the Loucheux, I don't
suppose they ever see any--and a good thing they don't."
"Did you see the dishpan that old girl with the blue lip had in front
of her place?" inquired Jesse, after a time. "She had taken a rock and
pounded a hole down in the hard ground. Then she poured water in
that. That's their dishpan--and I don't think they have changed the
water for a week!"
"I should say not!" said Rob. "I wouldn't want to live in that camp,
if I could help it. Did you see how they eat? They don't cook their
fish at all, but keep it raw and let it almost spoil. Then you can see
them--if you can stand it--sitting around a bowl in a circle, all of
them dipping their hands into the mess. Ugh! I couldn't stand to watch
them, even.
"There's a good-looking wall tent down the beach, though," continued
Rob, "and I don't know whether you've been there or not. There's a
white man by the name of Storkenberg there--a Scandinavian sailor that
has drifted down here from some of the boats for reasons best known to
himself. He tells me he's been among the Eskimos for quite a while.
He's married to a sort of half-breed Eskimo woman--she's almost
white--and they've got one little baby, a girl. Rather cute she was,
too."
"It's funny how people live away up here," mused Jesse. "I didn't know
so many queer things could happen this far north. Why, there seems to
be a sort of settlement here, after all, doesn't there?"
"They have to live through the winter," smiled John, "if they don't
go back on that boat. It will be here for a few days, and when she
turns back it's all off for a full year."
"There's an independent trader with a boat-load of furs which he is
going to take out over the Rat Portage and into the Yukon, the same
way that we are going," volunteered John, also after a little. "I've
been down talking with him. He says it will take ten days from here to
the summit, the best we can do, and as to when we can start no one can
tell. Uncle Dick told me we would have to wait for our supplies until
the general annual jamboree cooled down a little bit. Then we will get
our canoe off the boat and rig her up."
Jesse stood with his hands in his pockets, looking about the motley
scene surrounding them. "I don't care much for the fur trade," said
he, slowly, after a time. "It looks all dirty, and it's a cruel thing.
I don't like to trap things, anyhow, very much any more since I got
older. Besides, it doesn't look nice to me. These people are so poor
they can barely live from one year to the next, and the Company could
have changed that in a hundred years if it had wanted to."
"Well, there's the mission-work among them even here," commented Rob.
"That gives them a little bit more life. They learn how to read a
little bit sometimes, and they get to using the needle better than
they did before. It helps them make things they can sell--moccasins
and bead-work--don't you think?"
"Huh!" said Jesse. "Much money they get out of that. When that boat's
gone their market's gone for the full year, isn't it? No, I don't like
it. Of course I'm glad we've come up here and seen all this--I
wouldn't have missed it for the world. But now I know more about the
great fur companies than I ever did before. Old ones or new ones, they
all look alike to me, and I don't like them."
"Well," said Rob, "if everything was just the way we left it back
home, there wouldn't be any fun in going traveling anywhere in the
world. It's the strangeness of this and the wildness that make it
interesting, isn't it?
"And we _are_ in a strange, wild country," he continued. "Where else
can you go in all the world and find as many new and out-of-the-way
places as this? From where we stand here you can go over east into a
country that no white man knows about. We have passed beyond the place
where Sir John Franklin was lost. If you go southwest you can get to
Dawson, maybe--there's the tombstones of the four Mounted Policemen
who tried to get across from Dawson and didn't. I've got a photograph
of their tombstones; the men just hauled them up the hill with dogs
to-day and put them up not more than an hour ago.
"And then," he went on, "north of here runs the Arctic, with who knows
what beyond the shore-line. South and west of the place where we will
cross the Canadian and American line there's a lot of country no man
knows much about. And everywhere you looked as we came through, east
and west of the big river, there was country that was mapped, but with
really little known of it. The Liard has been mapped, but that's all
you can say about it. The only way to travel through this country is
on the rivers, and when you are on one of these rivers you don't have
much time to see beyond the banks, believe me."
"Well, it's kept me mighty busy with my little old map," said John,
"changing directions as much as we have. I wanted to ask you, Rob,
whether I've got the distances all right. Why not check up on the
jumps in our whole journey from the start to here, where we are at the
end of the trail?"
"All right," said Rob, and produced his own memorandum-book from his
pocket. "I've got the distances here, the way they were given to me by
the government men:
"From Athabasca Landing to Pelican Portage was one hundred and twenty
miles; to the Grand Rapids, one hundred and sixty-five miles; to
McMurray, two hundred and fifty-two miles; to Chippewyan, four hundred
and thirty-seven miles; to Smith's Landing, five hundred and
thirty-seven miles; to Fort Smith, below the portage, five hundred and
fifty-three miles; to Fort Resolution on Great Slave Lake, seven
hundred and forty-five miles; to Hay River, eight hundred and fifteen
miles; to Fort Providence, nine hundred and five miles; to Fort
Simpson, ten hundred and eighty-five miles; to Fort Wrigley, twelve
hundred and sixty-five miles; to Fort Norman, fourteen hundred and
thirty-seven miles; to Fort Good Hope, sixteen hundred and nine miles;
to Arctic Red River, eighteen hundred and nineteen miles; to Fort
McPherson, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine miles. That's the way we
figured it out at first, and I guess it's about as accurate as any one
can tell," he concluded.
John was setting down these figures and doing a little figuring on the
margin of his paper. "We left on May twenty-ninth," said he, "and got
here July eighth--forty days into two thousand miles--that makes fifty
miles a day we've averaged, including all the stops. You see that
fifty miles a day, kept up, gets you into the thousands in time,
doesn't it? After we struck the steamboat we began to raise the
average."
"Well," said Jesse, looking off to the dull-brown slopes of the
tundra-covered mountains which lay to the westward, "if what that
trader-man told me is true, we'll slow down considerably before we get
to the top of that pass in the Rockies yonder."
They were all sitting on the crest of the bluff of Fort McPherson
landing, where a long log slab, polished by many years of use, had
been erected as a sort of lookout bench for the people who live the
year around at Fort McPherson.
"What time is it, Rob?" asked Jesse, suddenly.
Rob pulled out his watch. "It's eleven-thirty," said he. "Get the
cameras, boys! Here's a good place for us, right here at the end of
the bench. It's almost midnight. Look over there!"
The three of them looked as he pointed. The Midnight Sun of the Arctic
hung low on the horizon, but not lower now than it had been for some
time. Its rays, reflected from the surface of the Peel River just
beyond, shone with a pale luster such as they had never before known.
With some sort of common feeling which neither of them could have
explained, each of the three boys took off his cap and laid it on the
bench beside him as he stood looking at that strange spectacle given
to so few travelers to see--the unsinking Midnight Sun!
XI
THE MIDNIGHT SUN
It was two o'clock in the morning. There had been no night. The sun
had not sunk at all beyond yonder dark, ragged fringe of the
spruce-trees marking the horizon. Not even the lower edge of its disk
had been broken by the top of the tallest spruce-tree. Yes, for one of
the few remaining nights of that year it had been given to our young
travelers to see the Midnight Sun at its lowest point.
It was a strange sun, so it seemed to them all. After it had sunk far
off to the left of the Peel River it seemed to hang there for a time,
and then to go, not in the arc of a circle, but almost in a line
parallel with the level of the earth plane, passing with considerable
rapidity from left to right in its course. Its reflection upon the
water of the Peel River, very noticeable at first, changed until by
and by there was no reflection left at all and it had passed off
across the spruce forest upon the right bank of the river. There again
it seemed to hang, as in its upward course it began to forsake its
semi-contact with the level of the earth's sphere. For these few days
at this latitude it would make its circle in what Rob called the
northwest corner of the heavens, striving to give these poor natives
who live in that land some sort of compensation for the terrible
sunless nights of the immeasurable Arctic winter.
Our young adventurers, be sure, had lost no time in this fine
opportunity for photography--an opportunity given to very few
travelers of any age or climate at this particular spot; for since the
great Klondike rush had straggled through, broken and failing, twenty
years before, few white persons indeed had ever stood upon these
shores.
"Run, Jesse, to our tent upon the beach!" called out John. "I'm out of
films. Get all we've got. We'll have to try and try again, so as to be
sure we're not missing anything."
"That's right," said Rob. "We don't know much about this light. It's
soft and faint, but it seems to cut the film, after all, as near as I
can tell. I'm going to make all sorts of times--from three seconds and
five seconds and ten seconds up to twenty and thirty seconds; and
with each of these times that I give it I'm going to use a different
stop. Somewhere, some of us will get a picture, I'm sure of that."
"Well," said John, looking at Jesse's hurrying form as he scurried
down the steep path to their tent upon the beach, "it would be too bad
to come this far and then fail."
It may be added that the boys did not fail, for certainly they brought
out from their trip what then were known as the best amateur negatives
ever made in that latitude; and of all the trophies of their northern
trips they have prized none so much as these pictures of their own, of
that strange spectacle of the great, mysterious North.
It was late that night, or early that morning, when at length they
closed their labors with the cameras, all fairly content. Uncle Dick
had left them to their own devices, feeling that if they got
results--as he felt sure they would--they would feel all the more
proud for having done so without the advice and aid of one older than
themselves. Indeed, he was beginning more and more to trust these
young lads to their own devices. Himself occupied with matters of
business which kept him very largely about the government office--as
might have been called the log barracks of the Northwest Mounted
Police which made the only representative of the law in that far-off
land--he for some time after the landing of the boat allowed the boys
to shift pretty much for themselves, with what results we have seen.
They had pitched their tent farther down the beach than the lowest
Eskimo hut, and had in this case put up the great mosquito tent, which
stood eight feet high and had windows like a house. Into this, late
that night, they now crawled, one after another, through the sleeve of
the tent.
"My!" exclaimed Jesse, "I never saw such mosquitoes in my life as
these little black fellows! There are simply clouds of them all along
the beach here, and they follow you wherever you go."
They all stood up inside the tent before preparing for bed in their
blanket rolls.
"Take your socks, fellows," said Rob. "We'll have to kill every one in
the tent, or they won't let us sleep to-night. Jesse's right; these
little fellows bite worse than anything I've seen yet. I vow, when I
came into the tent they almost scared me when they lit on my head and
neck!"
"That trader and his wife didn't seem to mind them so much," said
John, scratching his own neck rather seriously. "She's a white woman,
too--Norwegian, I think some one told me--at least she speaks somewhat
broken. She's a nice woman, too, and I don't see how she stands it up
in this country."
"Her husband told me this is their third winter in the North,"
answered Rob. "They say it takes two or three years to get used to
these things, and then you sort of quiet down and get resigned."
"Or else you die!" grumbled John. "We don't know how many people there
are that don't get resigned."
"How long is the boat going to be here yet, Rob?" queried Jesse,
sitting up on his bed and unlacing his moccasins.
"Until the jamboree is ended and all the fur is bought from the
Huskies," replied Rob, seriously. "Maybe two or three days yet--I
don't know. There'll be plenty of time for us to look around a bit
to-morrow, and even later. Meantime, Uncle Dick has got to get the
supplies ready for our canoe. We're a long ways from home yet. We're
not going back when the steamer goes, young chaps; you'd better
remember that!"
"Huh! Who cares?" said Jesse, contemptuously, pulling his blanket over
his head. "I'm not afraid. We'll get through somehow."
As Rob had said, they had ample time the next day to look about them
in this strange and interesting environment into which they had now
come. The unloading of the boat went on steadily, the slow stream of
breeds, stooping under their heavy loads, passing up the steep bluff
from the boat landing to the trading-post. The boys had time to prowl
along the beach and watch the natives run their nets, and even pursue
their native art of hunting; for that morning, hearing shots from the
bank, they looked out to see a half-dozen native kayaks hurrying to a
point out in the river where a black object bobbing up was seen now
and then. It was, in fact, a beaver which had been spied. On the bank
a half-breed was shooting at it with a rifle, while the Huskies were
crowding around, endeavoring to spear it when it came to sight. At
last a lucky shot from the rifleman brought an end to the chase. A
Husky drove a spear into the body of the dead beaver, and they came
ashore with it, all of them shouting and singing and flinging up their
paddles or their spear-shafts as they raced ahead.
"Look at those boats," said Rob, always observant. "In the last five
hundred miles we have seen the birch-bark canoe change into a kayak,
haven't we?"
"That's right," said John. "First there was the Cree canoe, with the
high bow and stern rolling in--much as you could see in Canada
anywhere. Then, as the trees got smaller, birch bark scarcer, in the
Dog Rib and Rabbit country, the boats got narrower. I wouldn't have
liked to get into one. But they didn't waste any bark rolling the ends
in; the ends came up sharp, as in the kayak."
"Yes, and at Arctic Red River," said Jesse, remembering, "they had
just a little deck--not much of a one. And now here they are made out
of skin and decked all over except a little hole in the middle."
"And if you'll look at these Eskimos," said Rob, again, "and then
think of how those Chippewyans looked, you'll have to admit that they
both have the same look and that they both look Japanese. I saw
Chippewyans that looked like Japs to me, and that was 'way south of
here. I suppose maybe some writers are correct, and that a good many
of the tribes, if not all of them, came across the Bering Sea once
upon a time, long ago."
"Uncle Dick is going to get a couple of Indian boys here, Loucheux, to
help us up to the divide," said John. "He told me that to-day. He's
out of patience with the delay here and crazy to get started, but he
couldn't get any supplies. The Hudson's Bay say that they lost a scow
somewhere which ought to have come in here and didn't come. The
Northwest Mounted Police claim that all their bacon is missing. The
Indians say they are starving and have to have something for their
children. How we'll get beans enough to carry us across Uncle Dick
can't say."
"Well, leave it to Uncle Dick," said Jesse. "I know he'll fix it all
right some way, and we'll get through, too."
"That's the talk, Jesse," said Rob, slapping a hand on his shoulder.
"You've got more nerve than you had when you started, and you weigh
ten pounds more, too. I'll warrant that you'll be the lead dog on the
tow-line going up the Rat."
Thus occupied, they passed the time all too rapidly. In the late
evening of their second day the boys noticed a strange hurrying among
all the population at the crest of the bluff and on the beach below.
Some sort of warning seemed to be in the air; an instant later it
became audible in the deep, booming whistle of the steamboat which lay
moored below.
The _Mackenzie River_, last unit of the modern fur brigade, was ready
to turn back from her farthest north and take up her weary way once
more, bucking the tremendous current of the Mackenzie River for more
than a thousand miles to the southward.
Again and again the whistle's echoes rang along the steep shore, and
here and there whites and natives, all the tribesmen, every unit of
the motley population of the place, hurried down to the landing, until
the narrow beach was packed. Men shouted and waved to others now gone
aboard the boat. The two red-clad police officers now going back home
smiled their pleasure at the thought of the long journey that lay
ahead of them; whereas the two who took their place stood looking upon
them somewhat ruefully, but bravely as they might, facing their own
two years of exile, during which they would never again see a white
face until they themselves were relieved. A few Huskies now came
hurriedly, offering bargains in their coveted white-fox skins, and
some of the great Arctic mink which had not yet all been traded even
by the shrewd district agent who had come north with the steamer to
see after this particular portion of the territory of his Company,
always so prolific in good furs.
[Illustration: HUSKY FLEET--FORT MCPHERSON]
Men joked and chaffed each other here and there across the narrow
strip of water. Dogs howled each time the whistle blast rang out. A
few enthusiasts on the top of the bank wasted precious ammunition in a
salute. A few cronies drank a parting stirrup cup out of their scant
remaining alcoholic stores. Yonder the Eskimos now began to man their
whale-boats for their long voyage to the Arctic Sea. The women were
packing up their own supplies now, herding the dogs together, pulling
the kayaks up on the decks of the sailing-schooners. The great event
of the year was coming to its close and camp was breaking. Now the
head of the brigade, this unit farthest north, must begin its long and
laborious passage southward once more against the current. As it
had brought north such store as was possible of bulky goods, now it
carried back, tight packed in its hold, the bales of the precious fur,
so much less bulky than the goods which had been brought north, and so
far more valuable.
The old trader, gray, grizzled, and taciturn, who had done his Company
the service of accumulating all this store of fur, stood leaning
against the beam of the great fur-press which but now had been busy in
baling the precious white-fox fur, the mink and marten, of this great
and solitary country of the North. He would not again see a civilized
face until that time in the following year, if he still were living
then. He made no comment, nor did the swarthy men of his immediate
command who stood about him, grim and taciturn, and disdaining to show
the emotion of a salute to the passing crew of the _Mackenzie River_.
But at last the conclusion of all these partings came. All the
government men and Company men who were going out went on board ship.
The bell jingled under the hand of the captain in his pilot-house
above. The strong-armed breeds hauled in the gang-plank, and with a
parting shrill salute the steamer began to swing her nose into the
current of the Peel.
Majestically she turned about to pick up the current for her brief run
down that stream to the great river which she was now to ascend. The
boys on the bank plied their cameras as she swung midstream, and
worked them yet further as the Eskimo whale-boats fell in her wake.
By and by the last cheering ceased to be heard. A blank silence fell
upon all those remaining on the bank. The three young lads looked from
one to the other, looked again at the silent face of the tall and
sun-bronzed man who was to lead them out of this country now. A sudden
melancholy had fallen upon them all. The silence, the mystery of the
great North, seemed now to envelop them. They felt strangely
alone--indeed, if truth were told, strangely sad and helpless.
Home--how very far away it seemed! John poked a swift elbow into
Jesse's side, for it seemed to him he had caught just a suspicion of a
tear in the corner of that young traveler's eye.
And now, late in what should have been the evening of the Arctic day,
there arose, as if expressive of the thought in the minds of all, that
strangest and most mournful sound that comes to the ears of man--the
united howling of the dogs of the Far North.
There may have been two or three hundred of them in all, perhaps more,
in the Loucheux village and the remainder of the Eskimo encampment,
but all of them in unison, if not in accord, raised their voices in a
tremulous wail which fairly made the blood run cold.
It was the voice of the far-off, mysterious, and unconquered North!
XII
THE RAT PORTAGE
Before our young adventurers now lay the most dangerous part of their
entire journey in the northern wilderness--that famous Rat Portage
over the Rockies, at which, twenty years earlier, so many parties
bound for the Klondike met disaster. Our young friends had no guides
to lead them through this unknown country, any more than had the first
Klondikers in the gold stampede which came down the Mackenzie and
undertook to get across to the Yukon. No map of that region existed,
or at least not in the knowledge of any of our party. They were,
therefore, as helpless as any explorers ever were in any portion of
the world, and were about to venture into a country as wild as any
upon the North American continent.
It was no wonder, then, that their leader, himself a wise and cautious
man and well versed in all the expedients of outdoor life, hesitated
and pondered, as, standing upon the high crest of Fort McPherson boat
landing, he looked out to the low, dull slopes of the Rockies, far
ahead. He had heard all the stories about this risky undertaking, and
had been cautioned repeatedly by the old trader at Fort McPherson
against endeavoring to get through with no companions but these young
boys. He knew that his supplies would be no more than sufficient, and
that there was no place to get further supplies. Above all, he
pondered over the dissimilarity of opinions expressed about the
distances and difficulties of the proposed route across the Rockies.
Some said it was a hundred miles to the summit, others said
seventy-five, others a hundred and forty. Some said it would take a
week to get to the top, others two weeks, others three, and yet others
said it could not be done at all. Some said there was one lake at the
portage on the summit, others said there were five. No one could give
any clear idea of the country that lay out yonder beyond the dull,
brown tundra.
It was a mysterious land, potent with difficulties and possibly alive
with dangers. Uncle Dick loved these young companions of his beyond
all price, and he knew his own responsibility in undertaking to lead
them through. At times he regretted the whole journey as a mad
enterprise which never ought to have been taken on. But at length,
like any born leader, he pitted the difficulties against the
privileges, made his decision; and, having made it, adhered to it.
"We'll start, boys," said he, "and start to-morrow."
Since, therefore, these young travelers did make this dangerous
journey which had proved impossible for so many older _voyageurs_, it
may be well to allow Rob to tell in his own fashion the story of their
crossing of the Rockies on the old Rat Portage. Rob kept his notes
from day to day during the remainder of their stay at Fort McPherson.
"_Sunday, July 13th._--Cloudy and overcast. Lucky we got our
pictures of the Midnight Sun--this is about the last chance.
We have been living at the Mounted Police barracks. The old
trader keeps to his own house. Uncle Dick says he was to get
us our supplies. We have mended the canoe we brought down on
the steamboat. Not very big for four of us. Uncle Dick says
he has got two Loucheux Indian boys, Johnny and Willy, to
meet us at the mouth of the Rat River and help us to track
up that river to the top. Uncle Dick seems uneasy. We told
him not to bother about us. The independent trader with a
scow of furs is going to try to get across. We ought to beat
them over.
"_Wednesday, July 16th._--Such fuss and fooling around
nobody ever saw. But we're on our way with at least some
supplies. Glad we brought a shot-gun and a fishing-rod. Off
at 4.15. At 7.30 reached a creek coming into the Husky River
from a chain of lakes. Never saw so many fish in my life as
there were of the 'connies.' We caught plenty for a day or
so. Mosquitoes bad in camp. Rain.
"_Friday, July 18th._--Late start, 10.30. At 1.30 made the
mouth of the Rat and picked up the two Indians. This famous
stream is a deep, narrow creek. Mosquitoes the worst I ever
saw. Ate lunch in headnets. Have to write with gloves on.
Current sluggish. We still can paddle up-stream. It is at
least seventy-five miles, possibly a hundred, to the top.
"At 11.15 thought we were near Destruction City, the old
Klondike camp where so many died. Some women wintered here.
Must have been an awful bunch of tenderfeet. We are maybe
ten to fifteen miles above the mouth of the Rat. Shores
sandy and covered with willows. Cooked a pot of beans. We
have a few beans, a little tea, some dried fruit, a little
flour, and some side-meat for grease. Not much more. Fish
are said to be plenty, also plenty of ptarmigan and rabbits
farther up. Pretty tired to-night. Have done maybe twenty
miles.
"_Saturday, July 19th._--Current stiffer. Passed a creek
coming from Black Mountains. Shores began to change in the
afternoon. Tundra coming down to banks. Began to see rocks
on shore--glad to see them after so much mud and willow
flats. At 4 P.M. made Destruction City--probably twenty-five
miles above the mouth of the Rat. Going slower than we
thought, as we hoped to make this yesterday. Caught some big
trout, very fine to eat. They take the fly splendidly. At 5
P.M. we laid aside the paddles and had to begin to track.
The Indians are patient now, and very useful. Tracking is
beastly hard work. You put a collar around your breast and
shoulder. We had to walk in the water. Uncle Dick and the
Indians and I took turns. John steered pretty well. All got
our feet and legs wet a hundred times. Jesse went along
shore most of the way. The canoe rode light, and we made
pretty good time.
"_Sunday, July 20th._--Mosquitoes still with us. Rain lets
up. We have been sleeping pretty wet, but don't mind.
Rerigged our tracking-line. Got some pictures. Started at
10.30 and traveled nearly five hours to foot of a bad rapid
above a deep pool. Camped on a beach. Made a big fire to dry
our clothes. We are wet all the time, all of us. Jesse shot
three rabbits. He hunts while we track the boats. We don't
let him get out of sight very far. I saw one lynx to-day.
Astonishing how little game we have been seeing on this
whole trip in this big wild country. Saw an abandoned
Klondike camp. They say they are scattered through all these
woods here. Sometimes they have found skeletons since. A boy
was lost in here and found dead. Traces of the big Klondike
migration now getting scarce. Saw some iron on the beach,
and ax marks on trees.
"_Monday, July 21st._--Heavy going. Hard strain on all of
us. Think this would try the best sort of man if he had
heavy supplies along in his boat. We have to hurry or we
won't have enough to eat. Lunch at 2 P.M. Saw the mountains
far ahead. A great sight. They seem not more than
twenty-five miles. Indian boys very useful, quiet, and
patient. One says he paid twenty-five dollars for his hat at
the trading-post. It was worth about two dollars in the
States. Saw some blazed trees. This was written on one,
'Colin's rifle in tent here 25th.' Don't know what this
meant, but suppose a party had split and some gone ahead,
and left word. Gum had grown all over the writing. Saw some
more sled irons. Jesse got eight rabbits and two ptarmigan.
We make a stew and keep putting more things in it as we
travel along.
"_Tuesday, July 22d._--We started about 10 o'clock this
morning. Take turns on the line, each going as fast and as
far as he can, until he gets pretty tired. Saw a coal seam
in a cut rock wall on the bank. Mounted a series of heavy
rapids all day. At 7 P.M. hit a cañon and had hard work to
get up the rapids, for almost a mile. All worn out. Camp
8.30. Jesse plumb fagged out. Everybody wet. We dried our
clothes around the fire before we went to bed. Can see how
hard this would be for real tenderfeet. Found an old
Klondike shack, fallen in, this afternoon, apparently
deserted nearly twenty years. Caught some splendid Arctic
trout on the fly--the gamest fish we ever saw, and mighty
good to eat. They look like sea-trout, although they are a
hundred and fifty miles from the sea here. Our camp in a
round pocket to-night. The cañon bends sharp to the right.
Can see one mountain ahead, but not the big range. John
making a map all the time. Stories told us no use this far;
things don't check out.
"_Wednesday, July 23d._--Off at 10.30. Much to our joy, have
fine tracking nearly all day. Rapids less powerful, and
bends wider, and better beaches to walk on. At 6.30 passed a
small creek and explored it. Nowhere near summit yet. We
thought we logged twelve miles to-day. Probably haven't
averaged half that the other three days. It looks mighty
puzzling on ahead. They told us to look out for a sharp,
high peak which marked the portage. We can't figure it out.
They told us to look for a river coming from the right. We
don't find one. We seem a long way from the summit. Camp
9.30 on rocky flat. Trout and grayling both for supper. Very
fine.
"_Thursday, July 24th._--Haven't slept very well. Everybody
getting sore and tired. Don't think we went over four or
five miles all day to-day. Uncle Dick called it 'unmitigated
hell.' Water icy cold now and very fast and heavy. A great
many round, smooth stones in the river, so we can hardly
walk. Our shoes are worn out, and we are only wearing double
moccasins, so that our feet can hardly stand it. Uncle Dick
fell down once and hurt his leg pretty bad. An accident
might happen any time. The Indian boys are tired but game.
When we asked them how far to the top they said, 'I dinno,'
which is about all the English they have. Current getting
worse and worse, and the bad part is that the water is so
shallow that in places it is hard to get even our light
canoe through. We have to make crossings, and then there is
risk of the boat swinging down and pulling us off our feet.
I suppose a fellow would drown with the track-line around
him. Mighty hard work. At nine o'clock the two Indian boys
all in, and had to stop. At ten I went up with Uncle Dick to
explore. A river came from the right, so we thought this was
the junction of which they told us at McPherson. Went back
and got the rest and camped here about midnight. Tundra
under the trees. Couldn't drive tent-pegs for ice. A bad
camp. Everybody tired.
"Here we found the Summit Tree, not far from the beach. It
says: 'Summit Tree. Please register.' Many names under date
of 1898. Couldn't read all of them. A grizzly had registered
on this tree, too--scraped the bark off high up. Some names
we saw were Watt, Goldheim, Marks, Jones, etc. As is the
custom, we cut our names in, too, with the date, so that
others might see them. We slashed down the brush to the
water so that any others coming in now might see this tree
easier and so know where they were. If we had not found this
tree we would not have been sure we had reached the summit.
Well, we are mighty glad, anyhow. Wet and tired, but pretty
confident. Not much grub. Some rapids!
"_Friday, July 25th._--So tired we slept late. Everybody
stiff. Took the left-hand creek that comes in here, and had
a hard pull over a little cataract. This should be called
Summit Creek. It doesn't seem to have any name. It runs
narrow, and fringed with alders. Very crooked. Saw some
jack-snipe and a robin to-day, up here on the summit of the
Rockies, almost at the Arctic Sea and above the Arctic
Circle!
"We had to drop the line in the brush here and use paddle
and pole. Went for an hour and a half and then could see
lake on the right. Small creek coming in. Another lake
ahead. Everything was blank. It looked like a big country
and we had no map. John set down everything as we found it
out for ourselves. We climbed the foot-hills to look about.
Of course we wanted to find the headwaters of the Bell
River, or rather the Little Bell, which runs into the Big
Bell, and then into the Porcupine, which runs into the
Yukon, but we did not know which gap held the headwaters of
the Bell. On the left we saw a chain of little lakes, four
or five of them. Supposed there might be channels, so bore
to left toward these lakes. We're now on a flat country
high up, with rock walls far away on either side and
mountains on ahead. We are on the tundra now. It is broken
up into humps. The French call them '_têtes des femmes_,' or
'woman heads,' because of the long grass that hangs down
from the top. Mighty hard to walk over. There is a land
portage from Fort McPherson to the summit. A Catholic priest
has made it, and he used snow-shoes on these 'woman heads,'
although there was no snow. A man could hardly walk in any
other way.
"We left two lakes to the right, followed the creek, and
came to an old landing. Camped at 6 P.M. to eat. Instead of
two lakes up here there are five! We don't know where we are
going, but are hanging to our creek. Signs of a portage
other side of the lake, so guess we are on the right trail.
This is a blind pass. Some danger, I suppose. We are not
scared. We all hang together, because any one left here
would be helpless.
"_Saturday, July 26th._--Flies not so bad. Tried out our
creek farther and came into third small lake. Cut a portage
into next lake. The creek is very blind--wanders around
through the willows and grass. Jesse and John got away for
an hour or two to-day, and were lost; they went to the right
where we thought the channel ran, but it didn't go there.
Everybody much scared. The last portage is on ahead, six
hundred yards from Summit Lake to Loon Lake. Everybody seems
to forget these other little lakes, which are confusing. We
see signs of old ax-work, so think we must be on the trail.
The Hudson's Bay people have used this in the past as well
as the Klondike outfits. These latter people must have had
an awful time getting over.
"The whole country of the Rat and the country on the summit
in this pass may be called altogether new and unknown to any
one. We had to find it as much as if no one had ever been
there before, except one or two places we saw where men had
been. There is no map of it. Now we have made two short
portages and one long portage in getting to Loon Lake; and
Loon Lake, we are pretty sure, drains into the headwaters of
the Bell River.
"This creek is so shallow we have to drag our boat across
the tundra. Willy had gone on ahead, and says he has found
the Bell River. It is not anywhere near where we thought it
was. I thought the pass lay far off to the right. Opposite
our camp on Loon Lake there is a 'sharp, high peak,' all
right, and this no doubt is the one the traders told us
about. The trouble is when you say 'sharp, high peak' you
may see any one of fifty which you think is the right one,
and it may be wrong.
"Found the new creek, which we think is the Little Bell,
down a deep bank. Plenty of water and plenty of current. It
looks as if it ran back into the mountains fifteen or twenty
miles. No one knows anything about it. No one knows anything
about this country at all. We call ourselves explorers as
much as anybody. I am pretty sure now that this is the right
'sharp, high peak.' There was a trader by name of Charles
Camsell came across here, and he made a sort of map. The
government maps only guess at this as far as they try to
describe it.
"I think it is risky to depend on loose talk of a new
country like this. They told us there were only two portages
and two lakes, but I have counted eleven lakes and ponds on
the summit of the Rockies here. We really crossed five
lakes, counting in Loon Lake, and we made two short creek
portages, one long lake-to-lake portage, and one long
lake-to-river portage--the five-hundred-yards drag into the
Little Bell. I think this is accurate. John has it all down
on his map this way. Many ptarmigan. Plenty of rabbits. The
Bell River full of grayling. Never saw the like.
"Our Indian boys left us to-day. They are going back home by
themselves. They have a rifle and we have given them a few
beans and a little flour and a small piece of bacon--all we
can spare. Uncle Dick paid them well. They have helped out
very much. Without them I don't know whether we boys could
have got the boat up the Rat or not. It was mighty rough,
mean work, I can say that. John and Jesse helped all they
could, and so did we all. Well, here we are at the summit.
"The Midnight Sun is gone now--there was a sunset to-night.
We got to bed about 12 o'clock midnight. Sorry to have the
Indian boys go back, as they were cheerful, fine chaps. They
say we are all right now, and that this river runs to the
Porcupine. I would rather trust an Indian than a Klondiker
in getting across country.
"We are getting so we don't like rabbits very much. The
ptarmigan and grayling still taste good. Our new river is
full of grayling, and we have explored it a little bit. It
is fine up here in the mountains. John and Jesse and I feel
that this is the greatest trip we ever had, or that anybody
could have in this country. We feel more alone here than in
any place we have ever been in all our lives.
"We now think we can get through."
Rob's journal and John's map later proved most prized possessions of
our young explorers, so they were glad they kept them up, although it
ever was rather unwelcome work to sit in a cramped-up tent, or out in
the air among the mosquitoes, and write or draw for a long time while
still tired and wet. Both of them, however, persisted till the end,
and later did not regret it.
XIII
DOWN THE PORCUPINE
"I'm awfully tired, Uncle Dick," said Jesse when he sleepily rolled
out of his blankets on the following morning. "It was midnight when we
went to bed, and I don't feel as though I had slept at all. Besides,
it's Sunday."
"Yes," said his uncle, "it's Sunday, July twenty-seventh, according to
my notes, and we've been gone from Fort McPherson one week and four
days. I think we've made mighty good time this far, for I believe we
must be considerably over a hundred miles from Fort McPherson to this
place where we stand."
"It's a fine morning for a little rest," suggested Rob. "Maybe it
wouldn't be wrong to make a few photographs. I'd like to make a
picture of that high peak across from here, which we ought to call
Castle Mountain. That's the mountain we've been hunting for the last
three or four days."
"Agreed!" said Uncle Dick. "I think it would be an excellent plan to
rest here for a time to-day, and then it would be no harm to start on.
Will you let me see the notes of your diary, Rob? We've been relying
on you to keep a record of our journey across the mountains, because
I've been too busy and, to tell the truth, too worried, to have much
time for making notes of the trip."
Rob produced his diary, and Uncle Dick read it page by page. "Fine!"
said he. "Fine! This doesn't go into many details, but it will cover
the story of our trip as well as I could have done it myself. Now,
after we get started down the Bell and the Porcupine, I want you to
keep up the same thing, so that we will have some sort of a record of
our journey in this wild part of the world.
"I'll have to admit to you boys, now that we are alone, that I don't
think we ought to waste any time in here. The two Indian boys who have
left us have cut down our supplies considerably, but as they can't
possibly get back to McPherson in less than four days, it seemed only
fair to share with them what little we had, though it means less for
us. We'll have to hurry."
"I'm so sick and tired of rabbits by this time," grumbled John, "that
I don't ever want to see one again. I don't like to clean them any
more, and I don't like to smell them when they are cooking in the
kettle."
"You're not the first man in the North to get tired of rabbits," said
Uncle Dick. "For a day or two they are all right, but there is really
very little strength in the meat. They are, however, the main prop of
the fur trade in the North, and the mainstay of the savage population
as well. Except for rabbits, all these natives would starve to death
in the winter-time. They have almost nothing to eat from one season to
the next after the caribou have gone by."
"Where is the caribou migration in here?" asked John.
"It won't pass here at all," replied their leader. "They tell me that
the caribou are north of the Porcupine, toward the Arctic, and that
they work south along toward the latter part of August. There are a
few sheep in here, but mountain-sheep is a hard meat to kill. There is
mighty little hope for us to get anything unless we can catch some
fish as we go along--and unless we continue to eat rabbits, and maybe
some ptarmigan. I shouldn't wonder if the ptarmigan would grow much
scantier when we get down out of the mountains farther.
"Jesse," he continued, "there'll be no harm in your taking your gun
and going over to see if you can get us some young geese or some young
ducks before we start out, over at the edge of Loon Lake. We've got to
have all the food-supplies we can possibly get hold of, because we
don't know what is ahead. Hurry up, now, for pretty soon we must call
ourselves rested and be on our way. Our canoe is waiting for us,
already launched, and it won't take long to get the loads aboard."
Jesse complied with his uncle's instructions, and, taking his light
shot-gun, disappeared in the fringe of willows which lay between the
camp and the marshy borders of the lake out of which they had made
their last portage on the Rocky Mountain summit. It was not long
before they began to hear the reports of his gun, and so proficient
had he by this time become in its use that when he returned in the
course of three-quarters of an hour he had a young goose and a
half-dozen mallard ducks to add to the larder.
"Fine!" said Uncle Dick. "Throw them in the boat, son, and we'll be
getting ready.
"Rob, go on with your diary; and, John, be sure that you keep up your
maps. There isn't a single report of any kind in print or in
manuscript, so far as I know, which tells the truth about this summit
of the Rockies. We are just as much explorers as if we were the first
to cross. The Klondikers left no records.
"And now take one last look around you, for I question if you will
ever be in a more remote corner of the world in all your lives. This
is the most northerly pass of the Rockies. Yonder above us, at the end
of what they call the Black Mountain range, lie the last foot-hills
between here and the Arctic. Off in that direction the Little Bell
finds its head--no man knows where, so far as I can tell. Westward in
general lies our course now, and we've got to make five hundred miles
between McPherson and the mouth of the Porcupine River, and make it in
jig time too, if we want to catch an up-bound boat on the Yukon this
fall."
"Well," said Rob, "I suppose if we had to we could play Robinson
Crusoe here at least as well as those poor Klondikers did who came to
grief here twenty years ago. But as for me, I want to get home on
time--not only because we have to go to school and because our parents
are waiting for us, but because we set out to make our round trip
within certain dates, and we ought to do so if that is a possible
thing."
"That's the talk!" said Uncle Dick. "Come ahead then, boys. Now we
are alone--let us see how we can travel."
Rob did as requested and made brief notes of their course throughout
the remainder of their trip to the Yukon River, which are given here
as he wrote them:
"_Sunday, July 27th._--Beautiful weather. Little Bell very
deep, with pools on the bends literally full of grayling.
They call them 'bluefish' here, and they look purple in the
deep, clear water. The Indian boys showed us how to cook
them. They split them down the back and skewer them flat,
and then hang them up before the fire, flesh side to the
fire. They eat them off the skin for a plate. You wouldn't
believe how good they are.
"Rabbits and ptarmigan all along the banks. Sometimes we
have to get out to ease the canoe down the rocky rapids, for
we must not cut her, since she is the only boat we have, and
to be without her would ruin us. Water is icy cold, even
colder than the head of the Rat, which was bad enough.
"At 6.30 to-day struck the Big Bell, a deep and clear river.
We were all cold, so built a fire. Caught some grayling
then. Ran till 10 o'clock. Camp on the tundra. Wet and
cold, but had plenty of wood near by, so had good fires.
"LaPierre House, an old trading-post, now abandoned, must be
not far ahead. That's where the land trail comes in from
Fort McPherson, according to the stories. We don't believe
anything we hear any more, as all the tales have been
unreliable and confusing. Must have made thirty miles to-day
before we camped.
"_Monday, July 28th._--Steady grind down the Bell, which now
is crooked and sluggish. At 2.15 in the afternoon found a
cabin, but it was not LaPierre House. Found many names on
this cabin. Also statement, 'It is ten miles to LaPierre
House.' One man here left statement that he was bound for
Fairbanks in Alaska. Another man and his wife passed in an
earlier year, 'Eleven days out from McPherson in canoes.'
This party had four Indian boys, who expected to take nine
days to get back to McPherson. This man must have gone on
down the Bell River alone.
"Did five hours before lunch, and six after, and still no
LaPierre House. Traveled until 10.15 and stopped to cook.
Rigged a light outrigger for our canoe for night travel,
which might be dangerous. We've got to travel day and night,
and take turns steering. Don't think we got over three and a
half to four miles an hour, it may be three miles only, but
think we did thirty-five miles to-day. No game and no fish
but a few grayling in the morning. We feel a little bit
glum. We can't tell where we are. Rigged a short sail, and
it helped us a little bit. Mosquitoes not quite so bad.
Making slower time than we hoped.
"_Tuesday, July 29th._--Tried to sleep in boat, and didn't
do very well. I steered part of the night, and Uncle Dick
part of the time. At 7 A.M. made LaPierre House. It is
eighty miles from the summit at least, and that is fully
twice as far as we were told that it was! Some said it was
only thirty miles beyond the summit. Saw signs where raft
had been built--maybe some Indians coming down-stream for
their winter quarters. Heard a man started across McPherson
to LaPierre House on the land trail with two dogs. Too much
plunder, and he nearly died. Don't know where he is now.
Rain and cold all day.
"Ate at midnight. We take turns paddling the best we can,
but John and Jesse get pretty tired. We let them sleep more.
Weather dismal and cold. It is hard for two to sleep in our
canoe and two to run it at night. Have been wet and cold a
good deal.
"_Wednesday, July 30th._--Breakfast in rain. Built a big
fire. We slept a little where we could be warm. Off at
12.50. Found a big river coming in from the left, and knew
that it must be the Porcupine. Struck it about 2 o'clock. A
big wind coming up-stream. At first we thought the Porcupine
was running to the left. Of course it had to run to the
right. Found the wind hard to buck with the canoe, so that
we stood still sometimes. At 6.30 went ashore, built a log
fire, and dried our clothes and beds. Everything very wet.
John and Jesse very tired and shivering. Both seem pretty
near exhausted. Wind becoming more gusty. Fixed our canoe,
which was leaking a little. We don't know just how far it is
from here to the Porcupine. Jesse killed a beaver. We boiled
the tail and ate it, and it was good. Pushed on a little
farther in the dark.
"_Thursday, July 31st._--Summer is going awfully fast. Ran
in for breakfast on a stony ledge. Think we are only going
about two miles an hour. After breakfast tried to sail, and
think we ran ten or twelve miles easier. Had to paddle then.
The reaches of this river are long and the current is slow.
The man who calls the Porcupine and the Bell 'rapid mountain
streams' doesn't know what he is talking about, for neither
is rapid. Passed the mouth of the Eagle River early in the
day. Landed late at the mouth of the Driftwood River, as it
is marked on the government map. Found an Indian here with
one canoe. He has his wife and two children and seven dogs
here. One strange dog has come into his camp. It howls a
great deal and is lost. We don't know whose it is or where
it came from.
"These Indians are starving, and, little as we have, we have
to give them something. They wanted some flour and fat, and
we shared almost our last. They have nets set and are
waiting for the salmon to run. The Indian has only caught
one salmon, and he said if they did not come pretty soon his
people would die. They conclude to go on farther down the
stream with us. He says he can take everything he has in
that little canoe. They are wonders with boats.
"We all hustle now, because starvation threatens every one
in our party. Even rabbits are scarce. No ptarmigan, no
ducks, no fish. The river is big and the wind affects the
down-stream speed.
"The Indian keeps along with us. His canoe has about an inch
and a half free-board, and is loaded down with children,
dogs, nets, and so forth. Glad to have the Indian with us,
because he knows something of the country. He says Fish
River, the next stream below, is half-way to Old Crow. This
is an old trading-post which gets supplies from the Yukon,
and we will feel safe if we can get there.
"Our new Indian is named Andrew. He can talk a little. He
says the land portage from Fort McPherson to Fort LaPierre
is lined with cast-off stuff that people have tried to carry
and couldn't. It is a starving country and a starving march.
So is this a starving journey by water. When we went ashore
it was in a rousing gale of wind. Uncle Dick baked some
bannocks in our old way, leaning the frying-pan against a
stick driven down before the fire. We are so tired that
when we don't have to work we just fall asleep wherever we
are. We always have some one awake to watch things and to
tell the others when to wake up. We have been wet a great
deal of the time from rain and waves. Dried our bedding this
time, once more. Not much excitement and plenty of hard
work. I don't know whether any of us would come across here
again or not. Probably not.
"After a long wait the wind let up, and we started in the
late evening for the run to Old Crow, which we are anxious
to see. Head winds. Hard paddling. Kept on into the night,
but met an awful storm. Wind was almost a tornado, and for a
wonder snow fell in sheets. Our canoe got turned around two
or three times in the night, and we wouldn't know which way
to go, for the wind came up-stream and every other way. We
nearly swamped. Managed to get ashore, drenched to the skin
and very cold. It looks like winter. Andrew's children are
crying a great deal now. We haven't much to eat. It was
about the worst night we ever had. We pushed on down as
fast as we could as soon as we got warm enough to work.
Reached Old Crow trading-post 8 A.M., after the worst night
I ever spent.
"_Saturday, August 2d._--What luck! Old Crow post is
deserted--no one here at all--not even a native hanging
around! Uncle Dick thought it was right to break open a
window and go in. There was a stove, so we made a fire. The
trader had left his stock here. Of course it was burglary to
open the store. If an Indian did it they probably would
follow him a thousand miles and punish him. We left a note
telling them who we were and what we had taken--another
blanket or so, some pairs of mittens, and a little clothing
for the Indian children, who were almost frozen. The trader
lives at Fort Yukon, and we will pay him there.
"Andrew says the next stop is going to be at Rampart House,
sixty miles down the river. We have taken about fourteen
hours to make the last thirty-five miles, as near as we can
tell. We are all in bad shape. Getting a little weak.
"The trader's goods have been damaged by water. This wet
snow fell more than a foot deep over everything, and the
roof has leaked. Well, we can't stay here long, and we'll
have to travel day and night the best we can. Any accident
now would be very bad for everybody.
"John and Jesse paddle all they can. We all get very cold,
as it seems almost like winter. Stopped to get warm and eat.
Uncle Dick says plenty of tea won't hurt us if we work. We
take turns fair as we know how, the ones paddling who can
stay awake.
"Well, we are nearer to being safe. By traveling all the
time, fifteen and a half hours from Old Crow, we made
Rampart House--not bad time if the distance is correct.
Weather cold. Snow threatening again.
"_Sunday, August 3d._--At Rampart House. One week from the
summit. Two weeks from the mouth of the Rat. Rampart House
looks mighty good to us all. Here there is a Hudson's Bay
post with some goods in stock and a young Englishman running
it. Natives almost starving. No fish yet. The men are just
starting out for caribou, which are now reported thirty
miles north of here. Not much goods left in the
trading-post. Our reception here very chilly. No one seems
to care whether we live or not, and sometimes we have been
so tired we hardly did ourselves.
"The trader tells us it is 240 miles from here to the Yukon,
and it seems a long way. At least we can get warm and dry
here.
"Next day. We slept eighteen hours out of twenty-four.
Weather warming up. Hunters not back, but one Indian caught
a king salmon in a net, so the village is more cheerful.
Everybody shared the salmon, which was a large one, fifty
pounds. These people are Loucheux. Sometimes squaw-men live
in here at Rampart House. More dogs here than I ever saw.
One ate my moccasins last night--the ones that I had extra
soles on. I wish he hadn't done it, because I needed them.
"This is an important post in the North. It is old and well
known, and it has special interest because it is directly on
the International Boundary-line. There is a monument here
which the American surveyors put up not long ago. They were
in here quite a while, but their work of marking out the
International Boundary between Alaska and the Dominion of
Canada is now done.
[Illustration: HUSKY DOG--RAMPART HOUSE]
"All of us boys got gay and went over on the other side of
the Boundary and took off our hats and gave three cheers for
America. We were glad we were on American soil once more. We
feel now as if we were getting out of the fur-trading
country. Am not sorry. I don't like the country or the
people in it very much. Everything seems so shiftless.
Still, they manage to get on. I suppose if I lived up here a
hundred years things might look different.
"_Monday, August 4th._--Breakfast 10.30. We've got some
supplies here. Nothing much to boast of. Fixed up our boat
again for the long run for home. We feel pretty safe now.
Left Andrew at Old Crow, but saw some people at Rampart who
knew about him and other travelers who are back of us on the
Porcupine. We hope they will all get out. Winter will come
any time now. Left at 4.30 in the afternoon. Ran two hours
and had tea. River rising very fast, and current swift, so
that we thought we made five or six miles an hour at least.
Ran two and a half hours, some of us paddling, and thought
we made thirty miles. We are trying to use this rise in the
river all we can. Camped on a stony beach. Sand is very wet
and cold for a bed, but we cut some willows and did fairly
well. Not very cold.
"_Tuesday, August 5th._--Struck an Indian camp and traded
tea for some fresh moose meat, which we were mighty glad to
get. I am like John--I never want to see a rabbit again.
"To-day passed a boat tracking up-stream for Rampart. A man
and dog were pulling. They had a sail set to help, and the
steersman was poling and paddling the best he could to help.
Even so, it was a slow way to get up-stream. We felt sorry
for them when we left them. Later in the day met still
another boat, two Indians tracking freight up to Rampart
House. They say sometimes freight is carried up this river
with a powerboat. These Indians say we've come about a
hundred miles from Rampart, and that in about twenty miles
we will be half-way to the mouth of the river. Wish it were
not so far.
"_Wednesday, August 6th._--This is hard work. We rested and
paddled and slept and paddled. Too much wind, and we had to
quit toward evening. When the wind lulled we started again.
Much rain and dark weather. Water very fast, probably six to
seven miles an hour. We eat at least four times a day, so as
to keep strong as possible. Considerable wind now, and fall
seems coming. Whenever the sun comes out and we can lie down
in the sun, we do, so as to keep warm while we sleep. Don't
know how far it is to Yukon, but have been making good time.
"_Thursday, August 7th._--Head winds again, but sun bright
and warm. Spent considerable time ashore, resting, as we
were about played out, and we thought that we might now be
safe in a little delay. Got off late in the afternoon, and
did well. Uncle Dick says the Yukon can't be more than fifty
to seventy-five miles ahead. Camped late in a bunch of
spruce, and slept until 2 o'clock in the morning. When we
began to run we saw signs of a salmon fishery such as we
have in Alaska. There is a man here named Martin, and his
squaw and children all camped on the beach. He says it is
only thirty-five miles to the Yukon, and that we can do it
in six or seven hours. Hurrah!
"_Friday, August 8th._--We can still paddle, but are not
very strong, any of us. Uncle Dick is cheerful. He never has
been out of sorts. We boys have been pretty tired, and
sometimes Jesse has felt almost like crying, he was so
played out; but we have all done the best we could to keep a
stiff upper lip. Hope Uncle Dick will think we have done all
right. Just the same, we are glad we are coming out of the
worst of this trip. It has been worse than we thought.
"Passed two Indian camps in late evening. Then they said we
were within three hours of Yukon. Entered the mouth of a
white-stained slough which meant different waters from those
of the Porcupine. We feel that we are now in the Yukon
country--and that's _our_ country, because the Yukon and
Alaska are one!
"Ten P.M. Hurrah! Hurrah! At Fort Yukon! Here is the
American flag flying from the Anglican mission-house! We are
crazy with joy, all of us boys, and Uncle Dick smiles all
the time. We are safe now, because they say there'll be
several boats up-stream yet this fall. Uncle Dick says
there'll be no more danger, and he now begins to tell us
that we have been through worse dangers than maybe we
thought of. I suppose it was a pretty rough journey.
Certainly we all got awfully tired. We are thin as snakes,
all four of us.
"There is an Indian village below here, and a government
school for Indian boys, besides the Anglican mission-house
and church. It certainly does seem more civilized. This is
our own country.
"And this is the Yukon that runs between the banks here--our
own old Yukon! I love it better than the Mackenzie. For a
while at least we will be under our flag, and not any other.
All tired. Next we'd better go to bed. However, made camp
near a road-house, almost a mile from the Indian village.
Some whites live here who seem tough and noisy. Some liquor
here with them, for they seem to be shouting and singing.
"Although we have been on American soil or American water
since we left Rampart House on the Porcupine, this seems to
us like the first time we have really been in our own
country. Good night! Wish we were all home at Valdez with
our people."
XIV
AT FORT YUKON
It was a ragged and dirty party of travelers, to be sure, who lay
in the litter of the dooryard of the road-house, wrapped in their
blankets, and sleeping late in spite of the warm morning sun which
shone into their faces. They were exhausted by the long, trying, and
hard work of their dangerous journey, and, once they felt safe, had
fallen into the half-stupor which follows such fatigue. Therefore
they did not at first know of the presence of the dignified and
well-dressed man who stood hanging over the gate of the road-house,
looking at the sleepers as they lay in the yard, rolled up in their
blankets. Uncle Dick, always alert, was first awake, and sat up in his
blankets.
"Good morning, sir," said he to the stranger.
"Good morning, sir," replied the other, in turn. "Excuse me, but I've
been asked to look for the party of Mr. Richard McIntyre, himself and
three young boys, who are reported to be lost somewhere between here
and the mouth of the Mackenzie River. The relatives have sent in word
by cable, and naturally it has come into my hands."
"I beg your pardon, sir," said Uncle Dick, sitting still, half-clad in
his blankets, "but, although you may not suppose it, I am Mr.
McIntyre, and these are the young men referred to, no doubt. You have
word from outside?"
"From Mrs. Vernon Wilcox, of Valdez, and from Mrs. Henry D. Hardy, of
the same city; I have the message here. It came down from Circle City
on the last boat."
"And you, sir? I beg your pardon--"
"I am the archdeacon of the Anglican Church in this district," replied
the other, "and my name is Hudson. I have come this morning to ask you
to our house to live during your stay here. There will be no boat out
for some days as yet." Still he looked half-doubtfully at the man whom
he addressed, as though possibly he might be some impostor, so strange
did he appear, unshaven, with long hair, and in garments which barely
clung together.
Uncle Dick laughed at this, and explained that he did not blame any
one for suspecting himself and his party of anything in the world.
Then he called to his young companions, and the archdeacon himself
smiled when he saw the four standing, the fresher for the pails of
water which they threw over one another, in the front yard.
"I am a traveler myself," said he, "and have mushed dogs many thousand
miles in this northern country. So I know what hard travel is, winter
and summer. Come with me, if you please."
So they accompanied him to his home, the only civilized place, as
Uncle Dick was disposed to say, in all the settlement thereabouts.
Here the boys of the party had the best meal they had known for many a
day, with real meat and gravy and actual bread and butter, such as
they had been used to at home. Although, of course, they displayed no
curiosity in their host's house, they were well pleased enough, as
they later saw signs of comfort and good taste all about them.
"Now," said the archdeacon, after they had breakfasted, "I know how
you feel about your clothes. Happily, I have some such clothing
provided for our own needs here. Although the things will not be in
the latest fashion, perhaps we can fix you up better than you now are.
"As for you," he said to Uncle Dick, "you are welcome to a suit of my
own clothing if it will serve you. We are not dissimilar in build, I
believe. Come with me and let us see what we can do for you."
In half an hour the four emerged from another room in the house, each
with a complete new outfit, and to each of them it seemed, in the
circumstances, that they were especially well-dressed.
"Well," said Uncle Dick, "you certainly are Good Samaritans in your
church here in the North. I shall not offend you by offering pay for
what you have done for us, but we have some boats here, with a canoe
and a few odds and ends of that sort, which we shall be most happy to
leave with you when we go out."
"I thank you very much for that," said the reverend gentleman. "All
such things are very useful to us indeed. And I shall be glad to have
them, provided that you are quite finished with their use.
"And now will you tell me of your trip?" he resumed. "It was over the
old Klondike trail of twenty years ago--a dangerous trip for you to
take with just boys like these."
"Well, you see," said Uncle Dick, with a look of pride on his face,
"these are not just ordinary boys. They are an Alaskan product,
'young Alaskans,' all three of them, and more used to out of doors
than are most young folk of their age. They are good travelers
already, better than many a man; they have made the Peace River and
the Saskatchewan, have run the Big Rapids of the Columbia, and have
killed their Kadiak bear in southwest Alaska. I knew what they were or
I never would have taken on this trip in their company. I fancy"--and
he smiled--"that they did better than many a tenderfoot who came over
the Rat Portage twenty years ago."
"No doubt, no doubt!" replied the archdeacon. "I join you in your
pride that you are all Americans, like myself. I, too, am something of
an explorer, as I may say modestly. I am just back from the climbing
of Denali, and I had a boy with me in that ascent--an Indian boy he
was!"
"Denali!" exclaimed Uncle Dick, excitedly. "You mean Mount McKinley--I
know the Indian name."
The older man nodded with gravity. "Yes," said he. "We climbed it for
the first time--the first scientific time. Of course you know about
the false claims that have been made?"
Uncle Dick rose and grasped him by the hand warmly. "Sir," said he,
"you are a great man, even had you never lived so long and useful a
life here in your work. I am glad that the Church and not the traders
put the first flag on top of the highest mountain on this continent. I
congratulate you, and I am proud that my young friends can meet you
here."
"It was not so difficult," said the reverend gentleman, modestly, once
more. "Only, be sure, it actually was done. Be sure also that it was a
boy--an Indian boy--who first set foot upon the top of Mount Denali. I
held back when we got to the very summit, thinking it appropriate that
a native of the people who owned this land before we came should be
the first to set foot upon its highest summit."
"Fine!" said Uncle Dick. "That's what I call sportsmanship, and I want
you boys to remember it. That's something different from what Admiral
Peary did when he found the North Pole. We are well met here,
Archdeacon, if you will allow me to say so, and if you will accept us
I may say that we all are sportsmen, and sportsmen are always well
met."
He motioned to his young companions, and each of them in turn came up
and shook hands with this explorer of the Far North, who greeted them
with gravity and kindness.
"Well," said he, at length, smiling, "here is our little wretched
town, as bad, perhaps, as any white and Indian settlement in Alaska. I
have spent many years among these people, and I presume I am disliked
as much as any man along the Yukon! As you see, we stand for law and
order here, and we churchmen are hated here for that reason. We arrest
some of the lawbreakers and take them down to Ruby to the courts, and
have them fined or imprisoned. They threaten us--but none the less you
see we have not run away.
"You will come to our services to-morrow?" he added. "Yonder is our
little log church. Perhaps our services will prove interesting for a
special reason. I speak in our tongue, but what I say must be
interpreted to my Indian audience."
"Certainly; we'll be glad," said Uncle Dick. "We feel as though we had
somewhat lapsed these last few weeks. It is fine to be with you here
and in these surroundings."
"I see that your young friends carry books in their pockets, and
papers," rejoined the archdeacon, nodding to Rob and John.
"Oh, that's nothing, sir," said Rob. "We just make notes of things as
we go along, you see. John here is our map-maker. He always makes maps
of the countries which we visit. So you see--"
"And did you make a map of the summit of the Rockies--the old Rat
Portage of the traders, young man?"
"Why, yes, sir," said John. "I put it all down here as we went along,
and Uncle Dick says it's pretty good. He's an engineer."
He now spread out his map upon the table, as their host suggested.
"I'll tell you why I asked," said the latter. "As I have said, I have
been obliged to be an explorer and a traveler myself--my field is very
large. It is nothing for me to travel a hundred miles behind a
dog-sled in the winter-time to hold services or to make a baptism or a
wedding. Sometime I hope to make that very journey that you have made.
At Dawson I have seen some maps, or alleged maps, but no two are
alike."
"That's what Uncle Dick told us and what we have found out," said Rob.
"We couldn't get any idea of that country at all, and had to find it
out for ourselves."
"I'll tell you what I'll do, sir," said John. "When I get back home
and into Uncle Dick's engineering office I'll make you a tracing of my
map, and you can have it for your very own. I shall be very glad to do
that."
"And if you will I shall be very much in your debt, my young friend,"
said the archdeacon. "That will be fine, and I shall value it. I fancy
that many a Klondiker who was cast away in the winter-time in that
wild country would have been glad to have had such assistance as this.
But not even Harper or McQueston or any of the other early explorers
on the Peace and the Liard and the Mackenzie and the Peel and the Rat
and all these rivers running into the Yukon which have been so famous
for their gold--not one of these men, I will say, could ever make an
exact map of the country he had crossed. As for the traders--well, you
know that yourself. They don't want new-comers, and they don't help
them any too much." He sighed, spreading out his hands with but
partial resignation.
"It is a hard fight which the Church wages with the fur trade in the
North. We are antagonistic, although we live side by side, both
Anglican and Catholic missions, almost in the dooryard of the Hudson's
Bay Company and Revillons and all the smaller fry of independents
which are pushing in now. But we do our best.
"Now, then, young sir," he resumed, turning to Rob, "I have no doubt
that your notes are as good as this young man's map. I hope you will
keep up your diary just as I have done in much of my exploration work
in Alaska and the Northwest Territory. These things are invaluable in
later life."
Rob thanked his host very much, and promised to do as he advised.
Therefore, what he found of interest at this, the first considerable
American settlement they met on the Yukon, should prove worth setting
down in his own words.
XV
THE FUR TRADE
The memoranda which the historian of the party set down regarding Fort
Yukon had more or less to do with the scenes and incidents connected
with the fur trade which had come under his observation. But before
coming to these Rob put down a few things regarding the nature of this
American settlement on the great river of Alaska:
"_Saturday, August 9th._--We had forks and napkins at the
archdeacon's house. Went out to see the town. Indian tents
scattered over three-fourths of a mile. Three stores, a
post-office, a church, and a road-house. Found the owners of
the store at Old Crow which we burglarized, and paid them
for what we got. They said it was all right. Seems as though
there are hundreds of dogs here. Boat expected up the Yukon
almost any day--there is no regular time for their landing
here.
"_Sunday, August 10th._--Went to church in the log church.
The archdeacon preached. A full-blood by the name of David
interpreted. Another native read the liturgy, but not very
well. The sermon was simple and plain. He touched the
natives' pride. Told them how they used to get along with
bows and arrows and stone axes, how they conquered the
wilderness; told them not to forget those virtues and not to
give way to the vices of white people. Many strange faces in
the audience. Saw one like a Japanese samurai, with
bristling beard and stiff black hair. Have seen this type
everywhere these last 1,500 miles--people who look like
Japs. I don't think much law and order here. White men
married to Indian women. There is a government school and a
good many Indian children go there. The men get too much
whisky here.
"The archdeacon is a great traveler. He told me why people
up north like bright-colored clothes. He says that the hind
sack on his sled is brilliantly embroidered, and when he is
mushing dogs he finds himself looking at this bright piece
of color. All the landscape is very monotonous, and the
night is hard to endure so long. He says that is why the
natives like bright colors.
"This afternoon in the archdeacon's house I found a strange
old book. It seems to have been written by some preacher
some hundreds of years ago. His name was Bartolomeo de Las
Casas. He must have been a Spaniard, for he is writing about
the Indians. He says, 'We are killing them, and have done so
relentlessly.' Seems to me that was a good deal like the fur
trade. He goes on and says some more from Ecclesiastes: 'The
Most High is not pleased with the offerings of the wicked.
Neither is He pacified for sin by the multitude of
sacrifices. Whoso bringeth an offering of the goods of the
poor doth as one that killeth the son before the father's
eyes.'
"Well, that sounds as though some one were writing at the
big fur monopolies and the way they handle the Indians. Las
Casas says that his Church thought they owned all the middle
part of this continent. The Hudson's Bay Company started in
to own all the northern part of it. I can't see the
difference. Las Casas says the discovery and conquest of the
American dominions has wrought ruin to Spain as a nation.
The results were 'disastrous to her power.' I am only a boy,
and don't know much about things, but I know perfectly well
the fur trade is based on injustice. I consider it the most
ignoble form of business in the world. I think it is pulling
down the Indians--as the archdeacon said in his sermon, they
were more manly and self-respecting before the traders came.
If the government of Canada claims to be so good, it might
look into the injustice done to the native people by some of
the traders, both the old companies and the independents. I
have read somewhere, 'No right is or can be founded on
injustice.' So what rights have they got?
"The Spaniards were after gold, and these big companies are
after fur. They have both relied on keeping the natives
down. That's why they are so jealous of outsiders getting
any knowledge about their ways.
"I have heard that an Indian always pays his debts to the
trader. On this trip I heard a man say that the big
companies never forgive an Indian a debt in all his life.
He would not dare to let his debt run if he could pay it,
because if he did he would starve.
"I wonder if old Mr. Las Casas was any relation to the
archdeacon here. They both preach a good deal alike, it
seems to me. He says, 'The system of oppression and cruelty
in dealing with the natives makes them curse the name of God
and our holy religion.... For should God decree the
destruction of Spain it may be seen it is because of our
destruction of the Indians, and that His justice may be made
apparent.'
"Well, I guess that will be all I will write out of the
book. I was just thinking that what the Spaniards did in
getting gold was something like what the white men are doing
to-day in getting fur in this northern country. It never did
look good to me.
"But though the Indians don't always remember everything
they hear in church, I believe the Church is honester,
whether it is the English Church or the Catholic, or any of
them, because they haven't anything to get out of it, so far
as I can see, and the traders have. I don't think I shall
very much enjoy seeing fine furs worn by ladies in my own
country after this--I know where they come from and what
they cost. I wonder what Las Casas would say if he were
here.
"A good many Scotchmen are through this northern country,
and some Scandinavians. I read in a book by Mr. Stewart that
you could tell the Scotchman even in a half-breed because he
always says 'boy' and 'whatever' the way the Highlanders
do--no matter how old you are a Highlander always calls you
'boy.' He says the Bishop of Saskatchewan had a half-breed
boy working for him who always called him 'Boy my Lord.'
That seems odd to me! And then about their saying
'whatever'--a Scotch half-breed said, 'We use it because we
could not express ourselves without it whatever.' And then
he said, 'Is it not correct whatever?' And after a while he
said he could see no objection to that word whatever. A
Highlander always says 'whatever,' and you can't keep him
from it. I noticed that in some of the posts we came
through.
"A woman here was sixty years old, and she married a
carpenter, and he took her money and started a sawmill. They
haven't got any sawmill now.
"A good many people here talk about other people. I have
noticed that in almost any small place, but I think it is
worse up here in the North. I suppose they get lonesome and
have to talk.
"Another thing is, they drink so much up in this country
whenever they get a chance. They don't keep their gallon of
Scotch whisky, which is supposed to last them a year, but
sit down and drink it up in two days. So they get out of
whisky and some people get crazy for it. In this same book
by Mr. Stewart he tells about some men at one of the
trading-posts of the Mackenzie who didn't have any liquor,
but the summer before there had been a party of scientists
there who had left some insects, bugs, and snakes and
things, done up in alcohol. Some other traders visited this
agent, and he was sorry not to have anything to give them to
drink. So he thought he would pour off this alcohol from the
bugs and things. Still, he thought it might be poison, so he
tried it on a half-breed dog-driver. It did not kill him, so
he served it to his friends, and said nothing about it, and
they all thought it was very good! I believe this is a true
story, because so many things happen up in this country
that we don't hear about at home.
"_Monday, August 11th._--This is on the steamship
_Schwatka_, and we are bound up the Yukon! We said good-by
early this morning to the good archdeacon. It was dark when
he heard the dogs howling, and knew a boat was coming, so he
called us and we hurried and got dressed, and just got on
this boat in time. She isn't towing any barge, so ought to
make good time up to Dawson. We were sorry to leave the
archdeacon, but we are glad to be on our way home.
"We get four meals a day on the _Schwatka_, and very good
ones. John is happy! We think we will all put on a little
flesh before we get home. Uncle Dick is writing and going
over his notes. John is making his map. Jesse is reading. So
I write.
"_Tuesday, August 12th._--At 1.30 in the morning we made
Circle City, which, as everybody knows, is right on the
Arctic Circle, or was supposed to be. This was the first
time Uncle Dick could get out any word. He sent out a
message by wireless which will be relayed to Skagway and
cabled to Valdez. He said in about ten days we would be at
Skagway. Our folks will be mighty glad to hear from us--and
how glad we'll be to get home! We are still inside the limit
of the time schedule which Uncle Dick set for us. Now we
think we are safe to finish the journey inside our schedule.
Pretty good, we all think.
"_Wednesday, August 13th._--At 8.30 this morning got to
Eagle, which is an old Alaska settlement and was once an
army post. There is an Anglican mission here. The scenery
around here is far beyond anything that was on the Mackenzie
River. We all like the Yukon better than the Mackenzie. Some
Church people going out on the boat from here.
"I don't know how the Klondikers got up the Yukon after they
had come over the Rat Portage; but Dawson is three days
above Fort Yukon by steamboat. If they tracked or poled or
rowed up I bet it took them a good deal more than three
days.
"Uncle Dick has asked me to set down everything I see at
Dawson, which is the big gold-camp that caused the Klondike
stampede in 1897; so I think I will do that the best I can."
XVI
DAWSON, THE GOLDEN CITY
Rob's diary went on as he had promised, for during the time that they
lay between boats at the once famous gold-camp there was abundant
opportunity for them to get about and see pretty much everything there
was worth seeing. Rob's record runs day by day as previously:
"_Thursday, August 14th._--Dawson at 4 A.M. Our boat does
not go any farther. We reserved passage on the _Norcom_ for
White Pass. She will sail the evening of next Saturday. On
British soil again.
"This place has had twenty or thirty thousand inhabitants in
boom times, but there are only about twelve hundred people
here now, I believe. A good many people are starting off for
Chisana district, up the White River, where they say there
is a gold strike. All this country has been crazy over gold
strikes for a good deal more than twenty years.
"We went to a hotel here and got baths and got barbered up,
which makes a change in our looks. We got a few things to
wear which the archdeacon could not give us.
"_Friday, August 15th._--Went up the famous Klondike River,
which comes in here. Half of it is clean and the other half
dirty. Saw no more pick-and-shovel work. Everything is run
by the big dredges owned by companies, which do the work of
hundreds of men. They thaw out the ground now with
steam-pipes which they drive down in, and then turn in
steam. Then they rip out the ground down twenty feet with
the big scoops of the dredges. They just have water enough
to float the dredges. Everything is worked and washed right
on the dredge. It beats placer mining a whole lot. But a few
men can work one of these dredges, and then a few men get
all the money they turn out.
"Walked on up to Bonanza and some of the famous creeks above
the dredges. They are using hydraulic mining up there,
another wholesale way. Saw no individual mining.
"We boys ate supper with a lot of French people who are
working 'lays' on some claims which are owned by other
people on the hillsides up toward Bonanza. The bed-rock,
where the rich gold is, is about the middle of the hill, and
runs straight through, and they are following through right
along the bed-rock three hundred feet below the surface.
They have 'drifted' in here, and they are using hydraulic
mining, too. They seemed a jolly lot. They have a woman
cooking for their crew, and asked us to eat with them--the
best they had. We could not talk much in their language, and
they did not understand very much of ours.
"We walked down from the mountains, four and a half miles,
in an hour and five minutes, and were not tired.
"_Saturday, August 16th._--The Commissioner of Yukon
Territory--who is about the same as a governor would be in a
Territory of the United States--asked us to luncheon to-day,
because he knew of Uncle Dick. So we all went and had a very
pleasant time. This is the Government House, and it has the
British flag over it, of course. Everybody was very nice to
us, and other ladies and gentlemen asked us a lot of
questions, and we did of them, too. We felt very much at
home here, and friendly. The Governor, or Commissioner, used
to be American himself. He came up here in the early gold
days.
"One gentleman at the luncheon told a good many stories of
the old times. He told how cold it got sometimes. He said
once they made some candles out of condensed milk. They sold
them to a saloon-keeper, for a joke, because every one wants
candles in the winter-time, but the saloon-keeper could not
light these candles at all! He said there used to be a young
man in Dawson they called 'The Evaporated Kid' because he
was so thin. He said, too, there was a runaway express agent
who had absconded from somewhere in America, and when he got
to Dawson he hadn't anything except one painting, a copy of
a celebrated picture in Europe. He sold it for a
half-interest in a claim, which proved to be worth $60,000.
He went back to the States and gave himself up, and got a
month in jail after he had paid what he had stolen. Then he
came back to Alaska and has made a good citizen! He has
always kept the old man who sold the interest in this claim.
Of course they wouldn't tell us the name of this man.
"They say the best place for hunting big game is to go up
the Pelly River and then up the MacMillan River. White Horse
is a good place to start from. There are sheep up in there,
of two kinds, and moose and grizzly bear and caribou.
September is the best time to go in there, but it would take
about a month, and a fellow would have to be careful not to
get caught in the snow. The Mount McKinley country is even
better as a big-game place, so they tell me. I wish we boys
could go in there some time.
"They used to get all kinds of money in here in the early
days. This same gentleman told me he once had an interest in
a claim where they took out $430,000 on a fraction of a
claim which was only eighty feet by four hundred. He says
the dredge people have found that they can work much poorer
dirt than eight dollars a yard, which would pay a
shovel-man. One man can only rock about two and a half yards
a day. He can sluice about twice that. A dredge, working
four men, works from 2,400 to 3,000 tons a day. So you see
why dredges are in here now. He said nearly all the men who
got rich easy lost their money. There was a lucky Swede who
married an extravagant woman, and she spent all his
money--several hundred thousand dollars--right away; but he
only laughed and said, 'I'll strike it again pretty soon.'
But he never has. He says there were a good many hundreds of
men who held on to their stakes and went out with 50,000 to
100,000 dollars each. It must have been exciting times in
this little old town! Very quiet now.
"All the pictures of Dawson show the big white scar on a
mountain-side where a landslip took off the whole side of
the mountain many years ago. The Indians say it buried a
village at its foot. This big hole in the mountain is right
where you can see it down the street. You can't help seeing
it if you go to Dawson.
"I was much interested about the first man who discovered
this country. They don't all tell the same story about it.
The Yukon Territory and Alaska are so much alike, and the
people settling them have been so much alike, that it seems
they are about the same. We crossed the international
boundary between them away back at Rampart House. From
there to here, on both sides of that line, men have been
coming into this country, no one knows how long.
"Jack McQueston, so Mr. Ogilvie says in his book about the
Yukon country, established Fort Reliance, six miles below
where Dawson is, in 1871. Then Arthur Harper came in and
joined him in trading. One time some Indians got hold of
their rat poison, and two old women and one girl died. That
made the Indians sore, so the traders had to pay for the
women. They said the two old women were no good, but they
would pay ten skins for the young woman, about six dollars.
The Indians said that was all right! It's a funny country.
"After that a man by the name of Mayo came in with Harper
and McQueston, and in 1886, so this book says, they went
down to Forty-Mile River, where they found gold already
discovered. It was McQueston that founded Circle City, but
it is not really on the line--nearly a degree in latitude
south of it.
"Harper and McQueston seemed to move all around everywhere.
They said they found color on the Peace River and on the
Liard, but did not find anything on the Mackenzie. But on
the Peel River they found good prospects, and some on the
Porcupine also. They were all over that country, where we've
been.
"This Harper party came over the Rat Portage, too, the way
we did, and they describe it about the way we would. But
that was long before the Klondike rush, for they got to Fort
Yukon on July 15, 1873. The Klondike was not known then, nor
until more than twenty years later.
"I guess that the man who really ought to have the credit
for finding the gold in the Klondike country was Bob
Henderson. He was not trading so much as prospecting.
Besides, he got his start about the way most prospectors
do--an Indian showed him some pieces of gold, and showed him
the place where he found them. Anyhow, that is how Harper
found some gold in the Tanana country. But Harper, though he
was around in this country twenty-four years, never found
any big strike. He died in Arizona in 1897. Jack McQueston
stayed in later, and everybody remembered him as a generous
trader.
"They say that the first gold to come out of the Yukon came
from the Tanana River in 1880. A Mr. Holt of the Alaska
Commercial Company took the first party over the Dyea Pass
and down the Yukon, in 1875. They say a very little gold
came out in 1882 and 1883, but nobody had ever heard of the
Klondike then.
"McQueston liked the Stewart River better than any place for
a long while. They got gold in a great many streams running
into the Yukon, and found it on nine creeks as early as
1894. They sent out about $400,000 that year. There were a
good many miners all along the river even in
1894--seventy-five miners in one party of stampeders. But
still no one had heard of the Klondike, although they had
prospected between the Yukon and the Arctic Ocean and far
down to the mouth of the Yukon, and about everywhere else!
"Harper and McQueston had been on the Klondike, but did not
find anything at first. Bob Henderson had as much nerve as
anybody. They went up on Indian River, which runs parallel
to the Klondike, about fifteen miles away. Henderson worked
on Quartz Creek, they say, and he had to thaw out his
ground with log fires the way they used to do, so he did not
make much. Then he worked on Australia Creek. Of course
these men all moved around a good deal. He only got about
600 or 700 dollars on the creek where he was working, so he
moved over to a stream which he thought ran into the
Klondike, and he called this Gold Bottom. He got the color
here.
"Bob Henderson met George W. Carmac, and he offered to share
his new strikes up on Gold Bottom, but he drew the line at
the Indians Carmac was living with! So Carmac did not go out
at first. But Carmac and two Indians, Charley and George,
did go up the Klondike, and up Bonanza after a little, about
a mile above the mouth. They were looking after logs for
lumber. But they found color up in there. The Indians didn't
care much about it. But after Bob told them about strikes
higher up in the country, these Indians and Carmac went
farther up Bonanza. They all claim to have found the first
gold there. Henderson would not let them stake on Gold
Bottom because he didn't like the Indians, so they turned
back, because they had found ten cents to the pan on
Bonanza. They found more gold on Bonanza, and so Carmac
staked there on August 17, 1896, the Discovery claim and
Number One Below Discovery, each 500 feet long, up and down
the creek. They tell me that these claims ran the full width
of the valley bottom--that is, from base to base of the hill
on either side.
"Then some Indians staked above and below, Tagish Charley on
Number Two below, and Skookum Jim on Number One above. They
had about a cartridgeful of gold when they got down to the
mouth of the Klondike, and they still thought there was more
money in lumber than in mining.
"Everybody got wind of it now, and there were a lot of
people in this country already, before the Klondike news got
out. There were twenty-five men looking for Henderson's
Creek, and about that many looking for the Carmac claims.
"So Henderson didn't get any of the rich strike on Bonanza,
although he had told Carmac about it. He always said Carmac
ought to have told him, so he could have got in there, too.
Henderson couldn't get out to Forty-Mile in time to record
his claim on Gold Bottom, until Andrew Hunker got in on the
creek below him, and he recorded his Discovery claim and had
the creek named after him--Hunker Creek. But Henderson had
cut a blaze on a tree and marked this creek as Gold Bottom
Creek long before that.
"So they gave a discovery claim to Carmac on Bonanza Creek,
and another on Gold Bottom or Hunker Creek to this man
Hunker. So Henderson, who had been in here two years, and
who had told everybody about what he had found and wanted
everybody to share in it, got only a very bad claim, after
all. Hard luck.
"I wish I could talk with those old-timers and the Indians
who were first in this gold country; but Mr. Ogilvie did
talk with them all, and I think what he sets down is
perfectly true.
"What I was rather surprised to learn was that all this
country was known as a gold country so long before the
Klondike was heard of. Most people think that the Klondike
strike brought the first stampedes into the Yukon Valley,
but that is not the case at all. So I thought I would set
this down, to have it straight when we all got older. As
time goes by these things seem to get crooked, and sometimes
men get credit who do not deserve it.
"Well, I have heard a good many stories about wild times in
Dawson, but I have not any place to set that down here, nor
to tell stories about getting rich quick. We only wanted to
keep track of the early times in the wild country. So I
guess this will do.
"Well, here we go, off for home!--On board the steamer
_Norcom_, bound up the Yukon. Left at 9 P.M., after saying
good-by to all our friends in Dawson. We liked Dawson, but
found it pretty quiet.
"_Sunday, August 17th._--We are doing about five miles an
hour. Current very swift. At noon saw the Stewart valley.
Smith's store on the bank. Saw some boats stampeding for the
White River strikes. Passed the mouth of the White River.
Saw a new boat full of men turning up that river on the
stampede. It must be like old times. Well, all right--we're
going _out_.
"_Monday, August 18th._--Slow plugging up the current. Made
Selkirk, an old trading-post and mining hangout, at 2 P.M.
The scenery here is much finer than on the Mackenzie. I
don't know if tourists will ever come on any of these
rivers. It goes a little slow.
"A good many wood-yards along the banks of the river. Quite
a business selling wood to the steamboats, which burn a lot.
They showed us the line where the winter dog-stages carry
the mail to Dawson. Someone showed us the O'Brien cabin,
where four murders were committed. One white man and three
Indians were hanged for it.
"_Tuesday, August 19th._--We all got up pretty early,
although John was sleepy and Jesse a little cross. I told
them we ought to see the boat line up through the
Five-Finger Rapids. But, pshaw! there wasn't much about it.
We could run these rapids, I am sure, in our canoe, with no
danger at all. Of course, going up the current is stiff, so
at the bottom of the chute the steamboat takes on a wire
cable, and it winds around a drum with a donkey-engine, and
that pulls the boat up the rapids. They are not much like
some of the rapids we have seen.
"Well, it's twenty years since the Klondike rush, and we've
been over a good deal of the country that the old-timers
saw. Here we come to White Horse, and there we shall take
the railroad over the Skagway Pass, where so many men had
such awful times trying to get from the salt water into the
Yukon Valley.
"I don't think I'll write any more notes, because when you
get to a railroad everybody knows about it all anyhow. John
and Jesse and I feel pretty blue, after all. Our trip is the
same as done when we get to White Horse, and we are sorry.
When we once know we can get home all safe, we sort of feel
homesick for the rivers and mountains, too. You know how
that is.
"I don't know that we would want to do it all over again,
but we've had a fine time. I think John and Jesse are both a
little taller. Uncle Dick says I am, too.
"But it will be fine to get home again. Uncle Dick says he
is going to write and telegraph from White Horse once more.
So good-by to the Yukon. And good-by to the Rat and the
Mackenzie, too! Fine doings!"
XVII
WHAT UNCLE DICK THOUGHT
Our party of explorers, who by this time felt entirely civilized, went
about the streets of White Horse with a certain air of superiority
over the individuals who had never been farther north than this
railroad town. They were the heroes of the hour, with their tales of
the Rat Portage, over which no party had come in in recent years, and
each of them had to tell to many listeners the story of this or that
incident of the long trail. Old graybearded men listened with respect
to what these young boys had to say, and a newspaper man was very glad
to make a copy of some of Rob's careful diary, which he now began to
value more and more.
All too soon they were to leave this place and to pass up over
practically the original Klondike trail which came from the salt water
over the White Pass and down the headwaters of the Yukon to this
point. They did not visit the once famous White Horse Rapids, where
so many of the boats of the Klondikers came to grief, but declared it
would only bore them, since they had seen waters so much more
imposing! The local inhabitants laughed at this, but admitted that
many of the teeth of this once dangerous water had been extracted
since the early days.
As Rob had said, Uncle Dick took time here to do a little of his
correspondence. He sent out a message by wire once more to the
families of his companions, and to this added a letter which he said
would go north to Valdez with the boys themselves, in case he himself
received news at Skagway which would make it impossible for him to
accompany them to their homes.
One letter he wrote to the company which had sent him as its
representative into this northern country, in the following terms:
"GENTLEMEN,--I have arrived at the head of the rails on the
Yukon to-day, completing the round from Edmonton to White
Horse safely within the three months' estimate handed you.
"I have investigated the transportation possibilities in
much of this upper country. It is possible that a railroad
north from Athabasca Landing might for a time prove
profitable. I do not myself believe to any extent in the
agricultural possibilities of that upper country. A few men
will be able to subsist there. Some grain can be raised in
many of the valleys of that upper country. The seasons are,
however, so short, and the difficulties of permanent
settlement so many, that while in my estimation the railroad
would be a benefit for a time to a few individuals, it would
not be a profitable permanent enterprise far to the
northward of its present terminus. I regard the Peace River
valley as about its permanent agricultural north, although
many traders and boomers may dispute that.
"As to the feasibility of a railway line connecting the
Yukon to the Mackenzie, I can see no reason whatever for
contemplating the matter seriously. In my passage across the
summit on the Rat Portage we found some squared timbers
which had been prepared there with a view to laying a sort
of tramway. The idea was long since abandoned by the
Hudson's Bay Company, which once purposed it. I cannot say
whether or not they intended to use steam transport. Since
then the country has wholly lapsed into its original wild
and bleak character. It is, in my opinion, and will and
should remain, a wilderness. Its resources would not in any
wise support any considerable transportation enterprise
permanently.
"The companions who went with me on this trip report well
and sound, and I commend them for the manner in which they
withstood the hardships, at times very considerable.
"My subsequent and more complete report will be made at the
offices of the Company at a later date.
"Respectfully submitted.
"RICHARD MCINTYRE."
The second letter was addressed to the mother of one of our young
adventurers, and in this Uncle Dick wrote in rather less formal
fashion:
"DEAR SISTER,--Here we are at the railroad, and within a
couple of hours will be steaming out across the mountains
for Skagway. All safe and sound. Never saw boys eat the way
these do, and cannot say whether or not we will have enough
money to get them home.
"Nothing much has happened since we left, as the cow-puncher
said when he killed the ranch-manager in the owner's
absence. We have made our trip around in two or three days'
less time than I had estimated, but, looking back over it, I
cannot say just how it all happened. We certainly have been
busy traveling. In ninety days we will have finished what is
estimated to be 5,280 miles, under all sorts of
transport--steam, paddle, sail, and good old North American
foot-work.
"The boys are all safe and sound, bigger and better than
when I took them over, so I don't see what you can say
against your erring brother after this.
"How did the youngsters behave? Well, I'll tell you when I
see you. They were fine, and that's all about it. They send
their love, and so do I, and some or all of us will see you
with the first boat north from Skagway. Rob has a full
diary, and John a good sketch map, so they'll be loaded for
you all right.
"Do I renew my promise never to take them on another trip?
Of course I remember that _promise_, but can I manage to
keep it, now that these chaps are such good travelers? I
don't know. Well, suppose we talk that over when we meet
again?
"From your affectionate brother
"DICK."
THE END
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
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