The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-07-17
ALPS OF ST. ELIAS.
Lieut.. Seton-Karr's Journeys
in Southeast Alaska.
AMONG BEARS AND EAGLES.
Millions Of Salmon I'm the KIaheeua-
Gigantic Cottonwood Trees-The
Chilcat Indians.


vicinity within half mie) of the from
with Russia, and subsequently with the
Union. l have therefore hewn large
board and securely attached it to tree.
and having the letters B. G. and U. S. cut
upon it to denote that hereabouts is the
frontier between the province of British
Columbia and the territory of Alaska.
One easily perceives how necessary it is
to have Indians in a country like this,
where long distances have to be traversed
over the toughest description of trail, but
generally without any trail at ALL Free
quently as parties of Chilcats enter the
Altsehk valley by this route, they have
left but little track behind them with their
bare feet, only occasionally stroke of the
ak upon some offending limb, but gen.
orally they are content to find a way
through the thicket without leaving it any
easier tor the next conner. A party of
Indians can take provisions with them, in
addition to trading material or furs, cal
cuiated to last them far greater length of
time than party of white men, without
anything but what they consider personal
necessaries.
On the 18th of May we struggled all day
against the stream. first towing with one
rope and keeping the canoe away from the
bank with pole; then / tried plan new
to US all, which had only heard of by re-
port. by attaching one long tow rope to an
augrr hole through the stern, another
through one in the bow. A pull on the
stern rope would send the canoe out in the
midstream. while Stacking of it brought
her in again, and in this way it was unnec-
essary for anyone to be in the canoe, and
she consequently drew SO little water that
we were able to avoid running aground so
much, nor was it necessary to wade so fire.
quently in order to push and shove her
past some obstruction.
Some remarkably large cottonwoods
were observed at this portion of the Kla-
heena, the largest / measured with tape
girthing thirteen feet. The shallower por-
tions of the river were full of young salmon
about an inch in length; terms and gulls
We're preying upon them as they sported
amongst the rotting carcasses of their
papas, but SO many of these latter had
been eaten by wild animals that the stencil
was not so unbearable as it is earlier in the
winter or spring. One of the men shot an
eagle, but it fell dead in the timber and
could not be found. The locality we chose
for the eighth camp had been used previ-
ously. but long since by the Indians for
that purpose. In front, through the OPEN
ing in which the tents were pitched, could
be seen the swift gray-green river, beyond
it narrow strip of light green young cot
tonwoods, then the steep dark green,
spruce-clad slopes, and above them the
domes and peaks of snow mountains. dyed
orange by the declining sun.
Across the river large eagles nest was
discovered near the top of q lofty cotton
wood, and there was visible the white head
OF one of the parent birds sitting on the
eggs, without paying any regard to us, al
though some of the smoke of our fire had
driIted across in most peculiar fashion
and had formed white cloud below the
tree as though there were a separate fire
there. On the fourteenth I cached some
food before starting. One of the men,
through moments inattention, got pulled
into the current by the two-ropes, under
going total immersion, but this was not
great Inconvenience, as the thermometer
III the sun marked pinety-fve.
At noon We had reached a large mount
ain torrent on the left bank, where small
party OF Indians were camped, engaged in
trapping and sharing bears. Two women
were seated by the river, with Dlackened
faces; in the thicket, hard by. found a
cottonwood canoe in process of manufac-
ture, shaped, but not yet followed out.
while spruce bonghs were piled up in it to
prevent the suns rays from hardening the
wood. Another woman seemed much
alarmed at my sudden appearance, and
walked away, at first slowly and with
dignity, then broke into run and
screamed with suppressed fear. By this
time the canoe had arrived aud I decided
to camp here. Presently an old man came
in from hunting, accompanied by small
boy with large spring bear trap, and
made the most complicated signs
about something which l failed to
as he spoke nothing
but husky Chilcat. On following him I
discovered their camp. consisting of three
tents and some shelters of boughs and logs,
the inhabitants consisting of two men, three
women, two boys and two children. They
a meal of dry salmon, which /
tasted, but felt uncertain as TO whether it
was smoked and saited or might consist of
choice pickings from the dog salmon OF last
season which strewed the banks. To ascer-
tain the velocity of the current, measured
loo yards with the tape, and by noting the
number of seconds log took to float past,
found it to be 81 miles per hour. The In
dian indicated by signs that it was impos-
sible to take the canoe any higher up the
river. 1t therefore became necessary to
pack. / found that the Indian dogs are
made to carry packs.
The old man showed me pair of dog
saddle-bags of mountain goat skin, each
bag being eighteen inches square when
empty. and signitied that they were worn
by powerful animal which was kept tied
to a tree-a stick serving as chain. In
the evening, with an Indian boy, crossed
the torrent by means of bridge of felled
saplings, and found slender trail leading
upwards, which, taken together with the
increased rapidity of the. current. pointed
to the fact that this might be considered as
the head of canoe navigation upon the
klaheeny or Wellesley river. At nightfall
was seen the first cloud that has appeared
in the sky for ten days, moving
rapidly from east TO west, and conse-
quently foreboding rainy weather, which,
sure enough, came on during the night.
The next day, the weather still continuing
wet and cloudy, a shelter was constructed
the foundation being OF logs and the upper
portion of spruce boughs laid horizontally
and supported by cross pieces. While
was seated writing under this rough but
effective cover at in the afternoon there
came slight shock of earthquake, and the
structure descended gracefully aud HARM
lessly upon me, completely shutting ME in,
while from underneath the ruins [ OBJ
served little Indian boy. who had been
hanging about the camp in order 10 pick
up any little unconsidered trlfies we
might have thrown away, such as scraps
of paper, empty cartridges and cans,
furtively under cover Of the calling away OF
ones attention produced by this predica-
ment, fill his mouth with the contents
OF one OF cur cooking pots before assisting
Inc TO release myself. This day we also
commenced To hew second canoe, 10 be
used in returning For this purpose a
cottonwood was selected and felled, girthing
nine feet, and while someone was constant
ly al work upon it with an axe. shaping or
following ii out, one of the party was
hunting for grouse or whatever else he
could find in the shape of meat, to spare
the supplies as much as possible. which,
calculated. were sufficient to last about
four weeks.