Arizona weekly citizen., 1892-05-21

upon tor companions, put even 'Jace- son" knew hill had to cover a deposit to make a mine out of it, and that part could not be greater than the whole It now became irritatingly lonesome with so little to do and
 no definite time ahead when 1t might end About noon,o July 5, white man and two Indians in boat appeared from down the river. Mir. Frank G. II. Bowker, young Englishman, was in charge, his Indians rejoicing in the names of David and Peter. This party was going westward prospecting, and as Bowker had full authority from Harper as to h. dians, supplies and other necessaries 1t became easy to unite the parties to the advantage of both. David and Peter spoke better English than 'Sam" and negotiations thereafter with the others were more easily carried on. The moral effect on the local Indians was quite apparent. 1 got six of them as packers at once with the promise of a half dozen dogs and the assurance that the latter could carry thirty-five to forty pounds apiece. The Bowler party came from the Placer mining region on Forty Mile" creek, Western tributary of the Yukon coming in something over 200 miles below Selkirlz He gave us much information about this region, probably the most isolated mining camp in the world. Here news is received but once a year and then of a meager character. Bowker said that when polling up the Yukon the year before he inquired of newcomer floating down if the United States had yet elected the President. The reply was that "a new feller named Harr ngton or something like that" had been selected.
 There were two tame, domesticated moose in the mining camp. These carry bells on their neck to prevent their killing when making long jaunts from home. Whenever they walked down the single path in the camp that did duty for main street everything else politely gave them the right of way. A small terrier was the only opposition to this emolu
 ment they ever had and this was short. The terrier had a playful way that greatly attached him to the miners of running out from his masters cabin at any passers by, and inserting his teeth into their calves or other dis tai extremities. He tried it on the
 bull moose calf one afternoon when spectators were near. The moose was grazing slowly down the path and near the cabin, the dog rushed out and started for his posterior dew-claws,
 when he got more of them than he
 really intended, the bull calf letting both feet fly as if the terrier had
 touched the trigger. The moose did
 not stop his grazing until he heard the dog drop little later, when he looked around, stared at him for awhile, then yawned, and began grazing again. The dog, stupefed, returned to the store, then slunk away and was never known to bite man or moose after that. The
 moose was not quite full grown, but he was as much larger than the dog as the
 United States is larger than Chile. One might make some other com
 parisons but they would probably be a
 waste of time. This country is
 one that is well-stocked with
 large game and it is rare that
 moose or caribou meat cannot be had in the winter mining camp for ten
 to fifteen cents per pound, and occa- i siOnally as low as five cents. Where
 ''hard-tack' crackers are five cents apiece this makes the figures on game ridiculously low. On the high barren tracts lying between Forty Mile and
 Seventy Mile, rivers, Bowker says he has seen herds of caribou, proba bly, 2,OOO to 5000, while on every side were these animals making the snows of ap- preaching winter fairly gray. At this time au Indian with a Winchester killed 1o5 caribou, a number to which | he limited himself, only by the fortu-
 nate fact he ran out of ammunition. He
 "wholesaled" this meat to miners at
 five cents per pound. Bowker's best story was, fortunately, about fish. On Forty-Mile Creek miner had 70 live on them until he was sick of fish. It was nothing to
 catch them and he simply walked down | to the net, took out what he wanted
 and liberated the others. Killing some i game one day, he gladly pulled the net
 ont of the river to prevent catching the
 fish, but that night the water rose, GOV
 cred his net and when he visited it next
 morning it was as full of fish as ever. | One thing is sure, believe, and that is | the Yukon, with its tributaries, is the | greatest fish stream, for its size, in the world. If it has a rival it is either the Mackenzie or Backs Great Fish river,
 but neither of these are so accessible. 1 There was a rather-funny hunting in | cident that had happened on "Forty