Arizona weekly citizen., 1892-03-26

willing to hunt them. These animals are numerous throughout Alaskan mountains and l have never yet tra- versed range (some seven altogether without seeing them in greater or less abundance.
 The river was now getting very swift, and the big canoe quivered like Q high pres ure steamer when polling it against the current. This shaking Gf the poles against the boats side is very trying to the nerves of the polemen, so they claim, and more exhausting than severe labor of a purely muscular char acter. By o'clock mountain goats were seen all around us, so that when the work got so hard, polling and paddling, that even climbing the cragS after them was comparatively easy, ths Indians desired to exchange. so wd pulled into a small bayou on the north side to hunt thee Alpine antelopes> The nearest group was a nanny goat and her two kids, and they certainly ought to have seen us, although we did keep reasonably quiet for savages. l believe the greatest excitement in hunting them lies more in the danger ouS country they roam, than in any extra wise precautions necessary in stalking them. They were from 1,CCO to 200 feet above us, and two Indians started for them, their arms being rihed musket and my Winchester 4O-S2 rifle, as I felt too tried watching the Indians pole and paddle all day, to at- tempt it myself. Nothing was seen of them for half hour, when shot was heard, followed almost instantly by another. The mother fell at once, and eAc %-,., -.r h.aA her death struggles carried her 400 to 500 feet ''head over heels" downwards to crag where the body lodged. Tce kids scampered off like rabbits, followed by few shots. Their meat was prOba- ply worth eating, but that of their dam was stronger than a badger. The hunters made their way to the goat, gave it fling, and followed this up until it arrived by installments. It had one horn gone, and do not think there was an unbrol1en bone in its body. This, they said, was the orthodox way of bringing such a carcass into camp, and they thought 1t made the meat tenderer. If this goat was any tougher when it started, than when 1t arrived, then I am willing to believe the stories of their jumping hundreds Of feet, lighting on their heads, etc, that l formerly doubted. l never saw men on a trip care so little for fresh meat.
 That day but six miles was made and the next day only seven. We nOwap- preciated how much we had lost in our fine upstream wind. At our third camp fresh bear tracks were in abund- ance, but it was the only part of the animal we saw. One of the surprising things to me was the kittenish playful ness of the Indians after camping and after very hard days work Many Of them wrestled and played "tag" viol- ently, while one amused himself cut ting down large poplar tree, just to see some of his fellows Scampering to get out of the way. 1 have found this merry-making universal among the Tlinkits. The 29th the breeze came up about 10 and we needed every puff of it, for the river was now very swift. On some of the shallow places we could hear the rolling pebbles beat against the canoe bottom almost like hail on a tin roof. In some places 1t was seem ingly a fight for life to avoid being swept down some side channel, swift, shallow and bristling with drift tim Der. Once we were caught directly against huge drift-log in mid-stream, over which the swift water fairly boiled. Why we were not swept under 1t or broken in two even the Indians could not explain. We could not budge an inch, but were finally liberated in a ;rGy the very least expected; the log itself broke, and this, too, where it was a foot or two in diameter. It is not often that rotten log averts a disas- ter; it is more likely to determine one. There was not enough room along the sides for all to pole effectively, as the Doctors time was drawn to his topographic work considera bly, while if l stood up I threw the hydrostatic equilibrium of the whole expedition into an epileptic fit. We two were excused, but Russell, an excel lent river man, held his own fully with the others. In the use of the paddle, however, we came to the front and broke our share.
 Later in the afternoon we came to our first canyon. Here the whole river passes through a rocky gorge, with not very high banks. and some 125 yards in width. As the current did not increase greatly, if at all, inferred it was of un- usual depth. Anyway, polling was out of the question, and it required strategic tracking toget the great canoe through.