The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-09-25
AFTER SALMON WITH INDIANS.


 There were seven Indians in the crew
 made eight. The canoe, like all oi
 their craft, was hewn out of solid log
 and was about twenty-five feet long
 and five feet wide in the middle. Five
 young bucks did the padding, and from
 the time we started they did not stor
 until eleven o'clock that night when
 they landed the canoe on the beach oi
 a marrow inlet, and as nearly as could
 calculate about thirty miles from Sit
 ka. We started a fire, and while my
 companions chewed on their dried sal
 mon and tough bread, I got away with
 little lunch had, all with the excep-
 tion of a little piece of raw Venlson
 which I saved for breakfast. In the
 meantime old Sitka Jake had dug out of
 his grub-basket two seals feet--that is,
 of the coarse-hair seal, which is very
 plentiful all along the Alaska coast.
 These they proceeded to roast in the
 ashes until they looked black and grea-
 sy; then they split them down between
 the toes, divided and devoured them,
 and I think felt hurt because did not
 indulge I did want to be sociable, if
 for no other reason than that l was so
 distinctly in the minority; but l had to
 draw the line on seals loot; ana l
 thought then, as l saw them l1sking
 their chops Cover what seemed to them
 to be sweet morseD' of my friend up at Standing Rock Agency on beef kill- ing day, watching the Sioux eat, when
 he casually remarked that Eff that was
 the Indian meal he did not want any of the mush." I took the liberty to ask | Chief Jake, who was the only one who would sava" at all, why they ate seals | feet. His reply was simply, '' Injun eat seals foot catch big salmon" So l con- | cluded they were eating them to carry out some superstitlous notion or custom, and not because they were particularly appetizing.
 l After this Indian meal was over, they held a sort of war council around the | campfire, iabbering away among them selves in their strange dialect. You could hardly call it language and | can best describe it by comparing 1t with three chokes and swallow, and | had about concluded that l was to be l stuck for the drinks" or roasted for | breakfast, when they coolly piled into l the canoe, pushed off, and anchoring 1t about 100 feet from shore, lay down in the bottom and went to sleep. l tried to make the best of it, but with no blank cts. rain, wet ground, and mosquitoes, l sleeping was out of the question:
 | About two o'clock my partners began to grunt and stretch Ca little crampeG I imagine), pulled in shore, and made a bluff at breakfast. I found my piece of venison, which I cut into nice little steaks, and tried to fry it in a tin dish but it was conspicuously lacking in tallow, necessitating my borrowing little grease of the Indians, which I thought to be pork grease With this l managed to fry the venison in good shape, but not until took a mouthful did I discover that the pork grease was fish oil, Bah! I can taste it now. The Indians got the venison.
 After this repast was over, off we started The night before old Jake had told me we were going back toward Sit ka in the morning, which, l presume, meant just the opposite, as Thlinklet or Chilkoot Indian can't tell the truth. After padding about two hours the in- let or strait began to marrow down to about one-half mile in width. Suddenly something attracted their attention on the opposite shore, and they jabbered away again excitedly. I strained my eyes for the object of their attention, but no sign of life appeared--not even a fish jumped All at once Capt. Jake hollered. "Chuk! chuk!" (which means go, go), and away they went, the old kyak fairly jumping out of the water, and I began to think the crew were go- ing mad, when the canoe struck the beach One Indian jumped out and grabbed the end of rope about 150 feet long, which was tied to one end of the net; and while he held on to this the others pulled out, playing out the net, making a haf-circle in order to bring the other end of the net and rope up toward the beach, about 250 feet away Then all except two of the In- dans waded out along the ropes and with their paddles striking the water and yelling, attempted to drive what l soon discovered were salmon toward the centre of the circling net which was hauled in as far as possible. Then with gaff-hook arrangement the Indians dragged the fish up on the beach. I | counted 134 salmon, of which not one | would weigh less than fifteen pounds | big gamy, beautiful fish, with bright | silvery sides. It was fun for the ln- ! dians, and would have been for me if l I could have caught them one at a ] time with hook and line. As it was, I | could only look upon 1t as an experience, | not sport
 When we got them loaded into the | canoe was seriously considering | wheth the boat would not sink with | eight persons added to the cargo and l so told Capt Jake; but he responded, "Tnjun want more salmon" I kicked | like a mule but they insisted on going | through the same performance again | as soon as they located another school of fish. Fortunately, the haul was not | quite so heavy, and the boat still f1oated | afte rcatch No. was loaded into it; but | I was sure that it would not carry us | back to Sitka, and I contemplated ser l iously which was best to do, take my | chances in the boat or on the isolated | beach I concluded that drowning was | preferable to starvation, and consoled | myself with the thought that if the boa l
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