Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1914-02-12


met with the same fate. The Illinois
got in behind an island five miles be-
low us. Everybody seemed to be
crazy to get up the river about eighty
miles to place they afterwards
named Beaver City, where it was said
that the gold fields were.
All the men loaded the small boats
with provisions and winter supplies,
and had to literally drag them by rope
all of this distance. Myself and
Donaho were left with the steamer.
We went right to work digging out an
excavation in the bank of the island
to make our house. The water had
run over the island in the spring and
thawed it about four feet deep. The
rest we had to carry wood and burn
out We then cut logs and built a
house in this excavation. We then
split logs and covered it, covering the
whole off over about foot deep
with moss. Then with about two feet
of sand. This brought the comb of
the house just little above the top of
the ground. We raised the steamer
up out of the water and put it up on
blocks. The first day we got into
winter quarters an Indian came down
the river on raft and had the carcass
of two bears, which we bought for a
small can of hard tack, and we feasted
fine for several days on fresh meat.
After we got everything snug for the
winter Donaho hired an Indian and
took another small boat, loaded it
with provisions and left for the gold
camp, which left ne alone. And this
is the last white man that I saw for
seven months. However, in few
days after this tribe of Malamoot
Indians moved into camp just across
the river from me. These Indians
we're from Cotzabov Sound, about
seven hundred miles from here. These
Indians had come there for the fall
and winter, fishing and hunting. The
tribe consisted of men, women and
children.
I will now tell you something about
the fishing and hunting with these
Indians, which no doubt some Of your
readers will think some of the stories
are pretty fishy. I will tell you about
the terrible SHOWS, the extreme cold,
the aurora borealis, the caribou hunt,
bear hunt and other things that will
be very interesting to your readers,
as it was to me.
The fish shoal in this part of Alaska
in September. 1t takes all of the short
summer for the salmon to make the
trip from the seas to the head waters
of these streams, and the water is
literally alive with them. Standing on
the shore in the twilight you would
think there were a hundred boys in
the river playing, from the noise they
make. Salmon run from about three
to twenty pounds, and at this time
is the Indian harvest. Each Indian
family has a seine plated fromIwilloW
bark which they use individually dur
ing the summer, but at this time the
whole tribe puts it's seine together
and in this instance made one of abou
a hundred and fifty yards long, and il
took the whole tribe to handle it
They all bring the seine to the waters
edge, one Indian in kayak takes the
end of it and paddles as far out in the
stream as he can pull, and then an
other comes in, and 80 on until tht
seine is well stretched out, leaving ont
end on the shore while two or three
of the tribe hold it to its place. Thel
the Indian in the kayak drops tn,
sein into the water swings around ant
down stream, bringing it into shore
When a short distance from shor,
two or three Indians wade out int
the water and get it. All the rest o
the tribe not pulling the seine swim
J around back of it, and with a sticl
knock the fish in thei head that at
tempt to Jump over. This drag nette'
them about two thousand pounds O
fieh. When they get them all kille'
/ 80 they won't flop back into the water
J they all begin to hunt out the one
that have the spawn in them. TIL
! grown-ups tear the fish open and ca
the spawn raw. The little tots ar
j not strong enough to tear the fis
open, but they get around this by on
getting up on the fish with his fee
! and another gets down and sucks tn
} eggs out as they spew out.
! At the end of eight days. fishing the
had about fifteen tons of fish. M
!, fishing is done then until ice forms O
. the water strong enough to bear ther
} up. Then they cut trench in tn
, ice and take their dog teams and har
: spruce pine tops, stick them down i
t this trench with the tops down an
b make two wings from the shore to nea
' the center Of the river. In one or tw
' nights these freeze in hard. The
: then take part of the seine and make
Q dip net with handle to it. BY thi
i time the salmon are now coming dow
p the river, and they catch great quar-
Y titles until the salmon quit running
!. All the fish are piled in two piles on
g on the shore and the other on the ic,
a Tbev then stich n MOLE with a FLAG q