Iditarod pioneer., 1915-03-06

! followed the blazes to the cabin, and there { found kooyanna. It was little he could do for her that day, as his provisions consisted only of little tea, few slices of bread , smeared with moose tallow, a few pieces of i dried caribou meat and few matted milk tablets. He rustled few old tin cans and made some tea and a soup of the dried caribou. Soaking the bread in the soup, and some of the matted milk tablets in warm water, he fed her little at a time, staying with her all the next day and night to keep her from eating the whole of the bread and soup at one time. He himself only ate 6 little of the dried meat and drank little of the tea, as he had only brought light ax and some steel traps, not wishing to be burdened with gun in case he should wish to set some traps. Consequently he had to make the little grub last her until he could go to his camp for more.
 The morning of the second day he told her to eat a little of the bread and soup four or five times through the day and he would be back that evening. That day he made the fifteen miles CT more to his camp, loaded the major portion of his outfit on , his sled and dragged 1t back to the cabin, and was there little after dark. That means that he had snowshoed thirty or more miles and dragged hand-sled heavily i loaded One-half of the distance, in about i seven or eight hours.
 He found that kOOyanna had CDeyed his | instructions so well that there was still some of the bread and soup left when he got back.
 The next day he fixed her up a little more comfortably, went out and shot some willow grouse, and prepared to nurse her ! back to strength enough to undertake the i journey to the village, which he judged to be about fifty miles distant. Some of DaVe's traps were big three days travel back. | And he had done but little trapping thus far for the season. as he had been prospect l ing all of the earlier part of the winter. lie ! had little fur, and no money. But 1t IS doubtful if he gave those things thought 1 The one thing to do was to try to get a i human being to some kind of relief, koo- yanna's feet were black, and beginning to | lester, and her pain was intense. Dave felt { there was no time to lose. He fed her care i fully of such things as his simple larder con tained and was thankful to whatever chance or providence, had caused him to buy the matted milk tablets. After a weeks careful nursing he concluded that he would l absolutely necessary-and kooyanna, care fully wrapped in robe-on the sled, he i slipDed on his big web snowshCes, slung the line across his broad shoulders and struck out. Not knowing exactly where the vii lage was located, and the country also beng strange he did not dare to try to make any shcrt cuts, so he followed the river. For three days. with set teeth and taut muscles, Il 4Ia nd dragged lis heavy burden. Fortunately tor | Kooyanna, Dave was a strong man. At almost dark on the third day he heard the bark of dogs, and with burst Of speed born of encouragement, he pulled into the village He had been in hope of getting some of the Indians to take her on down to the Russian mission, but he was doomed to disappointment Kooyanna was an Eskimo And furthermore, she belonged to the Mo ravian mission, and they were Russian ms sion Indians Possibly, if she had come to their village alone, they would have done what they could for her At least they would have fed her But having been brought there by a white man. she was strictly taboo She spoke their language only imperfectly and no amount of ex- rlanation from Dave would avail. He man. aged, however, to trade some ammunition for little tea, and they gave him few frozen fish He tried to get couple ot dogs, but the Indians wanted two or three prices for them so he had to abandon that hope also.
 The next morning he started down the river with journey of nearly i've hundred miles in front of him, as he now had little hope of relieving himself of kooyanna be- fore reaching the Russian mission.
 I wish I could tell you of that journey in Kooyanna's own words. Or l wish you could have seen the look in her eyes as she sat there in the twilight and told me the story in her simple way
 The weather turned soft before they had proceeded more than one-third of the dls- tance, and the overflow started. Day after day Dave dragged his heavy sle1 along through a foot of slush snow on top ot the ice, often wading to his knees, and sometimes to his hips, in the icy water IT overhowed spots At such times he would take Kooyanna in his arms and let the sled trail behind. His physical strength and en- durance must have been wonderful.
 After almost a week of that kinG Of work he told her they must stop and wait for the breakup, as the overhows were be- coming too numerous and too deep. So they halted and went into permanent camp to wait until the ice went out. He was sorry they could not keep on going, for kooyanna was in great pain and her feet were in terrible condition While he waited for the breakup he got some dry logs together to build raft, and was thank ful that they had gotten down over all o1 the dangerous water, and rafting woulu pe safe and comparatively comfortable.
 Almost month they waited, Dave Shot ducks and grouse, and they were in no way near starvation but the flour and tea were short, and the sugar and milk tablets all | gone. LII.
 When the ice finally went out Dave built the raft and they started on once more. In couple of days they came to village where there was a trader, and Dave traded some marten skins for little rice, sugar, Aour tea. condensed milk and fruit. In some places, no doubt, grub is cheap and fur dear, But not on the upper kusko- kwim. It is just the other way about. 50 Dave had to part with several good marten skins for a very small amount of the above named luxuries. Having made the ex- change, they drifted on. Six days more and they landed at the Russian mission, and Dave thought his life-saving mission