Putnam patriot., 1916-07-07
CHAPTER VI.
In a Wild Country.

v ATE on the following morning
 O'Neil's expedition was landed at the deserted fishing station of
 Omar. thirty miles down the sound from Cortez. From this point it's route lay down the bay to open water and thence eastward along the coast in front of the Salmon river delta some forty miles to Kyak. This latter stretch would have been well nigh inn possible for open boats but for the fact that the numerous mud bars and islands thrown out by the river afford ed a sheltered course. These inside channels, though shallow, were of suf- ficient depth to allow small craft to navigate and had long been used as a route to the coal fields.
 Appleton, smiling and cheerful, was the first member of the party to ap- pear at the dock that morning, and when the landing had been effected at Omar he showed his knowledge of the country by suggesting short cut which would save the long row down to the mouth of the sound and around into the delta. Immediately back of the old cannery, which occupied gap in the mountain rim, lay q narrow lake. and this. he declared. held an out let which led into the Salmon river flats. By hauling the boats over into this body of water-a task made easy by the presence of q tiny tramway with one dilapidated push car which had been a part of the cannery equip ment-it would be possible to save much time and labor.
 i've heard there was way through ONeil confessed, but no- body seemed to know just where it was"
 "I know" the young man assured him. We can gain q day at least, and I judge every day is valuable
 "So valuable that we can't afford to lose one by making a mistake" said his employer meaningly
 "Ieaye 1t to me. l never forget q country once I've been through it."
 But Dan Appleton was not mistaken. X two hours row across the mirror-like SllIl1tE DI OAlAA AaNt OAVhr ht tAAF He'A " out through hidden gap in the mountains and afforded them a view across the level delta. To their left the range they had just penetrated retreat ed toward the canyon where the Sal mon river burst it's way out from the interior, and beyond that point it con tinued ill a coastward swing to Kyak. their destination. Between lay fiat, trackless tundra. cut by sloughs and glacial streams. with here and there long tongues of timber reaching down from the high ground and dwindling away toward the seaward marshes. IL was a desoate region. the breeding place of sea fowl, the hunting ground for the great brown bear.
 O'Neil had never before been so near the canyon as tLls, and the wild stories he had heard of it reeurred to him with interest. He surveyed the place cu- riouslv as the boats glided along but could see nothing more than tumble of small hills and buttes and beyond them the dead gray backs of the twin glaciers coming down from the slopes to east and west. Beyond the foothills and the glaciers themselves the main range was gashed by a deep valley through which he judged the river must come. and beyond that he knew was a country of agricultural promise. extending clear 10 the fabulous copper belt. whither the railroads from Csrtez were headed. StiIl farther inland lay the Panama. and then the Yukon, with their riches untouched-