The Young Alaskans on the Trail

se fish, we'll have to take care of them

the men at this work, Moise show

ed John, who always seemed to be afr

to smoke them a little-hang them up by the tail the way the Injuns do. That's the way we do whitefish in the north. If it weren't for the

b, "we'll begin to be voyageurs ourselves, and

n ways, and usually they are the most useful ways. An Injun never wants to do work that he doesn't have to do. So

inished cleaning and washing off their trout,

r pack on his own broad shoulders, a

said he, "but they're both good boats, as sure's you're

which rested on his shoulders. His head would have been covered entirely by the boat as he stood, were it not that he let it drop backward a little, so that he could see the tr

sked Rob, making a last search before th

said John.

e size as the one which they had just left. It was rather longer than it was wide, and they could see at its eastern side the depression where the outlet made off toward the east. Again taking their pl

ls. I say, fellows, we could take that boat and come through here

blesome, and fared on down the winding stream until at l

ushed the Mary Ann over the last remaining portion of the stream, and she was floating fair and f

ace River-or what those voyageur call the Par

ainst his bed-roll, lo

This water sounds dangerous to me, and you can't t

t a little creek

mighty fast up in this country-we've seen them up in Alaska m

y time of the year. Now, if we were here on high water, as Simon Fraser was, and going the other way, we might have our own troubles-I

We wouldn't care to turn back, and we've got to go through. If they did it, so can we. I don't believe this stream'

t through at all. But they didn't seem to make much fuss about it. Those men didn't know where they were going, either-they just got in their b

ore lighting his pipe and smiling. "We'll

l show those boy how the

dent the boat should upset, hang to the boat and don't try to swim. The current will be very apt to sweep you on through to some

ow he got wrecked on the Bad River with his whole crew. But they hung to the canoe

n the whole trip, for t

ay by day what he did when he was going west. They got into that lake we've just left, about noon. They must have poked up the creek some time, and very early that same

other side of the stream?" asked

e, on the twenty-seventh, there was another river which they passed coming in from the east, and Simon says near its mouth there was a rapid. He doesn't seem to mention any rapids between there and here-probably it had to be a

out over the rapid little stream with p

er took thirty-four days coming up to this point from the place where he sta

nodded John, emphatic

sixth of the time to go east which it needed to come west. Then, what they d

hink it would figure out some

to pass all these rivers which Simon mentions, and get down to the first big rapid of which he

ace at all?" began John ag

the first little beach and make boi

ssing, from time to time, the features of the country an

day without the least trouble, if we did not have to portage. I should think the current was fou

oo fast," said Jesse. "We ha

sed the old voyageur to look at him approvingl

tion when Rob was in place at the bow. Alex paid similar care to the Jaybird. The boats now ran practically on an even ke

Moise, looking at

er places in the boats, he himself stepped in and

ddle to work. "I'm going to beat you all through-if I'm bow paddle in

gliding down the gentle incline of the stream. "Don't go too fast, M

out Moise. "We'l

middle line of the canoe, which is in the center of the boat when she's going straight, of course. You'll have to ease off a little if she tilts-you ride her a little as you would a horse over a jump. Now, look at this little rough place we're coming t

ang to it, and don't get scared. When I call to you to go to the right, Mr. John, pull the boat over by drawing it to your paddle on that side-don't try to push it over from the left side. You can haul it over stronger by

eam, it would swamp our boat to head straight into it. Where should we go then? Of course, we would have to get a little to one side of that long, rolling ridge of white

Jesse. "I should think there would be

esides that, there's very apt to be a strong eddy setting up-stream just below the chute, if the walls are narrow and rocky. Now, that sort of water is very dangerous. One of those big swells will come up under a boat, and you'd think a sledge-hammer had hit her.

said Jesse. "If there's any plac

t in a rapid-the water is stronger than all the horses you ever saw. The main thing is to keep cool, to keep your balance, and sometimes not to be afraid of taking a little water into the boat. It's the business of the captain to tell whether it's best to take the ridge of w

already past it? I'll show you now how we take it. Be steady, John, and don't paddle till I tell you.

ng," said Jesse. "It

inch or so out of the way of that big rock which might have wrecked us. We always pick a course in a rapid which gives us time to turn, so that we can dodge another roc

me through, and after a moment Alex joined him at the beac

st, doesn't she, f

. "I don't see how they ever g

to pull the boat up by hanging on to the overhanging trees-they couldn't go ashore to track her, they could

They passed one little stream after another making down from the forest slopes, but so rapid and exhilarating was their movement that they hardly kept track of all the rivers and creeks whi

rapid which Fraser men

s well pull in here and make our camp for the night

insinclia River comes in from the east, and above that ten or fifteen miles is the Misinchinca River, on the same side. I don't know who named those rivers, but we haven't passed them yet, that's sure. Then down below the mouth of the McLeod is the Nation River