The Young Alaskans on the Trail Part 31

"Did you really get a grizzly?" inquired Uncle d.i.c.k of Alex, after a while.

"Yes, sir, and a very good one. And a black bear too, and a moose, and some sheep, and a lot of small stuff like that. They're hunters and travelers. We gave them a 'lob-stick' to mark their journey--far back in the Rockies."

"Well, Alaska will have to look to its laurels!" said Uncle d.i.c.k, taking a long breath and pretending not to be proud of them. "It seems to me you must have been pretty busy shooting things, from all I can learn, young men."

"Oh, we know the country," interrupted Rob, "and we've got a map--we could build a railroad across there if we had to."

"Well, to tell the truth, I'm mighty glad you got through all right,"

said Uncle d.i.c.k. "I've been thinking that maybe I oughtn't to have let you try that trip, for it's dangerous enough for men. But everything's well that ends well, and here you are, safe and sound.

You'll have to be getting out of here before long, though, in order to make Valdez in time for your fall school--you'd be running wild if I left you on the trail any longer.

"The boat will be going back to the Landing in a couple of days, I suppose," he added after a time, as he gathered their hands in his and started along the path up the steep bank; "but there are a few things here you ought to see--the post and the farms and grains which they have--wonderful things in their way. And then I'll try to get Saunders to fix it so that you can see the Vermilion Chutes of the Peace River."

"I know right where that is," said Rob, feeling in his pocket for his map--"about sixty miles below here. That's the head of navigation on the Peace, isn't it?"

"It is for the present time," said Uncle d.i.c.k. "I've been looking at that cataract of the Peace. There ought to be a lock or a channel cut through, so that steamboats could run the whole length from Chippewayan to the Rockies! As it is, everything has to portage there."

"We don't know whether to call this country old or young," said Rob.

"In some ways it doesn't seem to have changed very much, and in other ways it seems just like any other place."

"One of these days you'll see a railroad down the Mackenzie, young man," said Uncle d.i.c.k, "and before long, of course, you'll see one across the Rockies from the head of the Saskatchewan, above the big bend of the Columbia."

"Why couldn't we get in there some time, Uncle d.i.c.k?" asked Jesse, who was feeling pretty brave now that they were well out of the Rocky Mountains and the white water of the rapids.

"Well, I don't know," said Uncle d.i.c.k, suddenly looking around. "It might be a good idea, after all. But I think you'd find pretty bad water in the Columbia if you tried to do any navigation there. Time enough to talk about that next year. Come on now, and I'll introduce you to the factor and the people up here at the Post."

They joined him now, and soon were shaking hands with many persons, official and otherwise, of the white or the red race. They found the life very interesting and curious, according to their own notions. The head clerk and they soon struck up a warm friends.h.i.+p. He told them that he had spent thirty years of his life at that one place, although he received his education as far east as Montreal. Married to an Indian woman, who spoke no English, he had a family of ten bright and clean children, each one of whom, as John soon found to his satisfaction, appreciated the Imperial Toffy which made a part of the stock of the Hudson Bay Company at that post also.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PORTAGE, VERMILION CHUTES, PEACE RIVER]

All of these new friends of theirs asked them eagerly about their journey across the Rockies, which was a strange region to every one of them, although they had pa.s.sed their lives in the service of the fur trade in the north. As usual, in short, they made themselves much at home, and asked a thousand questions difficult enough to answer. Here, as they had done at Peace River Landing, they laid in a stock of gaudy moccasins and gloves and rifle covers, all beautifully embroidered by native women in beads or stained porcupine quills, some of which work had come from the half-arctic tribes hundreds of miles north of Vermilion. They saw also some of the furs which had been sent down in the season's take, and heard stories in abundance of the ways of that wild country in the winter season. Even they undertook to make friends with some of the half-savage sledge-dogs which were kept chained in the yard back of the Post. After this they made a journey out to the farm which the Dominion government maintains in that far-off region, and there saw, as they had been promised by Captain Saunders, wheat and rye taller than any one of them as they stood in the grain, and also vegetables of every sort, all growing or in full maturity.

"Well, we'll have stories to tell when we get back," said Rob, "and I don't believe they'll believe half of them, either, about the wildness of this country and the tameness of it. Anyhow, I'm glad we've come."

The next day they put in, as Uncle d.i.c.k suggested, in a steamer trip down to the Vermilion Chutes. They did not get closer than three or four miles, but tied up while the party went down on foot to see the big cataract of the Peace--some fifteen feet of sheer, boiling white water, falling from a rim of rock extending almost half a mile straightaway across the river.

"I expect that's just a little worse than the 'Polly' Rapids," said John. "I don't think even Moise could run that place."

Even as they stood on the high rim of the rock at the edge of the falls they saw coming up from below the figure of a half-breed, who was dragging at the end of a very long line a canoe which was guided by his companion far below on the swift water. Had the light line broken it must, as it seemed to these observers, have meant destruction of the man in the canoe. Yet the two went on about their work calmly, hauling up close to the foot of the falls, then lifting out their canoe, portaging above, and, with a brief salutation, pa.s.sing quickly on their way up the stream.

"That's the way we do it, boys," said Uncle d.i.c.k, "in this part of the world--there goes the fast express. It would trouble the lightest of you to keep up with that boy on the line, too, I'm thinking. Some day," added Uncle d.i.c.k, casting a professional eye out over the wide ridge of rock which here blocked the river, "they'll blow a hole through that place so that a boat can get through. Who knows but one of you will be the engineer in charge? Anyhow, I hope so--if I don't get the job myself."

"You mustn't forget about that trip over the Yellowhead Pa.s.s, where your new railroad's going now, Uncle d.i.c.k," said Jesse, as they turned to walk again up the rough beach toward the mooring-place of the steamer.

"Don't be in too big a hurry, Jesse," returned his relative. "You've got a whole year of studying ahead of you, between now and then.

We'll take it under advis.e.m.e.nt."

"What I believe I like best about this country," said Rob, soberly, "is the kindness of the people in it. Everywhere we have been they've been as hospitable as they could be. We don't dare admire anything, because they'll give it to us. It seems to me everybody gets along pleasantly with everybody else up here; and I like that, you know."

"It's a man's country," said Uncle d.i.c.k, "that's true, and I don't know that you'll be the worse for a little trip into it, although you come from a man's country back there in Alaska yourselves, for the matter of that. Well, this is the northern end of your trail for this year, my sons. Here's where we turn back for home."

They paused at the bend and looked once more back at the long, foaming ridge of white water which extended across from sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e of the stream which they had followed so far.

"All right," said Rob, "we've had a good time."

They turned now, and all tramped steadily back to the boat, which soon resumed her course up-stream.

Regarding their further stay at Fort Vermilion, or their return journey of several days southward to Peace River Landing, little need be said, save that, in the belief of all, the young hunters now had killed abundance of game. Although they saw more than a dozen bears on their way up the river, they were willing to leave their rifles in their cases, and spend their time studying the country and poring yet more over the maps which they were now preparing to show their friends at home.

x.x.xI

HOMEWARD BOUND

Arrived at Peace River Landing, the young hunters found everything quite as Alex said it would be, their belongings perfectly safe and untouched in the tent where they had left them. Uncle d.i.c.k, who now took charge of the party, agreed with them that it was an excellent thing to make Alex and Moise presents of the canoes, and to give Moise the remainder of the supplies which would not be required on their brief trip to Little Slave Lake by wagon.

At this time the telephone line had been completed from Little Slave Lake to Peace River Landing, and the factor at the latter post had sent word for two wagons and teams to come up for these pa.s.sengers, outbound. There was little difficulty in throwing their light equipment, with their many trophies and curiosities, into one of the wagons, and arranging with the other to carry out the _Jaybird_, which, a little bit battered but practically unhurt, now continued the last stage of its somewhat eventful journey over the old Mackenzie trail--Alex, as may be supposed, watching it with very jealous eye so that it should get no harm in the long traverse.

Alex was thus to accompany the party for a few days, but Moise, who lived at the Landing, now must say good-by. This he did still smiling, though by no means glad to lose the company of his young friends.

"You'll come back some more bimeby," said he. "Any man he'll drink the water on this river one time, he'll couldn't live no more without once each year he'll come back an' drink some more on that river! I'll see you again, an' bimeby you'll get so you'll could carry seex hondred poun' half a mile an' not set it down. Moise, he'll wait for you."

When they reached the top of the steep hill which rises back of Peace River Landing, almost a thousand feet above the river which runs below, they all stopped and looked back, waiting for the wagons to toil up the slope, and waiting also to take in once more the beauty of the scene which lay below them. The deep valley, forking here, lay p.r.o.nounced in the dark outlines of its forest growth. It still was morning, and a light mist lay along the surface of the river. In the distance banks of purple shadows lay, and over all the sun was beginning to cast a softening light. The boys turned away to trudge on along the trail with a feeling almost of sadness at leaving a place so beautiful.

"It is as Moise says, though!" broke out Rob, answering what seemed to be the unspoken question in the minds of his fellows--"we'll have to come back again some time. It's a man's country."

Hardened by their long experience in the open, the boys were able to give even Uncle d.i.c.k, seasoned as he was, something of an argument at footwork on the trail, and they used wagons by no means all the time in the hundred miles which lie between Peace River Landing and Little Slave Lake--a journey which required them to camp out for two nights in the open. By this time the nights were cold, and on the height of land between these two waterways the water froze almost an inch in the water-pails at night, although the sun in the daytime was as warm as ever. To their great comfort, the mosquito nuisance was now quite absent; so, happy and a little hungry, at length they rode into the scattered settlement of Grouard, or Little Slave Lake, pa.s.sing on the way to the lower town one more of the old-time posts of the Hudson Bay Company.

"You see here," said Uncle d.i.c.k, as they paused at the edge of the water which lay at the end street, "only an arm of the lake proper.

The steamer can't get through this little channel, but ties up about eight miles from here. I suppose we ought to go aboard to-night."

"If you will allow me, sir," said Alex, stepping forward at this time, "I might give the boys a little duck-shoot this evening on their way down to the boat."

"Why not?" said Uncle d.i.c.k, enthusiastically. "I don't know but I'd like a mallard or so for myself, although I can't join you to-night, as I'm too busy. Can you get guns and ammunition, Alex?"

"Oh yes," replied the old hunter, "easily. And I'll show the young gentlemen more ducks to-night than they ever saw in all their lives before. The _Jaybird_ will carry all of us, if we're careful, and I'll just paddle them down along the edge of the marsh. After we've made our shoot, we'll come on down to the boat after dark, or thereabout."

"Fine!" said Uncle d.i.c.k. "That'll give me time to get my business completed here, and I'll go down to the boat by wagon along sh.o.r.e."

This arrangement pleased the boys very much, for they knew in a general way that the lake on whose sh.o.r.es they now were arrived was one of the greatest breeding-places for wild fowl on the continent.

Besides this, they wished to remain with Alex as long as possible, for all of them had become very fond of the quiet and dignified man who had been their guide and companion for so long.

The four of them had no trouble in finis.h.i.+ng the portage of the _Jaybird_ and her cargo from the wagon to navigable water, and finally they set off, paddling for the marshes which made off toward the main lake.

They had traveled perhaps three or four miles when Alex concluded to yield to the importunities of the boys to get ash.o.r.e. They were eager to do this, because continually now they saw great bands and streams of wild fowl coming in from every direction to alight in the marshes--more ducks, as Alex had said, than they had thought there were in all the world. Most of them were mallards, and from many places in the marsh they could hear the quacking and squawking of yet other ducks hidden in the high gra.s.s.