Part 15 (1/2)
”It's a fine ested Rob ”Maybe it wouldn't be wrong to h peak across froht to call Castle Mountain That's thefor the last three or four days”
”Agreed!” said Uncle dick ”I think it would be an excellent plan to rest here for a time to-day, and then it would be no harm to start on
Will you leton you to keep a record of our journey across the mountains, because I've been too busy and, to tell the truth, too worried, to havenotes of the trip”
Rob produced his diary, and Uncle dick read it page by page ”Fine!”
said he ”Fine! This doesn't go into many details, but it will cover the story of our trip as well as I could have done it et started down the Bell and the Porcupine, I want you to keep up the sa, so that ill have some sort of a record of our journey in this wild part of the world
”I'll have to admit to you boys, now that we are alone, that I don't think we ought to waste any time in here The two Indian boys who have left us have cut down our supplies considerably, but as they can't possibly get back to McPherson in less than four days, it seeh it means less for us We'll have to hurry”
”I'ruain I don't like to clean them anyin the kettle”
”You're not the first et tired of rabbits,” said Uncle dick ”For a day or two they are all right, but there is really very little strength in the meat They are, however, the main prop of the fur trade in the North, and the e population as well Except for rabbits, all these natives would starve to death in the winter-ti to eat froone by”
”Where is the caribou ration in here?” asked John
”It won't pass here at all,” replied their leader ”They tell me that the caribou are north of the Porcupine, toward the Arctic, and that they work south along toward the latter part of August There are a few sheep in here, but hty little hope for us to get anything unless we can catch so--and unless we continue to eat rabbits, and an would grow et down out of the mountains farther
”Jesse,” he continued, ”there'll be no haret us so ducks before we start out, over at the edge of Loon Lake We've got to have all the food-supplies we can possibly get hold of, because we don't knohat is ahead Hurry up, now, for pretty soon we must call ourselves rested and be on our way Our canoe is waiting for us, already launched, and it won't take long to get the loads aboard”
Jesse coht shot-gun, disappeared in the fringe of hich lay between the camp and the marshy borders of the lake out of which they had e on the Rocky Mountain suan to hear the reports of his gun, and so proficient had he by this time become in its use that when he returned in the course of three-quarters of an hour he had a young goose and a half-dozen mallard ducks to add to the larder
”Fine!” said Uncle dick ”Throw theo on with your diary; and, John, be sure that you keep up your le report of any kind in print or in manuscript, so far as I knohich tells the truth about this summit of the Rockies We are just as much explorers as if ere the first to cross The Klondikers left no records
”And now take one last look around you, for I question if you will ever be in a more remote corner of the world in all your lives This is the most northerly pass of the Rockies Yonder above us, at the end of what they call the Black Mountain range, lie the last foot-hills between here and the Arctic Off in that direction the Little Bell finds its head--no eneral lies our course now, and we've got to make five hundred miles between McPherson and thetime too, if ant to catch an up-bound boat on the Yukon this fall”
”Well,” said Rob, ”I suppose if we had to we could play Robinson Crusoe here at least as well as those poor Klondikers did who caet hoo to school and because our parents are waiting for us, but because we set out to ht to do so if that is a possible thing”
”That's the talk!” said Uncle dick ”Come ahead then, boys Noe are alone--let us see hoe can travel”
Rob did as requested and hout the reiven here as he wrote them:
”_Sunday, July 27th_--Beautiful weather Little Bell very deep, with pools on the bends literally full of grayling
They call them 'bluefish' here, and they look purple in the deep, clear water The Indian boys showed us how to cook them They split the them up before the fire, flesh side to the fire They eat theood they are
”Rabbits and ptaret out to ease the canoe down the rocky rapids, for we must not cut her, since she is the only boat we have, and to be without her would ruin us Water is icy cold, even colder than the head of the Rat, which was bad enough
”At 630 to-day struck the Big Bell, a deep and clear river
We were all cold, so built a fire Caught so then Ran till 10 o'clock Camp on the tundra Wet and cold, but had plenty of wood near by, so had good fires
”LaPierre House, an old trading-post, now abandoned, must be not far ahead That's where the land trail co to the stories We don't believe anything we hear anyMust have made thirty miles to-day before we carind down the Bell, which now is crooked and sluggish At 215 in the afternoon found a cabin, but it was not LaPierre House Found many names on this cabin Also statement, 'It is ten miles to LaPierre House' One man here left statement that he was bound for Fairbanks in Alaska Another man and his wife passed in an earlier year, 'Eleven days out from McPherson in canoes'
This party had four Indian boys, who expected to take nine days to get back to McPherson This one on down the Bell River alone
”Did five hours before lunch, and six after, and still no LaPierre House Traveled until 1015 and stopped to cook