XVII
A CARIBOU HUNT
From the outer shore to the interior bay or lake was not what voyageurswould call a hard portage, for the distance was less than half a mileand the ground not very irregular, the hills and ridges being low.Nangotook and Jean bore the light canoe on their heads, while Ronaldwent first to clear the way. The woods of spruce, balsam and birch wereopen enough in many places to allow the canoe to go through easily.Where the growth was more dense, a few strokes of Ronald's ax disposedof the branches that hindered progress. On the higher ground were openrock spaces, while in the depressions grew thick patches of alders,hazels, red osier dogwood, ground pine and the fern-like yew or groundhemlock. On the red berries of the yew flocks of white-throated sparrowswere feeding, their brightly striped heads conspicuous among the green.
The shore where the explorers launched the canoe was rocky, butovergrown with small plants and bushes. They paddled northeast at first,seeking for an opening. Finding the body of water landlocked on the eastand north, they continued on around. The south shore was rather low, butthe north was of a different character. A narrow beach was bordered byan irregular ridge of boulders and fragments of rock, which looked as ifit might have been pushed up by waves or ice. The beach was composedprincipally of pebbles and rock fragments, and there was no indicationof yellow sands. The sun was sinking when the three reached a spotopposite the place where they had embarked, and they went on only farenough to make sure that there was no chance of golden sands in thatdirection. By the time they had crossed to the southern shore, they werevery sure they were on a lake, not a bay. The southwestern end appearedto be much narrower than the northeastern and gave no indication of anyopening larger than might be made by a small stream flowing in or out.They had passed the mouths of several such brooks.
As they neared the shore, they noticed, a little distance away, threeloons, an old one and two young, swimming and diving. Just as the boyswere carrying up the canoe, the old bird rose with a great flapping ofwings and spatting of the water with its feet. Its wild, long drawn cryrang out like a derisive laugh. "A-hah-weh mocks us," said the Indian.
There were jays and woodpeckers in the woods, but the loons were theonly birds the explorers had seen on the lake, though they had kept alookout for ducks. They had caught a good string of little fish,however, a kind of perch. While Etienne and Ronald carried the canoeback over the portage, Jean tried his luck in a small stream that issuedfrom the lake, near where they had first reached its shores, and emptiedinto the big lake not far from their camp. He soon had half a dozenbrook trout. On his way back he found a squirrel caught in one of thesnares. So the campers had both fish and meat, a very little meat, fortheir evening meal.
After supper the three held a serious council. The middle of Septemberhad come, and the woods were taking on an autumnal appearance. Thebirch, aspen and mountain ash leaves were turning and beginning to fall,the blueberries and raspberries and most of the thimbleberries weregone, flocks of migrating birds were to be seen nearly every day ontheir way south, and the squirrels and chipmunks were busy laying upstores of cones and alder seeds. When the gold-seekers had left theSault, they had fully expected to be on their way back, their canoeloaded with golden sand, before this. If they were to find the islandthey must do it soon, for autumn changes to winter rapidly on LakeSuperior, the return journey would be a long one, and bad weather mightcause much delay. But where should they go? In what direction shouldthey search? How could they tell in what quarter the Island of YellowSands lay?
Nangotook showed plainly that his first concern was to return to theshore of the lake. Soon would come storms and cold, he said, and if badweather found them on some small island in the middle of the lake theywould starve. The Island of Yellow Sands might be sought in the springwhen there would be more time to look for it. At the present time themanitos were not favorable to the quest. The lads had offended thespirits of the lake and islands, especially Nanabozho himself,--and theIndian looked sternly at Ronald. There was no foretelling what disastermight come to them if they persisted in the search. Another year thespirits might be more friendly, but now they had sent warnings. Firstthere had appeared the cape of Nanabozho and directly afterwards thenorthern lights flaming in the sky.
"But," objected Jean, "you said before, several times, that the northernlights were a good omen. Why do you now call them a warning?"
"There was no red in the lights we saw first," replied Nangotook. "Thelast time they were red with anger, the color of blood and of the firethat destroys the lodge and turns the green forest to black. So will themanito destroy us if we heed not his warnings."
"Take shame to yourself as a poor Christian, Etienne," cried Jeanindignantly. "Whatever the power of the Indian spirits, and I do notdeny that they have power over heathens, that of the good God isgreater. If we trust in Him and do no evil, we need not fear. We havestarted on this quest, and it would be disgrace to us to turn back sosoon. You were as eager as we at first. Surely you will not desert usnow?"
"My little brother knows that I will never desert him," said the Ojibwaproudly. "Where he goes I will go also. I have given my counsel. I havewarned him. Now I will keep silence." After that he refused to take anypart in the discussion.
Jean and Ronald were agreed on one point. They were determined tocontinue their search for the golden sands. Both were almost certainthat the place where they then were was not the one they were seeking.Ronald believed that they were farther west than they ought to be, onone of the great islands, Royale, which the Indian called Minong, or themythical Philippeau, that the old explorers placed on their maps. He wasin favor of striking out to the east, but Jean admitted that he dreadedpaddling straight out into the lake, without any idea of their locationor where they were going. From the rocky island where they had landed inthe fog, they had not been able, when the weather cleared, to make outany land to the east except some small islands lying near by and of thesame character as the one where they were. They must explore thoseislands to make sure that no golden beaches were to be found there. Ifthey found nothing, Jean wished, instead of striking out into the lake,to travel along the shore to the northeast, in the hope of obtainingsome idea of their real situation and some clue to the direction theyshould take. Ronald admitted the reasonableness of Jean's plan, but wasreluctant to give up his own. They failed to come to a definite decisionthat night.
It was the wind that settled the dispute. The morning was calm, butbefore the explorers had skirted the rock shores of all the islands thatdefined the southeastern limits of the bay, the wind was blowing strongand cold from the north. They found crossing the bay to the shelter ofthe shore difficult and dangerous enough. Paddling in such a strong sidewind out into the open lake was out of the question. If they went alongshore, however, they would be well protected by high land.
That morning they found two hares caught in the snares. A lynx hadrobbed a third snare. Hares seemed plentiful in that vicinity, forseveral had come out into the open in plain sight the night before. Theleast move towards them startled them back into the thicket, and thecampers did not wish to waste any ammunition as long as they could usesnares. For the boy or man who is not compelled to find his food or hisliving in the wilderness, snaring and trapping are cruel and whollyunnecessary. They are certainly not sport, and there is no excuse forindulging in them. But Jean and Ronald, brought up in a more brutal age,were accustomed to consider the trapping of animals as a legitimate andnatural means of livelihood. To set traps was to them the easiest andbest way to obtain food and furs. They were not cruel by nature, butthey had probably never considered for one moment the painful sufferingsof a hare hanging by its neck in a noose. Indeed in their time, animalswere commonly supposed to be so far below man in every way as to havescarcely any feelings at all.
It was not until afternoon that the adventurers started to paddle alongshore to the northeast. For about two miles they ran between outlying,wooded islands and the main shore, then along an unprote
cted coast ofgently sloping dark rock, with many cracks and crevices, but almost noprojecting points of any considerable length. Above the water line, darkgreen moss and lichens grew in patches, farther up were juniper andcreeping plants, and beyond them bushes and forest. There were no sands,and no large bays, coves or harbors. The day was brilliantly bright andclear, but across the water to the east no sign of land was visible,even to the Indian's keen eyes.
For nearly two hours the explorers paddled along the rock shore, then,on rounding a slight projection, came suddenly to an inlet. The placelooked as if it might be the mouth of a river, and curiosity led them toturn in. Up the inlet they paddled for about a mile, to a spot where astream discharged. Beyond the mouth of the stream the cove made a turnto the left, extending at least another mile in that direction. Theplace was a beautiful one, with thickly wooded shores and points, butthe three did not delay longer to investigate it.
As they went on along the rock coast, the wind became more easterly, andclouds began to fleck the deep blue. Paddling was not so easy, althoughthey were still fairly well protected. Four or five miles beyond theinlet, the shore made a sudden turn, and they found themselves goingdirectly north, with the northwest wind striking them at an angle. Asthey proceeded, the water grew rougher and navigation more difficult.Just as the sun was setting, they were glad to put into another covethat cut into the land in a westerly direction.
As they were paddling slowly along, undecided whether to make a landingor turn back and attempt to go on along shore, Jean uttered a sudden lowbut surprised exclamation, and pointed to the summit of the high ridgethat stretched along the north side of the cove. There, in an openspace, beyond a twisted jack pine tree and plainly outlined against thesky, stood an animal with spreading antlers.
"Addick!" whispered the Indian, while Ronald exclaimed, "A caribou!"
There was now no further question of going on. The opportunity to obtaina store of meat was too good. The wind was blowing from the animal tothe hunters, and it had not caught their scent or heard them, but whilethey looked for a landing place, it saw them and moved away to cover. Itwent deliberately. Possibly it had never seen a man before, and did notknow enough to be badly frightened. The travelers were too far away fora shot anyway.
They landed near the head of the bay on a sandy beach, and organizedtheir hunt. Only one gun remained, for Jean's had been lost when he andRonald rescued Etienne from drowning. There was enough ammunition forfour or five shots. It would not do to miss even once, so Ronald wasentrusted with the gun. He was to climb the ridge and make his waytowards the place where they had seen the animal, while the others wentaround to head it off and drive it back towards Ronald, if that shouldbe necessary.
The ridge proved to be about a hundred feet high, steep and rocky on itssouth side and scatteringly clothed with aspen and jack pines. When hereached the top, near the place where the caribou had appeared, Ronaldhad some difficulty in finding the animal's tracks on the almost barerock. Presently, however, he came across a half eaten clump of reindeermoss, and the mark of a spreading hoof in a patch of earth in a hollow.Once on the caribou's trail, he tracked it along the ridge for a littleway, noticing, as he went, a hare runway and some lynx tracks. The trailled him down into a gully, and through the aspens and birches that grewthere, to the north side of the ridge and into a bog. There in the thicksphagnum moss, the spreading hoof prints were plain.
With the idea that the bog might be the caribou's refuge when disturbed,Ronald made his way very cautiously. It was well that he went soquietly, for suddenly, as he rounded a clump of tamaracks, he came inplain view of his game, head down, contentedly browsing a bog plant. Theanimal was only a few yards away and a perfect mark, but Ronald,experienced hunter though he was, felt his arm tremble as he raised hisgun. He had never hunted before when so much depended on his aim, orwhen his ammunition was so precious. Luckily the caribou had caughtneither sound nor scent of him, and he had time to steady himself beforefiring. He did not waste his powder. The animal sprang into the air,plunged forward a few steps and fell in its tracks.
Ronald set up a shout and sprang forward. His call was not needed, forthe report of his gun was enough to summon his companions. The Ojibwa,who had been skirting the north side of the ridge, was not far away andsoon made his appearance. Jean was going along the summit and had moredifficulty in locating the sound of the shot, but arrived at the edgeof the gully in time to catch sight of the others making their waythrough it with their game.
They had no intention of paddling farther that night. The next thing todo was make camp, cook themselves a good meal of meat and dry the restfor future use. With such a supply, they were equipped to start out intothe open lake as soon as they could decide which way to go. Muchencouraged, they selected a place on the flat topped ridge, and setabout their task.
The Island of Yellow Sands: An Adventure and Mystery Story for Boys Page 17
