CHAPTER X
THE SOURCE OF AN UNKNOWN RIVER
Early next morning the tent was down, the beds rolled and the horsesbrought in, saddled, and tied to the trees. As soon as breakfast wasover the packing began and fortunately was soon completed, for beforethe party started the mosquitoes and flies had begun to be verytroublesome. As soon as the last lash rope was tied and the hackamoreshanks were looped around the animals' necks, Hugh mounted and rodethrough the narrow strip of cottonwood timber, plunged down into the bedof the creek, and then up on the other side and in a few moments reachedthe foot of a high point of rocks jutting out from Goat Mountain intothe lake and began to climb the steep trail that zigzags up its side.
The way was rough and rocky and sometimes so very steep that Jack,hanging to the mane of his horse, threw one foot out of the stirrup inorder to be ready to jump in case the horse should fall over backward.The climb was not long, however, and after one or two pauses to breathethe horses, the party emerged on the level top of the point, where therocks were overgrown with green moss and dotted here and there withyoung pine trees. Jack had no idea as to where they should go, butHugh's more practiced eye made out a dim game trail, which he followedfor some distance through the timber, and which at last came out on theslide rock, fallen from the side of the mountain far above. Here therewas a plain trail made in times past by the mountain bison and the elkwhich passed up and down from the plains to the recesses of the highmountains. Sometimes the slide rock was bare of vegetation; again therewould be half a mile where the soil had slid down from the mountainsideand supported a growth of willows or alders. Sometimes the climb wasvery steep, again it was level, and at last the trail passed around thehead of a deep ravine, and after a climb of a few feet, led out on tograssy ledges.
They were riding quietly along here, when Hugh turned and waved his handtoward the rocks that towered far above them, and Jack, following themotion, saw three white goats feeding two or three hundred yards abovethem. Involuntarily he checked his horses, intending to take a shot atthem, but seeing that Hugh had not paused, Jack thought better of it androde on. After all, there was no special reason for killing them, as themeat was not needed.
As they went on along the side of the steep mountain toward the head ofthe lake, they saw goats several times, usually merely white dots on thehigh rocks. These alpine animals seem to suffer greatly from the heat,and even in very cold weather often seek a shaded spot to get out of thesun.
Near the head of the lake the travelers crossed a large stream, whichcame from a basin running far back into the mountains, where they couldsee great fields of snow and ice. Then there was a long ride through thegreen timber, during which they passed the head of the lake.
They were evidently following the river valley, for, off on the left,they could hear the roar of cascades and falls, and once, through theopen stems of some tall aspens, Jack thought he saw spray rising from acataract. Hugh kept steadily onward, though so far as Jack and Joe couldsee all sign of a trail had now vanished.
At length they came to the edge of a swollen river, on the brink ofwhich Hugh paused, and after looking at it for awhile, shook his head,turned his horse and followed up its bank. Now the going was harder, andthrough tangled brush, interrupted now and then by deep muddy holes,where springs or small brooklets came down from the hillsides abovethem. The mosquitoes and flies were very bad, and each member of theparty wore gloves and had a handkerchief tied about his neck and turnedup under his hat to protect the back of the neck and head. Hugh smokedconstantly, but even so, was obliged to use his hands continually todrive away the insects.
They had just wallowed through a particularly deep mud hole in which oneof the pack horses had nearly mired down, when Hugh stopped, dismountedand went back to tighten a cinch, while Jack got off to help him. Theywere pulling on the ropes, and Joe was trying to hold the other horsesto keep them from breaking away, when, suddenly, on the hillside above,they heard a crashing of sticks and, looking up, saw a huge black moosetrotting along, crossing fallen logs and rocks in his stride, until hefinally disappeared in the timber. The moose had been so close that theycould plainly see his large horns, still soft, more or less shapelessand velvet covered, but of course they had no opportunity of shooting athim.
"A good big fellow, wasn't he, son?" said Hugh, and Jack assented.
"That's the first moose I've seen, Hugh, since we came down from theYellowstone Park. Do you remember we killed one there?"
"Yes," said Hugh, "I remember, and I remember, too, that we got a bearor two close to him."
"So we did," assented Jack.
"There," said Hugh, as he knotted the lash rope, "let's go on. The fliesmake these horses crazy."
All day long they continued on the rough road, through underbrush, overrocks and around enormous boulders that had fallen from the precipiceabove. About three o'clock they reached a large stream coming from theright, which evidently joined the river that they had been following alittle further down. Here it took some time to find a place where theriver was fordable. The current was swift and the water looked deep.
No one wished to have the packs thrown down in the stream, for thiswould wet everything and might even result in the loss of a horse. Byfollowing up the stream a few hundred yards, however, they found ariffle, across which stretched a gravel bar, and here they made acrossing in water no deeper than to the horses' knees. Not far abovethis stream was a wide alder swamp, which gave them much trouble. Alittle farther on they came to a small stream flowing down the valley,along which ran an old game trail, and following this, they emerged justbefore sunset on a little round meadow, at the head of which was a lakea mile long and a quarter of a mile broad. About this, on every sideexcept the lower, rose vertical walls of rock, now black in the shadowof the high mountains to the west.
"I tell you, Joe," said Jack, "this is a curious place, isn't it? Coldand gloomy enough."
"Yes," said Joe, "I don't like this much. You can't see far. I don'twonder that my people would rather stay out on the prairie."
"What shall we do with the horses, Hugh?" asked Jack. "Tie 'em up, orlet them loose?"
"Well," said Hugh, "you may as well let 'em feed and drag their ropesuntil it gets dark. They are pretty tired, and the feed is fairly goodhere. They won't go far, and before it gets dark we'll tie them up."
Away to the left they could see a deep valley running up to enormouslyhigh mountains. Snow lay everywhere on their crests, and even in thevalley, down to within a few hundred feet of the level of the littlelake beside which they camped.
At supper Jack asked Hugh's opinion where they were and whither theywere going.
"Well," said Hugh, "it's a pretty sure thing that we can't go anyfarther up this stream. There's a wall a thousand feet high in front ofus and on both sides, but I guess we can get up here to the left byclimbing that point of rocks. When we do that we'll get into the snowbanks right off, and I don't know that there's much profit for us inthat. However, we can try it. I believe that if we get up there, on orclose to the snow, we'll have the everlasting bulge on the flies, for Idon't think they'll follow us there."
There was plenty of wood here, and that night they sat about a good campfire. The horses had been picketed where they could feed and yet wouldnot interfere with each other. Night had settled down cold and frostyand the mosquitoes had ceased to trouble them.
"To-morrow or next day," said Hugh, "I'd like to see where that bigriver comes from that we followed up all to-day. I expect it comes downout of that valley and from the big snow, and I reckon we lost it bykeeping away to the right. It's a good thing that we didn't have tocross it, for if we had I think we'd have all been swimming. There's aterrible lot of water coming down from these mountains, and this valleydrains a big lot of them."
"And of course, it all goes into the lakes, doesn't it, Hugh?" askedJack.
"Sure," said Hugh, "that's the only place it can go."
"Well," said Jack, "I'd rather travel through
a lot of brush than try toget across a big swift river like that."
"Yes," said Hugh, "you're right about that. It's mean to be caught in astream, especially when you're not fixed for it. I remember, years ago,trying to take some cattle across the Running Water and being carrieddown. My horse got scared and commenced to flounder and I rolled off tohelp. It was in winter, and I had an old-fashioned army overcoat on andgot kind of rolled up in it, and I reckon I would have drowned if thecape of the coat hadn't caught on a limb of a dead tree that wassticking out over the water and held me there until some of the boyscame along and pulled me out."
"That must have been a close call, White Bull," said Joe.
"Yes," answered Hugh, "it was close enough. I don't want one anycloser."
"Now, White Bull," Joe went on, "can we climb this point of the mountainover here? If we do we'll go up pretty near to the head of that bigriver you speak of and cross it where it is only a little small stream."
"I don't know yet whether we can get up here or not. We'll tell in themorning," Hugh replied, "but if we can, I think we'll find goodtraveling right up over the snow banks and we may find a place up therewhere we can camp. I don't feel any way sure that we'll find a placewhere we can get feed for the horses. We'll know more about that when weget up there. If we can't find feed, why, then we'll have to come backand camp here or else find another trail down into the valley of themain river, and take the horses down there over night."
When Jack went down to the shore of the lake the next morning, he wasinterested to see a pair of little harlequin ducks swimming close to thebeach. He recognized them from colored pictures that he had seen of thespecies, and felt sure that the birds must be breeding somewhere about.Looking at them a second time, however, he saw that both birds weremales. They made him think of the time of the year, and he realized thatnow, of course, the females would be sitting on their eggs, while themales would be enjoying a bachelor existence and getting ready to shedtheir winter plumage and to put on their brief summer dress.
As Jack squatted on a rock, rubbing his hands, face and head with theicy water, his eyes were busy searching the mountainside for signs ofliving creatures. With the naked eye he could see no game high up on themountain, but just as he was about to turn from the shore, he happenedto look up the lake and there, lying in a sort of cave in the rocks,only a short distance away, was a white goat. The same impulse to shootthat he had felt yesterday assailed him, but he did not yield to it.Instead, he felt rather ashamed of his desire to kill.
At breakfast he told Hugh about the goat, and his friend rather laughedat him and said, "Wait until you have been out a few weeks and then youwon't be so anxious to kill things, unless you need to. I have seen thatevery time you go back East you catch a little of the pilgrim fever, andyou have to be out here for a week or two before you can shake off thedisease."
"Maybe you're right, Hugh," said Jack. "It does seem pretty silly towant to kill every wild thing I see."
"Well, yes," rejoined Hugh, "there's no reason for killing anythingwithout you've got some use for it. If you need a shirt or a pair ofbuckskin pants, kill what hides you need and have your clothing made, orif you need food, kill what you want to eat, but don't shoot at thingsjust to see whether you can hit them or not. That's just a pilgrimtrick, and you've been out here too long to be guilty of things likethat."
"Now, I tell you what, boys," said Hugh, after breakfast was over,stooping over the fire to pick up a brand with which to light his pipe,"we don't know what there is up above us here. We don't even know thatwe can climb this hill. Now, what do you say to leaving the pack horseshere and taking the saddle horses and going off to prospect? It isn'tvery far, and if we can find a good camping place we can come back hereand get the horses and take them up there."
"Why," said Jack, "that seems to me the best thing to do. We don't wantto pack up and take a train up there and then find that we've got todrive back and unpack and camp here again."
"No," said Hugh, "we don't, and I believe we might as well go up firstand find out where we're going. There's one thing, though, that we'dbetter do," he went on, "I've an idea that there's some bears up here,and likely bears that haven't been hunted much. I believe that it wouldbe a good idea for us to hoist up the main part of our grub into one ofthese trees and tie it there, so that if a bear should come into camp hewon't tear it all to pieces. Suppose you boys get a couple of slingropes and we'll take our flour and bacon and coffee and sugar and put itin a safe place."
The boys brought the sling ropes and before long two stout young pinetrees were each decorated with a couple of large bundles. Then theysaddled and Jack said to Joe, "If any bears should come prowling aroundhere, Joe, won't they stampede the horses, and make trouble for us?"
"I guess they might," said Joe. "We ought to tie 'em up tight."
Joe took the ax, and going a few steps down the creek, cut some stoutalder stems from which he manufactured half a dozen strong picket pins,then going out to where the horses were, they drove a second pin closeto each picket pin that stood in the ground, so that the heads of thetwo pins crossed and supported each other.
"Now," said Joe, "take a half hitch around these two pins with thelariat and I'll bet the pack horses can't get away."
Hugh, who saw what they were doing, nodded approval, and presently theyall climbed into the saddles, and Hugh leading the way, they crossed thelittle brook which flowed out from the lake and headed toward the pointof the mountain which they hoped to climb. Before they had reached itHugh found a game trail and followed it, for he knew, as all mountainmen do, that game always selects the easiest road across naturalobstacles. The climb was neither steep nor long, though it was a littleslippery, for the upper end of the trail was wet with snow that had justmelted. When they emerged on top of the shoulder, they could seeextending up the valley before them a long level snow bank, while to theright the steep slope was everywhere strewn with huge boulders and rockfragments that had rolled down from the mountainside; some in past agesand some very recently.
Hugh paused until the two boys came up and then said, "We may as wellkeep up here along the main valley and see how far we can go and what wecan find. We could not take the horses along the mountainside to thewest. If we go that way we'll have to go on foot. I'd like to see whatthere is on the other side of that high wall. I believe it's PacificCoast water."
"Yes, Hugh," said Jack, "let's go on up the valley and maybe we cancross over to those pine trees on the other side. It looks as if theremight be a good camping place there, though I don't see any feed for thehorses."
"Come on then," said Hugh.
For a mile or more they rode slowly on over the hard snow field, intowhich the horses hoofs did not sink at all. On the right rose first asteep slope covered with huge angular rock fragments, and then abovethat successive walls of vertical cliff, in each recess and crevice ofwhich there was a drift of snow. To the left, the snow field slopedgradually to an almost flat surface of rock, over which flowed a hundredlittle trickles of water. There was, here and there, a little soil,green with springing grass or weed blades and in many places spangledwith beautiful alpine flowers of variegated colors.
At one place Jack dismounted and gathered a handful of these plants,which he looked at as they rode along. Many of them were much like thedog-tooth violet found in the woods in the East in the early spring,others looked something like dandelions, but had tall, straight stems;still others were like the columbine of early summer, but instead ofbeing red were blue and white. All were beautiful and fresh, and allwere growing within a short distance of the edge of the snow banks andwere watered by the cold trickle from the melting snow.
As they went on the travelers could see at the end of the valley, nowclose to them, a great wall of rock over which plunged cataracts ofwhite water, while from the mountains on the right came sharp graylines, which as they drew near them, Jack recognized as moraines--thesoil and gravel pushed to one side by the progress of a glacier. He felt
sure that this valley along which they were traveling, and perhaps alsothe narrow valley in which lay the river and the great lakes, had agesago been carved out of the solid mountains by some vast glacier, such ashe had seen two years before on the British Columbia coast and the workof which Mr. Fannin had more than once clearly explained to him.
They were riding quietly along, looking at the mountains, the snowfields and the flower beds when, almost from beneath the feet of Hugh'shorse, a bird spotted white and brown rose from the ground and, with aloud cackle, scaled off ahead of them and alighting on a rock, stoodwith head and tail up, still uttering a sharp cry. Jack recognized it atonce as a ptarmigan and reached for his rifle to see whether he couldkill it, but Hugh, who had looked around, called back to him, "Iwouldn't shoot at it, son. You see these birds have their nests now, andif you kill the old birds that means that the young ones will not behatched. Besides that, the old ones are not fit to eat now."
"That's so, Hugh, I have got to teach myself not to want to killeverything that I see. I'm a regular pilgrim about that, and you'll haveto watch me, and I'll watch myself, too."
A little farther along they left the snow bank and pushed on over barerounded stones, some of them of great size. On the mountain above himJack saw two great moraines, gradually approaching one another, onecoming down from the right and one from the left, but with a wide spacebetween their lower ends. He was looking at this, when, without warning,he heard all about him the rustle of wings and sweet chirping whistles,and suddenly a large flock of gray-crowned finches alighted on theground and on the stones about him. They walked busily hither andthither picking up something, though he could not see what, and itseemed impossible that there could be seeds or any other vegetable foodon the bare rocks. The birds were absolutely tame and paid no attentionto the animals, except when they walked close to them; then a few wingbeats would take the threatened bird out of the horse's way, and itwould alight and again begin to feed. The ashy crown of the head, thebrown body and the rosy tinge of the upper and lower parts were plainlyto be seen, and Jack thought again that he had never known suchbeautiful little birds, or any that seemed so tame or confiding.
By this time the precipice at the head of the valley was close to themand they were obliged to turn to the left and cross the stream, which,though wide and turbulent, was not deep. On the east side the land rosesharply in one or two terraces, and then the travelers found themselveson another snow bank, just beyond which rose some stunted pine timber.
At the edge of this they halted to take a look back over the valley, andwhen they did so, Hugh said, "Well, I reckon we are smart hunters; lookover there."
The boys looked, and not half a mile below where they had passed along,but hidden from them during their passage by several rocky elevations,were seen three bears, one large and two very small ones. They wereworking along the hillside, apparently looking for insects, for thelargest was busily employed in turning over stones, and the little oneswere imitating her in so far as their strength permitted, and, at thesame time, keeping pretty close to her, and every few minutes rushing toher head and putting their noses down to the ground as if eating.
Hugh took out his glasses and looked at the bears for a long time. "It'san old one and a couple of cubs," he remarked at last, "and I don'tbelieve they've been out very long. They're working hard over there andof course, if we had known they were there, it would be easy enough toget them all as we came along. I don't really know that we need them,except that I suppose we'd all be glad to take in some good bear hides,and hides seem to be prime now. Then, too, those little fellows would begood eating, I reckon, though they are pretty small. Not much bigger, Ishould think, than young shotes."
"Well, but, Hugh," said Jack, "oughtn't we to have seen them as we camealong?"
"No," said Hugh, "I don't see how we could have done so. Of course, ifwe'd been hunting, we'd have taken a good many looks over into thatvalley, but as we weren't hunting, we just rode along and, of course,those shelves of rock that you see there hid the bears from us just asthey hid us from the bears. Of course, it's possible that they may bethere when we go back to-night, and if they are, why you and Joe canmaybe get a shot at them."
"Well," said Jack, "it's too late now for us to do anything. Let's seewhat there is beyond this timber."
In the timber which grew on a little crest running parallel with theaxis of the valley, there was no snow and a good camping place, but onthe other side of the little stream, though the ground was bare and someflowers were springing, there was no grass, nor indeed, wherever theywent during the day, could they find anything that looked like feedenough to support their horses, if they should bring them over.
"This would be a mighty handy place to camp, Jack," said Joe, "but Idon't see anything here for the horses to eat."
"No," said Hugh, "there's no feed over here at all, except those weedsthat we passed this morning on the other side of the valley. Maybethere's feed enough there to keep the horses for a day or two, but nomore. We'd be a lot better off if we were camped over here; that is,provided we wanted to hunt here or climb the mountains, but we've got tohave grass for our horses to eat, and I reckon we'll have to leave themwhere they are and ride three or four miles every morning, before webegin to prospect around these mountains and the valleys between them."
"Well," said Jack, "there doesn't seem to be any feed here, and I don'tsee any other way than to do as you say."
"Let's ride up this valley here to the eastward," said Hugh. "There maybe some sheltered warm spot up there where the snow will be gone, thoughit's no ways likely the grass has started yet."
They crossed the stream and pushed up through the snow which lay amongthe pine timber. It was not deep nor crusted and the going was easy, andafter the first steep ascent they found themselves in an open smoothvalley, which sloped very gradually upward between two tall peaks. Herethe snow was disappearing and, as they ascended, they presently foundthe ground bare, but as Hugh had said, the grass had not yet started.There were a few tufts of brown dried-up herbage, but nothing that couldbe called feed, even for so small a pack train as theirs. In the softearth at the margin of a little lake that lay near the head of thisvalley, Hugh pointed out the tracks of several sheep, among them two oldrams of great size, and a well-worn sheep trail led back from this lakeup over the rocks to high pinnacles behind.
"I reckon there are lots of sheep here, son," said Hugh, "but it isn'ttime to kill them now and we'll have to be satisfied with a young ramnow and then. I hope they won't be very strong of garlic."
"I hope not," said Jack.
A little later they turned about to return to camp, following the sametrail by which they had come up. As they were going down through thetimber, Hugh drew up his horse and pointed out to Jack a porcupinewaddling slowly over the snow. "There is some game for you, son, if youwant it," he said, "but I wouldn't waste a cartridge on it. If you wantto kill it, knock it on the head with a club. Porcupine is pretty goodmeat--for those that like it. The Northern Indians, those that live inthe timber at least, eat them whenever they can get hold of them."
Jack dismounted, and getting a long stick, ran after the porcupine andpoked it and the beast stopped, put its nose on the ground between itsforepaws, erected its quills in all directions, and stood therethrashing with its great tail as if quite prepared for war. Jack gave ita poke or two and then examined some of the quills, which had beenthrust into the end of the stick, and then returning to his horse,remounted and rode up beside the others.
"What," said Hugh, "aren't you going to take it along with you?"
"No," said Jack, "I guess not. We've plenty of food in camp and thistime I'll keep myself from killing, instead of having you warn me."
By the time they had started back, the sun had fallen behind the greatpeak that overhung their road, the air was cold, and the melting of thesnow field had stopped. Here in these high mountains winter lingerslong, and though in the middle of the day it may be warm, it is cold atnigh
t.
When they reached the point in the trail opposite where they had seenthe bears earlier in the day, Jack and Joe dismounted and went to lookdown in the valley to see if they could discover them, but as they sawnothing, they went on.
When they came in sight of camp, however, it became evident that therewas some excitement there. The horses were frightened and were runningto and fro, apparently trying to pull up their picket pins; but whatfirst attracted the attention of the men was the appearance of theirtent, which seemed to have been taken down and transformed into a whitebundle, moving a little now and then, but for the most part quite still.
Hugh looked for a moment and then said, "Come on, there is trouble downthere, and I'm afraid some of those horses will get hurt if we don'thurry." He put spurs to his horse and galloped down the steep descent asif it had been a bit of level prairie. Jack and Joe, though bothsuspecting what had taken place, said nothing, but followed, and whenthey had crossed the little river and rode over the level meadow towardcamp, Hugh was sitting on his horse by the tent, with as broad a smileon his face as Jack had ever seen. The tent, converted into a smallbundle of less size than a barrel, though somewhat longer, wasshivering and shaking, and from it came groans, growls and moans, whichsounded mysterious but funny.
"That's a comical thing," said Hugh. "That's one of the funniest thingsI ever saw. Do you know what's inside that tent, son?" he added.
"No," said Jack, "I don't know, but I guess likely it's a bear."
"Right you are," said Hugh, "and I reckon we'll have to bloody up thetent a little to get him out. Take a shot at it and try to kill thebeast."
"All right," said Jack, as he loaded his rifle, while Joe called out,"White Bull, do you see the cubs in the trees?"
Hugh and Jack both turned, and there, perched high up in the stuntedpine trees, were two little cubs, each about as large as a small setterdog, though of course not standing nearly so high.
"Well, I swan," said Hugh, "if that old bear and her family didn't comedown here to make us grief. Jack, you kill the old one in the tent, andJoe and I will settle these cubs. We'll have some meat to eat now."
Jack fired a shot through the tent and a squawl of rage and pain wasfollowed by a series of struggles, but at last the tent lay still, andbelow the point where Jack's ball had entered, a little red stain beganto appear on the canvas. Hugh and Joe shot the cubs in the trees. Thetent was unrolled and the old bear extracted from it. It was evidentthat she had entered it to investigate its contents and in overhaulingthings had knocked down the poles. Her struggles had wrapped her sotightly in the canvas that she could not use her legs or paws to tearher way out, and she had lain there firmly bound in the stout duck,until vengeance, in the shape of Jack, descended on her from thehillside above.
The evening and a part of the next morning were spent in skinning thebears, and stretching their hides; and many were the jokes that thehunters made over this curious capture.
Jack the Young Explorer: A Boy's Experiances in the Unknown Northwest Page 13
