Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/398

384 snow-drift, and put in a couple of deer-skins. The sleds then started on, leaving the prospective mother behind alone. That evening the mother and child came into camp, the woman having given birth to the child and walked several miles. While traveling the next day the woman had hard work keeping up, and, upon passing her as she rested in the snow, I offered her a seat upon my sled, but the others would not allow her to ride. Also, in cooking, she was compelled to make her own fire and cook alone, for she could not drink from the same cup as the others; and there were numerous other absurdities. According to their superstitions, the non-observance of these customs would result in misfortune to the child.

After a week's hard sledging the head-waters of the Kunyanook or Colville River were reached. Here all hands encamped near the site of an old village, and preparations were made for spending several days. Part of the caravan were to remain at this place until the river broke up, and then make the remainder of the distance in boats. This point was the highest on the river that the natives could reach in boats. They ascend here in the fall and wait for the snow to come to enable them to sledge to the mountains. The boats are stripped, the skins which form their covering being buried until the next season, and the frames placed high up on racks to prevent wild animals from reaching them and eating the lashings. In the spring they sledge from the mountains to the boats, where they wait for the river to break up and thence descend to the coast. This practice is general with all the interior natives.

After resting three days at this village the journey was resumed, only six sleds going on. The Indians told of another river farther to the westward, and I concluded to accompany them to find this new river. After sledging upon the Colville six days, that river was left, and a range of hills about five hundred feet high crossed, bringing us to the Ik-pik-puk, the Indian name of the new river. These hills form the northern limit of the mountains of Alaska. On one side is the Colville, which here makes a sudden bend to the eastward; on the other the Ik-pik-puk finds its head-waters. Proceeding farther north, the country gradually becomes more and more level, until, for the last fifty miles from the arctic coast, it is perfectly flat, with no elevation, and is so full of lakes, marshes, and rivers that it is impossible to walk any distance in a given direction. In crossing this section we could gather no fuel of any kind, and our food had to be eaten uncooked; but this fact did not trouble the natives. The greater part of the time we had no food, and our diet consisted mainly of a succulent root growing in the marshes, which the natives gather in quantities, depending upon it when other resources fail.