You can rest assured I cut off a ration that would have frightened a tramp. Good digestion waited on appetite, and health on both. I ate with the hunger born of the day's fatigue and the mountain atmosphere, and the Indians followed suit, or rather led, and in half an hour only the head and spine of that fifteen-pound salmon remained, and they were not yet in an edible condition. Near bedtime, however, they were both spitted before the fire, and in the silent watches of the night, as I awoke and looked out of my downy bed, I saw those two simple-minded children of the forest, sitting there picking the last remaining morsels of flesh from those two pieces of what, in any civilized camp or household, would have been considered offal. But when a Siwash quits eating fish it is generally because there is no more fish to eat. After such a supper, charmed by such weird, novel surroundings, lulled by the music of the rushing waters, and warmed by a glowing camp-fire, I slept that night with naught else to wish for, at peace with all mankind. Even "mine enemy's dog, though he had bit me, should have stood that night against my fire."
CHAPTER XVI.
EFORE going to bed, Seymour cautioned me through his interpreter, the faithful John, against getting out too early in the morning. He said the goats did not commence to move around until nine or ten o'clock, and if we started out to hunt before that time we were liable to pass them asleep in their beds.
But I read the hypocrite's meaning between his words; he is a lazy loafer and loves to lie and snooze in the morning. It was his own comfort, more than our success in hunting, that he was concerned about. Goats, as well as all other species of large game, are on foot at daylight, whether they have been out all night or not, and from that time until an hour after sunrise, and again just before dark in the evening, are the most favorable times to hunt. The game is intent on feeding at these times and is not so wary as at other times. I told Seymour we would get up at four o'clock, get breakfast, and be ready to move at daylight. And so we did.
The night had been clear and cold; ice had formed around the margin of the lake, and a hoar frost a quarter of an inch deep covered the ground, the logs, and rocks that were not sheltered by trees. Ski-ik-kul or Willey's Lake, as it is termed by the whites, is a beautiful little mountain tarn about a quarter of a mile wide and four miles long. It is of glassy transparency, of great depth, and abounds in mountain trout, salmon, and salmon trout. It is walled in by abrupt, rocky-faced mountains that rise many hundreds of feet from the water's edge, and on which a scanty growth of laurel, currant bushes, and moss furnish food for the goats. Stunted cedars, balsams, spruces, and pines also grow from small fissures in the rocks that afford sufficient earth to cover their roots.
The craft on which we were to navigate this lake was an interesting specimen of Indian nautical architecture. It was a raft Seymour had made on a former visit. The stringers were two large, dry, cedar logs, one about sixteen feet long, the other about twenty; these were held together by four poles, or cross-ties, pinned to the logs, and a floor composed of cedar clapboards was laid over all. Pins of hard, dry birch, driven into the logs and tied together at the tops, formed rowlocks, and the craft was provided with four large paddles, or oars, hewed out with an ax. In fact, that was the only tool used in building the raft. The pins had been sharpened to a flat point and driven firmly into sockets made by striking the ax deeply into the log, and instead of ropes, cedar withes were used for lashing. These had been roasted in the fire until tough and flexible, and when thus treated they formed a good substitute for the white sailor's marline or the cow-boy's picket rope.
We boarded this lubberly old hulk and pulled out up the north shore of the lake just as the morning sun gave the first golden tints to the mountain tops. Our progress was slow despite our united strength applied to the oars, but it gave us more time to scan the mountain sides for game. I did not find it so plentiful as I had been promised, for I had been told by the Indians that we should see a dozen goats in the first hour, but we had been out more than that length of time before we saw any. Finally, however, after we had gone a mile or more up the lake shore, I saw a large buck goat browsing among the crags about four hundred feet above us. He had not seen us, and dropping the oar I caught up my rifle. The men backed water, and as the raft came to a standstill, I sent a bullet into him. He sprang forward, lost his footing, came bounding and crashing to the foot of the mountain, and stopped, stone dead, in the brush at the water's edge not more than twenty feet from the raft. We pushed ashore and took him on board, when I found, to my disappointment, that both horns had been broken off in the fall, so that his head was worthless for mounting.