Before they had reached the lake, a number of Indians were seen paddling close along the shore in their canoes, which were of a type entirely new to Mr. Sturgis as well as to Jack and Hugh. These structures were sharply pointed at both ends, and as much as anything resembling cylinders of bark.
"These canoes are different from anything I ever saw before," said Hugh. "I know the birch canoes of the North, and I have just come back from a voyage in the wooden canoes of British Columbia, but I never saw anything like this. What are they made of, and how are they made?"
"They are made of pine bark," said Mr. Galbraith, "and they are queer canoes. I never saw them anywhere except in the country west of the Rocky Mountains and about two or three hundred miles north and south. The Indians take the bark from the white pine in very large sheets and make rolls of it, which they stow away dry until they need it. Then they soak the bark in water until it becomes soft and pliable and easy to handle. Then they make a frame of small cedar poles lashed together with strips of cedar bark, and this frame is then covered with sheets of this pine bark, which are sewed together with tamarack roots, and patched with resin from the fir tree. The outside of the bark is on the inside of the canoe, and the Indians paddle on both sides. These canoes are mighty cranky, and upset very easily. Of course sails are never used in them, but the Indians keep close to the shore, and do not dare to cross over from point to point."
The next morning there was a good breeze. They started to cross the Lake and soon after noon reached the Northern Pacific's camp at the mouth of Clark's Fork. The company's surveyors were laying out the line up this river; and their supplies and mail were ferried across the lake and carried east along the line of the road which led up toward the Coeur d'Alene Mountains. Here Mr. Galbraith, with great energy got together an outfit of pack and saddle animals, and the next morning a little train of seven animals filed out of the camp and took the trail for Missoula.
The journey up Clark's Fork was a delightful one and took about seven days. The party travelled fast, stopping neither to hunt nor fish. Deer and bear signs were plenty, and in a few cases white-tailed deer were seen, but none were killed. The daylight hours were spent in riding through the beautiful river valley and among the great cinnamon-colored trunks of giant pines that formed the chief timber of the country, and at night the party was always ready for supper and bed.
Hugh and Mr. Sturgis were enthusiastic about the prospects of this region, where there was much fine land and unlimited grazing.
At the Jocko, the wagon road began; and here the pack train was dismissed and the travellers' guns and blankets were transferred to a wagon driven by one of the large tribe of McDonalds, descendants of some old Hudson's Bay trader who had married a Flathead woman. They were then taken to Missoula, and from there to Deer Lodge, Le logis de chevreuils, as their driver called it.
From Deer Lodge it was a matter of a little staging to Melrose, which was then the terminus of the Utah and Northern railroad. Here Mr. Sturgis, Jack, and Hugh found themselves back again in bustling, hurrying America, and oppressed by the feeling that they must at once get back to their work. They were soon once more on the cars, flying at high speed toward their destinations.
Three days later on the Union Pacific railroad Mr. Sturgis and Hugh shook hands with Jack and left him alone, and three days later he was once more in New York.