anded the fish.

John sat down on the shingle, tired after the long fight. He patted the
rod affectionately.

"Talk about fun!" said he; "this is the _only_ way to catch fish."

Indeed, this proved much to be the truth within the next few days, for
the salmon became so wary as to make it hard to reach them by anything
but a long line. Sometimes it would be an hour before they could
foul-hook a fish, but in this way they got a number of salmon--some of
them fastened around the head, one or two, strangely enough, directly in
the mouth, and several directly under the back fin. Again a fish might
be hooked close to the end of the tail, and in such cases it was almost
impossible to land it for a long time. But with skill and care the
fly-rod, devoted to this somewhat crude form of sport, held its own, and
much more than paid for itself in actual food, not to mention the added
sport.

XXIII

AMONG THE EAGLES

The routine of camp life, where one is obliged to do all the cooking and
other work, besides providing food, is ordinarily enough to keep the
camper pretty busy. The boys usually found enough to do with their
hunting, fishing, cooking, and other work, but sometimes in these long
Alaska days, where for almost twenty-four hours the sun shone and the
darkest night was scarcely more than an hour or so of twilight, they
found time to wander around their island in exploring expeditions.

At times they climbed one peak or another almost to the top, but from
the loftiest eminences they attained they could see nothing of the
interior of the island except more and more sharp and rugged peaks
thrusting themselves up--a mountain region which, indeed, is little
known by any white man, or even by the natives, who rarely go far
inland.

A customary journey for them was along one or the other of the river
valleys which came down to their bay, the mouths of which they could
reach in calm weather easily by a short journey in the dory. Their
favorite valley was that running back from what they called "Gull
Rocks." It was traversed by a good salmon river and was much frequented
by wild animals. As it chanced, they did not run across any more bear,
although continually here and elsewhere they saw signs where these great
animals had done their work in salmon-fishing--heaps of bones where
scores of fish had been partially stripped of their flesh.

On one particular day, as the young adventurers passed up this valley on
an a