te 5: The true Kadiak bear is found only on the Kadiak Islands
and not on the mainland.]

The next morning we made an early start, for to save this large skin I
had decided to push on with all haste to the little settlement of
Afognak, where I had arranged to meet my friend some days later. It was
a beautiful morning, and once more we had a favoring breeze. Some forty
miles across Shelikoff Straits was the Alaskan shore. The rugged,
snow-clad mountains seemed to be softened when seen through the hazy
blue atmosphere. One white-capped peak boldly pierced a line of clouds
and stood forth against the pale blue of the sky beyond; while the great
Douglas Glacier, ever present, wound its way down, down to the very
sea. It was all grandly beautiful, and seemed In keeping with the day.

We paddled steadily, stopping only once for tea, and at six o'clock that
evening were back at the little fishing hamlet of Malina Place. Here I
was asked to drink tea with a man whom my hunters told me had killed
many bears on these islands.

This man said that at times there were no bears on Shuyak, and that
again they were there in great numbers, showing that they freely swim
from Afognak across the straits, which, at the narrowest point, are some
three miles wide.

[Illustration: BAIDARKA.]

While I was having tea in one of the barabaras I heard much shooting
outside, which announced the return of a sea otter party that had been
hunting for two months at Cape Douglas. It was a beautiful sight, this
fleet of twenty odd baidarkas, the paddles all rising and falling in
perfect time, and changing sides without a break. There is nothing more
graceful than one of these canoes when handled by expert Aleuts. These
natives had already come forty miles that day, and were now going to
stop only long enough for tea, and then push on to the little settlement
of Afognak Place, some twenty-five miles away, where most of them
lived. In one of the canoes I saw a small chap of thirteen years. He was
the chief's son, and already an expert in hunting and in handling the
baidarka. So is the Aleut hunter trained.

As it had been a very warm day I feared that the skin might
spoil. Therefore I concluded to continue to Afognak Place without
camping for the night, and so we paddled on and on. As darkness came,
the mountains seemed to rise grander and more majestic from the water on
either side of us. At midnight we again stopped for tea, and while we
sat by the