tion to our
emergency kits, our cups, some tea, and enough caribou ribs for
luncheon. We portaged around a few short rapids, and then, about eight
miles above our camp, came upon a lake expansion of considerable size
with many inlets. On the northerly side of the lake was a high, barren
hill, which afforded us a splendid view of the surrounding country.

Winding away to the southeast was the river we had ascended. To the
west was a series of lake expansions connected by narrow straits, and
beyond them were the mountains, which we estimated rose about 2,500
feet above the country at their base. In sheltered places on their
sides, patches of ice and snow glistened in the sunshine. Barren
almost to their base, not a vestige of vegetation to be seen anywhere
on their tops or sides, they presented a scene of desolate grandeur,
standing out against the blue sky like a grim barrier placed there to
guard the land beyond. As I gazed upon them, some lines from Kipling's
"Explorer" that I had often heard Hubbard repeat were brought forcibly
to my mind:

"Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges--
Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!"

Let us call these ranges the Kipling Mountains.

To the north, hill after hill, with bald top rising above the stunted
trees on its sides, limited our range of vision. Far away to the south
stretched a rolling, wooded country. To the eastward the country was
flatter, with irregular ranges of low hills, all covered with a thick
growth of spruce and fir balsam. Beyond the point where the water
flowed from it southeasterly into the river we had ascended, the lake
at the foot of our hill seemed to extend directly eastward for four for
five miles; but the thick wood of the valleys and low-lying hills made
it difficult to see just where it ended, so that from where we stood it
was impossible to tell what course the river took--whether it came from
the east, bending about in the lake expansion below us, or flowed from
the west through the lake expansions beyond. Away off to the northeast
an apparently large lake could be discerned, with numerous mound-like
islands dotting its surface.

For a long time we stood and gazed about us. Far to the southeast a
tiny curl of smoke rose heavenward in the clear atmosphere. That was
Hubbard's campfire--the only sign of life to be seen in all that wide
wilderness. The scene was impressive beyond d