y profanely,--_a la Suede_), would complete circles ahead and about
the _North Star_, shouting back, "One foot," "Two," "Two and a half,"
"Three," according as they sounded the depths. But we did finally,
somehow, get into the Fish River; and, after needlessly butting the
banks several times and smashing the tender, our little steamboat the
following afternoon rested on the shore at White Mountain, and another
transfer of freight promptly ensued. How unpleasantly familiar one's
boxes and bags become by the time they have reached their final
destination! White Mountain showed plainly enough, in its wholly
demolished structures and twisted log cabins, the sweeping force of the
ice-jam and flood which had rushed down upon it, about the middle of
June, on the breaking up of the streams. Almost providentially, it
seemed, a saloon remained serenely intact in the very center of the
havoc.

So far so good, but the only way to travel in this country is, if
possible, to shove right through somehow, and recuperate when the
ultimate goal has been gained. Together with two others who were making
the trip to Council, I made terms with "Ed" Trundy, a freighter, to
carry my ton and a half of stuff the remaining twenty-five or thirty
miles for three cents a pound. His equipment for transportation
consisted of a long, shallow, forty-five-foot boat, two river poles, an
assistant, "Louis," five dogs, and a swearing vocabulary which was
universally recognized as being the most replete, ornate, and frequently
employed in that section of the country--which is saying a great deal
and paying a very high compliment to Mr. Trundy. But, then, that robust
gentleman had enjoyed and profited by many advantages of training and
environment not shared by his less fortunate competitors. Born in the
backwoods of Maine, he had been a lumberman, had shipped before the mast
as seaman, driven a hack in Boston and a street-car in New York, had
freighted on the Yukon, and it is possible that he may have driven a
mule-team in Texas. "Ed" steered the craft, and, when the going was
good, those dogs, under the special charge of Louis, pulled the entire
load of three tons up the swollen streams just about as fast as the
rest of us cared to walk. We rode when the dogs rode, that is, when it
was necessary to pole over a slough or cross the stream. The recent
freshets and still melting snow in the hills and mountains beyond made
shallow rivers of the streams,--in place