d in Indian lore, songs
and customs, and able to instruct me in the proper Thlinget etiquette to
suit all occasions. The other two were sturdy young men--Stickeen John,
our interpreter, and Sitka Charley. They were to act as cooks,
camp-makers, oarsmen, hunters and general utility men.

We stowed our baggage, which was not burdensome, in one end of the
canoe, taking a simple store of provisions--flour, beans, bacon, sugar,
salt and a little dried fruit. We were to depend upon our guns,
fishhooks, spears and clamsticks for other diet. As a preliminary to our
palaver with the natives we followed the old Hudson Bay custom, then
firmly established in the North. We took materials for a
_potlatch_,--leaf-tobacco, rice and sugar. Our Indian crew laid in their
own stock of provisions, chiefly dried salmon and seal-grease, while our
table was to be separate, set out with the white man's viands.

We did not get off without trouble. Kadishan's mother, who looked but
little older than himself, strongly objected to my taking her son on so
perilous a voyage and so late in the fall, and when her scoldings and
entreaties did not avail she said: "If anything happens to my son, I
will take your baby as mine in payment."

[Illustration: VOYAGES OF MUIR AND YOUNG 1879 and 1880 IN SOUTHEASTERN
ALASKA]

One sunny October day we set our prow to the unknown northwest. Our
hearts beat high with anticipation. Every passage between the islands
was a corridor leading into a new and more enchanting room of Nature's
great gallery. The lapping waves whispered enticing secrets, while the
seabirds screaming overhead and the eagles shrilling from the sky
promised wonderful adventures.

The voyage naturally divides itself into the human interest and the
study of nature; yet the two constantly blended throughout the whole
voyage. I can only select a few instances from that trip of six weeks
whose every hour was new and strange.

Our captain, taciturn and self-reliant, commanded Muir's admiration from
the first. His paddle was sure in the stern, his knowledge of the wind
and tide unfailing. Whenever we landed the crew would begin to dispute
concerning the best place to make camp. But old Tow-a-att, with the mast
in his hand, would march straight as an arrow to the likeliest spot of
all, stick down his mast as a tent-pole and begin to set up the tent,
the others invariably acquiescing in his decision as the best possible
choice.

At our first meal