| Show had never seen a horse wandering alaskan indian astonished at w beasts of burden in prospectors camp dog teams the only traffic carriers known to him it Is hard bard to believe that there aie are persons living in the western hemi sphere who never saw a horse said quartermaster john F rice at the normandie Nor mandle but such Is the case I 1 well recollect when with the aber crombie expedition in 1899 we found ourselves one september night several hundred miles froin from nowhere just as the aun sun was sinking oner the alaskan range the camp was startled by the report of a rifle we sprang to our feet prepared tor for any emergency when our native guide discovered across the narrow valley an indian who had just brought down a caribou by the use of signs and big sig nals he was induced to come into camp after we ae bad had tanked him hint up with strong tea and loaded him to the guard with pork and beans hie hi tongue limbered up an i through one of the guides he informed us that he we was a matanoski Matan uski by the way the fiercest st tribe in alaska and that he was hunt lug ing caribou at the time we dincov cred ered him he was as miles from the encampment of his tribe which shows s that the fellow had hie his nerve with him he had never been a horse ana our pack animals excited his curiosity and wonder he ile declared that no member of his tribe had ever seen a horse all transportation in hia his coun try being conducted by dog do tram tiami ra hitched to sleds in ali ter and by J pack dogs in summer what amused him most was as to bee the animals eat grass and every ti time me they would grat graly a mouthful W t forage he be would almost go into convulsions he thought tho agh it so i funn funny in an sense u the resemble reb emble the apache in diane of 0 our plains rhey subsist on oa the flesh sh of 0 the caribou and brown bear the counterpart of the irocky mountain giloly and quite aa as ferocious j and are greatly feare eare I 1 by the ther other tribes in alaska because ol 01 their fierce disposition and warlike nature our guides who were shore indians indiana seemed to be adral I 1 of the newcomer new romer and he treated them with haughty con tempt whenever he would shoot a fierce fience glane at them hey they would quail like m hippe I 1 curs and slink away from his sight eight we to wd ind the shore 1 indians q alte a jolly lot of 0 fellows compared with the they were quite sociable and inclined to be obliging ch to white people when campel on the yukon quite recently I 1 hearl heart a small band ol 01 them singing the familiar song there 11 be a hot time in the old town tonight to night and that other tender teader ditty googoo goo goo fye washing masking ton star |
