I Do Not Believe
He Would Have Harmed The Children, But A Lynx Is Game.
I fired,
and he fell without a quiver or a sound.
This was the first time
I had used a gun in many years, and was the only time on the trip.
I felt rather guilty, but the carcass was a godsend to two old
Indians who were sickening on a long diet of salt pork, and that
Lynx furnished them tender meat for three days afterward; while
its skin and skull went to the American Museum.
On the night of May 20, we camped just above Grand Rapids - Preble
and I alone, for the first time, under canvas, and glad indeed
to get away from the noisy rabble of the boatmen, though now they
were but a quarter mile off. At first I had found them amusing
and picturesque, but their many unpleasant habits, their distinct
aversion to strangers, their greediness to get all they could out
of one, and do nothing in return, combined finally with their habit
of gambling all night to the loud beating of a tin pan, made me
thankful to quit their company for a time.
At Grand Rapids the scows were unloaded, the goods shipped over
a quarter-mile hand tramway, on an island, the scows taken down a
side channel, one by one, and reloaded. This meant a delay of three
or four days, during which we camped on the island and gathered
specimens.
Being the organizer, equipper, geographer, artist, head, and tail of
the expedition, I was, perforce, also its doctor.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 12 of 252
Words from 2990 to 3254
of 67135
