y."

"They call them _tabosas_," said John. "The Eskimos use boots like that,
but they call them _mukluks_. You see, I used to know a native from
up-coast who was a waiter in a restaurant at Valdez. That's how I
picked up my knowledge of the Aleut language--which, you see, is quite
considerable," he concluded, swelling out his chest a trifle.

"I see now why he wanted that seal," commented Rob. "Every country has
its own way of getting along, hasn't it? Now, I suppose Jimmy here is
about as comfortable when he is at home as we are in our houses down in
Valdez; and he certainly does know how to make his living off the
country."

They now continued their slow climb up the steep mountain-side, which
lay beyond the little creek. Here the deep moss or tundra extended quite
to the top of the smallest peak, but although heavy snow-fields lay at
the top, the spring sunshine had now melted the snow at the lower
levels, so that continually they were walking in little pools of
ice-water, none too pleasant to persons shod as they were.

Jesse, the youngest of the party, now and then stopped for a moment to
catch his breath; and, in fact, he seemed none too happy with some of
these hardships of their experience.

"Come on," said Rob; "we'll stop when we get to the thicket just up
above there. Jimmy acts as though he was looking for something up
there--I don't know what."

They toiled on upward, now and again turning to look at the great
expanse of country which lay below them--the wide bay shining in the
sunlight, the magnificent panorama of the mountains beyond, and the line
of the deep sea beyond the entrance to the bay. They turned as they
heard a sudden exclamation from Jimmy, who was prowling at the edge of
the alder thicket where they had stopped for the moment. As he pointed
down they saw the surface of the ground among the alders ripped up as
though by a giant plough.

Jimmy held up three fingers and pointed below toward their camp, the
smoke of whose fire they could dimly see. At first they could not
understand him, until he made motions as if digging, and swung his head
from side to side, grunting in such plain imitation of a bear that they
could not mistake. Then they saw that this had probably been the
feeding-ground of the three bears which they had killed. Apparently the
bears had been living high up in the mountains for a long time, waiting
for the salmon run to begin. The country was all torn up where they ha