ng white. Stepping over in that direction, he called the
others. "Look here, fellows, here's a great big bear skull all by
itself!"

They stood about this object, which certainly was enough to puzzle them.
There it lay, entirely stripped of all flesh, and very white, although
the bone was not badly bleached by the elements as yet. There was not
the sign of any struggle anywhere about, nor was there the least
particle of any other bones. They searched for the remainder of the
skeleton of the animal, but found nothing of the sort anywhere about.
There lay the grinning skull, far up here in the mountains, with nothing
to tell whence it came or how it happened to be there.

"My, wasn't it a _whale_!" exclaimed Jesse. "See, it's almost as long as
my arm. I'll bet it's eighteen or twenty inches long, measured as it is.
But what could have killed it? Nothing could kill a bear except another
bear; but that wouldn't account for the head being here all alone.
Skookie, what do you think about this?"

"My peoples, maybe so," said Skookie.

"Your peoples? Why, I thought you said no one lived over on this side.
And we've seen no signs of hunting here anywhere."

Skookie went on to explain. "S'pose my peoples hunt. Kill big bear. Some
mans take hide, some mans take meat, some mans take head. Dis head not
good for eat, but very much heavy. Some mans get tired, lay it down
here; maybe so birds eat-um all up but bone."

"But how long ago did all this happen, Skookie?" asked John.

"I dinno."

"And where did the hunters come from?" asked Rob.

"I dinno. Maybe so Eagle Harbor, maybe so Old Harbor."

"Which way is Old Harbor, Skookie?" asked Rob, suddenly.

The lad pointed back across the mountains, beyond the bay, and beyond
their camp on the farther side. "Plenty far," he said.

"Then which way is Eagle Harbor--I suppose you mean a native village."

"Eagle Harbor dis way." And Skookie pointed across the head of the pass
toward which they were travelling up the valley.

"How far?" demanded Rob.

"I dinno," answered Skookie; "plenty miles, maybe so. My peoples live
Old Harbor."

Rob studied for a moment. "I'll bet that if we kept on," said he, "until
we came to the top of this divide, we'd find the head of a river running
down the other way. Like as not it would go to some bay where Eagle
Harbor village is. Well, that makes the island seem not quite so big.
Come on, let's go on up to the top of this pass, anyhow."

So t