side us, or we
caught a glimpse of the mottled beauty of a snake gliding across our
path. The great boom and crash of the falling trees startled us, until
we were used to it, and understood it.

Whenever we left the trail, we felt some doubt lest we might not find it
again, or might happen upon an impassable stream that would cut us off
from farther progress; not feeling quite equal to navigating with a pole
on a snag, after the fashion of the Indians.

Near sunset, when the woods began to grow darker around us, we saw a
bird, about as large as a robin, with a black crescent on his breast.
His song was very different from that of the robin, and consisted of
five or six notes, regularly descending in minor key. It thrilled me to
hear it in the solitary woods: it was like the wail of an Indian spirit.

It began to be quite a serious question to us, what we were to do for
the night; as how near or how far Port Gamble might be, we could not
tell. There was no possibility of our climbing the straight fir-trees,
with branches high overhead; and to stop on the ground was not to be
thought of, for fear of wild beasts. We hastened on, but the trail
became almost undistinguishable before the lights of Port Gamble
appeared below us. As we descended to the settlement, we were met with
almost as much excitement on the part of the mill people, who had never
crossed the trail, as if we had risen from the water, or floated down
from the sky, among them.

We take great satisfaction in the recollection of this one day of pure
Indian life.

The next day we decided to try a canoe. We should not have ventured to
go alone with the Indians, not understanding their talk; but another
passenger was to go with us, who represented that he had learned the
only word it would be necessary to use. He explained to us, after we
started, that the word was "_hyac_," which meant "hurry up;" the only
danger being that we should not reach Port Townsend before dark, as they
were apt to proceed in so leisurely a way when left to themselves. After
a while, the bronze paddlers--two _siwashes_ (men) and two _klootchmen_
(women)--began to show some abatement of zeal in their work, and our
fellow-passenger pronounced the talismanic word, with some emphasis;
whereat they laughed him to scorn, and made some sarcastic remarks,
half Chinook and half English, from which we gathered that they advised
him, if he wanted to reach Port Townsend before dark, to tell the