untain
more than he regretted his wetting.

[Sidenote: Birds and Beasts]

On the further bank of the McKinley Fork we entered our first wood, a
belt about three miles wide that lines the river. Our first forest trees
gave us almost as much pleasure as our first flowers. Animal life
abounded, all in the especially interesting condition of rearing
half-grown young. Squirrels from their nests scolded at our intrusion
most vehemently; an owl flew up with such a noisy snapping and
chattering that our attention was drawn to the point from which she
rose, and there, perched upon a couple of rotten stumps a few feet
apart, were two half-fledged owlets, passive, immovable, which allowed
themselves to be photographed and even handled without any indication of
life except in their wondering eyes and the circumrotary heads that
contained them. Moose signs and bear signs were everywhere; rabbits, now
in their summer livery, flitted from bush to bush. That belt of wood was
a zoological garden stocked with birds and mammals. And we rejoiced with
them over their promising families and harmed none.

From the wood we rose again to the moorland--to the snipe and ptarmigan
and curlews, some yet sitting upon belated eggs--to the heavy going of
the moss and the yet heavier going of niggerhead. Our journey skirted a
large lake picturesquely surrounded by hills, and we spoke of how
pleasantly a summer lodge might be placed upon its shores were it not
for the mosquitoes. The incessant leaping of fish, the occasional flight
of fowl alone disturbed the perfect reflection of cliff and hill in its
waters. At times we followed game trails along its margin; at times
swampy ground made us seek the hillside.

Thus, slowly covering the miles that we had gone so quickly over upon
the ice of the lake two months before, we reached Moose Creek and the
miners' cabins at Eureka late at night and received warm welcome and
most hospitable entertainment from Mr. Jack Hamilton. It was good to see
men other than our own party again, good to sleep in a bed once more,
good to regale ourselves with food long strange to our mouths. Here we
had our first intimation of any happenings in the outside world for the
past three months and sorrowed that Saint Sophia was still to remain a
Mohammedan temple, and that the kindly King of Greece had been murdered.
Here also Hamilton generously provided us with spare mosquito-netting
for veils, and we found a package of canvas