ort creek
portages, one long lake-to-lake portage, and one long
lake-to-river portage--the five-hundred-yards drag into the
Little Bell. I think this is accurate. John has it all down
on his map this way. Many ptarmigan. Plenty of rabbits. The
Bell River full of grayling. Never saw the like.

"Our Indian boys left us to-day. They are going back home by
themselves. They have a rifle and we have given them a few
beans and a little flour and a small piece of bacon--all we
can spare. Uncle Dick paid them well. They have helped out
very much. Without them I don't know whether we boys could
have got the boat up the Rat or not. It was mighty rough,
mean work, I can say that. John and Jesse helped all they
could, and so did we all. Well, here we are at the summit.

"The Midnight Sun is gone now--there was a sunset to-night.
We got to bed about 12 o'clock midnight. Sorry to have the
Indian boys go back, as they were cheerful, fine chaps. They
say we are all right now, and that this river runs to the
Porcupine. I would rather trust an Indian than a Klondiker
in getting across country.

"We are getting so we don't like rabbits very much. The
ptarmigan and grayling still taste good. Our new river is
full of grayling, and we have explored it a little bit. It
is fine up here in the mountains. John and Jesse and I feel
that this is the greatest trip we ever had, or that anybody
could have in this country. We feel more alone here than in
any place we have ever been in all our lives.

"We now think we can get through."

Rob's journal and John's map later proved most prized possessions of
our young explorers, so they were glad they kept them up, although it
ever was rather unwelcome work to sit in a cramped-up tent, or out in
the air among the mosquitoes, and write or draw for a long time while
still tired and wet. Both of them, however, persisted till the end,
and later did not regret it.

XIII

DOWN THE PORCUPINE

"I'm awfully tired, Uncle Dick," said Jesse when he sleepily rolled
out of his blankets on the following morning. "It was midnight when we
went to bed, and I don't feel as though I had slept at all. Besides,
it's Sunday."

"Yes," said his uncle, "it's Sunday, July twenty-seventh, according to
my notes, and we've been gone from Fort McPherson one week and four
days. I thin