Page:Recollections of My Boyhood.djvu/78

the natives were in the habit of roaming through these mountains, father wished to have one go with us as a guide. But no Indian wanted to go. Numerous as they were, no consideration would induce one to go with us into this vast wilderness. We went without a guide. Traveling west four or five miles, through open woods of white oak timber, we began the ascent of a spur of the Coast range. Following a winding foot path made by wild beasts, the ascent was not difficult. Traveling through an unbroken forest all day, we made camp near the summit of the range just as the sun went down. There was a spring of good water here and a meadow covered with grass and clover which afforded good pasture for our horses. It may have been the fear of getting lost which caused me to take this precaution, but before dark I took my hatchet and blazed a tree which stood near our camp fire. I marked the tree exactly on the reverse side from where I saw the sun go down that evening. I was up early the next morning and soon dressed. I greased my feet with marrow from the shank of a deer, they being a little sore, and put on what was left of my seal skin cap, which was not much; the brim had been lost on the "plains," and we boys had used the crown a number of times for a target when practicing archery with our bows and arrows. I looked east, as I supposed, for the sun to rise, when it came up directly behind me. I went to my witness tree but no blaze was there. I walked around it and found the blaze on the other side. We left our horses in the meadow and climbed to the summit on foot. In some places the trees were so close together we had to turn sidewise in order to pass between them. I blazed the way as we went. We found a broad district of almost level country. At the highest point on the summit brother Elisha climbed a tree, and from this lofty perch could see the Pacific Ocean. We found a vast district of burned and fallen timber. The logs were covered with dewberry vines bearing the largest and sweetest berries I have ever eaten. We found also hundreds of acres of salal berries. Bear are very fond of these berries, but we found them sweet and insipid. We returned home in less than a week. That we returned unharmed seemed to astonish the natives. They asked many questions as to where we went and what we saw. Some of the Indians assured us, as their reason