Jack the Young Explorer: A Boy's Experiances in the Unknown Northwest

by George Bird Grinnell

  Produced by David Edwards, Chuck Greif and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (Thisfile was produced from images generously made availableby The Internet Archive)

  JACK, THE YOUNG EXPLORER

  _By the same Author_

  JACK THE YOUNG COWBOY JACK THE YOUNG TRAPPER JACK THE YOUNG CANOEMAN JACK THE YOUNG EXPLORER JACK IN THE ROCKIES JACK AMONG THE INDIANS JACK THE YOUNG RANCHMAN PAWNEE HERO STORIES AND FOLK TALES BLACKFOOT LODGE TALES THE STORY OF THE INDIAN THE INDIANS OF TO-DAY THE PUNISHMENT OF THE STINGY AMERICAN DUCK SHOOTING AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING TRAILS OF THE PATHFINDERS

  "THE TENT WAS SHIVERING AND SHAKING AND FROM IT EMERGEDGROANS AND GROWLS."--_Page 130_]

  JACK THE YOUNG EXPLORER

  _A Boy's Experiences in the Unknown Northwest_

  BY GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL

  Author of "Jack in the Rockies," "Jack the Young Ranchman," "Jack Among the Indians," "Pawnee Hero Stories," "Jack the Young Trapper," etc.

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  NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS

  Copyright, 1908, by FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

  _September, 1908_

  Eighth Printing

  _Printed in the United States of America_

  FOREWORD

  For untold ages the mountain goats had clambered undisturbed along theface of the steep precipices that overhang the St Mary's River and SwiftCurrent. Over the slide rock fallen from their cliffs the wild sheep hadbeaten out paths and trails zigzagging from the valley below to theheights above. On the lower wooded slopes the elk browsed in spring andfall, climbing high above the timber at the season when the flies werebad, and again when snows fell at the approach of winter, working theirway down toward the lower lands and the foothills of the prairie. In thethick swamps and morasses of the river bottom the moose dwelt, sometimesclambering up toward the heights, but more often escaping the summerflies by burying their huge bodies beneath the waters of the lakes, orperhaps by wallowing in some great bog, from which they emerged coveredwith black mud which, drying, formed a coating that protected them.Everywhere through the valleys, on the hillsides, far up on the baldknolls, and even higher still, where the sheep and goats delighted toclimb, the buffalo of the mountains--called by old mountaineers bison,to distinguish them from the yellower, sunburned animals of theplains--wandered singly or in little groups.

  These rough and rocky fastnesses protected them well.

  The Indians of the plains never tried to pass beneath these gloomywalls. Occasionally a white man or half-breed, more frequently a littleband of Kootenay or Stoney Indians, true mountaineers, followed up theserivers for a short distance, hunting the game and trapping the beaver;but in those days game was so plentiful that these occasional excursionsmade no impression on it. The Indians had few guns and huntednoiselessly, chiefly with bows and arrows. For the most part, it waseasier to kill the buffalo of the plains by the swift chase than to gointo the rough mountains and hunt the game that lived higher up.

  It was into this region, as yet unknown to white people, that Jack andhis friends now entered, in order to explore it and learn for themselveswhat it held.