"Is the mammoth extinct? Is the dingue extinct? Probably. And yet the aborigines of British America maintain the contrary. Probably both the mammoth and the dingue are extinct; but until expeditions have penetrated and explored not only the unknown region in Alaska but also that hidden table-land beyond the Graham Glacier and the Hudson Mountains, it will not be possible to definitely announce the total extinction of either the mammoth or the dingue." When I had read it, slowly, for his benefit, he brought his hand down smartly on one knee and nodded rapidly. "Mister," he said, "that gent knows a thing or two, and don't you forgit it!" Then he demanded, abruptly, how I knew he hadn't been behind the Graham Glacier. I explained. "Shucks!" he said; "there's a road five miles wide inter that there table-land. Mister, I ain't been in New York long; I come inter port a week ago on the _Arctic Belle_, whaler. I was in the Hudson range when that there Graham Glacier bust up--" "What!" I exclaimed. "Didn't you know it?" he asked. "Well, mebbe it ain't in the papers, but it busted all right--blowed up by a earthquake an' volcano combine. An', mister, it was oreful. My, how I did run!" "Do you mean to tell me that some convulsion of the earth has shattered the Graham Glacier?" I asked. "Convulsions? Ya-as, an' fits, too," he said, sulkily. "The hull blame thing dropped inter a hole. An' say, mister, home an' mother is good enough fur me now." I stared at him stupidly. "Once," he said, "I ketched pelts fur them sharps at Hudson Bay, like any yaller husky, but the things I seen arter that convulsion-fit--the _things I seen behind the Hudson Mountings_--don't make me hanker arter no life on the pe-rarie wild, lemme tell yer. I may be a Mother Carey chicken, but this chicken has got enough." After a long silence I picked up his book again and pointed at the picture of the mammoth. "What color is it?" I asked. "Kinder red an' brown," he answered, promptly. "It's woolly, too." Astounded, I pointed to the dingue. "One-toed," he said, quickly; "makes a noise like a bell when scutterin' about." Intensely excited, I laid my hand on his arm. "My society will give you a thousand dollars," I said, "if you pilot me inside the Hudson table-land and show me either a mammoth or a dingue!" He looked me calmly in the eye. "Mister," he said, slowly, "have you got a million for to squander on me?" "No," I said, suspiciously. "Because," he went on, "it wouldn't be enough. Home an' mother suits me now." He picked up his book and rose. In vain I asked his name and address; in vain I begged him to dine with me--to become my honored guest. "Nit," he said, shortly, and shambled off down the path. But I was not going to lose him like that. I rose and deliberately started to stalk him. It was easy. He shuffled along, pulling on his pipe, and I after him.