"About midway in this stretch the Tahkeena River[5] joins the Lewes. This river is, apparently, about half the size of the latter. Its waters are muddy, indicating the passage through a clayey district. I got some indefinite information about this river, from an Indian who happened to meet me just below its mouth, but I could not readily make him understand me, and his replies were a compound of Chinook, Tagish, and signs, and therefore largely unintelligible. From what I could understand with any certainty, the river was easy to descend, there being no bad rapids, and it came out of a lake much larger than any I had yet passed. [Footnote 5: The Tahkeena was formerly much used by the Chilkat Indians as a means of reaching the interior, but never by the miners owing to the distance from the sea to its head.] "Here I may remark that I have invariably found it difficult to get reliable or definite information from Indians. The reasons for this are many. Most of the Indians it has been my lot to meet are expecting to make something, and consequently are very chary about doing or saying anything unless they think they will be well rewarded for it. They are naturally very suspicions of strangers, and it takes some time, and some knowledge of their language, to overcome this suspicion and gain their confidence. If you begin at once to ask questions about their country, without previously having them understand that you have no unfriendly motive in doing so, they become alarmed, and although you may not meet with a positive refusal to answer questions, you make very little progress in getting desired information. On the other hand I have met cases where, either through fear or hope of reward, they were only too anxious to impart all they knew or had heard, and even more if they thought it would please their hearer. I need hardly say that such information is often not at all in accordance with the facts. "I have several times found that some act of mine when in their presence has aroused either their fear, superstition or cupidity. As an instance: on the Bell River I met some Indians coming down stream as I was going up. We were ashore at the time, and invited them to join us. They started to come in, but very slowly, and all the time kept a watchful eye on us. I noticed that my double-barrelled shot gun was lying at my feet, loaded, and picked it up to unload it, as I knew they would be handling it after landing. This alarmed them so much that it was some time before they came in, and I don't think they would have come ashore at all had they not heard that a party of white men of whom we answered the description, were coming through that way (they had learned this from the Hudson's Bay Company's officers), and concluded we were the party described to them. After drinking some of our tea, and getting a supply for themselves, they became quite friendly and communicative.