"I think it might be a good plan," said Rob, "to leave one of the grub packs here; and if we camp farther on to-night, and decide to go yet deeper into the island, to leave a little grub at each camp, of course swung up so that nothing can get at it to eat it." "How far do you want to go?" asked John, whose legs were rather short, and who was feeling a little stiff after his first day's travel. "Well, I don't know," answered Rob, "but if you fellows agree, I'd be for going at least a day's march farther up this valley. It'll be colder, and it'll be harder climbing, but the footing will be better and we can take our time. I'd like to see if there isn't some sort of a pass up here, the other side of which leads down into the interior. I've always heard that the arms of the sea came pretty near cutting this island in two, along about the middle somewhere. We might have to take a look over on the other side of the island sometime, if we stayed here five or ten years, you know!" The other boys looked sober at this sort of a jest, but pluckily agreed to go on for at least one more day. This they did not regret, for they found themselves now in a country savoring more of the mountains than of the sea. Snow lay just above them, but the tops of the mountains seemed fairly open. Their little valley had a steady ascent, although by this time its watercourse had dwindled to a stream over which they could step as they pleased. Along the stream there showed the inevitable trail of the giant Kadiak bears which for hundreds of years had made these paths over all the passes down to the streams. Fresh bear signs the boys saw in abundance, but did not stop to hunt. Once, as they crossed their stream, they passed the mouth of a short, steep little ravine which opened down into the valley. Here Rob's eye detected something white. Stepping over in that direction, he called the others. "Look here, fellows, here's a great big bear skull all by itself!" They stood about this object, which certainly was enough to puzzle them. There it lay, entirely stripped of all flesh, and very white, although the bone was not badly bleached by the elements as yet. There was not the sign of any struggle anywhere about, nor was there the least particle of any other bones. They searched for the remainder of the skeleton of the animal, but found nothing of the sort anywhere about. There lay the grinning skull, far up here in the mountains, with nothing to tell whence it came or how it happened to be there. "My, wasn't it a _whale_!" exclaimed Jesse. "See, it's almost as long as my arm. I'll bet it's eighteen or twenty inches long, measured as it is. But what could have killed it? Nothing could kill a bear except another bear; but that wouldn't account for the head being here all alone. Skookie, what do you think about this?" "My peoples, maybe so," said Skookie.