26 THE BIG CANOE

chieftaincy. Quahl turned suddenly away and hur-
ried through the forest toward the cove behind the vil-
lage, where he had arranged to meet Kinna. As he
walked along the fern-bordered trail, he determined
to cast from his mind all regrets and fears, and think
only of the great adventure ahead of him. In spite of
the dangers ahead of him, in spite of the hardship
and loneliness, his heart bounded, and by the time
he reached the cove and looked out over the sunlit
waters toward the northern straits, his sorrow was al-
most forgotten and he was eager to be gone.

As he lay there upon the warm sand, waiting for
Kinna and the canoe, he made plans for the days
ahead; plans for this strange test of ability and
courage which his father had decreed. An animal such
as no Haida had ever seen! What manner of animal
might that be? His people, traveling in their big,
sea-going canoes, had journeyed far up and down
the coast of the mainland. They had seen all the ani-
mals to be found there—wolves, deer, elk, mountain-
sheep, and many smaller animals not found on the
islands of the Haidas.

One thing was certain: in order to find an animal
entirely unknown to his tribe, he must travel farther
east or north or south than any other Haida had ever
been; he must go alone through the hunting-grounds
of the Tlingits in the Northland, since the wind had
already decided the direction of his journey; he must
go, perhaps, into that strange icy land of darkness