登陆注册
15482900000002

第2章 A RELIC OF THE PLIOCENE(2)

This is mighty convenient, as will be reality admitted. So I hunted this rare beast in my own name, told it in the first person, present tense, painted the requisite locale, gave it the necessary garnishings and touches of verisimilitude, and looked to see the man stunned by the recital.

Not he. Had he doubted, I could have forgiven him. Had he objected, denying the dangers of such a hunt by virtue of the animal's inability to turn about and go the other way--had he done this, I say, I could have taken him by the hand for the true sportsman that he was. Not he. He sniffed, looked on me, and sniffed again; then gave my tobacco due praise, thrust one foot into my lap, and bade me examine the gear. It was a MUCLUC of the Innuit pattern, sewed together with sinew threads, and devoid of beads or furbelows. But it was the skin itself that was remarkable. In that it was all of half an inch thick, it reminded me of walrus-hide; but there the resemblance ceased, for no walrus ever bore so marvellous a growth of hair. On the side and ankles this hair was well-nigh worn away, what of friction with underbrush and snow; but around the top and down the more sheltered back it was coarse, dirty black, and very thick. I parted it with difficulty and looked beneath for the fine fur that is common with northern animals, but found it in this case to be absent. This, however, was compensated for by the length. Indeed, the tufts that had survived wear and tear measured all of seven or eight inches.

I looked up into the man's face, and he pulled his foot down and asked, "Find hide like that on your St Elias bear?"

I shook my head. "Nor on any other creature of land or sea," I answered candidly. The thickness of it, and the length of the hair, puzzled me.

"That," he said, and said without the slightest hint of impressiveness, "that came from a mammoth."

"Nonsense!" I exclaimed, for I could not forbear the protest of my unbelief. "The mammoth, my dear sir, long ago vanished from the earth. We know it once existed by the fossil remains that we have unearthed, and by a frozen carcase that the Siberian sun saw fit to melt from out the bosom of a glacier; but we also know that no living specimen exists. Our explorers--"

At this word he broke in impatiently. "Your explorers? Pish! A weakly breed. Let us hear no more of them. But tell me, O man, what you may know of the mammoth and his ways."

Beyond contradiction, this was leading to a yarn; so I baited my hook by ransacking my memory for whatever data I possessed on the subject in hand. To begin with, I emphasized that the animal was prehistoric, and marshalled all my facts in support of this. I mentioned the Siberian sand-bars that abounded with ancient mammoth bones; spoke of the large quantities of fossil ivory purchased from the Innuits by the Alaska Commercial Company; and acknowledged having myself mined six- and eight-foot tusks from the pay gravel of the Klondike creeks. "All fossils," I concluded, "found in the midst of debris deposited through countless ages."

"I remember when I was a kid," Thomas Stevens sniffed (he had a most confounded way of sniffing), "that I saw a petrified water-melon. Hence, though mistaken persons sometimes delude themselves into thinking that they are really raising or eating them, there are no such things as extant water-melons?"

"But the question of food," I objected, ignoring his point, which was puerile and without bearing. "The soil must bring forth vegetable life in lavish abundance to support so monstrous creations. Nowhere in the North is the soil so prolific. Ergo, the mammoth cannot exist."

"I pardon your ignorance concerning many matters of this Northland, for you are a young man and have travelled little; but, at the same time, I am inclined to agree with you on one thing. The mammoth no longer exists. How do I know? I killed the last one with my own right arm."

Thus spake Nimrod, the mighty Hunter. I threw a stick of firewood at the dogs and bade them quit their unholy howling, and waited.

Undoubtedly this liar of singular felicity would open his mouth and requite me for my St. Elias bear.

"It was this way," he at last began, after the appropriate silence had intervened. "I was in camp one day--"

"Where?" I interrupted.

He waved his hand vaguely in the direction of the north-east, where stretched a TERRA INCOGNITA into which vastness few men have strayed and fewer emerged. "I was in camp one day with Klooch.

Klooch was as handsome a little KAMOOKS as ever whined betwixt the traces or shoved nose into a camp kettle. Her father was a full-blood Malemute from Russian Pastilik on Bering Sea, and I bred her, and with understanding, out of a clean-legged bitch of the Hudson Bay stock. I tell you, O man, she was a corker combination. And now, on this day I have in mind, she was brought to pup through a pure wild wolf of the woods--grey, and long of limb, with big lungs and no end of staying powers. Say! Was there ever the like? It was a new breed of dog I had started, and I could look forward to big things.

"As I have said, she was brought neatly to pup, and safely delivered. I was squatting on my hams over the litter--seven sturdy, blind little beggars--when from behind came a bray of trumpets and crash of brass. There was a rush, like the wind-squall that kicks the heels of the rain, and I was midway to my feet when knocked flat on my face. At the same instant I heard Klooch sigh, very much as a man does when you've planted your fist in his belly. You can stake your sack I lay quiet, but I twisted my head around and saw a huge bulk swaying above me. Then the blue sky flashed into view and I got to my feet. A hairy mountain of flesh was just disappearing in the underbrush on the edge of the open. I caught a rear-end glimpse, with a stiff tail, as big in girth as my body, standing out straight behind. The next second only a tremendous hole remained in the thicket, though I could still hear the sounds as of a tornado dying quickly away, underbrush ripping and tearing, and trees snapping and crashing.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 行垠迹

    行垠迹

    时间长河流溯,滚滚向前……葬歌也好,赞歌也罢。史上人杰浩瀚如同漫天繁星,他们是成为水面上腾起的白沫浪花?抑或是沉在江底泥沙覆盖下等待腐朽的白骨?一堵门,少年途行异域,开启另一个世界的缤纷………后世吟唱流传的,是谁的神迹?
  • 灵异社团

    灵异社团

    自古以来神鬼之说便是老一辈人茶余饭后的闲聊话题,而年轻一辈则认为这是老年人的无稽之谈,华夏天朝无奇不有,且看小道士如何在红尘万世中斩妖除魔
  • 遗世梦

    遗世梦

    这纷争也好,这爱恋也罢,情仇种种,都化作回忆封进这注定被遗忘的一梦。人世间百媚千愁,恩怨纠葛,我只愿凭手中剑,护我佳人,哪怕屠遍满天神佛,妖魔厉鬼,但犹不悔!
  • 华胥行

    华胥行

    遂古之初,谁传道之?上下未形,何由考之?有人答:圣人在上,蝼蚁在下。圣人之下,皆为蝼蚁。
  • 沧溟轮转

    沧溟轮转

    这里是轮回。轮回于无穷的世界的轮回,在无止境的世界中见不同的物,历不同之事,会不同之人。轮回寂缈,危机重重,进轮回则弃前尘,回不到过去,也忆不起最初,只能在一次又一次的任务中磨练己身。犹如沧溟之海,幽深黑暗,且无边无际。也无比神秘,他人无法知这里是怎样的一种样子……你问我如何得知这一切?因为,我……是作者啊~
  • 创世奇迹

    创世奇迹

    问今多少英雄路,看今多少魂与骨。病毒弥漫,动物变异,远古遗迹。一场世纪大战,使人类迈入了传说中的道路,看主人公如何带领人类破开艰险,成就创世奇迹!
  • 薄荷往夏

    薄荷往夏

    云映是一个果敢而决绝的人;而于远夏是一个孤寂深情又温暖的人。他们的故事里,有太多的纠纷和沉默,来不及辩解和释然;燕子就已经又来去了一个春秋,而他们也终将在这时光的洪流里渐渐磨去了荆刺和尖锐。
  • 易烊千玺许我一世

    易烊千玺许我一世

    一次偶然的相遇注定了此生的缘分,一场猝不及防的爱情让旋窝更加急促,没有人会知道,失忆后两人的相遇竟然在超市里,一次又一次的擦肩而过,终归换的一世的爱情。
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • 万鬼朝宗录

    万鬼朝宗录

    当你们高高在上,视我如蝼蚁;就别怪有朝一日,蝼蚁将你们踩在脚下!小小杂役,发誓要做自己的命运之主,战斗——开始了!