CHAPTER XIII

From Skagway to Vancouver : On thePrincess May: Fort Simpson : Prince Rupert : End of the Journey.

Theocean voyage between Skagway and Vancouver is so well known that I need only refer to it briefly. Nearly the whole course is so sheltered on the one side by the main land, and on the other by islands, almost innumerable, that it was easier to fancy that we were back on theWrigleythreading the islands of the Mackenzie rather than that we were on the waters of the great Pacific.

The fine C.P.R. steamerPrincess Maywas waiting at the dock at Skagway when we arrived, and at 8P.M.on Monday, August 27, we started for Vancouver. I was sorry that the trip down the Lynn canal was made at night, and a very dark one at that, which prevented our having a view of the glaciers that otherwise would have been visible. Tuesday was a dull, rainy daywithout anything of interest to record. The steamer called at Fort Simpson early on Wednesday morning, and passed Kaein Island, the site of the future city Prince Rupert, in the forenoon, but did not stop. A little later we called at Port Essington but the tide was out and our steamer was unable to reach the dock. Further on we called at Caxton where there is a very large cannery and where we took on a quantity of canned salmon. On Thursday, at 6A.M., we called at Bella Bella, and at 3P.M.at Alert Bay on Vancouver Island, to see the totem poles of the Indian village there.

Fort Simpson deserves more than a passing reference. It was for many years the chief place on the west coast north of Victoria, and it had for some time great hopes of being the western terminus of the G.T.P. Railway. This last aspiration has, however, been blasted by the selection of Prince Rupert, twenty-five miles farther south, but, as in many other small places, the few residents have an abiding faith that their town will yet be a great city outrivalling any other from San Francisco north, and they now pin their faith on the Canadian NorthernRailway making this their northern ocean port.

INDIAN CHILDREN AT FORT SIMPSON

Fort Simpson enjoys the distinction of being the home of a band of Indians who surpass any I have ever seen in the east in general intelligence as well as in their advancement in civilisation. Fully three fourths of the inhabitants of the village are native Indians of the Tsimpsian tribe. They are not only industrious but also frugal; live in good frame houses painted white and all numbered. In front of the dwelling usually stands a totem pole with its strange hieroglyphics. These dwellings are for the most part comfortably furnished. I had not the privilege of seeing the interior of a very fine looking house owned by the chief of the band, but was informed that the furniture cost several thousand dollars.

In addition to the village house most of the families have a small plot of land outside the town with a small house erected on it where they spend part of the summer cultivating vegetables for their use. The community owns a saw mill that supplies them with lumber. The affairs of the village are managed by a council presided over bytheir chief. I am unable to say whether they manage their public affairs as well as some of our municipalities do. They could scarcely be managed worse than some are. They can all speak English, but conversation among themselves is usually in their own tongue. They build and equip their own fishing and sail boats, of sufficient size to weather the heavy seas and tidal currents of the coast.

In the early spring they move out to their garden plot generally in a small valley sloping down to the sea. Here they plant their potatoes and other vegetables. Next comes the fishing season and the canneries rely largely on the catch made by these people. When the run of the salmon is plentiful, the money earned by a family with a good boat and plenty of nets is quite equal to the proceeds from an ordinary farm. The fishing season over, they next go south to the valleys of southern British Columbia and Washington State where they further increase their earnings by assisting in the hop fields there.

Then they return home in time to store their vegetables before the wet weather setsin. Finally, the year is rounded off by the winter hunt. The result is that scarcely a family is without some ready money, while many have considerable, either kept safely at home or deposited in banks at Victoria or Vancouver.

Thanks to the enterprise of the early missionaries in establishing schools among these people they are now fairly well educated. The Anglican and Methodist churches were early in the field and the fruit of their labour is apparent.

Prince Rupert from its geographical position might be called the Canadian Vladivostock. Each city is the ocean terminus of a great transcontinental railway. Each can boast of a high northern latitude, and consequently lessened distances between meridians. Prince Rupert however, has a great advantage over itsvis-à-visin one particular. The Siberian Port is practically closed during the whole of the winter season, while the magnificent harbour at Prince Rupert, though many degrees farther north, is open the year round.

The Grand Trunk Pacific engineers searched diligently along this northern coastto find a harbour worthy of such a railway. There were many places offering special advantages of situation but which perhaps lacked some essential qualification. Those of first importance were a depth of water covering a large area; shelter from the ocean; ease of access both by rail and water, and (on this coast, the most difficult of all) a good shore line for wharves with at least some adjacent land where a city could be built. It was finally decided that the north and east coast of Kaien Island fulfilled the requirements more nearly than any other point and the present site of Prince Rupert was selected. There is no question that few ports in the world offer greater attraction to the mariner; the area is large enough to accommodate the navies of the world, the approach is easy, and with few currents to trouble the navigator. The shelter is secure; the water deep and the wharves convenient. The approach by the railway too in the vicinity of the port is for miles along the sea almost on a level.

It has been said that the greater portion of British Columbia “stands on end,” and certainly to no portion of the Province doesthis more aptly apply than to this northern coast, and there, perhaps, was never a case in the history of the world, a case where the initial cost in the building of a city was as great as it is there to-day. The land for about a mile and a quarter back from the shore is a succession of rock ridges with swampy land intervening. At the present time in order to make streets these rocks are being levelled down to afford a passable grade. In most cases this necessitates the cutting down of the adjacent lots to get a frontage on the street level. The amount of explosives being used for this purpose must be very great. Blasting is constantly going on and the visitor can easily fancy himself in a beseiged town.

On waking on Friday morning, August 31, I found we were approaching Vancouver. It was a delightful morning, and as we entered the narrows and then passed around Brockton Point and entered Burrard inlet, we beheld that great modern city which, in a few years has risen from a small village to one of the foremost places in the Dominion. I felt that at last I was practically home again. The distance I had travelled fromEdmonton to this point was about 4250 miles, and had occupied a few days less than three months.

I had now time to look over my diary and to recall to memory many incidents which had received little attention at the time. In fact nothing counted for much then that did not aid me in what I had undertaken. My one idea was by some means to make the trip to the Arctic and return exactly as I had planned it, and in doing so every day had brought its duties, and there was little time to recall what was past. The present and the future took all our immediate attention. But now there was time and with it the inclination, to retrace every foot of the journey from start to finish.

What a panorama opened to view. There was the wearisome journey on the Athabaska ending at the “Lake of the Hills.” Then opened to the mental vision the Slave River, Slave Lake and the Mackenzie ending at that strange but interesting Arctic village, McPherson. Then those anxious days on the trail over the mountains. Then the canoe trip on the Bell and Porcupine with three Indians. The encampment at OldCrow and next the arrival at Rampart House.

TOTUM POLES AT ALERT BAY ON VANCOUVER ISLAND

Then the somewhat pleasant trip still down the Porcupine till Fort Yukon is reached. The road house there. The slow trip up the Yukon to Dawson and finally the journey from Dawson to Vancouver. All these with the numerous incidents on the way passed before the vision. It was like the developing of a picture without the aid of any camera except that furnished by the human eye and recorded in the mind of the observer. And even yet, though several years have elapsed, those impressions of places, of people and of events frequently pass vividly in review before my mental vision. These impressions I have, with a feeble pen, attempted to develop for any who have had the patience to follow this review, but I am painfully conscious of my failure to pass on to my indulgent readers anything more than the bare outlines of a picture which to my own mind is not only vivid but intensely fascinating.

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