CHAPTER XVII.

Kamloops—We discover true Happiness—The Fort and surrounding Country—The Adventures of the Emigrants who preceded us—Catastrophe at the Grand Rapid—Horrible Fate of Three Canadians—Cannibalism—Practicability of a Road by the Yellow Head Pass—Various Routes from Tête Jaune Cache—Advantages of the Yellow Head Pass, contrasted with those to the South—The Future Highway to the Pacific—Return of Mr. McKay—Mr. O’B. sets out alone—The Murderers—The Shushwaps of Kamloops—Contrast between them and the Indians East of the Rocky Mountains—Mortality—The Dead Unburied—Leave Kamloops—Strike the Wagon Road from the Mines—Astonishment of The Assiniboine Family—The remarkable Terraces of the Thompson and Fraser—Their great Extent: contain Gold—Connection with the Bunch-grass—The Road along the Thompson—Cook’s Ferry—The Drowned Murderer—Rarity of Crime in the Colony—The most Wonderful Road in the World—The Old Trail—Pack-Indians—Indian mode of catching Salmon—Gay Graves—The Grand Scenery of the Cañons—Probable Explanation of the Formation of the Terraces—Yale—Hope and Langley—New Westminster—Mr. O’B. turns up again—Mount Baker—The Islands of the Gulf of Georgia—Victoria, Vancouver Island.

Thesun was high when we turned out on the 29th of August. After a substantial breakfast we crossed over to the Fort, which is situated on the opposite side of the river. Here we were most hospitably received by Mr. Martin and Mr. Burgess, who were in charge during the absence of the chief trader, Mr. McKay. The first thing we did after our arrival was to obtain a suit of clothes apiece from the store, and proceed to the river, where we had a delightfulbathe. We threw our rags into the Thompson, donned our new attire, and then enjoyed theotium cum dignitateto our hearts’ content, and over grateful pipes inquired the news—not of the day—but of the past year. Great events had occurred during our seclusion from the world. We heard for the first time of the marriage of the Prince of Wales, the Polish insurrection, the prospect of war between Denmark and Prussia, the progress of the American contest. But although this was delightful enough, it was not the greatest pleasure we enjoyed. The height of happiness—we say it advisedly, yet knowing the contempt which must overwhelm us: it is true, oh, philosopher; it is true, dear lady, with strong mind and spectacles, wearer of cerulean hose—the height of happiness was eating and drinking! Deal with us gently, sour ascetics and stern divines abhorring the carnal, and corpulent, virtuous magistrates who sit in judgment on miserable creatures driven into sin by starvation—expertis credite. Have we not thousands on our side in this great city who daily hunger?—not to mention a few aldermen and a well-fed bishop or two to back us on principle? Talk not to us of intellectual raptures; the mouth and stomach are the doors by which enter true delight. Mutton chops, potatoes, bread, butter, milk, rice pudding, tea, and sugar: contrast dried horse-flesh and water, or martens, or nothing at all, with these luxuries! The ordinary bountiful meals of the Fort were quite inadequate for our satisfaction, and we managed to interpolate three more by rising early in the morning, before the goodpeople of the Fort were up, and breakfasting with Mr. and Mrs. Assiniboine, who dwelt in the tent hard by, secretly visiting them again between breakfast and dinner, dinner and supper. We rested from eating only from a sense of repletion, not from any decrease of appetite. Under this active treatment our meagre bodies rapidly waxed gross, and three weeks afterwards Cheadle made the astounding discovery that he had gained forty-one pounds since his arrival at Kamloops!

The Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort at Kamloops is situated on the south bank of the Thompson, a few hundred yards below the junction of the northern with the southern branch. Opposite the Fort the two streams flow distinct in a common channel, the turbid, glacier-fed river from the north contrasting with the limpid waters of the other, like the Missouri after its junction with the Mississippi. The Shushwap branch of the Thompson coming from the south turns to the west, to enter the Shushwap lake, and flows in the same direction to Kamloops, below which its waters are rendered muddy by the accession of the northern branch. Seven miles below, the river expands into Lake Kamloops, and issues from thence again clear and pellucid, to be lost at Lytton in the muddy and turbulent Fraser.

The country round Kamloops is of the Californian character before described. Rolling hills, covered with bunch-grass and scattered pines, rise in every direction. The pasturage is very rich and extensive, and large bands of horses, herds of cattle, and flocksof sheep, are kept here by the Hudson’s Bay Company.

During our stay here, and in our subsequent travels through British Columbia, we met some of the emigrants who had crossed the mountains the year before, and heard the history of their adventures. It will be remembered that when the first and principal body left Tête Jaune Cache, they divided, one party making large rafts there to descend the Fraser, whilst the others sought the head waters of the North Thompson. Those who went down the Fraser, after much suffering and many mishaps, eventually arrived at the Mouth of Quesnelle, having lost one of their number, who sank from disease induced by hardship and exposure. The party who followed the Thompson, about sixty in number, after vainly endeavouring to cut their way to Cariboo, turned south, in order to try and reach Kamloops.

In a few days their provisions gave out, and their progress had been so slow and difficult that they gave up in despair the design of making their way by land. At “Slaughter Camp” they killed their oxen and dried the meat; then built large rafts, on which they embarked, abandoning all their horses, amounting to between forty and fifty.

The Assiniboine had rightly interpreted the signs of their trail. All went well with the voyageurs until they reached the Grand Rapid. The men on the leading rafts did not perceive the danger until too late to avoid it. The rafts were sucked into the rapids in spite of all their efforts, and many of theunfortunate people drowned. Those who followed were warned in time by the fate of their companions, and succeeded in reaching the shore in safety. They had now to cut their way along the precipitous banks which proved so difficult to us, but as they landed on the opposite side of the river, we did not come across their trail. After reaching the end of the Grand Rapid (Murchison’s Rapids) they again made rafts, and, shooting the lower rapids safely, arrived in wretched plight at Kamloops.

The third party, consisting of five Canadians—three brothers named Rennie, and two others, Helstone and Wright—crossed later in the autumn, and obtained canoes at the Cache to descend the Fraser. The Shushwaps there had informed us that they had discovered the canoes lying bottom upwards, and their property strewn along the shore, below some rapids, and believed that the whole party had been drowned. But three of their number met with a far more horrible fate than this. We now learnt that, in order to shoot the dangerous rapids with greater safety, they had lashed the two canoes together; but in spite of this precaution the boats were swamped. Two of the Rennies succeeded in reaching the shore, and the other three men a rock in the middle of the stream. For two days and nights the latter remained exposed to the bitter cold of the commencing winter, without a morsel of food, before their companions were able to effect their release. A rope was at last passed to the rock, and the men hauled ashore, half dead with hunger, andfearfully frost-bitten. They were so helpless as to be quite unable to proceed further, and the two Rennies, having cut a quantity of fire-wood, and given them almost the whole of their scanty stock of provisions, set out on foot to seek assistance at Fort George, which they calculated on reaching in six days. But they had under-rated the distance; their path lay through dense encumbered forests, and the snow had fallen to considerable depth before they reached the Fort, frost-bitten, and almost dead from hunger and exhaustion, after twenty-eight days’ travelling. Indians were immediately sent out to the assistance of the unfortunate men left behind, but returned in a few days, declaring the snow was too deep for them to proceed. Other Indians, however, discovered the party some time afterwards. Helstone and Wright were still alive, but, maddened by hunger, had killed Rennie. When they were found they had eaten all but his legs, which they held in their hands at the time. They were covered with blood, being engaged in tearing the raw flesh from the bones with their teeth. The Indians attempted to light a fire for them, when the two cannibals drew their revolvers, and looked so wild and savage, that the Indians fled and left them to their fate, not daring to return. The following spring a party of miners, on their way to Peace River, were guided by Indians to the place where these men were seen by them. The bones of two were found piled in a heap, one skull had been split open by an axe, and many of the other bones showed the marks of teeth. The third wasmissing, but was afterwards discovered a few hundred yards from the camp. The skull had been cloven by an axe, and the clothes stripped from the body, which was little decomposed. The interpretation of these signs could hardly be mistaken. The last survivor had killed his fellow-murderer and eaten him, as shown by the gnawed bones so carefully piled in a heap. He had in turn probably been murdered by Indians, for the principal part of the dead men’s property was found in their possession.

The fourth band of emigrants—the party of three who preceded us by a few days in the journey across the mountains, and descended the Fraser in canoes under the guidance of the two old Shushwaps from The Cache—reached Fort George without any serious misadventure.

Whilst taking our ease at Kamloops it may be well to consider the question of the practicability of a road across the mountains by the Yellow Head, or Leather Pass. The necessity for opening a communication between the eastern and western sides of the Rocky Mountains, and the advantages of a route across the continent which passes through British territory, will, we apprehend, appear clearly enough upon a more intimate acquaintance with the resources and requirements of British Columbia. At present we wish merely to show that a road might be constructed by the Yellow Head Pass without any great difficulty, and that this route is in many respects superior to others hitherto more generally known. In the firstplace, then, we may safely state that, with the exception of one or two rocky and precipitous bluffs—few and trifling obstructions, compared with those which have been so successfully overcome in making the road along the Fraser—there are no engineering difficulties of any importance. From the Red River Settlement to Edmonton, about 800 miles, the road lies through a fertile and park-like country, and an excellent cart trail already exists. From Edmonton to Jasper House, a distance of about 400 miles, the surface is slightly undulating, the lower ground universally swampy, and everywhere covered with thick forest. There is little doubt that a better trail than the one at present used might be found for this portion of the way, by keeping to the higher ground, for the pioneers of the Hudson’s Bay Company sought the swamps in the first instance, as offering fewer impediments to their progress, on account of their being less heavily timbered. From Jasper House to Tête Jaune Cache—the pass through the main ridge of the Rocky Mountains, about 100 or 120 miles in length—a wide break in the chain, running nearly east and west, offers a natural roadway, unobstructed except by timber. The rivers, with the exception of the Athabasca and the Fraser, are small and fordable; even at their highest. The ascent to the height of land is very gradual, and, indeed, hardly perceptible; the level only 3,760 feet above the sea;11and thedescent on the western slope, although more rapid, is neither steep nor difficult. From The Cache the road might be carried in almost a straight line to Richfield, in Cariboo, lying nearly due west; the western extremity of the pass, Tête Jaune Cache, being in latitude 52 deg. 58 min.,12and Richfield in latitude nearly 53 deg. 3 min. 9 sec.13The region to be traversed is mountainous and densely wooded, but the distance is not more than ninety miles, according to the recent calculation of Dr. Rae, which agrees with the six days’ journey, the estimate given us by the Shushwaps of The Cache; and a road has already been made from the Mouth of Quesnelle, on the Fraser, to Richfield, through similar country. This would, therefore, complete the line of communication through Cariboo to Victoria. An easier route might, perhaps, be found by following the Canoe River, which is situate about twenty miles south of The Cache, to its source in the Cariboo district, but nothing is known of the country between Tête Jaune Cache and Cariboo, beyond the general view of mountain and forest seen from Richfield and The Cache. A third line offers itself by following the North Thompson to the point where the Wentworth River enters it, about eighty miles north of Kamloops. This stream, the Shushwaps informed us, came from the Cariboo Lake, and passed through a tolerably open region.And lastly, a road could be made down the valley of the Thompson to Kamloops, from whence the Shushwap, Okanagan, and Kootanie districts—where diggings of the richest kind have lately been discovered—and the road on the Fraser, are easily accessible. From The Cache to within eighty miles of Kamloops the only way lies through a succession of narrow gorges, shut in on each side by lofty and inaccessible mountains. The whole of this is obstructed by growing and fallen timber, generally of the largest size; but the fact of our success in bringing our horses through without any previous track being cut open, proves sufficiently that there are no serious obstacles in the way of an engineer. There are no great ascents or descents, and no bluffs of solid rock occur until the last forty miles, where the country is otherwise open and unobstructed. The flooding of the river by the melted snows from the mountains does not interfere with the passage along the valley, for we traversed it at the season when the waters are at the highest. The most serious difficulty to the adoption of a route by Jasper House would be the want of pasturage for cattle. The patches of open are few on the eastern side, and although larger and more numerous within the mountains, on the western side the forest is unbroken for above a hundred miles.

Of the passes to the south, all, with the exception of the Vermilion Pass,14descend abruptly on the westthrough rugged and difficult country. The Vermilion Pass, which is the lowest, is 4,944 feet above the level of the sea, or above 1,000 feet higher than the Leather Pass; and although Dr. Hector states15that a road might be constructed across it without material difficulty, it is open to the same objection as the rest, that it communicates with the valley of the Columbia, far to the south of the gold regions of Cariboo, passes through the battle-ground of the Crees and Blackfeet, and is in unsafe proximity to the American frontier.

The principal advantages to be urged in favour of the southern passes, appear to be that they communicate with more open country on either side, that pasturage is plentiful along the road, and that from their lower latitude they are liable to be blocked up by snow for a somewhat shorter period. Against these the claims of the route by Jasper House may be briefly summed up as follows:—First, it offers the most direct line from Canada to Cariboo, communicating with the road on the Fraser by the shortest route, since Tête Jaune Cache is in latitude 52 deg. 58 min., Richfield Cariboo in latitude 53 deg. 3 min. 9 sec.16Secondly, it is the only one which will afford easy communication withallthe gold districts of British Columbia. Thirdly, it passes entirely through a country inhabited only by peaceable and friendly Indians. Fourthly, it isthe easiest, lying only 3,760 feet above the sea,17with a gradual slope on either side; and lastly, it lies four degrees north of the American frontier. These considerations will, we imagine, cause it to be eventually selected as the British highway to the Pacific; and it is satisfactory to be able to state that Dr. Rae, who went out in the spring of 1864 to discover the most suitable route for the telegraph line which the Hudson’s Bay Company propose to carry across the continent, decided upon taking it by the Yellow Head Pass, which he surveyed as far as Tête Jaune Cache. We are permitted to remark that his observations fully bear out the conclusion that there are no serious obstacles to the formation of a road by this route from the fertile belt of the Saskatchewan to British Columbia, as far as he investigated it, viz., from Red River to The Cache.

After a day or two, Mr. McKay returned, and very kindly engaged to find us horses and accompany us as far as Yale, the head of navigation on the Fraser, if we would remain at Kamloops a few days longer. Mr. O’B., however, started at once for Victoria, eager to enjoy the pleasures of a higher civilisation there. We must confess to a certain feeling of regret at this, the first breaking up of the strange company who had shared so many adventures together; and Mr. O’B. told us he bore no ill-will, and would forgive and forget all his sufferings on the journey. There were houses every six or seven miles along the road from this point,and he set out, pack on back, without much fear of danger before him. Yet, had he known that two men who had murdered another coming down from the mines, were lurking in the neighbourhood, he would have been very unhappy. One of these men was taken, a few days afterwards, in the Bonaparte Valley; the other was supposed to have crossed the Thompson, and to be lying concealed near Kamloops.

Our horses were so weak that we left them at Old St. Paul’s to recruit for a few days, and then brought them across the river. This was nearly fatal to poor Bucephalus, who was too exhausted to swim, and narrowly escaped drowning in the passage. They soon improved on the rich bunch-grass, and we made a present of them to The Assiniboine, for his use in re-crossing by the Kootanie Pass next spring.

Numbers of Shushwaps frequented Kamloops, and their love of finery made them very conspicuous amongst the roughly-dressed miners. The men delighted in scarlet leggings, red sashes, and bright-coloured ribbons in their caps; the women affected the gaudiest skirts, and the most vivid-coloured handkerchiefs on their heads. They are beginning to appreciate the advantages of agriculture, and grow potatoes with great success; are keen traders, thoroughly acquainted with the value of money, and by their labour alone as packmen, the miners were supplied with necessaries for a long time, until a mule trail was cut open. But although of superiorindustry to the Indians of the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, they compare very disadvantageously with them in physique and intelligence, and presented many points of difference from their relations we met at The Cache. They are of smaller stature and less powerful build than the former; their faces are broader and rounder; the cheek-bones higher; the nose smaller, less prominent, and the nostrils more dilated. Their complexion is darker, and of a more muddy, coppery hue than that of the true Red Indian, and their general appearance so strange to our eyes when we first encountered a party of them on our way down the North Thompson, that we never suspected they were Indians, but took them for Mexicans, or some immigrants from the east.18They are also talkative and mercurial, and exhibit none of the dignity and conscious power which marks the Red Indian of the plains.

The tradition of the origin of their tribes, existing amongst some of the Indians of British Columbia, appears to be a curious confusion of the Bible histories taught them by the Romish priests, who have been established amongst them for upwards of a century. For the following version we are indebted to Mr. Greville Mathew, registrar of the colony:—A raceof men existed upon the earth at the time when a great flood came. It rained day and night week after week. The waters rose rapidly, so that all were drowned except one man. He made haste to reach higher ground, and ascended a lofty hill. Still it rained ceaselessly, the waters covered the face of the land, and followed this last Indian relentlessly as he retreated higher and higher up the mountain side. At length he gained the very summit, and as he sat and watched, the pursuing floods continued to approach. In hopeless despair he prayed to the Great Spirit, who responded to his prayer by changing the lower half of his body into stone, so that, when the advancing waters surged up to him, he remained unmoved. They rose to his waist, and then the rains ceased and the floods began to subside. Although delighted with his unexpected escape, the solitary Indian was oppressed with dismay by the reflection that he was the only survivor, and in his distress again prayed to the Great Spirit to grant him a “Klootcheman,” or squaw. He then fell asleep, and after a time awaking, found his lower limbs restored to flesh and bone, and a beautiful “Klootcheman” by his side. From this pair sprang the Indian tribes in British Columbia. This is a striking instance of a fusion of the story of the creation with that of the deluge; originally derived, no doubt, from the early Romish missionaries, but by lapse of time having passed into a tradition of the tribes, and suggests a source of error affecting philology.

A fearful mortality has prevailed amongst them since the advent of the whites, 300 having died in the neighbourhood of Kamloops alone from small-pox the previous year. Their curious custom of leaving their dead unburied, laid out in the open air, with all their property around them, we observed on our journey to Kamloops, when, as the reader may remember, we discovered many victims to the ravages of the pestilence. Other diseases have been almost equally fatal, and before many years, the once numerous natives of this country, although apparently easily susceptible of a certain civilisation, will have diminished to a very small company.

On the 8th of September we left Kamloops with Mr. McKay, and accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Assiniboine, the boy, and another Indian. We had determined to take our friends down to Victoria, for, although The Assiniboine had once visited the Red River Settlement, the woman and boy had never seen anything more like a town than a Hudson’s Bay Post. We crossed the Thompson at the foot of Kamloops Lake, which is about twelve miles long and not more than half a mile in breadth, and surrounded by fine rocky hills; then, leaving the river, we kept on to the valley of the Bonaparte, where we struck the road from Cariboo to Yale, as yet only partially completed. The Assiniboine and his wife were both greatly astonished at the Queen’s highway, but the boy became quite excited, exclaiming, whenever any person appeared in sight,“Aiwarkaken! mina quatuck!” (By Jove! there’s another fellow!) But when we encountered a real swell of the neighbourhood, driving a “buggy” and pair, he was delighted beyond expression. We now followed the valley of the Bonaparte until it joins that of the Thompson, viewing with wonder the curious terraces which strike the eye of a stranger so oddly, and give such a peculiar character to the scenery of the Thompson and the Fraser. We first observed them on the North Thompson, some thirty or forty miles above Kamloops, and they are invariably present all along the main river until its junction with the Fraser at Lytton. On the Fraser they stretch from a little north of Alexandria to the Cañons above Yale, a distance of above 300 miles. These terraces—or benches, as they are called in this district—are perfectly level, and of exactly the same height on each side of the river. They differ from the so-called “parallel roads” of Glenroy in their enormous extent, being vast plains as compared with the mere ledges of the Scottish terraces, and are also free from the erratic boulders which mark the latter. In most places there are three tiers, each tier corresponding with a similar one on the opposite side of the valley. The lowest of the three, where the valley expands, presents a perfectly flat surface of often many miles in extent, raised some forty or fifty feet above the level of the river bank, with a sloping front, resembling the face of a railway embankment. Higher still, the second tier is generally cut out ofthe mountain side, seldom more than a few acres in extent, and raised sixty or seventy feet above the lower one; while, marked at an inaccessible height along the face of the bluffs which run down to the river, and probably 400 or 500 feet above it, is the third tier. These “benches” are quite uniform, and of even surface, entirely free from the great boulders so numerous in the present bed of the river, being composed of shale, sand, and gravel, the detritus of the neighbouring mountains. They are clothed with bunch-grass and wild sage, while here and there a few scattered pines relieve the yellow bareness so characteristic of the district. Similar terraces were noticed by Dr. Hector on the Athabasca, Kootanie, and Columbia Rivers, and they have been also observed on some rivers in California and Mexico; but in none of these instances do they appear comparable in extent and regularity with those of the Thompson and Fraser. It is worthy of remark that in nearly every instance where these terraces have been found, in various countries, they occur inthreesuccessive tiers, as in these of British Columbia; which would seem to mark as many separate epochs when important geological disturbances took place.

(Larger)THE TERRACES ON THE FRASER RIVER.(Seepage 338.)

(Larger)

THE TERRACES ON THE FRASER RIVER.

(Seepage 338.)

Gold is found in all these benches on the Fraser in the state of the finest “flour gold,” but not in sufficient quantities to satisfy the miner when the richer diggings of Cariboo outrun all competition. There seems to be some unexplained connection between these terraces and the celebrated “bunch-grass,”for where the terraces commence on the north, the bunch-grass is also first found, and both end together above Yale. The rolling country between the two rivers is indeed clothed with this grass, but it does not extend beyond the northern limit of the terraces. In the valley of the Columbia, to the south-west, it grows with great luxuriance, and here again the curious terraces are found. The probable explanation of this circumstance is that the peculiar kind of soil formed by the disintegration of the limestone, or soft volcanic rocks, found in this district, is necessary to the growth of this peculiar grass.

Soon after we again reached the Thompson, we came to a place where a portion of the road was not yet made, and led our horses over high rocky bluffs, which at first sight appeared completely to bar all passage. The trail was a mere ledge of rock of a few inches in width, and conquered the precipitous ascent by a succession of windings and zig-zags. The path was so narrow that it was quite impossible for horses to pass one another, and as the river rushes hundreds of feet immediately below, and even a slip would be certainly fatal, it is necessary to ascertain that the road is clear before venturing over the dangerous precipices.

Along this part of the road we met a number of Chinamen at work levelling the road, and their strange faces, large-brimmed hats, and pig-tails caused intense amusement to our unsophisticated Assiniboines. Further down a party of engineerswere engaged in blasting the rock where the road was to pass round the face of a bluff, and eight or ten miles more brought us to the point where the road crosses to the eastern bank of the Thompson. At this place, called Cook’s Ferry, we stayed a night, and before we started in the morning some Indians came in with the news that they had found a dead body stranded on the shallows close by. We went to look at it with Mr. McKay, and from certain marks tattooed upon the arm, and a complete correspondence with the published description, we were satisfied that it was the body of the murderer who had so long escaped pursuit. The man had probably attempted to swim across the river in the night-time, and been drowned in the rapids. Thus the only two men who had ever attempted highway robbery in this colony—as far as we could ascertain—failed to escape. The extraordinary rarity of crimes of violence in British Columbia is owing, we believe, in great measure, to the vigorous administration of the late Governor, Sir James Douglas, and the stern justice meted out by Mr. Justice Begbie; but also in part, no doubt, to the nature of the country. Shut in on every side by impassable mountain barriers, the few outlets which exist are easily watched, and the criminal has small chance of ultimate escape.

From Cook’s Ferry the road continues to follow the eastern bank of the Thompson to its junction with the Fraser at Lytton—twenty-three miles; it is then continued along the same side of the Fraserfor thirty-eight miles, or within thirteen miles of Yale, where it crosses the river by a beautiful suspension bridge. The road from Cook’s Ferry to Yale, especially the part below Lytton, is probably the most wonderful in the world. Cut out of the mountain-side of the gorge, it follows the hills as they recede in “gulches,” or advance in bold, upright bluffs, in constant windings, like an eternal letter S. The curves of ascent and descent are as sinuous as the lateral; the road at one time running down, by a series of rapid turns, to the very bottom of the valley, and then rising as quickly to pass the face of some protruding bluff, apparently a complete barrier to all advance, but past which it creeps, looking from below like a mere line scratched on the round front, 500 or 600 feet above the river. At these points the road is partly blasted out of the solid granite rock, and the width increased by beams of rough pine, which project over the precipice; but it is yet too narrow for vehicles to pass each other, except at certain points. There is, of course, no protecting wall; the road overhangs the precipice, and nothing is to be seen supporting the platform on which you stand—a terrible place to drive along, as we afterwards found. The road has been made, in this skilful and laborious manner, from where it first strikes the Thompson to Yale, a distance of nearly 100 miles.

The trail formerly ran up many hundred feet higher, the barrier bluffs being passed by platforms slung by the Indians from the top of the cliff bycords of bark and deer-skin. These consisted of a single long pole, supported by a cross-pole at each end, the points of which rested against the face of the precipice. There was nothing to lay hold of, and a slip or hasty step, as the passenger walked along the rail embracing the face of the rock, would cause the pole to swing away, and hurl the incautious climber into the abyss below.

The Bishop of Columbia, in his Journal, gives a very graphic description of his journey along the old trail, in which he compares his position to a fly upon the face of a perpendicular wall, in this case between 2,000 and 3,000 feet high. Many a miner lost his life at Jackass Mountain and Nicaragua Slide—places of this kind. There was at this time no other way to the mines except a mule trail, little less difficult, passing high over the mountain tops, and only available for a short time in summer, on account of the snow. Supplies were carried to the mines on the backs of the miners themselves, or packed on Indians, who carried from 100 to 150 pounds over this perilous path.

On our way we met many Indians still competing with the mule-trains. Some of the men were loaded with 150 pounds, supporting them by a strap across the forehead; the women carried 50 or 100 pounds; and one squaw we met had on her back a fifty-pound sack of flour, on that a box of candles, and on the top of the box a child. They seemedvery jolly and happy under their heavy labour, and never failed to salute us with a friendly smile and “Klahowya?” or “How do you do?” The melody of their voices and soft intonation was most pleasing, overcoming all the roughness and uncouthness of the vile Chinook jargon.19

Between Lytton and Yale lie most of the bars, or sandbanks, which yielded such an extraordinary amount of gold when first discovered. They are now deserted, except by a few Chinamen, who make from one to ten dollars a day. As we descended the Fraser, the vegetation began to change. The terraces disappeared, and the flat stretches, covered only with bunch-grass and scattered yellow pine, gave place to an irregular formation and a thicker growth of white pine, with here and there a small birch, and a plentiful undergrowth of deciduous shrubs.

On our way we passed many Indians engaged in salmon fishing, which they practise in a very peculiar manner. They select some point in the fierce rapids where a quiet eddy forms under the lee of a projecting rock. Over the rock they sling a little platform of poles, within a convenient distance of the surface of the water, and from this position grope untiringlyin the eddy with a kind of oval landing net. The salmon, wearied by their exertions in overcoming the torrent, rest for a time in the little eddy before making the next attempt to mount the rapid, and are taken in hundreds by these clever fishermen. Here and there were Indian graves adorned with numerous flags; and in many instances carved images, nearly the size of life, and elaborately painted, were placed around. The dead man’s gun and blankets, with most of his other property, were generally suspended to poles about the grave. Occasionally we passed an Indian winter store for fish—a rough box, slung in a tree high out of reach. Some tribes bury their dead in the same manner.

About fifteen miles above Yale, the gorge through which the Fraser runs, as it bursts through the Cascade Range, becomes very narrow, and the river flows in a succession of terrific rapids, called the Cañons—orcanyons, as the word is pronounced—for the remaining distance. The mountains on each side, 3,000 or 4,000 feet high, seem almost to meet overhead, peak after peak rising in close proximity. The Fraser, rarely anything but a rocky rapid in any part of its course, here goes utterly mad, and foams and rages down the narrow and falling channel at the rate of twenty miles an hour. The volume of water which passes through this outlet, here not more than forty yards in width, will be more readily conceived when it is stated that the Fraser has already collected the waters of over 800 miles, and amongst other rivers receives the Thompson, of almost equal size withitself. Several hundred miles above, each of these rivers expands into a broad and deep stream, more than a quarter of a mile in width; yet at the Cañons the vast accumulation is confined in a channel of less than fifty yards wide. Huge rocks stand up in the middle of the stream in several places, the waters escaping by a constricted passage on either side.

The mass of the Cascade Range is grey granite, and the sides of the chasm show beautiful sections of the rock, plaided with protruding seams of white quartz, the harder rock having been worn away by the action of the water, which the soft quartz seems to have resisted. In many cases the opposite walls of the chasm correspond in a most remarkable manner, so that they appear as if they would fit accurately if placed in apposition, suggesting forcibly that they had been portions of the same solid mass violently rent asunder. As we looked on this and wondered, an explanation of the formation of the terraces occurred to our minds. At one time the valleys of the Thompson and Fraser were occupied by a succession of lakes, the Cascade Range being the barrier which dammed in the enormous volume of water, and the highest tier of terraces marking the level to which it rose. The tops only of the lower mountains appeared at this time as rounded islands above the surface. By some means—perhaps some grand convulsion of Nature—the embankment of this huge reservoir broke down, the waters partially escaped, and the lakes were drained down to the level of the middle tier of benches. Twice moremust a similar catastrophe have occurred before the waters were lowered into their present narrow and rocky channel. Each of these accidents must have been separated from the preceding one by an immense lapse of time, during which the enormous quantity of detritus accumulated to form the extensive plateaux which have been described.

(Larger)YALE, ON THE FRASER RIVER.(Seepage 347.)

(Larger)

YALE, ON THE FRASER RIVER.

(Seepage 347.)

We arrived at Yale about four o’clock in the afternoon, and immediately ordered the best dinner they could give us at the Colonial Hotel. The house was kept by a Frenchman, who excelled himself on this occasion, and provided a meal which to us, who had not eaten anything deserving the name of a dinner for at least eighteen months, appeared perfection. The champagne, however, and sundry drinks with fraternising miners, caused us to wake with most tremendous headaches next morning. Some of the visitors to the bar amused us greatly. One tall Yankee, considerably intoxicated, was possessed with the idea that he was Lord Nelson, and associating the great admiral in some way with cucumbers, ate several in succession, to prove his identity.

The little town of Yale is merely a single row of houses facing the river, which, having just escaped through the Cañons, here sweeps to the west, a broad and noble river. The town is built on a small flat, backed on the north by lofty hills, and looking down the widening valley to the south, where the receding mountains still tower up grand and high. The situation is exceedingly picturesque, and the clean, white, wooden buildings were as gay with flagsas any Yankee could desire. Gold may be obtained in the street of Yale, and a couple of Indians were working with a “rocker” opposite the Hotel when we were there.

The next morning we bade good-bye to our kind friend, Mr. McKay, and embarked on the steamerReliancefor New Westminster. The river expands rapidly below Yale, flowing between low, richly-wooded banks. On the way we passed Hope and Langley, old stations of the Hudson’s Bay Company. The site of the former is the most beautiful in British Columbia—a wooded level shut in by an amphitheatre of lofty mountains—Yale upon a grander scale. Before the discovery of the Cariboo mines, it was a place of considerable importance, but has now “caved in,” and become desolate. Soon after dark, we saw the lights of New Westminster before us, and in the course of half-an-hour were comfortably established at the Colonial Hotel.

The city of New Westminster, the capital of British Columbia, stands in a commanding position, on ground gradually rising from the river, which is here three-quarters of a mile broad. The town has been beautifully laid out by Col. Moody, R.E., the late Commissioner of Lands and Works, and several streets of good wooden houses already exist.

The great drawback to its situation is the dense forest of timber of the largest size by which it is shut in. The little clearing which has been already done has been effected with great labour by the help of the engineers quartered there for several years;but, although the land is fertile enough, the expense of clearing it is so heavy that but little farming has been carried out. The place is still unsightly, from the stumps of trees sticking up on every side. The river is navigable to this point for vessels drawing eighteen or twenty feet of water, and, should direct communication be established with England, it may eventually rival Victoria. As yet, however, it is completely eclipsed by that more favoured city.

Staying only one night in New Westminster, we took our passages on board theEnterprisefor Victoria, Vancouver Island, on the 19th of September. We were presently surprised by encountering Mr. O’B., who had come by way of Lilloet and Douglas. He was wonderfully altered since we parted from him a week before. He, like ourselves, had become somewhat corpulent, and had quite regained his spirits, and the loquacity which had flagged so notably during our journey through the forest.

On entering the Gulf of Georgia, Mount Baker, a magnificent snow-clad peak, about 10,700 feet in height, comes into view in the east, and the thousand islands of the gulf, rocky or richly wooded, offer a succession of beauties which render this voyage to Victoria one of the most charming in the world. We reached our destination about dark, and immediately betook ourselves to the Hotel de France. The proprietor, however, mistrusting our leather shirts, and total want of luggage, declared he had no room, and we moved off disconsolate.Before we got far, a waiter came running after us to say it was all a mistake, and requested us to go back, having, no doubt, discovered that we were respectable, although at first sight our appearance was unpromising. But we turned a deaf ear, and continued on our way to the St. George, where we found capital accommodation, and having properly refreshed ourselves, took the rough hint we had received, and betook ourselves to the nearest tailor, to obtain more civilised attire.

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