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In Vancouver Island June ig to ray mind by far the mos' enjoyable month of the twelve ; the miserable sloppy transition state, filling the gap, as it were, betwixt winter and summer has gone, and in its place we have clear sky, bright sunshine, dry ground, and gay flowers, whilst everywhere one's ears are greeted with the hum and buzz of insects and the cheery songs of birds. Soon after daylight on one of these lovely summer morningg, now some four years ago, 1 was on board a small steamer, named the Otter, belonging to the Honourable Hudson's Bay Company. It is not a long and perilous voyage we are going to undertake, but simply a pleasure trip across the Straits of Georgia, first to reach the entrance to Puget Sound, and thence to steam up this sin- gular inland canal, in order to land at Nisqually, a large district of country so named by the Indians, and at this tirae in the occupation of and farmed by the Puget Sound Company. Victoria Harbour — round which is built the town of Victoria, the capital of Vancouver Island — is by no means an easy place for a vessel of large tonnage to enter, but when once she has been steered safely past the rocks intersecting its entrance, the harbour is far from objectionable. Bad as getting into it is, getting out again is ten times worse. The passage is shoal, and intricate as a labyrinth ; and should the wind blow from S.E. or S.W., the sea comes tumbling in as if seeking safety in the rock-bound harbour from the rough usage of old Eolus outside. It is true there are buoys to mark the way between the rocks, which run out beneath the sea from Ogden Point on the one side, to M'Lauchlin on the other, still, for all this, the navigation is not easy, even to the experienced. In the absence of all the bustle and confusion which usually precede the departure of a steamer from a pier, it seemed to mo that everything was uncomfortal)ly quiet on this particular June morning. But few sounds were audible ; the drowsy town was, at so early an hour, hushed in sleep ; the water, smooth as polished metal, scarcely murmured its ripple song, as gently flowng over the beach it trickled lazily back again betwixt the shining pebbles. A small flock of "herring gulls" floating near us did not even (piarrel on this occasion, — a most unusual event when there are more than two together — but drifted by, silent as all about them. The few blinking, red-eyed ! t. . .» -•^rtc-i (i^^-W w <^; 314 FROM YANCOUVEE ISLAND TO SJivagcs, who Lad crept liko animals from out their lairs to witness our departure, appeared too lethargic to move even the muscles of their tongues, as they noiselessly scjuatted themselves upon their heels on the overhanging bank amidst the green herbage. Perhaps this excessive quietness was the reason why the captain's voice sounded to me so like that of a Stentor's, as " Larboard," " Star- board," " Half-speed," " Go-ahead," mingled with a torrent of incom- prehensible orders to the " deck hands " in " Chinook jargon," appeared to my unsailorlike ears as if the confusion of Babel was concentrated in this sea-captain's nautical vocabulary. What was confusion to me, was clear enough to others, for the Otter twisted her way through the crooked passage with such ease and certainty, that I found wo were " screwing " along at full speed before I well knew wo had got clear of the pier. There are very few prettier scenes than is the one «uddenly revealed as we leave Victoria harbour to cross the Gulf of Georgia. To my left, the coast-line of Vancouver Island vividly recalls many familiar spots on our British coasts ; its bold rocky sea- line is cut into numerous bays and creeks ; above the cliffs, which arc far from lofty, grassy lawn-like patches of open ground slope gently towards the timber which crowns to their very summits the rounded metamorphic hills, so strangely different from those of the mainland, which we can see in the distance, towering apparently into the very sky ; their summits, white with perpetual snow, appear more like fleecy clouds than the craggy outlines of stupendous mountains. Mount Baker, one of the most conspicuous of the group, has (so say the Indians) been seen to throw out smoke from its lofty summits by men still alive. To my right, the Straits of Juan de Juca resembles a vast canal, shut in on either side by an impenetrable mat of dark- green foliage. Straight chead, a mere speck in the hazy distance, I can make out the famed San Juan island. For a wonder the sea was quite smooth, and it was amusing to watch the velvet surf-ducks (Felionetta 2^erspiciUata), in flocks of four and five, sitting on the water, and looking wonderingly at tlio vessel, until one imagined they must be struck down by the ship's cut- water ; not so, however : they just pop under at the right moment, to re-appear in the ripple at the stern, fluttering their wings, and uttering their cry, as if the performance was altogether an excellent joke. Save the spouting of a distant whale or two, or the little bands of black fish that roll on, on and on, through the blue water, without any other apparent object than that of exhibiting their indiarubl)er like backs, there was nothing of any particular interest to while the time away. The countless islands wo threaded our way amidst wcro all pretty much alike, and except that they differed in size and shape from each other, one might have supposed, without drawing largely upon his imagination, that the whole group, had been chopped off" one by on^ was cil the cc captaij not cc situatcl water J Townj Sonne whicli are it| with THE MOUND PRAIRIES. 345 iliicss onr I of tlieir heels on captain's ,""Star- )f incom- appcared 3entratccl >n to me, through bund wo had got the one Gulf of vividly cky sea- hicli aro 3 gently rounded ainland, ;he very e fleecy Mount 3ay the by men ibles a dark- ance, I sing to cks of at the ship's ament, s, and cellent bands ithout •ubber le the ; were shape irgcly ff one by one from the mainland ; Vancouver Island being the outer slice, was cut off in a junk, in order to get rid of the ragged inequahtica of the coast-line. As we round a sandy point towards sundown, the captain points out — a little v^illage I should call it ; at any rate, I can- not count more than twenty small log and frame houses , picturesquely situated in a sheltered nook, overlooking a wide lake-like expanse of water. This place, I am further informed, is " a city," named Port Townsend, and that the wide tract of water is the entrance to Puget Sound. The Otter's head bears straight for a ricketty old pier, which runs out about fifty or more feet into the sea, but so covered aro its supports with barnacles, mussels, green tangle weed, together with hosts of curious molluscs, up to the tide-line (which tide, by the way, is at this present time at its lowest), that I can hardly divest my- self of the idea this pier must have been lifted up in all its entirety from out old Neptune's realms. Climbing the steps was a service of danger I did not accomplish very creditably ; in my zeal to capture a chiton I had not seen before, I reached a little too far over the edge of the narrow ladder by which the ascent had to be made from the boat — it being, as I have said, low-water — to the top of the pier leading to the "city," both feet suddenly slipped on the green sea- weed ; I clutched a bunch of mussels, but their beards snapped like thread, down I slid, over the ladder, towards the water, into which I went souse; the boat, perhaps fortunately for me, having been pulled away for the ship. This would not have been so bad a mishap, if the damage had been entirely of a personal nature; as ill-fate would have it, two Indians, " deck hands," were following me, and as I spread my legs over the edges of the ladder, a system I was wont to adopt in early life when practising perilous descents on the stair- rail, of course my Indian friends were swept off the treacherous sea- stairs, as spiders are scattered by a, housemaid's broom. I could swim well, so was not much frightened, but ere either of us could reach the ladder, the boat had been turned, and was close upon us ; spite of all my shouts to be let alone, the would-be humane boatman made savage plunges at me with his boat-hook, which were just as likely to split my skull as fish me out — the latter was, however, my fate ; the hook fixed in my coat, I was dragged into the boat nolens volens, shaken violently, turned upside down, and when reinstated on my legs, very nearly choked by having strong rum poured down my throat, and all this without being allowed a moment's chance to utter a single remonstraii'^e, or doing so to be entirely disregarded. The savages, deemed of no value, got off safely, apart from the wetting and fright. Now all this arose from a wish to gratify my curiosity to visit the city, added to a greedy desire to capture a new species of mollusc. I rowed to the Otter, changed my clothes, and made a second attempt to scale the ladder, and i\m time very successfully. The captain was 340 FROM VANCOUVER ISLAND TO a^Y»litillg my arrival, and, having regaled himself with a hearty laugh at my niistbrtuno, wo adjourned to the residence of the United States official, whoso duty it was to sign the requisite papers, connected with tho customs. The office of this magnate was a small dingy room, its only furnituro two rocking-chairs, a square table, a six-shooter sus- ju^uded from tho wall, a huge china spittoon, and tho " Customs " i-oprosontative, who occupied one of tho rocking-chairs. I include the iimiate amongst tho furniture, because he gave me the idea of being a jmrt of it ; for, in addition to the chair ho sat on, his right leg dangled over tho arm of tho second chair, whilst the otlier reposed on tho tiiblo J a plug of tobacco, like a small plank, filled his loft hand, and, judging from tho semicircular spaces visible In its ends and sides, it was pretty evident Seth Naylor — such, I found, was the officer's name — made good use of his incisor teeth ; and, as he rolled round tho mass of tol)acco thus bitten off from cheek to cheek, anon squirting out a rivulet of brown fluid, I could not help thinking that the Rodent and Ruminant wcro closely aUied in Seth's organization. The process of signing completed, we loft the office and its occupant pretty nearly in tho Hinne position as wo found him. There was but little worth noticing in tho city except gaudy bar-rooms, billiard and barbers' saloons, dry goods stores, and half-naked savages, who were everywhere crouched in corners, or at tho entrances to the stores and bar-rooms. Ono particularly distinguished individual, who, I am told, calls hunself tho Chief of the Clallums, and is perhaps the only representative of tho aristocracy in Port Townsend, bears the distinguished title of " Tho Duko of York." The peer was .decidedly intoxicated — right royally drunk, in plainer English ; but, far gone as he ^m^, still ho discerned I was u stranger and a " King George man." Staggering towards me, tho " duko " held out his filthy hand in order to grasp mine, at the Siimo tuuo saying, as best ho cruld, between the hiccoughs, " Patletch- limi, patletch-lum " (Give rum, give rum). I felt more inchned to give tho disgusting beast a kick. If there is one type of mankind more degraded than another, it is a drunken savage. The tide was rapidly rising, and the captain anxious to start, so I had no further time allowed mo to investigate tho " lions " of this diminutive city. Puget Sound, up which wo steamed in the morning — having raado fast tlie Otter during tho night to a tree, much in the same fashion as adopted in tethering a horse — is, I should say, unlike any other natural tidal canal in the known world; its length, from its oommoncement in the Straits of Juan do Juca to its end at the town of Olympia, is, in round numbers, two hundred miles, l)ut of varying width ; and although numerous streams, fed by the mountain snow, en\pty into it — I may name, as examples, the Nisqually, Dwamish, Snohomish, and Puyallup : all these streams are rapid, intensely cold, The THE MOUND PRAIRIES. 347 y laugh I States ed with oom, ita ;er siis- istoms " udo the being a dangled on tho lid, and, sides, it s name ho mass ig out a ent and ocess of early in worth barbers' rywhero r-rooms. himself iative of Df " Tho roj^ally iscerned irds me, I, at the 'atletch- . to give id more irt, so I of this -having le same tike any Tom its lie town varying II snow, tvamish, 'ly cold. and short of extent — yet the waters of Puget Sound are nearly as briny salt at the head of it as they are at its junction with the sea. "We shape our course betwixt beautiful islands, now winding through narrow crooked passages, wherein wo brush the r'^h green foliage of the pines as we puff beneath their pleasant shade, and so frighten tho grebes, ducks, and glossy green cormorants busy oiirn- ing their breakfasts, that they scarcely know where to fly, and in their terror often strike the vessel, and full stunned into the water. Out again from these snug retreats, to coast along past immense sand- spits, in which are numerous shallow bays, the most perfect little nurseries imaginable for the baby-salmonidas, wherein to gain strength to ba^^'-le with the world of waters, into which they will sooner or later make their way ; on som.e of these sand-flats, which are covered by the tide at high water, I notice long lines of tiny hurdles as if for folding liliputian flocks of sheep, but I find the sheep enfolded within these strange inclosures are herrings ; when the " run " is at its full, the fish come up with the tide in veritable legions, and passing through small openings, purposely formed to beguile and entrap them, are left by the receding water in tons upon the sand. Thus easily the wily savage reaps his harvest of glittering fishes. Not only as " fish-farms " do tho Indi.ms use these sand-spits, but they are to them also game preserves ; they waste no powder or shot, but wisely watch the habits of the wild-fowl, and ingeniously turn the knowledge so obtained to their own advantage. Numbers of ducks of different species quit tlvp bays, harbours, and inland waters at twilight, to go seaward for the night, returning again at " sun-up " to their favourite feeding-grounds. Tho " south-southerly " duck, as it is called by the fur-traders (Harelda f/iacialis), usually gives the signal, by uttering its peculiar cry, which has been construed into the words "south-southerly" often and rapidly repeated, then up gets flock after flock of whistle-wings, bald- pates, butter-bills, stock-duck, and a host besides, and in wedge-shaped masses wing their -way close to the water, eager to reach the open sea. Here and there these sand-spits run out into long narrow points, which the ducks cross in their flight, and at these places it is tho savage intercepts them. The long stiff poles I can see on the point, as we pass along, are for the purpose of supporting the nets, which are stretched like telegraph wires from one polo to another; tiny lairs constructed of brushwood and sanded over, to deceive the wild-fowl, are just discernible near the foot of each pole. Every one of these cells conceals a savage, who creeps in just before tho " bkds fly," and awaits their coming like a crafty spider ; whiz tho unsuspecting flock of ducks comes against the net, some are knocked down to be instantly seized by the human spider and summarily despatched, others get entangled in the nets, and are thus easily caught, and very many make theu' escape. Now we glide along beneath high rocky bluffs, overshadowed I 348 FROM VANCOUVER ISLAND TO on ovcry side by massive pino-trocs. Tlio Donglas pino (Ahies Doiighmi). Tho yellow fir {A. grandh) aiul the Oregon cedar {TJnuja glrfantea), alike conspicuous for their immense size and altitude, look proudly down upon the green and tangled underbrush, which like an impenetrable ])rake fills the spaces betwixt them. In the crevices of the sandy rock, sand-martins (Ilirimdo riparia) were busy excavating, building, and otherwise attending to their domestic duties. On the loftiest pin- nacles the bald-headed eagle (Haliaetus Iciico-ceiihalm) might be seen enthroned, spreading its powerful wings, and with half-closed eyes, enjoying the warm rays of the morning sun ; whilst lower down, perched upon the splintered ledges, tho American osprey (Pan d ion carolinensis) and the belt kingfisher {Alcede alcyon) are watching warily for a chance to pounce upon some passing fish. Now and then we pass by an Indian village, placed on the bank of some clear stream, the flro "caneim"* or steamer adding much to tho terror of the dingy little urchins playing on the greensward ; like frightened rabbits, when a fox or a keeper suddenly appears in the "warren, away they scamper, and like rabbits, too, dash head first into the conical lodges dotted picturesquely about beneath the shadows of tho trees. The men are fishing, and we get several fine salmon in the way of barter, which are handed up the steamer's side I'rom out the frail canoes of the Red- men. These salmon (Salmo quinnat) are taken by trolling, the lino being made fast to the paddle is jerked in the act of propelling tho canoe, and the slightest tug is readily felt by tho paddler. We reach our disembarking place, somii few miles above the regular pier, landing at Steilacome, a small town built for tho supply of the United States garrison. My destination — tho Puget Sound Company's trading-post — is about two miles from the landing. I climb a very stiff ascent to reach the more level timbered land, and somewhat out of breath seat myself on a log, to have a good look round. On every side the scenery — massive and noble — suggested the idea tli.,' it was planned on a scale three times the dimensions of anything I had qyqx seen before. At every bend of the singular tidal canal, as I looked down upon its glassy surface, varying scenes of the wildest beauty burst into view. The dense gloomy forest, clothing the mountain sides from the water to the snow-line, seemed alone monotonous, from presenting an unbroken surface of' green; and it was quite a relief to see eagles and vultures soaring lazily in tho lurid air, and to watch the water-fowl flapping along close to the water, quacking angrily at being disturbed in their siesta by the tiny fleet of canoes just discerni- ble, gliding silently along beneath the shadows of the overhanging trees. Yet with all this magnificence fronting me, behind, as I com- mence my journey to the trading-post, there is no lack of scenes more home-like in their aspect; a gravelly road winds along through * Fire " caneim," or cauoo, id tho Indian naiuo for a steaiu-vessjl. lawn-lik( , Ponder o; • pino groA a Druid, beneath the left, ! tho work i lakes of mercury, .mental j -aheep ai ; grassy n fEnglish I had not 1 hundred lost in ( come u] , w to say, t panion, linger i either s Mound days afl reach t] Mounte like con nothing en ^asi prairies The meadow them 01 •four, til fitial er Their r five feel potatoe the Fu be seei minstei river, i Puget may in BumasE .„ VOL. THE MOUND PEAIBIES. 340 oiighmi). ihjanfea), tlly down )Oii(3trfil)lo bo Riintly Imildiiig, icHt pin- t 1)0 Hoeu sed oyes, 1, |")crchocl olinensis) ily for a pass by I, the flro igy littlo ), wlion a scamjicr, OS dotted ! men aro er, whioh. the Red- , the lino Iling tlio regular 'ly of the ompaiiy's lb a very at out of )n every it it was had ever 1 looked t beauty Qountain tus, fi-om relief to to watch igrily at disceriii- hanging 3 1 com- l scenes through 1 -like awn-liKo prairies dotted with graceful clumps of the Pitch pine (Pinm Ponder om), the only place west of the cascades I ever saw this splendid pine growing : groves of oak {Quercus garrtjana) that would have inado a Druid, however ancient, youthful in heart, if not in years, to wander beneath their leafy shelter, stretched away to the right hand and to the left, in lines so regular that one could hardly help thinking that the work of man must have been concerned in planting them. Beautiful lakes of fresh water, glittering in the sunlight like tiny seas of mercury, looked as if they had been purposely excavated for orna- mental purposes, an idea rendered the more impressive by the flocks of sheep and herds of domestic cattle browsing peaceably round their grassy margins. Everything about was so suggestive of a fine old English farm, that it was really very hard to resist the illusion that I had not fallen suddenly upon a civilised land, cultivated by man for hundreds of years, and adorned by touches of his highest art. Quito lost in contemplation of the homelike scene I had so unexpectedly come upon, I did not observe the approach of the chief trader. Dr. , whose name I need not give, but of whom I may be permitted to say, that a kinder friend, more hospitable host, or pleasanter com- panion, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find. We need not linger round the " trading-post ;" there is little worthy of observation, either scenic or architectural, to detain us: our mission is to tho Mound Prairies ; to visit which, I start with the Doctor as guide, a few days after my arrival. The journey will occupy four days, two to reach the prairie and two to return again to the " trading-post." Mounted on sturdy mustangs, we jog along through such a park- like country that I can hardly believe the Doctor when he tells mo nothing has evjr been done to improve it. It may be of interest en ]^assant to glance very briefly at the ge'^'^'^al character of the prairies common in North-western America. The lower level prairies are tide-lands, very analogous to the saline meadows so common on the eastern coast. The salt water overflows them only at its highest periods, which may happen three, or perhaps four, times in a year. If, however, this overflow is prevented by arti- ficial embankment, these lands are rich and fertile beyond description. Their natural herbage is a tall, succulent grass, which grows four and five feet in height ; but when cleared of the grass I have seen splendid potatoes uiid other vegetables grown upon these tidal prairies. On the Eraser, near its mouth, capital examples of these tide-lands may be seen from the steamer by the passenger en route to New West- minster ; examples are also to be met with at the mouth of the Nainimo river, round Shoalwater Bay, on the banks of the Columbia, and in Puget Sound. Higher up the courses of the principal rivers — I may instance the Columbia, at Fort Vancouver, as one case, and the Bumass prairies, on the Eraser, as another — are examples of lands VOL. XVIII. 2 A 350 FBOM VANCOUVER ISLAND TO lying below the level of the summer innndation, which are entirely covered with snow-water from Juno to August. Hero embank- ing is of no avail, but so fertile is the ground that crops put iu after the subsidence of the floods are found to flourish quite as well as if tilled earlier. I rowed over the Sumass prairies in a whale-boat in June, when, with the exception of a high ridge peeping up hero and there, and the cotton-wood trees, flooded to their branches, appear- ing as though they grew from out of the water, not a sign of land or vegetation was visible. In August following I measured the stalks of some grass, picked on the prairie after the water had gone, and found the grass had grown to a length of six feet three inches; in seven weeks all the Cyperaceae grow with the same wild pro- fusion, after the summer inundation. I placed a very lean ox on this prairie (belonging her Majesty's commission) after the waters subsided, and had it killed at Christmas, when it weighed eleven hundred pounds, and was so fat that the men grumbled to eat it. I merely mention this in proof of the nutritious qualities of the herbage. Still higher up the rivers, frequently occurring among the craggy summits of the Cascades and Rocky Mountains, one constantly comes upon small openings, misnamed "wet prairies," clad thickly with GramineaB, CyperaceeB, and Equisetaceae, all of the most luxuriant growth. By far the most interesting kind of prairies are those which are designated " dry prairies," which are clearly alluvial river deposits, although most of them are raised over one hundred feet above tho present water-level, ancJ are covered in many cases with a rich black loam, three feet and over in depth, the result of vegetable decom- position. These fertile patches of land produce all the plants adapted to the climate in startling profusion. The Nisqually plains, over a portion of which we are jogging along, in extent measure tliirfcy square miles. The Nisqually river — we shall cross it soon — may be considered in some degree the southern boundary, whilst the Puyallup river washes the northern border. Conspicuous from their extreme singularity are tho "shingle terraces," rising successively from fifteen to fifty feet high, and taking a course, as a rule, parallel to that of the mountain ranges. This terrace formation is common both on the east and west sides of the Rocky Mountains. Near the Rocky Mountain House, Dr. Hector speaks of a valley excavated in the cretaceous strata by the ending influence of the North Saskatchawan river. "In this valley there are three * terraces,' extensively developed at twenty, sixty, and one hundred and ten feet above water-level."* The terraces appear to be confined to valleys, through which flow large streams, imtil arriving near the mountains. " Then they gradually spread out, and at last cover the whole country along the base of the mountains, filling up the hollows and valleys of the outer ranges to the depth of seveiT,! * Palliser's Expl. hundred i " shingle liundred than tho the Nisqi Nevada, « and from curious t away by pursuit powerful scattered and far jets of V metal no have bee: transporl be whirl( rocky rei hoarded, triving. the resu' destructi wait unt respecti> miles of stream ( by the r the enti words, it is to and to I and seti^ Ontl bases of way thi and agi Rocky herds oi Irid( face is remark famed ' tains, ^ where, THE MOUND PRAIRIES. 351 le n entirely ombank- put iu as well lale-boat up here appear- land or Btalks one, and inches ; ikl pro- ox on waters u eleven at it. I herbage. ( craggy ily comes kly with luxuriant •se which deposits, ibove tho !ch black 3 decom- 3 adapted LS, over a fcy square ansidered 3r washes larity are fifty feet 3iountain and west n House, ta by the is valley ixty, and 3S appear us, until out, and 18, filling if seveiT,! liundrod feet." At Cypress Hills, east of tho Rocky Mountains, those "shingle beds" were observed at an altitude of three thousand eight liundred feet Cibove the sea. This is, however, an older formation than tho river terraces. I observed similar " termces " to those on the Nisqually plains at Navada, on tho western slope of tho Sierra Nevada, at an altitude of more than three thousand feet above tho sea, and from two hundred to three hundred feet in thickness. It was curious to soe the gold-seekers washing these groat cliffs of shinglo away by the " hydraulic method " of " washing for gold." In pursuit of tlio hidden treasure, the sharpest eye, if assisted even by a powerful lens, is powerless to discover it, so minute are the particles Bcattered tlirough this mountain of fragments, broken from adjacent and far away rocks; the miner simply does rapidly, by delivering jets of water, under high pressure, directly against tho cliff from metal nozzles, as used in our fire-engines, what frost, rain, and snow have been carrying on slowly, thouf*h surely, for ages : the latter three transport the produce of their erosive labour down the :V; reams, to be whirled eventually by the eddying water into some holo, crack, or rocky receptacle, to be there left for man to discover, coll'^cted and hoarded, so to speak, in a bank of deposit of the Creator's own con- triving. The gold-washer, on the other hand, does his work rapidly ; the result ol minutes may represent centuries when compared with the destruction carried on by natural agencies. He could not afford to wait until the materials washed out settled again in obedience to their respective specific gravities ; but to avoid this, the washer constructs miles of wooden troughs, or " flumes," through which pours a swift stream of water, carrying along with it all the shinglo syringed down by the nozzles. At short distances from each other, extending along the entire length of the " flume," " police " are stationed, or, in other words, there are small deposits of mercury, called riffles, whose duty it is to seize upon all the golden fugitives, be they large or diminutive, and to hold them prisoners until fire eventually volatilizes the gaoler and sets the captive free, for man to fashion and use as he deems best. On the great Columbian desert — on the Spokan plain, and along tho bases of the Galton mountains, past which the Kootanie river finds its way through the Tobacco plains — on Vancouver Island, at Nainimo, and again in the '• Flathead " country on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains, where the " Flathead " Indians rear their immense herds of horses — similar terraces, shingly plains, and dry prairies prevail. I ride up on some of these terraces we are passing along by; the sur- face is quite clear of timber, but clothed with " bunch grass," a festuca remarkable for growing in tufts or bunches, differing entirely from the famed " buffblo grass " found on the plains east of the Rocky Moun- tains, which is a chondroxium. No underbrush is to be seen any- where, and there is not a single obstacle to impede one from galloping 2 a2 352 FROM VANCOUYER ISLAND TO just where his fancy leads him, save the gullies, cut hy tiny streams through these terraces, which necessitate a scramble down and a cHmb up the opposite side. As to the age of the terrace formation, I should hesitate to offer an opinion. The terraces placed the greater distance from the coast, and on the higher elevaUons, are, in all probability, of a greater antiquity than are these we are traversing ; and marked alterations must have taken place in the rearrangement of the materials composing them whilst the continent was being gradually upheaved. Dr. Hector, with whom I travelled through California, thinks — and I am quite disposed to agree with him, although I do not set myself up as a profound thinker on matters geological — that " the shores of the intricate chan- nels and inlets of the Pacific coast of British North-western America, if elevated from the sea, would present but a slight difference from the sides of the narrow valleys in the Eocky Mountains, at an altitude of three thousand five hundred feet." It is very difficult to say whether the continent has been, in later times, depressed in the mass, or whether upheaval has been greater in the centre than along its margins. The latter theory, for many reasons space forbids my naming, appears to be the more reasonable supposition. Another thing puzzles me as I ride a^ong. Lakes, large and small, are everywhere visible on these plains, having no apparent, inlet or outlet for their contents ; and yet the water, as I drink it, is cold, fresh, and pure, as if from a bubbling spring. The shingle, washed clean like that on a sea-beach, round their margins, indicates a rise and fall in the water, yet the Doctor tells me few, if any, of the lakes are ever known to dry up, and further, that they never grow muddy or become stagnant. One can hardly reconcile the belief in a subter- ranean supply, and yet it appears very difficult to account f^^r their purity and permanence on these shingle deposits in any other way. Encircling all their pools, are splendid growths of cotton-wood, maple, and oak. As the eye wanders over thid immense parklike-looking tract, the surface appeal's broken by numerous small rounded hills, all covered alike with " bunch grass," reminding one of the " islands," so called, on the Texan prairies ; now and then clumps of fir-trees (-4. grandis) grow on these mounds : their graceful branches touch the ground, then the trees taper gradually to a sharp point, an appearance suggesting green sugar-loaves. Backing up the entire scene, though forty miles away, Mount Rainer stands massive and majestic. It seems to me, as I gaze on its glittering white mantle of perpetual snow, that I could stretch out my hand and touch it — and yet I know it is so very distant — it has no apparent summit (I do not know the altitude), vanishing in misty cloud, sky and mountain seem blended together into impene- trable obscurity. THE MOUND PRAIRIES. 353 ny streams nd a climb to offer an coast, and r antiquity mnst have )sing them ector, Avith e disposed 1 profound icate chan- 1 America, 3 from the altitude of y whether 31 whether fins. The appears to and small, it, inlet or it, is cold, le, washed ates a rise ' the lakes ow muddy I a subter- I f'^r their )ther way. od, maple, tract, the II covered called, on dis) grow , then the ing green les away, as I gaze [d stretch istant — it ishing in impenc- I did not observe many mammals, but the feathered community was extensively represented, particularly the Flycatchers and their allies, a fact easily accounted for when viewing the varied species of flowers everywhere decking the grassy undulations, and the swarms of insects attracted by their fragrance and nectar. It is singular that the Badger {Taxidea Americana) and the Cayote (canis-latrans), should be unknown west of the cascades, and yet both are found abundantly by only crossing the water-shed. We stop to bait the mustangs at Olympia "city," a small col- lection of wooden houses situated at the head of Puget Sound, a place not remarkable for anything in particular except stores, bil- liard-saloons, barbers'-poles, a post-ofl&ce, and groups of idlers sitting in the shade "whittling," chewing, and contemplating their toes, which, as a rule, were elevated far above the level of their heads. A pleasant ride through very much the same character of country brings us, near sundown, to a small log shanty close by a stream. The Doctor being known to the oAvner, we were soon accommodated with supper and a shake-down for the night. As we are " saddling-up" to start, the most terrible shouts and yells I ever heard came pealing down the valley. The settler, seizing his rifle, rushes up the course of the river, and we, as soon as we can manage to secure the mustangs, start in pursuit. The shouting continues, and, as the voice evidences intense terror, we think Indians have seized upon somebody, v/hom they are roughly handling, an idea confirmed by hearing the crack of the rifle. The slioutuig has ceased, and it is with no little difficulty that wo are enabled to discover the whereabouts of the settler and the frightened individual who had called so lustily for help. We come suddenly upon them, more by good luck than good management. The cause of all the fuss turned out to be a large puma (Felis concolor). It lay, dead and bloody, near a bullock, which it had dragged down and killed. The strength of the beast must have been prcdigions, for the steer weighed (so said its owner) five and a half hundredweight. The puma had evidently fastened on the back of the bullock's neck, and killed it by biting through the cervical vertebra?, betwixt the atlax and dentata. AVhilst the puma was quietly gorging its'^lf, a farm-labourer, by birth a German, happened to pass near it. H is dog making a yapping noiso, induced the Ger- man to see what it meant, when to his astonishment he came jilump iipon the panther, or " painter," so called l)y the settlers. Of course the beast showed symptoms of anger at being thus disturbed by ex- hibiting its teeth, gi'owling, and lushing its sides with its tail ; further than this, the animal had done nothing more than stand defiantly by its prize. The German, afraid to run, had seized a rail from off the fence, aganist which he had backed, and placed himself in an attitude of 354 FROM VANCOUYER ISLAND TO defence, trusting to Providence and his throat to do all the rest. His rescue was easily completed by the settler's rifle. Pumas are very destructive to the flocks of sheep kept by the Puget Sound Com- pany. I must not linger longer on the way — though numerous objects come under my view, as wo ride along, well worthy of being described. We push through a kind of gap in the timber, which is thicker here than I have seen it anywhere along our route ; and imagine, if you can, a level surface, extending as far as eye can follow it, so thickly covered with conical mounds, from five to eight feet in height and from four to six feet in diameter at their bases, that it was almost im- possible to walk about amidst them. I can find no comparison which will bring this wondrous place familiarly before the reader ; it was like to nothing I had ever gazed on before, and I have never seen any formation, even approximately, resembling it since. I examined and measured dozens of the mounds, and several I contrived to dig open, but only to find the whole substance was shingle, kept together by a kind of calcareous concrete. All were co^'ered with bunch grass, and on most of them a botanist might have gathered many species of flowering plants. I looked at them from a height, I scrambled about amongst them for miles, sat upon their summits, and held council with my friend the Doctor ; but all my theorizing failed to satisfy me as to how these thousands upon thousands of mounds, more or less exactly alike, and in contact at their bases, could have been formed. There was no evidence of a current having " flowed " in a given direction in bygone ages, and so caused eddies, by which mounds might have been formed. No ; it was, and is, to mo still inexplicable. I saw several prairies subsequent to this visit to " the mound prairie," with small mounds sparsely scattered about over tho surface — mounds too, in shape and size, very analogous to those of tho '* mound prairie," and it is just possible they will eventually be found to have the same origin ; still it is the vast aggregation of mounds, covering miles of land, and that so thickly as to leave no room to jam in another, that bothers me. It may not be amiss, having confessed my own utter inability to form even a reasonable theory as to how the mounds were either built up or deposited, to give the opinions of other observers. Mr. George Gibbs, who was attached to the United States Boundary Commission, and of whom I can say, from personal knowledge, that there are very few keener observers, supposes " the mounds might have been produced by the immense growth of the 'giant root' (Megarhiza Oregana), forming a nucleus around which the soil has been gradually washed away."* From this opinion I must beg leave to differ in toto. I have often seen tho plant growing further south, but * P. R. R. vol. i. p. 400, n. ing tl THE MOUND PRAIEIES* 355 His re very Com- ruerous being to dig never to produce mounds more than do trees or a stump of any kind. More than this, supposing a plant had once grown on every mound, why are they all dead ? unless they killed one another for lack of room to spread, not a Hkely occurrence ; and even then we might hope to find the plants on more open spaces, a task that is impossible, because it does not grow anywhere near the mound prairies. Mr. Gibbs has, I find, altered his fii-st opinion on reference to his Geological Report.* He there says, speaking of the " mounds," " their origin is clearly duo to water." Dr. Cooper, United States, who reported on the botany of the Pacific Rail Road survey says: "I woiild suggest tliat there the mounds may have been produced by eddies and ivhirlpooh, probably when Puget Sound formed the estuary of a great river like the Columbia, or perhaps were bunches of the great system of North-West Sounds, which extends from the Columbia river to Sitka."t To this theory I am somewhat disposed to be a convert, because I have many times seen the " tide rips," as they are named, in the Gulf of Georgia and Straits of Juan de Fuca, eddy round and round with such force that H.M.S. Satellite has been very nearly turned about by the circling force of the whirlpool. This whirling state of water is more particularly noticeable in Johnson's narrows, where the tides meet, which flow round the northern and southern ends of Vancouver Island. I can very clearly understand how mounds could he raised in this manner, because on the sand plains at Walla- Walla, on the Colum- bia, the wind does exactly the same thing with the sand, only in a lesser degree. But the numbers puzzle me still. I cannot help think- ing the mounds were all made at the same time, and if so, the water must have been all whirlpools. I could have lingered round this wonderful prairie for months without wearying, but the Doctor wants to be ofi" home, so I am reluctantly hm'ried away. We did not retiu'n by the same route we came, still the country traversed was so similar that describing it would be only to repeat what I have already stated. Aa we skirted the timber I noticed small herds of white-tailed deer {C. leueurus) and mule-deer (G. macrotis) browsing peacefully within the shadow of the massive pines, and every now and then one's reverie was broken by the whirring noise and sharp cluc-cluo of the dusky and rufi'ed grouse, roused from their siestas in the flowery herbage by the trampHng of the mustangs. The shore-lark, blue-bird, and western song-sparrow lent the melody of their sweet vo^cea to cheer the open glades, assisted by the sand-hill crane, as, stalking like a feathered-wizard through the grais, it screamed discordantly a kind of refrain. Tits, nuthatches, and golden crests, were busy in the pine- trees hunting for insects, whilst further back from the recesses of the forest came the rap rap rap and laugh of the log-cock, the wild shriek * Vol. i. p, 48G, n. t Nat. Hist. Washiugtou, p. 18. n. mmmm 356 VANCOUVEE ISLAND TO THE MOUND PRAIRIES. of Stellers jay, and the gurgling jollity of the barking-crow, which appears to be everlastingly making jokes and laughing at its own iiin. It was a truly enjoyable ride, and I felt sorry when, towards the end of the fourth day, the appearance of sheep and bullocks revealed our near proximity to the " trading-post," which we reached in time for supper. This was my first, my last, my only visit to the " Mound Prairies," the remembrance of which I shall ever cherish as being tho most wonderful place I ever beheld. I