SUNSET CANADA, 
 
 BRITISH COLUMBIA AND BEYOND 
 
"5££ AMERICA FIRST'' SERIES 
 
 Each in one volume, decorathe cover, profusely illustrated 
 
 CALIFORNIA, ROMANTIC AND BEAUTIFUL 
 
 By George Wharton James $6.00 
 
 NEW MEXICO: The Land of the Delight Makers 
 By George Wharton James $6.00 
 
 SEVEN WONDERLANDS OF THE AMERICAN 
 WEST 
 
 By Thomas D. Murphy $6.00 
 
 A WONDERLAND OF THE EAST: The Moun- 
 tain and Lake Region of New England and 
 Eastern New York 
 By William Copeman Kitchin, Ph. D, $6.00 
 
 ON SUNSET HIGHWAYS (California) 
 By Thomas D. Murphy $6.00 
 
 TEXAS, THE MARVELLOUS 
 
 By Nevin O. Winter $6.00 
 
 ARIZONA, THE WONDERLAND 
 
 By George Wharton James $6.00 
 
 COLORADO: THE QUEEN JEWEL OF THE 
 ROCKIES 
 
 By Mae Lacy Baggs $6.00 
 
 OREGON, THE PICTURESQUE 
 
 By Thomas D. Murphy $6.00 
 
 FLORIDA, THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT 
 
 By Nevin O. Winter $6.00 
 
 SUNSET CANADA (British Columbia and Beyond) 
 
 By Archie Bell $6.00 
 
 ALASKA, OUR BEAUTIFUL NORTHLAND 
 
 OF OPPORTUNITY 
 
 By Agnes Rush Burr $6.00 
 
 UTAH: THE LAND OF BLOSSOMING VAL- 
 LEYS 
 
 By George Wharton James $6.00 
 
 NEW ENGLAND HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS 
 FROM A MOTOR CAR 
 
 By Thomas D. Murphy $6.00 
 
 VIRGINIA: THE OLD DOMINION. As seen 
 from its Colonial waterway, the Historic River 
 James 
 
 By Frank and Cortelle Hutchins $5-oo 
 
 L. C. PAGE & COMPANY 
 53 Beacon Street Boston, Mass. 
 
Twin Falls in Yoho Valley. 
 
 (See page 279.) 
 
I^ U iSI O li/ 1 COLUMBIA 
 C><A^AL)A BEYOND 
 
 An Account of its Settlement; Its Progress from the 
 Early Days to the Present, including a Review of the 
 Hudson's Bay Company; Its Amazing Variety of 
 Climate; Its Charm of Landscape; Its Unique Cities 
 and Attractive Towns and Their Industries; A Sur- 
 vey of the Different Peoples to be Found There, 
 including the Japanese and Doukhobors ; An Analysis 
 of What it Offers in Opportunity to the Home Seeker, 
 the Agriculturist, the Business Man, the Sportsman 
 and the Traveller. 
 
 BY 
 
 ARCHIE BELL 
 
 Author of 
 The Spell of China," "The Spell of Egypt," 
 "The Spell of the Holy Land," etc. 
 
 With a map and fifty-six plates, 
 of which eight are in colour 
 
 THE PAGE COMPANY 
 BOSTON '^ PUBLISHERS 
 
Copyright, 1918, 
 By The Page Company 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 Third Impression, April, 1925 
 
 Mkde in U. S. A. 
 
TO 
 
 KATHERINE M. BELL 
 
 M150? 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 One who has cruised to Bermuda or Porto Rico from 
 the eastern seaboard of the United States has known the 
 joys of Atlantic travel, but he has not crossed the Atlantic 
 Ocean. In the same way, the tourist who has crossed 
 British Columbia has known the joys of the mountains. 
 He has placed his feet on glacial ice, followed trails to 
 snowy peaks, prowled among forbidding chasms and 
 plucked flowers from the terraces of the valleys. Ang- 
 ling, hunting, canoeing, camping — all the sports of the 
 Alpinist have contributed to those rare days of his excur- 
 sion into one of the most satisfying regions of the North 
 American continent. 
 
 But if he halt at the line that divides the provinces, even 
 at the mountain roof where the great trail divides and 
 the waters begin their descent toward the two oceans that 
 wash continental shores, he has not seen the Rocky Moun- 
 tains of Canada. To turn back at the provincial bound- 
 ary posts would be like discontinuing the Atlantic cruise 
 at an island washed by the Gulf Stream. To know the 
 mountains and to experience the full joys of making 
 friends with them, to survive the first impression of 
 austere rebuke, caused by their majestic and frigid hau- 
 teur, one must ascend the great staircase from the Pacific 
 and follow the trails that lose themselves in the plains of 
 Alberta, where they have been erased by the settlers' plow. 
 Thus, while the following chapters relate primarily to the 
 Sunset Province of the Dom.inion of Canada, they also 
 
viii Foreword 
 
 continue the narrative of the Rocky Mountains Excursion 
 into Alberta. The volume contains no reference to the 
 latter province, however, excepting as concerns the tour- 
 ist resorts on the granite embankment at its western 
 boundary. 
 
 Archie Bell. 
 Cleveland. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Preface vii 
 
 I An Outpost of Empire i 
 
 II Victoria Regina ii 
 
 III Island of Romance 26 
 
 IV " Gentlemen Adventurers " 38 
 
 V The Island Highway 48 
 
 VI Memories of Norway 64 
 
 VII An Unfulfilled Prophecy 80 
 
 VIII Captain Vancouver's Namesake ... 95 
 
 IX " The Royal City " 113 
 
 X Vancouver's Side-trips 130 
 
 XI " The American Liverpool " .... 144 
 
 XII The City of Golden Memories . . . .162 
 
 XIII Orchards and Lakes 188 
 
 XIV " The Tour of the Lakes "..... 207 
 XV "What Would Jesus Do?" 229 
 
 XVI Through Ancient Gorges 252 
 
 XVII Among Lakes in the Clouds 272 
 
 XVIII Capital of the Rockies 291 
 
 Bibliography 3^7 
 
 Index 311 
 
 ix 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Twin Falls in Yoho Valley (In full colour). (See 
 page 2yp) ...... Frontispiece 
 
 MAP OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 
 
 Entrance to Victoria Harbour (In full colour) 
 
 Victoria, from House of Parliament . 
 
 Captain George Vancouver .... 
 
 Totems and Dug-out Canoes, Nootka Sound 
 
 Beginnings of Vancouver Island Town 
 
 Douglas Fir, on Island Highway (In full colour) 
 
 Totem Carved to Represent White Man 
 
 Indian Shrine for " Oosh-mish " 
 
 Firing Svend Foyu Harpoon Gun 
 
 Whales at Dock on Alberni Canal 
 
 Salmon Fishing .... 
 
 Logging on Vancouver Island 
 
 Sawmill, Alberni Canal . 
 
 Vancouver, from the Harbour . 
 
 " Two Sisters " guarding Vancouver Harbour 
 
 Big Trees in Stanley Park, Vancouver 
 
 SiwASH Rock, Stanley Park, Vancouver 
 
 The Fraser River (In full colour) . 
 
 Barges loaded with Salmon at Steveston . 
 
 Capilano Canyon Suspension Bridge (In full 
 
 colour) ..... 
 Prince Rupert and Harbour 
 
 Jasper Park Entrance and Government Building 152 
 
 154 
 156 
 158 
 
 Mount Edith Cavell 
 Mount Robson 
 Emperor Falls . 
 
 14 
 22 
 
 28 
 
 31 
 
 40 
 
 53 
 66 
 72 
 
 74 
 
 76 
 
 86 
 
 88 
 
 92 
 
 98 
 
 104 
 
 108 
 
 no 
 
 116 
 
 122 
 
 132 
 
 146 
 
xii List of Illustrations 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Mount Robson Glacier ..... i6o 
 
 A Gold Prospector 170 
 
 The Outside of a Gold Mine .... 174 
 
 The Inside of a Gold Mine 176 
 
 Indians Spearing Salmon ..... 191 
 
 Junction of Thompson Rivers, near Kamloops . 193 
 
 Hotel at Sicamous ... . . . . 196 
 
 Kettle Valley Railroad, overlooking Okanagan 
 
 Lake ........ 198 
 
 Cherries grown at Kelowna (In full colour) . 201 
 
 Trestle of Logs on Kettle Valley Route . . 210 
 
 Lake Christina (In full colour) .... 213 
 
 View of Nelson, from Kootenay River . . 217 
 
 " Big Billy," the " Record " Mountain Goat . 222 
 Indian Blanket Woven from Mountain Goat 
 
 Wool 224 
 
 Kootenay Lake ....... 226 
 
 Group of Doukhobors at Brilliant . . . 234 
 
 Peter Veregin, Head of Doukhobors . . . 246 
 
 Illecillewaet Glacier, near Glacier Station . 258 
 
 Trail to the Great Glacier .... 260 
 
 Mount Sir Donald . . . . . . 262 
 
 Christiaan Haesler, Swiss Guide . . . 264 
 
 The Great Divide ...... 281 
 
 Lake Louise and Victoria Glacier . . . 284 
 
 Valley of the Ten Peaks and Moraine Lake . 286 
 
 Difficult Climbing on Mount Lefroy . . . 289 
 
 Banff Springs Hotel ...... 294 
 
 Big Horn Rocky Mountain Sheep . . . 298 
 
 Herd of Buffalo at Banff ..... 300 
 
 Mount Rundle, near Banff .... 302 
 
 The Three Sisters, near Banff (In full colour) . 304 
 
SUNSET CANADA: 
 BRITISH COLUMBIA AND BEYOND 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 AN OUTPOST OF EMPIRE 
 
 There are many routes that lead to Canada, many- 
 ports on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that with char- 
 acteristic pride claim to be the principal gateways of the 
 Dominion. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of 
 highways, rivers, railroads and lakes that mark the bound- 
 ary crossing of visitors from other countries. Many 
 people prefer to cross the older provinces of the East 
 and the prairies of the vast territory that stretches from 
 the Great Lakes to Calgary before mounting the colossal 
 staircase that leads to the Rocky Mountains, the Sel- 
 kirks and the Coast Range. They prefer to descend the 
 pathway toward the setting sun that slopes abruptly to 
 the Pacific, with huge inlets, towering crags and tor- 
 rential streams that rush along madly towards the ocean 
 and in their wake leave a landscape that always has been 
 and always will be the delight and bewilderment of all 
 who see it. Statistics prove, however, that the majority 
 of trans-continental travelers in the western provinces of 
 the Dominion prefer the itinerary that takes them in the 
 opposite direction. Easterners going to the Pacific coast, 
 1 
 
SUNSET CANADA: 
 BRITISH COLUMBIA AND BEYOND 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 AN OUTPOST OF EMPIRE 
 
 There are many routes that lead to Canada, many- 
 ports on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that with char- 
 acteristic pride claim to be the principal gateways of the 
 Dominion. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of 
 highways, rivers, railroads and lakes that mark the bound- 
 ary crossing of visitors from other countries. Many 
 people prefer to cross the older provinces of the East 
 and the prairies of the vast territory that stretches from 
 the Great Lakes to Calgary before mounting the colossal 
 staircase that leads to the Rocky Mountains, the Sel- 
 kirks and the Coast Range. They prefer to descend the 
 pathway toward the setting sun that slopes abruptly to 
 the Pacific, with huge inlets, towering crags and tor- 
 rential streams that rush along madly towards the ocean 
 and in their wake leave a landscape that always has been 
 and always will be the delight and bewilderment of all 
 who see it. Statistics prove, however, that the majority 
 of trans-continental travelers in the western provinces of 
 the Dominion prefer the itinerary that takes them in the 
 opposite direction. Easterners going to the Pacific coast, 
 
Sunset Canada 
 
 usually allow themselves the luxury of crossing the 
 United States outward bound, and returning through 
 Canada. One who has crossed Canada from coast to 
 coast many times has no hesitancy in recommending this 
 route. Rather than not see the marvels of British Co- 
 lumbia at all, however, it is advisable to enter it through 
 the towering gateway that leads from Calgary, Alberta, 
 and plunge almost immediately into scenery that chal- 
 lenges comparison with anything in Europe, Asia, Africa 
 — anything to be encountered on the North American 
 continent. But one who may come or go as he chooses, 
 the conscientious traveler who feels that he owes himself 
 the rarest pleasures to be derived from observing the 
 wonders of nature, one who appreciates the psychological 
 effect of approaching a climax in travel as in drama or 
 fiction, will permit the curtain to rise as he stands on the 
 deck of a steamer entering the port of Victoria on Van- 
 couver Island. He will arrange that the rising curtain 
 reveal this enchanting picture of Canada's western gate- 
 way when he is forming his first impressions of the 
 Dominion, which, in many ways, is one of the most re- 
 markable stretches of land on earth — old enough to have 
 a history, but a country the present and future of which 
 is destined to be written larger in history than the busy 
 outside world is likely to realize without personal knowl- 
 edge of it gained by contact with its people, who have an 
 inheritance from nature such as few nations have had 
 since man began to make the earth his home. 
 
 Herein lies the first marvel of British Columbia ; it 
 seems to be so self sufficient and all embracing. Some 
 countries are dry or wet, hot or cold, flat or mountainous, 
 rich or poor in natural resources, and, after the brief 
 word of general description, anything that does not 
 
An Outpost of Empire S 
 
 adhere strictly to the rule may easily be put down as an 
 exception. One might expect an area so vast as the 
 Dominion of Canada to present physical diversities; but 
 to find them all in one province is a surprise to the tender- 
 foot who enters this outpost of the British Empire for 
 the first time. At whatever season of the year he ap- 
 proaches the harbour of Victoria it is likely that he will 
 quickly correct former opinions; and the paradox ex- 
 pands as he travels across the province and up and down 
 the lanes of its extensive territory ! 
 
 Canadians from Halifax to Victoria, and from To- 
 ronto to Hudson's Bay, have never forgiven Kipling for 
 his tribute to " Our Lady of the Snows," although he 
 seems to have given poetical expression to the popular 
 idea. The people of British Columbia are particularly 
 resentful when one speaks of the province as a mountain- 
 strewn land of snow, ice and rain. Is there not snow 
 also on the towering peaks of torrid Guatemala or Ecua- 
 dor next to the equator? And as for rain, it is a sad 
 country whose fields are not watered. The son and 
 daughter of " B. C." (as the province is usually called 
 somewhat affectionately by its population) and the 
 adopted son and adopted daughter, who have recently 
 made the province their home, insist that it is the " Land 
 of Sunshine," the land of scenery that can be matched 
 in few parts of the earth's surface, the land of well- 
 watered hills, valleys and tablelands that are perfectly 
 adapted to all kinds of agricultural pursuits — primarily, 
 however, the " Land of Sunshine." But there are within 
 the province vast stretches of land that are so dry that 
 sage-brush does not flourish as it does in the deserts of 
 Arizona and New Mexico, without the irrigating sys- 
 tems that are now bringing the melted snows of nearby 
 
Sunset Canada 
 
 peaks to the valleys of fruitful orchards. There are 
 parts of the province where the rain seems to fall con- 
 tinuously throughout the year, oozing into dense forests 
 that become almost tropical jungles, with long moss 
 hanging from trees to the tops of underbrush, where 
 sunlight seldom penetrates for more than a few short 
 hours at a time, and where the foot sinks deep into velvety 
 vegetation that exists only in a country of almost per- 
 petual downpour. There are great areas of towering 
 rock that are chiefly the abode of such creatures as moun- 
 tain goat and sheep. There are vast forest lands, the 
 extent of which is barely known to the official surveyors. 
 And there are tablelands and valleys of great fertility, 
 having just enough sunshine and just enough rain. The 
 region around Ashcroft is so mild that cattle have been 
 left on the range all winter. Even Victoria enjoys such 
 a mild winter that snow causes almost as much excite- 
 ment as it does in England and disappears almost as 
 readily. East of Prince Rupert, however, a farmer 
 claims to have registered the temperature at seventy de- 
 grees below zero. I have visited the Chinese Nankou 
 Pass in summer, and I have been in the Arabian Desert 
 in July, two places in which it seemed that the roeks 
 and sand would melt under the tropical sun; and yet I 
 do not recall that I experienced such discomfort from 
 the heat as I did in the valleys shut off from the breeze 
 by the mountains of Brit«ish Columbia. In every way 
 the province seems a never-ending paradox, and perhaps 
 this comes about in large measure from the ignorance of 
 the world in regard to the realities. One hears of the 
 cold and draws the conclusion that it must be a cold coun- 
 try, of the barren mountains, the timber, the rain, the 
 heat in the valleys, or of the almost incredible depth of 
 
An Outpost of Empire 
 
 snow in the mountain fastnesses and forms an opinion. 
 The books that have been written about the province 
 usually give the wrong impression, because they treat 
 particular phases or topics, or they have proceeded from 
 pens wielded by prejudiced enthusiasts. They do not 
 tell all of the truth — perhaps because there seems to be 
 too much to be told — and the result is a surprising un- 
 familiarity with the " Sunset Gateway to the Dominion " 
 in the other provinces of Canada, in the United States 
 and elsewhere. Even so late as 19 14 Griffith remarks 
 in his Dominion of Canada, a rather sketchy and prosaic 
 tome which seems to aim at facts : " It will be noticed 
 that in the earlier chapters, dealing with the history of 
 Canada, very little mention has been made of the north- 
 ern and northwestern parts. There is, in fact, very little 
 history to tell of a kind which has any bearing on the 
 evolution of the Canadian race." To the unprejudiced 
 observer, even to the casual traveler into what were track- 
 less forests, swamps and mountains only a few years ago, 
 this will appear to be a most unfair statement. If there 
 has been a more remarkable evidence of those qualities 
 that have had a bearing on the evolution of the Canadian 
 race, if there is anything more typical of the courage, 
 ambition, and ability of what is best in the Canadian char- 
 acter than has exhibited itself in the conquest of the Brit- 
 ish Columbia wilderness, the harnessing of natural forces, 
 the bringing of vast wealth from its soil, rocks and 
 waters, if there is anything more romantic or spectacular 
 than the story of the men who penetrated into this wil- 
 derness seeking furs, then gold, found both, much else, 
 and laid the foundation for the cities of the present that 
 story remains untold in Dominion history. 
 
 British Columbia remains a misunderstood and un- 
 
6 Sunset Canada 
 
 appreciated province — the latter on account of the for- 
 mer — despite the fact that it is being invaded and 
 crossed each season by tens of thousands of tourists. 
 Perhaps its vastness, and, until a comparatively recent 
 date, the difficulties of penetrating into its interior are 
 responsible. Diffusion of accurate information in re- 
 gard to it will prompt a more numerous band of travelers 
 each year ; and their observations will extend to the multi- 
 tude. It will not be long before people will realize that 
 almost everything that has been said of the province is 
 true, but that it is true of only one portion of its esti- 
 mated area of three hundred and seventy thousand to 
 three hundred and ninety thousand square miles. In 
 time the world will cease thinking of one of the largest 
 of the great divisions of the Dominion of Canada as cold, 
 hot, wet, dry, mountainous, flat — or any of the other 
 brief adjectives that have juggled themselves into numer- 
 ous pages concerning it. It is none and it is all. There 
 is but one word that may be applied to all portions alike ; 
 it is beautiful. Nobody has arisen, and none will arise, 
 to deny that, for none can fail to fall a victim to its 
 charm of landscape. As there remains a tremendous 
 ignorance in regard to it, in a comparative degree its vast 
 resources are undeveloped, and knowledge of it is likely 
 to increase in proportion to its expansion and progress 
 even in those directions that are popularly supposed to 
 have become exhausted. Its mines have produced over 
 three hundred millions uf dollars, almost every running 
 stream having produced its measure of gold, and yet 
 mining is believed to be in its infancy, some of the scien- 
 tists declaring that only the surface has been scratched. 
 Fruit raised in British Columbia has already received 
 honours in the markets of the world, yet it is claimed that 
 
An Outpost of Empire 
 
 there are one million acres south of the Fifty-second 
 Degree where all the fruits of the Temperate Zone may be 
 raised. Apples, peaches and grapes were not produced in 
 sufficient quantities a few years ago to supply the local 
 markets; but it seems likely that fruit growing will be- 
 come one of the important industries of the province 
 very shortly. The cities, towns, and some of the vil- 
 lages are brilliantly lighted by power generated from 
 waterfalls which are a part of almost every landscape, 
 yet in his address to the Commission of Conservation not 
 long ago, Clifford Si f ton said that the province had only 
 a little over 73,000 horse power developed, whereas the 
 streams are capable of a development of 2,065,500 horse 
 power. It is not usually considered an agricultural prov- 
 ince, and yet its acres yielded over $27,000,000 in 19 14. 
 While fisheries are becoming " worked out " in many 
 parts of the North American continent, the fisheries pro- 
 duction in 1 9 14 was $15,000,000. As in all cases w^here 
 men enter a country covered with forests, the timber of 
 British Columbia has been ruthlessly sacrificed to the set- 
 tler's ax, but it is officially declared that there are 300,- 
 000,000,000 board feet of merchantable standing timber 
 in the 92,000,000 acres of absolute forest land. Pulp- 
 wood manufacture is thriving in certain parts of the prov- 
 ince, and yet James White, assistant chairman of the 
 Canadian Commission of Conservation, is authority for 
 the statement that the forests of British Columbia can 
 continue to provide 6,000,000 cords of wood for this 
 purpose every year for an indefinite period. As to the 
 climate : in a province spread over eleven degrees of lati- 
 tude, seven hundred miles long and four hundred miles 
 wide, there is almost certain to be a great variety. Ocean 
 currents, mountain ranges and the forests combine to 
 
8 Sunset Canada 
 
 form a series of moist and dry belts which are modified 
 in places by the varied elevation of the mountains and 
 the presence of various mountain passes. Macoun, 
 Canadian government naturalist, has said : " As Ger- 
 many was to the Romans, so much of the northwest is 
 to us — a land of marsh and swamp and rigorous win- 
 ter. Germany has been cleared of her forests and is 
 now one of the finest and most progressive of European 
 countries. May not the clearing of our northwestern 
 forests produce a similar result in the future of British 
 Columbia ? " It seems certain that when the timber has 
 been cut away there will be a marked decrease in por- 
 tions of the country where now the rainfall is heaviest, 
 but conditions in the greater part of the province are 
 permanent by reason of the course of the Japan Current 
 and the location of the mountain ranges. Considered 
 as a whole, the climate of British Columbia has those 
 essential features that are to be met with in European 
 countries lying within the temperate zone, such as the 
 British Isles, the north of France, Belgium, Holland, 
 Denmark, and the south of Sweden, the cradle of the 
 greatest nations of the world, and it is therefore a cli- 
 mate well adapted to the development of the human race 
 under the most favourable conditions. 
 
 But as before noted, winter is not a topic that the 
 average Canadian cares to discuss. Summer is beauti- 
 ful — when it comes — and he prefers to talk about the 
 peach crop or the wheat fields. Even fur coats are not 
 the most tactful topic of conversation, for the native will 
 say that in parts of British Columbia they are never 
 required. This is true in one part of Canada as in an- 
 other, east or west. There was a movement to revive 
 ice carnivals at Montreal, but it was abandoned. People 
 
An Outpost of Empire 
 
 must not think of Canada as a place of snow and 
 ice. 
 
 British Cokimbia seems to have something character- 
 istic of every country in the world. It is a huge melting 
 pot, with the representatives of the British Empire as the 
 principal ingredient in the simmering liquid that is assum- 
 ing its permanent flavour. So I have found that my 
 notebook constantly compares it to such widely dissimilar 
 and distant places as China, Panama, Denmark, Switzer- 
 land, Italy, Japan, England and Bavaria, as I wrote 
 down my impressions during the days, wrecks and months 
 passed within its borders. Some of these observations 
 and comparisons, when I came upon them months after- 
 ward, when far away from the grandeur of the country 
 in which they were written, caused me to pause and ask 
 myself if I had been too favourably impressed with what 
 I had seen, if I had fallen under the " influence " that 
 has brought so many men and. women from remote parts 
 of the world to be adopted by British Columbia as its 
 own. I had been merely an on-looker, a casual observer 
 and traveler. What I felt might be felt by any tourist, 
 doubtless has been felt by thousands who kept to the 
 great highways and never ventured into the remoter by- 
 paths that are to become the highways of the future. 
 There was an impulse to curb the enthusiasm, but while 
 I questioned the wisdom of doing so I came upon a 
 fragment of Milton (Oxford Universal Edition) and 
 then I realized that my enthusiasm needed no apology. 
 I had seen what the poet did not see ; I had experienced 
 what he could not have experienced excepting in pro- 
 phetic vision when he wrote : 
 
 " Brutus, far to the West in the ocean wide, 
 Beyond the realm of Gaul, a land there lies, 
 
10 Sunset Canada 
 
 Seagirt it lies, where giants dwelt of old, 
 Now void, it fits thy people ; thither bend 
 Thy course, there shalt thou find a lasting seat, 
 There to thy sons another Troy shall rise 
 And kings be born of thee whose dreaded might 
 Shall awe the world and conquer nations bold." 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 VICTORIA REGINA 
 
 British Columbia was named by Queen Victoria in 
 1858, the capital city having been named in her honour 
 fifteen years before. Both the province and the trading 
 station that was to become the administrative metropohs 
 had borne other names, which appear in the early maps 
 and letters relating to the territory, but which would be 
 barely recognizable to-day, save by the student who has 
 specialized in the conquest and history of the North 
 American continent. 
 
 In the Letters of Queen Victoria, published in 1907, 
 there is one that solves a problem over which there had 
 been considerable controversy. It is dated Osborne, 24 
 July, 1858, and was addressed to Sir E. Bulwer Lytton. 
 Objections had been made in France to the name of 
 New Caledonia being given to the proposed colony be- 
 tween the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean and 
 in regard to the matter, Queen Victoria wrote : "If the 
 name of New Caledonia is objected to as being already 
 borne by another colony or island claimed by the French, 
 it may be better to give the new colony west of the Rocky 
 Mountains another name. New Hanover, New Corn- 
 wall and New Georgia appear from the maps to be names 
 of subdivisions of that country, but do not appear on all 
 maps. The only name which is given to the whole ter- 
 ritory in every map the Queen has consulted is Columbia, 
 but as there exists also a Columbia in South America, 
 11 
 
12 Sunset Canada 
 
 and the citizens of the United States call their country 
 also Columbia, at least in poetry, ' British Columbia ' 
 might be in the Queen's opinion, the best name." 
 
 Victoria, the capital, was originally called Fort Cam- 
 osun, when it was the administrative center and chief 
 depot of the western department of the Hudson's Bay 
 Company; but in 1843 the fort was built and named in 
 honour of England's Queen. 
 
 The first chapters in the history of the province, how- 
 ever, relate to events that transpired before the naming 
 of the mainland and before the ships of the voyagers, 
 free-booters and discovery-mad sea-rovers pointed their 
 bows into the waters of the beautiful bay at the southern 
 tip of Vancouver Island ; but the traveler entering British 
 Columbia is fortunate if he first sees the land at this point, 
 and as it has been made most convenient for him to do 
 so, he is likely to follow the channel of least resistance 
 or inconvenience and see the capital before he sees what 
 lies beyond it, something that is not possible in many 
 countries, states or provinces of the world. The ships 
 that enter the port may steam on to Vancouver as their 
 terminal, because Vancouver has direct railway commu- 
 nication with all parts of the North American continent : 
 but the commercial metropolis seems to be an extension 
 of the voyage. Victoria is the logical terminus for pas- 
 sengers arriving in British Columbia from Seattle, Japan, 
 China, Hawaii or Australia. It is the beginning of a 
 tour of the province; the end of the short or long ocean 
 voyage. It is the proud British sentinel standing at the 
 gateway of an Empire. Perhaps you have met this sen- 
 tinel in other parts of the world; perhaps he has chal- 
 lenged you to pass him and you have respected his 
 authority. He is masculine in appearance, well-groomed. 
 
Victoria Regina 13 
 
 neatly uniformed and pride of race, ancestry, traditions, 
 all are apparent; everything that is near and dear to the 
 British heart. This sentinel in the colonies is more typ- 
 ical of the British Empire than England itself; he is the 
 symbol of its existence. 
 
 I have been on ships that poked their bows into many 
 small and large harbours of the world. Some of these 
 waterways are guarded by yellow sands, others by high 
 mountains that seem to be granite gateways opened for 
 the occasion; some had approaches of long curved lines 
 of shore above which palms dipped their fronds toward 
 ultramarine waters capped with white foam, others were 
 guarded by snow-capped peaks where glaciers were slid- 
 ing toward the sea. Some gateways were nothing but 
 seemingly endless lines of warehouses in and around 
 which the merchandise of the world, huge bales of hides 
 and cotton, barrels of oil and tar, or cases of fish were 
 piled. There was the clatter of the stevedores and their 
 trucks, the moaning of the coolies or the singing of the 
 workers. Men shouted at horses. Automobiles or rik- 
 ishas filled the landing stages. I have even seen desert 
 Bedouins come to port to watch the incoming ship. But 
 there are none of these as one enters the most western 
 port of Canada. It is a small event, the arrival of a 
 ship at Victoria, where ships from far away countries or 
 nearby islands are tying up to the docks almost every 
 hour of the day or night. Victoria is on an island, and 
 people must go to and from an island on ships. It is 
 of comparatively little importance whether the ship has 
 come from near or from far. There is not much curi- 
 osity to see it on the part of the Victorians. They do not 
 visit the piers to see the Chinese man or woman in native 
 dress; these they would see on the streets of the business 
 
14 Sunset Canada 
 
 section in their own city, or, failing that, at any time in 
 the local " Chinatown." They do not stare at the sump- 
 tuous and gorgeous turbans of the Hindoo. Men simi- 
 larly dressed deliver wood or coal at the doors of their 
 houses. A Chinese mandarin or Japanese dancer in full 
 regalia would barely excite comment in the streets of 
 Victoria. The port is not only the gateway of the em- 
 pire, but it is a. sort of toll-gate on the world's great 
 highway. 
 
 On the steamers that come to Victoria I have floated 
 into various other ports and harbours accustomed to the 
 cosmopolitan mob, but none of them surpasses Victoria 
 — not even Hongkong, the emerald-hilled " Gibraltar of 
 China." Victoria is a fitting gateway to a land of mar- 
 vels; sedate, elegant, somewhat prim and marvelous, in 
 view of the tremendous tonnage that departs from or 
 enters her gates. The streets are as clean as the floors 
 of a Dutch cottage. Merchandise is stored away in 
 warehouses. There is a great stone sea-wall over which 
 English ivy drapes itself in festoons from adjoining 
 gardens. Parliament House, the Empress Hotel, the 
 Post Office, Customs House, and a few large residences 
 surrounded by gardens and parks of ornamental shrubs 
 and trees are visible. And yet one arrives in the very 
 heart of the capital city. The last time I arrived in Vic- 
 toria harbour it was in the early spring. Instead of the 
 customary warehouses of port cities, and in addition to 
 the splendid stone buildings that are grouped around the 
 quays, there were huge beds of orange and purple iris 
 in full bloom almost down to the ivy-covered sea-walls. 
 The shrubbery was that of an English park. Immedi- 
 ately I heard the voices, even those of the newsboys, I 
 knew that I had reached again " a little bit of England 
 
Entrance to Fictoria Harbour. 
 
Victoria Regina 15 
 
 on the Pacific coast " — a general description beloved by 
 the people of the city. Such a beginning must have joys 
 ahead. It seems a promise and it will not disappoint. 
 Victoria has been called " The Empress City of the 
 Golden West," " The Floral City," " A City of Homes," 
 " The Evergreen City of Canada," " The Mecca of Pa- 
 cific Coast Tourists " and " A City of Sunshine." Al- 
 fred Emberson, a writer who gladly confesses to being an 
 enthusiast, says that there is a difference in the air im- 
 mediately felt by one who arrives at Victoria. The first 
 impression of one who views the city from the sea may 
 be that the approach is very similar to that of Stockholm. 
 And yet John Foster Eraser says in a book called Canada 
 As It Is, but which should have been called " What An 
 Englishman Thinks of Canada " that Toronto is the most 
 ultra-British city on earth. By comparison, Toronto is 
 thoroughly " American " ; Victoria is England trans- 
 planted to the American continent. 
 
 And again the paradox. The newcomer is likely to 
 believe that everything is " English " because the British 
 atmosphere permeates everything ; but, on the other hand, 
 it is the great meeting-place of the East and West. One 
 sees the Indian of the East and the Indian of the West, 
 the latter with the marked facial resemblance to the Chi- 
 nese or Japanese, perhaps presenting to the present a 
 suggestion of that romantic past that has been lost as a 
 matter of certain knowledge. Orientals are met every- 
 where. They are waiters and servants in the hotels, res- 
 taurants and homes, and they are " common labourers." 
 East Indians seem to be exclusively the drivers of carts 
 — a notable example of the adaptability of men to sur- 
 roundings and requirements. In the Victoria sawmills, 
 scattered around the bay, the *' lumber jacks " are Hin- 
 
16 Sunset Canada 
 
 doos. The incoming steamers pass them riding the logs 
 as if they had done it all their lives. Chinese, Japanese, 
 Filipinos, Hawaiians, Singalese, Hindoos, Greeks, Ital- 
 ians and Germans — I have met them all within an hour 
 in this British city and nobody noticed them as more than 
 a part of the usual promenade in the streets. One day I 
 observed that a group of woolly-haired Fijiis, bare-head 
 and barefoot, attracted a glance from the Victorian pe- 
 destrian; but I believe that this was on account of the 
 large number of them who were fighting men bound for 
 " somewhere in France " rather than from their unusual 
 costume or personal appearance. Victoria expects the 
 world's population to pass her gateway, and it has done 
 so for so long that it no longer excites comment or 
 attracts attention. 
 
 The traveler who can distribute his time as he chooses 
 should plan to arrive here in May or June. Victoria 
 boasts that it has in its gardens every variety of flower 
 that will bloom in England — and many others. In the 
 last weeks of May the lilac bushes are in bloom and the 
 deep orange yellow of the broom, which latter spreads 
 a solid mantle over many hillsides, fills crevices between 
 jutting rocks, and frequently from a distance recalls the 
 heather-covered fields in the open country of Scotland. 
 Parks are in some instances great stretches of woodland 
 and open spaces with neat walks or automobile drives, but 
 with no " keep off the grass " signs, and no *' bobbies " to 
 say " go here " or " don't go there." In the majority of 
 cases these beauty spots have been left in their natural 
 state, with a helpful hint here and there from the gar- 
 dener who planted a flowering shrub that nature did not 
 place beside the pathway. 
 
 It chanced that the day after my arrival was Sunday. 
 
Victoria Regina 17 
 
 I was awakened by a chime of bells playing a hymn; it 
 seemed more " English " than the week day had been. 
 By eleven o'clock all the bells had rung and their chimes 
 had echoed and reechoed around the hills that hold the 
 city in a basin. The grinning " barker " on the " Seeing 
 Victoria " tallyho the day before had shouted as we 
 passed a group of churches : " doubtless you have all 
 heard that Victoria is a temperate or ' dry ' city. We 
 have many, many churches and only three saloons — to 
 every church." But Victoria is godly and God-fearing 
 in an English sort of way on Sunday. Most of the shop 
 windows are boarded up. Shortly before eleven o'clock, 
 father, mother and the children, all dressed in their best, 
 file out from behind the closely matted and trimmed 
 hedges, father opens the gate as his various dependents 
 oass into the church pew. Although a modern govern- 
 ment has provided excellent sidewalks or " paths " as the 
 English and Victorians call them, the older families of 
 the city take to the middle of the road. Following an 
 English custom, some of the streets have a path only on 
 one side. On Sunday, however, most of the church- 
 going procession does not deign to use it; they walked 
 down the road to church in the Mother Country and they 
 will continue to do so. How reverently they cling to the 
 old English customs! And they are not the city cus- 
 toms, not those of London, Birmingham or Manchester, 
 but rather of that beautiful English rural life o-f which no 
 country in the world offers a more pleasing exam.ple. 
 Go to the remotest corner of England and the family 
 will be " dressed " for Sunday. The " boots " of the 
 men and boys shine like mirrors. Likely as not father 
 wears his tall hat, carries a stick and gloves ; and in the 
 lapel of his coat there is a flower cut fresh for the occa- 
 
18 Sunset Canada 
 
 sion from the garden. Mother has one of those prim 
 little black lace bonnets perched atop her hair which has 
 been crimped for the Sabbath. The girls — even those 
 who are old enough to consider themselves young ladies 
 if they lived in the United States — have their hair hang- 
 ing down over their shoulders. And Victoria has de- 
 parted less from the English traditions on Sunday than 
 on other days. 
 
 With a Hudson's Bay " caravan," Father J. B. Bolduc 
 came to the settlement in 1843 ^^^ celebrated the first 
 mass. When Vancouver Island was occupied by the 
 same company, the Rev. R. J. Staires was made the Epis- 
 copal church chaplain. Christ Church was built in 1855 
 and in 1865 it became the cathedral of the diocese. The 
 present cathedral, which is built entirely of wood and sits 
 on a lofty eminence overlooking the city of churches, 
 as Victoria seems to be on Sunday, is not an impos- 
 ing structure but it is a favourite meeting-place for 
 residents and visitors, the pivot of Protestantism on the 
 Island. 
 
 The latest census figures give the city a population of 
 nearly seventy-seven thousand; but Victoria is larger 
 than other cities with that figure, where people are 
 crowded into thickly settled districts, apartments and 
 tenements. The area covered is extensive, served by 
 thirty miles of electric railway. It is a city of homes and 
 gardens set within precisely trimmed hedges and shrubs, 
 with formal walks and borders and with occasional swans 
 on the ponds fed by fountains, or peacocks stretching 
 themselves and strutting over the green lawns that are 
 clipped like velvet carpets. The Englishman loves his 
 garden and so does the Victorian. A lecturer who had 
 been a nurse on European battlefields during the Great 
 
Victoria Regina 19 
 
 War, brought a message of joy to the sad relatives of 
 soldiers at the front when she related that wherever it 
 was possible the boys in the trenches from Victoria were 
 making small gardens of flowers and vegetables as they 
 did at home. Where this was impossible, some of tTie 
 soldiers had piled up chunks of slag and cinders to re- 
 semble garden paths, with splotches of bright paint where 
 flowers would have bloomed under more favourable con- 
 ditions. Even in war, the Victorian proved himself ro- 
 mantically and sentimentally attached to his home. He 
 is " old fashioned " ; he admits it and rather boasts of 
 the fact. Victoria prides itself in being the grand- 
 mother, with few of the characteristics of her sprightly 
 young grand-daughter Vancouver. The railway ter- 
 minal on the coast declares that it should be the official 
 capital of British Columbia, because it is the commercial 
 metropolis; a declaration that seems to be an echo of New 
 York's contention that instead of Washington it is the 
 logical capital of the United States. " And one of these 
 days we'll be obliged to move the capital over here " 
 taunts Miss Vancouver. Her grandmother Victoria 
 smiles tolerantly and replies : *' One of these days, when 
 you have a little culture and know that the chief aim of 
 life should not be a gaudy display and noise, you'll take 
 the steamer and come over here to live." 
 
 The principal buildings and the principal streets of 
 Victoria are quite in modern style and usually have 
 unexpected elegance. The shop windows' display is what 
 might be found in eastern cities. But venture off the 
 main highways and you will come upon strangely lit- 
 tered and dusty old offices that are reminiscent of the 
 center of London. As I wandered into one of these side 
 streets to the office of a large real estate concern I ob- 
 
20 Sunset Canada 
 
 served that the entire front window was given over to a 
 huge and gaudy Hthograph of Queen Victoria, wearing 
 the crown jewels, a work of art that may have come 
 with a year's subscription to a " family " newspaper many 
 years ago. Victoria is Victorian chronologically as well 
 as nominally. 
 
 A local guidebook, which seems more for the citizens 
 themselves than for reading by one looking for guidance, 
 reaches rhetorical ecstasies when it speaks of " the 
 quietude of the city and the orderly inhabitants," but 
 what the book says is true. The inhabitants are not only 
 orderly; they are correct. Victoria is as sedate and 
 proper, even in its largeness, as any English village with 
 hedgerows, gardens, cross-tipped spires and inhabitants 
 who are shocked by the speed of tourists' automobiles. 
 There are no railings, fences or gates at the parks, so 
 the same " guide book " continues : " care for flowers and 
 respect for the regulations are left to the good sense and 
 the good feeling of Victorians, old and young, and few 
 guardians or keepers are found necessary." 
 
 There are many ways of visiting the principal points of 
 interest. There are views that are best appreciated by 
 one who rambles to the parks and to the environs on foot. 
 There are numerous justly famous carriage drives and 
 automobile tours long and short. Even the tramways 
 follow attractive streets and parkways that open vistas 
 that are not seen by one who remains in the central part 
 of the city from the arrival to the departure of the 
 steamer. Sometimes it appears to the newcomer that the 
 city tries to appear " big," owing to the so-called decimal 
 system of numbering the houses. There is a number 
 reckoned for every tw^enty feet, one hundred numbers for 
 each block, to show how far distant it is from a given 
 
Victoria Reg ina 21 
 
 point, thus there is a street in the Oak Bay suburb that 
 has two houses numbered 2565 and 2671 respectively. 
 
 Automobiles, carriages and pedestrians turn to the left, 
 as a rule of the road, thus 
 
 "If you go to the right, you are wrong; 
 If you go to the left, you are right." 
 
 which is somewhat confusing at first to the pedestrians 
 and chaufifeurs from the United States. 
 
 Beacon Hill Park covers three hundred acres and is no 
 more than a quarter-hour walk from the center of the 
 city. Here may be obtained a splendid view of the 
 Straits that separate the Island from the Mainland, and 
 the Olympian Mountains in the state of Washington are 
 plainly visible on a clear day. Stadacona Park is a gem 
 of a recreation ground five acres in extent. The Gorge 
 Park is two miles from the city and may be reached by 
 tramway. Cordova Bay is six miles from the city, 
 reached by tramway or excellent automobile road. It lies 
 at the foot of Mount Douglas and the drive thither may 
 be extended to Elk Lake and Sydney, which is a favourite 
 resort for picnics and campers. Brentwood, a pleasant 
 resort, is reached by motor or tramway and is fifteen 
 miles from the city. Foul Bay, a popular bathing beach, 
 is less than three miles away. And these are only a few 
 of the many side-trips that will repay the traveler who 
 does not arrive in the capital city in the morning expect- 
 ing to depart by the evening steamer. Victoria has been 
 a leader in the promotion of provincial highways and one 
 who motors into the Island roads will find most attractive 
 drives, rich in scenic beauties for a day, two days or a 
 week, quite irrespective of time devoted to the city itself. 
 The Island Automobile Club has been active in the pro- 
 
22 Sunset Canada 
 
 motion of the campaign for a trans-Canada motor route 
 covering four thousand miles, and its home city and Van- 
 couver Island has furnished an excellent example of what 
 is possible in this direction. 
 
 One who has only a day in his itinerary to spend in 
 Victoria, however, will profit by remaining within sight 
 of the piers at which he disembarks, where the time may 
 be profitably employed. The gigantic Empress Hotel is 
 in many ways one of the best on the entire continent. 
 The Parliament Building, a massive pile of stone, erected 
 at a total cost of over two million dollars, is an imposing 
 structure and worth a leisurely visit. The Provincial 
 Library, housed within its walls, possesses a fine collec- 
 tion of rare prints and autograph letters and other docu- 
 ments relating to the early history of the northern Pa- 
 cific coast. Ths dome is capped by a gilded figure of 
 Captain George Vancouver, who would be much more 
 venerated in Victoria if his name had not been appro- 
 priated to itself by the city across the channel. There is 
 an original document bearing Vancouver's signature in 
 the library collection, but his diaries and journals are 
 " copies." When I asked to see the originals, the libra- 
 rian was astonished by my request. " Bless your soul, 
 sir," he said, " you didn't imagine that we had the orig- 
 inals? Oh, no, the British Admiralty would not part 
 with them ; but we have certified copies." 
 
 Over the main entrance of the Parliament Building is 
 carved the somewhat intricate coat of arms of British 
 Columbia. Concerning it, the Year Book of British 
 Columbia says : " The features to which it is intended 
 to draw attention are : first, unity with the British nation, 
 both by descent and government; second, its extreme 
 western geographical position; third, its maritime 
 
Victoria Regina 23 
 
 strength ; fourth, its assured permanence and glory ; fifth, 
 its local fauna. These objects are attained in the fol- 
 lowing manner, respectively, first, the field is covered by 
 the Union Jack, the grand standard and national emblem ; 
 second, upon a chief is defined the setting sun; third, this 
 charge is placed upon a field barry undy which heraldic- 
 ally symbolizes the sea ; fourth, the motto ' Splendour 
 sine oecasu ' which has been adopted by no other state or 
 individual, refers to the sun, which, though apparently 
 setting never decreases, and to the Empire which has a 
 glory or radiance encircling the world; fifth, the sup- 
 porters, a wapiti stag and big horn are the most noble 
 creatures of the province and typify dignity and strength. 
 These two animals have a peculiar significance, as they 
 represent the union of the Mainland and Island, the wapiti 
 being confined in its habitat to Vancouver Island and the 
 big horn found only in the mountain ranges of the Main- 
 land." 
 
 The Provincial Museum is well worth a visit, having 
 a particularly fine collection of Indian curios and of the 
 animals that were slain within the province. There are 
 agricultural, horticultural and mining collections in the 
 same building that will prove attractive to the tourist. 
 
 In 1858 Victoria's population numbered hundreds, but 
 the sudden influx of miners, merchants and adventurers 
 who anticipated a repetition of '49 in San Francisco, 
 when gold was found in the territory, brought the figure 
 to over twenty thousand. It was a small and somewhat 
 insignificant trading post; but it suddenly became a city 
 — a city of white tents and rude shacks. Land lots that 
 had gone begging at one dollar each were sold at $100 
 an acre, and one case is recorded of a half -lot bought 
 for $25 selling within a month for $3000. There was 
 
24 Sunset Canada 
 
 the inevitable reaction, but when it came Victoria had 
 benefitted and completed many improvements. For ex- 
 ample, " sidewalks were built and streets, in which the 
 pedestrian used to sink knee-deep in the mire, were 
 macadamized." 
 
 D. W. Higgins, who came to Victoria when the first 
 news of British Columbia gold reached San Francisco 
 and who has remained in the capital city since that time, 
 not only told me of the " romance " of these gold-hunting 
 days in Victoria, but he seemed to express exactly the 
 local point of view, which was difi'erent from that of San 
 Francisco. He said : " The slump had set in in San 
 Francisco, following the golden days around the middle 
 of the last century. The territory was supposed to be 
 * used up,' so when news came that gold had been dis- 
 covered along the Fraser River, there was a wild scramble 
 to reach British Columbia. Every one thought there 
 would be a repetition of what had transpired in Cali- 
 fornia. There were all those elements of glamour and 
 romance of what had happened since '49 to stir men to 
 the new adventure. I imagine that there were twenty 
 thousand who came to Victoria, which was the nearest 
 open port. Yes, we were a strange crowd and even 
 stranger in appearance. Many of the men wore comic 
 opera costumes with brilliant sashes, hatbands and cra- 
 vats; but the difference between here and California 
 was that they did not duplicate them when they were dis- 
 carded. It was the custom here to put on ' working 
 clothes ' after the fancy things were discarded. There 
 was never the fantastic dressing of San Francisco for 
 any length of time, never the flash of jewelry, none of 
 those actualities of the gaming tables that were of every- 
 day occurrence in California. In Victoria it was all more 
 
Victoria Regina 25 
 
 practical, yes, more prosaic ; it was a hunt for gold, and 
 that hunt was a Httle more strenuous in this country. 
 But they took out over $700,000 worth of gold in 1858, 
 and they continued to find gold. Men worked diligently 
 rather than fail, or when they failed and their money 
 was gone with no results, they accepted all kinds of me- 
 nial positions for the purpose of getting money so they 
 could try again. California and the California life ex- 
 erted a tremendous influence all along the Pacific coast." 
 Then Mr. Higgins related an experience that seemed to 
 show the conservative British attitude toward these 
 epoch-making times in Victoria, quite in contrast to what 
 had transpired in San Francisco. " I had known two 
 brothers in a New York bank before I came West," he 
 continued. " I heard they had reached Victoria before 
 me, in fact they had reached it long enough before to 
 have lost their money in search for gold. But I did not 
 know this and I inquired for them and visited the address 
 that was given me. When I mentioned the name of one 
 of the brothers, a hand pointed toward a tub in a laundry, 
 where a young man was scrubbing dirty linen. I stood 
 there and looked at him. I thought of a * gentleman ' 
 doing that kind of work, merely to get money to begin 
 another search for gold, and I admit that I was disgusted. 
 I thought of the position that he had left in the bank to. 
 come here for the great gamble, so I turned away and did 
 not speak to him." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 ISLAND OF ROMANCE 
 
 Habitual doubters and searchers for " actual facts " 
 in modern times have robbed Vancouver Island of much 
 of its legendary history, a considerable portion of which 
 has never been adequately disproved by the scientific his- 
 torians. This treasure island has an authentic record 
 that dates considerably beyond the coming of the British 
 to its shores. There was a day when the Spaniards in- 
 cluded it among their vast possessions on the Pacific coast 
 of the New World, and as time goes on and some of the 
 secrets of the Far East, which have reposed on the dusty 
 shelves of monasteries and temples, are disclosed, it may 
 be proved that the Chinese were the discoverers and the 
 first colonists in this beautiful island of mountains, lakes 
 and trees, which is a bright jewel in the diadem of the 
 British Empire. Glittering romance seems to have de- 
 parted from the island when it became a colony of Great 
 Britain. First there was the hunt for furs, then the lure 
 of the gold, and, finally, the dream of a notable colony in 
 a supposedly cold region, which had been visited by sev- 
 eral voyagers looking for the water passage to the Atlan- 
 tic ocean, but which had not been so agreeable or dra- 
 matic in incident as the cruises along the coasts of 
 California, Mexico and Peru. Spain turned a jealous 
 eye toward Great Britain's extension of territory and 
 cruises along the northwest coast were renewed with 
 vigour. In 1592 the Straits of Juan de Fuca, between 
 26 
 
Island of Romance 27 
 
 Vancouver Island and die Mainland, were discovered by 
 the navigator whose name they bear, but reports of visits 
 to the coast of British Columbia are lacking until the voy- 
 ages of Bodeja and Haceta in 1775 and of Captain Cook's 
 voyage in 1778. Thus for over a century there are blank 
 pages in British Columbia history and the continuation of 
 the story dates to the time when Spain began to fear the 
 loss of her traditional hold on the western seas, as the 
 Russians were " threatening " from the North and the 
 British seemed to be everywhere. 
 
 Captain James Cook visited the coast on his third voy- 
 age in 1778, having been commissioned by the British 
 government to examine the coastline from about 45 de- 
 grees north to the Arctic Ocean, for the reported inland 
 openings toward the east, which might be found to ex- 
 tend to the Atlantic. He seems to have passed the Straits 
 of Juan de Fuca without observing them and continuing 
 northward visited Nootka Sound, where such important 
 events were to transpire at a later period, Prince William 
 Sound and Cook's Inlet. After searching the Arctic 
 through Behring Straits, he began the homeward voyage, 
 having demonstrated the impossibility of the " North 
 West Passage," touching at the Sandwich Islands, where 
 he met a tragic death in 1779. 
 
 Cook's reports of his voyage renewed the activity in 
 northern waters. Spain's claims and Great Britain's 
 claims almost brought the two countries to war; but 
 events transpired at Nootka that brought the rivalries to 
 a climax with the result that Captain George Vancouver, 
 who had been with Cook, arrived at Nootka in 1792 as 
 the representative of his government, to see that Great 
 Britain's demands for satisfaction and Spain's promise 
 to pay an indemnity were successfully carried out, which 
 
28 Sunset Canada 
 
 resulted in the complete restitution of " British rights and 
 property " under the terms of the Nootka Convention of 
 1790. He and Captain Quadra, the representative of 
 Spain, could not agree and the dispute was referred back 
 to the home governments for a settlement; but, in the 
 meantime, the ambitious young officer of Great Britain 
 undertook another commission and for three years ex- 
 plored and surveyed the coastline, which resulted in the 
 termination of Spanish activity in northwest Pacific wa- 
 ters. Vancouver named the coasts he visited " New 
 Georgia," "New Hanover" and "New Cornwall," but 
 the names barely survived the intrepid young officer, 
 whose charts of 1798 give the first accurate representa- 
 tions of the western seaboard of Canada, His brief life 
 was one of rare accomplishments. He made his eventful 
 voyages and discoveries and left a name that is perpetu- 
 ated in the land of his activities and died before he w^as 
 forty years of age. 
 
 There is a history of Vancouver Island, however, that 
 dates far beyond the coming of the British, the Spanish, 
 or the Russians, who may have followed the coast from 
 Alaska at an early date. It is a history that is clouded 
 in the vapour and incense of China and not understood 
 nor accepted as " authentic " by the present, although the 
 not far distant future may reveal further facts that can- 
 not be disputed, even by the white race which clings zeal- 
 ously to claims of " superiority " in discovery and inven- 
 tion, although it may be conclusively proved that much of 
 western achievement in these directions was merely re- 
 discovery and adaptation of inventions of the long ago 
 in Old Cathay, 
 
 The stranger, or the " native ^' of Vancouver Island 
 quickly and constantly observes the resemblance of the 
 
CAPTAIN GEORGE VANCOUVER. 
 
Island of Romance 29 
 
 Indians to the Chinese or Japanese. The traveler un- 
 acquainted with the two would be unable to distinguish 
 one from the other if they were similarly dressed. In 
 fact, many Indians and Chinese resident in the Island 
 wear semi-European dress, both frequently live on the 
 outskirts of the small towns in shacks or huts and derive 
 their living from fishing. The Chinese clings to his 
 oriental recipes for preparing his food, because he has 
 never known the necessity for doing otherwise. The 
 Vancouver Island Indian prepares food according to the 
 traditional recipes that may have had their origin in 
 necessity to conditions. Merely circumstantial evidence 
 would point to very early visits of Chinese voyagers to 
 this coast ; whether by intent on voyages of discovery, or 
 in ships driven across the Pacific by storms is a matter of 
 speculation. Chinese junks and vessels were blown 
 across the Pacific as late as the last century and the sailors 
 were captured and enslaved by the Indians near Fort 
 Flattery, resulting in a demand from James Douglas, 
 governor of the colony, for their immediate release, when 
 knowledge of their tragic experience was brought to 
 him. 
 
 In 1 76 1 the distinguished Sinologist, De Guigues, pub- 
 lished a paper which he had found in the works of early 
 Chinese historians, in which appeared the statement that 
 in the Fifth Century a. d. certain travelers of their race 
 had discovered a country which they called Fu-sang, 
 which from the direction and distance described by them 
 appears to have been northwest America. The original 
 document, according to the author of " Fu-sang, or The 
 Discovery of America by Chinese Priests in the Fifth 
 Century," was the report of the priest-missionary, Hosi- 
 Shin in the year 499 a. d., who returned from a long 
 
30 Sunset Canada 
 
 journey to the East. The report was entered in the Year 
 Book of the Chinese Empire and the French author de- 
 clares that while the evidence offered is limited, it has 
 every appearance of being a serious state document. 
 
 O. S. Scholefield, provincial librarian and historian of 
 British Columbia, says in regard to these interesting rec- 
 ords : " They open a fascinating field for speculation 
 and while they do not establish the right of Chinese to 
 claim the discovery for their race, yet the chain of gen- 
 eral and presumptive evidence as to the discovery of the 
 continent by the Norsemen in the Eleventh Century is 
 scarcely stronger than the evidence contained in the old 
 Year Books of the Celestial Empire, touching the voy- 
 age of Hosi-Shin. It is indeed interesting, if not start- 
 ling, to realize that perhaps America may not have been 
 found by Europeans from the East, but by Asiatics from 
 the West." 
 
 No doubt it was the voyage of Captain Cook and its 
 subsequent publicity that led to events which determined 
 the political future of British Columbia. He called at- 
 tention to the abundance of the sea otter along the coast, 
 and, as so often in Canadian history, it was the race for 
 the fur prize that prompted many other traders to venture 
 into the land that was almost unknown to the world. 
 Captain John Meares commanded an expedition from 
 China in 1788 that established a trading post at Nootka, 
 which had been discovered by Juan Perez as early as 
 1779 and named Port Lorenzo, after the saint on whose 
 day it was first seen. Captain Cook either forgot or 
 overlooked the previous discovery when he entered the 
 sound a few years later and rechristened it " King 
 George's Sound," although he says it was called Nootka 
 by the natives — which was doubtless a mistake as there 
 
.Mjink^i 
 
 w.^«r' ^n*'* ^■* '■ ^■■" '^^^^k!' 
 
 F 
 
 
 rry:yi!si^t^. 
 
 
 
 
 
 r ^ '^^^^1 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 TOTEMS AND DUG-OUT CANOES, NOOTKA SOUND. 
 
Island of Romance 31 
 
 is no such word in the language of the Indians there and 
 he may have confused their word Nootche (mountain) 
 for the name of the place. Captain Meares, in the es- 
 tablishment of the trading station, became the first white 
 man to conduct a business enterprise in British Columbia, 
 athough the scene of his activity is well nigh deserted 
 to-day. Nootka is one of the most celebrated spots on 
 the continent, when it is recalled what momentous events 
 in North American history transpired here; but it re- 
 mains little more than a fishing village and the Indian is 
 its chief inhabitant, with totems set out in his yards, and 
 where he is left to live much as he pleases. Captain 
 James Hanna came to Nootka soon after Cook's voyage 
 in the Sea Offer and made such a memorable haul of sea 
 otter skins that it soon became a rendezvous for traders, 
 particularly those dealing with China, where the skins 
 were a prized possession and brought high prices. 
 
 By the aid of Chinese carpenters, Meares built the 
 North West America in the winter of 1788-89, this sloop 
 being the first vessel other than a canoe built on the 
 Pacific coast north of California. Things were prosper- 
 ing famously. The English and American traders were 
 sailing from Nootka to Macao, the Portuguese possession 
 in southern China that was so close to the great fur mar- 
 ket, and the trade grew to such proportions that Spain 
 determined to assert her rights of original discovery. 
 Accordingly, Don Estevan Martinez took possession of 
 the whole sound, seizing the vessels there and building a 
 fort to hold the territory against all comers. Meares' 
 trading post was raided and confiscated, and although 
 he had been sailing under the Portugese flag, he w^as a 
 British subject and his ship was a British vessel. It was 
 England's demand for an indemnity and recognition of 
 
32 Sunset Canada 
 
 her " rights " that led to the Spanish withdrawal from 
 the territory and the mission of Captain Vancoiwer to 
 the Island, which it is believed the Captain did not know 
 was an island until his second voyage. 
 
 Most cordial and friendly relations seem to have 
 existed and to have been maintained between the two 
 representatives of the British and Spanish governments. 
 In a letter dated from Nootka in September, 1792, Van- 
 couver wrote: "Next morning after breakfast we em- 
 barked on our return. The weather was pleasant but the 
 wind though light was contrary. The afternoon was 
 cloudy attended by some rain, thunder and lightning: 
 about 5 o'clock we reached Friendly Cove, having dined 
 by the way. In the course of conversation which passed 
 this afternoon, Sigr. Quadra requested that in the course 
 of my farther exploring in this country I would name 
 some port or island after us both, in commemoration of 
 our meeting and friendly intercourse that on that occasion 
 had taken place ; which I promised to do ; and conceiving 
 no place more eligible than the place of our meeting, I 
 have therefore named this land (which by our sailing 
 at the back we have discovered to be an extensive island ) , 
 the Island of Quadra and Vancouver: which compliment 
 he was exceedingly pleased with, as also my retaining 
 the name of Port Quadra to that which in May last I 
 had called Port Discovery, but finding it had been ex- 
 plored and named after this Officer, I had since adopted 
 that name." 
 
 For some time the Island was variously known as Qua- 
 dra's Isle, the Island of Quadra and Vancouver and 
 finally as Vancouver's Island; but finally the charts and 
 maps came to refer to it as Vancouver Island, the name 
 it will doubtless continue to bear, although an official 
 
Island of Romance 33 
 
 of the city of Victoria assured me that there was 
 a definite movement on foot to refer to it simply as 
 The Island, with no reference to the name by which 
 a populous and aspiring young municipality across the 
 Straits is known. " It is unfair and too much to ex- 
 pect that the inhabitant of this beautiful island shall 
 mention the name of a city on the Mainland every time he 
 speaks of the land on which Victoria is situated," he said. 
 " If we are successful in our undertaking to promote 
 reference to Vancouver Island as The Island, all well and 
 good; but if we are not successful, some of us are in 
 favour of changing the name back to that of the Span- 
 iard whom Captain George Vancouver delighted to hon- 
 our by linking the name with his own. Quadra Island! 
 I believe that would be very acceptable to the people of 
 Victoria." 
 
 Most of the American traders between Nootka and 
 Macao came from Boston, so the Indians of the region 
 called the American trader a " Boston Man," while the 
 trader of another nationality was known as a " Kint- 
 shautsh Man " — as nearly as they can pronounce " King 
 George's Man." 
 
 Before and after the difficulties had been adjusted 
 between the nations involved, there were constant clashes 
 between the white and the red men, and several trag- 
 edies resulted, one of which was related for posterity by 
 its hero, whose story, which is believed to be a relation 
 of the facts, reads like a hair-raising fiction of the Wild 
 West, so many of which were published in the last cen- 
 tury. 
 
 John Jewitt, a youth of nineteen years and a blacksmith 
 by trade, sailed as armourer with the ship Boston from 
 " The Downs," England, direct for the port on Van- 
 
34 Sunset Canada 
 
 couver Island. They carried a cargo of " English cloths, 
 Dutch blankets, looking-glasses, beads, knives, razors, 
 sugar, rum, ammunition, cutlasses, pistols, muskets and 
 fowling-pieces." After an uneventful voyage of nearly 
 seven months around the Horn, the vessel arrived at 
 Nootka and anchored. Maquinna, the Nootka chieftain, 
 came aboard the ship and gave the crew a formal wel- 
 come. According to Jewitt, he was dressed in " a man- 
 tle of black sea otter skin," held by a belt of yellow 
 fabric made from bark, presumably stripped from spruce 
 roots, from which the Nootka Indians continue to make 
 many articles, such as belts, fishlines and baskets. The 
 savages dined with the crew and the occasion was a 
 merry one, which seemed prophetic of the pleasant rela- 
 tions to follow. Jewitt relates that on this occasion the 
 Indians particularly enjoyed bread dipped in molasses, 
 for which they offered salmon and ducks in exchange. 
 One day the captain of the ship loaned Maquinna a fowl- 
 ing-piece. It was returned in a damaged condition, 
 whereupon the owner expressed his displeasure. Ma- 
 quinna became enraged but retired from the ship and 
 when next he paid a visit to his " friends," he wore a 
 wooden mask, the head of a wild beast. The following 
 day a general massacre followed and the entire crew was 
 slain, with the exception of Jewett and a sail-maker, 
 John Thompson. The two men became slaves of the 
 chieftain and remained in his service from March, 1803, 
 until they were rescued by the brig Lydia of Boston in 
 July, 1805. 
 
 Jewitt's life was spared because of his skill as a me- 
 chanic, and Thompson survived because his companion 
 pleaded that he was his father and begged his life from 
 the chief. While serving Maquinna as his slave, making 
 
Island of Romance 35 
 
 arrow-heads, spears and fish-hooks, which pleased him, 
 and thus having become a favourite at " court," Jewitt 
 kept a journal. It was published in 1815 as Adventures 
 and Sufferings of John R. lezvitt, Only Survivor of the 
 Crew of the Ship Boston During a Captivity of Nearly 
 Three Years Among the Savages of Nootka Sound, and 
 ran through many editions causing wide comment and 
 discussion as well as laying the foundation for many leg- 
 ends modeled on the rescue of Captain John Smith by 
 Pocahontas. Some of the latter may have arisen from 
 the fact that Jewitt was compelled by Maquinna to marry 
 the daughter of a neighbouring Chief A-i-tiz-zart. In 
 reality, Jewitt's story as he relates it has few sentimental 
 episodes and there were enough stern realities to provide 
 thrilling paragraphs on every page of his book. His 
 life was spared by almost a miracle, considering the plot 
 of the savages and their determination to drive away all 
 white men and thus terminate all relations with them. 
 Almost a miracle was his ability to live according to the 
 habits of his captors, which was demanded of him, and 
 his escape was no less miraculous, owing to the fact that 
 he was able to tell the world of the inhuman treatment 
 of his shipmates by the treacherous band which had pro- 
 fessed friendship. 
 
 Jewitt says that he was cleaning muskets in the steer- 
 age when he heard loud voices and general confusion on 
 deck, so he ran up the ladder only to be caught by the 
 hair of the head as he was emerging from the hatchway, 
 and was lifted from his feet. " Fortunately for me," 
 he relates. " my hair being short and the ribbon with 
 which it was tied slipping, I fell from his hold into the 
 steerage. As I was falling, he struck at me with an axe, 
 which cut a deep gash in my forehead and penetrated 
 
36 Sunset Canada 
 
 the skull, but in consequence of his losing his hold, I luck- 
 ily escaped the full force of the blow, which otherwise 
 would have cleft my head in two." 
 
 It developed that he was merely unconscious when his 
 assailant thought him dead, and when he showed signs of 
 life Chief Maquinna commanded his men not to strike at 
 him and explained that the captive would be useful to 
 them in repairing their arms. The Chief knew enough 
 of English to make himself understood. He asked Jew- 
 itt if he would promise to be his slave through life, if he 
 would fight his battles, repair muskets and make knives 
 for him, if he would spare his life. Six natives with 
 daggers in their hands stood beside him to back up his 
 authority of granting life or death. After Jewitt had 
 promised, the Chief commanded him to kiss his hands 
 and feet as a sign of submission. 
 
 There was a joyous home-coming for the savages who 
 reached the shore amid loud cheers and sat down to a 
 great feast. Jewitt's wounds were tied up and he was 
 obliged to endure great suffering without indicating as 
 much to the Indians who must think him " brave," if his 
 life was to be spared. He says that as they sat at the 
 feast, the Chief ate great quantities of dried clams and 
 train oil " and encouraged me to follow his example, tell- 
 ing me to eat much and take a great deal of oil, which 
 would make me strong and fat," although the food was 
 loathsome to him and nauseated him. In later days all 
 the cargo was plundered from the ship and much of it 
 was traded to Indians of other tribes who came from 
 miles away when they heard the " good news " of the 
 massacre of the white men. Much of the clothing was 
 put on by the savages, the braves frequently appearing in 
 loose women's wrappers and feeling that they were 
 
Island of Romance 37 
 
 dressed better than their fellows who wore skins and 
 furs. 
 
 Jewitt says that the Indians of Vancouver Island were 
 expert fishermen of his day, as they are at the present 
 time. He made them iron fish-hooks, which they fancied, 
 although they were as successful with the hooks which 
 they made from a bearded and pointed bone bound with 
 whale sinew, while their lines were strong cords woven 
 of spruce root bark. The diary of unusual adventures 
 and experiences gives much valuable information in re- 
 gard to the ceremonies and conditions of life of the 
 Nootka natives which other white men did not have the 
 opportunity to observe. Captain Cook reported that 
 when his ship entered the Sound it was immediately sur- 
 rounded by hundreds of canoes, but he did not remain 
 long among the natives and sailed away to spread the 
 news of what he had encountered, although disappointed 
 in his quest of the Northwest Passage. Jewitt con- 
 versed with the Chief who declared that as a boy he 
 remembered the arrival of Captain Cook at Nootka, 
 when the natives took the ships for " monstrous birds 
 swimming toward them with wings expanded." On ac- 
 count of the fate of the Boston and her crew, ships re- 
 mained away from Nootka until 1805 when the brig 
 Lydia arrived, and by strategy, Jewitt and his com- 
 panion made their escape. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 " GENTLEMEN ADVENTURERS " 
 
 In these later days it is amusing to think of the scratch 
 of a pen by which Charles II signed away the rights of 
 trade and possession of Canada, when he wanted to do 
 something for a few favourites who had helped him back 
 to his throne. Prince Rupert, Albermarle, Shaftsbury, 
 the Carteretts and a few others became " The Gentlemen 
 Adventurers of England Trading on Hudson's Bay," 
 and the King having not the remotest idea that he was 
 giving away more than half of the North American 
 continent made only one limitation in the famous charter 
 of 1670 — the lands must be those not already claimed 
 by any Christian power. Otherwise, the " gentlemen " 
 were at liberty to send their ships where they pleased and 
 their representatives in Canada became clothed with im- 
 perial authority, because they not only made the laws, 
 but saw to it that they were obeyed. The " clause of limi- 
 ation " did not prevent their progress when men of other 
 " Christian nations " were found to be in the field ahead 
 of them. The company had been chartered as Lords of 
 the Outer Marches and such a charter and such privileges 
 as those granted were not of a kind to keep the company's 
 agents in the land that bordered on Hudson's Bay. They 
 went on by foot and by canoe; there was seemingly no 
 end to the virgin empire which in reality they were claim- 
 ing for England. They rewarded whoever was of assist- 
 ance to them in the mighty enterprise, as for example, a 
 
" Gentlemen Adventurers *' 39 
 
 cat-skin counterpane was voted to the Right Honourable 
 Earl John Churchill (Marlborough) for whipping " those 
 vermin, those enemies of all mankind, the French," and 
 when King Charles and the Duke of York petitioned 
 France to forbid interlopers, " two pairs of beaver stock- 
 ings are ordered for the King and the Duke of York " 
 and the company's executive committee instructs " Sir 
 James Hayes do attend His Royal Highness at Windsor 
 and present him his dividend in gold in a faire embroid- 
 ered purse." The great thing in the beginning was the 
 dividend and it was often the wonder of the financial 
 world at the time. The company sometimes sent out 
 thirty or forty men in two small vessels to bring home 
 the cargo which brought as high as $100,000, and after 
 paying all expenses there v/as a clear profit of fifty per 
 cent, on the investment. 
 
 There were periods of depression, when there was 
 trouble with the French " vermin," but these were fol- 
 lowed by periods of triumph so that the sales for a single 
 year ran close to the half-million mark. The number of 
 boats and men was increased; instead of small trading 
 posts where furs could be procured from the Indians, 
 strong fortresses were built, and the " lands bordering on 
 Hudson's Bay," so far as the operations of the " Gentle- 
 men Adventurers " were concerned, were bordered on 
 the west by the Pacific ocean and reached from Russian 
 America, now known as Alaska, to Mexico and at one 
 time reached to Hawaii, as a convenient stopping-place 
 on the voyage around the Horn to England. Every 
 share-holder in the company was obliged to take a solemn 
 oath : " I doe solemnly sweare to bee True and faithful 
 to ye Govern'r and Comp'y of Adventurers of England 
 Trading into Hudson's Bay and to my power will sup- 
 
40 Sunset Canada 
 
 port and maintain the said comp'y and privileges of ye 
 same; all bye laws and orders not repeated which have 
 been made or shall be made by ye said Govern' r and Com- 
 pany I will to my best knowledge truly observe and keepe ; 
 ye secrets of ye said company which shall be given me in 
 charge to conceale, I will not disclose; and during the 
 joint stock of ye said com'y I will not directly nor indi- 
 rectly trade to ye limits of ye said company's charter 
 without leave of the Govern'r, the Deputy Govern'r and 
 committee, So help me God." It was feudalism trans- 
 planted from the Old World to the American continent, 
 the only instance in which it has survived to the present 
 day — obedience of every servant to one above him, the 
 paddlers of canoes to the one w-ho gave the order of 
 direction for the cruise, the trader to the chief factor, 
 the latter to the governor and the governor of the com- 
 pany to the King. Much always depended on royal 
 favour, and this seems always to have been maintained. 
 An English ruling house ran its course and a new family 
 arrived on the throne; and the Hudson's Bay Company 
 representatives were speedily at the foot of the throne 
 renewing the ancient bonds that linked the " Gentlemen 
 Adventurers of England " with the Sovereign. 
 
 Naturally, such a company has been the object of much 
 condemnation, ridicule and criticism; but it seems likely 
 that future history will accord the company its full share 
 of credit in gaining another bright jewel for the British 
 diadem. Profit from furs was primarily the force that 
 sent men in canoes up unknown rivers and among un- 
 known people in a far-reaching wilderness. Others fol- 
 lowed these path-makers, found gold and other treasures 
 that prompted an influx of adventurers which resulted 
 in population of a vast region that might otherwise have 
 
BEGINNINGS OF VANCOUVER ISLAND TOWN. 
 
" Gentlemen Adventurers " 41 
 
 remained a wilderness for a greater length of time. 
 Hudson's Bay Company forts became the centers around 
 which villages, towns and cities were built. The way had 
 been paved and the foundations laid by trusted servants 
 of the king, usually with great profit to the company, 
 but sometimes with great losses, as for example the 
 $500,000 expended in an effort to find the North West 
 Passage before the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. 
 Even at the present time, the boats of the company ven- 
 ture into waters that are visited in no other way; the 
 Hudson's Bay company in the Twentieth Century car- 
 ries the lamp of civilization into quarters not otherwise 
 reached by white men. Its treatment of the Indians, con- 
 cerning which there has been much malicious fiction in 
 the last two centuries, is best answered by asking an 
 Indian of the wilderness: "Who's your friend?" as I 
 had occasion to do nearly twenty years ago, when far 
 north of what were considered centers of civilization. 
 The red man will invariably reply : " Hudson's Bay 
 company " — and the red man does not forget a wrong 
 to himself nor to his fathers. 
 
 Almost a library of books has been written about the 
 activities of the company, and books on the same subject 
 continue to come from the presses of the world. A com- 
 missioner of the company once said to me: " Still the 
 story has never yet been written in its entirety; no, not 
 even in some of its essential points." I believe that he 
 might revise this opinion, however, at the present time, 
 because the indefatigable Agnes C. Laut has examined 
 the minute-books of the company in London, in addition 
 to making extensive researches elsewhere, and in cap- 
 tivating style she has related many thrilling chapters in 
 the company's history that seemed to be overlooked by 
 
42 Sunset Canada 
 
 previous writers who sketched the exploits and adven- 
 tures of the representatives of the favourites of royalty 
 who entered the Canadian wilderness and prepared the 
 way for the glorious present. Her volumes The Con- 
 quest of the Great Northwest, Lords of the North 
 and Pathfinders of the West contain much apparently 
 authentic material put down in graphic style and having 
 the interest of fiction. 
 
 In 1 82 1 the Hudson's Bay company divided the coun- 
 try into three departments. The chief depot of the west- 
 ern division was established at Vancouver on the Colum- 
 bia river. Prior to the conclusion of the Oregon Treaty, 
 on June 15, 1846, which fixed the boundary line between 
 the United States and Great Britain, the company antici- 
 pated the result and moved the western depot to within 
 British territory. The present site of Victoria on Van- 
 couver Island was selected by the company's chief factor, 
 James Douglas, who was destined to play an important 
 part in British Columbia's beginnings as a colonial pos- 
 session of Great Britain. The depot was called Fort 
 Camosun, the Indian name of the place, but it was soon 
 changed to Fort Victoria to honour England's Queen. 
 In 1849 ^ special charter was granted to the Hudson's 
 Bay company which made the beautiful island the largest 
 of the archipelago along the coast — two hundred eighty- 
 six miles long and from forty to eighty miles wide, cov- 
 ering an area of twenty thousand square miles — prac- 
 tically a company possession. As usual, however, there 
 was the " saving clause," which stipulated that a resident 
 colony should be formed within five years, subject to 
 revocation of the grant in case of failure and reserving 
 to the Crown the right of purchase on expiration of the 
 charter. In the same year Vancouver Island was pro- 
 
" Gentlemen Adventurers " 43 
 
 claimed a British colony, the first to be established in the 
 northwestern region of America. 
 
 The Hudson's Bay company had received reports of 
 vast deposits of coal in the Island, so for this and other 
 obvious reasons it asked the home government for an 
 exclusive monopoly. Gladstone argued that the company 
 wdiich had worked under a charter of exclusive monopoly 
 for two hundred years and had done little or nothing in 
 the direction of colonization had proved itself an in- 
 competent colonizer. But the company's request was 
 granted. One-tenth of the land sales were to go to the 
 company; nine-tenths were to go toward the improve- 
 ment of the land. For every one hundred acres at five 
 dollars an acre, the buyer was to bring to the Island at 
 his own expense three families or six single persons — 
 and at the end of five or ten years the government might 
 buy the Island by paying to the company what it had 
 expended. 
 
 In 185 1 James Douglas was appointed governor, and 
 upon the renewal of the grant of Vancouver Island in 
 1854 the home government requested him to establish 
 representative government in the colony. The first par- 
 liament assembled in 1856, its members numbering less 
 than a dozen, all of whom were connected with the Hud- 
 son's Bay company in some way. A writer has said that 
 " while settlement was the pretense, sovereignty to re- 
 strict settlement was the ulterior object. Fur hunting 
 did not prosper in communities where colonization was 
 encouraged. But the events that followed precipitated 
 the end of company rule. Gold was discovered along 
 the Fraser River in 1856 or 1857, the exact date being a 
 matter of dispute. Thousands of men rushed to the open 
 port of Victoria. It brought the company's monopoly 
 
44 Sunset Canada 
 
 of trade and government to an end and it gave birth to 
 the two independent colonies of Vancouver Island and 
 British Columbia. Events moved rapidly after the com- 
 ing of the gold-hunters and the country was glowingly 
 referred to by Governor Douglas in the following words : 
 " Self-supporting and defraying all the expenses of its 
 own government, it presents a striking contrast to every 
 other colony in the British Empire and, like the native 
 pine of its own storm-beaten promontories, it has ac- 
 quired a slow, but hardy growth." Correct perhaps, save 
 in the reference to the speed of its development. 
 
 During the early days, the Mainland, later to be known 
 as British Columbia, remained Indian territory under the 
 control of the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1858 Gov- 
 ernor Douglas of Vancouver Island was made governor 
 of the Mainland and authorized to make provision for its 
 administration. In the same year the Hudson's Bay 
 company's charter for exclusive trading with the Indians 
 was cancelled and new officials of the colony were sworn 
 in at Fort Langley. The rush of the gold-hunters up 
 the Eraser valley made it necessary for the governor to 
 act upon his own initiative in many matters, which as a 
 representative of the company he had been in the habit 
 of doing on many occasions. For example, he thought 
 that the large numbers of men from American mining 
 camps might become a menace to British rule, so he placed 
 a headtax on all comers from the United States, which 
 implied the Queen's authority, and in this rather zealous 
 move he was not upheld by the home government, but his 
 acts generally were confirmed by the Secretary for the 
 Colonies in London, as it w^as believed that he had acted 
 wisely in the new country, where he could receive no ade- 
 quate instructions to deal with the unexpected events 
 
" Gentlemen Adventurers " 45 
 
 that transpired. To curb the " lawless " element and to 
 keep a better check on the gold country, Langley was at 
 first chosen as the seat of the Mainland government, 
 but this place was abandoned in favour of the present site 
 of New Westminster. 
 
 The next step was the union of the two colonies, which 
 naturally resulted in a spirited contest as to which city 
 should become the capital of the new province, New 
 Westminster or Victoria. A petition for union was 
 signed by four hundred fifty persons. In the Life of 
 Sir James Douglas appears the following summary of 
 these events : 
 
 " In the end the British government decided the ques- 
 tion, and the authority of the executive government and 
 council of British Columbia was extended over Van- 
 couver Island, the number of members of the council 
 being increased to twenty-three. The customs regula- 
 tions of the Mainland colony were likewise extended to 
 the island. Other ordinances remained for a time as 
 before. The original authority of the governor to make 
 regulations for peace, order and good government was 
 not restricted. The act bore. date of August 6, 1866. A 
 short time after, the attorney general of Vancouver Island 
 introduced a bill for assimilating its laws with those of 
 British Columbia. There then remained only the ques- 
 tion of the seat of government — a rock which the act 
 of union had discreetly avoided. Amid the violent alter- 
 cations of partisans, the choice fell on Victoria and though 
 the bitterness of the defeat rankled long on the Main- 
 land, no effort subsequently availed to secure a revision 
 of the decision." 
 
 Immediately following the union, came advocacy of 
 Confederation with the other Canadian states into a con- 
 
46 Sunset Canada 
 
 solidation of the whole British North America. Senti- 
 ment on Vancouver Island was unfavourable to such a 
 move, but the Mainland was almost unanimously in its 
 favour. The promise to link the province with the rest 
 of Canada by overland communication, however, was the 
 determining factor. On July 7, 1870, the news was re- 
 ceived from Ottawa that terms had been agreed upon and 
 the construction of the trans-continental railroad had 
 been guaranteed. The provisions ensured that the 
 Dominion assume all debts and liabilities of the colony, 
 several " operating " expenses, a fortnightly steam mail 
 service between Victoria and San Francisco, a weekly 
 mail service with Olympia and, most important of all, 
 the railway which became the Canadian Pacific, uniting 
 the Pacific seaboard with the eastern railway system, its 
 construction to begin within two years of the date of 
 union. There were the inevitable delays in beginning 
 the work of construction and many arguments were ad- 
 vanced for the abandonment of the project. It was said 
 that the building of the railway was into a territory 
 " where nothing will grow and where nobody wants to 
 go," and " it will go down in history as the most colossal 
 blunder of the Dominion of Canada " ; but the wonderful 
 system was built at a cost said to have been in the neigh- 
 bourhood of $300,000,000, and, although the contract 
 called for ten years' work, it was completed in five years, 
 and in 1885 the first trains crossed. The company con- 
 trols thousands of miles of railway, telegraph lines, 
 builds its own cars, operates over fifty steamers on Brit- 
 ish Columbia lakes and rivers, and is said to have ex- 
 pended $25,000,000 on the most remarkable string of 
 hotels in existence, reaching from New Brunswick to 
 Vancouver Island. 
 
" G entlemen Adventurers " 47 
 
 And with the opening' of railway connection with the 
 East began British Columbia's great era of prosperity 
 through which it is still passing. Instead of it being a 
 region " where nobody wants to go," it is invaded by 
 tens of thousands of tourists every year, and indications 
 are that the number will soon become hundreds of thou- 
 sands, because it is one of the great natural recreation 
 fields of the earth, and the time is approaching when 
 one who has not visited it may not claim to have " trav- 
 eled." The tour through the Canadian Rockies is com- 
 ing to be what a visit was to Switzerland in our father's 
 day; the difference being that thousands who come to 
 look and remain but a couple of weeks, decide to make 
 their permanent homes in the magic land of sunset. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE ISLAND HIGHWAY 
 
 There are several routes by which a traveler may 
 reach the attractive interior of Vancouver Island with the 
 greatest ease; in fact, with the comforts that are possible 
 in going from New York to Boston, although it appears 
 that not enough people know about it. Perhaps the usual 
 traveler knows that there is " some sort of a railway 
 running somewhere outside of Victoria " ; but the major- 
 ity of strangers who enter the port are so pleased with 
 the city and its immediate environs that they make no in- 
 quiries about going further inland. I have heard visitors 
 lately returned from Victoria praise the city very highly, 
 and then not knowing anything about it advise others to 
 plan to stay there only a few days, " because in that 
 time you can see everything." I have heard Mainland 
 booking agents advise much the same thing. So it fre- 
 quently happens that the newcomer does not hear about 
 anything excepting the capital city on the Island, or he 
 hears too late, and after a pleasant sojourn of several 
 days in the principal city imagines that he has " seen 
 everything." This was my experience during several 
 visits to Victoria and I know that it has been the experi- 
 ence of many others. After I had returned from the in- 
 land tour it seemed that something had been held back 
 from me in the past, for it was one of the " prize pack- 
 ages " in the entire British Columbia tour. It seemed 
 almost that it had been reserv^ed for the " discriminating 
 few," for they were there enjoying themselves in full 
 
 48 
 
The Island Highway 49 
 
 measure while the rest of the world was passing its 
 way, not exactly unmindful, but in absolute ignorance of 
 what it was missing. 
 
 I mentioned the matter to an official of the Island and 
 his reply was to place in my hands several attractively 
 printed folders and leaflets that told of the inland jour- 
 neys. There were reproductions of photographs that 
 showed lakes, mountains, rivers and fishermen standing 
 proudly beside huge strings of fish, which cutlines de- 
 clared represented " One Day's Catch." But even these 
 advertisements failed to present the subject adequately, 
 and it seemed certain that the leaflets and folders never 
 reached the hands for which they were intended. " Tour- 
 ists are making the inland journey more and more every 
 year," said the official, and he seemed to be satisfied. But 
 I still felt a sting of resentment for never having made 
 the little journey before; and for the knowledge that it 
 was generally overlooked by most of the tourists who 
 came to see as much of British Columbia and its beauties 
 as they were able to see in a given length of time. And 
 now I have my " revenge " by telling every one who 
 chances to read this page that in the province there is no 
 more fascinating territory for a " side-trip " of a few 
 days than this inland journey. It is not a virgin field for 
 the traveler; others have been there in large numbers. 
 The inns are prepared to entertain those who come in a 
 cozy, home-like fashion, and they have room for all who 
 are likely to visit them in the immediate future ; but the 
 Island from one end to the other has not been " spoiled " 
 by routine tourists who rush from place to place, hesitat- 
 ing between trains for a glance at the " principal attrac- 
 tion," a few meals and a room or suite of rooms at the 
 leading hotel. Upper Vancouver Island is still what 
 
50 Sunset Canada 
 
 most easterners consider " wild." There are many fine 
 homes in the towns and cities, where the stumps have 
 not been removed from front door yards, A ten-minute 
 walk from the center of some of these towns brings one 
 into the " bush " that is as tangled and overgrown with 
 luxuriant foliage as it was centuries ago. The wood- 
 man's ax is at work and he is clearing more and more 
 of the land to adapt it to his use, as the days pass, but 
 there are still vast reaches where the ax has not been 
 heard, mountains capped with snow that have been barely 
 prospected by men who venture far from the populated 
 districts in search of mineral treasure, of which the Island 
 has given its share to the world. There are beautiful 
 mountain lakes with fish waiting to be caught, but few 
 fishermen visit them each season. There is a frankness 
 noticeable and commendable in the people who are tam- 
 ing this wilderness to their needs and requirements. It 
 has not the savage grandeur of the Rocky Mountain dis- 
 tricts of the Mainland ; but it has a distinctive beauty all 
 its own, which is perhaps the more beautiful by contrast 
 in the British Columbia tour. 
 
 And it is all to be seen and appreciated with so little 
 effort on the part of the spectator! It is true that he 
 may make the Island trip as strenuous as he desires it to 
 be. There are trails into almost unknown regions and 
 there are vast districts that have no trails. There are 
 mountains that are the delight of amateur climbers, and 
 there are great areas where one may pitch his tent for 
 many days with not the slightest probability of coming 
 upon human beings. There is plenty of big game, some 
 of which is shy of the gunner and some which likes to 
 give him a desperate battle. One making an automobile 
 journey over the Island Highway at sunset will some- 
 
The Island Highway 51 
 
 times see from a dozen to twenty deer timidly peeping at 
 him from behind the green foilage that borders the road- 
 way. Those who chmb far up into the hills may meet 
 the black bear or the cougar, both of which in times when 
 food was scarce have ventured into the dooryards of 
 residents of the principal towns. In short, Vancouver 
 Island, when properly visited, seems to be British Co- 
 lumbia in miniature and in gentler mold. Whatever 
 reaches the apex of bewilderment on the Mainland is here 
 in a lesser degree, as if suggestive of what is to come in 
 the faithful pilgrim's itinerary. And one may reach most 
 of it in the seat of an automobile, view it from the win- 
 dow of a parlour car on the railway, or from the deck of a 
 steamer, which last makes a complete circuit of the Island, 
 entering ports that are barely known by name to the out- 
 side world, and sometimes pointing its bow into long in- 
 lets or fjords which almost cut the Island in two. 
 
 Perhaps it is preferable to make the inland tour from 
 Victoria to Port Alberni (134 miles) or to Courtenay 
 (140 miles) by automobile, at least in one direction, re- 
 turning by rail. The excellent motor road, which will 
 ultimately become the western terminus of the trans- 
 Canada route, parallels the railroad much of the w^ay, but 
 as a rule lies lower in the valleys and commands a more 
 intimate view of the scenery through which it passes, 
 while the rails, often spiral along mountainsides, and the 
 car window commands a more distant view of mountain 
 peaks, as it shoots along through century-old fir trees, 
 which are claimed to be " unequalled by any trees occupy- 
 ing corresponding latitudes in other countries." It may 
 be more convenient for the majority of travelers who 
 do not bring their own cars with them, unaware as the 
 world seems to be of the excellence of roads in many parts 
 
52 Sunset Canada 
 
 of the province, to make the entire journey by rail. It 
 is a trip that offers many of the thrills of the ride from 
 Lucerne, Switzerland, to Milan, Italy, with very few of 
 the obnoxious tunnels which detract from the pleasure of 
 any train ride, w-here one finds delight in the scenery and 
 dislikes to catch a glimpse of a beautiful landscape only 
 to be plunged into the darkness of a hill. 
 
 From the start to the end of the trip one observes the 
 same cosmopolitanism that was apparent in Victoria. 
 Far out on the country roads the Chinese are seen trudg- 
 ing with bamboo poles over their shoulders. At the log- 
 ging camps or sawmills one sees the picturesque and 
 gaudy turbans of the Hindoos, who are more fortunate 
 than their brethren of India, who desire to come to this 
 country of promise, but failed to do so when the special 
 dispensation was offered for workers on the trans-conti- 
 nental railway at the time of construction, and now learn 
 that it is too late, that Canada must remain a " w-hite 
 man's country," There are Italians, Swedes, Norwe- 
 gians, Portuguese and Spaniards, all more or less distinc- 
 tive amid the British population. All came in the first 
 instance for the same reason, or with a few notable ex- 
 ceptions this is true. They like the free life of the wilds, 
 and in bettering their condition they are glad to work 
 diligently, holding on to the roseate prospects for the 
 future — at least for the future of their children who 
 are receiving what they could not have received at home. 
 There are a few Englishmen who came because they pre- 
 fer to spend their years of retirement in the locality that 
 pleased them from the report of others, or when they 
 saw it during a tour of British dominions it pleased them 
 more than any other place they had seen. The homes of 
 some of the latter are miniatures of English country resi- 
 
'.re more fortunate 
 'jc.sire to come to tr.is 
 do so when the spec ial 
 on the t:. 
 
 Douglas Fir, on Island Highway. 
 
 ers, or ^ 
 
The Island Highway 53 
 
 dences. At least, there is one large room, the floors of 
 which are covered with bear-skin rugs and the walls are 
 decorated with deer, elk and moose heads with spreading 
 antlers. There is a large fireplace in which logs crackle 
 and my English gentleman seems to be thoroughly enjoy- 
 ing himself in an atmosphere of a century ago — with 
 the exception that he reads by electric lights, for the 
 people of Vancouver Island have learned how to harness 
 the waterfalls that splash over almost every hill, and 
 doubtless the house is heated by steam, the fireplace 
 being more of an ornament and luxury than necessity. 
 It is a beautiful life in the primeval woods for one who 
 knows how to enjoy it ; and there are enough who do to 
 set a worthy example to the colonists who dream of the 
 day when their land of promise will enable them to live 
 in the same way. 
 
 As the train leaves the queer little station on the water- 
 front, it seems as if one were starting on a boat journey, 
 for it circles around bridges, over the Inlet, and seems to 
 be gliding on the water. Almost immediately, the train 
 plunges between the rocks and begins its climb, spiraling a 
 big hill. Immediately it enters great forests of Douglas 
 fir (named for the botanist and not for the governor) 
 the huge tree that is the pride of the Island. Such great 
 shafts of timber with barely a limb until they have reached 
 the height of perhaps two hundred feet, then breaking into 
 myrtle green plumes like a small umbrella at the top of a 
 lengthy pole! Early in the trip they wave their fronds 
 high above the train ; but as the train climbs, leaving the 
 trunks of the trees in the valley, they shoot their tops 
 beside the car windows. Soon one looks through the 
 fragrant screen of green and sees blue lakes filling the 
 canyons below, or rushing streams that our fellow trav- 
 
54 Sunset Canada 
 
 elers equipped with all sorts of tackle, say are the abid- 
 ing-places of trout of actual weight that make all fisher- 
 men hereabouts appear to be boasters — or worse — when 
 they relate past experiences in the same streams. 
 
 One's suggestion to the tourist who can arrange his 
 own time is to plan to make this trip in the last days of 
 May or in June, when the foliage of the hills is taking 
 on the rank green of spring — although autumn is said 
 to offer a picture as diverting with the sprays of colour- 
 ing foliage against the green. The trees, however, are 
 mostly fir or cedar and in the spring a frequent tall 
 dogwood bursts a mass of white bloom in the high arches 
 of green. Along the clearing at the trackside the grass 
 is splotched with masses of white or pink " English " 
 daisies, wild columbine and whole banks of flowering wild 
 strawberries. 
 
 The morning train from Victoria — and all trains 
 start in the morning — soon reaches Esquimault, which 
 probably would have been the capital of the Island and 
 Province if the Hudson's Bay chief factor had dreamed 
 of the city's future importance, when he located a fort 
 at the southern tip of the Island. For many years the 
 harbour of Esquimault was Great Britain's only naval 
 station on the Pacific coast and it is now the base of the 
 Canadian and Imperial navies. There is a large dry dock 
 here, and one of the largest docks in the world is in 
 prospect for construction at an early date. It is a quaint 
 and interesting place with the atmosphere of " official- 
 dom " about it and is well worth a visit. It is easily 
 reached by tramway from Victoria and therefore unnec- 
 essary to come by train. 
 
 The train makes a rather meandering and slow climb 
 to Shawnigan Lake, a distance of twenty-eight miles. 
 
The Island Highway 55 
 
 The lake, which bears an Indian name, is a popular and 
 conveniently reached resort during the shooting and fish- 
 ing seasons. It is five miles long, winding like a river in 
 a basin of tall green hills, and at the train platform is the 
 entrance of Strathcona Lodge, a pretty little hotel set in 
 rustic-fenced gardens. Motorists who visit the lake and 
 return to Victoria may do so by way of Sooke Lake. 
 
 Several small towns are scattered along the railway 
 beyond the lake, but there are vast stretches of timber- 
 land with no suggestion of a habitation, save the deserted 
 shacks of the construction gang or lumber jacks. Some 
 idea of the amount of unsettled land may be gained from 
 the statement that the railway still has over one mil- 
 lion acres unsold. Duncan is a little agricultural center, 
 where dairying is a specialty. Crofton, Chemainus, 
 Ladysmith! The train rolls along and in watching the 
 name-boards on the stations one detects sometimes a rec- 
 ollection of " the old home," as well as an adoption or 
 adaptation of the local Indian name. 
 
 Nanaimo, the Coal City, which claims a population of 
 ten thousand, has twice-daily steamer service with Van- 
 couver, the crossing being much shorter than by the 
 Victoria-Vancouver route of slightly over eighty miles. 
 The city is one of the oldest on the island, a Hudson's 
 Bay Company post having been located here and the coal 
 mines having been worked to some extent since 1850, 
 when they were discovered through the help of the In- 
 dians. In the district vast fortunes have been made 
 from the industry, but they were not spent there. It is 
 a somewhat uninteresting place having the combined 
 qualities of a mining town and a port. It was to this 
 district that young Robert Dunsmuir came as a coal ex- 
 pert from Scotland. He remained in the employ of 
 
56 Sunset Canada 
 
 others for a number of years, but in his explorations for 
 himself he discovered rich veins of coal that laid the foun- 
 dation for the Dunsmuir millions. In the early days he 
 had several partners, the conditions being that he own 
 one-half the mine and have complete control of the oper- 
 ations. In time he was able to buy out all his asso- 
 ciates, the last being Lieutenant Diggles, to whom he 
 gave his personal check for $800,000 in settlement of all 
 claims. His properties eventually made him the richest 
 man in the province, perhaps in the Dominion. Natu- 
 rally, he became a man of great influence in British Co- 
 lumbia and there was barely an enterprise of any magni- 
 tude in the province in which he was not financially in- 
 terested. He was one of the promoters of the proposed 
 Canadian Western railway, to which the provincial legis- 
 lature granted a charter and a subsidy of about fourteen 
 million acres of land. 
 
 The train arrives at Parksville Junction for lunch, 
 where one may have the experience of what might be 
 called de luxe roughing it. He is traveling on a parlour 
 car, but the railway has not yet reached the point of 
 offering its patrons dining-car service, so all passengers 
 rush to the eating-room of the little station, climb to the 
 tops of high stools and sit around the counter, while 
 nattily dressed young ladies pour coffee or tea and 
 recite a long menu which sounds something like — " ham 
 sandwiches, egg sandwiches, cress sandwiches, lettuce 
 sandwiches, beef sandwiches, sardine sandwiches — or 
 pie." And such pie ! It is of that almost gold-leaf flak- 
 iness that makes one feel that the Canadian Pacific rail- 
 way is having its little joke and serving better pie at the 
 Parksville Junction station than in its magnificent hostel- 
 ries at better known stopping places across the country. 
 
The Island Highway 57 
 
 And the station agent at Parksville Junction must be 
 an artist, proving his love of the beautiful in this out-of- 
 the-way corner of the world in a practical manner, where 
 perhaps his example will have a better effect than if he 
 were a rich man in the city who built a beautiful park 
 and permitted the public to saunter through its walks 
 and enjoy the old masters' marbles set up by formal lake 
 or fountain. The Junction is located in a dense forest 
 of Douglas fir, which looks as if it had never known the 
 tread of man. There is a small clearing at the railway 
 tracks and a small plot at each end of the station. This 
 has been enclosed by an ornamental fence made of white 
 birch limbs woven and twisted into fantastic designs. In- 
 side the railing there is a grass plot, a teahouse, tables 
 and benches of birch like the fence — and, when I passed, 
 there was a bed of tulips in full bloom ! Tea in this little 
 garden in the wilderness, a sandwich and the never-to- 
 be-forgotten pie was the temptation that drew us away 
 from the more substantial meal at the counter and high 
 stools. 
 
 The rails part and one branch leads to Oualicum Beach, 
 where there is a beautiful white strand two miles in 
 length and where the surf rolls high, where there is a 
 sheltering cove for yachting, a golf course and a hotel. 
 In a short time the rails will extend up this branch to 
 Campbell River, which is already a fisherman's para- 
 dise and the gateway to Strathcona Park, which is not 
 yet " formally " open to the public, but which is already 
 an ideal retreat for a camping tour. Towering moun- 
 tains, of which Mount Victoria is the highest (7,500 
 feet), are in this district and much else that will delight 
 the eyes of all who venture so far off the main highway 
 of travel. 
 
58 Sunset Canada 
 
 The entire Dominion of Canada has made remarkable 
 strides in selecting natural beauty spots, of preserving 
 them, and building roads and trails which make them 
 available to travelers. Having many of the scenic won- 
 ders of the continent within its bordens, British Colum- 
 bia has many large areas already set apart and improved 
 and they are becoming a great asset to the province as 
 well as a joy to an ever increasing number of travelers. 
 On this subject Richard Watrous of the American Civic 
 Association says : " Canada has been ahead of us on the 
 national park proposition in every respect — in almost 
 every respect. I am going to say, first of all, that that 
 was best illustrated when the great drift of travel from 
 the East to the West on account of the expositions at 
 San Francisco and San Diego brought out the fact that 
 the Canadian National Parks, because of their exploita- 
 tion, and because of the things that have been done to 
 make them ready for the comfort and convenience and 
 safety of the tourists, drew the great, wholesale travel 
 — I learned on very good authority that of the travel 
 which went West about 75 per cent, was routed either 
 going or returning by Canadian railroad systems." 
 
 Robert Sterling Yard of the Department of the Interior, 
 Washington, referring to the Canadian mountains says: 
 " till then in this country every man, woman and child 
 has been brought up to the belief that the greatest scenery 
 of the world was in Switzerland, and now in the last few 
 years, they have also added the Canadian Rockies. That 
 is the great word in this country to-day — the Canadian 
 Rockies." 
 
 The European war delayed the final preparations for 
 opening Strathcona Park, and it may be some time before 
 it is ready to accommodate travelers who do not care for 
 
The Island Highway 59 
 
 camping, but a motor road through to the entrance from 
 Victoria will one day take visitors to this wonderland, 
 where now it is necessary to proceed on horseback. 
 There are a few cabins, with stoves and bunks along the 
 trail going into the park at Goose Neck Lake ; and these, 
 together with " Packers' Cabin " just above the lower end 
 of Upper Campbell Lake, can be utilized by travelers. 
 It will be a thrilling lifetime memory to recall such an 
 experience. No " tame cat " vacation through a well- 
 groomed National Park will ever compare with it. In 
 addition to the direct trip into the Park itself, a de- 
 lightful and easy trip is afforded by taking a motor car 
 up to either Campbell River or to lower Campbell Lake 
 at Forbes' Landing. All the superb scenery from Vic- 
 toria north to these points will be seen along the road. 
 Between Forbes' Landing and Buttle Lake there are good 
 camping sites at Echo and Mirror Lakes, and good trout 
 fishing is obtainable almost everywhere. Visitors start- 
 ing from Victoria will see the famous Malahat Drive 
 among other beauties. 
 
 The trip into Strathcona Park from Campbell River 
 takes the visitors to Mclvor Lake and thence to Forbes' 
 Landing at Lower Campbell Lake by automobile, where 
 pack horses brought on from Campbell River may be 
 taken unless visitors decide to walk up the trail, about 
 twenty-two miles to the lower end of Buttle Lake, break- 
 ing the journey at the Packers' Cabin. There is a sleep- 
 ing cabin at Buttle Lake which will accommodate twenty- 
 six persons, a stove and a special room for ladies being 
 included. A man is in charge of this cabin for the 
 months of June, July and August. 
 
 There are a number of creeks and rivers entering Buttle 
 Lake which afford splendid fishing at their mouths, par- 
 
60 Sunset Canada 
 
 ticularly the mouth of Wolf Creek, PhilHp Creek, Myra 
 River, the first bay on the west side of Buttle Lake and 
 other points. There are a few boats belonging to the 
 provincial government stored at Buttle Lake, and there is 
 a keeper in charge of these who will give the use of them 
 to responsible parties. Such parties should obtain from 
 the Minister of Public Works a permit to use these boats 
 before leaving Victoria. Such permits are directed to the 
 man in charge. To prevent disappointment, however, 
 in the event of the visitors finding the boats in use when 
 they arrive, the precaution of taking canoes or boats in, 
 together with suitable motors is urgently advised by 
 the officials. Horses and guides can be obtained at 
 Campbell River or Forbes' Landing at Lower Campbell 
 Lake. 
 
 Shooting is forbidden inside the park limits, but per- 
 mission to take along a rifle or revolver can be secured by 
 application to the Minister of Public Works. Trout in 
 the district readily take the regulation flies used by 
 anglers. The best month for sea trout is June and the 
 Campbell River at and near its mouth affords splendid 
 sea trout fishing. June, July, August and September 
 provide trout fishing and August and September are the 
 best months for the big tyee or spring salmon at the 
 mouth of the Campbell River. September gives the cohoe 
 salmon fishing, and while these fish do not run nearly as 
 large as the spring salmon, they are very gamy and give 
 excellent sport. 
 
 The following calendar for fishing and shooting on 
 Vancouver Island has been tabulated by a provincial 
 bureau and is the result of a wide observation extending 
 over a number of years, so that its information is as 
 correct as any available. 
 
The Island Highway 
 
 61 
 
 January For the shooter, ducks, geese, snipe. 
 
 For the fisherman, grilse in salt water with a 
 good chance for salmon. Steelhead in 
 nontidal waters. 
 February For the shooter, ducks, geese, snipe. 
 
 For the fisherman, grilse, spring salmon and 
 steelhead. 
 March For the shooter, geese (Brant and Canada 
 
 geese) . 
 For the fisherman, grilse, spring salmon, 
 trout, steelhead ; trout fishing opens and 
 steelhead fishing closes March 26. 
 April For the shooter, geese, black bear. 
 
 For the fisherman, trout, grilse, spring sal- 
 mon. 
 May For the shooter, black bear. 
 
 For the fisherman, trout, grilse, small run 
 of cohoe salmon. 
 June For the fisherman, trout, black bass, grilse, 
 
 small run of cohoe salmon. (Best 
 month for sea trout.) 
 July For the fisherman, trout, black bass. 
 
 August For the shooter, wild pigeons (Bandtail). 
 
 For the fisherman, trout, spring salmon, 
 black bass. 
 September For the shooter, grouse, deer, ducks, geese, 
 snipe, pigeons, bear. 
 For the fisherman, trout, spring salmon, co- 
 hoe salmon, black bass. 
 October For the shooter, grouse, deer, ducks, geese, 
 snipe, pheasants, quail, bear. 
 For the fisherman, trout, spring salmon, co- 
 hoe salmon. 
 
62 Sunset Canada 
 
 November For the shooter, grouse, deer, ducks, geese, 
 snipe, pheasants, quail, bear. 
 For the fisherman, trout until November 15, 
 cohoe salmon until November 15. 
 Trout fishing closes and steelhead fish- 
 ing opens. 
 
 December For the shooter, grouse, ducks, geese, snipe, 
 pheasants, quail, deer until December 
 15. December 31 pheasant, grouse and 
 quail shooting ends. 
 
 Taking the opposite fork from Parksville Junction, the 
 railway proceeds to Cameron Lake thirteen miles away, 
 an emerald blue body of water that lies at the base of 
 Mount Arrowsmith, which occupies as commanding posi- 
 tion in the landscape as Mount Fuji does in the typical 
 Japanese scene. It is less than six thousand feet high, 
 but its top is capped with eternal snow and it stands 
 effectively prominent among neighbouring peaks. The 
 railway skirts along high shelves of rock on the banks of 
 the lake with the firs and cedars of the valley reaching to 
 towering heights, but failing to reach the altitude of the 
 rails in the skyward flight. Here, it is claimed, is some 
 of the finest standing timber in the world, magnificent 
 shafts that shoot upward like granite pillars, five to nine 
 feet in circumference and from one to three hundred feet 
 high. There is a pleasant little chalet here for the enter- 
 tainment of visitors, famous fishing, and much to delight 
 the excursionist. The automobile road lies in the valley 
 close to the lake and the Island Highway passes directly 
 through the magnificent stand of timber to which refer- 
 ence has been made. The tourist who comes here will be 
 tempted to stay and let it mark the terminus of his inland 
 
The Island Highway 63 
 
 journey, because there is everything that most human be- 
 ings enjoy when on pleasure bent : canoeing, fishing, hunt- 
 ing, motoring, mountain-climbing — and, if he prefers, 
 a landscape that seems to have been created for his special 
 benefit if he is looking for absolute quiet and fascinating 
 scenes. The railway leads on, however, and so does the 
 motor road, and circles over to the other side of Mount 
 Arrowsmith, so that its snowy peak is viewed to the east- 
 ward instead of being the southwestern " decoration " of 
 the lake picture. Twenty miles further is Alberni, the 
 port which lies nearer the opposite coast than the Pacific, 
 being situated at the head of the so-called Alberni Canal, 
 a fjord or deep gash in the mountains from the Pacific 
 to within a few miles of the Straits, where it is suddenly 
 cut of¥ by lofty barriers of stone. Arriving at the ter- 
 minus of the railway, the traveler is glad, after all, that 
 he was able to overcome all temptations to stop his jour- 
 ney at any of the numerous enchanting spots that beck- 
 oned to him along the route. Arrived and settled in the 
 evening before the crackling log fire of the cozy hotel 
 which has many features to remind one of an English 
 inn — including the cuisine, which however is presided 
 over by a white-capped chef from the Celestial Republic 
 ■ — one glances over the schedule for days soon to come 
 and it seems that here is the fisherman's paradise and 
 that all roads and trails of the district ultimately lead in 
 this direction. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 MEMORIES OF NORWAY 
 
 The traveler who arrives at Alberni by motor or rail- 
 way may spend several days there before he is reminded 
 of those granite walls of Norway, as straight as if they 
 had been cut by the knife from mountain-top to water's 
 edge, because the hills and mountains are more sloping 
 toward the head of the fjord and often their lower strata 
 are covered with trees ; but one who enters from the Pa- 
 cific side will have had recollections of the celebrated coun- 
 try of rock-bound waterways long before the steamer 
 enters this beautiful channel on its circuit of the Island, 
 which is scheduled for twice a month and which takes six 
 days to complete. The first important stop out of Vic- 
 toria is Bamfield, the station of the Australian cable, said 
 to be the longest single stretch in the world. Clayoquot 
 never fails to excite admiration on account of its scenery. 
 Nootka is touched, the scene of so much of importance in 
 the early days of the Island ; and finally more than scenic 
 suggestion of Norway, Holberg is reached, the westerly 
 terminus of the voyage that is pleasant for " good sail- 
 ors," but not exactly to be recommended to those who are 
 uncomfortable when the tides and currents play tag and 
 when the steamer stands on end most of the time. The 
 chief interest of this cruise is the opportunity it affords 
 to visit small towns which remain somewhat primitive 
 and which in several instances are populated almost en- 
 tirely by the coast Indians who live much as their fathers 
 64 
 
Memories of Norway 65 
 
 and grandfathers did, excepting that they are certain that 
 provision will be made for them by a paternal govern- 
 ment if they come on evil times, which is so often the fate 
 of the red man anywhere on the continent. 
 
 There is ample opportunity for one to observe the red 
 men in their villages along the Canal, a trip that may be 
 made from Alberni to the coast and back in one day. 
 They are essentially aquatic Indians and spend their lives 
 fishing — and carving totem poles, concerning which there 
 is still so much misunderstanding and mystery. But per- 
 haps much of this " mystery " has arisen from the " ex- 
 planations " and theories of the men who have endeav- 
 oured to elucidate the " mystical message " that in many 
 instances does not exist at all, save in their own minds. 
 At least this is the opinion of the Dominion Indian Agent, 
 who has spent his life among red men, speaks their own 
 language, and by reason of his position has had many 
 opportunities to learn " secrets " that are withheld from 
 most white men. 
 
 " I have even read that the making of totems is a ' lost 
 art,' " said the Agent, smiling, as he pointed to a large pole 
 in his front yard. " That doesn't look much like lost art, 
 does it? Look at the carving on the eagle's wings, and 
 see that statue of me ! It isn't exactly after Greek stand- 
 ards; but apparently it is a red man's conception of what 
 an Indian Agent ought to look like. They carved that a 
 few years ago and presented it to me with all the oldtime 
 ceremonies, some of which had an almost ' Masonic ' 
 meaning that might have been rather vague to the layman 
 but which were not * mysterious ' in the way that some of 
 the * scientists ' would have us believe. None of the 
 * scholars ' have ever * explained ' this totem, but it would 
 be amusing to know the * symbolism ' that they would read 
 
66 Sunset Canada 
 
 into it. I am represented on the pole with a skull in my 
 hands. Now that is very promising as a field for ' expla- 
 nations.' As a matter of fact, it is all perfectly simple, as 
 are most of the other totems that I have seen — at least 
 they are simple to me, because I know the Indians well and 
 I know that they are first of all very ' primitive ' and have 
 never dreamed of the things that white men discover for 
 them. Tossing the skull harks back to an ancient custom 
 among them. The chief stood in front of the young 
 bucks and threw a skull. There was a great scramble to 
 get hold of it, for good fortune would come to the pos- 
 sessor. On this totem I am represented as the Big Chief 
 because I represent the government. In my official capac- 
 ity I am in a position to do many things for them that they 
 want done. They consider that I can be of great service 
 to them. I hold the skull and I am about to toss it. 
 Whoever catches it will be lucky because I am the dis- 
 penser of government gifts. Now what could be simpler ? 
 It is nonsense to read too much ' symbolism ' into any of 
 these things, particularly to give them too great religious 
 significance. I have usually found that a chief's personal 
 totem is in reality a boast; but I have read that a chief 
 is sometimes buried in his totem. Never! It is rather 
 his means of telling every one what an unusual person 
 he is. He kills large whales, deer or bear, at least he 
 claims that he has done so by his totem. As for ' sym- 
 bolism,' here is a favourite story with them often repre- 
 sented on the poles and it is very characteristic of most 
 of the others, ' Once upon a time — a very long time 
 ago, as most Indian stories begin — the kingfisher was 
 so smart that he could talk, and, in consequence, he 
 became a great liar. He boasted so much about what he 
 could catch to eat that the bear asked : " Can you take 
 
TOTEM CARVED TO REPRESENT WHITE MAN. 
 
Memories of Norway 67 
 
 a lizard from your stomach? " The kingfisher could not 
 do it and the bear could.' So you find the bird, the 
 bear and the lizard on many totems to-day to remind the 
 Indians that it is not wise to boast about your accomplish- 
 ments or prowess, unless you can make good." 
 
 Perhaps the Agent's words are much nearer the truth 
 than most of the " scientific explanations "; but it is pos- 
 sible that the whole truth lies between too close familiar- 
 ity with the red men and too great ignorance of them in 
 everyday life. The totem in some form or other usually 
 representing animals has appeared at some stage in the 
 development of practically all the people in the world, as 
 MacLean says in Canadian Savage Folk : 
 
 " Traces of its existence are found in the symbolism of 
 the Bible, as the lion was the animal symbol for Judah, 
 the ass for Issachar, the wolf for Benjamin, the serpent 
 for Dan, and the hind for Gad. . . . The natives pro- 
 tected their totems and they expected to be protected by 
 them. . . . They were divinities which guarded and pro- 
 tected them. . . . Rival totems made war with each 
 other as in Grecian mythology, Lycus the wolf flees the 
 country before Aegus the goat. ... A husband may 
 belong to different totems which will divide them when 
 there arises a totem feud. Intermarriage between the 
 members of the same totem was forbidden. A member 
 of the wolf clan could not marry a wolf, but he might 
 take a wife from the women of the hawk clan. . . . Na- 
 tives make a theoretical claim of descent from the ani- 
 mals, which they accept as their totems, but it cannot be 
 shown that this is a literal descent. Confounding the 
 ideal with the real they have come to speak of them as 
 their ancestors. ... A clan was forbidden to kill or 
 eat the totem." 
 
68 Sunset Canada 
 
 Sometimes an Indian's totem is tattooed on his body; 
 but this is always concealed from white men. The con- 
 tact of man in his primitive condition with animals doubt- 
 less gave rise to a choice of them as totems, the bear, 
 deer, wolf and buffalo being most frequently selected. 
 Sometimes the Indians sign their names to treaties and 
 letters with their individual totems. They seem always 
 to have been partial to the bear, as they had great respect 
 for his cunning. In the British Association Report of the 
 Northwest Tribes appears the following as to the origin 
 of the bear totem, which is fairly typical of the stories 
 concerning other animals : 
 
 " An Indian went mountain goat hunting. When he 
 had reached a remote mountain range, he met a black 
 bear, who took him to his home, taught him how' to catch 
 salmon and how to build boats. Two years the man 
 stayed v.'ith the bear; then he returned to his village. 
 All the people were afraid of him for he looked like a 
 bear. One man, however, caught him and took him 
 home. He could not speak and could not eat anything 
 but raw food. Then they rubbed him with magic herbs 
 and he was transformed into the shape of a man. 
 Thenceforth, w^hen he v^as in want, he went into the 
 woods and his friend the bear helped him. In winter 
 when the rivers were frozen he caught plenty of salmon. 
 He built a house and painted a bear on the front of it. 
 His sister made a dancing blanket, the design of which 
 represented a bear. Therefore the descendants of his 
 sisters used the bear for their crest." 
 
 Walter Moberly, living in Victoria at the time of writ- 
 ing, but nevertheless one of the early explorers in several 
 parts of the province, relates that at one time he was 
 badly in need of food for himself and the Indian who 
 
Memories of Norway 69 
 
 was accompanying him and fortunately he shot a bear. 
 It was an exceptionally large specimen and he wanted 
 to pack the head and hide over the trails to have it 
 mounted for his home. But his companion urged him 
 not to do so, declaring that it would make all other bears 
 very angry. He would be unable to procure any more 
 bears for food and all grizzlies would be particularly 
 ferocious. He begged that he might have the head to 
 dispose of in " Indian fashion." Moberly gave it to him 
 and watched the Indian tear off a piece from his red 
 shirt (the ceremonial colour) thus paying to it the respect 
 which Indians always like to pay to the bear, tied it to 
 the bear's head and then climbed to the top of a spruce 
 tree, tear away the branches and leave the head there, 
 ornamented with red, thus an adequate tribute in death. 
 
 Modern totems are perhaps best represented among the 
 coast Indians of British Columbia at the present time, 
 although they are also found among the natives of New 
 Zealand and Australia. It does not require much of a 
 stretch of the imagination to associate these wooden im- 
 ages with the stone carvings of the ancient Egyptians, 
 Assyrians, Chinese and even the Greeks. In fact, it has 
 been maintained that traces of totem worship are indi- 
 cated in the names of Christians and pagans alike in the 
 catacombs of Rome. 
 
 " It is my opinion that our coast Indians will remain 
 fishermen despite the educational opportunities that are 
 afforded them or whatever they observe from contact 
 with white men," continued the Agent. " They are not- 
 ably undemonstrative and appear to take very slight 
 interest in what one would expect to interest them pro- 
 foundly. For example, the first automobile they saw did 
 not occasion any particular interest. They would not 
 
70 Sunset Canada 
 
 be interested if a submarine should come up the Alberni 
 Canal. These Indians are prosperous and could become 
 rich if they wanted to be, but they are improvident, and 
 when old age overtakes them they are usually pi liable 
 objects, because they may not expect help from children, 
 relatives, or members of the tribe. It seems that most 
 of my work consists of looking up the cases of the 
 outcasts who are neglected and become declasse for no 
 other reason than that they are old, infirm or ill. To 
 these I give blankets, flour, or whatever they need and 
 their relatives or tribesmen do not resent my ' interfer- 
 ence,' although it seems to be in their nature to deal 
 otherwise with those in distress." 
 
 On this subject Sproat's Scenes and Studies of Savage 
 Life says: "The practice of abandoning aged persons 
 or those afflicted with lingering diseases was lately quite 
 common among the Alts. Before satisfying myself on 
 this point, I had believed that this inhuman custom was 
 confined to those savage tribes which being forced to 
 wander over extensive districts in pursuit of game for 
 food and obliged to be at all times ready to fight an 
 enemy, were unable to carry with them in their rapid 
 marches persons infirm from age or sickness and chil- 
 dren of defective forms. But the practice is common 
 among the tribes on this coast who are seldom in want 
 of food and who never move their encampments but 
 for short distances, and the custom I think rests simply 
 on the unwillingness of the natives to be troubled with 
 the care of hopeless invalids. It is not much worse as a 
 proof of the insensibility of the human heart than the 
 manner of treating insane persons in Scotland and other 
 civilized countries before lunatic asylums were estab- 
 lished. The victims among the Indians, as stated above. 
 
Memories of Norway 71 
 
 are not always aged persons, young and old of both sexes 
 are exposed when afflicted with lingering disease. A 
 father will abandon his child, or a child his father. In 
 bitter weather a sufferer has been known to have been 
 taken to a distance from the encampment and left un- 
 sheltered with a small quantity of water and dried salmon. 
 No one is permitted to add to the allowance, or to show 
 attention to the miserable invalid, his own relatives pass 
 him by in the woods with perfect indifference. Indi- 
 viduals thus abandoned occasionally recover and return 
 to the village, but more often they perish wretchedly and 
 the wild beasts devour them. In opposition to this in- 
 difference an eye-witness told me of the frightful manner 
 in which the parents of a young girl who died showed on 
 that occasion their excessive grief. As soon as life had 
 departed, they screamed, and frantically seizing the body 
 by the hair, arms and legs, threw it about the house until 
 they were quite fatigued, then, after a time, they placed 
 it on a couch in a sitting posture to await burial." 
 
 I called the Agent's attention to the fact that I had 
 seen a young Indian receive $67 for one day's catch of 
 fish, and that I had been told of an Indian who received 
 $10 a day for eight days' fishing. 
 
 " That's nothing for these Indians," he replied. " I 
 know a young fellow who made $1 17 in one day with his 
 fish lines. There are times when they get eleven cents a 
 pound, and when you realize that a good salmon weighs 
 in the neighbourhood of fifty pounds, the abundance of 
 salmon in these waters — and the fact that they are better 
 fishermen than white men, you can see how they can make 
 money. At present, most of them are buying launches, 
 as they do not care to paddle canoes as their fathers did. 
 Here is what they used to fish with." The Agent ex- 
 
72 Sunset Canada 
 
 hibited hooks made of twisted spruce roots and prongs of 
 bone, with fine strong lines made of bark shreds. " But 
 they don't like to do it any more; they fish with trolling 
 spoons and beat the white man with his own invention. 
 Fishing, as I said before, is their ambition and their hfe. 
 As a general rule they are holding their own pretty well, 
 although some of the tribes have become almost extinct. 
 I cannot say that I am particularly optimistic about the 
 results from educating them in our schools. In the first 
 place, they do not want education and they do not use it 
 after they get it. I have seen girls remain in our schools 
 until they seemed to be completely reclaimed from sav- 
 agery, but contact with home influence soon brought them 
 back to where they started or worse — because after they 
 had been to school they had gained a knowledge of a 
 life that made them unhappy afterwards. I knew a girl 
 who was several years in our schools. She seemed a 
 shining example of what could be accomplished with 
 proper training. You should have heard her play the 
 piano ! Then she returned to her parents and instead of 
 having any influence for good in the home life, she 
 quickly returned to where she was in the beginning. I 
 saw her not long after she left school. She was wear- 
 ing a dirty calico wrapper and sitting in the doorway of 
 a tumble-down shack — just like the others who had no 
 education, excepting that she was miserable because she 
 had tasted a better hfe." 
 
 A few days before I visited him, the Agent had made 
 what he considered a most important discovery, because 
 so little remains to be found out about a people who have 
 been so diligently studied by the specialists, who have 
 always endeavoured to find something that would defi- 
 nitely link them with the Chinese or Japanese. 
 
Memories of Norway 73 
 
 " I always knew that they had some sort of ceremony 
 at the beginning of the fishing season, or when they were 
 about to go to their boats and particularly wanted ' luck,' " 
 he related. " At one time and another they have been 
 pretty confidential with me about these matters ; but they 
 always denied that there was anything of the kind. Last 
 week, when I was completing a tour of my district, I 
 chanced to come to a village where the men had left on 
 a fishing expedition. Looking around the place, as I 
 usually do to discover any old and destitute Indians 
 who had been thrown out of the village, I scented a trail 
 in the woods, one that would not be likely to be recognized 
 by any one but an Indian, unless he knew them and their 
 customs pretty well. I followed it and by the merest 
 chance I came on what I had always wanted to see, a 
 shrine for *" oosh-mish ' which may be roughly interpreted 
 as a prayer for fish. Fortunately, I had my camera with 
 me and snapped this photograph. The foliage was 
 heavy, and there was very little sunlight; but I am cer- 
 tain it is the first and only photograph ever taken of such 
 a shrine. If you look closely, you will distinguish two 
 men in a canoe, a spear over the side of the boat and three 
 ' seals ' or fish in the moss at the side. All this was 
 neatly woven and formed of moss and twigs. Rather 
 simple, yes; but I assure you that it is probably one of 
 the most sacred shrines the coast Indians knows. He 
 would believe implicitly in the efficacy of a prayer at this 
 shrine, in bringing him * fisherman's luck,' which in these 
 waters means several fifty-pound salmon, which he could 
 sell at about eleven cents a pound." 
 
 On the Canal there is one of several British Columbia 
 whale fisheries where the operation of carving the sea 
 monsters into various articles of commerce may be wit- 
 
74 Sunset Canada 
 
 nessed. Formerly there was world-wide interest in the 
 catching of whales, and many towns in the United States 
 and Canada practically owe their existence to the day 
 when it was supposed to be a more flourishing industry. 
 Then whales became " scarce " and profits decreased. 
 Boats that had been exclusively used in whale fishing 
 were sent on other sea errands. And then as the in- 
 dustry revived it attracted so little attention that the 
 world is not aware of its magnitude in various places, one 
 of the most important being on Vancouver Island and 
 adjacent waters. The Pacific Whaling company has 
 averaged about six hundred whales each season since it 
 began operations. It has adopted modern methods — 
 like the other fishing concerns — and instead of old- 
 fashioned sailing ships, whales are now pursued by fast 
 steamers and are harpooned not in the old style, but by a 
 Svend Foyu harpoon gun. After the harpoon enters the 
 carcase it explodes and the whale is speedily despatched. 
 Sometimes when the boat is near a school of whales a 
 second harpoon is shot, which connects with a tube by 
 means of which steam is pumped into the body, which 
 assists it to float. A flag or marker is placed in it and 
 the steamef loses little time in the pursuit of another 
 whale. After the catch, the carcasses are towed to the 
 whaling station, where they are raised to piers con- 
 venient for cutting. Practically every portion of the 
 huge mammal is used to profit. Whalebone of a certain 
 variety fetches $12,000 a ton. The body bones are 
 crushed and used as fertilizer. Strips of flesh are cut 
 from head to tail, about a foot wide, from which the 
 blubber is torn by means of hooks and a steam winch. It 
 goes to steam-heated pans where it is " tried " for whale 
 oil, which likewise continues to bring a fancy price in the 
 
Memories of Norway 75 
 
 market. On the Pacific coast a considerable profit is 
 derived from salting or pickling the tails and sending 
 them to Japan, where they are deemed a delicacy. And 
 the experiment of salting some of the " beef " for the 
 oriental market has been a success, resulting in annual 
 shipments worth $50,000 from the province. In this 
 manner the whaling industry on Vancouver Island has 
 paid a profit of from fifteen to forty per cent., although 
 it is an industry concerning which one hears very little. 
 There is a possibility that it may become far more profit- 
 able, because in the spring of 19 17, when food prices 
 were soaring on account of the European w^ar, a serious 
 propaganda was started in Victoria to encourage people 
 to eat whale meat. It was placed on sale in all the lead- 
 ing markets, attention being called to its cheapness and 
 food values by large placards. The price was ten cents 
 per pound and it was widely heralded that official analysis 
 had proved it to possess two per cent, more protein mat- 
 ter than beef, which it resembled, although of a darker 
 red colour, more like corned beef that has been cooked. 
 It is said that the average whale contains about six tons 
 of this " beef," so that the source of supply is almost 
 inexhaustible. 
 
 The British Columbia Yearbook says that the average 
 whale in these waters weighs about sixty tons and at 
 present prices (not counting that which is sold for food 
 at ten cents a pound) is worth about $500. There are 
 several varieties, however, some of which are much 
 smaller and bring less revenue; but there is also the so- 
 called " right " whale, exceedingly rare and which is 
 worth in the neighbourhood of $10,000. About two- 
 thirds of the whales captured are cows, either with suck- 
 ing calves or with the young unborn. I saw one of the 
 
76 Sunset Canada 
 
 latter which was about eighteen inches long and perfectly 
 formed. It had been preserved in the collection of the 
 above-quoted Indian Agent, who said that the average 
 whale is about fourteen feet long at birth. 
 
 " I have seen the time when I ran into a dozen or 
 more whales here at the mouth of the Canal as I started 
 on my inspection tours," he continued. " They seem 
 to thin out for a time, and then when there is something 
 of a letup in the killing they quickly become numerous 
 again, which makes it appear that indiscriminate slaugh- 
 ter makes them scarce. The whale seems to be an affec- 
 tionate animal. When his mate is harpooned, it is pretty 
 certain that another will be caught, because he will remain 
 in the vicinity and pay the penalty. I have known two of 
 them to linger around the baby which had been killed, 
 until harpoons brought them to the same fate. Whale 
 hunting was at one time the sport of kings in this region, 
 or more correctly perhaps, it had a deep political or re- 
 ligious meaning, something like the opening of Parlia- 
 ment by the King. You recall that John Jewitt refers 
 to this in his Journal written at Nootka, when he was 
 the slave of Maquinna the Chief. He wrote : * The 
 whale is considered as the King's fish and no other per- 
 son when he is present is permitted to touch him until the 
 royal harpoon has first drawn his blood however near 
 he may approach; and it would be considered almost a 
 sacrilege for any of the common people to strike a whale 
 before he is killed, particularly if any of the chiefs should 
 be present.' " 
 
 Sproat gives more explicit details of this ceremony of 
 royal whale-fishing. He says that preparations for the 
 event sometimes continue over several months and adds : 
 " I particularly noticed this circumstance from having in 
 
Memories of Norway 77 
 
 boyhood heard of the Manx custom in which all the 
 crews of the herring fleet invoke a blessing before ' shoot- 
 ing ' their herring nets. The honour of using the har- 
 poon in an Aht tribe is enjoyed but by few — about a 
 dozen in the tribe — who inherit the privilege. In- 
 stances, however, are known of the privilege having been 
 acquired by merit ; eight or nine men, selected by the 
 harpooner, form the crew of his canoe. For several 
 moons before the fishing begins, these men are compelled 
 to abstain from their usual food, they live away from 
 their wives, wash their bodies morning, noon, and night 
 and rub their skins with twigs, or a rough stone. If a 
 canoe is damaged or capsized by a whale, or any accident 
 happens during the fishing season, it is assumed that some 
 of the crew have failed in their preparatory offices and a 
 very strict inquiry is instituted by the chief men of the 
 tribe. Witnesses are examined and an investigation 
 made into the domestic affairs and the habits of the 
 accused persons. Should any inculpatory circumstances 
 appear, the delinquent is severely dealt with and is often 
 deprived of his rank and placed under the bans for 
 months. When the whales approach the coast, the fish- 
 ermen are out all day, let the wind blow high or not. 
 The canoes have different cruising-grounds some little 
 distance apart. The Indian whaling gear consists of 
 harpoons, lines, inflated sealskins, and wooden and bone 
 spears. The harpoon is often made of a piece of the 
 iron hoop of an ale cask, cut with a chisel into the shape 
 of a harpoon blade — two barbs fashioned from the tips 
 of deer-horns being affixed to this blade with gum. 
 Close to the harpoon the line is of deer sinews. To this 
 the main line is attached, which is generally made of 
 cedar twigs laid together as thick as a three-inch rope. 
 
78 Sunset Canada 
 
 Large inflated skins are fastened to this line about twelve 
 feet from the harpoon. The weapon itself is then tied 
 to the yew handle ten feet long. On getting close, the 
 harpooner, from the bow of the canoe, throws the har- 
 poon at the whale with his full force. As soon as the 
 barb enters, the fastening of the wooden handle, being 
 but slight, breaks and it becomes detached from the line. 
 The natives raise a yell, and the whale dives quickly, but 
 the sealskins impede his movements. Very long lengths 
 of line are kept in the canoe and sometimes the lines from 
 several canoes are joined. On the reappearance of the 
 whale on the surface he is attacked from the nearest 
 canoe, and thus, finally, forty or fifty large buoys are 
 attached to his body. He struggles violently for a time, 
 and beats and lashes the water in all directions, until, 
 weakened by loss of blood and fatigued by his exertions, 
 he ceases to struggle, and the natives despatch him with 
 their short spears. The whale is then taken in tow by 
 the whole fleet of canoes — the crews yelling and singing 
 and keeping time with their paddles. Sometimes, after 
 being harpooned, the whale escapes and takes ropes, seal- 
 skins and everything with him. Should he die from his 
 wounds and be found by another tribe at sea, or on shore 
 within the territorial limits of the finders, the instruments 
 are returned to the losers, with a large piece of the fish 
 as a present. Many disputes arise between tribes on the 
 finding of dead whales near the undefined boundaries of 
 the tribal territories. If the quarrel is serious, all inter- 
 course ceases, trade is forbidden and war is threatened. 
 By and by, when the loss of trade is felt, negotiation is 
 tried. An envoy is selected who is of high rank in his 
 own tribe, and, if possible, connected with the other tribe 
 by marriage. He is usually a quiet man of fluent speech. 
 
Memories of Norway 79 
 
 Wearing white eagle feathers in his head dress as a mark 
 of peace, he departs in a small canoe. Only one female 
 attendant, generally an old slave, accompanies him to 
 assist in paddling, as the natives never risk two men on 
 such an occasion. As a general rule, the first proposi- 
 tion is rejected. Objections, references, counter-pro- 
 posals, frequently make three or four embassies necessary 
 before the question can be settled." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 AN UNFULFILLED PROPHECY 
 
 The two Albernis, for some reason or other which 
 nobody seems to be able to explain, were named for the 
 Spanish Captain of Infantry, Don Pedro Alberni, who 
 served in Mexico. One is old, a sawmill having been 
 located there about sixty years ago, when Douglas fir 
 timbers were cut and prepared for the Scotch and English 
 ship-builders; and it is said to have been the first ship- 
 building port of the British Columbia coast in modern 
 times, not considering the vessels that were constructed 
 at Nootka by the early traders who had the assistance of 
 Chinese carpenters. The other is new. When the Es- 
 quimalt and Nanaimo railway completed its extension to 
 the Alberni Canal it was considered practicable to go 
 beyond the old town, where the waters v^ere shallower 
 on account of the Somas river's spring freshets which 
 brought down great quantities of deposit. So Port Al- 
 berni became the railway terminus, leaving the old town 
 two miles away. It had hotels, stores, and was the cen- 
 ter of a large community; new hotels, stores and houses 
 were built in the new town. An era of prosperity seemed 
 at hand and the district was caught in a real estate boom 
 that seems to have anticipated that It would become a sec- 
 ond Chicago, Winnipeg or Vancouver. The city's lim- 
 its quickly included the old town and the new town. For- 
 est land and land where timber had been cut, but where 
 stumps remained, swamps, hills and valleys, lie between 
 80 
 
An Unfulfilled Prophecy 81 
 
 the two ; but the ground was plotted for streets and house 
 sites over the entire distance and far beyond. The town 
 was immediately laid out to accommodate twenty-five 
 thousand inhabitants. A water-works system was in- 
 stalled bringing fine snow water from China Creek (so 
 named because the Chinese washed gold out of its sands 
 in the early days) electric lights were installed, and a 
 building boom started and continued for some time. No- 
 body seemed to know just why; but it was in the air that 
 Alberni was to become a great city. There may have 
 been a few doubting questioners ; but they were silenced. 
 Were there not similar doubters in the first days of Van- 
 couver, Seattle and other populous port cities? Every 
 newcomer seemed to be as optimistic as those who had 
 preceded him. If a direct inquiry had been made as to 
 this optimism, he would have replied : " Why will the 
 sun rise to-morrow morning? You can't tell why it 
 will ; but you are sure of it." 
 
 But Alberni did not become a metropolis. Perhaps it 
 never will. If it does not, it will remain a charming 
 rendezvous for sportsmen of all kinds and a delightful 
 place to make one's headquarters, while exploring the 
 dozen interesting places in the vicinity. If it does, and 
 for some reason it is necessary to bring colonists and 
 settlers by special train because their numbers overtax the 
 regularly scheduled trains, then the town is large enough 
 to accommodate them — all that are likely to arrive for 
 many years to come. It has never had more than two 
 thousand five hundred inhabitants in its most exciting 
 days — this city laid out and equipped to make life at- 
 tractive for twenty-five thousand at the beginning. 
 Dozens of pretty bungalows on the hillside are deserted 
 or have never been tenanted. They are set amid plots 
 
82 Sunset Canada 
 
 of ground that would easily produce fine gardens if there 
 was any one to cultivate the soil. They look down a 
 gently sloping hill, across the mile-and-a-half wide water- 
 way to a steep mountain of green and away to snow- 
 capped mountains beyond. Here it appears that one 
 might enjoy a blissful life. Fish swarm up the waters 
 of the Canal in such numbers that even the trainmen drop 
 their lines when they reach the terminal, and while the 
 cars are being switched and the engines turned have been 
 known to capture salmon or trout that paid them for 
 their day's journey across the Island. There is game in 
 the neighbouring woods some of which browses at 
 shrubs in the gardens of the town itself. There are 
 enough excursions in the nearby " wilds " to make the 
 average residents a year's holidays to enjoy them all. 
 And still the people did not come. The city was pre- 
 pared for them, but they remained elsewhere. The slump 
 from the real estate boom had already set in, and, when 
 the European war began, Alberni's young men heard 
 their country's call and left by trainloads. When I vis- 
 ited it the cruel efifects of speculators' optimism and the 
 war had combined to make it merely a shadow of what 
 it had been, which was but a shadow of what its chief 
 promoters had anticipated. Still its inhabitants were 
 optimistic and were thinking of the future. Many of 
 them assured me that " some day it will be a great city " ; 
 but even if this prophecy should be fulfilled, if the streets 
 of forest and stumps should become gardens and rows of 
 bungalows, it would add nothing to the traveler's pleas- 
 ure. In fact, Alberni may be more attractive to the visi- 
 tor as it is at present. Accommodations for his comfort 
 are ample. And his excursions afield could be no more 
 enjoyable if he returned at night to a populous city of 
 
An Unfulfilled Prophecy 83 
 
 paved streets and the noise and clatter of the Island 
 metropolis. 
 
 " The conditions here are peculiar," explained a man 
 of Alberni. " In a prairie country agriculture produces 
 towns and cities; here the reverse is true, the towns will 
 promote agriculture. This district is surrounded by a 
 vast amount of fine timber. First of all, that must be 
 cut and the cutting will bring men. Unfortunately, 
 much of it is held by capitalists who are waiting until 
 other timberlands fail. Ultimately, however, they must 
 come here ; and, when they do come, their employees are 
 likely to remain. Land that is now forest will be bring- 
 ing money to the small agricultural producer, which will 
 develop Alberni ; and, in the meantime, we have resources 
 in fish. From the reports of prospectors who have re- 
 cently returned from nearby mountains, we have reason 
 to suspect that mining operations will be carried on here 
 shortly. Out-croppings near the base of the city indicate 
 that the townsite itself is upon a large deposit of coal. 
 Copper has been found and larger quantities are almost 
 within sight. Whatever develops, however, we are in 
 the midst of the splendid timberlands and they cannot 
 fail to promote Alberni's prosperity." 
 
 Alberni is cool and misty in the morning; in fact at all 
 seasons of the year the nights are cool, made so by a 
 breeze that comes through the granite tunnel of the Canal 
 every afternoon, a breeze that seems to sweep inland from 
 the Pacific. The waters that early in the day are like the 
 proverbial millpond, pile into small waves, sometimes 
 crested with whitecaps by four o'clock in the afternoon. 
 It is a climate in summer that produces appetites and 
 hotels are usually well stocked with what is popularly 
 known as " fruit in season " — salmon of various kinds, 
 
84 Sunset Canada 
 
 trout from the cold waters, and even several kinds of 
 game, much of which is contributed to the larder by tour- 
 ists who not only prefer to eat " the fish I caught " and 
 " the goose I shot," but who " have such good luck," that 
 they like to invite others to share in their fortune. 
 
 Data collected by the Provincial Bureau of Informa- 
 tion shows the duck tribe is well represented by mallards, 
 Widgeon, Pin-tail, Buffle-head, Golden-eye, Blue-bills and 
 some teal. On the west coast and in the Alberni district, 
 and on the east coast in the Comox and Campbell River 
 districts, and further north, the shooting is the best at all 
 times. Where the birds feed on the fiats extending up 
 the rivers they will be found to be of good flavour. As 
 the season advances and they commence feeding along 
 the seashore their flesh becomes fishy. Some of the lakes 
 afford fair shooting and the birds feeding there are good 
 eating. 
 
 Willow grouse is the popular name for the Ruffed 
 Grouse, which is common. In the early part of the sea- 
 son they frequent the swamps and thickets, where they 
 are difficult to get at, and, when found, are apt to play 
 into the hands of the pot-hunter by the way they have 
 of perching in the trees and staying there until he spots 
 and potshots them. Later on, however, when the swamps 
 become overflowed, they take to higher and more open 
 ground, when the sport they afford over a good dog is by 
 most British Columbia sportsmen considered the best of 
 any of the game birds. The blue, sooty or pine grouse 
 is a timber bird, which is plentiful, particularly in those 
 places in the hills where there are bare patches of rock 
 among the tall timber. For the greater part of the year 
 they feed on the foliage of the Douglas pines and keep 
 in the trees. They come down to lower ground in the 
 
An Unfulfilled Prophecy 85 
 
 breeding season, but when the young birds are full grown 
 they speedily retake themselves to the tall timber and 
 the higher levels of the mountains. Hence the season 
 for blue grouse shooting is in practice a short one, as 
 however plentiful the birds before the shooting opens, a 
 week or two of shooting will find them very scarce, not 
 because they have been decimated by the hunters, but 
 because they have taken to their natural refuge in the 
 timber of the mountains. Shot on level ground over dogs 
 the blue grouse is not a particularly hard bird to hit, but 
 among timber, and especially on steep hillsides, where 
 they invariably fly down hill at a great pace, they afford 
 shooting which is difficult to beat for its sporting quali- 
 ties. 
 
 Canada geese or " Honkers " are shot in large numbers 
 up the west coast. Live decoys when such are obtainable 
 are the best, and after that the sheet iron profile decoys. 
 Some geese are shot during the brant flight, but the 
 *' honker " is a wary bird. When the pheasants, grouse 
 and quail are out, the ducks and geese are in, and the 
 wild fowl shooting is at its best. Before these are out of 
 season, angling is open for salmon and grilse, with excel- 
 lent prospects of large baskets of these latter and a very 
 fair chance of good sport with Spring salmon on most 
 parts of the coast. 
 
 Practically speaking, all the streams and lakes of the 
 Island contain trout of some kind, chiefly rainbow or 
 cut-throat; but they are particularly plentiful around Al- 
 berni. The Somas river, which flows into one end of the 
 town itself, and neighbouring streams and lakes offer 
 splendid sport for the pedestrian. Sproat Lake is within 
 easy distance and it is only twelve miles over a good 
 motor road to Great Central Lake, where the Ark, a 
 
86 Sunset Canada 
 
 floating hotel, provides novel comforts for those who 
 wish to avail themselves of its hospitality, instead of 
 returning to Alberni. Large fish are caught in the large 
 lakes by trolling, but larger fish are caught on the fly as 
 a general rule in the streams than in the lakes. In the 
 heat of midsummer, when the rivers are low and fly- 
 fishing is barely practicable, except in the early morning 
 and late evening, excellent sport is afforded by sea trout 
 in the estuaries. These sea fish average heavy, two- 
 pounders being common, three-pounders by no means 
 rare, and four and even six-pounders occasionally 
 caught. As a general rule, they take a fly well even in 
 the salt water. 
 
 Only the Cohoes and the Spring salmon interest the 
 sportsman. The latter is the finest table fish and attains 
 a great weight in these waters, often weighing fifty 
 pounds. It is known as several names such as " King," 
 "Tyee" and "Chinook." Twenty to thirty-pound fish 
 are common in any of the estuaries, when the run of 
 " Springs " is on. These salmon are caught in these 
 waters practically all the year around. In February and 
 March there is a run to the rivers, but the big run comes 
 in August, September and October, varying in date ac- 
 cording to locality. There is a run of small " Cohoes " 
 in May and June, but these early fish, although very game, 
 do not average very large. The big run of " Cohoes " 
 does not arrive until the latter part of September, when 
 their number is legion all over the coast and the sport they 
 give is superior for their size to that yielded by the 
 *' Springs," as they play more on the surface. 
 
 At least most of the foregoing is a condensation of 
 the advice, suggestions and observations of fishermen of 
 extended and varied experience, who have passed it on 
 
An Unfulfilled Prophecy 87 
 
 to the Provincial and Island authorities for the aid of 
 amateur anglers. It may prove to be more helpful than 
 the instructions for cooking a hare : " First catch your 
 hare " ; but, on the other hand, it may simply suggest 
 other means of luring the splendid game fish of the region 
 from the rivers and lakes. Every fisherman has his own 
 *' style " of fishing, after following a few fundamental 
 rules of the sport, and a part of his pleasure comes from 
 following no stereotyped advice. He may be an advice- 
 giver ; but he rarely accepts it willingly from others, and 
 when he does, he rarely follows it. Around Alberni fish 
 are so plentiful that there is a v^ide field for all of those 
 little " experiments " in which anglers delight, with a 
 fairly certain promise of " results." If all else should 
 fail in the cycles of a year, the " run " of salmon is as 
 dependable as the changing of the seasons. And it ap- 
 pears that this condition has not altered since the first 
 v^hite man visited the Island's coast line. John Jewitt 
 says in his Journal, published in 1815: "Such is the 
 immense quantity of these fish and they are taken with 
 such facility that I have know^n upwards of 2500 brought 
 in to Maquinna's (the Chief's) house at once; and at one 
 of their great feasts have seen one hundred or more 
 cooked in one of their largest tubs." 
 
 Black tail deer are numerous in season and are plenti- 
 ful in this region. It is illegal to hunt them with dogs. 
 Good specimens of black bear are occasionally met on 
 the road ; but it usually requires dogs and a guide to get 
 them. Wapiti (American elk) are met with occasion- 
 ally, but they are protected for a term of years. Cougar, 
 known variously as panther or mountain lion, are plenti- 
 ful. To hunt them with success, it is necessary to employ 
 guides who will provide suitable dogs. A cougar skin 
 
88 Sunset Canada 
 
 makes a handsome trophy, but cougars can hardly be 
 classed as game. The provincial government, by putting 
 on a bounty of $15 a head, classes them as vermin. 
 Wolves, both black and gray, are found in northern and 
 northwestern districts of Vancouver Island, but are sel- 
 dom seen by the casual hunter. The bounty is the same 
 as for cougar. 
 
 At Alberni one has not the opportunity to see the spec- 
 tacular logging operations of the far interior where trees 
 are sawed down, tumbled over the mountainside into a 
 rushing river and sometimes travel fifty, sixty or even 
 a hundred miles, before they are gathered by a chain of 
 logs thrown across the river; but there is the chance to 
 see the harvesting of mighty firs, cedars and hemlocks, 
 such as is rarely visible close to a city entered by a rail- 
 road. The former is bewildering to the layman, and 
 the logging camp at Alberni's doors — just beyond the 
 bungalows of the last inhabited street — is thrilling. In 
 some of the distant camps of the hinterland logs splash 
 into wild streams and the spring thaw carries them far 
 on their ride through wild country. Sometimes they 
 jam or catch on the rocks and balance themselves in mid- 
 stream defying the onward rush until the waters fall too 
 low for them to float, so there they remain until an- 
 other spring thaw brings a new onrush of water. The 
 banks of some of the rivers are strewn with this precious 
 timber ; but enough has found its way through to supply 
 the jaws of the great sawmills, and nobody seems to 
 care about the possible or probable loss. Far down the 
 stream below rapids through which no raft could ride in 
 safety and where no power boat would venture, the logs 
 are caught and chained into huge floats. Sometimes 
 these are so large that a temporary shack is built on them 
 
An Unfulfilled Prophecy 89 
 
 and the men who guide them eat and sleep aboard the raft 
 on its course further down. Sometimes they are per- 
 mitted to drift to the railroad that will carry them to the 
 sawmill and sometimes to the sawmill itself, where they 
 are gathered like a huge carpet over the river or estuary 
 upon which the mill has been built. Who can say that 
 the wild terrors have departed from far-western life when 
 he sees these lumberjacks in their perilous occupation? 
 Comparatively few people see them, however, and there 
 are few places where the larger logging operations are 
 visible, unless one plunges far into the wilderness. 
 
 Alberni's surrounding hills are so covered with trees, 
 however, that it will likely be possible for all tourists 
 who visit the place within a period extending over many 
 future years. It is not the old-fashioned method of 
 sawing the trees and hauling them to the open with a 
 twelve-horse team. A standard gauge railroad spur has 
 been run into the forest. It crosses canyons and ravines 
 that are piled full of logs as supports or foundations, 
 instead of bridges, and one who sees the locomotive cross 
 these improvised " bridges " that will have served their 
 purpose as soon as the large trees have been felled, ex- 
 pects to see it topple from the rails as it seesaws over the 
 rough " right-of-way." The flat cars have been loaded 
 with the giant trees, sometimes five or six of them piled 
 upon one another the length of two flat cars. The engine 
 is coupled on, there is a toot of the whistle as a signal 
 and off the strange train goes circling down the hillside 
 to the water's edge, where the logs are rolled into the 
 Canal — " where they can be more easily handled," ex- 
 plains a man who appears to be in charge of the opera- 
 tion. 
 
 The ease with which these forest giants are manipu- 
 
90 Sunset Canada 
 
 lated by a handful of men is astounding. One man chops 
 wood and feeds a stationary engine set up on logs near 
 the end of the railroad where the flat-cars are switched 
 to receive their load. Another man stands with his hand 
 on the lever. When I arrived, I could not see where 
 the big logs came from, for the railroad ended in a small 
 clearing where there were only stumps to prove that the 
 ground had once been a " stand " of Douglas fir. It 
 seemed for a moment that operations had been suspended 
 and that I had arrived too late. A third man, smoking a 
 cigaret, stood near the empty cars. Then there was a 
 shrill whistle from the distance, a signal for the man at 
 the engine to do something. He did it, and I observed 
 what I had not seen before; there was a steel cable at- 
 tached to the engine which ran to the top of a solitary 
 fir which had been left standing, and then stretched far 
 away over a hill into the dense forest beyond, further 
 than I could see. The cable tightened and the tree quiv- 
 ered, almost threatening not to stand the strain, but it 
 was one that had been picked because its roots ran far 
 into the earth and it was held upright by four steel cables 
 attached to the trunks of distant trees. It strained and 
 creaked as the cable drew tighter and tighter, continuing 
 to wind itself around a huge spool or winch. Soon, on 
 a distant hill in the direction reached by the cable, the 
 tree-tops began to bend and rustle. There was the crack- 
 ing of many limbs and the breaking of many branches as 
 a gigantic fir log, perhaps a hundred feet in length, came 
 crashing over the hill the heavy end in the air. It had 
 been sawed, the cable attached to it, the signal given to 
 the engineer and it had started on its defiant way. As it 
 reached the top of the hill it bounded against other trees 
 and the impact echoed through the forest. Small trees 
 
An Unfulfilled Prophecy 91 
 
 that impeded its progress snapped like match-sticks and 
 fell over. On and on the monster bounded like a vessel 
 ploughing through rough seas, and presently it was lying 
 on the ground beside the car that was destined to carry it 
 to the mill. The man who had been smoking a cigaret 
 stepped forward, twisted cables and caught hooks in its 
 sides. Another whistle and it rose in the air as if hesi- 
 tating which way to turn ; but the cables had been twisted 
 by an expert, and in righting themselves they caused 
 the log to twist until it hung lengthwise, directly over the 
 two cars. The man at the engine observed this and let 
 it fall gently into position, as easily as one could place 
 a toothpick on the palm of his hand. There was no 
 loud talking, no expressions of wonder when this mon- 
 ster of the forest came crashing toward them. A fourth 
 man took hold of the cable, which was slackened, and 
 started off over the hill again. There were a few min- 
 utes of calm, similar to that during which I had arrived, 
 and then the same operation was repeated. It was re- 
 peated until the train was loaded in the same way and 
 then the locomotive came and went puffing down the hill 
 with its cargo of forest giants. It was " all in a day's 
 work " as one of the men explained and " nothing to get 
 excited about." To them it was as simple as the open- 
 ing of a letter by an office man seated at his desk. To 
 me it was one of the most spectacular and thrilling opera- 
 tions that I had ever beheld ! 
 
 The sawmill is similarly interesting to the traveler be- 
 cause of the immensity of most of the operations, for 
 while shingles, lath and small boards are manufactured 
 in the various departments, the chief distinction lies in 
 the production of the huge square beams of unbelievable 
 length, which are to form the keels of ships or the frames 
 
92 Sunset Canada 
 
 of heavy buildings where they must withstand a heavy 
 strain and weight. There is a long spiked chain that 
 moves slowly from the top of an incline to below the 
 water's surface. The logs are ridden by turbanned Hin- 
 doos, who easily manipulate them with spiked poles as 
 they are floating in the water. They are directed toward 
 the chain end on, a spike catches them and raises them a 
 little, then another spike and soon the giant is moving up- 
 ward toward the saws. Arrived at the exact position, 
 they are caught in a vise, a Chinese operator touches a 
 lever and the log is sawed square on one side, the bark 
 slab falling to an endless chain that carries it outside 
 the mill. Another lever is touched and the log flops over 
 on its square side again as easily as one could flip a match- 
 stick. As it travels back to the first position, the second 
 side is squared. Back and forth once more and it has 
 become a gigantic square beam in less time than it takes 
 to tell about it. A series of rollers start it on its way 
 and it is soon in the yards making way for the log, the 
 nose of which has just caught the first spike in the chain 
 that rises from the canal. 
 
 The refuse passes along an endless chain in the mill- 
 yard, where Chinese sorters lift out the pieces which are 
 suitable for sawing into chunks for firewood; but the 
 sawdust and smaller fragments proceed along the route 
 and are finally raised to an elevation and dropped on 
 the fire which, like the flame at a temple altar, is eter- 
 nally burning. This huge flame from all British Colum- 
 bia sawmills seems a wanton waste of fuel where fuel is 
 so expensive; but it seems to be an ancient custom to 
 destroy wood wantonly in a land of trees and the prov- 
 ince, like other well-forested countries, cannot look far 
 enough ahead to see the time when wood will be scarce. 
 
• < 
 
An Unfulfilled Prophecy 93 
 
 It is reported, however, that the provincial officials are 
 investigating a possible method of utilizing these enor- 
 mous quantities and other refuse now burned by saw- 
 mills by converting it into gas, oils, tar and charcoal 
 through destructive distillation. It is reported that ex- 
 periments recently conducted by the chemistry depart- 
 ment of the University of Columbia at Vancouver show 
 that out of one cord of wood it is possible to obtain forty 
 gallons of tar, twenty gallons of oil, eighty pounds of 
 acetate of lime and nine hundred pounds of charcoal. 
 
 In these thickly wooded districts of British Columbia 
 stove fuel brings almost as much as it does in the treeless 
 sections of the East. One is not permitted to use the 
 logs that have fallen and will soon decay on the vast 
 timber reserves of the capitalists who live far away. 
 Drift-wood from the rivers and lakes is sawed and 
 chopped by Indians — and sold in town for prices that 
 often soar beyond five dollars a cord. An ambitious 
 resident of Alberni told me that, having no other occu- 
 pation during a couple of weeks in the winter, he went 
 to the Canal and sawed and chopped his own fuel; but 
 when he paid $14 for cartage he came to the conclusion 
 that it was better to pay the Indians even what they 
 charge for the fuel. And still the great fires at the saw- 
 mills flame day and night, like active volcanoes. It is 
 the traditional practice, and no man is rash enough to 
 alter it until he is compelled to do so. I saw a Chinese 
 timidly approach the chain that leads to the great fire, 
 pick out a few sticks to cook his rice and attempt to 
 carry them away; but the loud voice of a foreman told 
 him to drop them and he retired like a thief who had 
 been caught with his booty. 
 
 Day after day there is something in this delightful 
 
94 Sunset Canada 
 
 wilderness to attract and hold the traveler and he may 
 spend a pleasant week barely aware of the passing time. 
 One who enters British Columbia should do so via 
 Victoria the front door as before noted; but even then 
 he should not pass too quickly through the portal and 
 beyond. The Island tour is the vestibule just inside the 
 gate, and visitors will be well paid for pausing there for 
 at least a glance around, before crossing the threshold 
 that leads to the Mainland or the inner beauties of the 
 province. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 CAPTAIN Vancouver's namesake 
 
 In the winter, snow fell on the mountains and when 
 spring came it thawed and the streams of water ran into 
 the valleys. When the valleys were completely sur- 
 rounded by a rock basin the water accumulated and 
 formed lakes, but water seems to abhor quiet basins and 
 in its nervous lapping against the rock and sand it seeks 
 release. Finding a crevice through which it can trickle 
 it soon forces a passage and the tiny rivulet, dripping each 
 minute as the years pass, finally forces an opening 
 through which the waters gush. Granite walls that defi- 
 antly hem it in at first finally give way before what seems 
 to be the resistless force of water rushing from a moun- 
 tainside. Deeper and deeper it carves its way until it 
 becomes a mighty river rushing to the ocean. It plunges 
 against mountains of rock, and where they are impreg- 
 nable it rushes around their bases, seemingly forces chan- 
 nels where there is the least resistance; but always flow- 
 ing onward, stopping in a canyon or valley only long 
 enough to fill the basin and then repeat previous dashes 
 for the sea, seemingly its logical destination. 
 
 With natural instincts the animals of the hills followed 
 these water-courses from their homes in the timberland 
 or above timber-line to the green meadows fertilized and 
 watered by the rivers and streams that flow into them. 
 Then when the Red Men came to the impassable districts 
 they followed the footprints of their companions of the 
 forest, the deer, bear, sheep and goat. The first white 
 
 95 
 
96 Sunset Canada 
 
 men who came followed the lead of the Indians over 
 these trails that spanned yawning precipices or led along 
 shelves of rock through which the water had cut its way 
 and was surging below. As time went on, the Indians 
 and the white men built ladders of logs to scale dan- 
 gerous ledges and they made a tiny footpath of the same 
 materials that reached from one side of ravines to the 
 other. The moss became trampled and the branches of 
 trees were torn away if they impeded progress. But the 
 first animals and the first men followed the snow waters 
 of the mountains in their struggle to reach the sea. 
 
 The Indians who followed the animals found food, 
 raiment and shelter in these courses, so they remained 
 beside the rivers or where the rivers met the sea. The 
 white men who followed the Indians found gold, so they 
 were followed by other white men who gained supremacy 
 by force and intellect over the Red Men. Along the 
 difficult trails they built wagon roads and bridges to 
 carry the gold and other treasure with speed and safety, 
 and when, as elsewhere, wagon roads were followed by 
 the railroad, tlie skill of surveyors and engineers could 
 not discover a better route than that of the white path- 
 finders, who followed the Red Men, who followed the 
 animals, who followed the course of melted mountain 
 snows. Thus was built the great Canadian Pacific rail- 
 way, which crossed the mountains and linked British 
 Columbia with the Canadian prairie provinces and the 
 provinces of the eastern seaboard. At its terminus it 
 was desirable for the railway not only to reach the mouth 
 of the river it had followed, but to run to the ocean's brink 
 where mighty steamers from the Orient and Antipodes 
 could moor at piers where the world's commerce could be 
 transferred with a minimum of labour and time, so an is- 
 
Captain Vancouver's Namesake 97 
 
 land and rock-studded channel that led to the sea was 
 chosen. Of the exact spot, Captain George Vancouver 
 wrote in his Journal of 1792 : " The shores of this canal, 
 which after Sir Harry Burrard of the Navy I have dis- 
 tinguished by the name of Burrard's Channel, may be 
 considered on the southern side of a moderate height and 
 though rocky are well covered with trees of a large 
 growth, principally of the pine tribe. On the northern 
 side the rugged snowy barrier whose base we had now 
 nearly approached, rose very abruptly and was only pro- 
 tected from the sea by a very narrow border of lowland." 
 
 On this site a small town was located, an insignificant 
 little village known as Granville. But when it was ac- 
 cepted by the officials as the terminus of the railroad, Sir 
 W. C. Vanhorne, the chief executive of the company, 
 suggested that the name be changed to Vancouver, hon- 
 ouring the young man who did more to add this vast 
 northwestern domain to the British Empire than any 
 other. The suggestion was favourably acted upon and in 
 1886 the city was incorporated. Its growth has been 
 as great as that of any city on earth within a given time 
 and its well-wishers boldly prophesy that it will soon be- 
 come the metropolis of the Pacific Coast. Yet a little 
 over thirty years ago it was in the midst of the wilderness 
 and there was no man wise enough to look off to the east- 
 ward at snow-capped mountains and dream that their 
 streams of water would lead the march of civilization and 
 commerce in this direction. 
 
 Approaching Vancouver from the sea, which is the 
 advisable route, not only to incoming travelers from far 
 corners of the world, but to those American tourists who 
 have made the journey to the coast over continental rail- 
 roads to the south of Canada and have followed the coast- 
 
98 Sunset Canada 
 
 line to Seattle and thence by boat to Victoria, one obtains 
 a panoramic impression of this North Pacific metropolis 
 that will not be forgotten easily. The guide-books say 
 that Vancouver is a city with no " motif," that it lacks 
 individual character, that it is " like other port cities " — 
 which is manifestly unfair — and that it is a place where 
 Pacific ocean travelers are caught in the net for a day 
 or two, so that the hotels and merchants may reap a 
 profit from " goers and comers." English writers have 
 declared it to be the most un-British city in the Brit- 
 ish Empire and have classed it with Seattle, Chicago 
 and New York as a " city of dollars " and nothing 
 more. 
 
 All of these declarations of opinion are right and thay 
 are wrong. Compared to Victoria, Vancouver has no 
 " motif," It is not essentially " British " in exterior — 
 not professionally British at any rate — and it must plead 
 guilty to being young. But it is a lusty youth, and one 
 who tarries longer than between trains or the arrival 
 of the steamer and the departure of the first train, will 
 realize that it does not lack distinction and that it is the 
 symbol of the Canadian West in enduring form. Here 
 are centered many of the hopes and ambitions of a vast 
 imperial domain. Dollars have been made in Vancouver, 
 many millions of them, and many millions have been 
 spent in crowning the hills that were covered with trees 
 less than a half -century ago with towering sky-scrapers 
 and architectural monuments that would be a credit to 
 cities that date their beginnings from the dawn of the 
 Christian era. Vancouver has several structures that 
 would be notable in London, Paris or Berlin. The Van- 
 couver Hotel, for example, a safifron-hued pile that looms 
 high above surrounding high buildings and that is visible 
 
Captain Vancouver's Namesake 99 
 
 from the deck of incoming steamers when they are far 
 down the Bay, would be counted a marvel of construc- 
 tion amid Rhenish castles, Venetian villas or New York 
 hostelries. Close to it is the classic courthouse set in 
 spacious grounds, its imposing entrance guarded by two 
 colossal white lions. And around it are splendid group- 
 ings of hotels, office buildings, and shops that in general 
 appearance compare favourably with any on the Ameri- 
 can continent. Vancouver has achieved one great ambi- 
 tion. After little more than a quarter-century of real 
 history as a city it has become more than " a railway 
 terminus in the wilderness," more than *' just another 
 port city," it is a spacious and thriving metropolis. It 
 cannot and does not boast of its past ; but it rejoices in its 
 present and sees its great future not afar off. Already 
 its business section has reached far into residential quar- 
 ters and many hills and valleys beyond are covered with 
 homes. Across the Inlet, another hill has become North 
 Vancouver and is already taking on metropolitan airs, 
 which is likewise true of West Vancouver — both 
 reached by ferry and occupying positions similar to Oak- 
 land and the various bay cities across from San Fran- 
 cisco. The streets are wide and well paved. In every 
 way Vancouver seems prepared to become one of the 
 great cities of the continent. Even those vast plots of 
 stumpage in the outskirts, which cause a smirk from evil- 
 wishers, will one of these days live up to the claims of 
 real estate boomers, who in this instance do not seem td 
 be false prophets but men whose range of vision carries 
 further ahead than they care to admit to prospective cus- 
 tomers. Lay down a map of the world, note the situa- 
 tion of the most prosperous and famous cities, and it will 
 be apparent that most of the. geographical and natural 
 
100 Sunset Canada 
 
 advantages are in Vancouver's favour. Forces that have 
 contributed to the making of great centers of population 
 are working speedily and energetically with Vancouver 
 as a pivot. 
 
 Preferably, one should not only arrive at this port by 
 steamer, but the arrival should be during the hours of 
 light. The cruise over the Straits of Georgia is con- 
 stantly in view of " land " on a clear day, for Mainland 
 is visible, and the steamer plows along between wooded 
 islands and rocky coves that are a suggestion of that 
 rugged scenery that awaits travelers north from Van- 
 couver, to Prince Rupert and intermediate points. A 
 hundred ships from foreign ports might lie in many har- 
 bours of the world and be so sheltered and cradled at 
 their moorings as to be barely discernible from any given 
 point in the cities. This is not true of Vancouver. The 
 Inlet is more spacious than it may appear to be to the 
 stranger because it is surrounded by mountains on all 
 sides and it is not easy to distinguish from the city ex- 
 actly the location of the small channel behind the islands 
 through which the steamer has passed on arrival at port. 
 All the large boats in the harbour are visible from the 
 city, and instead of appearing diminished in size on 
 account of the distance, some of them loom to large pro- 
 portions as viewed from the deck of an incoming boat, 
 from the city streets or from the windows of a building 
 that commands a view of the broad harbour. One of the 
 " Empress " boats is usually lying at her berth, taking an 
 Oriental cargo for the long cruise to Japan, the Philip- 
 pines and the China Coast. The three yellow funnels are 
 visible from all parts of Vancouver, and it is unnecessary 
 for any one in the city to inquire whether or not one of 
 the big C. P. R. floating palaces is in port. 
 
Captain Vancouver's Namesake 101 
 
 Vancouver calls itself " The Front Door of Canada " 
 — perhaps with its tongue in its cheek, hoping to bring a 
 frown or rejoinder from Grandmother Victoria across 
 the Straits. In the most diverse ways she claims supe- 
 riority. She has over one hundred miles of cement side- 
 walks, over one hundred miles of macadamized or paved 
 roads, the largest area of any city in Canada, the birth- 
 rate is higher than in any city of the continent, in giving 
 Single Tax a long and successful trial (it has been writ- 
 ten in a Single Tax Magazine that " Vancouver is a city 
 set upon a hill, whose light cannot be hid — a beacon 
 to guide the municipalities of the world into the haven of 
 righteousness in raising pubhc revenue"), the estimated 
 population of what is known as " Greater Vancouver " 
 is considerably over two hundred thousand, she has eighty 
 miles of water frontage and forty miles of anchorage, the 
 tonnage of the port has increased four hundred sixty- 
 eight per cent, in the last five years, waterfalls nearby 
 provide a possible supply of 500,000 horse power of which 
 200,000 is now available, she has a water supply of glacial 
 origin that is now 36,000,000 gallons a day with an avail- 
 able supply of 100,000,000 gallons, and there is an annual 
 pay roll of $14,000,000 from industries in which over 
 $100,000,000 is invested. 
 
 These are not figures coming from a city statistician 
 and filed away for reference in dusty municipal cup- 
 boards. They are the regular conversation of the or- 
 dinary citizen of Vancouver; he loves to talk in hun- 
 dreds of thousands and millions. When he decides to 
 make his home in the city it is as if he took an oath 
 to join the chorus of civic publicity promoters. He is 
 for Vancouver first, last and all the time, and he takes it 
 as a personal affront if into a casual conversation slips 
 
102 Sunset Canada 
 
 the slightest suggestion that the visitor does not consider 
 it the superlative degree in everything, the ideal toward 
 which the world has been struggling for thousands of 
 years. One suggests that the climate is not exactly to his 
 liking, if he be a tactless person and unfortunately 
 chance to arrive in the city during one of those frightful 
 downpours that continue day and night for a week, and 
 the loyal citizen replies : " When it rains in the East 
 you call it mist, and when it rains in Vancouver you say 
 there is a continuous downpour for days. Remember 
 that the official figures show that our winters are as mild 
 as those of Atlanta, Georgia. There is no better climate 
 in the world ! " 
 
 Figures and the superlative degree of all adjectives in 
 the language! One never dreamed of so many of them 
 before, never heard so many of them used in conversa- 
 tion. The citizen of Vancouver exudes them as natur- 
 ally as he breathes. And the strange result is that it does 
 not convey the impression that he is boasting. One does 
 not accept it as hraggadacio. Rather, it seems to be the 
 natural exuberance of youth, like the college boy who 
 returns to tell of his victories in the field or classroom. 
 Likely as not the stranger becomes sufficiently inter- 
 ested to " check up " or recapitulate and finds that he has 
 heard more truth than fiction. The city has expanded so 
 rapidly, stretched itself so far beyond expectations and 
 expanded into so many channels that could not have been 
 anticipated by its founders, that every one takes a per- 
 sonal pride in its greatness and considers it a pleasure, 
 rather than a duty, to extol its virtues, much as one would 
 feel love for parents who reared him. They feel about 
 it as the psalmist felt about Jerusalem when he beheld it 
 from Mount Olivet and rhapsodized: "Beautiful for 
 
Cap tain Vancouver's Namesake 103 
 
 situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion, the 
 City of the Great King." 
 
 At the top of the mountain overlooking the entrance 
 to the harbour there are two peaks that when viewed in 
 certain lights resemble the forms of lions, which has 
 been seized upon as the opportunity for giving the chan- 
 nel at this point the name of " Gateway of the Lions." 
 It appears, however, that there is an ancient Indian legend 
 attached to these " lions," which calls them the " Two 
 Sisters." Pauline Johnson, the Indian poetess, relates 
 it in one of her books and says she had it from Chief Joe 
 Capilano, with whom she could converse in the Chinook 
 tongue. While the language of the legend seems to be 
 that of the poetess, and not a very literal translation of 
 the story as it was related to her, there remains in it much 
 of the traditional Indian manner and it seems a fairly 
 typical example of the stories that were heard over an- 
 cient campfires; those tales of the days when rocks, trees, 
 rivers, fish, birds and animals close companions of the 
 Red Men, had souls and tongues, when they passed 
 through experiences of life similar to those of men. 
 Pauline Johnson was the daughter of the head chief of 
 the Six Nations and an English woman. She traveled 
 extensively, and in late life came to reside in Vancouver, 
 which she loved. She wrote pretty verses about the 
 new city and its environs and she put down on paper 
 many legends that came to her from the Indians, but 
 which she " adapted " into fluent prose. Before she died, 
 she requested that she be cremated and that her ashes 
 be deposited in Stanley Park, which was the scene of so 
 much of interest in Indian traditions. Of the " Two 
 Sisters," she relates : 
 
 " It was many thousands of years ago that the great 
 
104 Sunset Canada 
 
 Tyee had two daughters that grew to womanhood at the 
 same springtime when the first great run of salmon 
 thronged the rivers, and the ollalHe bushes were heavy 
 with blossoms. These daughters were young, lovable 
 and oh very beautiful! Their father, the great Tyee, 
 prepared to make a feast such as the coast had never 
 seen. There were to be days and days of rejoicing, the 
 people were to come for many leagues, were to bring gifts 
 of great value to the girls and to receive gifts from the 
 chief, and hospitality was to reign as long as pleasuring 
 feet could dance, and enjoying lips could laugh, and 
 mouths partake of the excellence of the chief's fish, game 
 and ollallies. The only shadow on the joy of it all 
 was war, for the tribe of the great Tyee was at war with 
 the upper coast Indians, those who lived north, near what 
 is named by the paleface as the port of Prince Rupert. 
 Giant war canoes slipped along the entire coast, war 
 parties paddled up and down, war songs broke the silences 
 of the nights, hatred, vengeance, strife, and horror fes- 
 tered everywhere little sores on the surface of the earth. 
 But the great Tyee, after warring for weeks, turned and 
 laughed at the battle and the bloodshed, for he had been 
 victor in every encounter and he could well afford to leave 
 the strife for a brief week and feast in his daughters' 
 honour, nor permit any near enemy to come between him 
 and the traditions of his race and household. So he 
 turned insultingly deaf ears to their warcries; he ignored 
 wnth arrogant indifference their paddle dips that en- 
 croached within his own coast waters, and he prepared as 
 a great Tyee should, to royally entertain his tribesmen 
 in honour of his daughters. But seven suns before the 
 great feast, these two maidens came before him, hand 
 clasped in hand. 
 
Captain Vancouver's Namesake 105 
 
 ** ' Oh, our father,' they said, * may we speak? ' 
 
 " * Speak my daughters, my girls with the eyes of April, 
 the hearts of June.' (Early Spring and early summer 
 would be the more accurate Indian phrasing.) 
 
 " * Some day, oh our father, we may mother a man- 
 child who may grow to be such a powerful Tyee as you 
 are, and for this honour that may some day be ours we 
 have come to crave a favour of you — you, oh our father.' 
 
 " * It is your privilege at this celebration to receive any 
 favour your hearts may wish,' he replied graciously, 
 placing his fingers beneath their girlish chins. * The 
 favour is yours before you ask it, my daughters.' 
 
 " * Will you for our sakes, invite the great northern 
 hostile tribe — the tribe you war upon, to this our feast? ' 
 they asked fearlessly. 
 
 " * To a peaceful feast, a feast in honour of women? ' 
 he exclaimed incredulously. 
 
 " ' So we would desire it,' they answered. 
 
 " * And so shall it be,' he declared. * I can deny you 
 nothing this day and some time you may bear sons to 
 bless this peace you have asked, and to bless their moth- 
 ers' sire for granting it.' 
 
 " Then he turned to all the young men of the tribe 
 and commanded, * build fires at sunset on all the coast 
 headlands — fires of welcome. Man your canoes and 
 face the North, greet the enemy and tell them that I, 
 the Tyee of the Capilanos, ask — no, command — that 
 they join me for a great feast in honour of my two 
 daughters.' 
 
 " And when the northern tribe got this invitation, they 
 flooded down the coast to this feast of the Great Peace. 
 They brought their women and their children, they 
 brought game and fish, gold and white stone beads, bas- 
 
106 Sunset Canada 
 
 kets and carved ladles and wonderful woven blankets to 
 lay at the feet of their now acknowledged ruler, the great 
 Tyee. And he, in turn, gave such a potlatch that noth- 
 ing but tradition can vie with it. There were long, glad 
 days of rejoicing, long pleasurable nights of dancing and 
 campfires and vast quantities of food. The war canoes 
 were emptied of the deadly weapons and filled with the 
 daily catch of salmon. The hostile war songs ceased and 
 in their places were heard the soft shuffle of dance feet, 
 the singing voices of women, the playgames of the chil- 
 dren of two powerful tribes, which had been until now 
 ancient enemies, for a great and lasting brotherhood was 
 sealed between them — their war songs were ended for- 
 ever. Then the Sagalie Tyee smiled on his Indian chil- 
 dren : * I will make these young-eyed maidens im- 
 mortal,' He said. In the cup of His Hands, He lifted the 
 chief's two daughters and set them forever in a high 
 place, for they had borne two ofifsprings — peace and 
 brotherhood — each of which is now a great Tyee rul- 
 ing this land. And on the mountain crest the chief's 
 daughters can be seen wrapped in the suns, the snows, 
 the stars of all seasons, for they have stood in this high 
 place for thousands of years and will stand for thousands 
 of years to come, guarding the peace of the Pacific coast 
 and the quiet of the Capilano Canyon." 
 
 Vancouver has a remarkable asset in Stanley Park, 
 easily within walking distance from the piers, depots and 
 principal business streets, but reached by tram and various 
 motor conveyances that deposit their passengers at the 
 rustic entrance built of limbs and trees and appropriately 
 inviting pedestrians to roads and paths of corduroy cov- 
 ered with gravel that lead through great tangles of ferns 
 and undergrowth to the giant trees, which are one of the 
 
Captain Vancouver's Namesake 107 
 
 wonders of the entire province, the Dominion of Canada, 
 and perhaps of the world, because it is claimed that such 
 colossal vegetation does not exist elsewhere in this lati- 
 tude. Although it is a much frequented park and is 
 properly within the city limits, those in authority have 
 wisely left it the jungle that it was when the first white 
 men passed this way. The paths are well kept, but for 
 miles they are arched by the canopy of rank green, and 
 frequently by layer on layers or tier upon tier of foilage, 
 while in many places, two yards away from the walk are 
 masses of tumbled over tree giants, passing to decay and 
 permitting the mold of their trunks and roots to be pene- 
 trated by the roots of masses or ferns, moss and fungus 
 that form a bewildering maze from which the tenderfoot 
 would find his way out with difficulty. Huge, crisp leaves 
 of skunk-cabbage, resembling the canna of domestic flow- 
 erbeds, borders the underlying logs of the paths. Now 
 and then a flower or flowering shrub shows itself through 
 the dense shade, but seems to do so with difficulty. The 
 air in the huge forest on a summer day is that of a hot- 
 house. The moisture seems to rise from the earth and 
 emit the odor of aromatic spruces, resins, balsams and 
 pitch that reaches the nostrils when pine needles are rolled 
 in the hands. 
 
 Layer on layer the green branches sway in the breeze 
 that usually floats in from the sea, the leaves of plants 
 at the side of the path, the shrubs, the trees that shed their 
 leaves, such as beeches and maples, the firs, pines, cedars, 
 that tower above them, and then high above the fir 
 monarchs, which are the pride of Pacific coast forests, 
 are the giant trees that have made Stanley Park known 
 around the world. One tree reaches the amazing circum- 
 ference of fifty-four feet and seems at its base to be a 
 
108 Sunset Canada 
 
 round building until one follows its towering trunk sky- 
 ward and observes where huge limbs leave the parent 
 trunk and wave their plumes of green. There are several 
 " largest " trees in this one-thousand-acre forest which 
 juts out into the waters of the bay, and a well-made log 
 and gravel path leads close to all of them. First of all, 
 one comes upon a group of seven monarchs known as the 
 " Seven Sisters." Primitive f^at arches of logs, a railing 
 of the same and square-hewn logs for benches are the 
 sole furniture of this mighty cathedral in which there is 
 perpetual music by the wind. One takes his pew, if he 
 chances to have come on a day when there are few visi- 
 tors, as I have done on three occasions scattered over 
 fifteen years. A gray-coated water-fowl from the bay 
 soars over the tree-tops and chants his low, monotonous 
 vespers, while smaller birds of the forest, sweet singers 
 in gay surplices, seem to be the acolytes and choristers. 
 This cathedral with the mystic number of pillars reminds 
 one of the remnants of that colossal temple of Jupiter at 
 Baalbek, Syria. One was the sublime creation of na- 
 ture, and the other was the work of man who learned the 
 secret of the towering pillar and cornices roof from for- 
 ests trees and crowning foliage. And, strangely enough, 
 the scientists no doubt could date the building of the Baal- 
 bek temple of stone from the same period as the be- 
 ginning of this " Seven Sister " Cathedral in Stanley 
 Park. 
 
 At the outskirts of the park there are nurseries where 
 there are formal gardens of flowers and flowering shrubs, 
 there are refreshment pavilions and a rather limited col- 
 lection of animals, the conventional beginnings of a city's 
 outdoor " attractions." One encounters them elsewhere 
 and they will attract but a glance from the eastern visi- 
 
Captain Vancouver's Namesake 109 
 
 tor. The real thrill, the distinctive feature of Stanley 
 Park as compared to other parks of the world, comes after 
 one has penetrated beyond log gateways and immediately 
 falls back one thousand years to a forest that remains 
 much as it was when Christopher Columbus was seeking 
 a passage to the Indies. 
 
 Throughout the park there are well-marked trails that 
 lead over waterways bridged by logs in corduroy fash- 
 ion, where, if one has not been in Japan, he is likely to 
 imagine that he has come upon the original views of the 
 Hiroshige drawings. Above, are the tall firs and cedars 
 and along the meandering narrow streams, so suggestive 
 of those that clatter down the Japanese mountains, the 
 natural beauty has been retained, logs lie helter-skelter, 
 sometimes fallen across the streams and by the aid of 
 birch poles as railings have become bridges, huge bowlders 
 are as perhaps they fell from glaciers thousands of years 
 ago, huge tropical waxen leaves of the skunk cabbage bank 
 themselves along the edges of streams not more than four 
 feet wide, yet deep and rapid — it is all as if made by 
 some landscape architect, inspired by the Japanese gar- 
 dens, which in turn were inspired by West Lake and the 
 environs at Hangchow, the ancient capital of China. 
 
 The late Elbert Hubbard, who usually etched an exact 
 portrait when he guided the pen, wrote : " There are 
 parks and parks, but there is no park in the world that 
 will exhaust your stock of adjectives and subdue you into 
 silence like Stanley Park at Vancouver." 
 
 It is probably on the program of all visitors to go to 
 the park soon after they have placed their names on hotel 
 registers ; and it is likewise on the program of many to 
 pay it at least a farewell visit before departing. Sight- 
 seeing automobiles and tram-cars make the trip conven- 
 
110 Sunset Canada 
 
 ient for those who are in a hurry to reach the gates ; but 
 it is pleasanter to approach it on foot, and, when there 
 is leisure enough, to follow its entire water line and to 
 follow its shady pathways wherever they have been made 
 to lead by a wise guide. On the northern side is a rock 
 that juts out from the surrounding ledge and at high tide 
 seems to be surrounded by water. It is not particularly 
 distinctive in the landscape of the West Coast ; but it has 
 been made locally famous, at least, by amateur and pro- 
 fessional photographers who have " snapped " it from all 
 angles. Thus it has happened that no portfolio of 
 " Views of Vancouver " is complete without a page de- 
 voted to " Siwash Rock," the shop windows where photo- 
 graphs are displayed feature it, and it has become a popu- 
 lar background for tourists' photographs, so that its fame 
 has reached far and it has become one of the " sights " 
 for which all visitors inquire when they are on their way 
 to the Big Trees or the bathing pavilion at English Bay, 
 if they go by the circuitous drive around the Park. A 
 small evergreen tree — or several of them in a clump — 
 springs from the rock, and it was this fact, perhaps, 
 that gave it its " legend," -for Siwash Rock, like the per- 
 son of great prominence who discovers that he has a 
 " family tree," has its legend, which probably was born 
 after the city fathers of Vancouver decided to make a 
 park of the surrounding territory. 
 
 According to the legend, there was a young chief who 
 visited a northern tribe to claim one of its maidens for a 
 bride. They were married, and in time their tepee was 
 to be blest with a child. There was an ancient custom 
 that before the birth of the child both parents should 
 bathe, so that no animal could scent them. The wife, 
 leaving her husband in the water, went to the land and 
 
SIWASH ROCK, STANLEY PARK. VANCOUVER. 
 
Captain Vancouver's Namesake 111 
 
 the husband must wait until he heard the cry of the in- 
 fant before he could follow her. As the young chief 
 and his wife were very good and respecters of the an- 
 cient customs, they were undergoing this order of purifica- 
 tion. The wife had reached land and the expectant 
 young chief was swimming in the water, listening for 
 the signal that would delight him. At this moment a 
 large war canoe came near him. In it were four giants, 
 emissaries of the Deity. They shouted to him to go to 
 shore, because it was well known that if a mortal touched 
 the canoe, its occupants would become human. The 
 young chief refused and explained the reason. The 
 giants took counsel and decided that as he was a wicked 
 man he must be turned into stone, the fate of all wicked 
 men, because stones do not give life or protection to liv- 
 ing beings, whereas the spirits of good men go into trees, 
 so that they may continue their ministrations of good to 
 the living. Suddenly they heard the cry of a child and 
 the young chief started for the land, but before he 
 reached it he was turned to stone — Siwash Rock. 
 It was a decree of the gods and could not be altered; 
 but he had been so good in life that a tree, the symbol 
 of goodness, sprouted from the rock, that all who passed 
 that way might know that he suffered the supreme penalty 
 for defying the emissaries of the Deity, but until that 
 time had been a model of all the virtues. In the vicinity 
 there are only two other rocks that resemble Siwash and 
 these are his young wife and their child, for the innocents 
 also suffered for the sin of the husband and father. 
 
 One may pleasantly spend three or four days in Van- 
 couver and not venture beyond the city limits. In an 
 earlier day It was the custom of most travelers to make 
 it merely a transfer point from train to steamer or from 
 
112 Sunset Canada 
 
 steamer to train; but this has been altered, and many 
 tourists bound for the Orient now arrange their itineraries 
 to spend several days amid the attractive scenes of this 
 port, although they are anticipating greater novelties in 
 foreign ports. There is nothing with age about the city, 
 with the exception of its ancient trees; but there is a 
 hustle, a spic and span-ness, the newness of fresh paint 
 about everything, that is agreeable to the stranger who 
 is about to plunge into landscapes that threaten scenic in- 
 digestion. 
 
 A pamphlet is handed to incoming passengers on steam- 
 ers and trains, entitled " Captain Vancouver Welcomes 
 You To The Pacific Coast." The title is an inspiration, 
 for it is literally true. The captain lies in his tomb, but 
 the city that bears his name not only " welcomes " stran- 
 gers, but extends a cordial invitation for a long, friendly, 
 old-fashioned visit 
 
CHAPER IX 
 
 " THE ROYAL CITY " 
 
 The " old worthies " as the Honourable Adventurers 
 of the Hudson's Bay Company were popularly known in 
 England, held tenaciously to their royal charter and 
 jealously attempted to monopolize every mile of the 
 vast domain of Canada as soon as their own men or other 
 explorers extended the field toward the West. As their 
 profits increased, in the same proportion the attacks upon 
 them became more numerous, both at home and abroad. 
 As time went it became apparent that many of the at- 
 tacks, aiming to mold public opinion, had been fostered 
 by interests which threatened to become frank and bold 
 rivals in the business of fur collecting over a territory 
 that the older company seemed to deem its own by almost 
 " divine right." 
 
 The London Quarterly Reviezv, 1816, says: We can- 
 not join in the praise ascribed to the Hudson's Bay Com- 
 pany whose only merits (if they have any) are, at any 
 rate of the negative kind. Their total disregard of every 
 object for which they obtained and have now held a 
 royal charter for nearly one hundred and fifty years 
 entitles them to anything but praise. The great leading 
 feature on which their petition for an exclusive charter 
 was grounded, the discovery of a North-West Passage 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific, has not only been totally 
 neglected, but, unless they have been grossly calumniated, 
 thwarted to every means in their power." 
 
 113 
 
114 Sunset Canada 
 
 Reports reached the company that the French were 
 steadily pushing westward from the Great Lakes, en- 
 deavouring to intercept the fleets of Indian canoes laden 
 with furs for the traders on Hudson's Bay. The " bour- 
 geois du Nord-Ouest/' as they were known in Montreal, 
 seemed to be the most serious of these rival concerns 
 and but for various strategic moves on the part of the 
 older company the Northwest Company would have 
 gained complete control of fur trading in the Far West. 
 The founder of this company was Simon M'Tavish, who 
 was born in the Scottish highlands in 1750. He en- 
 gaged in the fur trade from Montreal immediately after 
 the cession of Canada to England and formed the com- 
 bination with several other men who had been independ- 
 dent fur-traders in the Northwest. 
 
 M'Tavish, a dominating person known among his 
 associates as " Le Marquis," made many enemies, and 
 some of these formed themselves into another rival con- 
 cern known in the fur trade as the " X-Y Company." 
 One of the leading spirits of this concern was young Alex- 
 ander Mackenzie, who was to become the explorer of the 
 great river that bears his name. At the death of M'Tav- 
 ish, however, the rivalry ceased and a union took place 
 between the two companies, to combat the strength of the 
 Hudson's Bay company. Young Mackenzie's first jour- 
 ney of consequence was to Detroit. He had soon pressed 
 westward to the Athabasca district and north to Great 
 Slave Lake and Peace River. Then he decided to reach 
 the shores of the Arctic ocean, but along the route of a 
 river which the Indians assured him was as large as the 
 Saskatchewan. His Journals show that he traveled two 
 hundred and seventy-two miles in less than one week. 
 On June 30, 1789, he was on the Mackenzie River. On 
 
" The Royal City " 115 
 
 July 14 he almost reached the sea, which was in sight, 
 but on July i6 " turned back," as his diary records, and 
 no reason for doing so has ever been found. He was 
 back to the fort from which he started in one hundred 
 and two days, having covered a distance of 3,000 miles. 
 Several later voyages followed, and in time Mackenzie 
 reached Pacific tidewater at Bella Coola. He followed 
 the coast for two days and when he arrived at Vancou- 
 ver's Cascade Canal took vermillion and melted grease 
 and wrote on a rock : Alexander Mackenzie from Can- 
 ada by land 22 July, lyg^. It was a memorable date in 
 Canadian history, as he was the first white man to cross 
 the northern continent from ocean to ocean. By degrees 
 the great territory was being explored by the intrepid fur 
 merchants, either the representatives of the Hudson's Bay 
 Company or its great rival, the Northwest Company, the 
 rivalry always goading them to greater efifort. 
 
 In 1805 a young man named Simon Fraser was selected 
 by the Northwest Company to assume charge of its field 
 beyond the Rocky Mountains, when it was decided to in- 
 vade that territory opposing the " oppressor, monopoly, 
 intriguing aristocrats " or the " smug old lady," as the 
 Hudson's Bay Company was referred to at the time. 
 After establishing several forts in territory now known 
 as British Columbia, Fraser organized an exploration 
 party and discovered the mighty river that bears his name, 
 which he believed to be the Columbia, but which he fol- 
 lowed toward its mouth and thus pointed the way for 
 epoch-making events of the future. The river rises in 
 the Rocky ]\Iountains and runs almost due west for two 
 hundred miles, them southerly through the Cariboo, Lil- 
 looet and Yale districts, until near Chilliwack it turns 
 abruptly to the west and finds a broad outlet to the Pacific 
 
116 Sunset Canada 
 
 through the Gulf of Georgia. Its total length is about 
 seven hundred fifty miles, and it is one of the im- 
 portant rivers of the continent. 
 
 Simon Fraser's river played an important part in the 
 making of British Columbia and its two principal cities, 
 Victoria and Vancouver. It was the discovery of gold 
 along the Fraser's channel that suddenly turned Fort 
 Victoria of the fur-traders into a populous city, and it 
 was the same channel that marked the westward course 
 of the railroad through the mountains, linking the prov- 
 ince with the rest of Canada and giving birth to Vancou- 
 ver at the western terminus. The rush of the gold-hunt- 
 ers made a mainland capital advisable for the malntain- 
 ance of peace and order, so the present site of New West- 
 minster was chosen, land about twelve miles from the 
 mouth of the river, which at this point more nearly re- 
 sembles a wide bay than a river, giving the place a fresh 
 water harbour navigable for vessels drawing twenty feet. 
 
 Immediately there arose dispute in regard to the name 
 to be given the new city. There was a desire to " hon- 
 our " Queen Victoria, but as the capital of Vancouver 
 Island had already appropriated that, the first choice 
 fell on Queenborough, but this seemed to be too nearly 
 a paraphrase of Victoria, which assumed to be the only 
 " Queen borough " and in reply to the taunts of the old 
 city the name " Queenborough " was adopted, which was 
 a distinction without much difference. The dispute 
 grew hot, as it is likely to do over such matters, and the 
 whole subject was referred directly to the Queen of Eng- 
 land, as the name of the province had been. Her Majesty 
 suggested that "the Royal City" be called New West- 
 minster, a name that pleased all parties to the controversy, 
 and after the settlement there was a lively speculation in 
 
The Fraser River. 
 
'' The Royal City " 117 
 
 real estate, as it was believed that this city was destined 
 to become the provincial metropolis. Lots were sold at 
 auction at fancy prices, the understanding being that the 
 proceeds from the sale would be devoted to civic im- 
 provements, such as the opening of streets and the clear- 
 ing of timber. But the Government had other uses for 
 the money and it was diverted to other channels. 
 
 Still, the people of New Westminster were optimistic. 
 Here was the only fresh water harbour of consequence 
 in western Canada, it was the capital of the Mainland 
 province, what more could a city ask for at its beginning? 
 But events that could not be anticipated transpired. 
 After the union of the two colonies, the capital became 
 Victoria. When the Canadian Pacific railroad was 
 pushed to tide-water it did not come to New Westmin- 
 ster, but after following the Fraser River for many miles, 
 it branched away to Burrard Inlet and Vancouver arose. 
 It was a crushing disappointment and " the Royal City " 
 has never recovered. The swirling river rushes past its 
 doors and it continues to have all the " natural advan- 
 tages," but like a faded woman come on sorrowful days 
 who boasts of her noble lineage. New Westminster 
 continues to refer to itself as " the Royal City " in all 
 printed announcements and advertisements ; but it is like 
 one of those royal residences scattered over Europe from 
 which royalty long ago departed, leaving the echoing 
 walls to be stared at by curious visitors. It seems to be 
 disappointed with itself like the human derelict who had 
 his opportunity but who did not improve it until too 
 late. Visitors find the ride over from Vancouver attrac- 
 tive. There are fine motor roads, tram cars or the ride 
 may be taken entirely by water; but strangers do not 
 remain long. Perhaps they inquire for the ruins of the 
 
118 Sunset Canada 
 
 structure erected by Simon Fraser, one of the oldest on the 
 Mainland coast, perhaps they glance at the river, the 
 " million-dollar bridge," the lumber mills, one of which is 
 said to be " the largest in the world," the salmon can- 
 neries, the provincial asylum, or the penitentiary, but they 
 do not remain long. New Westminster is only one of 
 the features of a day's excursion into the territory from 
 Vancouver, one of the stations of the British Columbia 
 Electric railway in the network of three hundred miles 
 of track, it is only one " settled district " along the motor 
 route. I sought out the studio of a photographer whose 
 signboard announced that he made " Commercial Photog- 
 raphy a Specialty." The day was cloudy and not suited 
 to camera work on the outside and, like Jeremiah, I did 
 not expect " to pass this way again." I asked him if he 
 had any views of the city, which claims a population of 
 twenty thousand, although fully half the population 
 seemed to be " out of town " during my visit. " No, I 
 haven't any," he replied, " for the simple reason that 
 nobody seems to want them, so I never wasted the time 
 taking any. Once a man came here and took some ; but 
 he carried his films or plates back to Vancouver with him 
 and we never received any copies — and perhaps it is 
 just as well, because we never had any demand for 
 them. Nobody seems to stop here long enough to buy 
 photographs." 
 
 And yet the location of New Westminster is strikingly 
 similar to that of New Orleans on the Mississippi river 
 or Shanghai above the mouth of the Yangtze-Kiang. 
 Both of the latter compelled the commerce of the world 
 to come up the river to them, instead of permitting it to 
 drift to sites further down, and, in consequence, they have 
 become populous cities, the largest of the region. There 
 
" The Royal City ** 119 
 
 is much else to prompt the comparison between the 
 Fraser and the Yangtze: both rise far inland and are 
 navigable for many miles above their mouths. Their 
 rapid flow brings fertility to the valleys that border them, 
 lands particularly adapted to agriculture. A pleasant ex- 
 cursion from New Westminster is to board one of the 
 stern wheelers that each day plows its way up the heavy 
 current to Chilliwack and back, giving a view of these 
 lands with their large gardens and meadows in which 
 cattle are numerous. It is further down the river, how- 
 ever, that the comparison becomes more striking. The 
 suburban trolley skirts the river along villages on fertile 
 silt lands, where bungalows are springing up, some of 
 them still set among uncleared stumpage. Eburne is 
 one of these that seems to be passing the village stage. 
 It feels the blessing of the Fraser, as ancient Egypt lived 
 by the annual overflow of the Nile. But there are no 
 fellahen along the Eraser's lower banks. As I passed, 
 the owners of the land seemed to be sitting in their trim 
 gardens, while the real work of raising vegetables seemed 
 to be almost entirely in the hands of Chinese. I saw 
 many of the latter in large patches of radishes, onions, 
 tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage and potatoes who were wear- 
 ing the costume of the Chinese peasantry, which seemed 
 to be strangely appropriate, because I had just observed 
 the similarity of the black silt lands to that rich region 
 below Shanghai. The similarity continues as the big 
 bridge is crossed and the tram reaches Lulu Island, so 
 like the fertile island of Tsung-ming-tau near the mouth 
 of the Yangtze-Kiang, where ocean liners anchor and 
 transfer their passengers to lighters and launches for 
 Shanghai and inland cities. Crossing the Canadian 
 Yangtze, the car soon comes to Steveston, which is almost 
 
120 Sunset Canada 
 
 an Oriental City — but one with a difference. The in- 
 habitants, with a few notable exceptions most of whom 
 are lodged in the hotels, are Japanese fishermen, who 
 live much as Japanese do at home, although they are much 
 more prosperous than they could expect to be if they had 
 remained in Nippon and followed the same occupation. 
 Here are Oriental fishermen who during the run of sal- 
 mon in the Fraser average as high as $500 a month, 
 which is more than they would receive for a year's work 
 of the same sort at home. Most of the stores of Steves- 
 ton are not only " Japanese " in the much abused Ameri- 
 can description of bazaars that expose china and bamboo 
 for sale, but deal principally in Oriental foodstuffs and 
 apparel. It is in reality Japan in America, as I have 
 never seen an Oriental community represented elsewhere, 
 because those sections of San Francisco, Los Angeles, 
 Vancouver and New York popularly known as " China- 
 town " are merely American streets in which many Orien- 
 tals live and conduct their business in an almost *' Ameri- 
 can " fashion, even tempering their lives to accord with 
 social laws, ordinances, rules and prejudices of western 
 peoples. 
 
 In Steveston there seem to be no such restraints. It is 
 almost their city and they have brought most of their 
 customs with them, instead of adapting " American 
 ways " to their requirements. The proprietor of the 
 principal European-style hotel of the place, which is called 
 the Sockcye after the salmon that gives Steveston its 
 being, told me that a several years' residence among the 
 Japanese had brought him to the belief that despite the 
 prejudice against them along the Pacific coast they are 
 an industrious, frugal and desirable people in a country 
 that is always wailing for more labourers. He said that 
 
'' The Royal City " 121 
 
 one of them who caused any annoyance or trouble or 
 misbehaved himself in any way was an exception to the 
 rule; and that such a person was usually warned by his 
 countrymen that he must mend his ways or leave the city. 
 " Their record in Steveston would be a difficult one for 
 Occidentals to improve upon," he concluded, " which from 
 me, I believe, will convince you that I believe in giving 
 credit where credit is due." 
 
 Lulu Island at Steveston is enclosed by high dikes that 
 keep back the water when the tide rises and which pro- 
 vides against flood when the Fraser threatens to overflow 
 its banks, following the melting of the winter snows in 
 the mountains among which it flows. There are several 
 large ditches or canals around the city and the majority of 
 the Japanese live along the banks, where often their 
 houses are approached by narrow bridges that need only 
 the arches of Oriental bridges to make them thoroughly 
 "Japanese." Along these spans over the waterways, 
 the native instinct for beauty and love for the pictur- 
 esque has prompted the planting of shrubs and flowering 
 plants. Sometimes they are in painted tin cans, in soy 
 kegs or in China urns ; the idea is the same, the beautifl- 
 cation of the dooryard, which is as noticeable among 
 Nippon's very poor, where the dooryard may not be more 
 than two square yards in area, as among the rich and 
 noble who can build extensive parks and landscape gar- 
 dens. " See there," said the above-quoted hotel proprie- 
 tor, pointing to a little bridge the rails of which held many 
 flow^ering plants, " the Japs may have their faults — as 
 other people do — but I believe a man can't be so very 
 bad who works diligently every day, takes good care of 
 his family — and loves flowers." 
 
 The Japanese appear to be strangely at home in this 
 
122 Sunset Canada 
 
 far-off city of a foreign country and one sees the same 
 smile on their faces that the visitor notes when he sees 
 them about their work in their native land. The chil- 
 dren throng the streets or stand in little groups on the 
 bridges, wearing the brilliant colours of childhood in 
 Japan. When they are old enough, and if their parents 
 can afford it, they are sent to Japan to be educated, and 
 although Steveston's prosperity has not extended over a 
 sufficient number of years to ascertain for a certainty, it 
 is likely that most of them will improve upon their father's 
 position in life. Their elders left a country that has 
 three hundred and seventeen population to the square 
 mile and came to one that averages less than two in the 
 same area, where the labourer has a better opportunity. 
 While the colony is composed of fishermen, there are so 
 many of them that several other trades and crafts are 
 being represented more and more, the blacksmiths, mak- 
 ers of nets, floats and sinkers — even trained engineers 
 to run the launches, for many of the boats in these waters 
 retain a suggestion of the Chinese junk in their lines, and 
 are owned and operated by the Japanese, who find a ready 
 market for their fish. In the evening they sit in front 
 of their homes along the canal banks and listen to the 
 music of strange little native guitars or the samisen. 
 One can hear them from the hotel veranda and imagine 
 that he has crossed to the land of the wisteria and lotus. 
 Most visitors will not remain the night at Steveston, 
 however, as two or three hours will suffice to observe its 
 " atmosphere " and to visit the principal points of in- 
 terest, which relate in some way to the catching, preser- 
 vation and marketing of fish, and the city is included in 
 the circular excursion that may be made from Vancou- 
 ver in one day. It is worth remaining over, however, to 
 
"The Royal City" 123 
 
 sit around the various meeting places of the " old resi- 
 dents," to hear them relate their stories of the fancied 
 or real experiences of the past when the great salmon 
 drove started up the river, impelled by the powerful in- 
 stinct of reproduction. To listen to these " old timers," 
 one must believe that the " run " is not so large as it 
 used to be. They tell of the pirate sea fish that pursue 
 the salmon for the purpose of eating its spawn, of the In- 
 dians they saw clubbing or spearing them in the Narrows 
 of the river, of the bears that could " teach any salmon- 
 fisher a few lessons " — and one leaves them wondering 
 that there remain any salmon to be caught, and under- 
 stands the " scarcity " that must have caused the increase 
 in prices for the canned article in recent years. 
 
 But one recovers from the effects of these stories when 
 he visits a cannery in July or August when the " run " is 
 at its height. The barges and launches come to the piers 
 with all available space piled full of the beautiful fish 
 that form one of the great assets of the province. Sal- 
 mon marketed from British Columbia waters in 191 5 
 amounted to $8,018,626, the next most valuable fish, the 
 halibut, bringing only $1,561,626. By far the greater 
 amount of this catch comes from the Fraser district and 
 a large per cent, of it is marketed fresh or canned at 
 Steveston. 
 
 The salmon's strange life story has offered a special 
 field of study for the scientists for many years, and while 
 many unusual claims were made it was not until very re- 
 cently that much that was accepted as gossip — or worse 
 — was accepted literally and vouched for by leading 
 authorities. It seems reasonably certain that after a 
 salmon is hatched in the headwaters of the stream it 
 makes its way to salt water within the year. Just where it 
 
124 Sunset Canada 
 
 goes in the broad Pacific has not been definitely determined 
 — perhaps to the Japanese coast — and the route of its 
 return is not definitely known ; but there is sufficient proof 
 to satisfy investigating zoologists that it returns to the 
 stream in which it first received life. It is even claimed 
 that the majority of the salmon return to spawn in the 
 exact locality of the stream in which they were hatched. 
 As they enter the rivers after their long voyage in the 
 big ocean they rush onward at a terrific pace, leaping 
 over obstructions and performing wonderful feats of en- 
 durance. In small streams they are sometimes so numer- 
 ous that they are plainly visible from shore in a great 
 mass struggling forward and seem to cover the surface 
 of the water. The " big run " occurs every fourth year 
 with absolute certainty, and there are canneries in Ste- 
 veston which operate on a large scale and suspend opera- 
 tions during the lighter years. During this run there are 
 sometimes as many as two thousand boats pursuing the 
 much prized fish at the mouth of the Fraser, and it is not 
 unusual for them to bring in one hundred to five hundred 
 fish each at night — fish varying from ten to seventy- 
 five pounds in weight. 
 
 And there is no reason to doubt that this run has taken 
 place every year from an exceedingly early period, as the 
 Indians were well acquainted with its habits and enter- 
 tained almost a religious respect for the fish that did so 
 much to sustain life during the long seasons when other 
 food was scarce. He preserved salmon by sun-drying 
 and smoking, much as he does to-day, and preferred it to 
 all other food. 
 
 Charles Hill-Tout, author of a book on British Co- 
 lumbia Indians, says: "Whenever they, (the salmon) 
 began to run, no Indian was allowed to fish or kill until 
 
'' The Royal City " 125 
 
 the first salmon of the season had been reverently brought 
 to the chief of the tribe, who would gather his tribesmen 
 and bid his wife cook the fish in a new basket specially 
 made for the purpose. Then he would distribute a small 
 bit to every man of his tribe who was ceremonially clean, 
 for none who were ceremonially unclean could be al- 
 low^ed to touch a bit of that first fish. After that, any 
 member of the tribe was free to kill salmon, but it was 
 understood that they were to return the head and en- 
 trails to the water." 
 
 This practice of returning the portions of the fish to the 
 water was with the belief that if they did this the fish 
 would return to life, thus the waters of the river would 
 not become depleted — as it may be noted the waters of 
 British Columbia rivers may be unless adequate laws 
 are framed for the protection of the salmon, which has 
 already shown signs of diminishing in certain " fished- 
 out " localities. Hill-Tout continues : " The Indians 
 believe that the spirit part of the fish and animals is more 
 real than the corporeal part. They believe that the de- 
 struction of others parts of his carcass besides his flesh 
 which may be used for food purposes, would make the 
 bear, for example, very angry, and that he would take his 
 revenge on the Indians for the indignity placed upon his 
 remains. They believe if the animals allow themselves to 
 be killed for food, then it is the duty of those who kill 
 them to treat with reverence what they do not use." 
 
 The Indian legend of how the salmon came to British 
 Columbia waters, is related by the same author as follows : 
 ** It seems that long ago there were no salmon in the 
 rivers, and Khals, the culture hero of the Indians of this 
 coast district, determined to go out to the salmon islands 
 in the Pacific and induce the salmon people to visit the 
 
126 Sunset Canada 
 
 rivers and streams and allow themselves to be caught by 
 the Indians as fish. He set sail with his brothers and 
 some priests of the coast tribe and after many days row- 
 ing arrived at the home of the salmon people somewhere 
 in the Pacific. They were people just like the Indians 
 and the visitors were made welcome. Just when the 
 midday meal was being prepared one of the visitors 
 noticed that two of the young people of the salmon tribe, 
 a youth and a maiden, went down into the water and dis- 
 appeared. Shortly afterwards two salmon were caught 
 and when they were being distributed to the visitors the 
 chief of the salmon tribe asked them to be very careful to 
 keep all the bones together. After the meal one or two of 
 the young men came round and collected the bones left 
 over and these were taken and thrown into the sea. 
 Shortly after this the young man and maiden who had 
 entered the water were seen to reappear." 
 
 " This happened each day and excited the curiosity of 
 one of the visitors, who determined to put his suspicions 
 to the test. Believing this entering of the water and 
 catching of salmon to be intimately connected, he, at the 
 next meal, hid a piece of salmon bone under his blanket. 
 Presently, when the young people came up out of the 
 water, it was seen that the youth was holding his blanket 
 up to his jaw. The chief went forward and the youth 
 told him that all of the bones could not have been returned 
 to the water because his jaw bone was missing. The 
 chief asked the visitors if they had returned all of the 
 bones. A search was made and the missing bone was 
 found thrown a little way beyond the circle, where the 
 visitor had thrown it. The chief threw it into the water, 
 the young man returned into the water and came out 
 whole. By this means the visitors knew that the salmon 
 
" The Royal City '' 127 
 
 that they had been eating were the salmon people. So 
 Khals asked the chief if he would visit their coast and 
 permit his people to catch them as salmon. This the chief 
 agreed to upon certain conditions, the principal being 
 that they would always throw the offal and bones back 
 into the water." 
 
 Every one has seen the bright labelled canned salmon 
 on the shelves of every grocery store in the world, because 
 there are few articles of food so relished by practically 
 all people of all zones. It is prepared in a manner that 
 will preserve it under equatorial skies and in the cold. 
 It is " ready to serve " when taken from the cans and one 
 rarely comes across any that is not in prime condition, 
 whether it be old or new. Such a product must have been 
 prepared with infinite care! At least that would be 
 the natural belief. But of all the rapid-fire operations I 
 have ever seen in a factory this preparation of salmon for 
 the market seems most speedy. The present rate of skill 
 and time-saving, however, has come about after years 
 of experimentation and experience. Efficiency experts 
 have been busy and where a part of the process could be 
 accomplished in one movement of a worker's arms he was 
 trained not to take two. Where a machine could be de- 
 vised to do the work of several men some one invented it 
 and the machine was installed and put into operation. 
 The busy season is short, but when the fish come they 
 come by millions and they must be disposed of at 
 once. 
 
 As the boats arrive at the pier and deposit their pre- 
 cious cargo at the cannery the floor is covered, and from 
 that moment quick disposition is made of them. One 
 by one they are fed into the jaws of a machine that chops 
 off their heads, slits open their stomachs and " cleans " 
 
128 Sunset Canada 
 
 them. They fall into vats, attended by Japanese women, 
 where there is running water and they receive a final 
 inspection as to their fitness for the can. One by one 
 they are fed into an iron " chink " that in one operation 
 cuts the whole fish to can-length sizes. They are packed 
 into cans filling a circular iron tray, a spring is touched, 
 something falls, and when it rises back to place every 
 can has been topped and sealed. They are placed on 
 endless chains and begin their journey through vats of 
 hot water which discharges them near large retorts, where 
 they are heated to soften the bones. A label is pasted 
 on the can and the cans are packed in cases for shipment, 
 the operation finished. 
 
 A considerable trade has grown up in frozen fish, which 
 are shipped to the markets of the world in refrigerator 
 cars and steamers, so that London, Melbourne and New 
 York may receive " fresh fish " from the British Colum- 
 bia fisheries. Several plants specialize in this product, 
 which seems to be growing in favour. Visitors are wel- 
 come here as at the canning factories and usually a 
 " guide " is provided at the office on application for ad- 
 mission beyond tightly closed doors where the tempera- 
 ture is kept at a point that endangers the health of men 
 who work more than two hours at a stretch without 
 coming into the open air. I did not see salmon frozen 
 or freezing, but I saw shelves and racks piled high with 
 halibut and cod, much of which is brought down from 
 more northern waters for cleaning and freezing. Also 
 there were several mammoth sturgeon from the Fraser, 
 one tipping the scales at one thousand pounds and with 
 a " body " almost as large as a horse, although its head 
 and snout had been severed. Sturgeon here have weighed 
 as high as seventeen hundred pounds. Such a fish is a 
 
" The Royal City '* 129 
 
 prize to the captor; but they have not been plentiful of 
 late, owing to lax laws and piratical fishing. 
 
 Another department of the " cooler " has unique in- 
 terest for although it is of great importance to the fish- 
 eries the public is unaware of its existence. It shows how 
 small fish, six to nine inches long and mostly herring, are 
 preserved for bait. In the month of January these fish 
 run in schools of incredible numbers near the mouth of 
 the Fraser, and they are never so plentiful in the waters 
 where the halibut and cod are caught. So the Japanese 
 fisheries of Steveston, who catch salmon in the summer, 
 throw their nets for " bait " in the winter and bring them 
 to the refrigeration plants by scow-loads. Some seasons 
 they are so plentiful that only five dollars a ton is paid for 
 them; but the price sometimes runs as "high" as ten 
 dollars a ton. The plants sometimes receive as many as 
 fifty tons at one time. They are thrown into square vats, 
 into which water is poured, filling the intervening crevices 
 and then they are frozen into rectangular cubes about 
 tw^o feet long, one foot high and one foot thick. The 
 cubes are stacked up in huge storerooms, where they are 
 preserved for an indefinite time — until a steamer comes 
 in with a load of fish and takes on bait for the return 
 cargo. A block is permitted to stand in the sun, or hot 
 water is poured over it when bait is required and the small 
 fish again find the sea " as fresh as when they were 
 caught " — only this time to serve as a lure to a hungry 
 halibut that may shortly find its way to the tables of Eng- 
 land and Australia. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Vancouver's side-trips 
 
 The stranger in Vancouver could begin a well laid out 
 program of excursions from that city, little jaunts afield 
 and by water that require from one-half day to twelve 
 days, and rarely if ever traverse the same territory, al- 
 though he followed the program conscientiously for sev- 
 eral weeks and allowed himself none of the stop-overs 
 at the places visited that will beckon and lure. Nature 
 was not so prodigal of her gifts to many cities of the 
 world ; and where she was there was no Canadian Pacific 
 Railway to make the journey toward them comfortable 
 and luxurious with the minimum of expense and fatigue. 
 And then, as already noted, Vancouver is on the great 
 world's highw^ay from London to Hongkong, another 
 unusual advantage. Most around-the-world travelers 
 are pleased to remain for some time in such a city, and 
 the people, recognizing that they have something to offer 
 and enough traffic to pay for the development of tours in 
 every direction have devised means of making these trips 
 mutually satisfactory to those who pay and to themselves. 
 At almost every hour of every day there is some steamer 
 entering the deep waters of Burrard Inlet for a cruise to 
 one of the enchanting fjords, coves, bays or islands of this 
 typically Norwegian shore line. Some of them move 
 slowly along the rugged coast and return the same day. 
 Others have ample accommodations for the night and 
 passengers remain aboard for thirty-six hours. Some go 
 
 130 
 
Vancouver's Side-Trips 131 
 
 further and take forty-eight hours, three, four, five days 
 and more for the round trip. One who begins to follow 
 the marine program before having made many excursions 
 by land might fancy that Vancouver's chief recreation 
 and charm was in its ever-moving water pageant, 
 
 A good beginning is the little trip to Capilano Canyon, 
 which may be made by motor car and ferry, or by a com- 
 bination of ferry and tramcar. I have made it in both 
 ways and I have walked the entire distance — put down 
 as about twelve miles round trip from Vancouver — and 
 I have no hesitancy in recommending this more strenuous 
 manner, at least for the tourist who intends making a 
 day's trip of it. The North Vancouver ferry, which runs 
 at frequent intervals during the hour, will carry one 
 across the Bay, and if you do not care to venture into 
 trails that are merely the footprints of " white Indians " 
 who despise macadam roads, the tramcar tracks may be 
 followed up over the hills in a northwesterly direction un- 
 til a road is reached that skirts along the bank of the aw- 
 ful precipice, where the rushing waters are hurrying in the 
 last hours of their plunge toward the sea. There are 
 trails from the road down into the canyon itself where 
 the steep descent is made along a stairway of roots and 
 trampled earth, or one may follow the road to the tea- 
 house which is set in a rock garden of almost indescribable 
 beauty where a wise landscape gardener has preserved 
 the natural charm of the place but has caused flowering 
 shrubs and vines to cover the terraces and fill the rock 
 crevasses with brilliant colours that have a background of 
 pine, fir, spruce and hemlock, festooned over prongs of 
 jutting rock. At the side of the veranda of this tea- 
 house built of cedar planks piled flat to resemble solid 
 beams or square-cut logs, is the celebrated Capilano 
 
152 Sunset Canada 
 
 Bridge, one of the most photographed " sights " in the 
 environs of Vancouver. It provides more thrills than a 
 Ferris wheel or switch-back of the amusement parks, and 
 yet the element of danger is practically nil, as one realizes 
 afterwards but fails to appreciate at the time. 
 
 The gorge of the glacial stream seems to be narrow 
 until one ventures onto the bucking, trembling footpath, 
 when it suddenly seems to be of interminable length. 
 Rocks that seem to have been cut by a knife reach down to 
 the water two hundred feet. Cables four hundred and 
 fifty feet long have been imbedded in rocks and stumps 
 on each side of the ravine and a slender bridge of narrow 
 boards is suspended from the cables. From the tea-house 
 the aerial pathway leads to a group of rustic tables on 
 the opposite bank where picnickers spread their lunches 
 and mingle the joys of the environment with human de- 
 light in watching new arrivals start out bravely on the 
 bridge and then, when it begins to buck and sway, either 
 become panic-stricken and shout for help or grasp the 
 side cables and creep timidly to the end. One person 
 might cross the bridge and the vibration might respond 
 to the footstep, but there are no limitations as to the 
 number who may venture upon it at one time. One 
 starts out and reaches the center, new visitors arrive and 
 in their new enthusiasm rush onto the end and immedi- 
 ately the whole structure is careening and billowing as if 
 it resented the action of the thoughtless. 
 
 The guide books say that the bridge was constructed 
 by an inventive Frenchman who wandered through the 
 canyon on a hunting expedition and as it was within easy 
 distance of Vancouver saw the " possibilities " of the 
 place as an amusement park if " thrills " were provided 
 for visitors. This is incorrect, however, and when I 
 
Capilano Canyon Suspension Bridge. 
 
Vancouver's Side -Trips 133 
 
 heard the true story of its building and saw a strange 
 bunk-house of hand-hewn cedar planks that have aged to 
 Rembrandt browns, I thought I was on the scent of just 
 such a human story as such a place should have. There 
 is " gossip " that a white man once v^andered into this 
 canyon, that he fell in love with an Indian girl who re- 
 turned his affection ; she was thrown out of her tribe and 
 he felt that he could not return to his people, taking 
 with him his wilderness " soul-mate." So they went to 
 the top of this canyon and the man built the home from 
 which they could look down on the turbulent waters and 
 the ravine which both of them loved. I thought of an 
 American " IMadam Butterfly," or " Madam Chrysan- 
 theme " — did the white man remain faithful to the Indian 
 maid and did they end their lives here together? Just 
 by chance was there a tragic ending to their existence 
 here together? There was the yawning chasm in the 
 wilderness and I could fancy a dozen " climaxes " to 
 such an adventure. Or did he tire of it all and go back to 
 his kind? Did she return to her tribe, repenting of her 
 " sin," or, like Cio-Cio-San, did she end it all when she 
 knew that she had been deserted? Capilano Canyon is a 
 place to prompt such fancies. One dreams them and 
 fancies that they may have been realities, or should 
 have been. 
 
 " I have heard whisperings — very vague whisperings 
 — of the story that a white man and an Indian girl once 
 lived in the old shack," replied the lady of the tea-house, 
 when I asked her concerning it. " None but me seemed 
 to be interested and my inquiries met with a raising of the 
 eyebrows and the suggestion that such a yarn was scandal- 
 ous and had best be forgotten, unless I wanted the place 
 to lose its good name. This somewhat * proper ' way of 
 
134 Sunset Canada 
 
 looking at it did not deter my investigations, however, 
 but my researches did not lead to anything very satisfy- 
 ing, for instead of this romantic story I found the truth, 
 which was that the bunk-house was built for the accom- 
 modation of labourers when a water-works system was 
 being installed from these headwaters for the valley be- 
 low. No, everything in Capilano Canyon history has 
 been perfectly ' regular ' so far as we know and there is 
 no reason why unchaperoned young ladies should not 
 pause on this veranda for tea and their parents need not 
 fear that ' scandal ' ever touched the place — even when 
 the territory was inhabited by Indians with only an 
 occasional visit from a white trapper or adventurer. As 
 for the bridge itself, it was built by a Scotchman, a 
 Chinese and an Indian — a rather unusual human com- 
 bination for such a v^^ork, but not at all romantic. This 
 garden? Yes, I have done it all myself, with an occa- 
 sional lift from a Japanese servant when I wanted to move 
 a big rock to another position. Many years ago I lived 
 in Macao, in the south of China. There was a wealthy 
 mandarin there who used to allow us to walk in the beau- 
 tiful garden that surrounded his palace. In those days, 
 knowing nothing of the future, I promised myself that if 
 I ever had the opportunity I would attempt to duplicate 
 in my own garden some of the effects of those enchanting 
 landscapes. And in time, I came here where there were 
 the rocks and the trees beside this beautiful canyon. I 
 set to work to fulfil that promise to myself of long ago. 
 These are the stories of the bridge, the bunk-house and the 
 garden ; nothing romantic in them you see ! May I pour 
 you another cup of tea and won't you help yourself to 
 another scone? " 
 
 One may continue this day's jaunt to include other 
 
Vancouver's Side-Trips 135 
 
 views of the same canyon and other canyons, where there 
 are good endurance tests for the amateur chmber, or 
 where, as at Canyon View Hotel, one may sit quietly 
 and enjoy the beauties of nature in rugged and wild 
 dress. 
 
 Another trip that may be made in one day is along 
 what is known as the North Arm, in reality a continua- 
 tion nineteen miles in length of Vancouver's harbour. At 
 the head of the Inlet is the Wigwam Inn, a modern hotel 
 with spacious verandas in a pleasing location for a brief 
 holiday. The " Falls of the Soray of Pearls " — Vancou- 
 ver folk are becoming almost Oriental in their nomen- 
 clature of natural beauty — are within the grounds of the 
 Inn and Cathedral Canyon is in the near neighbourhood. 
 A day may be spent enjoyably at Horseshoe Bay, a 
 pretty beach that invites anglers, bathers and boatmen. 
 It lies about twelve miles from Vancouver and is reached 
 by the ferry to North Vancouver and the Pacific Great 
 Eastern Railway to Whytecliff station. This excursion 
 affords a view of Burrand Inlet, the Narrows, English 
 Bay and the shore line of Stanley Park. The trip to 
 Bowen Island, an estate of about eight hundred acres, 
 may be made in one day, or this trip may be included in 
 the one-day cruise to Howe Sound, which is a pleasant 
 reminder of the Norwegian coast, because it offers close 
 views of glacier-tipped mountains as well as a stop at 
 Seaside Park and a call at the Brittania Copper Mines. 
 It would be difficult to recall a day's trip from an At- 
 lantic coast city that offers so much in landscape beauty 
 and so likely to make an appeal to visitors. 
 
 Perhaps the most popular two-day sea trip from Van- 
 couver is that by what is known as the Jervis Inlet and 
 Butte Inlet routes. Leaving at nine o'clock in the morn- 
 
136 Sunset Canada 
 
 ing, one returns to the city at five the next afternoon, 
 having cruised among many islands and stopped at fully 
 a dozen little ports, all barely known by name to the 
 visitor from beyond British Columbia's borders. The 
 steamers visit Sechelt, which lies close to Porpoise Bay, 
 Pender Harbour, which affords a close view of IMount 
 Diadem which towers six thousand feet above the sea 
 in lonesome grandeur. In the harbour is a small island 
 covered with Indian huts, a tiny reservation that is near 
 to good herring fishing in season. Nearby is Painted 
 Point, so called from Indian writing daubed on the 
 rocks and supposed to have been placed there generations 
 ago. Lund has been called " the British Columbia Corn- 
 wall," as it seems to be set in a shady bower amid green- 
 ish coloured rocks. The Yeucaltau Rapids are interest- 
 ing in themselves and for the fact that Captain Vancou- 
 ver camped in the region during his explorations of the 
 coast, which gives the name of " Old Village of Vancou- 
 ver " to a point on the coast, a name by which it is known 
 on the official charts. The romance associated with Buc- 
 caneer Bay has usually credited it with the pirates, but 
 while there is a " story " in connection with its pictur- 
 esque name it is modern and does not date to the days of 
 the sea-rovers. It appears that there was a celebrated 
 horse on the English turf called " Buccaneer," a contem- 
 porary of " Thormanby," which won the Derby in i860. 
 Captain Richards of H. M. Surveying Vessel Plumper 
 named the Thormanby Islands — perhaps he had v.on 
 money on the race — and one of the prettiest of the bays 
 he named after " Buccaneer " with several other places 
 like Epsom Point, Oaks Point, and Tottenham Ledge in 
 memory of the famous race-course. Powell River is the 
 site of a large pulp and paper mill, operated by water 
 
Vancouver's Side-Trips 137 
 
 power from the falls nearby and at Powell Lake and 
 Goat Lake there is good fishing. 
 
 There are steamers that take three days instead of 
 two to cover this route, allowing more time ashore at 
 various points of landing. There are two, three and 
 four-day cruises to Johnstone Straits and Kingcome In- 
 let. A six-day excursion by three different routes in- 
 cludes the Skeena River, Campbell River, Bella Bella, 
 China Hat, Anyox, Alice Arm, Alert Bay and Prince 
 Rupert. A tour around the Queen Charlotte Islands and 
 return in twelve days is gaining popularity with tourists 
 each season. Any of the longer trips, of course, include 
 most of the scenery of the shorter ones, thus the cruise to 
 Prince Rupert or to the Queen Charlotte Islands from 
 Vancouver is perhaps advisable, rather than several of 
 the briefer excursions, if one has the time; but the trav- 
 eler may rest assured if he take only one of the day 
 trips that he has seen what is typical of the entire coast- 
 line, and what he would see in more extensive or more 
 abbreviated form when following the longer routes: 
 islands covered with evergreen trees, jutting rocks, deep 
 blue bays, and snow-capped mountains. It is the same, 
 although it seems to be ever changing to the leisurely 
 traveler, from Vancouver to Alaska. 
 
 Leaving Vancouver on the cruise to Prince Rupert, the 
 water seems to be land-locked and the deep channel is 
 sheltered almost its entire distance, being also studded 
 with islands, some of which are of considerable size — 
 as for example, Vancouver Island, whose mountains are 
 visible during the first hundred miles in the Straits of 
 Georgia. The Straits end as Seymour Narrows are 
 reached, where the rushing waters pass through a channel 
 that seems almost at the steamer's sides, although the 
 
138 Sunset Canada 
 
 official figures show it to be almost a quarter of a mile 
 wide. The tide streams into this passage in a rushing 
 torrent, however, and it seems that the boat were ascend- 
 ing or descending a rapidly flowing river. The scenery 
 is constantly changing as one passes the islands of John- 
 stone Straits and Discovery Passage and one observes 
 the deep indentures in the coast line, which permit the 
 warm Chinook winds from the Japan current to sweep 
 inland and temper the climatic conditions of the interior. 
 In this region passengers frequently see schools of whales, 
 sometimes a dozen or as many as twenty of them, flound- 
 ering and spouting in what seems to be their chosen play- 
 ground. 
 
 The first point of particular interest after passing John- 
 stone Straits is Alert Bay, which is noted for its fish can- 
 neries, and what is believed to be the largest and finest 
 collection of totem poles in the province, with the possi- 
 ble exception of the group at Nootka Sound. The one 
 street of the village is fenced with these quaint wood 
 carvings, some of them thirty or forty feet tall. The 
 route continues through winding channels, between scores 
 of islands, until Queen Charlotte Sound is reached, and 
 steaming across this opening with nothing to the West but 
 the Pacific Ocean brings the boat into sheltered ways 
 again behind Calvert Island, when a natural canal to Bella 
 Bella is followed. Bella Bella marks the entrance to one 
 of the channels of the Dean Channel, which penetrates 
 the main coast for a hundred or more miles. It was 
 here that Sir Alexander Mackenzie reached, the Pacific 
 ocean, after his overland journey across Canada in 1793, 
 the first to perform the feat ; and twelve years prior to the 
 accomplishment of the overland journey across the United 
 States from the mouth of the Missouri River by Lewis 
 
Vancouver's Side-Trips 139 
 
 and Clarke. North from this point the scenery is even 
 finer than in the channels east of Vancouver Island, al- 
 though the mountains are not so high. Finlayson Chan- 
 nel and Greenville Channel give an almost unbroken ca- 
 nal-like passage to within a short distance of Prince 
 Rupert, and Finlayson Channel offers the most attractive 
 scenery on the route between Vancouver and the new city 
 of the north coast, being very narrow and the hills abrupt. 
 One who prefers to make the trip to Prince Rupert 
 and still desires the cruise to the Queen Charlotte Islands 
 will find a comfortable and speedy passage from this 
 port to the mountainous archipelago, of which Graham 
 Island and the port of Massett will be of particular in- 
 terest, where he will find the opportunity to observe the 
 remnants of the once powerful Haida nation of Indian'' 
 who have attracted so much attention from writers and 
 scientific ethnologists. The Haida people have compara- 
 tively fair skins, and light hair is common among them, 
 while their principal occupations are fishing, the carving 
 of wooden or slate images and the manufacture of jew- 
 elry that preserves ancient barbaric designs. Of unusual 
 interest are their stone carvings made on blocks of shale 
 which they procure in the mountains and which is capable 
 of taking a high polish ; but the younger representatives 
 of the race do not look with favour upon the perpetua- 
 tion of this artistic cult of their fore-fathers, while they 
 have produced nothing that compares to it, although 
 some of them are beginning to show skill as boat-build- 
 ers, and frequently, as among the Indians on Vancouver 
 Island, they have built craft that was purchased by white 
 men. The Indian agents report that they have often 
 seen young men destroy these ancient carvings with in- 
 tentional strokes of the hammer or ax, a ruthless destruc- 
 
140 Sunset Canada 
 
 tion that cannot be in the wake of civilization, because 
 the younger generation is shiftless and almost totally 
 lacking in those characteristics that attracted the world's 
 attention to their fathers. One hears the sound of the 
 piano in the homes of Massett and Skidegate instead of 
 the native instruments; and while the Haida nation is as 
 fond of dancing as ever, it is the waltz and the quadrille 
 that interest them more than the war dance, and the 
 gramophone frequently provides the accompaniment in- 
 stead of the tomtom and the drum. 
 
 In 1840 the number of Haidas was about seven thou- 
 sand and they occupied about thirty villages. They have 
 decreased in numbers so rapidly that only about seven 
 hundred of them remain and more than half of this 
 number are at Massett, where they still prove themselves 
 expert fishermen, often proving their superiority to white 
 men in this ancient occupation. 
 
 Thomas Deasy, who was Dominion Indian Agent in 
 the islands for many years, says that the Haidas were 
 a nation of warriors and that in their raids on other 
 tribes they sometimes ventured as far as the mouth of the 
 Fraser River in their war canoes, which were carved from 
 huge cedar logs. Every man's ambition in those early 
 days was to have a retinue of slaves of his own captur- 
 ing, and the greatest desire of parents was to rear warrior 
 sons. Summer and winter it was the custom for them to 
 throw small boys into the cold water, where they would be 
 compelled to swim for their lives, and sometimes when 
 they had reached the shore in safety they were beaten 
 with thongs made from the roots of spruce trees until 
 they returned to the water and gave further proof that 
 they were not cowards nor weaklings. From infancy 
 the fact was impressed upon them that they were to 
 
Vancouver's Side-Trips 141 
 
 become warriors and unless they were to prove them- 
 selves stronger and braver than other Indians it was 
 better for them to perish in infancy, so that they would 
 not become a tax upon the resources of the parents or 
 the tribe. They had many other strange customs, some 
 of which have survived to the present, although they are 
 not practised with the oldtime vigour. Thus the nephew 
 of a deceased brave inherits everything that his uncle 
 possessed, even to his name and title of chieftain. They 
 prepare for death by having tombstones made and by lay- 
 ing aside enough money to provide ample funeral ex- 
 penses. Their marriage ceremonials are still notable, 
 being a mixture of heathen and Christian rites. Dressed 
 in their finest raiment, the bride and groom enter the 
 church to the accompaniment of band music; after the 
 ceremony they retire to the town hall with all their 
 friends and acquaintances, and feasting and dancing con- 
 tinue frequently until the following day, the expenses of 
 the orgy being borne by the groom and his relatives. It 
 is said that while Haida marriages may be made in 
 heaven, the relatives of the contracting parties still have 
 a good deal to say in the preliminary arrangements. 
 
 This district and the region beyond it are fields for the 
 excursionist that are are likely to attract greater numbers 
 of travelers each year ; in fact, this is true already, some 
 of the steamers having booked for the July and August 
 trips to full capacity long before the date of sailing. It is 
 the opportunity to travel over unfrequented routes with 
 all the comforts to which one becomes accustomed on 
 well-beaten pathways. Provision has been made at most 
 of the places mentioned for the entertainment of all who 
 desire to remain in port until the next steamer, be it a day, 
 week or a month distant, not luxuriantly appointed hotels 
 
142 Sunset Canada 
 
 like those to be found along the railroad lines in the lar- 
 ger cities, nor at those Meccas of scenic marvels like Lake 
 Louise, but neat cottage hotels that seem to be more in 
 keeping with the atmosphere and surroundings than large 
 and expensive hotels would be. Here is the place for a 
 leisurely taken summer outing far away from scenes 
 with which one is familiar, far away from the people 
 whom one expects to meet on the familiar highways of 
 Canada. Queen Charlotte Sound itself is a marvel of 
 beauty that would pay the voyager for his trip across 
 country, if his eyes beheld nothing to delight him before 
 he reached it. It is a fitting climax to journey's end, " a 
 splendid sweep of purple water," writes Ella Higginson 
 in Alaska the Great Country, which has to do princi- 
 pally with the land that lies beyond the Sound. But her 
 pen pauses at this approach to the land of gold and she 
 continues : " The warm breath of the Kuro Si wo, pene- 
 trating all these inland seas and passages, is converted 
 by the great white peaks of the horizon into pearl-like 
 mist that drifts in clouds and fragments upon the blue 
 waters. Nowhere are these mists more frequent, nor 
 more elusive, than in Queen Charlotte Sound. At sun- 
 rise they take on the delicate tones of the primrose or the 
 pinkish star-flower; at sunset all the royal rose and purple 
 blendings; all the warm flushes of amber, orange and 
 gold. Through a maze of pale yellow, whose fine, cool 
 needles sting one's face and set one's hair with seed 
 pearls, one passes into a little open water-world where a 
 blue sky sparkles above a bluer sea, and the air is like 
 clear, washed gold. But a mile ahead a solid wall of 
 amethyst closes in this brilliant sea; shattering it into 
 particles that set the hair with amethysts instead of 
 pearls. ... It is this daily mist-shower that bequeaths 
 
Vancouver's Side-Trips 143 
 
 to British Columbia and Alaska their marvelous and lux- 
 uriant growth of vegetation, their spiced sweetness of 
 atmosphere, their fairness and freshness." These words 
 might impress the reader as a somewhat strained effort to 
 convey mental impressions by means of similes, which 
 usually fail in their mission, or at least the mission in- 
 tended for them ; but at least they give a fair example 
 of the intoxicating delights one experiences in this cruise, 
 as of the utter impossibility of recording those delights 
 upon the printed page. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 "the AMERICAN LIVERPOOL" 
 
 Ten years ago the engineers and surveyors had made 
 their reports. " Here," they said, pointing to Kaien 
 Island, which lies five hundred and fifty miles north of 
 Vancouver in practically the same latitude as London. 
 It was an island about twenty-eight square miles in ex- 
 tent, an island of tremendous rocks with a prominent 
 mountain peak standing erect in a central basin of peaks. 
 *' Here," they repeated, as they saw by their figures that 
 the land-locked approach by water was fourteen miles 
 long and that the " waterfront " was thirty miles in ex- 
 tent. A further argument was that Kaien Island was five 
 hundred miles nearer to Japan and China than the Pacific 
 ports further south. " If there was a railroad," said 
 one, the traveler could be in Winnipeg if he landed here 
 as soon as he would be disembarking from an Asiatic 
 steamer at the docks of Vancouver. The waters here 
 teem with fish of all sizes from shrimps to whales. The 
 distance from Liverpool to Yokohama via Kaien Island 
 is eight hundred miles shorter than via New York and 
 San Francisco. This is the place ! " 
 
 It was supposed to be a very cold region, and, when it 
 was less cold, it was rainy. Perhaps there was some 
 hesitation, but the scientists who specialize on climate 
 said the same word " here," when they were asked for an 
 opinion. They said that the cultivation of the soil would 
 alter the climatic conditions and pointed to the fact that 
 
 144 
 
" The American Liverpool " 145 
 
 the climate of Quebec and Ontario was changed in the 
 same way. In Manitoba the earhest settlers lost their 
 crops by summer frosts, something that has not happened 
 in recent years. " Cultivated soil stores up heat and 
 radiates it to keep off frost," they said, " vote in favor 
 of Kaien Island." 
 
 By an act of Parliament in 1903 the Grank Trunk 
 Pacific railway came into being, under an agreement with 
 the Canadian Government for the building and opera- 
 tion of a railroad. It was to penetrate a virgin terri- 
 tory of vast natural resources, timber, mineral wealth and 
 tens of thousands of acres of arable land suitable to the 
 plow and for grazing purposes. The route was agreed 
 upon, a vast hinterland that awaited the farmer, lumber- 
 man and miner ; all seemed definitely settled excepting the 
 very important matter of the Pacific terminus. Natu- 
 rally, there was a lively speculation as to the site agreed 
 upon and several places were erroneously reported to have 
 been selected. The report of the engineers and other 
 experts was carefully concealed from the public which was 
 stirred to a flurry of excitement by the possibility of ar- 
 riving in advance upon the scene of a future port city 
 that might repeat the history of San Francisco, Seattle 
 or Vancouver. The great all-Canadian continental line 
 ran far to the north of other railroads and in many 
 lands it might have been a comparatively easy matter to 
 anticipate the Pacific terminus ; but this was impossible on 
 the coast of Canada, where nature has carved the shore 
 with a series of splendid inlets, any of which is a port 
 city in prospect. In October, 1906, however, the late 
 Charles Melville Hays, at that time president of the rail- 
 road system, visited Kaien Island and not only agreed 
 with the surveyors and engineers who had preceded him, 
 
146 Sunset Canada 
 
 but confirmed their findings. " Here," he said in a 
 dramatic moment that must always be considered one of 
 great importance in the history of Western Canada, for 
 his words gave birth to a city of undoubted future great- 
 ness and upon the huge rock where he stood the city be- 
 gan to grow almost immediately as if an enchanted wand 
 had been raised over the spot. 
 
 Most of the cities of the world have had a slow growth. 
 The rule has had exceptions several times in Canada, 
 where such centers of population as Winnipeg, Calgary 
 and Vancouver survived the dangerous process that is 
 popularly known as " mushroom growth " and literally 
 became cities almost between the setting and rising of the 
 sun; but even Calgary and Winnipeg seemed the evolu- 
 tion and growth of trading posts long ago selected by the 
 Indians as representatives of the fur companies. There 
 were sawmills near the present site of Vancouver and 
 around them were small villages ; the place seemed marked 
 by fate to become a metropolis. The conditions were 
 different at Prince Rupert, which was located in a region 
 that seemed to have been overlooked by builders of rail- 
 roads and future cities. And availing themselves of the 
 exceptional opportunities offered, the promoters of Prince 
 Rupert immediately laid the foundation of a city of ten 
 thousand inhabitants and placed the contract in the hands 
 of an American firm for execution. Whatever it may 
 become in future, and its inhabitants are certain that it 
 will become to Canada what Liverpool is to England, 
 Prince Rupert was Boston made. It was one of the most 
 remarkable commissions ever undertaken and must have 
 appealed to the imagination of the men who received it. 
 Not Algiers, Amalfi nor Hongkong set on terraced hills 
 have a more imposing situation than this rocky eminence 
 
*' The American Liverpool " 147 
 
 of Kaien Island. " Plan the city that will accommodate 
 ten thousand inhabitants, a modern city in every respect 
 and a beautiful city," were the instructions to those who 
 undertook the task of landscape architecture. The re- 
 sult was that most of the streets, parks, and squares have 
 a rare scenic outlook. There are ninety acres of parks 
 and playgrounds and the area of the city proper included 
 something like two thousand acres. A water gravity sys- 
 tem was installed, the supply coming from a lake five 
 miles distant. Twenty miles of plank roads were built, 
 and as it was planned and plotted before any buildings 
 were erected nothing was overlooked that might add to 
 the attractiveness and symmetry. Lots were first sold 
 in May, 1909, and in six months four thousand six hun- 
 dred of them had passed to private ownership. The first 
 sale amounting to over a million dollars. It has been 
 said that these first inhabitants were a peculiar sort of 
 men, almost unique perhaps in their grim determination 
 to make Prince Rupert a great city. They overcame 
 obstacles some of which may have been anticipated and 
 others which arose to balk their progress. But they had 
 only one thought. They pulled together and helped one 
 another in the great object. Speculation in the real estate 
 there was of course, and many men made large sums of 
 money within a few days, as matters were adjusting 
 themselves and land values mounted in response to re- 
 ports of large business prospects in the neighbourhood. 
 But most of the purchasers had decided to make Prince 
 Rupert their home; it was to be their city and they felt 
 a personal interest in its welfare. It is said that one 
 speculator, an Englishman, purchased so many lots that it 
 was believed he was doing it for some " boone " pur- 
 pose, which was not looked upon with favour by his asso- 
 
148 Sunset Canada 
 
 ciates; but it developed that he bought heavily because 
 he had great faith in the investment and inside of twelve 
 hours after the purchase had sold enough property to 
 show profit of fourteen per cent, on the investment. 
 
 F. A. Talbot, who was on the scene in the first days 
 and wrote The Nezv Garden of Canada about what 
 he saw, says : " In the early days they were exciting 
 times. The hub of activity was the point on the water- 
 front where vessels called and unloaded. The quay 
 space was being leveled. The shacks were of timber with 
 shingled roofs. Suddenly there would be heard the 
 strident blast of a siren. Instantly one and all hustled 
 away from the water's edge to a respectful distance, 
 leaving all buildings vacant. Workmen would be seen 
 tumbling across the ragged ground as a second blast 
 rang out. A few seconds of intense silence. Then a 
 violent shivering under foot, and a tremendous bellow, 
 accompanied by plumes of smoke, dust and debris rising 
 gracefully into the air. All eyes were turned skywards, 
 and dodging rocks as they descended was an exhilarating 
 pastime. There would be heard the sharp crack, crack, 
 crack as of sniping rifles, as a few pounds of disinte- 
 grated rock swooped down into the streets and riddled the 
 shacks. When the citizens returned they found the roofs 
 of their establishments perforated like a pepper-box. 
 Out in the yard were shacks of shingles, and soon one 
 and all were aloft their buildings putting the damage 
 aright. Riddled houses and shops were the penalties 
 exacted for being in a hurry to settle down in the new 
 hub of commerce before the fabric had been fashioned. 
 Strange to say, never a man was killed. One or two re- 
 ceived contusions from falling missiles, and that was 
 all." 
 
" The American Liverpool *' 149 
 
 Many things soon transpired that kept up the orgy of 
 civic enthusiasm. A drydock was constructed at a cost 
 of $2,000,000 that will float any ship on the Pacific ocean. 
 A cold storage plant having a capacity of seven thousand 
 tons was built in anticipation of the development of the 
 fish industry, while the railway had constructed one hun- 
 dred specially designed refrigerator cars for the same 
 purpose. It became known that the spruce, hemlock and 
 cedar in the forests within a radius of one hundred miles 
 had enough timber to supply twenty-five mills for twenty 
 years. A whaling station was built, banks, newspapers, 
 hotels and wholesale as well as retail stores were estab- 
 lished. The provincial government made Prince Rupert 
 the headquarters for the northern part of the province, 
 and buildings were erected for officials, a court house, 
 jail, customs house, postoffice, wareless station and 
 churches. Enthusiasm knew no bounds. The most 
 beautiful part of the eastern portion of the island was 
 selected for the residential section and it was connected 
 with the business section by a broad highway, which 
 forms a link in the great circular drive of twenty miles 
 around Kaien's circumference. It is likely that in fu- 
 ture the great fishing trade of the North will center 
 around Prince Rupert as it is in the heart of the cod 
 and salmon industry and within a few miles of the har- 
 bour are the great halibut banks. The first train was 
 run from Winnipeg to Prince Rupert and arrived at the 
 latter terminal April 9, 1914. It reached a romantic 
 young city that is in many respects the most modern in 
 the world. It has single tax, owns its own electric light 
 and power plant, telephone and water systems. And the 
 greatest surprise of all was the climate, for while the 
 world had the opinion that any place so far north must 
 
150 Sunset Canada 
 
 be very cold it was found that the thermometer rarely 
 went far below zero in winter. The rain full averages 
 one hundred and five inches in the year, but the snowfall 
 only two inches. 
 
 The enthusiasm, civic pride, or whatever a loyal feel- 
 ing toward a city may be called in lieu of no English 
 word which means what patriotism means toward native 
 land, has not decreased in the passing of the few years 
 since the first days of excitement. Every resident of 
 Prince Rupert is certain that it will not only become a 
 great commercial metropolis, but that the tide of travel 
 will change and that tourists who visit the province of 
 British Columbia will not consider their tour complete 
 unless they have seen Prince Rupert, its environs and 
 the territory between the coast and Edmonton, opened 
 by the new railroad and only a few years ago considered 
 " Furthest North " and which now seems to roll back 
 that barrier a thousand miles toward the top of the map. 
 Prince Rupert is worth seeing, when one thinks how it 
 has sprung from a rock as by miracle, and its scenic en- 
 virons will repay a visit; but I venture the opinion that 
 as a tourist's city it will remain for many years what 
 Vancouver was in its earlier days, only a roadhouse on 
 the long highway. People are likely to remain only a day 
 or two between train and steamer, until better acquainted 
 with the rugged beauty of the vicinity and until carefully 
 planned excursions are in operation over the principal 
 routes. Visitors are certain to arrive as sufferers from 
 scenic indigestion, as they will have passed either through 
 the marvelous pathway between the mountains, or on a 
 steamer that has cruised among islands, across bays and 
 through fjords that are equal in beauty to any to be 
 encountered on the European continent. They are likely 
 
^' The American Liverpool " 151 
 
 to be overfed on scenic beauty ; they will have exhausted 
 their vocabulary of expletives and adjectives, and in a 
 relapse from superlatives they will again arrive at the 
 positive degree. Compared to other great port cities, 
 Prince Rupert is disappointing; when one recalls what 
 it was ten years ago, however, and what it is to-day, as 
 well as what it may be ten years hence, it has no equal 
 on the face of the globe. 
 
 Among attractive excursions from the city are those 
 by steamer to the Portland Canal, Observatory Inlet, 
 Port Simpson near the Alaskan boundary, Anyox, Atlin, 
 which is reached via Alaskan ports, Skagway, Alaska, 
 only two days away, and, as before noted, any of the 
 long or short cruises to the Queen Charlotte Islands. 
 
 The traveler who makes an all-Canada tour, instead 
 of going or returning through the United States will not 
 regret it if he tangents from Winnipeg and completes 
 the triangle that includes the coast between Vancouver 
 and Prince Rupert and either outward bound or return- 
 ing takes the northern route. The latter is certain to 
 grow in popularity, for although the great railroad was 
 projected for the purpose of bringing communication to 
 the vast agricultural lands of the Far North, although it 
 passes through only three or four towns that are entitled 
 to rank as cities, like Prince George (a station of the 
 Hudson's Bay company over a century ago), Hazelton 
 and leseer settlements, the road leads to Jasper Park, 
 certain to become a Mecca for tourists to Mount Rob- 
 son ("giant among giants, immeasurably supreme"), 
 through the Yellowhead Pass, along the Skeena River 
 and along a scenic route that compares favourably to 
 what may be encountered on lines further south, while 
 frequently there are pictures in the region that challenge 
 
152 Sunset Canada 
 
 comparison, a matter which must remain one of personal 
 opinion and judgment. Best of all tours through the 
 Canadian Rockies and the most comprehensive, would be 
 that beginning at Prince Rupert east to Jasper Park, 
 through the trail to Lake Louise and back to the coast at 
 Vancouver. At the present time it is a somewhat stren- 
 uous journey; but surveys have been made and pre- 
 liminary arrangements looking to the construction of a 
 motor route connecting the Grand Trunk Pacific and the 
 Canadian Pacific railways through the mountain passes. 
 If this is done, there is no doubt that the most beautiful 
 scenery on the North American continent will be made 
 easily accessible and tourists will not be slow in respond- 
 ing to the opportunity offered. 
 
 Westbound passengers over the Grand Trunk Pacific 
 leave the prairies and en.ter the Rocky Mountains through 
 the celebrated Yellowhead Pass (a translation of Tete 
 Jaime) which it was named by the Indians and half-breed 
 hunters after a trapper in the service of Jasper Hawes 
 at the Hudson's Bay post in Jasper Park, who was dis- 
 tinguished among men for his great shock of '* yellow " 
 hair. He is said to have been an Iroquois of huge 
 stature and perhaps his hair was red, but the Indians 
 called him " Yellow Head " and as he always selected 
 the ravine in the mountains between the post and the 
 Fraser River for his rapid journeys the trail became 
 known as the " Pass of Tete Jaune," which has been 
 perpetuated by travelers since his time and by the rail- 
 road. No more attractive introduction to impending 
 scenic marvels could be wished for; the entrance being 
 guarded by Boule Roche Mountain and Roche a Pedrix, 
 which also serve as the entrance to Jasper Park. 
 
 This great national reserve of over four thousand 
 
*'The America n Liverpool" 153 
 
 square miles has been set aside by the Dominion Govern- 
 ment and will be kept from spoliation at the hands of lum- 
 bermen or hunters and for the perpetual enjoyment of 
 visitors. The townsite of Jasper is situated on a plateau 
 at the base of Pyramid Mountain at the confluence of the 
 Myette and Athabasca rivers. Jasper Mountain over- 
 looks the town, which is the headquarters of the Dominion 
 Government Officials, who have supervision of the Park. 
 Hunting within the Park enclosure is not permitted, but 
 fishing is good for those who desire it; but for some time 
 to come, the principal joy of the region will consist simply 
 in seeing it. Mountain-climbers, professional and ama- 
 teur, will find ample opportunity for the exercise of their 
 favourite pastime and those who delight in following the 
 trail will find the vast Park a paradise. Carriage-roads 
 have been built from Jasper to Pyramid Lake at the 
 foot of Pyramid Mountain, a distance of a little over 
 four miles, and also around Edith and Beau Vert Lakes 
 through six miles of fragrant woods to Jasper Mountain 
 and the Maligne Canyon, at which point a second trail 
 leads for some twenty-three miles up the Maligne River, 
 past Medicine Lake to Jack Lake, where there is excel- 
 lent fishing for rainbow and Dolly Varden trout. From 
 Medicine Lake a pleasant return trip may be made across 
 the Divide to the East by way of the South Esk, which 
 stream is descended to the Brazeau River, where elk 
 and moose are to be met with, and Brazeau Lake, thence 
 to the Sunwapiti River to the Athabasca and so on to 
 Jasper from Athabasca Falls, which descend a spectacu- 
 lar chasm surmounted- by a bridge, where Sir Arthur 
 Conan Dt)yle and his party were photographed, the pic- 
 ture having become familiar to readers. The ground in 
 this region has been so improved as to render it par- 
 
154 Sunset Canada 
 
 ticularly attractive for camp sites and a lodge has been 
 built for the game and fire wardens. 
 
 A trail has also been built by way of Maligne Gorge, 
 along the valley between Maligne Mountain and the Colin 
 Range, past Medicine Lake to Maligne Lake. This is 
 perhaps the most beautiful sheet of water in the Rockies, 
 if one is to accept the verdict of many travelers. The 
 tourist may return from the Lake by way of Shovel Pass, 
 a magnificent route of thirty-five miles, which takes him 
 up to an altitude of nearly eight thousand feet and affords 
 one of the finest views in the whole mountain system. 
 Ice fields and many snow-capped mountains, most of 
 them unnamed, may be seen from an elevation a few 
 feet above the Pass. On the descent, Mount Edith 
 Cavell in all its magnificence is in full view, wnth grim 
 Hardisty in the distance. 
 
 There is a bridle trail from the station up Jasper 
 Mountain where a magnificent view of the Athabasca 
 may be obtained, up to the Whirlpool River, past Mount 
 Edith Cavell and on towards the Athabasca Pass and 
 the Committee's Punch Bowl. 
 
 Not two miles from the station is Beau Vert ( formerly 
 Horseshoe) Lake, where there are waters of continually 
 changing green and blue which afford every facility for 
 boating, bathing and fishing. Among other trails from 
 Jasper is one southward to Mount Edith Cavell, formerly 
 known as Mount Geikie, which is suitable for motor cars 
 and gives access to a large glacier that hangs between 
 three peaks. 
 
 These are only a few of the excursions, however, that 
 already are available to the visitor who is not frightened 
 but thrilled by the prospect of what may be called rather 
 luxurious " roughing it." Hotels have not yet been built 
 
" The American Liverpool " 155 
 
 to " entertain " guests as they would expect to be enter- 
 tained on the boulevard of a large city; but ample pro- 
 visions are readily made by campers' outfitters and guides, 
 who make it possible for one to obtain plenty of good, 
 wholesome food throughout the pilgrimage and at night 
 to lie down within well-sheltered tents, through which 
 the breezes laden with aromatic pine needles blow fresh 
 from the great drifts of glistening snow. R. Kenneth 
 maintains a camp on the shore of Lake Beau Vert in a 
 supremely beautiful location and with full equipment of 
 canoes, saddle-horses, driving conveyances, photographer, 
 guides and a " tent city " life that is certain to fascinate 
 all who give it a trial. 
 
 Of supreme interest for some time to come is likely to 
 be Mount Edith Cavell, not alone because it is one of the 
 most majestic peaks in a large group, but on account of 
 sentimental attachments toward the heroine whose name 
 it bears. It is over eleven thousand feet high and can 
 be seen plainly from Jasper Station, although it lies 
 twelve miles distant. Its northern face is eternally cov- 
 ered with snow and glaciers, and lying between it and 
 an unnamed peak is a tremendous glacier rock that closely 
 resembles the form of a woman with hands extended 
 toward the side of the mountain, which it is proposed 
 to christen Mount Sorrow. The snows melt on Mount 
 Edith Cavell and fall in a cascade to Cavell River, one 
 of the highest waterfalls in the entire system. The river 
 forms southwest of the mountain and flows north- 
 ward through a mountain-flanked valley to the Atha- 
 basca. On the mountain is a beautiful lake of jade-green 
 water. 
 
 Byron Harmon, professionally a photographer, as 
 thousands of tourists realize every year when they shuffle 
 
156 Sunset Canada 
 
 through the thousands of views that he has taken of the 
 Canadian Rockies, which are exhibited in studios and 
 shops from Hongkong to London, is by nature an Alpin- 
 ist and wilderness-haunter, and he declares that in all 
 the territory between Calgary and the Pacific coast, most 
 of which he has covered many times, preferably on foot, 
 but also by pony, canoe and train, there is none so mar- 
 velous as that lying between Jasper and Lake Louise, a 
 distance by trail of something like one hundred and 
 seventy-five miles. " Lake Louise is in one Dominion 
 Park " he said to me as I was looking over some of his 
 remarkable collection of photographs, " and Jasper Park 
 is in another. One of these days the government will 
 construct at least a motor road connecting the two. In 
 fact, I understand that a preliminary survey has already 
 been made. I am certain that when this territory, which 
 now takes about eighteen days to cover properly by pony, 
 is made a little more convenient to the general public 
 which now seems to be afraid of the mountains, lakes and 
 valleys that are not visited by railways, the world will 
 concede that on this route and in this region is scenery 
 that cannot be matched on this side of the world. Those 
 of us who have made the trip, once, twice, or several 
 times, may have become enthusiasts to a certain degree; 
 but the truth is that we are obliged to smile when we read 
 descriptions in which the superlative degree is used relat- 
 ing to other places on this continent. As yet, we form 
 a comparatively small group, although the tourists are be- 
 ginning to follow the trail and the number is increasing 
 every season. And when we read an article about this 
 and that view being * the most superb in North America,' 
 we know that if does not refer to the country lying be- 
 tween Mount Robson, Jasper Park and Lake Louise, it 
 
''The A merican Liverpool" 157 
 
 was written by some one who has never covered this 
 territory. 
 
 " I imagine that the usual traveler in western Canada 
 believes that nothing could be more beautiful than Lake 
 Louise; I would refer him to Maligne Lake. Probably 
 he will praise the Illecillewaet Glacier at Glacier above all 
 others; I would refer him to that on Mount Robson. He 
 will extol the great field of ice that lies on the mountain 
 top over Sir Donald's shoulder; but I will call his atten- 
 tion to the ice field estimated at two hundred square miles 
 in area around Mount Columbia. Many people believe 
 that the Yoho Valley is the most beautiful on the conti- 
 nent; but if they do, they have not seen the valley of 
 Bear Creek, which runs to the north fork of the Sas- 
 katchewan. Mount Sir Donald is beautiful and high, so 
 is Mount Stephen, and so are any number of peaks; but 
 none of them is so high and none so superb as Mount 
 Robson, the loftiest pinnacle in the Canadian Rockies. 
 So on and on, point by point, I will meet them and contest 
 every claim. 
 
 " There is not the hardship in making this trip that 
 some people imagine. A guide will be necessary for the 
 average traveler, and he should go well equipped with 
 camping apparatus, preferably the outfits arranged by 
 some one of experience, because he is unlikely to find any 
 means of replenishing his stock ' between stations.' So 
 far as there being human habitations is concerned, one 
 may pass the entire distance without seeing a person save 
 his companions. Some of the territory lies along the 
 route of the old Hudson's Bay company fur traders and 
 an occasional trapper may cross the trail to-day ; but one 
 does not see them. Provisions and necessary camping 
 apparatus are carried on pack horses — those that are 
 
158 Sunset Canada 
 
 able to swim the Saskatchewan, there being no other 
 means of crossing it. Probably one who is not a sea- 
 soned hiker should ride. Personally, I prefer to cover 
 the trail on foot, and instead of going or trying to go 
 straight between the two termini, as the Czar is said to 
 have commanded when he drew a line with a ruler be- 
 tween St. Petersburg and Moscow and said : * Construct 
 a railroad here,' it is preferable to make many detours 
 where, as for example, around Mount Columbia, the sec- 
 ond highest peak in Canada, one becomes almost an 
 explorer, because the district is almost wholly un- 
 known. 
 
 " Crossing beyond Jasper Park, a stream leads to 
 Maligne Lake. Beyond this, old Indian trails lead to 
 Wilcox Pass. Then along a fork of the Saskatchewan, 
 with a view of several of the highest peaks in the Rockies, 
 Beau Pass and Beau Lake, Hector Lake and finally to 
 Lake Louise. 
 
 " Here is everything to delight the traveler, something 
 to suit every taste. Game, with the exception of moun- 
 tain goat and sheep, I would not call * plentiful ' ; but an 
 occasional bear is met with and several other animals. 
 The climate is often not what would be called ' mild,' 
 for I have seen the snow pile up in huge drifts that 
 made it necessary for us to dig trails for the horses in 
 September. No, it is not a ' tame cat ' excursion ; but it 
 is a superb experience, one to be cherished in memory 
 throughout a lifetime. There is only one fault to find 
 with it; when you have reached Lake Louise on the 
 downward trip you are so fascinated with all that you 
 have seen, everything else seems so much less by com- 
 parison, that you want to turn back and go over the same 
 route again and most of us are so busy that we cannot 
 
Courtesy of Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. 
 
 EMPEROR FALLS. 
 
"The American Liverpool" 159 
 
 spend the time to follow natural inclinations and desires 
 and must wait until another summer." 
 
 The western boundary between Jasper Park and Mount 
 Robson Park is also the boundary line between Alberta 
 and British Columbia, and as it is passed the traveler 
 immediately finds himself in another government national 
 reserve almost as large as Jasper Park and combined with 
 it, covering an area as large as Switzerland, to which it is 
 so closely related by natural marvels. Mount Robson is 
 13,068 feet high, which gives it supremacy among the 
 Rockies; but it has other points which make it notable 
 among the world's mountains. It is frequently the case 
 that high mountains are approached by lower hills and 
 mountains that lead up to them by degrees. Robson 
 towers above all surrounding peaks, however, and stands 
 out boldly in majestic isolation over two thousand feet 
 above all its neighbours, most notable of which nearby 
 is Mount Resplendent. It is beautiful when its head is 
 hidden in mist, as is so frequently the case, beautiful 
 in the full sunlight and beautiful in the light of the moon 
 — always visible in some form from the car window to 
 those who do not stop to obtain a more intimate acquaint- 
 ance with it by following the trail that leads around its 
 northern base to the Grand Fork River, the shore of 
 Lake Helena, through the Valley of a Thousand Falls, 
 with the celebrated " Emperor Falls " in view, to Berg 
 Lake and Robson Pass. Mount Robson has a large 
 glacier from which small and huge icebergs break off 
 and drift to and fro upon the waters of the lake. The 
 giant peak does not pass from sight of the train windows 
 for a distance of twelve miles. 
 
 Major C. H. Mitchell has gladly provided this tribute 
 and testimonial on the request of the railroad : " I look 
 
160 Sunset Canada 
 
 back with the keenest pleasure upon my fortnight spent in 
 the Mount Robson region and consider it to be the most 
 unique and interesting of my many holidays in the Cana- 
 dian Rockies — interesting because of the novelty of 
 being entirely new and almost unexplored country and 
 unique because this region stands out in my opinion, far 
 beyond all others of those I have visited, by reason of 
 its grandeur and its magnificent heights and distances. 
 It is hard to conceive of a grander mountain prospect 
 than greets one when alighting from the train at Mount 
 Robson station, and nowhere else in my travels in the 
 Swiss and Tyrolese Alps or in the Rockies have I seen 
 the rare view of a great mountain peak rising in a sheer 
 isolated mass ten thousand feet from the valley floor. 
 The route which we followed through the wonderful 
 Valley of a Thousand Falls was in itself apart from 
 towering* Robson, a trip for which I think many will 
 travel days to enjoy. Not until one gets up to Robson 
 Pass, however, does the real greatness of this great moun- 
 tain region unfold itself, and when one contemplates the 
 bulk of the Robson mass, the glistening slopes of Resplen- 
 dent and the towering pyramid of Whitehorn, he will 
 truly stand spellbound among their grandeurs. The 
 Robson glacier is unique amongst the famous glaciers of 
 the world, not only because of its size, length and breadth, 
 but because of its uniformly even and easy slope." 
 
 From Mount Robson the route onward toward Prince 
 Rupert follows the waters of the Fraser, the line running 
 high above the stream. This great river, which has its 
 headwaters in the Yellowhead, flows through a broad 
 valley and waters great fertile tracts before it enters into 
 the Pacific eight hundred miles away. At Prince George 
 the Fraser turns sharply to the South, but the line of the 
 
Courtef )• of Byron Harmon. 
 
 MOUNT ROBSON GLACIER. 
 
"The American Liverpool" 161 
 
 railway continues west through another valley, the 
 Nechako, characterized by its wealth of plateau and val- 
 ley lands suitable for agricultural purposes, and along its 
 course are many gems of sylvan scenery. Vanderhoof, 
 the capital of the Nechako Valley, is the gateway of the 
 lake regions of British Columbia's northland. Not far 
 from Hazelton the Bulkley meets the Skeena River, and 
 the railway follows the Skeena down to the Pacific ocean. 
 Near the junction of the rivers is the Rocher Deboule, 
 known as the Mountain of Minerals. Quaint Indian vil- 
 lages with totem poles are situated along the banks of the 
 Skeena and both sides of the river are fringed with moun- 
 tains. One of these peaks was chosen in the spring of 
 19 1 6 to bear the name Mount Sir Robert in honour of 
 Canada's prime minister, Sir Robert Borden. This peak 
 can be seen from the grade near Doreen Station, and 
 on its flank a large glacier has been named Borden 
 Glacier. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE CITY OF GOLDEN MEMORIES 
 
 Victoria never was gay. In its days of wild gold ex- 
 citement, when twenty thousand men were encamped 
 around the city, either bound for the gold of the Fraser 
 River, or just returned with sacks of the precious yellow 
 stuff that usually turns men's heads and causes them to 
 do as they would not have done under any other circum- 
 stances, they seemed to feel the sedate reticence that the 
 visitor detects there to-day. The " lawless " element 
 was subdued, and if they did not celebrate their good for- 
 tune before they reached the capital of Vancouver Is- 
 land they waited until a ship took them to San Francisco. 
 And the riff-raff that congregated under such circum- 
 stances was never spectacular. It was wholly different 
 from the California city that had recently passed through 
 a similar stampede. There were no Spanish beauties in 
 gorgeous gowns, gentlemen bedecked in pirate costumes 
 and loaded with jewelry, no " Yale graduate selling 
 peanuts, ex-governor playing the fiddle in a barroom, 
 physician washing dishes in a hotel, minister w^aiting on 
 table in a restaurant and lawyer paring potatoes in the 
 same place" — to quote a California historian. Even 
 in those days Victoria boasted that in all this California 
 human pot-pourri the Englishmen kept themselves aloof 
 from the others and engaged in a small part of the hilarity 
 that reigned. It is written that the leading London mag- 
 azines were to found in Englishmen's camps during the 
 
 162 
 
The City of Golden Memories 163 
 
 days when " men who forgot their breeding or had none " 
 were exchanging thousands of dollars each night in 
 gambling and other vices. Victoria never tolerated any- 
 thing of the sort and the gold-hunters never seemed to 
 show an inclination to have it otherwise. 
 
 But British Columbia had its " Paris," its city of 
 gaiety, where " all the world " stopped long enough to 
 squander some of the gold taken from Fraser River 
 sands. In the provincial museum at Victoria are prints 
 and drawings representing the life in Yale at that period. 
 The streets are thickly crowded with hoop-skirted dames 
 and their beaux, some of whom are cutting up didoes like 
 dancing a sailor's hornpipe on the public highway ; a 
 thing that would have been frowned upon in Victoria or 
 other places that brought their traditional " good form " 
 with them from England. It seems to be in the nature 
 of things that men who are in exceedingly good fortune 
 shall have a place in which to " celebrate." As Yale 
 marked the head of navigation on the Fraser and as men 
 stopped off there either outfitting and preparing for the 
 gold fields or returning therefrom, it become a natural 
 rendezvous for the celebrants. There were wine, women 
 and song, and because of this atmosphere of a large city 
 and owing to the location of the town those who remained 
 at Yale had visions of the day when it would become an 
 important center of civilization. But, apparently, not 
 enough remained. I looked diligently, but I could find 
 only one who did so, although he said that there had been 
 two of them, " the other one died a few years back." 
 After a time the rush for gold subsided, and instead of 
 stopping at Yale the miners hastened along to other 
 points. The railroad came — and the death-knell had 
 been sounded. Nobody cared that it was " the head of 
 
164 Sunset Canada 
 
 navigation on the Fraser," because nobody came by boat. 
 They took the train at Vancouver and it barely hesitated 
 at Yale long enough for a passenger to alight at the sta- 
 tion platform. The station remains, a general store, that 
 is also the postoffice, hotel and there is a church. Also, 
 no doubt, there are several dwellings back from the river 
 somewhere in the trees, for on the Sunday I spent there 
 a memorial service was held in the church for the last 
 pastor and at least twelve distinct individuals came from 
 somewhere and attended the service. But Yale is dead. 
 At one time the gayest town north of San Francisco, it 
 now has a few citizens, an Indian school, a group of 
 Indian shacks — and memories of its golden days. 
 
 Starting on the Trans-Canada train from Vancouver, 
 it is a pleasant ride of about three hours to Yale. The 
 railroad runs along the arm of Burrard Inlet, which is 
 in reality upper Vancouver harbour. Mountains to the 
 north, south and east make a pretty picture, and as one 
 glances ahead he wonders, as he is so often to wonder 
 on this route of curves through the valleys, where the 
 train will find its way through what seem to be impene- 
 trable barriers. There is snow above the timberline on 
 these heights. One glances back to the " Lion's Gate," 
 which guards the pathway to the other side of the world, 
 and knows that the great city of Vancouver has been 
 left behind ; but the transition to the " wilderness " has 
 come suddenly. There is none of the filth and litter that 
 one has come to expect at the entrance to American port 
 cities. A few sawmills — the beginning of most of the 
 villages in British Columbia — reach down to the water's 
 edge ; but they are soon passed and then all is forest again, 
 or forest marked by a few groups of bungalows on am- 
 bitious townsites that have not yet fulfilled expectations. 
 
The City of Golden Memories 165 
 
 Westminster Junction reached in about half an hour 
 recalls the tragedy of the " Royal City." If the Cana- 
 dian Pacific railway had made New Westminster its 
 Pacific terminus, or even if a point further down the 
 river had been selected, then Westminster Junction would 
 have marked the pathway of the main line, and Van- 
 couver would have remained the name of an island. 
 
 The rails reach the river banks and as for so many 
 miles into the interior follow its twistings and turnings. 
 At Agassiz, across the river from Chilliwack, one plunges 
 into a rich dairy country among the foothills. Fine 
 herds of cattle are visible, knee-deep in dark green grass 
 that stamps this as a " butter " region, like Holland or 
 Denmark. Pass through this country in the early spring 
 or summer and the swollen waters of the Fraser in the 
 inlets make the landscape suggestive of the European low 
 Countries — excepting for the fact that within view of 
 the river on both sides are towering hills with a fre- 
 quent mountain peak beyond. Agassiz is a point of de- 
 parture for anglers and for excursionists bound for the 
 hot springs nearby. 
 
 As the train pulled into Yale I alighted and asked the 
 station agent if there was a hotel. He answered in the 
 affirmative, and as I collected my luggage he added: 
 " Maybe it's closed, and, then, again, maybe it isn't, I 
 can't tell you." At any rate, the train started and left 
 the station, so I went to the hotel veranda. The man- 
 ageress was enjoying a noon-day siesta, as she had no 
 guests. I aroused her and asked if the hotel was open. 
 She did not move, but scrutinized me carefully and 
 replied: "That depends." In my desperation at the 
 thought of sleeping in the grass and eating crackers pur- 
 chased at the general store until the next train arrived, 
 
166 Sunset Canada 
 
 which was long after midnight, I assured her that I had 
 stayed at some of the best hotels in the world and some 
 of the worst; there was no good reason why — . 
 
 " I'll take you in," she interrupted, as if overcome with 
 a desire to do a good act. " You are not an official of 
 any kind, are you?" Satisfied as to these doubts, she 
 ushered me to a neat room overlooking the river and fur- 
 nished in a manner that might be described as Grand 
 Rapids-Mid-Victorian. And soon came the secret of so 
 much mystery. "If you had been an official this hotel 
 would have been 'closed' — do you understand?" I 
 did not, but she continued : " That's my silent protest. 
 Yale is dead, and the last blow came when the govern- 
 ment destroyed the old suspension bridge at Spuzzum. 
 My silent protest is that when any of the o^fficials come 
 to Yale there is no place for him to stay o\';er night or get 
 his meals. Now, do you understand ? " I assured her 
 that I understood perfectly and that I* considered such 
 love for a town and a bridge truly; -touching. And con- 
 tinuing the conversation, I inquired" if she knevv^ any one 
 who had come to Yale in its golden days and still re- 
 mained there. " Yes, Ned Stout," she replied, and 
 directly following the very good dinner which she had 
 prepared, half-suspecting that some one might enter 
 Yale by the noon train in an " unofficial " capacity, I 
 started out to find the man whose name I had come 
 across many times in reading of the history of gold in 
 British Columbia. 
 
 A few Indian shacks line Front street, which is now 
 roamed over by the cows and horses of the place, which 
 find heavy grass between the stones that were cleared 
 back .from what was once one of the streets upon which 
 the world's attention was focused. Near it there is a 
 
The City of Golden Memories 167 
 
 neat, tiny cottage surrounded by a small garden. Two 
 lilac trees stand beside the gateway, and as I approached 
 it I saw an old man pulling one of the purple clusters 
 to his nostrils. Perhaps ol)serving me coming towards 
 him, he let the bough rise into place and puffed at his 
 pipe. Again he pulled the lilac bloom over and again 
 puffed his pipe, alternating the fragrance of the nicotine 
 and the blossoms. He was the oldest white man perhaps 
 in all British Columbia ; at least the oldest citizen of Yale. 
 You can see his cottage and garden as the train stops 
 beside it, because it borders the station grounds. It was 
 Edward Stout, commonly known as " Dutch Ned," or 
 " Ned " in the chronicles of the golden era of the Fraser 
 River. He is the " last leaf on the bough," and he rather 
 enjoys the distinction. After we sat down beaneath the 
 lilac bushes and he had refilled his pipe he reached to an 
 inside coat pocket drew out his miner's license for the 
 current year and proudly exhibited it as his " credentials," 
 giving " authority " to his words. But it was unneces- 
 sary. In the histories that refer to the mining operations 
 in the Cariboo country a half century ago and in the 
 colourful tales of the early navigators of the rushing 
 waters of the gold-bearing river, I had frequently come 
 across his name. He came before Yale's beginning, built 
 his shack on the bank, saw a city grow around it, and he 
 has survived long enough to see only the ghost of that city 
 remaining. Every one else who came with him has died ; 
 those who came later have moved on to other centers of 
 population. 
 
 Mr. Stout is ninety-four years of age, and he knows 
 from the record in the family Bible that he was born in 
 Bavaria; but his earliest recollection is of when he was 
 in the United States. Even as a boy he was an adven- 
 
168 Sunset Canada 
 
 turer and he was employed as a cracker-maker by the 
 Mormons on their great trek westward. A drover 
 passed them with his herd and said he was bound for 
 Cahfornia, so Stout joined him and arrived at the be- 
 ginning of the gold rush. Taking his supplies with him 
 a few years later he hired a schooner and went to Bell- 
 ingham, Washington, where he built a flat-bottom boat, 
 worked it along the coast into the mouth of the Fraser 
 and finally reached the locality that later was to become 
 Yale, May 20, 1858. 
 
 " Look at this," he said, holding a letter from the 
 Premier of British Columbia which he had just received 
 with the license. It was a complimentary reference to 
 his sixty consecutive years as a " prospector and miner." 
 " Look at this and then we'll talk about the old days. 
 Sure, I can remember ! I can remember everything that 
 you'll want to know. What kind of tobacco is that 
 you're smoking? I like the odour and I don't mind try- 
 ing a pipeful of it myself." So we sat under the lilac 
 bushes, " Dutch Ned " and I, and we sat for several 
 hours, as he related to me the story of gold in the regions 
 further up the Fraser ; a story in which I was able from 
 references to fill in exact dates that had passed his mem- 
 ory. I heard history from one who participated in it. 
 
 It seems likely that gold was first discovered in British 
 Columbia by J. W. McKay, a Hudson's Bay company 
 man in 1850, but it was in small particles and nothing 
 seems to have come from the discovery. A year later 
 gold was found at Gold Harbour in the Queen Charlotte 
 Islands. There was some excitement and it has been 
 claimed that one seam produced over $25,000. In 1852 
 another " company " trader procured gold from the In- 
 dians; this time near Kamloops. Probably there were 
 
The City of Golden Memories 169 
 
 many such " discoveries " of which no record has reached 
 the present. The Hudson's Bay company did not look 
 with favour upon them, doubtless reasoning that if there 
 was gold in the hills they would get it after they had made 
 certain of the fur. Their chief business in Canada was 
 to procure fur from the Indians; and after their men 
 had become established in distant posts the company did 
 not look with favour upon the lure of gold, which has 
 so often caused men to forget their first duty. Between 
 1855 and 1857, however, a Hudson's Bay man sent to 
 Victoria for iron spoons with which to dig for nuggets. 
 Before 1858 — usually given as the date of the discovery 
 of gold on the British Columbia mainland in the Frascr 
 region — it was a known fact that the precious dust was 
 in the river sands. But Governor Douglas, who always 
 had a thought for the " company," sought to discourage 
 men from leaving their posts by issuing a proclamation 
 that all gold belonged to the crown and forbidding all 
 persons to " dig or disturb the soil in search of gold until 
 authorized in that behalf by Her Majesty's Colonial Gov- 
 ernment." This authorization was granted on the pay- 
 ment of ten shillings a month, and even then the right to 
 exercise the privilege was subject to so many conditions 
 that the proclamation was withdrawn. 
 
 In 1858 the news of gold finds reached California, 
 where it stirred men to action as it might not have done 
 elsewhere. The memory of '49 was still with them and 
 about thirty prospectors left immediately for Victoria and 
 began to ascend the Fraser River. Mr. Stout, having 
 superintended the building of Bellingham for his own 
 use, reached the mouth of the Fraser May 2, 1858, and 
 the present site of Yale eighteen days later. Near Yale 
 was discovered Hill's Bar, concerning which the report 
 
170 Sunset Canada 
 
 that reached San Francisco brought four hundred and 
 fifty men for the new El Dorado. 
 
 " Hill's Bar wasn't much different from the others," 
 related " Dutch Ned." " It seemed to us that there was 
 gold everywhere that the river waters touched the sand, 
 not enough of it to make men rich in a day, but enough 
 to cause every one to get what he could by skimming the 
 surface and then moving on, hoping to find something 
 better further up. I have taken out $ioo of gold in a 
 single day here; but that was not very much when you 
 consider the cost of getting into the territory and the cost 
 of staying there, if you didn't happen to bring along 
 everything you needed. I always smile about the high 
 cost of hving. Why, I have seen flour $ioo a sack in 
 those days, and everything else about as high. You see, 
 if you took out $ioo a day in gold, it didn't go very far. 
 I had taken all these precautions, however, because I had 
 passed through similar experiences in California. I had 
 three tons of beans, bacon, sugar, and other things, some 
 of which I traded to the Indians for salmon, which they 
 caught in large quantities from nets made of cedar bark 
 twine. But the difficult part of this trading was that 
 the Indians had no liking for white man's grub and didn't 
 consider it worth their delicious salmon. Excepting 
 sugar; they liked that. And after a while we didn't care 
 whether we made fair trades with the Indians or not, 
 because we soon discovered that they were treacherous 
 and we could place no reliance in them, even when they 
 appeared to be friendly. See here!" The old man 
 pulled his coat and shirt-sleeves to his elbow and his 
 trousers above the calves of his legs, exposing several 
 indigo blue scars. " That's what I got from Indian 
 * friends.' They'd appear friendly enough when I met 
 
A GOLD PROSPECTOR. 
 
The City of Golden Memories 171 
 
 them in the open in the daytime ; but they'd skulk around 
 thickets, or they'd prowl around at night and when there 
 was a good chance they'd shoot a poisoned arrow. All 
 of the boys were not so fortunate as I was, as you see I 
 only got them in the legs and arms; but even this treat- 
 ment from men who pretended to be friends didn't serve 
 to cement the friendship. Why, I had seemingly friendly 
 visits and trading bouts with some of them, where I was 
 obliged to stand with my back to a big tree, as others were 
 taken unawares by an arrow from the background in 
 just such times. So, as I say, we were not too ' ethical ' 
 in our trading with them. They lived in shacks made 
 of split cedar logs placed upright against the river bank. 
 Once several of us had wandered a considerable distance 
 from our supplies and we were very hungry. We ap- 
 proached one of these shacks and begged for something 
 to eat from the plentiful stores of dried berries and cured 
 salmon. They declined to give us anything, so we 
 promptly set fire to the shack, burned or smoked them out 
 and took what we wanted. I never knew exactly what 
 made them feel about us as they did, for assuredly it was 
 not because we were after gold. I think they did not 
 want white men in the region because the river was so 
 plentifully stocked with fish, which provided an easy liv- 
 ing. I suppose they thought we were going to take their 
 fish away from them. And then on the other hand, they 
 may have simply resented the coming of the white man 
 into their country, so they tried to kill us ; and as we didn't 
 come to the Fraser for that, we — well we w^ere not par- 
 ticular wdiat happened to them." 
 
 This insinuation that the Red Man was " put where 
 he could not shoot any more poisoned arrows " on any 
 sort of provocation, seemed a part of the wail of " white 
 
172 Sunset Canada 
 
 men's cruelty to the Indians," concerning which the senti- 
 mentahsts in later years have had so much to say. But 
 somehow, as Edward Stout related this hand-to-hand 
 combat with savages who attempted to kill before they 
 were killed, the " useless murders " seemed quite a dif- 
 ferent thing. And I recalled that it had been the same 
 everywhere else: Bret Harte sitting in his old news- 
 paper office, pistols in hand, to defend himself against 
 the mob that had come for vengeance because he had 
 written an article pleading for fair play for Indians, or 
 the newspapers of the United States printing as they did 
 in a boasting manner the number of Indians killed and 
 the number held prisoner in the camps, following the gold 
 stampede. I thought of that California miner who 
 shouted to an Indian boy to hold his horse, and because 
 the youngster did not understand English and started 
 away frightened, the miner shot off the boy's head. It 
 seems always to have been the same story in the first 
 march of " civilization " into savage regions. 
 
 The ranks of the gold hunters increased from hundreds 
 to thousands, some coming overland with great difficulty, 
 others from the East by way of Panama, but the majority 
 from California. The first men on the ground steadily 
 fought their way upstream, always hoping for some- 
 thing better. In June, 1858, Stout and the rest of his 
 party, after leaving two men at Yale to watch the boats, 
 proceeded to Spuzzum. " You will recall," he related, 
 " that Simon Eraser and his men were there exactly fifty 
 years before, the spring of 1808. Eraser said: 'This 
 is impassable ' and we said the same thing, when we saw 
 the rushing and foaming waters. But there was a way. 
 Every bar of the river held gold and that was enough to 
 spur us on. The Indians had made a trail before us ; but 
 
The City of Golden Memories 173 
 
 a trail that was rather difficult at first for human beings 
 who were unused to playing that they were flies. But we 
 all enjoyed it and never suffered the hardships that I had 
 suffered on the plains going to California. Our plan was 
 usually to stay close to the river, for several reasons. 
 First, we thought that was where the gold was to be 
 found; and second, we knew that other men, Indians most 
 of them, had passed over the trail ahead of us. There 
 were steep precipices that led to shelves of rock jutting 
 out over the river. These were reached by means of lad- 
 ders which the Indians had made of logs and roots. 
 When we reached the ledges, they were often so narrow 
 that we could not walk straight ahead on account of the 
 packs we carried, so we put our faces to the wall, held on 
 the best we could and let the packs hang out over the 
 river. Of course a mis-step would have meant certain 
 death ; but we took good care not to make mis-steps, and 
 the difficulties of the trail were not what bothered our 
 progress; it was the Indians. Of the first twenty of us 
 who forged ahead only five escaped the Indians with our 
 lives. We retreated down the river as far as China bar 
 and continued our work. We didn't want the savages 
 to hack our friends' bodies to pieces as we knew they 
 would do if they could, so we threw the bodies in the 
 river and they swept along until they were discovered 
 by the California prospectors who were following us as 
 fast as they could. They suspected what was happening 
 and mustering all their forces they came ahead to give 
 us aid. The Indians had a good supply of tomahawks 
 and a few old Hudson's Bay Company muskets which 
 supplements their poisoned arrows, and they gave us a 
 good fight but we finally won the day and pressed on." 
 Shedding light on these days, although the incident 
 
174 Sunset Canada 
 
 was not recalled by Stout, is the story of how a certain 
 Captain Taylor arrived on the river one day, bringing a 
 cargo of whisky, instead of rockers and provisions. He 
 gave the Indians a small bottle of " fire water " for five 
 dollars' worth of gold dust. The miners observed that 
 danger would soon arise if this procedure continued, for 
 drunken savages were difficult to keep in subjection, so 
 they went to the boat and offered to buy Captain Taylor's 
 entire stock at his own price. He declined to sell, so they 
 held a meeting and taking the law in their own hands, 
 walked down to the river front with their guns at full 
 cock, and while a few of the number kept guard over 
 the Captain, the others broke in the heads of the casks and 
 emptied the whiskey in the river, giving the captain 
 one hour to get out of sight, which he did without de- 
 lay. 
 
 The total yield of gold from the Fraser country in 
 1858 is usually put down at $705,000, although the exact 
 figure is unknown. By 1859 the miners had reached the 
 Chilcotlin, and Peter Dunlevy was told by Indians of 
 gold in what was called the Cariboo country, because 
 when the men were hastening into it they saw huge herds 
 of cariboo. The prospectors worked down the Quesnel 
 River, finding many rich bars, and by i860 there were 
 six hundred of them in the district. In the summer of 
 i860 Lightning Creek was discovered, and from that 
 Creek went Wilhelm Dietz, known as Dutch Bill, who 
 crossed the Divide and found what he called Wilhelm's 
 Creek, an important event in British Columbia gold 
 mining. 
 
 " Dutch Bill came back to camp and told us what he 
 had found and showed us proof of what he said when 
 he exhibited as fine gold as you ever saw. Immediately, 
 
The City of Golden Memories 175 
 
 there was another stampede. Every one forgot all about 
 everything else and started for Wilhelm's Creek. But 
 we found nothing — at first, and a madder lot of men 
 you never saw. They said that Bill had fooled them and 
 lured them away to his creek for some reason. Yes, I 
 believe you're right; there was some talk of hanging 
 poor Bill. In those days men had to be mighty particular 
 about what they did; but it got no further than calling 
 the place Humbug Creek, the name that it bore until the 
 first name was Anglicized to William's Creek. Well, 
 those who remained found that * Dutch Bill ' wasn't a 
 liar or a humbug after all. Sometimes as high as $5,000 
 to $20,000 was taken from a single claim in one day. 
 No, I didn't strike one of them. Either the chap in 
 front of me or the chap behind me always struck it richer 
 than I did. But I am not complaining. Think of poor 
 Bill Dietz! He never made much from his great dis- 
 covery, and I believe he died in Victoria not a rich man. 
 But the report of the discovery went around the world. 
 The Victoria Daily Press said : * Never in the history of 
 gold mining have there been such fabulous sums amassed 
 in so incredibly short a space of time.' It is believed 
 that fully $2,000,000 of gold was sent to Victoria before 
 the season ended. 
 
 " In 1862 the trail to the Cariboo country was a diffi- 
 cult one and it was crowded with excited men on their 
 way to the land of promise. Bacon was two dollars a 
 pound, flour was one hundred and fifty dollars a sack, and 
 while the wages of miners were from sixteen to twenty 
 dollars a day, it was barely enough to provide more than 
 necessities. But the Williams Creek district continued 
 to astound the world and men risked everything to reach 
 it. It was a single discovery that was never equaled and 
 
176 Sunset Canada 
 
 naturally intoxicated the fortunate miners, so that when 
 they returned to Victoria in the autumn they reported 
 that there were millions of dollars' worth of gold yet un- 
 claimed, which spurred larger numbers to greater activ- 
 ity in the spring. Two towns, Barkerville and Richfield, 
 one mile apart, sprang up suddenly. There was an orgy 
 of gold. From first to last it is claimed that Williams 
 Creek yielded $45,000,000, probably the richest find in 
 the history of gold. 
 
 " Pack trains of new-comers arrived every hour and 
 by 1862 there was a population of five thousand men 
 in the Cariboo District. Not one married woman came 
 until 1867, and even missionaries who attempted work in 
 the field gave it up for a time as impossible. Men were 
 gold-mad and could think of nothing else. It has been 
 said that one-third of those who went to Cariboo in 1861 
 made great fortunes, another third made small fortunes 
 and another were wholly unsuccessful and became ob- 
 jects of charity, who were assisted by their fellow miners 
 in reaching Victoria. 
 
 " Most every one stopped at Yale on the way up or 
 down the river," said Stout. " I tell you in those days 
 this was a lively town. Money slid through the fingers 
 of the miners as it does not to-day, even among those 
 millionaires that we read about in New York City. 
 When I first came back here to settle down for good, 
 Denny Murphy, who had been with me up in Cariboo, 
 and I were chums. We had stuck it out together through 
 some pretty rough places and when we got back we used 
 to go out in the evening and look things over. ' Panama 
 Lil ' was the name given by the boys to a woman who 
 ran one of the gambling-saloons. She had her place all 
 fixed up fancy with glass prisms hanging on the lamps 
 
The City of Golden Memories 177 
 
 and everything. It looked pretty gay and nice when a 
 man had been off up the river all summer; and I guess 
 the boys looked pretty good to her when they came back 
 with good-sized sacks of gold, because more of them 
 spent the evening at her place than at any of the others. 
 Some way, the others didn't feel so comfortable. — Isn't 
 it funny now to think of what seemed cozy and com- 
 fortable in those days? — Well, Denny and I were to 
 blame for the downfall of Panama Lil. It isn't any- 
 thing to boast about; but we were all used to square- 
 dealing in those days, and it went pretty hard on any one 
 who wouldn't play that way. One night after Denny 
 and I had been in Lil's place we came out and looked 
 funny at one another. Every one knew that Lil made 
 lots of money; but that night she had made more than 
 usual. And both of us had our suspicions. At the same 
 time we had observed that she was playing crooked with 
 loaded dice. But we wouldn't let the matter rest on 
 suspicions, so the next night we went back. The game 
 was being played as usual for fifty-dollar gold slugs. 
 Denny and I both stepped in and watched what Lil was 
 doing — she was up to her old game — so we stayed in 
 and won $250 apiece. Then when she saw what w^e 
 were doing, she said we couldn't play any more. That 
 was enough to satisfy us, however, so we took our five 
 hundred dollars like two young fools and went out and 
 spent it. How? Well, we went and bought supper for 
 one thing and what a supper it was! We had every- 
 thing that we wanted, and as the best there was in the 
 market was being brought up to Yale at that time, because 
 it was bought by miners with big bags of gold, we had a 
 grand feast. Eggs were a dollar apiece and they tasted 
 mighty good because we hadn't eaten any for a long time. 
 
178 Sunset Canada 
 
 I always liked pie and I had all the pie I wanted that 
 night, although they were little ones smaller than your 
 hand and they cost $2.50 apiece. There was fruit that 
 had been shipped up the coast from Chili and Peru and 
 they made you pay enough for it to reward the skippers 
 who brought it. But Denny and I ate more than we 
 had eaten for six months I guess, all told. It's funny 
 what a man will do when he has been without good food 
 for a long time and suddenly finds it in front of him. 
 Well, and that wasn't all ; for we told about it. We told 
 the other boys and not one of them would go in Panama 
 Lil's place again, so as she didn't think it looked ' healthy ' 
 for her, she closed up and got out of town as fast as she 
 could. It wasn't very safe for any one caught cheating 
 in those days, you know. Her place was right down 
 there on Front Street, 
 
 The speaker directed his finger toward the river bank 
 on which cattle were grazing. " It was right near Bar- 
 nard's stables, you know, the Barnard who ran stages on 
 the Cariboo Road. The boats used to tie up over there 
 — and the stages used to come in here. I tell you those 
 were lively days. People used to wait for the stages to 
 arrive and after welcoming the newcomers with a cheer, 
 gather around and listen to the stories about the newest 
 gold finds. Men went up from here in the spring with 
 barely a shirt on their backs, and then came back in the 
 fall rich. It was all pretty exciting, because you never 
 knew which ones would find the gold. As I said before, 
 however, the men in front of me and the men behind me 
 would get bags of it ; but I never got a great deal, never 
 came back rich after the summer's work. But I don't 
 complain. I've got enough to provide all the tobacco I 
 want to smoke; and look what happened to Dutch Bill, 
 
The City of Golden Memories 179 
 
 he found the gold and the others brought it back down 
 the river." 
 
 " Dutch Ned '' and I walked along Front Street, which 
 to-day is little different from any of the grassy hillsides 
 on the banks of the Fraser River. Once or twice, how- 
 ever, we scuffed the grass aside and saw a pile of stones 
 which had been a part of the foundation of this or that 
 structure in the 'Sixties, but which has entirely dis- 
 appeared, all but the stones. Where there was once a 
 gambling saloon with prism lamps and where gold nug- 
 gets changed hands, a bent and gray-haired Indian was 
 hobbling about feeding a pig that seemed to share his 
 shack with him. A little further along we were still 
 walking in the grass, but the ground seemed hard and I 
 observed the ruts of wheels in crushed stone. *' This 
 was the beginning of the Cariboo Road " said Stout, 
 " but, like Yale, they haven't any use for it any more." 
 And Edward Stout, aged ninety-four, walked briskly 
 back to his cottage gate, puffing his pipe and apparently 
 rather pleased that he had met some one who liked to 
 " talk history," as he expressed it. 
 
 "Have you lived in this cottage since you came to 
 Yale?" I asked. 
 
 " Land sakes, no ! I've only been here about forty 
 years. Used to live down the road a bit nearer the 
 river." 
 
 " Dutch Ned " has watched the river flow past his door 
 for nearly sixty years. He saw Yale born, grow to be 
 a lusty adult and die. He saw the steamboats and the 
 stages arrive and depart forever. He watched the rail- 
 road come and remain; and the men and various car- 
 riers of British Columbia have passed him with over 
 $70,000,000 worth of placer gold. As he approaches 
 
180 Sunset Canada 
 
 the century mark he has not many of the dollars in his 
 own possession, but, as he says, he has enough for smok- 
 ing tobacco and he has many pleasant memories. 
 
 Yale will ever be recalled as the western terminus of 
 the trail that led from the head of navigation to the 
 gold fields. Amazing remnants of the roadway's basket- 
 like construction around rocky cliffs and over the Fra- 
 ser's torrent still remain and are seen at several points 
 along the river from a railway observation platform or a 
 car window. Sometimes the route is close to the water's 
 edge so that during the early summer floods the water 
 comes close to the foundations that from a distance ap- 
 pear to be the size of match-sticks, although close exami- 
 nation shows them to be logs of rather formidable dimen- 
 sions. From the deep valley the trail makes quick turns 
 over rocky chasms and starts up the mountain-side. On 
 precipitous cliffs a shelf was cut from the solid rock, or 
 the shelf rested upon upturned logs. The trail circles 
 mountains, so that it runs high above the tallest tree-tops 
 and then plunges abruptly into canyons and falls away 
 again to only a few feet above water level. As one views 
 it to-day, compared to modern engineering works of 
 similar nature, it is easy to understand that it might have 
 been a boon to pedestrians who were covering the difficult 
 path towards El Dorado. Even a pack-horse might have 
 made its way, hugging the rocky walls, but to recall that 
 six- or eight-team wagons and caravans made up of 
 treasure-cars once passed this way — sometimes at a 
 gallop if contemporary records may be believed — gives 
 the old Cariboo Road added interest, and one strains his 
 eyes as the train speeds along endeavouring to trace every 
 yard of the spectacular pathway. In many places it has 
 merged itself with the railway roadbed; elsewhere it has 
 
The City of Golden Memories 181 
 
 become grass-grown and covered from sight by tangled 
 shrubs and vines, but there are points at which it is still 
 in prime condition and seems strong enough to support 
 heavy loads to-day, for while the logs have rotted, huge 
 boulders have moved to the outside of the shelf so over- 
 hanging ledges that have broken away since the wreck 
 that was caused by the building of the railroad, have 
 fallen into the path and during the years they have lain 
 there have pressed their faces deep into the soil and made 
 a lasting foundation. One who leaves the train at Yale 
 and traces the old pathway discernible from deep ruts in 
 the cobblestone pavement now overgrown with tall grass 
 has little difficulty in marking the exact route covered by 
 the stages that were eagerly looked for by the Yale 
 crowds, who knew that each fresh arrival would bring 
 new stories of quick fortune, and exhibit the bags of gold 
 as proof of his words. 
 
 Long before white men found this golden trail the 
 Indians were following it as the only pathway through a 
 district that replenished their larder with salmon, which 
 seems to have been their principal article of food in 
 summer and in winter. The way was first pointed to 
 white men by Simon Fraser, who gave his name to the 
 river and who records in his journal of 1808: " As for 
 the road by land, we could scarcely make our way even 
 with only our guns. I have been for a long period among 
 the Rocky Mountains but have never seen anything like 
 this country. It is so wild that I cannot find words to 
 describe the situation at times. We have to pass where 
 no human being should venture; in these places there is 
 a regular footpath impressed or rather indented, upon 
 the very rocks by frequent travel. We had to pass many 
 difficult rocks, defiles, precipices through which there was 
 
182 Sunset Canada 
 
 a kind of beaten path practiced by natives and made 
 passable by means of scaffolds, bridges, ladders so pe- 
 culiarly constructed that it required no small degree of 
 necessity, dexterity and courage in strangers to under- 
 take. 
 
 " For instance, we had to ascend precipices by means of 
 ladders composed of two long poles placed upright with 
 sticks tied crossways with twigs ; upon the ends of these 
 others were placed and so on to any height ; add to this 
 that the ladders were often so slack that the smallest 
 breeze put them in motion, swinging them against the 
 rocks, while the steps leading from scaffold to scaffold 
 were often so narrow and irregular that they could 
 scarcely be traced by the feet without the greatest care 
 and circumspection ; but the most perilous part was wdiere 
 another rock projected over the one we were clearing. 
 The Indians certainly deserve our grateful remembrance 
 for their able assistance through this alarming situation. 
 The descents were, if possible, still more difficult ; in these 
 places we were under the necessity of trusting our things 
 to the Indians; even our guns were handed from one to 
 the other. Yet they thought nothing of it; they went up 
 and down these wild places with the same agility as sail- 
 ors do on board a ship." 
 
 As this first chronicler observes, the trail was that of 
 the Indians and it is likely that it would have remained 
 little more than a well-made trail for many years if the 
 men who followed the river's course from the ocean had 
 not found golden sands, which was proof enough to spur 
 them to great dangers and hardships, that there were vast 
 quantities of the treasure upstream. Their hopes were 
 more than realized, and it was the duty and privilege of 
 the young province at the head of which was Sir James 
 
The City of Golden Memories 183 
 
 Douglas, known as the " King of Roads," to make the 
 road as easy for them as possible. This seems to have 
 been a distinguishing mark of all great peoples; they built 
 roads. It was a part of the great imperial policy of 
 Rome; by its roads its conquests in Europe, Asia and 
 Africa may be traced to-day. It was the policy of an- 
 cient Egypt and China, just as it has been of mighty 
 nations in modern times. Confucius advised judging a 
 nation by its music ; but its roads are likewise suggestive 
 of its condition and of its future. Douglas was looking 
 far ahead to the present day and to the great future ; and 
 although severely criticized for expenditures in the matter 
 of road-building, it is known that he contemplated more 
 ambitious enterprises than his span of life permitted him 
 to realize. He was the moving force back of the con- 
 struction of the great Cariboo Road, but he received 
 valuable assistance from the Royal Engineers who were 
 summoned to the new colony, and from several other men, 
 some of whom are still living. One of them, Walter 
 Moberly of Victoria, played an important role and he 
 relates many amusing stories of the construction days, 
 when many of the labourers in the " gang " were Chi- 
 nese. Once when he was on his way from Cook's 
 Ferry to Lytton, he stopped to inspect a large camp of 
 celestials, where an insistent plea soon went up for him 
 to provide them a pig for the proper celebration of a 
 festival which was soon to arrive on the calendar. 
 Realizing that their request was almost impossible to 
 grant, owing to the scarcity of all domestic animals so 
 far inland, he attempted to convince them by argument 
 that their request or demand was absurd. They were 
 in the wilderness and should be reasonable enough to de- 
 mand wilderness fare — even when they were celebrating. 
 
184 Sunset Canada 
 
 But he was particularly anxious not to incur their dis- 
 pleasure, which might result in a delay to the great work 
 upon which they were engaged, so he finally told them 
 that he would see what he could do. He knew of a 
 settler who had two pigs and he made it known that he 
 wanted the animals; but pork suddenly became more 
 valuable than ever before and the owner demanded two 
 hundred dollars apiece for his darlings, which he had 
 brought from the coast with much difficulty. Moberly 
 went back to the Chinese and reported ; but the excessive 
 price made no difference to them. They were about to 
 celebrate a festival, and how could they do it properly 
 without roast pig? Unable to answer the question, and 
 realizing that many times four hundred dollars might be 
 at stake, the pigs were purchased, roasted, and the Chi- 
 nese were satisfied. 
 
 When the road was completed it was necessary for 
 some one to organize transportation and the man arose 
 in F. J. Barnard, who had arrived at Yale as an emi- 
 grant with only five dollars in his purse. In 1862 he had 
 a " pony express " between Yale and the Cariboo country, 
 a distance of three hundred and eighty miles. He 
 charged two dollars each for delivering letters and one 
 dollar apiece for newspapers. In time, " Barnard's Ex- 
 press " came to be an institution in the colony and he 
 became a wealthy man in consequence. In the news- 
 papers of New Westminster or Victoria of the period one 
 finds such items as " Barnard's stage arrived at Yale on 
 Sabbath bringing a Cariboo express with $130,000 in 
 treasure." As his business increased, he improved the 
 service and finally heavy stage-coaches drawn by four or 
 six horses dashed along the roadway that seems in many 
 places to hang in the air like the rails of a " switch- 
 
The City of Golden Memories 185 
 
 back " at an amusement park. It was an expensive 
 luxury, however, as the single fare from Yale to Rich- 
 field was $130 exclusive of meals and accommodations 
 at the roadhouses along the route. Meals consisting of 
 bacon, beans, slapjacks and tea cost $2.50 each. But it 
 was necessary to make what now seem to have been ex- 
 cessive charges. Hay was $35 a ton at Yale, and $250 
 a ton at Barkerville; and horses required it if they were 
 to be kept in fit condition for the perilous journey along 
 the great highway. It was possible to purchase horses 
 in Oregon for about $200 each at this time ; but the pur- 
 chase price had doubled by the time the animals reached 
 Yale. By 1872, however, Barnard had over two hundred 
 horses in the service. Passenger coaches were brought 
 from California and safes were placed in specially con- 
 structed wagons for the purpose of carrying the gold with 
 what was at that time considered the greatest precaution, 
 and a regular service of two passenger stages each way 
 weekly was installed. They were started when the 
 steamer from Victoria reached Yale and run on depend- 
 able schedule time. 
 
 It seems marvelous that there were so few accidents, 
 but the newspapers of the province chronicle several hair- 
 breadth escapes that must have been fully as trying to 
 the nerves of the occupants of the coaches as a modern 
 railway wreck would be if passengers finally reached 
 safe ground after having experienced a head-on collision 
 on a suspension bridge over the Niagara rapids. Much 
 depended upon the drivers, of course, and as the best men 
 were hunting for gold, once they reached the district 
 where it was known to be within easy reach, it was not 
 always possible to procure the services of men who were 
 fitted by temperament or habits for the difficult feat of 
 
186 Sunset Canada 
 
 driving horses over the highway. The editors of the 
 day seem to have been expecting " big news " from the 
 Cariboo Road every day or every hour and, while it 
 proved to be a great newsgiver, there were few serious 
 accidents and no plunges of passengers, driver, horses, 
 stages and treasure into the Fraser torrent, which must 
 have been momentarily expected. 
 
 In the British Columbian in August, 1865, however, 
 appeared the following account of an incident on the 
 Road that would be worthy of the pen of a novelist : 
 
 " Just after leaving the Ninety-Mile House the driver, 
 who was intoxicated, commenced w^hipping his horses 
 furiously and kept them at full gallop for about two 
 miles, when one of the wheels struck a stone, causing the 
 tongue to break in two ; the jagged end coming in contact 
 with the horses' flanks rendered them completely ungov- 
 ernable and they dashed on at full speed, the wagon 
 sw'aying from side to side and bounding over the stony 
 Road in a most alarming manner. At length they 
 neared a part of the Road running along a high bank and 
 the passengers fearing that they might be hurled down 
 the precipice with one exception (an invalid) sprang out 
 of the wagon, several being injured by the fall. A well- 
 known Cyprienne who was the first to leap out had her 
 leg severely sprained. Had not the driver been too 
 drunk, the wagon might have been stopped by the use of 
 the brakes ; as it was, it fortunately passed the dangerous 
 spot in safety and brought up at the next ascent. The 
 same party had a narrow escape coming over the very 
 dangerous portion of the Road known as Chinaman's 
 Bluff, about twenty miles above Yale. The Road at that 
 point is a narrow track blasted out from the clifif, the 
 turbulent stream of the Fraser rolling several hundred 
 
The City of Golden Memories 187 
 
 feet below. The stage was passing this point one night, 
 it being very darlc, when suddenly one of the four horses 
 began to rear and plunge so frightfully that the passen- 
 gers momentarily expected to be hurled into the abyss 
 below. The driver, however, who on this occasion was 
 a careful and steady man, managed to unhitch the frac- 
 tious animal and the remainder of the way to Yale was 
 safely accomplished with three horses." 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 ORCHARDS AND LAKES 
 
 Only a few years ago as time goes, Thomas Ellis, 
 like so many others known as the " Cattle King," owned 
 a big ranch at the extreme southern end of Lake Okana- 
 gan. They reckoned property by miles rather than by 
 acres in those days, and Ellis' property ran away off be- 
 yond the lake almost to the International Boundary. 
 It was like many other vast " estates " in early British 
 Columbia; it covered so much territory that the owner 
 barely knew by personal observation exactly where it 
 stopped or where it began, excepting as in this instance 
 it bordered on a lake. A boat of some description came 
 down the lake at irregular inter^'als, brought supplies and 
 provisions for the big ranch and took away a cargo of 
 cattle that had fattened on the picturesque range that 
 stretched through and included mountains, valleys and 
 rivers. " Tom " Ellis, as he is affectionately called to- 
 day by the natives of the city that has grown up near 
 his old ranch house, had the opportunity to observe the 
 Indians at close range, because they were his neighbours, 
 dwelling along the shores of the lake, where a paternal 
 government has permitted them to remain. Red Men 
 have frequently felled trees to suit their purpose; but 
 these Indians seem to have been planters of trees, thus 
 being almost unique among savage tribes. They w^ere 
 fruit trees and the fruit was of such an exceptional na- 
 ture that Ellis followed their example. He also planted 
 fruit trees, which is believed to be directly responsible for 
 188 
 
Orchards and Lakes 189 
 
 what seems likely to become one of the principal industries 
 of the rich province of British Columbia, for there are 
 men who believe that after the fish have been taken from 
 the sea, after the timber has been leveled to the ground, 
 and after the hills have given their full mineral treasure 
 to man, the province will turn to agriculture and that the 
 most remunerative branch of it will be fruit culture. 
 " Tom " Ellis planted fruit trees and they bore fruit that 
 excited nation-wide comment. The " old-timer " likes to 
 relate that one of those cherry trees bore one thousand 
 pounds of fruit every year until it died. And such fruit! 
 World's fairs have distinguished Okanagan fruit with 
 medals and prizes for its size, colour and flavour. And 
 yet it is a British Columbia industry almost as new as 
 automobile and phonograph manufacture are elsewhere. 
 It was inevitable, a land company was formed and 
 took over the Ellis ranch. The possibilities of fruit cul- 
 ture was the inspiration. An irrigation system costing 
 nearly $200,000 was installed, and at the end of the lake 
 the foundations were laid for the present city of Pentic- 
 ton, where Indian tribes were wont to meet to plan for 
 war or to smoke the pipe of peace, literally " the place 
 where all ways meet," Pen-tic-ton, and the Indian nomen- 
 clature was retained. The usual western " boom " fol- 
 lowed and has continued. Prospective settlers came to 
 the new city and to dozens of lesser communities that 
 began to spring up along the lake shore. What had been 
 " wilderness " or " desert " to the layman and merely a 
 big cattle ranch to those who were better acquainted with 
 the circumstances, suddenly became a Mecca for colonists 
 and home-seekers, the majority of whom had consider- 
 able money in their purses and who were captivated by 
 the location and the prospects of a future home set among 
 
190 Sunset Canada 
 
 orchards and gardens. The boat that had been ample 
 for demands of travel on the lake at irregular intervals 
 began a daily schedule. More boats and larger ones 
 were built and the sailings were made to connect with 
 trains that met the trans-continental trains on the main 
 line east and west. The territory was not developing 
 into one great city of skyscrapers and banks, but into 
 many small cities and towns of homes as pleasantly lo- 
 cated as could be imagined anywhere. The railroad built 
 a big hotel at Penticton for the accommodation of tourists 
 and smaller hotels sprung up along the beautiful lake 
 shore of " shelved " or terraced orchards. " Tom " 
 Ellis' cherry trees may be thanked for it all ; and condi- 
 tions have now reached a pass where the tourist will 
 enjoy himself immensely by including this "tour of the 
 lakes " in his itinerary, but where it has become one of 
 the " high spot " features of the trip through the Cana- 
 dian Rockies and should not be overlooked by one who 
 desires to include much that was hitherto neglected, but 
 has much to prompt a traveler's enthusiastic praise. The 
 trip which appears to be rather complicated when out- 
 lined on a railway map, develops with ease when under- 
 taken. Railway and steamboat connections have been 
 perfected after considerable experiment to accommodate 
 a constantly increasing traffic, and the easterner with 
 previously formed ideas of what traveling in the Far 
 West must be like after leaving the main line of the rail- 
 roads will necessarily correct his errors with much speed. 
 Going eastward from Yale the train hugs the precip- 
 itous banks of the Fraser River and shoots through a 
 tunnel near what is known locally as " Lady Franklin 
 Rock," which balances itself in the swift water and parts 
 the stream. The train soon reaches Spuzzum where 
 
Orchards and Lakes 19'1 
 
 Simon Fraser camped in June, 1808, believing the river 
 to be the Columbia. Up to Spuzzum everything seems a 
 foretaste of what is to follow. The scene becomes more 
 rugged, the rocks are higher, the channel of the river 
 narrower and the waters foam in their rush toward the 
 sea. The region is still the home of salmon-spearing 
 Indians, whose ancestors resented the coming of the 
 white invader, but who now look up at the car windows 
 with a listless expression as they stand on improvised 
 platforms built over the rapids or place the day's catch 
 on racks to dry in the sun. It is preferable to take this 
 ride in the spring when the melting snow in the mountain 
 has filled the canyons and splashes down the rock walls 
 of the mountains to the river. At Hell's Gate the stream 
 is squeezed between two projecting crags that shoot the 
 water and debris into the air where they strike defiant 
 rocks and are hurled back into the whirlpool below. The 
 old Cariboo Road crossed the river at Spuzzum and shreds 
 of the old suspension bridge are still visible as they shot 
 out from the roadway among cliffs that rise two hundred 
 feet from the water's edge. It is comfortable to sit in a 
 Pullman car or' on the observation platform and observe 
 these tell-tale survivals of the perilous pathway, a sturdy, 
 gone-forever past. 
 
 After plunging through a veritable riot of surprising 
 landscape, the train emerges at North Bend, which has 
 a somewhat spacious hotel and grounds near the station, 
 known principally to hunters, but a comfortable and ex- 
 hilarating spot for at least a brief stop-over amid the 
 hills and just above the river which here becomes more 
 placid, the calm that precedes the awful plunge at Hell's 
 Gate. The rails soon leave the Fraser and take to the 
 canyon of the Thompson River, which is on a more ma- 
 
192 Sunset Canada 
 
 jestic scale than the valley just penetrated. Towering 
 banks are on either side and the rails run along little 
 shelves of rock, making it possible to look at the water be- 
 low and to the peaks overhead. The train climbs to 
 Lytton, which is but a shadow of its former importance 
 in the days of gold. At Ashcroft it is possible to take a 
 motor stage to Barkerville, through a region of " dry- 
 belt " that is being reclaimed by " dry " farming and irri- 
 gation. When the Canadian Pacific railway was being 
 constructed the officials thought, for no particular reason 
 except operating necessity, that this was the place for a 
 station, and as the ranch passed was called *' Ashcroft " 
 the name was appropriated, a signboard painted and a 
 station built. In later years the town and the immedi- 
 ate region has assumed considerable importance. The 
 ride to Barkerville by motor is along the trail of the 
 early gold-hunters and through regions where sensa- 
 tional discoveries a half century ago attracted the world's 
 attention to the coast province. Beyond Ashcroft is 
 Kamloops Lake and the eastern side of the Coast Range 
 of mountains. The cliffs are highly coloured and pro- 
 trude through huge masses of myrtle green foliage, while 
 in June the sides of the railway tracks are almost gar- 
 dens of blossoming field lilies, often as large as the 
 cultivated species in lands that seem more favoured by 
 rainfall. 
 
 Kamloops is a town of considerable size and preten- 
 sions, which has grown around the old trading-post of 
 the fur companies. Among cities of mushroom growth 
 in the province it is aged, having been a " center of popu- 
 lation " for over a century. Its name, derived from the 
 Indian " meeting of the waters," refers to its location 
 at the junction of the North and South Thompson rivers, 
 
Orchards and Lakes 193 
 
 on a picturesque land cove. In the old day it was the 
 great half-way house of the northern brigade bringing 
 produce to the Pacific coast, after the overland route 
 was discarded as a waste of energy for the sea route 
 by way of Hawaii and the Horn, There were lively 
 days around the trading-post here, for in addition to 
 thrilling episodes in which the factors and their men 
 figured, the fort entertained most of the important per- 
 sonages who were making the great journey, and several 
 of them figured in a series of episodes that some one has 
 observed read like the tales of Scottish border warfare, 
 but which are frequently tinged with the more exotic or 
 Oriental flavour of the Corsican or Sardinian vendetta. 
 One thinks of the latter, for example, when reading the 
 story of Tranquille, after whom the nearby river and vil- 
 lage were named ; a story rescued from the past by Hubert 
 Howe Bancroft, who so frequently performed a similar 
 mission in this interesting Northwest The story goes 
 that Tranquille and Chief Factor Black had engaged in a 
 verbal battle concerning a gun which another Indian had 
 left at the post. Matters were satisfactorily settled, how- 
 ever, and the chief went home in his usual health, but 
 immediately fell ill. His squaw quickly put the blame 
 upon the " medicine " of the white man. The chief 
 denied this and before expiring he asked his friends to 
 bury him in the " white man's fashion." Black sent a 
 coffin and the ceremony was performed as requested by 
 the deceased ; but the widow wailed piteously, not be- 
 cause of the death of her husband, but because " all our 
 men are cowards now." Her young nephew struck her 
 in the face and told her to be quiet, whereupon she 
 publicly taunted him with being brave enough to strike an 
 old woman, and not being man enough to avenge his 
 
194 Sunset Canada 
 
 uncle's death. So the boy arose and went to the post 
 where he was well received and given a pipe to smoke. 
 As Black was passing him the young Indian raised a 
 gun and fired. The trader dropped dead, and in the 
 confusion that followed the murderer escaped and went 
 toward the Cariboo. When the factor's successor ar- 
 rived, however, he demanded the capture and execution 
 of the boy. In time he was found, but as he was being 
 brought back to the post in a boat he gave a sudden jerk, 
 capsized it and would have made another escape but for 
 the loyal Indians who observed him from the bank and 
 shot him so that his lifeless body sank in the stream. 
 
 Another story relates to the celebrated botanist, James 
 Douglas, who gave his name to the towering fir tree of 
 the coast. Douglas had stopped at the Kamloops fort and 
 with Chief Factor Black, another Scotchman, he formed 
 a friendship which ripened as the days passed. While 
 they were over their cups one night the conversation 
 drifted to the Hudson's I^ay company. " There is not an 
 officer in the company with a soul above a beaver skin," 
 declared Douglas. The Factor sprang to his feet and 
 challenged his friend to fight a duel with him, but as it 
 was late the event was postponed until the morning. 
 When the sun came above the horizon Black rapped at the 
 door of the guest's room and asked: " Meester Doug- 
 las, a' ye ready? " The botanist declined to fight and a 
 night's sleep had cooled the brain of the man who had 
 challenged him, so they renewed the friendship that had 
 been suddenly shattered by a tactless remark. 
 
 Kamloops has come upon prosperous and less romantic 
 days. It has a population that has been placed as high as 
 five thousand, and one who chances to pass through the 
 town on an early evening train imagines that fully that 
 
Orchards and Lakes 195 
 
 number of pedestrians are promenading the station 
 platform during the pause of about a quarter-hour in the 
 journey. One gains the impression that the arrival of 
 the train is one of the notable social events of the day. 
 A big electric sign near the station flashes the words 
 TRY K AM LOO PS and the citizens seem to take pride 
 in proving that they followed the advice. And it is an 
 interesting spectacle to watch the promenading groups 
 on the station platform, including Indians in an adapta- 
 tion of what is considered " native " costume, squaws in 
 flaming scarlet sweaters and with green or purple hand- 
 kerchiefs knotted around their heads, cowboys in fantas- 
 tic and theatrical outfits of the American magazine cover 
 variety, Chinese of various ages, young men about town 
 wearing "sport" shirts, and girls! — girls elaborately 
 and gaudily costumed as if for a carnival or costume 
 ball. I saw several of them remain in their motor cars 
 until the train had stopped, whereupon they bounded to 
 the platform and joined in the promenade. One of 
 these wore a Tyrian purple gown trimmed with a profu- 
 sion of gold fringes; another carried a huge bouquet of 
 American Beauty roses. Low ballroom slippers of once 
 delicate shades were the rule — strangely noticeable in 
 an assembly where their sisters of darker skin wore 
 moccasins! Life in Kamloops must be gay, if one may 
 be permitted to judge from a glance. 
 
 It is possible to leave the train here and proceed down 
 the line over fifty miles to Sicamous by launch, through 
 the river, Shuswap Lake and along Salmon Arm, a pretty 
 region through which the rails are usually close to the 
 water's edge. The train that leaves Vancouver early in 
 the morning reaches this point as darkness comes, and as 
 it is one of the most popular trains for trans-Canada 
 
196 Sunset Canada 
 
 travelers the territory is not so well known as that which 
 is penetrated by the day trains. And this is unfortunate. 
 One should not pass anywhere between Vancouver and 
 Banff in the night hours, unless pressed for time ; and one 
 of the most inviting spots for the night stop-over — in 
 fact a hotel built for the accommodation of leisurely 
 going tourists — is Sicamous, a place that for beauty of 
 situation reminds one of a sequestered inn by a lake in 
 Switzerland or Italy. The rails run close to the edge of 
 the lake, so the hotel is principally on piling over the 
 M^ater, with balconies and rooms that command a charm- 
 ing view. It has been said that " nobody lives at Sicam- 
 ous," because there was no more room after the railway 
 built the hotel. But as I walked down the platform to the 
 pier, from which steamers make the delightful trip around 
 Shuswap Lake, named for the Indian tribe that inhab- 
 ited its shores when the white men came and which 
 still has a reservation of them in the neighbourhood, I 
 was surprised to hear the voices of a dozen or fifteen 
 children. They were scrambling up the rocks to the 
 little schoolhouse that is perched upon an eminence that 
 overlooks a scene much like that at Lakes George and 
 Champlain. The teacher was on the steps awaiting them 
 and ringing a bell. The little folks stood around in a 
 group as the British flag was raised, saluted it, sang the 
 national hymn and then filed in to the day's lessons. So 
 there are a few inhabitants here, although they are in- 
 visible from the railroad. 
 
 The rails carry one to the door of this hotel, which 
 seems a Good Samaritan Inn for the people who like to 
 enjoy the quiet magnificence of lake, mountain, river, pine 
 forest and scenery unbroken by smoking chimney pots, 
 frame dwelling and roofs. " Yes, we pride ourselves on 
 
Orchards and Lakes 197 
 
 keeping vases of wild flowers everywhere in the hotel 
 during the entire summer. We have the pageantry of 
 the floral season," said the manager when I commented 
 upon the profusion of wild columbine, moccasin flowers 
 and other bloom from the forests scattered over various 
 tables. Orchids, hundreds of them at a summer hotel 
 in the mountains ! Just across the lake there is excellent 
 deer hunting and caribou are plentiful; but the angler is 
 the sportsman who will be particularly gratified. A few 
 strokes of the paddle from the hotel steps brings one into 
 deep water and this water seems alive with trout waiting 
 to be caught. I have seen men awaiting a railway con- 
 nection for the South, take a canoe and spend no more 
 than thirty minutes on the lake and yet come back with 
 strings of fish that look like the '* Good Day's Catch " 
 advertisements of the magazines. Guests who arrive 
 at night frequently rise an hour earlier than usual for 
 the purpose of making sure of catching their own fish 
 for breakfast and having good time to enjoy them before 
 the departure of trains East, West or South. 
 
 I believe that if statistics were available they would 
 show that the large majority of tourists keep to the main 
 line, but it is certain that when the great lake district 
 to the South becomes better known it will not be over- 
 looked by the summer traveler. I have crossed the 
 Rockies many times and in the course of other years I 
 have found myself among several of the celebrated moun- 
 tain systems of the world, but I can say without hesita- 
 tion that there are scenes to the south of Sicamous that 
 will not suffer by comparison to the most famous beauty 
 spots in the itineraries of world travel. One requires 
 only a few days' additional time to make the circular side- 
 trip of which mention will follow, and these days will be 
 
198 Sunset Canada 
 
 remembered among all days of journeys abroad or at 
 home. The little circuit shoots south to Penticton, thence 
 over the Kettle Valley route to Midway, to Nelson with 
 several optional extensions to include Kootenay Lake and 
 the Arrow Lakes, which are merely a broadening of the 
 Columbia River, and one arrives back at the main Hne 
 ready for the mighty plunge into the most majestic scen- 
 ery of the Rockies, but having enjoyed an experience 
 which he would barely exchange for any similar time in 
 the tour. 
 
 The branch train from Sicamous, equipped with par- 
 lour car service equal to that of the main line, threads the 
 shores of Mara Lake, around which are towering tree- 
 covered hills. It also comes close to Shuswap River along 
 which the " pioneers " seem lately to have arrived. They 
 are cutting the trees and building roads, bridges and 
 villages, which shows their unbounded faith in the dis- 
 trict which was passed by those w'ho hurried on in the 
 mad rush to procure property on Okanagan Lake, when 
 it was found to be a " land where orchards bloom " — 
 and where the orchards make independent men of their 
 owners in a few seasons. Horses and cattle are in this 
 stumpland already, and further along there are a few 
 towns and villages, notable among which is Vernon, that 
 have already become prosperous as a result of fruit and 
 vegetable raising. Where the stumps are still standing, 
 I saw splendid fields of celery, onions and other vege- 
 tables that flourish in the rich dark loam that was covered 
 with forest primeval until a few years ago. This is still 
 considered to be "far interior" of British Columbia; 
 it is a " wild " country, and after one has ascended the 
 valley of the Fraser, after he knows that he has passed 
 the Cascade Range and gone south of that great high- 
 
Orchards and Lakes 199 
 
 way of rails over which it has been the pleasure of pas- 
 sengers to ride at top speed, it is something of a surprise 
 when the train emerges from a deep forest and stops be- 
 side a lake as attractive to the eye as any of those sapphire 
 waters of which he has obtained a glance from the car 
 window. It is a surprise, because this is the " end of the 
 line." But one is not left in this wilderness; for tied to 
 the dock is the big three-decked steamer that is sched- 
 uled to meet the incoming train. 
 
 It is close to the noon hour and the experienced trav- 
 eler inquired from a train man if it would not be a wise 
 precaution to fortify himself with a couple of sandwiches 
 at the railway station. This is the out-of-the-way por- 
 tion of British Columbia; perhaps the steamer's owners 
 do not think of the comfort and convenience of the 
 passengers, as one has frequently found to be the case 
 under similar conditions far to the east of British Co- 
 lumbia. The train man laughs : " I guess you are a 
 stranger, all right." This admitted, he continues: "yes, 
 you'll find all accommodations aboard ship." Here on a 
 lake in the British Columbia hinterland is a fine ship, 
 with a great lounging room, a fine observation deck en- 
 closed within glass windows, and a luncheon similar to 
 that which is served on the famous " Empress " grey- 
 hounds that cross to the Orient from Vancouver and 
 Victoria! Quickly after the arrival of the train there 
 is a signal, all of the passengers and cargo are on board, 
 and the steamer starts on its zigzag cruise of the lake 
 that brings it to the other end in time for dinner at 
 Penticton. Here again one steps into the wilderness, but 
 with all the luxury of travel that might be expected any- 
 where in the East. The country is " new " ; even its 
 principal cities and towns. In some of the smaller ham- 
 
200 Sunset Canada 
 
 lets log cabins are visible, perhaps a few shacks of recent 
 arrivals, because people came so rapidly that there were 
 not enough carpenters to put up the more substantial 
 dwellings for which their owners were prepared to pay 
 cash; but the majority of these "westerners" hve in 
 good homes, however, dwellings that were built for the 
 future as well as for the present. It is a well-known fact 
 that the majority of settlers in this region brought fat 
 purses when they came, and it is whispered that it is 
 one of the favourite regions for those Britishers who 
 may expect " remittances " from home as regularly as 
 the calendar indicates a certain day each month. The 
 people who come down to the rustic piers to meet the in- 
 coming steamer are not the usual " country louts " of 
 eastern villages, but in the majority of cases are well to 
 do, educated and well groomed people of the sort who 
 make cities of progress. 
 
 It is a ride of about sixty-five miles across Okanagan 
 Lake, as the crow flies ; but the steamer does not follow 
 any such route and cruises over eighty-five miles in 
 making the trip, sometimes nearer a hundred miles, be- 
 cause she answers signals from the shore on " flag days," 
 and the traveler is glad to find that almost all days are 
 so designated. Some of these piers are little more than 
 wooden pathways that lead down into the water from 
 dense forest. Always looking beyond the bow of the 
 steamer the hills roll to the water's edge, row after row 
 or range upon range, while away beyond, on a clear day, 
 one sees still higher peaks covered with snow that glistens 
 in the sunshine and appears to be a waving fleecy cloud. 
 
 At Kelowna, a town with over three thousand popula- 
 tion, there is a pavilion to watch the water sports near 
 the pier, a park and streets that are busy with the trade 
 
Cherries Grown at Kelo'wna?-'<^^^^ 
 
Orchards and Lakes 201 
 
 from something like fifty thousand acres of fruit land, 
 much of which has already paid big tribute to cultivation. 
 The landing-stage swarms with the smartly costumed 
 throng which has assembled to bid " bon voyage " to 
 those who are departing. In their farewells one notes a 
 decided English accent and a friendliness that is almost 
 that of fellow exiles, but they would resent any " sym- 
 pathy " on that score. Most of them are here from 
 choice; they prefer Kelowna to anywhere else. The 
 feminine population wears bright coloured silk sweaters, 
 Panama hats with bright bands — they seem almost to 
 have become infected with the Indian's love for flashy 
 colours — silken hose, fine American " boots " and gowns 
 the latest cut, all purchased with last year's harvest of 
 fruit that is coming to have a name that means as much 
 as Red River oranges or California grapes. Kelowna 
 peaches, pears, plums, cherries and strawberries! The 
 advertisements are true; one who tastes them, cares for 
 no other. And with all this money-making in most 
 agreeable surroundings, the best traditions of England 
 have been maintained, although somewhat adapted to the 
 new surroundings. Here is no suggestion of the Briton 
 of Victoria, but the out-door loving Englishman and the 
 English woman of ambition and rather athletic tendency. 
 They revel in the beautiful free life of the country and 
 are convinced that it is the most attractive spot in the 
 whole empire. It is a locality that is producing young 
 ladies who would readily be recognized by their Ameri- 
 can sisters as " English," but they are the English girls 
 who have tennis racket in hand rather than those willowy 
 Burne-Jones types who seem to be imitating the figures 
 on stained glass windows. 
 
 Peachland, Summerland, Naramata are much the same, 
 
202 Sunset Canada 
 
 prosperous communities most of which owe their life 
 to the orchards that cover the " shelves " of the lake bank. 
 Most of them have comfortable hotels, " Belle Vue," 
 " Bella Vista " and " Buena Vista," with an occasional 
 tribute to English royalty in their names, that are equipped 
 to entertain all visitors who pass this way and are so 
 charmed with the surroundings that they " break " the 
 lake trip by stopping over until the steamer next day or 
 next week. There was one notable exception, however, a 
 pier that was reached a few minutes after leaving Ke- 
 lowna. It was more what the average easterner be- 
 lieves the " Far West " to be like; and yet so speedy is 
 the growth of these towns that are reclaimed from forest 
 lands that one imagines that conditions will have altered 
 ere these lines are in print. The place is called West 
 Bank. A young " cow boy," lassoo and all the " trim- 
 mings " on his horse, came down to the edge of the pier 
 at a full gallop and deposited a sack of mail in the hands 
 of a ship's officer. On the bank there was a fine crop 
 of sage brush through which a meandering trail was 
 visible from the deck. It seemed almost the waste lands 
 of Arizona; but here w^ere the waters of the lake, and 
 we had seen Kelowna such a short distance away ! One 
 place remained as it was and another had responded to the 
 hand of man. A stolid Indian was sitting on the pier, 
 seemingly the only other " inhabitant " of the place. He 
 did not take any interest in the arrival of the steamer and 
 looked off in the opposite direction. It is possible that 
 over beyond the " shelf " there are orchards and " col- 
 onists " — the mail sack suggested that possibility — but it 
 was weird, this stopping of a big steamer at a port where 
 there were only two men, only a sack of mail for cargo! 
 As evening is approaching the steamer pulls up to the 
 
Orchards and Lakes 203 
 
 wharf at Penticton, the " Hub of the Okanagan," " The 
 Place Where All Ways Meet," the former site of Tom 
 Ellis' ranch and the cherries that started immigration in 
 this direction and not only caused a city to rise as if by 
 magic but also prompted the building of other towns 
 and villages that border the misty waters. Some one 
 around the big hotel that was erected by the railway for 
 the entertainment of as many guests as are likely to pass 
 this way for many years handed me a slip of paper, 
 when I asked for information about the city. One side 
 of the slip was covered with a photographic reproduc- 
 tion of the city viewed from the lake and the other 
 contained the stereotyped statement that this was a town 
 that offered much to home-seekers. Testimonial letters 
 from " early settlers," who had been on the ground four 
 or five years told of the amount of money they had made 
 on small investments, of the number of bushels of peaches 
 and apricots grown on small acreage, and of the improved 
 facilities for getting fruit to market. There was only 
 one sentence that interested me ; only one that is likely to 
 interest other tourists. " Penticton has been much 
 blessed by nature." None who gave it even a passing 
 glance could doubt that. One who stayed on for many 
 days or weeks would doubtless be zealous in his repeti- 
 tion of this truism. It would not be exaggerating to say 
 that there are few spots on earth where nature has been 
 more lavish of her gifts. It is no borrowing from a 
 real estate agent's pamphlet to say that one has seldom 
 seen a place in his life that seemed more perfectly adapted 
 to becoming the habitation of man, for while there is 
 beauty to enchant him at all hours of the day and in every 
 direction his eyes may follow, there is also an assurance 
 of ample reward for his toil. 
 
204 Sunset Canada 
 
 Majestic mountains hem in the city and the lake in a 
 basin that has a mild climate, rarely too hot or too cold ; 
 on these mountain peaks, excepting in midsummer, are 
 great drifts of snow. The lake is said by the scientists 
 to serve as a thermostat which tempers the cold winds 
 that sweep over nearby districts in winter and the hot 
 gusts that parch fields in July and August. I have not 
 seen the life here in winter but I have seen it in summer 
 when it appears to be blissful and serene. When I in- 
 quired of an " old-timer " as to the principal winter occu- 
 pation, he replied : " We spend our time chopping props 
 to hold up the fruit-laden trees during the following sum- 
 mer." Many people have come here from the prairies of 
 Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. " Life is dull in 
 a flat country," they say. The prairie-lover retorts: 
 " We do not care to be ' hedged in ' by hills when we want 
 to look beyond our own dooryards." And they both 
 compromise by conceding that " what's food for one is 
 poison for another " ; but the weight of opinion would be 
 in favour of the hills. And the hills where things grow 
 as they grow in the sub-tropics ! That may be claimed by 
 the residents of the lake country. 
 
 Penticton's Front Street is a long avenue that skirts 
 the end of the lake. Across the pavement are the sands 
 of the beach and underneath the group of shade-trees 
 are rustic benches for the townsfolk as if it were a park 
 — enough seats almost for the entire urban population. 
 Here is a fine club-house set out over the water. The 
 depths usually float canoes and rowboats, and excellent 
 bathing beaches extend the length of the town. Large, 
 substantial bungalows of modern design and fine gar- 
 dens border the highway. Little wonder that Earl Grey, 
 when Governor General of Canada, saw conditions here 
 
Orchards and Lakes 205 
 
 and said : " Fruit growing has acquired the distinction 
 of being a beautiful art as well as a most profitable indus- 
 try." 
 
 Penticton has wide cement walks in its principal streets 
 and in other " streets " where large plots of ground are 
 still stumpage, even along marshy districts not yet re- 
 claimed, where tall cat-tails abound and where turtles may 
 be seen sunning themselves on logs — five minutes' walk 
 from the business center of stone and brick buildings. 
 But this is not the most remarkable feature of life in this 
 " boom " metropolis of the lake country. One also sees 
 electric lights in tents occupied by newcomers who have 
 not had time to erect bungalows, but who are enjoying 
 the " luxury " of living in Penticton. Not far from these 
 tent dwelling are shops that would compare favourably 
 with those in any city of similar population in the world. 
 " Our people want only the latest fashions and the best 
 of everything," said a merchant, who stood in front of his 
 store inspecting a new window display of gowns that had 
 just arrived from New York. " You are suprised ? You 
 expected to find our girls wearing * Mother Hubbards ' 
 away off here, I suppose. No, they are more particular 
 about their costumes I imagine than they w^ere when they 
 Hred in the East or in London. We've girls here who 
 lived in the largest city in the world before they came 
 here and they used to get gowns made from Paris models. 
 And they haven't changed their ideas ; they want the latest 
 styles in Penticton ; and, what's more, they get them, as 
 you have doubtless observed." 
 
 And this demand of the girls and women for " style " 
 is equalled by the demand of the men. They demand 
 and have acquired municipal ownership of waterworks, 
 electric light and irrigation. They have Single Tax. I 
 
206 Sunset Canada 
 
 doubt if there is any region elsewhere in which a railroad 
 offers its patrons so much as in this Canadian Pacific rail- 
 way territory of Okanagan Lake. Here a crossing of the 
 lake and .a full stop at a wharf is made by the scheduled 
 steamer for the purpose of delivering a bag of chicken- 
 feed, a crate of eggs or a coil of rope. It is service such 
 as many larger communities do not obtain from transpor- 
 tation companies; and the secret of it all must be that 
 the big corporation is thinking of the future rather than 
 of the present, of that day which it is predicted is not far 
 off, when every available acre of land on Okanagan's 
 shores will be sending its wonderful fruit to distant parts 
 of Canada and to other countries. 
 
 And yet Okanagan is but one of a chain of lakes and 
 rivers over which similar steamers run and where portages 
 are made by fast railway connections, some of which have 
 been recently installed and provide as good entertainment 
 for tourists as the necessary communication with the 
 outside world for the lake-dwellers, who have come to 
 expect mail, express and freight deliveries as punctual as 
 the apartment house resident of Toronto, Chicago or Los 
 Angeles. I have no doubt that the " Tour of the British 
 Columbia Lakes " will become as popular with travelers 
 a few years hence as the Tour of the Mountains via main 
 line has been in the past. It is a tour that has no equal 
 on the Atlantic seaboard, either in Canada or in the 
 United States and it is one that deserves to take its place 
 along with those wonder days in the European itinerary 
 that includes the Swiss Lakes, the Italian Lakes, the 
 Amalfi Drive, or those marvelous twistings and turnings 
 along-the French or Italian Riviera. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 " THE TOUR OF THE LAKES " 
 
 " I've been on those American switch-back, shoot-the- 
 chutes, loop-the-loop scenic-railway affairs that you have 
 at pleasure resorts to provide a thrill," said a hotel clerk 
 at the Incola, when I checked out and remarked that I was 
 leaving by the morning train that goes to Nelson over the 
 comparatively new Kettle Valley route, " but I am willing 
 to admit that I never found out what a real thrill was 
 like until I went over the Kettle Valley. Think of what I 
 say when you find yourself out on a shelf of rock on top of 
 the mountain and look down on Arrow Lakes! That 
 makes the wildest thriller of Coney Island seem as tame 
 as a canoe ride on Lake Okanagan. Remember what I 
 say when you begin to slide along the edge of that shelf 
 to the valley below. If you have ever looked at scenery 
 that equals this — from the window of a railway car — 
 well, they should give you a medal. But you haven't; 
 there isn't any." 
 
 I did recall the clerk's words, not only once, but several 
 times during the day's ride. Not only when we were 
 creeping along shelves far above the water, when we were 
 sliding down the " chute " that borders the Arrow Lakes, 
 but also when we were zigzagging up mountainsides, 
 where the rails seem to follow a trail first made by goats, 
 and when we w^ere skimming along the banks of rivers 
 close to waterfalls and rapids, or plunging around curves 
 in the valley in which tall pines were reaching their 
 
 207 
 
208 Sunset Canada 
 
 crests towards the sun. I recalled them when the locomo- 
 tive seemed to have found gateways to mountain-passes 
 and was plunging ahead past great snow-capped sentinels 
 which seem, as one looks ahead, to bar all further prog- 
 ress. This, however, is what appears to be the case as the 
 train enters other mountain-passes, when it is constantly 
 turning sharp curv^es and the locomotive shoots from 
 sight as if it had plunged its face into a cliff. One 
 knows there has been no such accident, because the wheels 
 turn at their usual pace. One by one the cars reach what 
 seems to be the obstruction and they glide over the great 
 mountain threshold into the ravine. What seemed to bar 
 admission was but huge piles of rock standing like guard- 
 ians of an enchanted land. 
 
 The morning train leaves Penticton at an early hour; 
 but the hands of the clock are pointing on well toward 
 noon when Penticton finally disappears from sight. 
 From the shores of the lake one may follow the trail of 
 the railway up the mountain side, if he look carefully 
 and trace a worm-like path — that goes through the pine 
 tops and finally fades from sight over the northern crest ; 
 but it is impossible to imagine the splendour of the view 
 of the entire lake unless one has hung upon those benches 
 of rock and viewed it from the several shelves that were 
 carved by the railroad-builders. In the morning light it 
 appears to be a huge sapphire set in a rim of emerald. 
 It glistens, and the passing clouds cast weird reflections 
 in its depths. The orchards at its shores spread their foli- 
 age on huge prongs — in reality cliffs jutting from the 
 bank — holding the jewel in place and giving it an appro- 
 priate setting. A canoe seems to be no larger than a pin- 
 prick ; the steamer which seemed surprisingly large when 
 one was a passenger is now but a toy barge. One traces 
 
" The Tour of the Lakes " 209 
 
 the shore-line until it fades from sight in the north; to 
 the south until the waters narrow to the beach that is the 
 front door of Penticton, on and on through that crooked, 
 narrow stream to Okanagan Falls, fourteen miles south of 
 the city. Off there is the Similkameen District that lies 
 near the International Boundary. It is as if the trav- 
 eler were a passenger in an aeroplane ; the train with its 
 curvings back and forth seems to be drifting on the wind. 
 Certainly if the steamer were larger it would be possible 
 to look straight down the funnel. Such is the sensation 
 of being carried at a rapid pace to such dizzying heights ! 
 But the passenger should settle back in his chair and de- 
 cline to become panicky. Greater thrills are in store. 
 This is but a practice exhibition for the feats that the train 
 is to perform later in the day. One continues to be 
 awed, but comes to be surprised at nothing. If the engi- 
 neer should decide to loop the loop that, too, might be 
 possible! Who dares to measure the accomplishments 
 of railway-builders of the present or the future! Noth- 
 ing seems to be a permanent obstacle in their pathway. A 
 few^ years ago this Kettle Valley route would have been 
 considered an improbability or an impossibility ; to-day it 
 is a reality, and already those who frequently patronize 
 the line look upon it as being worthy of little remark in 
 this country of so many superlative marvels. It will be 
 many years, however, before it fails to thrill even the 
 most seasoned tourist who is used to trestles, bridges, 
 mountains and lakes. 
 
 The train takes a running start from the little railway 
 station that reaches to the pier in the lake. Circling far 
 out among the orchards of the suburbs, it turns abruptly 
 and begins the ascent. During the first three or four 
 miles it keeps close to the first " bench " of the shore, but 
 
210 Sunset Canada 
 
 gradually rising among the pine forests which it pene- 
 trates, it turns a curve and begins another ascent toward 
 the South. One feels that he must have gone half the 
 length of the entire lake; but here at the end of over an 
 hour he is back in the neighbourhood of the city, the 
 difference being that the train is far above the church 
 spires down there in the valley, far, far above the tops of 
 the Cottonwood trees that line the shore at Front Street. 
 Again a curve. The engine pants furiously under the 
 task that it is performing, but there is no perceptible 
 diminution of speed; it was built for climbing, and al- 
 though the train is heavy, the engineer knows its powers. 
 Again the journey is repeated toward the North, but in 
 addition to looking down upon and across the lake it is 
 possible to look down to the rails on the lower " bench " 
 that were covered an hour before. The operation con- 
 tinues several times, the locomotive takes curves and 
 spurts ahead again on a new grade and the cars follow. 
 One looks out and sees the neat and prosperous little 
 towns that line the valley on both sides of the lake; but 
 the train is constantly withdrawing from them in its 
 journey toward the summit of the mountain. Midway 
 in the ascent there are great slits in the mountainside, 
 ravines and canyons, the floor of which is carpeted with 
 waving pines. The train shoots out upon trestles far 
 above the topmost branches and is soon again on the 
 stone or gravel shelf. The sensation from a car win- 
 dow is that of looking at motion pictures taken by a 
 photographer in an aeroplane. Toward the summit the 
 timberline is neared and the vegetation becomes sparse. 
 The big blocks have been blasted from the pathway of 
 the rails and they have gone tumbling down the moun- 
 tainside, until they met an obstruction and piled up in 
 
"The Tour of the Lakes" 211 
 
 rugged heaps, sometimes in fantastic manner supported 
 by one projecting prong as if awaiting the shghtest vibra- 
 tion that would send them tumbHng down the incline, 
 where gaining momentum they would crush everything 
 in their path to the lake's bottom. In many ways it is 
 the " wildest " region penetrated by a railroad in Brit- 
 ish Columbia. The only " houses " are the deserted log 
 cabins that were occupied as construction camps. I 
 wanted to send a telegram, but the conductor said : " We 
 won't arrive at a telegraph office before three o'clock this 
 afternoon." We were on some long hike into the wilder- 
 ness, or traveling by ponies; at least this would have 
 seemed to be the case, had not the good rate of speed con- 
 tinued. 
 
 Up near the summit we are on neighbourly terms 
 with the surrounding peaks that are covered with snow 
 summer and winter. They are higher and far distant, 
 but many of them seem to be little more than a stone's 
 throw across the valleys. Up here the air is chilly, 
 even in a July noon ; but we know that it is summer by 
 the patches of flowers that bloom along the railroad 
 tracks and because a few hours before we have seen fruit 
 on the trees in the valley. 
 
 Finally, the streams caused by melting snow are run- 
 ning in the opposite direction. We have crossed a 
 " divide " without being aware of it. The streams com- 
 bine their courses and become the rapidly flowing Kettle 
 River, along the banks of which the train now runs. 
 Again we are in the valley, and in most ways it is like 
 other valleys of the province, fertile meadows in which 
 cattle graze, considerable plowed land and many farm- 
 houses; but there is a difference, because it is a valley 
 far up in the mountains. We recall the climb of the 
 
212 Sunset Canada 
 
 morning and a glance around shows that the green fields 
 are irrigated. We have arrived near Midway. There is 
 a breezy, somewhat " western/' group of people on the 
 station platform. 
 
 " That big fellow is one of the best guides in British 
 Columbia," said a railway man, indicating a huge, raw- 
 boned male who was strutting along beside the train. 
 Sombrero, chaps, rattling spurs and a bright scarf around 
 his neck gave him distinction among the others. " When 
 you want game — big game — he's the boy who can lead 
 you to it." 
 
 " Ever come across deer beside the railway tracks ; that 
 is, do you ever see them from the car window ? " I asked. 
 
 " Do we? Yes, and bear too! You know what they 
 tell you about seeing zebra from the African railroads? 
 Well, we can match any of those stories on this line with 
 deer. Why, we've run straight into herds of them! 
 Several times they were crossing the track and the engi- 
 neer tooted his whistle for them to get out of the way. 
 The train usually makes them panicky and if the herd is 
 crossing the rails those behind will all attempt to follow 
 the leaders. Just the other day many of them had 
 crossed considerable distance ahead of the engine. The 
 engineer tooted the whistle, because several were on the 
 track. They gave a leap and reached safe ground in the 
 underbrush — all but one. In his hurry to join the 
 herd, and in fright, he tried to leap the fence and became 
 impaled on a post. He was still there when the train 
 passed, but the next day we looked and he was gone. 
 The best way to see them is to come through here on a 
 freight just at nightfall when they are going to water. 
 Then you see them best of all if you can get permission 
 to ride on the engine. The headlight confuses them and 
 
African 
 
 Lake Christina. 
 
 :t them 
 
'' The Tour of the Lakes '' 213 
 
 they stand and look at it from the trackside. Bear, of 
 course, are not so plentiful; but several times this season 
 we have seen bears scampering off to the bush when the 
 train intruded upon them. Like a number of people, 
 they haven't yet heard that the Kettle Valley railroad has 
 been built. When tourists begin to find it out, I expect 
 the deer and bear will know it too, and they'll keep back 
 from the tracks." 
 
 Grand Forks is a town where the irrigated orchards are 
 as well kept as the orange orchards of California. Con- 
 sequently, and by reason of other favourable conditions, 
 there is a demand in the markets for apples from this 
 place. The river rushes along beside the rails, water 
 seems to be plentiful ; but the banks are dry. Logs begin 
 to clog its passage and cover the surface of the water. 
 They are on their way to the mill at Cascade, where the 
 railroad crosses a deep slit in the rock and the water 
 plunges over a high dam built of logs. 
 
 The rails begin to rise again on a shelf of rock and 
 over the tops of the trees far down in the valley spreads 
 Lake Christina, placid, glistening and bluish-green, like 
 the other lakes of this forest land. The train proceeds 
 along the pine- and spruce-clad banks, as earlier in the 
 day it had skirted Okanagan Lake. " These are mineral- 
 laden hills," continues the trainman who admits that how- 
 ever the passengers along the route may feel about it he 
 has the enthusiasm of a tenderfoot every time he makes 
 the run, " only the surface has been scratched (an expres- 
 sion that one is to hear so often in this region). The 
 prospectors have been too busy elsewhere." 
 
 A " helper " engine is coupled on ahead of the " reg- 
 ular " and there is a steep climb, more difficult than any 
 of the grades previously encountered. Up and up until 
 
214 Sunset Canada 
 
 the summit of another mountain is reached and when one 
 is anticipating the usual curve before the descent the 
 train runs out on a ledge of rock, as if floating in mid- 
 air; from the car window is visible the amazing panorama 
 of the Arrow Lakes. 
 
 When Robert Hichens was in Egypt he visited the re- 
 mains of ancient civilization scattered along the Nile and 
 was reminded of the " personality " of cities, even as they 
 are viewed in ruins. He was right ; cities like New York 
 and Chicago are different in essentials. Osaka is unlike 
 Toyko, just as London differs from Paris or Berlin. 
 Toronto is no more like Victoria than San Francisco is 
 like Bombay, so far as " personality " or individuality is 
 concerned. But if this be true of cities, it is truer of 
 rivers. Cities might resemble one another when viewed 
 from a Zeppelin; rivers never! The Yangtze, Amazon, 
 Mississippi, Nile and Hudson, each is as individual as a 
 human being. And even more noticeable perhaps is the 
 fact that the same difference or distinction may be ob- 
 served when the rivers lie close together, when they 
 water the same slopes and flow through the same state or 
 province. Their common source may be the same pool 
 of melted snow, but one flows south, the other north, east 
 or west; it is the same with two persons starting from 
 the same pivot and pursuing dift'erent tangents which 
 will result in the development of contrasting character- 
 istics. The Fraser, Skeena, Columbia, Mackenzie, Peace, 
 all rivers of this far Northwest, are as distinctive as if 
 they belonged to different continents. One thing they 
 all have in common, however ; they are all boisterous at 
 times, proving a similarity of disposition. There are 
 placid stages in their rush toward the ocean where their 
 waters are as calm as millponds. It is in this mood that 
 
"The Tour of the Lakes" 215 
 
 ■> • — 
 
 one who journeys in this direction first views the Colum- 
 bia. Here it loses its identity and passes by the name of 
 Arrow Lakes. 
 
 One recalls how the Jordan's banks broaden, its waters 
 become still and the world knows it as the Sea of Gali- 
 lee, although it proves its identity as it bursts forth at 
 the further end of the lake and becomes the Jordan again 
 until it reaches the Dead Sea. The Columbia flows 
 through the Arrow Lakes, just as in theory the St. Law- 
 rence might be said to rise in Lake Superior if Lakes 
 Huron, Erie and Ontario were channels easily spanned by 
 the naked eye. 
 
 The Columbia River rises far to the north, and in its 
 descent of over two thousand feet before its waters reach 
 the Pacific the fourteen-hundred mile river merits its 
 reputation for beauty. It bounds over rocks and plays 
 turbulent pranks with the banks that hem it in. Enthu- 
 siastic travelers have made the descent of this river in 
 boats, following in the wake of the canoes of the fur- 
 traders of long ago, and reveling in scenic marvels that 
 have caused them to doubt if there is anything more 
 beautiful on the continent. But even these modern voy- 
 agers and writers doubt if the stream is ever more allur- 
 ing than in the broadened channel known as Arrow Lakes. 
 The fur-traders looked forward to reaching these placid 
 waters principally perhaps because they were glad to 
 escape from the rushing waters further upstream and to 
 reach the transparent depths of this serpentine waterway 
 where canoeing was easy ; but they, like the modern tour- 
 ists, must have been delighted with what they saw. In- 
 deed they were, and many a journal note and diary 
 paragraph of the long ago pays eloquent tribute to the 
 beauties of this region. 
 
216 Sunset Canada 
 
 The individuality of the Cokimbia may not be most 
 marked at this point, there are other rivers that flow into 
 British Cohimbia lakes and then on beyond and it seems 
 more natural to think of the Columbia as a foaming and 
 rushing dash among stones between which salmon are 
 attempting to force their way to a spawning ground ; but 
 after one has encountered the same stream elsewhere and 
 witnessed it in livelier antics, he is g' d that he first saw 
 it at Arrow Lakes. Let the Mackenzie flow through cold 
 deserts to the Arctic, the Fraser and Skeena dart between 
 precipices and bound their waters back and forth as if in 
 a game of battlecock and shuttledore, the Columbia is best 
 remembered for its almost threatening grandeur, as if 
 too wonderful to endure, its ultramarine depths that like 
 a coil of wire wriggle themselves through the distant land- 
 scape as one looks down from the heights and obtains 
 his first glance from a railway carriage. If the view were 
 but a passing glance, it would be ample compensation for 
 the inconvenience in arranging the itinerary, but instead 
 of a flash and disappearance it is a matter of hours. The 
 same wonderful picture is at one's left hand until the 
 train has made a cautious descent along the shelf -slope 
 that seems so beset with perils. The brakes are ap- 
 plied and one seems to be tobogganing to the valley. 
 Where a huge rock protrudes from the cliff with no verti- 
 cal support the tracks curve around a blasted shelf and 
 for a moment there is the impression of passing through 
 a deep rock gorge, but soon the rails run toward the rim 
 of the precipice again. One looks from the car window 
 and fails to see them, however, and all seems far, far 
 below — the deep blue of the water and the tops of pine 
 trees, which pierce their roots into crevasses in the wall 
 of rock. 
 
*' The Tour of the Lakes " 217 
 
 At the foot of the slide is West Robson, point of de- 
 parture for the lake ride, which is taken when returning 
 to the North and the main line, Castlegar, a junction 
 where a branch line runs along the Columbia for thirty 
 miles to Rossland, a town of mines of fabulous wealth, 
 and Trail, where there is a large smelter. Beyond 
 Castlegar the line runs along the banks of the tempestu- 
 ous Kootenay River and beside Bonnington Falls, one of 
 the most picturesque cataracts in the entire Columbia sys- 
 tem, where the waters are harnessed to provide light 
 and power for various municipal and commercial enter- 
 prises. Near here the Kootenay joins the Columbia in 
 its rush toward the ocean. 
 
 The oft-quoted trainman passed me again. This 
 time : " I guess folks don't have to go to Europe to 
 see scenery, eh? I've had them on this train as has 
 been all over the world and they say there ain't nothing in 
 the Alps (pronounced Allups) to beat this." 
 
 I nodded approval of this sentiment and closed one of 
 the days that I shall remember long among many days of 
 travel, by arriving at the city of Nelson, which prides it- 
 self upon being " the most important city in the interior 
 of the province." 
 
 Nelson is charmingly situated on a commanding emi- 
 nence overlooking the broadening Kootenay. If the 
 river has not already become the lake of the same name 
 at this point it seems to be about two miles to the opposite 
 bank which is also flanked by high mountains. One 
 climbs a hill from the wharf or station to the hotel, 
 further up the hill if he go to the business section, still 
 further if he venture into the suburbs, and finally, if 
 he continue to climb, he is ascending that wonderful 
 mountain where is located the Silver King mine from 
 
218 Sunset Canada 
 
 which over $10,000,000 of treasure has been taken and 
 to which Nelson owes its existence. Manifold reasons 
 why a city should be situated at this point now exist and 
 are plainly apparent, it is at the convergence of lake sys- 
 tems and it is claimed that over twenty-five million dol- 
 lars' worth of ore has been taken from the district which 
 would have caused some center of population to arise in 
 the district; but the early days of the Silver King decided 
 the location of this center. Nelson seems to be but a 
 growth of yesterday, yet in general physical characteris- 
 tics it has much that would make favourable compari- 
 son to many older municipalities. Also, it has much that 
 long ago should have made it a favourite rendezvous of 
 British Columbia tourists. " Perhaps we've been too 
 busy looking after other things to think of visitors," 
 explained one man of Nelson ; " we know that the scenery 
 will be here after we have taken out the ore." 
 
 But the people of Nelson delight in quoting: "God 
 made Switzerland and then He made British Columbia," 
 they like to compare the location of their city to Lucerne, 
 to think of the Alps as being inferior to the Selkirks, 
 which are the dominant feature of the Kootenay land- 
 scape. " We have the climate of Italy and the verdure of 
 the Emerald Isle " is another favourite claim. These 
 manifold attractions, they believe, will ultimately bring 
 the tourist hordes in this direction, because Nelson has 
 command of seven water and rail routes of entrance and 
 departure, already it has land and marine liveries, out- 
 fitting stores and hotels; it is the natural point of depart- 
 ure for excursions to many mountains, lakes and rivers. 
 For the present, however, nobody seems to have much 
 time to spend upon the development of this tourists' 
 Happy Hunting Ground. Guides may be obtained in 
 
'' The Tour of the Lakes " 219 
 
 Nelson and all equipment for the grand tour afield ; those 
 who desire to avail themselves of opportunities offered 
 may do so, those who require further encouragement must 
 wait. At the present time there is very little in Nelson 
 itself to attract or hold the tourist's attenion. The entire 
 city thought seems to be upon mining and mining pros- 
 pects. It is reflected in the newspapers, as editors usually 
 find out what their readers want and then give it to them. 
 Thus, whole pages of a Nelson newspaper are given over 
 to comment upon ore, metal and mining matters that 
 would be bewildering to the average community, on the 
 prairie for instance, where the principal topic is wheat, or 
 to maritime peoples where similar space is devoted to 
 boating and fishing. Columns and columns are printed 
 that relate to rather technical reports of ore deposits and 
 geological formations. Presumably, people want to know 
 anything and everything in regard to the principal source 
 of wealth of the district. Here, as in other mining dis- 
 tricts, agriculture will follow when the mines have con- 
 tributed their treasure and when the forests have been 
 leveled. 
 
 The great lure of hunters in the Kootenay district is 
 the mountain goat, and while he seems to be almost as 
 isolated and rare as the musk-ox and must be sought for 
 in regions where he is known to live, this country, in- 
 cluding all the peaks northward beyond the main line of 
 the railroad, is one of his favourite abiding places. 
 Every man of Nelson who makes any pretentions to 
 being a hunter has at least one trophy of a successful shot. 
 Few who come here and are properly equipped and 
 guided into the mountain fastnesses on this errand will 
 be disappointed. The splendid snow-white animal which 
 seems to be so rare, is in reality plentiful if one takes the 
 
220 Sunset Canada 
 
 time, patience and energy to follow him to his natural 
 home among the snowdrifts and steep crags of the 
 mountain summits. Flocks of these coveted creatures, 
 including a dozen or more, are frequently encountered not 
 far from Nelson; but always after strenuous climbing 
 and scrambling along difficult trails or on mountains that 
 have no trails. 
 
 The book classic of Nelson is Hornaday's Camp-Fires 
 in the Canadian Rockies. Fishing is excellent in the 
 entire neighbourhood, beginning at the piers in front of 
 the city and extending in all directions over many lakes 
 and streams, and naturally claims many devotees ; but 
 the principal thought of the amateur sportsman is the 
 bagging of mountain goat. Hornaday's very chatty and 
 informing volume, which relates primarily to the sub- 
 ject, the experiences of a naturalist and animal lover on 
 the trail of this animal, finds its place on library tables, 
 office desks and in lounging-rooms of Nelson residences, 
 where the latest novels may be unheard of and where 
 these experiences in goatland form a never-failing topic 
 of conversation. In reality, the mountain goat is a re- 
 markable animal and provides as good hunting as may 
 be found on this continent. " In its physical aspects," 
 says Hornaday in this epic volume, " the mountain goat 
 is both striking and peculiar. In September it is bril- 
 liantly white, and its coat is as immaculate as a new fur 
 coat fresh from the hands of the furrier. From nose to 
 tail it is newly combed and without spot or stain. It 
 seems as white as newly fallen snow, but in direct com- 
 parison with snow there is a faint cream-like tint. It is 
 the only wild hoofed animal in the world (s. f. a. k.) 
 which is pure white all the year around ; for in spring and 
 summer the white mountain sheep stains his coat very 
 
" The Tour of the Lakes ** 221 
 
 badly. The pelage of a mountain goat is the finest and 
 softest and also the warmest to be found on any North 
 American hoofed animal except the musk-ox. In Sep- 
 tember the rain coat is not fully developed, and the fine 
 pelage which covers the sides is almost as soft as down. 
 As winter approaches, the fine hair of the undercoat seems 
 to stop growing, but the coarser and straighter hair of the 
 raincoat keeps on until it has attained such luxuriant 
 length that the animal takes on a shaggy appearance. 
 Late in November this reaches its full length. Even in 
 September the beard and knee breeches are of good length, 
 and these, with the queerly rounded crests, on the shoul- 
 ders and on the hind-quarters, contain the only hair of 
 the whole coat that is coarse and harsh. The goat is 
 very stockily built — for stability and strength rather 
 than for agility and speed. The long spinal processes of 
 his dorsal vertebrae give him a hump somewhat like that 
 of a bison; and, like a bison, he carries his head low, 
 and has short, thick legs, terminating in big hoofs. His 
 body is big and full and his sides stick out with plenty. 
 He can carry his head above the line of his neck and 
 shoulders, but he seldom does so save when frightened 
 or when looking up. His horns are jet black, round, very 
 smooth for the terminal half and sharp as skewers. 
 When the goat fights, he gets close up to his assailant's 
 fore-quarters, and with a powerful thrust diagonally up- 
 ward punctures his enemy's abdomen. In attacking, the 
 movements of the goat are exceedingly jerky and spas- 
 modic, advancing and whirling away again with the 
 quick jumps of the modern prizefighter. The horns are 
 not long, usually ranging in length from nine to eleven 
 inches by five and three-fourths inches in basal circumfer- 
 ence. The longest pair on record is owned by Mr. Clive 
 
222 Sunset Canada 
 
 Phillips-Wolley of Victoria, B. C, and its length is eleven 
 and one-half inches." 
 
 James McGregor, a photographer of Nelson, last year 
 shot what his guide, George Sarver, has always called 
 " Big Billy " and which comes close to being a " record " 
 goat by actual measurements, although several larger ones 
 have been " reported " at various times. " It is impossi- 
 ble to tell what his live weight was," said McGregor as 
 he pointed to the big skin spread out on the floor of his 
 studio. " We didn't have scales up there where we got 
 him and it was too much to try to pack his carcass down 
 the mountain. His horns are ten and a half inches long, 
 over an inch shorter than Hornaday says is the record ; 
 but I am certain that he weighed over three hundred 
 pounds. It was pretty stiff climbing to get up to where 
 we found him. We were up to our necks in snow several 
 times during the day and it was June ; but that's hunting ! 
 
 * Big Billy ' was worth it. He was just under eight feet 
 long from nose to tip of tail and, as you see, there is a 
 coat eight inches long at the back. I didn't think he was 
 a goat at all, when I first saw him, although I have come 
 upon a good many of them in my time ; but Sarver asked : 
 
 * Did you ever see horns like those on any other animal? ' 
 So I crept to a ledge and landed him." 
 
 Beautiful blankets and rugs were formerly made from 
 the wool of these goats by the Indian women, and perhaps 
 they are still woven, but the fine specimens in the col- 
 lection of the Provincial Museum at Victoria were not 
 apparently of recent manufacture. The process is thus 
 described by the Guide to the Anthropological Collection : 
 
 " The dried skins of native white-haired dogs, or of the 
 mountain goat being ready, a quantity of burnt diato- 
 maceous earth is crumbled over the woolly hair and beaten 
 
" BIG BILLY," THE " RECORD " MOUNTAIN GOAT. 
 
*' The Tour of the Lakes ** 223 
 
 in with sword-shaped sticks of maple, so as to absorb the 
 grease and allow the threads of wool to bind well during 
 spinning. The wool is then removed with knives, or 
 pulled out after moistening the skins and ' sweating ' 
 them to loosen the roots. It is now made up into loose 
 threads, by rolling either on the actual thigh or an arti- 
 ficial one, covered with sheeting. Two baskets are filled 
 with the thread, and from each is taken an end to be 
 twisted together by means of large spinning wheels, which 
 seem to have invariably been made of the large leaved 
 maple, many of them well carved with designs of the pro- 
 tecting spirit of the owner. To get sufficient tension the 
 combined threads before being attached to the spinning 
 apparatus, are passed over a beam or through a perforated 
 stone or carved bird, fastened to the end of the loom." 
 
 There are many other kinds of game in the Kootenay 
 country, mountain sheep, bears (black and grizzly), mar- 
 ten, wolverine, land otter and porcupine being among 
 those most prized by sportsmen. 
 
 Nelson people appreciate and take advantage of their 
 favourable opportunities for water sports. There are 
 many motor boats, canoes and pleasure craft of various 
 description, which seem to dot the water from early 
 morning until far into the evening. Racing shells are 
 usually in practice at sunset and frequent regattas add 
 competitive interest. Distance craft go as far as Bon- 
 ner's Ferry, Idaho, a distance of one hundred and sixty- 
 eight miles, but as the water area of Nelson's neighbour- 
 hood is over two hundred square miles even this is not 
 counted a great distance. 
 
 It is the rule for steamers to start down Kootenay Lake 
 at an early hour in the morning, so it is the custom for 
 passengers to go aboard the night before, also making 
 
224 Sunset Canada 
 
 it convenient for those who arrive by the night train 
 and do not plan to spend more than one night at Nelson. 
 One should beware not to oversleep, however, and when 
 the wheels of the steamer begin to turn shortly after 
 sunrise, he will miss much on a route that provides a de- 
 lightful panorama for each moment of the long trip to 
 Kootenay Landing if he be not above deck. As on Okan- 
 agan Lake, the steamer crosses from one side of the lake 
 to the other throughout the half -day's voyage. Fruit- 
 raising is becoming one of the principal industries and 
 capital orchards are rapidly taking the places of the pine 
 forests along the benches of the sloping banks, giving rise 
 to many small towns and villages, each of which is 
 visited by the steamer on " Flag Day," which as on Okan- 
 agan appears to be every day. The pioneer fruit-grower 
 of the Kootenay is said to have been a Scotchman who 
 observed that mining would " peter out " in time, so he 
 decided to experiment with an orchard. A rancher of 
 the district had grown fruit in an earlier day but his suc- 
 cess had been forgotten by those who had followed the 
 " boom." It was only about twenty-five years ago that 
 this experiment was made, but to-day Kootenay fruit is 
 shipped in large quantities to Australia and England. 
 The district has not been developed as Okanagan has been, 
 but it undoubtedly has a future. Before " development " 
 has taken place, however, the district may be fully as 
 interesting to the tourist as it is likely to be afterwards, 
 when cities take the places of timberland and those thinly 
 settled hamlets where only an occasional bungalow is seen 
 among the trees. 
 
 As the steamer leaves Nelson it plunges immediately 
 into the widening lake which has the lofty and eternally 
 snow-covered Selkirks for its background. It soon 
 
*' The Tour of the Lakes '' 225 
 
 crosses to Balfour where the Canadian Pacific railway 
 has constructed a mammoth hotel " with the water at 
 the front door and the mountains at the rear." At sev- 
 eral other stopping-places there are smaller hotels which 
 cater to local vacationists, rather than the *' foreign " 
 tourists, but any one of which is an ideal location, ofifer- 
 ing many varieties of sport for the holiday-maker. 
 
 The steamer's passenger list is made up of about equal 
 numbers of excursionists, miners and prospectors, because 
 the latter realize that there remains much treasure in 
 these hills only " waiting to be found." They leave us 
 at the crude little landing-stages and hike away up the 
 canyons and valleys or up the steep mountains into the 
 wilderness — assuredly the most optimistic of men, 
 spurred on by great ambition and by the recollection that 
 *' what has happened in Nelson may happen again in the 
 vicinity." As we sat on deck and the steamer wheeled 
 back into deeper water, after dropping off these fortune- 
 hunters, many of whom were expecting to be gone many 
 weeks and who were bent under heavy packs of provisions 
 and prospecting implements, we waved them the " good 
 luck " which they seemed to deserve. It was like cruis- 
 ing along the coasts of Africa and dropping off ship- 
 mates who were starting for the interior to become mis- 
 sionaries, ivory-hunters or searchers for rubber. But 
 there was this difference : instead of the malarial swamps 
 of the tropics, these men of Kootenay were going into 
 the crisp, pine-perfumed and life-giving air of the moun- 
 tains. One almost envied them the experience, with no 
 thought of their future fortune. 
 
 I heard much interesting conversation on the deck of 
 this steamer. For example, one veteran said that he 
 never had seen a railroad. He went overland to Nelson 
 
226 Sunset Canada 
 
 in the early days, and he had been in the bush near 
 where he embarked since the railroads entered the city 
 by the Silver King. He declared there were many others 
 like him in these mountains. " They've been looking for 
 gold all this time," he said. "Discouraged? Never! 
 Perhaps you feel a little down in the mouth some days, 
 but you go along and perhaps find ' colour.' That's 
 enough encouragement to keep you going another year; 
 and after you have been back there for a couple of years 
 you don't care to come out until you have found what 
 you are looking for." 
 
 There were three men in a group, one old and the 
 others young. The old man had always claimed and still 
 maintained that he was with a group of prospectors many 
 years ago when they located a fine ledge of copper about 
 twenty miles inland from a point on the lake which he 
 thought he could remember. None of the original party 
 had money enough to " work " the find and they failed to 
 interest others. The rest of the party were dead, so the 
 young men were taking the old man to try to locate or re- 
 locate the ledge. The steamer was stopped when the old 
 man pointed to a canyon, they had brought along a row- 
 boat, so they entered it and were started toward the shore 
 as our stern-wheeler took us away from them toward the 
 next " regular stop." 
 
 The end of the lake at Kootenay Landing does not 
 appear to be the end, for the port consists of a huge trestle 
 of logs that extends into deep water and the swamp lands 
 abound in channels and estuaries that are usually full 
 from melted snows in the neighbouring mountains. 
 From this point all sorts of tours are available to the 
 traveler. He may have planned to make connections 
 over the Crow's Nest into Alberta or the United States, 
 
'' The Tour of the Lakes " 227 
 
 or, returning to Balfour, he may continue the lake tour 
 to Kaslo and Lardo, visit the beautiful country around 
 Windermere Lake and pass among the Selkirks and 
 Rockies, beside the Columbia and Kootenay rivers, to 
 Golden on the main line. Another point of interest to 
 many is Fernie, where there are huge coal mines and 
 majestic mountains, which as at Nelson and all inter- 
 mediate stations, beckon to the hunter of big game. Or, 
 unwilling to miss even so much of the main line scenery 
 and the celebrated resorts among the Selkirks as would 
 be necessitated by the return via Golden, one may slightly 
 retrace the route to Nelson and West Robson and there 
 take the steamer that will bring him into direct connec- 
 tions for Revelstoke, which will include the never-to-be 
 forgotten cruise on the Arrow Lakes, of which he ob- 
 tained a view when sliding along the ledge outlook of the 
 Kettle Valley route. 
 
 While in this Kootenay country one should not fail 
 to give at least a passing thought to David Thompson, the 
 discoverer of the Columbia River, who often traveled 
 over these waters more than a century ago, established 
 Fort Kootenay, one of the first trading posts in the dis- 
 trict, and who has been called " The greatest geographer 
 of his day in British Columbia." He made several far- 
 reaching and daring journeys into the unknown and left 
 forty-five volumes of manuscript which did much to 
 acquaint the world with the remarkable country, which 
 was practically unknown until he passed this way. The 
 traveler, however, has little thought of history as he 
 passes through the Selkirks and the lakes at their bases, 
 and remembrance of those fur-hunters who paced what 
 was a treacherous wilderness may escape his mind. More 
 interesting seems to be the fact that these beauties of na- 
 
228 Sunset Canada 
 
 ture have been known for over a hundred years and yet 
 the region remains terra incognita to the majority of 
 tourists who visit this corner of the world. 
 
 The Arrow Lakes cruise is the cHmax of this entire 
 side-trip from the main Hne. It begins at four o'clock in 
 the morning, just as the summer sun is lighting the east- 
 ern peaks, but one may go aboard the night before as at 
 Nelson and rise as early as he pleases. In a measure, 
 the general view may be a repetition of what has been 
 seen among the Selkirks on Kootenay Lake; but it is 
 wilder, more rugged and perhaps more enchanting by 
 reason of the narrower channel and a closer intimacy 
 with what lies or seems to lie just beyond the water's 
 edge. During several years I have followed many water- 
 ways for extended or brief periods and after long jour- 
 neys on the Yangtze, Mississippi, Nile, shorter ones on 
 the Rhine, Hudson and other waterways that have 
 long prompted the admiration of travelers, it seems 
 as I look back over rather extensive wanderings that I 
 have formed a rather close acquaintance with rivers. 
 With vivid memories of all of them, however, I have not 
 the least hesitancy in declaring that I encountered more 
 to delight the eye in ten hours on this body of water than 
 in several days on any of the others. The Arrow Lakes 
 trip is superb and supreme among all one-day cruises that 
 the continent has to offer ; and this is written with a full 
 knowledge of the fact that the statement will be challenged 
 by people who vote in favour of some other excursion in 
 the West, the Middle West or on the Atlantic seaboard. 
 Thus it becomes a matter of opinion ; but one who favours 
 another locality will doubtless give it second place. And 
 even this, proves it to be one of the beauty spots on the 
 face of the earth. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 "what would JESUS DO?" 
 
 When I was in Creston, just below the Kootenay 
 Lakes, a man told me that a " hayseed " blew into town 
 one day, visited a real estate dealer and said that he would 
 like to take a look over the Kootenay Valley land. The 
 dealer paid very little attention to him, because, as he 
 afterwards related, he could not see any " ready money " 
 in the man's appearance. 
 
 "About what kind of property — how much would 
 you invest here, if you liked what you saw? " he asked at 
 length. 
 
 " Oh, if I liked the property, anything from $10,000 
 up to $100,000." 
 
 " You're Peter Veregin ! " gasped the dealer, and the 
 plainly dressed man, who had a scrubby beard over his 
 face and wore a big slouch hat, nodded. 
 
 When I was in Vancouver, a man high in officialdom 
 said to me : " I consider Peter Veregin and his crowd 
 the most remarkable human exhibit that we have in Brit- 
 ish Columbia. What they have accomplished is astound- 
 ing to an impartial and unprejudiced observer." 
 
 At Nelson a business man told me that he believed 
 Peter Veregin and his " Dooks " — as they are popularly 
 known in the region — were about a half-century ahead 
 of the rest of the world, and perhaps more than that, in 
 view of the European war. 
 
230 Sunset Canada 
 
 On a train in the southern part of the province a chance 
 acquaintance in a smoking compartment told me that he 
 knew the Doukhobors well because he had many business 
 transactions with them and I asked him what he thought 
 of them. " When people work, are healthy, have no de- 
 sire to become rich — and sing, you may rest assured 
 that they are sound morally and of the right sort," he 
 explained. 
 
 I recalled that Leo Tolstoi wrote : " Notwithstanding 
 the insignificance, illiterateness and obscurity of the 
 Doukhobors, we cannot but see the vast importance of 
 that which is taking place among them. Christ's disciples 
 were just such insignificant, unrefined, unknown people, 
 and other than such the followers of Christ cannot be. 
 Among the Doukhobors, or rather ' Christians of the 
 Universal Brotherhood ' as they now call themselves, 
 nothing new is taking place, but merely the germinating 
 of that seed which was sown by Christ eighteen hun- 
 dred years ago; the resurrection of Christ himself. . . . 
 It may be, though I doubt it, that the movement of the 
 Christian Universal Brotherhood w^ill also be stamped out, 
 especially if society itself does not understand the im- 
 portance of what is taking place and does not render 
 brotherly aid; but that which this movement represents, 
 that which has been expressed in it, will certainly not 
 die, cannot die, and sooner or later will burst forth into 
 the light, will destroy all that is now crushing it, and will 
 overcome the w^orld." 
 
 I read somewhere that the Doukhobors *' are no more 
 fanatical than Russian peasants who remained in their 
 own country." Of some of these the Raskolniks for 
 example, Merejkow^ski writes : " Seven thousand years 
 after the creation of the world, said they, the second 
 
" What Would Jesus Do? " 231 
 
 coming of Christ will take place ; and should it not hap- 
 pen, we will burn the gospels themselves ; as for the other 
 books, it is not worth believing them. And they left 
 their houses, lands, goods and cattle and every night went 
 out into the fields and woods, put on clean shirts and 
 shrouds, laid themselves in coffins hollowed out of tree 
 trunks, and saying Mass, waited expecting at every mo- 
 ment the trumpet call of the Judgment. Such was their 
 idea of ' Meeting Christ.' " 
 
 A man at Nelson told me of an alleged case in which 
 a Doukhobor boy was accidentally struck in the face by 
 an ax. His father speedily took him to a physician who 
 removed an eye and dressed the W'Ound. The physician 
 presented his bill, but the community would not pay it, 
 because they said the man had sought the services of the 
 physician without permission; he had been expelled for 
 this action and would not be received again until he 
 repented. 
 
 I heard rumours that the Dominion of Canada had 
 recently made an official examination into the affairs of 
 the community and all who mentioned the subject were 
 insinuating that affairs had reached a pass where an 
 official inquiry was a good thing. Not one of them re- 
 lated the fact, which I afterwards learned, that the official 
 report was to effect that not one single case of immor- 
 ality had been discovered and that the greater part of the 
 report was given to rather extravagant praise of what the 
 investigator had seen. 
 
 I glanced into a volume about Canada written by an 
 Englishman who mentioned the Doukhobors as " deeply 
 religious, but with a blind, mystic, superstitious religion, 
 which is impervious to reason. They live in daily ex- 
 pectation of the Messiah." Continuing, he said that 
 
'1 w — 
 
 / 
 
 232 Sunset Canada 
 
 when Lord Minto was governor general of Canada he 
 made a horseback tour from Edmonton by way of Bat- 
 tleford to Saskatoon. " The Doukhobors hearing of the 
 coming of a great man, were with difficulty restrained 
 from greeting Lord Minto as divine." 
 
 I recalled that before coming to Canada my impression 
 of the Doukhobors had been gained chiefly from sensa- 
 tion-loving newspapers in the United States that gave 
 much space to the Russian peasants some years ago when 
 it was reported that they had stripped off their clothing 
 and started out on the prairie " to meet the Messiah." 
 My idea was doubtless the general opinion of American 
 readers who swallowed at a gulp exactly what certain 
 officials wanted them to swallow, so that there would be 
 no publicity given to the reverse side of the picture — 
 exactly why the Doukhobors started on that pilgrimage, 
 a page of history that is no credit to Canada. 
 
 Everywhere I heard something about the Doukhobors 
 when I was in British Columbia; and what I heard was 
 very confusing and shed very little light upon the truth. 
 They were ignorant Russian fanatics, I was told on one 
 hand ; on the other, I was informed that they were proving 
 the sound logic on which their religious beliefs were 
 founded by enjoying an orgy of prosperity. Neither 
 was true, as I found out one morning when I arrived at 
 the little station of Brilliant in the Valley of Consola- 
 tion, which is their headquarters. On the platform there 
 was some confusion for a couple of moments because 
 several persons were departing and good-bys were being 
 said; but when the train drew away all was soon quiet 
 again. The little crowd, every person of which was 
 dressed in Russian peasant costume, the women with 
 full skirts, bright-coloured waists and white handkcr- 
 
*' What Would Jesus Do? '* 233 
 
 chiefs tied over their heads and the men in full trousers 
 and Russian blouses, quickly crossed the track and dis- 
 persed in various directions. From the people I had 
 seen, the language I had heard spoken and the '' loneli- 
 ness " of the place — because I did not know at the time 
 that every one — men, women and children — works if 
 he dwell in a Doukhobor community — I might have 
 fancied that I had alighted at a small station somewhere 
 along the Trans-Siberian Railway. I knew the names 
 of a few of the persons I wanted to see, but I waited for 
 the station agent, who was busy, to ask him questions 
 about directions. And, as I waited, as I glanced across 
 the valley of the rushing Kootenay River, as I saw the 
 splendidly tilled fields of ripening strawberries and other 
 small fruits and vegetables, I wondered how I could have 
 considered the place " lonesome," even for a moment 
 after the train departed. It is the " Valley of Consola- 
 tion " — so named by a band of world-weary pilgrims 
 who have been driven from one side of the earth to the 
 other, because they insist upon living as they believe 
 Jesus Christ would want them to live, and because Chris- 
 tian nations among whom they have tried to dwell in 
 peace have insisted upon military service from their 
 boys and because they would die for their convictions, 
 they have been booted about the earth, grossly libeled and 
 dismissed from consideration, as being " religious fa- 
 natics " who are half mad. The Valley of Consolation! 
 It was not that when they arrived. It was a jungle wil- 
 derness most uninviting to other settlers. But it quickly 
 was transformed into an agricultural haven, for the soil 
 responded to their labours and it became the valley of 
 consolation in fact as well as name, for here the Douk- 
 hobors found a peace from political interference that they 
 
234 Sunset Canada 
 
 have never known in the two hundred years of their 
 existence. 
 
 I knocked at their doors that morning, received a wel- 
 come and stayed with them until the evening train. I 
 went everywhere and I asked questions, some of which 
 may have seemed impertinent; but I wanted to know 
 about them, even if I never told any one else. I wanted 
 to know if I had been duped into a false belief by the 
 newspaper stories I had read concerning them, so in the 
 course of the day I touched upon almost every con- 
 ceivable subject that concerned them in any way and they 
 not only answered me willingly, but convincingly, and 
 I left them believing that they are the most conscientious 
 band of Christians I have ever seen in my life, and that 
 Leo Tolstoi, the man from Nelson and the man from 
 Vancouver were right. They appear to have success- 
 fully solved one of the problems that has tormented the 
 human race for centuries; they know perfect happiness 
 in work that knows no strife for dollars and no rivalry. 
 They are the only Christians I have ever seen vv^ho take 
 the commandment to " love your neighbour as you love 
 yourself " literally, and w^ho practise what they profess 
 to believe. 
 
 As to their " ignorance " and their well-grounded ob- 
 jection to too much education, I am able to meet this 
 widely-circulated libel with the fact that the man who 
 talked to me more than any of the others is a graduate 
 of one of the leading universities of this continent. On 
 this point he said : " We believe that there are too many 
 doctors, lawyers, dentists — and book-keepers, and 
 purely from a social point of view we believe that not 
 enough men are causing the earth to produce food, so 
 our boys are encouraged to become farmers. And we 
 
" What Would Jesus Do? " 235 
 
 reject the kind of education that is received in public 
 schools for other reasons. The way school is taught to 
 children of the present generation, with boy scouting, 
 rifle practice and mihtary drill, we consider it the most 
 pernicious and malicious invention of this age. The 
 manner of educatng the childish mind renounces the 
 teachings of Jesus Christ, who brought peace, love and 
 equality to this earth, which should be instrumental in 
 bringing about the Kingdom of God. Look where we 
 may, we find that it is those very educated men who are 
 the strongest adversaries of the realization of this King- 
 dom on earth, and who are enslaving the plain, working 
 classes of the people. The highly educated and much 
 read capitalists sit tight on the neck of the common people 
 and like parasites keep draining their blood in the most 
 efficient manner. The school teaching is primarily a mat- 
 ter of easy lucre, from the highest to the lowest officials, 
 lawyers, doctors and all manner and species of commer- 
 cial buy and sell men, who have a great need of arithmetics 
 and rapid reckoning in their insatiable greed for easy 
 money and luxury. All these ardent advocates of the 
 light of knowledge are striving to acquire the knowledge 
 for their own gain, in order to have a soft time of it with- 
 out doing anything good and worth while and of any real 
 worth in all their lifetime on earth, which earth they have 
 grabbed up all over the surface. We reject all this, and 
 instead of it we consider spiritual regeneration. School 
 teaching leads in precisely the opposite direction, disin- 
 tegrating men into endless grades and divsions, vying 
 with each other for greed and willing to shed the blood of 
 innocent strange men in warfare. In the life story of 
 Christ we find nothing about His being of scholarly edu- 
 cation. He never enjoined men to build schools and 
 
236 Sunset Canada 
 
 educate children so as to divert them from Nature. 
 Take the Apostles — every one of them was a fisherman, 
 or plain, common people, and yet the glorious record of 
 their lives has come down to us in distant centuries." 
 
 " Then you do not believe in warfare for any reason? 
 I read the other day that Doukhobor women had con- 
 tributed $5,000 worth of strawberry jam to the wives and 
 families of soldiers in the present war," I prompted. 
 
 " We are not only opposed to warfare which takes 
 human lives ; we do not believe in killing anything. We 
 have never tasted meat of any kind and none of our food 
 is cooked in animal fat. You asked me if there was 
 good fishing in the river here; I imagine that fish are 
 plentiful for they abound in this region, but no fish has 
 ever been killed by a Doukhobor; we are absolutely op- 
 posed to killing anything. We desire peace of the soul 
 and love, fraternity and equality for everybody on earth. 
 We not only believe that men should not kill one another ; 
 but many of our number have suffered death for this be- 
 lief in Christian countries. They cannot make us fight; 
 we will die first, just as our fathers did. As to the 
 strawberry jam of which you speak, that was not a war 
 offering, but was given in the hope that it might possibly 
 come to persons who needed it and thus relieve suffering." 
 
 " But in case of universal conscription — if you were 
 forced to fight? You are now subjects of King 
 George? " 
 
 " Our fathers declined to fight for the Czar and are 
 we cowards? We have never taken the oath of alle- 
 giance to King George. Our King is in Heaven, and we 
 acknowledge no other. We are all brothers on this earth. 
 We are of Russian birth, and we live in Canada; but we 
 consider ourselves citizens of the entire world. The 
 
"What Would Jesus Do? " 237 
 
 understanding when we came into Canada was that we 
 would not engage in military service — covered by the 
 Canadian Militia Act, and it has never been required of 
 us. Naturally, we shall decline to serve, come what 
 may." 
 
 On and on I asked questions as we wandered through 
 some of the fields and farms. At the station there is 
 only the canning factory, a community store and a cen- 
 tral office. This seemed the nucleus of the town which 
 I thought might be in process of development. 
 
 " No, there will be no town and no city," replied my 
 informant. ** We do not believe in cities, because there 
 is no need of them. It is convenient to have the office, 
 the community store and the canning factory in a cen- 
 trally located place near the railway. That is why it 
 may appear like a town there. No, our people are tillers 
 of the soil and they live near their work." 
 
 Doukhobor dwellings look like large double brick 
 houses at Brilliant. In each of them dwells from thirty 
 to forty persons, the majority of whom are agricultural 
 labourers. One housewife attends to the cooking, an- 
 other house-work, and the remaining women are employed 
 at the canning factory, the grist mills, they make cloth- 
 ing, spin flax or wool and weave cloth. The labour 
 seems about equal among them. The factory worker 
 comes home and everything is done for her and her fam- 
 ily by the housekeeper and cook as if they were in a 
 boarding-house, and she has no duties in the home. The 
 entire group in one house eats at a common table so that 
 the same meal is prepared for all. 
 
 " So far as possible," continued my guide, " we try to 
 ascertain just what work each individual prefers to do 
 and what he or she is best adapted to do, when there is 
 
238 Sunset Canada 
 
 no preference. Some of the boys prefer the blacksmith 
 shop, some work around our irrigation pumps, or in 
 the canning factory, while the majority, of course, labour 
 in the fields. The principal thing is that every one 
 works, but he does it willingly, gladly. None may say 
 that another shall work a certain number of hours each 
 day. There are certain labours to be performed and 
 there are no shirkers ; but when a man, woman or child 
 desires to quit work for the day, he does so and goes 
 home. Nobody works on Saturday afternoon or Sun- 
 day, however, and as time goes on — well, you asked me 
 what was our ultimate aim and I will tell you, we hope 
 that the time will come when it will be unnecessary for 
 any of us to work more than four days a week, at least 
 not the fatiguing work which most of us perform at the 
 present time." 
 
 Every penny of profit from every Doukhobor activity 
 goes to a common fund. There is no money in circula- 
 tion in the community, for there is no need of any. The 
 cook who desires a sack of flour or a bushel of potatoes, 
 or salt, lettuce, preserves or new dishes to replace those 
 that have been broken, the housewife who desires furni- 
 ture, bedspreads or soap, and the office clerk, agriculturist 
 or factory hand who desires a new suit of clothing, goes 
 to the community store, makes his wants known, and the 
 desired articles are handed to him. The communities in 
 Saskatchewan province, where the soil is better adapted 
 to the raising of cereals, send wheat to the communities 
 in British Columbia who return fruit, vegetables and 
 preserves. The returns from sales of products not re- 
 quired for the use of any of the communities, are placed 
 in the common fund which goes toward the purchase of 
 new land, agricultural implements, live stock, seed, im- 
 
*' What Would Jesus Do? " 239 
 
 --^— ^"-^ = 
 
 provements on buildings, extensions of irrigation ditches, 
 pumps and a thousand incidentals that go to the success- 
 ful operation of a veritable municipality of considerable 
 extent. The exact numbers are not available, partly- 
 owing to the Doukhobors declining (on religious 
 grounds) to keep records of deaths and births; but my 
 informant at Brilliant estimated the present number at 
 between fourteen and sixteen thousand. They own 
 nearly twenty thousand acres of land in British Columbia 
 and have extensive holdings in Alberta and Saskatche- 
 wan. Their houses are models of neatness — again on 
 religious grounds as much as anything — and their 
 bodies are clean, because every house is equipped with a 
 Russian steam bath, in which every individual bathes at 
 least once a week, with the thought that the body is or 
 should be the dwelling-place for Christ on earth and that 
 it must be kept a fit temple to receive Him. Their farms 
 are examples to the farmers of neighbouring towns. 
 Everything that they possess seems to be of the best ma- 
 terial, devoid of all display or luxury and always con- 
 fining itself to what would usually be termed the necessi- 
 ties. They came to British Columbia in 19 lo and estab- 
 lished themselves in the "bush." They reached more 
 eastern provinces when they were practically penniless 
 and Leo Tolstoi and others helped them to cross the 
 ocean. They expected hardships, which they were accus- 
 tomed to in a measure because they had suffered them 
 elsewhere, and regarded it as criminal to cause children 
 to submit to what they might withstand, so when between 
 four and five thousand of them reached Winnipeg there 
 was but one baby among them and no children were born 
 in their community for several 3'ears. They worked and 
 their leaders saved and invested their earnings. To-day 
 
240 Sunset Canada 
 
 they hold property valued at millions of dollars, the 
 houses are full of children, and every one wears the smile 
 of complete happiness. 
 
 "Just exactly what do you believe? " I asked bluntly. 
 " What is it that is so different from what others be- 
 lieve?" 
 
 The question caused no surprise and was answered just 
 as if I had inquired something about strawberry culture. 
 " We know no creed, and only say of ourselves that we 
 are of the faith of Jesus Christ. We acknowledge God 
 as being in three personifications of the One and Unutter- 
 able. We believe that through the memory we assimilate 
 ourselves with God the Father, through the understand- 
 ing with God the Son, through the will with God the Holy 
 Ghost. Our conception of Christ is based on the teach- 
 ing of the Gospels; acknowledging His coming in the 
 flesh. His Works, teaching and suffering; but this is 
 accepted in the spiritual sense, and we affirm that all con- 
 tained in the Gospels should be accomplished in ourselves. 
 We believe in the salvation of man indubitable faith in 
 Christ is necessary; but faith without works is death, as 
 are also works without faith. Baptism consists of a man 
 repenting with a pure and willing heart — the new birth 
 and baptism are one and the same. We regard external 
 baptism as unnecessary as water only washes uncleanli- 
 ness from the external body. We confess our sins in 
 prayer to the heavenly God who forgives them. If we 
 sin against our brethren, we confess before all and ask 
 forgiveness. We condemn the practice of calling our- 
 selves unworthy sinners, making this a boast; when a man 
 has fallen, he should quickly recover himself, ask God's 
 forgiveness and strive not to fall into the same sin again. 
 As to communion, we partake of the eternal, sacred sac- 
 
/7 
 
 '' What Would Jesus Do? *' 241 
 
 raments in the acceptance of God's Word; we do not 
 accept communion in the form of bread and wine which 
 enter the mouth hke ordinary food and are of no avail to 
 the soul. Fasting we regard as not a matter of the kind 
 or quantity of food, but of abstinence from gluttony and 
 other vices. We respect the saints, but do not call for 
 their help, believing that they have pleased God in their 
 own behalf and that we must simply imitate them. We 
 do not indiscriminately count as good all the acts of the 
 saints, as for example when Saint Nicholas struck Arius 
 on the cheek ; we believe that the Word of God had de- 
 serted him. We do not regard marriage as a holy sacra- 
 ment. It is consummated among us by the mutual con- 
 sent of the young couple, their parents' consent and the . ^ 
 consent of the community. As there is no such thing 
 as rank, wealth or position among us, there is little inter- 
 ference in these matters. The parties concerned promise 
 to live together and there are no rites or ceremonies. 
 We commemorate the dead by good deeds and in no other 
 way, never praying for the dead, considering it useless. 
 We do not refer to death as death, but as a change. Pic- 
 tures of great men and of saints ornament our homes; 
 but they should not be worshipped as we consider that a 
 deadly sin." 
 
 " Do you believe in life after death — in the Resurrec- 
 tion? " I asked, as this point had not been touched upon. 
 
 " We believe that if we live as we should live on earth, 
 that is a matter which we may leave entirely to God." 
 
 " Are you expecting the Messiah to come to earth 
 again?" This was the question that I had desired to 
 ask all along, as upon it seems to hinge most of the 
 " gossip " that finds its way into the newspapers when 
 reference is made to the Doukhobors. 
 
242 Sunset Canada 
 
 " Why, bless your soul," said the speaker, " the Mes- 
 siah has already come. He is here and lives in us, if we 
 live as we should live. When we sin. He departs from 
 us; but when we are truly repentant and confess our sins 
 to God, He comes again and takes up His abode within 
 us." 
 
 " But some years ago you started out to meet the Mes- 
 siah on the plains of Saskatchewan," — I ventured. 
 
 " I see you read the newspapers," was the rejoinder, 
 and then came the " explanation "of the celebrated pil- 
 grimage that may better be postponed in this narrative 
 until something more is said of the history of this almost 
 unknown sect in this country and elsewdiere, as it re- 
 lates to what transpired after their entrance into Canada. 
 
 As the Doukhobors are not writers they have no writ- 
 ten history, and it is not known just wdien they originated, 
 but presumably it was some time in the Eighteenth Cen- 
 tury. By the end of the last century their number had 
 become large among the Russian peasantry, and as they 
 were obnoxious to the clergy, which aims to hold the 
 peasantry in hand, a cruel persecution began with the aid 
 of the government. As they worshipped God in the 
 spirit, the outward Church had no meaning for them. 
 Even to the present day they have no church. In in- 
 clement weather they gather in the community hall on 
 Sunday, sing psalms, listen to the interpretation of the 
 Scriptures and engage in a verbal discussion that is open 
 to all. The teachings are founded on traditions which 
 are grouped as the Book of Life, because it lives in mem- 
 ory. It is a compilation from both the Old and New Tes- 
 taments. They consider murder, violence of every kind 
 and everything that is not based on love as opposed to the 
 will of God, and when their conscience tells them that a 
 
" What Would Jesus Do? " 243 
 
 man-made law is opposed to this Will, they defy the 
 authorities. They do not use intoxicants in any form, 
 nor tobacco, they do not swear, nor do anything that most 
 people count " objectionable," as they consider most of 
 these things great sins. Perhaps they have an unfortu- 
 nate name, which literally means " Spirit Wrestlers," 
 and this, in a way, classes them with certain obnoxious 
 sects in Russia ; so they have changed the name to " Chris- 
 tians of the Universal Brotherhood." It is believed that 
 the name Doukhobors was given to the sect as far back 
 as 1785 by the Bishop of Ekaterinoslaff. In 1792, Ko- 
 hovsky, the governor of Ekaterinoslaff, in his report to 
 the higher authorities, said among other things that the 
 Doukhobors were of exemplary good conduct, avoiding 
 idleness and drunkenness, continually occupied with the 
 welfare of their homes and leading a moral life. The 
 Emperor Alexander I, in one of his rescripts concerning 
 the Doukhobors, dated December 9, 1816, said: "All 
 the measures of severity exhausted upon the Spirit 
 Wrestlers during the thirty years up to iSoi, only did not 
 destroy this sect, but more and more multiplied the num- 
 ber of its adherents." He proposed better treatment of 
 them, but his suggestions were of no avail, and under 
 Nicholas I they were banished to Transcaucasia near the 
 Turkish border, where the Committee of Ministers said 
 that they would be obliged to resort to arms to protect 
 their wives and families from the wild tribes — a state- 
 ment of rather grim fact. Moreover, it was a difficult 
 climate into which they were plunged, a district where 
 crops are often killed by early frosts. But the Douk- 
 hobors flourished there for nearly fifty years and founded 
 successful colonies. In 1887 universal military service 
 was declared for the Caucasus. The Doukhobors pro- 
 
244 Sunset Canada 
 
 tested and property worth a half-million rubles was taken 
 from them, after which they were banished to the govern- 
 ment of Archangel, Twelve thousand of them decided 
 not to depart from the traditions of their fathers and 
 declined military service. The night of June 28, 1895, 
 was fixed for the public burning of their arms. The fire 
 was accompanied by the singing of psalms. They were 
 attacked by a troop of soldiers, the report having been 
 given out that they were attempting to burn the city, and 
 although the fires were almost extinguished when the mil- 
 itary arrived, the people were cruelly beaten with whips. 
 A greater persecution than before followed, because Cos- 
 sack troops were given permission to take up residence in 
 Doukhobor homes. Property was stolen and the people 
 were insulted and outraged in brutal fashion, some of 
 the women being beaten with whips and violated. The 
 men were either imprisoned or banished, this time to dis- 
 tricts where not more than two of them were in one vil- 
 lage. In one place one hundred and six deaths took place 
 in one hundred families. Some were so cruelly beaten 
 that they expired before they arrived at the place of exile; 
 many others died in prison. One of them, Michael 
 Scherbinin, was tortured to death by being pounded on a 
 wooden horse in a gymnasium. The world was horror- 
 struck when some of these brutalities were revealed. 
 Men and women were being martyred by Cossack brutes 
 because they were trying to practice the teaching of Jesus 
 Christ ! Leo Tolstoi wrote the Appeal to Reason, which 
 stirred the world, but Russia looked on and did little or 
 nothing to prevent a continuation of the outrages. When 
 petitions and protests proved to be in vain, occurred what 
 at the time seemed to be an incident of small conse- 
 quence. A Siberian exile wrote a letter to a woman 
 
*' What Would Jesus Do? " 245 
 
 of St. Petersburg, who chanced to be travehng in dis- 
 tant provinces on a visit. The exile was Peter Vas- 
 silyevitch Veregin; the woman who received the letter 
 was Alexandra Theodorovna Romanov, Empress of Rus- 
 sia. It was the first time that the man had come to the 
 attention of the world; but his letter not only brought 
 the limelight upon his head, it was the means of setting 
 free many thousands of Christian slaves. I mentioned 
 Veregin's absolute spiritual and temporal authority to a 
 Doukhobor at Brilliant, where there has been some kind 
 of movement to have his name incorporated so that the 
 vast properties of the community may continue in his 
 name after his death and the man replied : " ' Thou 
 art Peter,' said Christ, ' and upon this rock I will build 
 my church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against 
 it.' These were the words of the Saviour. He lived 
 twenty centuries ago and preached by His life to all 
 mankind that the Kingdom of God might be established 
 on earth." 
 
 Peter Veregin is now close to sixty years of age. As 
 the real estate dealer of Creston observed : " He looks 
 like a hayseed " — that is, there is nothing about his ap- 
 pearance or clothing to distinguish him from any of the 
 Doukhobors. But one who studies his face soon realizes 
 that he is a born leader of men, a leader of initiative and 
 force and yet one whose kindliness naturally draws all 
 men to him and holds them. These points of difference 
 to other men were observed by Lookeria Vassilevna, who 
 succeeded her husband as chief of the sect. Peter was a 
 member of a wealthy family and he received a thorough 
 education that fitted him for his important post. On 
 her deathbed his predecessor, who was the sixth leader, 
 pronounced his name ; he accepted the high calling and the 
 
246 Sunset Canada 
 
 '^ 
 
 people accepted him in the position. He barely assumed 
 the leadership, however, than he began a movement of 
 more persuasive resistance to the Russian Government's 
 system of compulsory military service. He was soon 
 seized by the authorities and exiled to Siberia for five 
 years. When the five years had expired the term was 
 extended to ten years, and when this time had passed an- 
 other five were added, and it was finally sixteen years be- 
 fore he was given his liberty. He continued to write 
 pastoral letters to his flock, however, and some of these 
 are greatly treasured to-day; his authority was supreme, 
 although he was forcibly held at Obdorsk, Siberia, long 
 after the other Doukhobors had been permitted to leave 
 Russia. 
 
 Peter Veregin's celebrated letter that was instrumen- 
 tal in gaining freedom for his flock, through the inter- 
 cession of the Empress, was as follows : " May God 
 Almighty preserve thy soul in this life as well as in the 
 future age, sister Alexandra. I am a servant of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, dwelling in the testimony and glad 
 tidings of His Truth. Have been in exile since 1886, 
 and hail from the Trans-Caucasian Doukhobor settle- 
 ment. The word *' Doukhobor " should be understood in 
 this sense, that we profess God in the spirit and with 
 our soul. (See — the Gospel; the meeting of Christ 
 with the Samaritan woman at the well.) I beseech thee, 
 sister Alexandra, pray thy husband Nicolas to spare the 
 Christians in the Caucasus from persecutions. It is to 
 thee I appeal, because I think thy heart is more turned 
 toward God. And in those places women and children 
 are now suffering the hardest. Hundreds of men, hus- 
 bands and parents, are confined in jails, while thousands 
 of families are dispersed among the native mountain 
 
PETER VEREGIN, HEAD OF DOUKHOBORS. 
 
*' What Would Jesus Do? " 247 
 
 villages where the population is incited by the authorities 
 to treat the Doukhobors roughly, and this tells especially 
 cruelly upon the Christian women! And lately they 
 started imprisoning women and children as well. Our 
 guilt lies in our endeavouring to become Christians as best 
 we can; possibly we fall short of true conception in some 
 of our actions. Thou art probably acquainted with the 
 teachings of Vegetarianism. We are followers of these 
 humanitarian views. Lately we gave up using flesh as 
 food, to drink wine and have forsaken much of that which 
 is conducive to loose living and befogs the radiance of 
 human soul. And since we do not kill animals, we in no 
 case regard it as possible to deprive men of life. If we 
 were to deliberately kill an ordinary man, be he a robber 
 even, we would feel like resolving to assassinate Christ. 
 
 " And therein lies the chief cause of the trouble. The 
 State requires our brethren to be trained in the use of 
 fire arms, in order to become proficient in man-slaughter. 
 Christians will not consent to this. They are put into 
 prisons, beaten and starved ; while their sisters and moth- 
 ers are savagely outraged, frequently with profane rail- 
 lery : " And where is your God, Why does he not help 
 you? " (Our Lord in Heaven and on earth, and fulfils 
 His will. See Psalms of David 113 and 114.) 
 
 " And this is all more painful because it is all perpe- 
 trated in a Christian country. Our community in the 
 Caucasus consists of about twenty thousand souls. Can it 
 be possible that such a handful of people could injure the 
 organism of the State if the soldiers were not recruited 
 from among them? Although soldiers ARE recruited 
 now, but uselessly. Thirty men are held in the fortress 
 of Ekatherinograd in the penal battalion, where the 
 authorities are only tormenting themselves by torturing 
 
248 Sunset Canada 
 
 A 
 
 them. We regard man as the temple of the living God 
 and will on no account prepare ourselves for killing him, 
 though for this we ourselves were to be threatened by 
 death. The best way of dealing with us would be to 
 let us settle in some little corner of the country, where we 
 might dwell in peace, engaged in pursuit of our toil. 
 We will discharge all the State obligations in the form 
 of taxes, only we can not serve as soldiers. Should the 
 Government deem it impossible to consent to this, then 
 let them give us the freedom to migrate into one of the 
 foreign countries. We would willingly go to England, 
 or the most convenient resort for us would be America, 
 where we have a multitude of brethren in our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. From the fullness of my heart I pray the Lord 
 for the welfare of thy family — Christ's servant Peter 
 (living in exile in the Government of Tobolsk)." 
 
 The Russian authorities were slow to act, however, 
 even with the pressure that was brought upon them. It 
 seemed that they wanted revenge, as their plottings had 
 been exposed to the world. Peter Veregin was in con- 
 stant communication with Tolstoi and the latter continued 
 to thunder his denunciations through the press, notably the 
 London Times. " The great heat and the unaccustomed 
 climate are doing their work," wrote a Russian officer 
 from the Caucasus at this time. " There is not a single 
 healthy looking face. As these people are, by nature, of 
 a strong constitution, this feverish yellowness and pale- 
 ness is the more striking. Some of them are so ex- 
 hausted by the fever as to lose all strength and conscious- 
 ness. It is clear to every one that they are dying out. 
 The surest way for the government to get rid of them." 
 And there was truth in what he wrote, for over one 
 thousand of them died of fever and lack of food. 
 
'' What Would Jesus Do? " 249 
 
 In March, 1898 came the joyful news that they would ^ 
 
 be permitted to leave the country. Tolstoi contributed ''f 
 the profits from his great novel Resurrection for the 
 purpose, and generous friends elsewhere assisted in the 
 exodus. The Doukhobors wished to go to America, or, 
 failing that, to the island of Cyprus, choice finally falling 
 on the latter, as they felt it imperative that they take 
 advantage of the official ruling without delay, and there 
 were no funds to carry seven or eight thousand persons 
 across the ocean. But difficulties arose and only one 
 thousand, one hundred twenty-six immigrants reached 
 the Mediterranean island. They rejoiced in their free- 
 dom, however, and immediately laid plans for reviving 
 their communal life. They worked very hard, erecting 
 mud houses and putting the surrounding fields under cul- 
 tivation. But the climate was trying and caused the 
 death of ninety of the number. Still, they toiled, and 
 considered Cyprus at least a resting-place in their long 
 pilgrimage for freedom. Friends visited Canada and 
 in time overcame the barriers that were at first raised 
 against the sect on account of their refusal to participate 
 in military service of any kind, and January 23, 1899, 
 the steamer Lake Huron arrived at Halifax, bearing the 
 first party of two thousand, one hundred Doukhobors. 
 In the second party came one thousand, nine hundred 
 seventy-four of them and they continued to come on later 
 ships. They were given assistance by the railroads and 
 others and finally reached their new home on the western 
 prairies, taking land under the homestead laws which 
 gives one hundred and sixty acres to any man from the 
 age of eighteen upward. Two thousand homesteads 
 were accepted in this way and every one immediately 
 turned his hand to work, plowing the land and sowing 
 
250 Sunset Canada 
 
 grain. Peter Veregin gained his liberty and joined his 
 flock in Saskatchewan in 1902. 
 
 Things were moving along nicely, but one day an 
 official arrived and reported that " the government re- 
 grets to perceive that the majority of the Doukhobors, 
 after seven years' residence in Canada, still continue to 
 till their land communally and declining to acquire the 
 citizenship of this country. . . . Men born outside of the 
 Doukhobor persuasion demand that the Doukhobors 
 should not be allowed to go on holding their land without 
 cultivating the same and without adopting the citizen- 
 ship of the country." 
 
 It was the old, old story, " men born outside of Douk- 
 hobor persuasion " were beginning their persecution in 
 Canada, as they did in Russia. The success of the Douk- 
 hobors won by diligent labour always aroused jealousy. 
 The government said it represented the will of the ma- 
 jority of the people. And the " will of the people " 
 threatened that the land held by Doukhobors, after a small 
 allotment had been made to them, would be confiscated. 
 Representatives of the community went to the Dominion 
 capital declaring that they were deeply grateful to Can- 
 ada for having extended its hospitality, but that they had 
 government warrant for what they had done since arrival. 
 But it was of little avail. The government said that 
 Doukhobors who took the oath of allegiance would re- 
 ceive one hundred and sixty acres; those who declined, 
 only fifteen acres. 
 
 At this very important moment in their lives occurred 
 the celebrated " pilgrimage to meet the Messiah " that 
 gained publicity throughout the world. The impression 
 was given out that they were a troublesome lot of re- 
 ligious fanatics who gave the authorities much trouble. 
 
"What Would Jesus Do?'^ 251 
 
 In reality, it was all their mighty protest against what 
 they considered persecution. Stunned by what they con- 
 sidered official treachery, they gave away everything, even 
 threw off the clothes from their backs and started out, 
 as a protest, with no possessions whatever. Their des- 
 perate straits led them to declare that they did not care 
 what became of them. Just what happened in those try- 
 ing days may be imagined. The Doukhobors were 
 clapped into jails and madhouses. They suffered much 
 as they had suffered in Russia ; and all the time the North 
 American continent was led to believe that the Dominion 
 authorities were wrestling with a large band of lunatics. 
 Peter Veregin had been in British Columbia. I have 
 seen it printed that he had purchased fifteen thousand 
 acres of land; at Brilliant the Doukhobors told me it 
 was nearer twenty thousand acres. Again they moved 
 on ; and again they broke new soil and put it under culti- 
 vation, making their community an example, or model, on 
 which all agricultural communities might be fashioned 
 with profit. Men " born outside of the Doukhobor per- 
 suasion " are again at work. One recalls the animosity 
 of the Russian clergy long ago. And the Doukhobors, 
 while happy in their labours, are wondering how long this 
 happiness will continue. They are wondering if it will 
 be necessary for them to move on again. Peter Veregin 
 stands in the center of a large gathering in a grove or on 
 the hillside on Sunday and addresses them sometimes 
 for four, five, or even six hours ; and they follow him im- 
 plicitly — nn spiritual and temporal affairs. They chant 
 psalms, and on Monday morning they turn to their work 
 not knowing from past experiences when their labour 
 shall have proved in vain, because their motto of life is: 
 " What would Jesus do? " 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THROUGH ANCIENT GORGES 
 
 Revelstoke is the city that precedes the great phinge 
 into the ravine and canyons of the Selkirks. It is where 
 the locomotive receives its water and fuel, where the 
 train crew is changed, and where the passenger on trans- 
 continental trains from the West recovers from the sur- 
 prise and wonder of what he has seen, takes a deep breath 
 and launches boldly into one of the colossal amphitheaters 
 of the earth. It has been the habit of tourists to pause 
 no longer than that, a promenade along the station plat- 
 form, perhaps a glance into the corridor of the hotel, 
 which is reached by a long staircase from where the 
 trains stop, an admiring glance toward Mounts Revel- 
 stoke or Begbie, perhaps an effort at speedy appreciation 
 of the well-kept gardens along distant avenues — and 
 the traveler climbs back on the train, seats himself and 
 prepares for the wonderful hours that are soon to follow. 
 Naturally, Revelstoke resents this slight attention from 
 visitors and there is a well-defined movement to alter con- 
 ditions as they exist. That the city and its neighbour- 
 hood possess natural features that should attract and hold 
 visitors nobody doubts ; the people of Revelstoke believe 
 that they have been discriminated against in the generous 
 railway publicity of recent years. That the railway has 
 been the maker of the city, that it maintains it in pros- 
 perity at all seasons is likewise apparent, so the scheme 
 is to retain the railroad yards and divisional equipment, 
 
 252 
 
Through Ancient Gorges 253 
 
 but at the same time let travelers know of scenic attrac- 
 tions, develop trails and roadways to the principal points 
 of interest, and arrange for more elaborate housing and 
 entertainment. 
 
 Probably Revelstoke is the most important commercial 
 center between Vancouver and Calgary along the main 
 line. Locomotives are forever whistling and these 
 screeches echo around the mountain walls that encircle 
 the city. The round-house that lies directly beneath the 
 veranda of the big raihvay hotel is constantly belching 
 smoke into the air. The bells are always tolling on 
 swdtch-engines. All these noises that are tolerated else- 
 where become almost intolerable in this huge granite 
 megaphone. Yet Revelstoke aims to *' combine business 
 with pleasure," as one native of Revelstoke expressed it 
 to me, retain the business activity and also entertain 
 tourists. 
 
 But the two seem to conflict. Smoke, whisdes, the 
 roundhouse, great stretches of the valley spread with 
 freight yards, do not seem to fuse into the picture that 
 delights the eyes, ears or nostrils of a traveler to British 
 Columbia. At least, he demands a hotel removed from 
 the turmoil and bustle. He desires that it be perched on 
 a quiet mountainside, and, as in Switzerland, he does 
 not object to looking down upon a busy village or city; 
 but at night he wants to be still, he demands air that 
 blows fresh from mountain snows straight into his cham- 
 ber windows. All these requirements, says the man of 
 Revelstoke, will be filled if a hotel is built on any one of 
 a thousand available sites located within easy distance 
 from the station. He miay be right, but what seems far 
 more likely is that the city will develop along the lines 
 of " combination " suggested by another man. Greater 
 
254 Sunset Canada 
 
 numbers of tourists may come in the future, because sev- 
 eral splendid projects are on foot for making beauty spots 
 more easily available than they are at present; but it 
 seems the " fate " of Revelstoke to remain a commercial 
 center in future, as it has been in the past. It is a natural 
 railway base and trade center of great " strategic " im- 
 portance. Several new branch railroad lines are con- 
 templated in various directions, the Columbia River will 
 doubtless increase in value as a medium for cargo service, 
 conditions not far away seem likely to favour fruit-grow- 
 ing, there are vast timberlands as yet untouched, mines 
 are constantly being located, which pass their product 
 this way, and two commercial enterprises, the sawmills 
 and the Canadian Pacific railway, have a monthly payroll 
 that brings over $200,000 to local pocketbooks. Tourists 
 may increase in future, but there will be no abandonment 
 of what has given the city its life for the purpose of en- 
 couraging the world to think of it as a mountain resort. 
 " The Capital of the Canadian Alps " is Revelstoke's 
 slogan; but no doubt it will remain the commercial cap- 
 ital, even after the erection of the contemplated $200,000 
 tourist hotel. 
 
 Revelstoke is not a city " set on a hill," but it occupies 
 a site that seems fully as commanding as the mountain- 
 side could be, because it spreads over the floor of a basin 
 that seems to be completely surrounded by mountains, 
 several of which are draped with greenish-white glaciers 
 and capped with snow. There are cutlets and inlets be- 
 tween the mountains, through which rivers flow and 
 where the path is followed by the railroads ; but, in some 
 instances, huge piles of rock stand in front of these 
 passes, and the rivers make sharp curves around the 
 granite screens as if too timid to approach. Over to the 
 
Through Ancient Gorges 255 
 
 south of the city is Mount Begbie, which wears a triple 
 crown of white, reaching seven thousand feet above the 
 valley. A trail leads to it from the city, a popular ex- 
 cursion for local amateur climbers, but one that should 
 not be attempted by the tenderfoot who is deceived by 
 the apparent distance to its crest. Begbie seems to lie 
 "just beyond" the city limits; but one who has made 
 the ascent on three occasions assured me that the base of 
 the mountain is reached after following the trail four 
 miles beyond the city and it is thought to be about 
 eighteen miles to the summit by the trails usually fol- 
 lowed. At the summit there is a clear, white glacier 
 which rewards the climber, and Revelstoke has long 
 cherished a firm belief in a sensational fiction which all 
 who make the ascent endeavour to perpetuate. It is re- 
 lated that many years ago a Frenchman climbed to this 
 ice-field, slipped and fell down a deep crevasse, where he 
 met a horrible death, because the fall did not kill him and 
 he slowly starved to death. Slowly, the ice has crept 
 over his prostrate body during the years that have passed. 
 " On a clear day, when looking over the precipice one 
 may see him there, still grasping his old Hudson's Bay 
 musket " say the tale-bearers, who always find some one 
 to believe them. It is Revelstoke's favourite story and 
 nobody seems to recall just who it was first started what 
 is a preposterous yarn. 
 
 A motor road has been constructed up Revelstoke 
 Mountain, just to the north of the city. This is more 
 popular with visitors than the more difficult trails, and it 
 offers pleasant hours for the excursionist who spends but 
 a day in the city. Here are fields literally carpeted with 
 Alpine flowers, and splendid views of the surrounding 
 country may be obtained on this heavily timbered pile. 
 
256 Sunset Canada 
 
 which, owing to its location in a group of towering peaks, 
 seems to be much higher than it is shown to be in the 
 official measurements. There are other interesting ex- 
 cursions to the Canyon of the Columbia River, to Silver 
 Tip Falls; in fact any of the roadways that lead from 
 the city are certain to bring one to dense forests, unusual 
 rock formations, and, likely as not, pretty waterfalls that 
 are not considered to be of sufficient consequence to have 
 received individual names. 
 
 Just before the railroad enters Revelstoke on the way 
 from Sicamous it penetrates Eagle Pass, which was dis- 
 covered by Walter Moberly of Victoria. When the 
 Canadian Pacific railway was being constructed, rails 
 were laid from the west and from the east, the two sec- 
 tions meeting at the town of Craigellachle, where the late 
 Lord Strathcona drove the last spike November 7, 1885. 
 The mountains seemed to defy the onward approach of 
 the rails, so it was an important discovery when Mr. Mob- 
 erly watched the eagles flying in a certain direction and 
 followed them. " I followed them along the Columbia," 
 he relates, " and I saw them take a big curve. I knew 
 that eagles always follow a stream or make for an open- 
 ing in the mountains, so I found what was wanted, 
 and very appropriately, I think, called the place Eagle 
 Pass." 
 
 Soon after starting eastward from Revelstoke one en- 
 ters a region that corresponds to the great Andean system 
 of South America. The granite giants along the way 
 are known as the North American Cordillera and com- 
 pose the most majestic groupings of the Canadian 
 Rockies. The next few hours of the journey are of as 
 great interest to the geologist as to the casual tourists, for 
 in the rocks are read some of the vital pages in that chap- 
 
Through Ancient Gorges 257 
 
 ter of the Book of Creation which relates to western 
 Canada. 
 
 Charles Camsell says in a Guide to the Geology of the 
 Canadian National Parks a government pubHcation : 
 " Since no one has ever seen mountain ranges in actual 
 process of formation the manner in which they are built 
 must be deduced from a study of their structure. The 
 Rocky Mountains and the Selkirks along the railway line 
 are built out of thick series of sedimentary strata which 
 must have been laid down originally one on top of the 
 other in the sea in a horizontal or approximately hori- 
 zontal attitude. The first step in the formation of the 
 mountains then was the accumulation of these sedi- 
 ments in a sea which covered the present site of the 
 mountains and the floor of which was gradually subsid- 
 ing. The position of this sea was determined as far 
 back as the Cambrian Period, and from that time down to 
 the end of Cretaceous it received sedimentary material 
 mainly from a land area on the west until a thickness of 
 over fifty thousand feet of material was laid down and 
 afterwards consolidated into rock. The second stage in 
 the building of the mountains was the upheaval of this 
 thick mass of strata into a series of parallel folds striking 
 slightly west of north. This was produced by lateral 
 compression directed from the Pacific side and acting 
 very slowly but with enormous force. As the compress- 
 ing force increased the folds were arched higher and be- 
 came more tightly crowded together until they were either 
 overturned or broken and thrust one over the other to- 
 wards the East. The greatest disturbance in the strata 
 of the Rocky Mountains appears to be in the eastern 
 ranges, and as one goes eastward to the prairie this dis- 
 turbance decreases until it dies out altogether. . . . The 
 
258 Sunset Canada 
 
 mountains are not now in the shape that they would have 
 been left if upheaval had been the only agent concerned 
 in their formation. But it is evident that their ridges, 
 peaks and valleys have been carved out of other forms 
 by the agencies of denudation. As upheaval is a slow 
 process, denudation must have begun its work as soon 
 as the crests of the folds made their appearance above the 
 sea, so that the mountain probably never had the full 
 height which the strata, if free from denudation, would 
 have given it. The agents of denudation are running 
 water, frost, wind and glaciers, and by these the ridges 
 are carved into various shapes, valleys eroded out, and a 
 general destruction of the ranges is carried out. For a 
 long time the effect of denudation is to increase the rug- 
 gedness of the mountains and this is the stage at which 
 the history of the Rocky Mountains now is. As time 
 goes on, however, they will be worn lower and lower 
 until they are eventually reduced to the level of the plains. 
 Geologically speaking, the wearing down of a mountain 
 range to the level of the plain takes place in a compara- 
 tively short time, but from a human point of view the 
 process is exceedingly slow." 
 
 The train reaches Albert Canyon and stops long 
 enough for passengers to visit the rim of the great gorge 
 where the oldest rocks of the whole Canadian system are 
 said to lie. Rails have been placed at the ledge so one 
 may go out upon the shelf of rock and look far down 
 where the Illecillewaet River is still wedging its stream 
 deeper and deeper through the ancient aqueduct. The 
 road eastward is bordered by deep valleys heavily tim- 
 bered and the train performs several interesting twists 
 and evolutions as it ascends to the station at Glacier, 
 which the official figures show to be 4,086 feet above the 
 
Through Ancient Gorges 259 
 
 sea. Previous to the last year, the train circled the shelf 
 of a tremendous basin and deposited its passengers at the 
 steps of the hotel which lies only two miles from the 
 base of the Illecillewaet Glacier, one of the nearest rail 
 approaches to a huge tongue of ice on the continent ; but 
 the completion of a tunnel has eliminated this ascent and 
 the train plunges into Mount Macdonald shutting off the 
 bewildering view and making it more conveniently im- 
 perative than before for one to break his trans-mountain 
 journey at Glacier if this has not been done previously. 
 Glacier is the first of the celebrated mountain resorts 
 reached by the eastbound trans-continental trains and 
 the first that usually claims attention from the tourist 
 who expects to make only two or three stops between 
 Vancouver and the plains. At this station he has ar- 
 rived in what is popularly known as the " Canadian 
 Alps." Elsewhere the mountains have been seen from 
 a distance. Sometimes the snowy peaks did not seem 
 far away, because of the cool breezes that swept from 
 their faces and the clear air was deceptive. The story 
 long ago told about the English visitor who emerged 
 from the hotel one morning and fancied he would " take 
 a run up to the summit of a nearby mountain before 
 breakfast," but who did not return from his sprint until 
 too late for the evening dinner has been the actual ex- 
 perience of all strangers in this region. They may not 
 have made the climb, but they were perfectly certain of 
 their ability to do so. In plenty of places further back 
 on the line the mountain peaks seem to be almost at the 
 side of the rails. "How far to that mountain?" asks 
 the tenderfoot. " Ten, fifteen or perhaps twenty miles " 
 comes the answer from one who knows. It was bewilder- 
 ing until one adjusted himself to the new range of vision. 
 
260 Sunset Canada 
 
 But at Glacier the visitor finds himself on the slope 
 of one mountain and within calling distance of several 
 surrounding giants. The hotel is a series of picturesque 
 chateaux and from every window, day or night, one looks 
 out upon massive snow fields that drape themselves over 
 surrounding summits. And most wonderful of all, only 
 two miles distant along an enchanted pathway of pine, 
 waterfalls and Alpine flowers, is the great glacier, which 
 hangs threateningly over the shoulder of Sir Donald, 
 colossal and awe-inspiring, but in reality only a prong 
 from the Illecillewaet ice desert that lies far up in the 
 clouds, seemingly detached from the earth. 
 
 In Glacier the professional or amateur climber might 
 establish his headquarters and make daily ascents for a 
 month without retracing his footsteps. In every direc- 
 tion there are trails. Some of them are fascinating 
 woodland paths, where the government has constructed 
 rustic fences along precipitous cliffs and bridges of logs 
 over turbulent streams. A child might ascend them with 
 safety, for they frequently become bridle paths for those 
 who prefer to ride ponies. There are two such trails 
 which lead to the base of the glacier. Other trails are 
 as well made but call for greater endurance as they seem 
 to be never-ending and the amateur turns back long be- 
 fore he has reached the summit. Still others are difficult, 
 even dangerous if not accompanied by a guide, unless one 
 has been much in the mountains and knows what it is to 
 scale giant rocks as a fly ascends a pane of glass. Scores 
 of the outings that appear upon suggested programs 
 of the Swiss guides are through the trail-less wilderness 
 that is rarely visited by man. 
 
 These tramps into almost unknown are eagerly sought 
 by professional climbers and there are few mysteries of 
 
TRAIL TO THE GREAT GLACIER. 
 
Through Ancient Gorges 261 
 
 the extensive neighbourhood that remain unknown to 
 them. They visit Glacier one season and make a difficult 
 ascent. If they were not mountaineers they might be 
 satisfied; but they go away promising themselves that 
 they will scale a more difficult peak the following year. 
 The hotel shelters many of such persons in summer. 
 They are well known and their " little eccentricity " is not 
 discouraged. Some of the most celebrated mountain- 
 climbers in history have come to a natural death, igno- 
 miniously lying down in bed and falling prey to disease 
 the same as others. The percentage of those who meet 
 death by falling on perilous mountain ledges is compara- 
 tively small. Any of them will assure you of that; and 
 perhaps this is what spurs them on to constantly greater 
 endeavour to mount the unsealed peaks. A disease? 
 Perhaps, but it is also one of earth's greatest pleasures. 
 
 It is unnecessary to be a professional climber, how- 
 ever, to revel in the joys of Glacier and to imagine that 
 one has performed feats of strength and endurance that 
 are smiled upon by hardy climbers and called " baby 
 tricks." Nowhere else on the continent may one alight 
 from a railway train and with so little effort or experi- 
 ence find himself upon the eternal ice of a glacier. In 
 few localities may one step from the train to the midst of 
 such a galaxy of mountain marvels. 
 
 It is usually recorded that the Swiss guides were 
 brought to Canada by the Canadian Pacific rail-way com- 
 pany soon after they built their resort hotels in the moun- 
 tains. In reality, the present guides are the sons of those 
 who came to the new country after the rails had been 
 laid. Their elders have returned to their own Alps and 
 the second and third generation of mountaineers now 
 dwells in the chalets at the litde settlement called " Edel- 
 
262 Sunset Canada 
 
 vveiss," which was prompted by a desire to make the visi- 
 tors feel " at home," in summer and in winter. 
 
 The principal " sight " of Glacier is, of course, the ice 
 field from which the station takes its name. While it is 
 unnecessary to cover the trail in the company of a Swiss 
 guide it is a fine experience to do so, and as one plants 
 his pick in the ice, to hear a popular as well as somewhat 
 technical explanation of the seracs, moraines, tables and 
 neve concerning which every one has scraps of informa- 
 tion, but which looms in interest as the beholder is con- 
 fronted by the ponderous giant creeping into the valley. 
 The afore-mentioned government Guide declares that 
 " the present day glaciers which lie at the head of many 
 of the valleys, both in the Rockies and the Selkirks, are 
 merely the shrunken remnants of the greater glaciers of 
 the Glacial Period." Many observations have been re- 
 corded of the " movement " of the Illecillewaet Glacier 
 within the past few years and from metal plates that have 
 been left in the rocks by surveyors it has been found that 
 the ice has retreated a considerable distance since the 
 building of the railroad. But the same authority is cau- 
 tious of forming premature opinion in this matter and 
 says that " the length of time over which these observa- 
 tions have been made and even since the glaciers were dis- 
 covered, is so short in comparison to the length of time 
 that has elapsed since the Glacial Period was at its maxi- 
 mum that it is unsafe to base any general conclusions as to 
 the stage at which the ice now is, that is to say whether 
 the climate conditions of this part of the earth are ad- 
 vancing toward or retreating from a period of glacia- 
 tion." 
 
 Christiaan Haesler, at your service as Swiss guide, is 
 a native of Interlaken and a young man who declares 
 
Through Ancient Gorges 263 
 
 that he " suffocates " on the prairies. He comes from a 
 race of Alpinists, his grandfather having been a guide 
 when the first European tourists were beginning to make 
 ascents of difificult and remote peaks in Switzerland " just 
 for pleasure." His father was the first guide brought to 
 America by the Canadian Pacific Railway, and after a 
 long career he returned to Switzerland to spend his life 
 in the comparative ease that his previous labours had 
 made possible. Some of his old patrons returned, how- 
 ever, and begged him to accompany them as they were 
 about to undertake a particularly perilous ascent. He 
 held a record for never having met with a serious acci- 
 dent in his life; but the last climb brought him into the 
 pathway of a tremendous snow-slide. Trees were being 
 swept down by the great drift, but the elder Haesler 
 managed to keep "afloat" and above the drifts that 
 would have buried him and his party. When the slide 
 stopped, he was picked up almost unconscious and was 
 found to have suffered a broken leg. " That's nothing," 
 he is reported to have said while it was mending; " and 
 I'm glad I kept my head, because I believe I was the 
 means of saving the others. That's what counts." This 
 narrow escape from death has apparently stirred an old 
 war-horse to action, because he writes to his son that 
 when the war is over there will doubtless be an invasion 
 of Switzerland by hordes of world's tourists and he is 
 anticipating taking up his work again and tempting the 
 fates. 
 
 *' This is a recognized profession with us, you under- 
 stand," said Haesler, Jr., when I asked him how he 
 learned to become a climber. *' We are obliged to un- 
 dergo a rather rigid course of training and preparation 
 in Switzerland. I served other guides as porter before 
 
264 Sunset Canada 
 
 I was permitted to take my examinations, although I had 
 been climbing mountains all my life. Then, when I was 
 ready, an examining board appointed by the Alpine Club 
 and consisting of several scientists as well as profes- 
 sional climbers, gave me my final tests. I passed and 
 received my license from the government when I was 
 twenty-two years of age. But, you see, it was natural 
 for me, it was in the family." 
 
 " When you first arrived in the Rockies was it neces- 
 sary for you to make ' trial ' trips over all the trails where 
 you were later to take tourists? " I asked. 
 
 " Certainly not ! I never made any trips until I had 
 patrons. All mountains are the same in essentials; Alps 
 or Rockies, Andes or Himalayas. The principal thing is 
 to know your business on one mountain and then you'll 
 know it on another. Now you have asked me ques- 
 tions, let me ask one: how do people ever spend their 
 lives on the prairie? If they live there, they could come 
 to the mountains for a part of each year, or I suppose 
 some of them could who do not do so, and I can't under- 
 stand it. People should live in mountains twelve months 
 of the year, I believe, and then mountain-climbing is the 
 best exercise and recreation in the world, if they want 
 to enjoy a holiday." 
 
 A trip of barely secondary interest to that which leads 
 to the Great Glacier is the trail that leads to the Nakimu 
 Caves, a series of caverns that were discovered by a 
 British prospector and hunter, Charles Henry Deutsch- 
 man, in 1904. The region was soon explored in com- 
 pany with the discoverer and described by the Dominion 
 topographer, A. O. Wheeler, in part as follows : " At 
 the time of the first exploration the writer took acetylene 
 bicycle lamps whose bull's-eyes enabled the pitch darkness 
 
CHRISTIAAX HAESLER. SWISS GUIDE. 
 
Through Ancient Gorges 265 
 
 to be pierced to some extent. Magnesium wire also was 
 lighted, and, by its aid, for a brief minute, the interior 
 was bathed in dazzling brightness. Standing on a nar- 
 row ledge that overhangs a black abyss, the eye is first 
 drawn by a subterranean waterfall heard roaring imme- 
 diately on the left. It appears to pour from a dark open- 
 ing above it. Below, between black walls of rock, may 
 be seen the foam-flecked torrent hurtling down the incline 
 until lost in dense shadows. Overhead, fantastic spurs 
 and shapes reach out into the blackness and the entire 
 surroundings are so weird and uncanny that it is easy to 
 imagine Dante seated upon one of these spurs deriving 
 impressions for his Inferno. As the brilliant light goes 
 out the thick darkness makes itself felt, and instinctively 
 you feel to see if Charon is not standing beside you. 
 This subterranean stream, with its unearthly surround- 
 ings, is somewhat suggestive of the Styx, and incidentally 
 supplied the name ' Avernus ' for the cavern of the water- 
 fall. ... On making its exit at the eastern end of 
 Gopher Bridge, Cougar Creek pours down a narrow rock 
 cup for a distance of three hundred fifty feet, when it 
 again disappears in a whirl of flying spray below the sur- 
 face of the valley. It reappears three hundred feet 
 further on at the bottom of a deep gorge, having dropped 
 eighty-five feet while underground. . . . The rock-cut 
 above referred to is narrow, about eight to ten feet wide, 
 and of regular appearance. The upper half presents a 
 series of cascades and falls and the sides show curious 
 small potholes that are in the process of erosion from 
 the soft limestone. It has been named * The Flume ' 
 owing to its resemblance to a millrace. . . . Above the 
 center of the flume, and thirty feet from it, is the entrance 
 to the Mill Bridge series of the caves. This entrance is 
 
266 Sunset Canada 
 
 a mere cleft in the rock strata and is only wide enough 
 to admit of the passage of a man's body. The total 
 length of the underground passageway, accommodating 
 a very considerable volume of water, is four hundred feet. 
 The height varies from a minimum of ten feet to a maxi- 
 mum of twenty-five feet, and the width from three to 
 fifteen feet. At its eastern end it opens to an irregularly- 
 shaped chamber of approximately sixty by seventy feet, 
 with a greatest height of twenty feet. This chamber has 
 been named ' The Auditorium ' by the first exploring 
 party. . . . Faint daylight enters through the passage- 
 way of the waters and serves to make the surroundings 
 look dim and mysterious. The frosts of winter also 
 reach this spot, and in the spring stalactites and stalag- 
 mites, formed of huge icicles, are seen in columnar groups 
 surrounding the dashing waters and extending some dis- 
 tance into the chamber itself. . . . The exit of Cougar 
 Creek from Mill Bridge takes place at the bottom of a 
 narrow crack or gorge, running at right angles to the gen- 
 eral direction of the stream. The gorge is three hundred 
 feet in length, about fifty feet wide, and is spanned by 
 two natural rock bridges. ... On emerging from its 
 subterranean course beneath Mill Bridge, the creek flows 
 through the gorge eight feet below the floor of the val- 
 ley. At the lower or north end is the opening that leads 
 to the largest and most interesting of the series of pas- 
 sageways forming the Nakimu Caves. The gorge forms 
 a very striking feature of the external scenery and sev- 
 eral places are accessible from which views may be had 
 into its depths that are wild and impressive in the ex- 
 treme. The opening is a dome-shaped break in the wall 
 forming the north end. Into this the stream tumbles 
 with wild fury over a confusion of huge fragments of 
 
Through Ancient Gorges 267 
 
 rock piled up in the passageway. It creates leaps and 
 falls and a dissemination of spray that makes the opening 
 to the outer world, as seen from below, appear through 
 a luminous mist. The aperture is some thirty feet wide 
 and about the same height. . . . The Ballroom is roughly 
 triangular in shape with sides of about sixty feet, and an 
 estimated height of fifty feet. The largest portion of 
 the space is occupied by an enormous rock that has fallen 
 from the roof. This rock has a generally level surface, 
 and is just the spot where a group of witch-hags might 
 be expected to caper round the ghastly fumes of some 
 hellish caldron at a Sabbath meeting; hence the name in 
 sympathy with the ill-omened and weird surroundings." 
 The above are only a few of the enchanting vaults and 
 chambers in the full series of caves, however, and one 
 may well spend an entire day or more in visiting them. 
 There are : the Carbonate Grotto ; the White Grotto ; the 
 Art Gallery; the Gimlet; the Bridal Chamber; the Ice 
 Cave, and several others that already have been named by 
 the discoverer and various explorers who are constantly 
 adding to the list. The Indian word Nakimu means 
 *' Grumbling," on account of the sounds of waterfalls, 
 which resemble the sound that comes from a mill in full 
 operation. The geologists believe that the age of the 
 caves is about thirty-eight thousand years, assuming that 
 the rate of erosion has been about one thirty-seconds of 
 an inch per annum. The distance to the Nakimu Caves 
 from Glacier House by way of the wagon road, Illecille- 
 waet River and Cougar Creek, is seven miles ; by horse 
 trail via Rogers Pass over the summit of Baloo Pass to 
 the Caves the distance is three miles further. Baloo 
 Pass is six thousand odd feet above sea level and from 
 the summit is an extensive view, including not only the 
 
268 Sunset Canada 
 
 Hermit Range and Macdonald, but the Dawson Peaks, 
 Bishop Range and the mountains that girt Cougar Valley. 
 
 The railroad formerly crept around a shelf of moun- 
 tain on the rim of the great stone basin and arrived at 
 Glacier's front door. It was feared that while the 
 company might profit from eliminating this difficult grade 
 and engineering feat that had cost a fortune to construct, 
 the effect of the removal might be detrimental to the 
 hotel. Many travelers who had not heard of the natural 
 beauties of the place became enchanted by what they saw 
 from the car windows and resolved to make a stop-over, 
 thus becoming hotel guests; but there has been no de- 
 cline in patronage. Tourists are delighted with the two- 
 mile tallyho drive through the pine forest from the sta- 
 tion to the hotel and there is a quiet seclusion that was 
 impossible to maintain when the rails were so near. And 
 now that fears in this matter have disappeared, a tre- 
 mendous project has been suggested that would give 
 Glacier an additional asset as a tourist resort and would 
 be difficult to rival elsewhere on the continent. The 
 rails are being removed from the serpentine mountain- 
 shelf all the way to Rogers Pass; but the roadbed re- 
 mains. It is located within the vast Dominion Park, so 
 the proposal is for the government to make this roadbed 
 into an automobile highway, thus making it possible to 
 view many of nature's wonderworks during a brief mo- 
 tor car excursion. 
 
 The guest at Glacier imagines that it must be spring- 
 time, even when the August sun shines warm and when 
 the foilage begins to turn in September. The fountains 
 from glacial streams are continually playing on the wide 
 green lawn and there is a profusion of blossoms in the 
 gardens ; still the nights are chilly and there is steam heat 
 
Through Ancient Gorges 269 
 
 in the hotel's radiators throughout the summer months. 
 Far along toward the end of June I have seen huge drifts 
 of the last winter's snow banked around the northern and 
 western sides of the hotel; but, at the same time, on the 
 verandas were hanging-baskets of geraniums in full 
 flower. Four or five feet of snow less than three yards 
 away from them ; but the plants were uninjured. It was 
 a delightful paradox in this huge basin of the unusual. 
 
 A good trail leads from the hotel to the Asulkan Gla- 
 cier, affording splendid views from the Asulkan Pass, 
 which is over seven thousand feet in the air. Other ex- 
 cursions that are popular with tourists are to Glacier Crest 
 and Lake Marion. The summit of Mount Abbot is a 
 day's climb, but not counted a difficult peak. Easy trails 
 lead up to Eagle Peak and the top of Mount Avalanche. 
 The Cascade Pavilion sits upon the latter, visible from the 
 hotel veranda, but a thousand feet upward and easily 
 reached by " pony express " in about three hours. Gla- 
 cier offers hours, days and weeks of excursions for one 
 who has the leisure to enjoy them. 
 
 Immediately the train leaves the little chalet station it 
 plunges into the longest tunnel in North America which 
 pierces Mount Macdonald. From portal to portal it 
 measures five miles, eliminates over four miles of rail 
 by the old route, reduces the elevation of the road five 
 hundred and fifty-two feet, and by its straight shaft cuts 
 through where several circles were formerly necessary. 
 The train arrives at Beavermouth, now a distance of 
 sixty-three miles from Revelstoke; one hundred and 
 sixty-three miles by the river which formerly marked the 
 channel and pathway. 
 
 The next station of importance, after coming close to 
 the Columbia River and emerging from the canyon, is 
 
270 Sunset Canada 
 
 Golden, a prosperous mining town, point of departure 
 for big game hunters and the junction for the branch 
 south to the Windermere country and the Crow's Nest. 
 The city nestles between the Rockies and the Selkirks at 
 the confluence of the Columbia and Kicking Horse rivers 
 and is capable of development in various directions: as 
 a tourist resort, the agricultural center of a territory of 
 eight hundred thousand acres, or as a purely manufactur- 
 ing town with nearby waterfalls capable of aggregating 
 thirty thousand horsepower. At the present time it is 
 passed by the traveler, which is likely to be the case until 
 the contemplated tourist hotel is built. 
 
 As the train leaves Golden it quickly passes into the 
 tremendous Kicking Horse Canyon, with cliffs so high 
 that they seem to shut out the light, a heavy tree growth, 
 and rushing waters echoing against granite walls. The 
 passage through this vast chasm is considered by many 
 people to be one of the notable hours of the entire 
 journey through the mountains. An abrupt turn in the 
 river reveals Mount Hunter between the Ottertail and 
 Beaverfoot Ranges. Just before reaching Leancholl, the 
 Canadian National Park is reached. In the distance is 
 seen Mount Goodsir towering to over eleven thousand 
 feet, and the Beaverfoot River comes foaming into the 
 Kicking Horse. There has been a long discussion in 
 regard to how the latter received its name. Many writers 
 have maintained that it was named for its mighty rush 
 among the rocks, the antics of a kicking horse or pony. 
 The popular legend, however, is that an engineer named 
 Randolph received a severe kick from a horse while going 
 through the Pass. Three ribs were broken, and as he 
 was unconscious the Indians supposed that he was dead 
 and dug his grave. While he was being carried thither, 
 
Through Ancient Gorges 271 
 
 he regained consciousness and asked his bearers what 
 they thought they were doing, whereupon the Red Men 
 christened the place Kicking Horse Pass. Another story 
 is that when a long pack train was following the river, two 
 bronchos went on a rampage and confused the train so 
 that hoofs flew out in all directions. The Indians later 
 spoke of the Pass as "The place where the horses kicked," 
 which in time became condensed into Kicking Horse Pass. 
 The Kicking Horse broadens into wide flats that in 
 summer are barely covered with water, scarcely indica- 
 tive of what is soon to follow in its course. And when 
 one receives the impression that he is coming upon nature 
 in much gentler mood he glances ahead and in solemn 
 majesty there arises the isolated Gibraltar known as 
 Mount Stephen, the highest mountain close to the rails 
 of the Canadian Pacific railway. The train stops — and 
 so do most of the travelers. They have arrived at Field, 
 where is located what is usually called " The Grand- 
 mother of the Canadian Mountain Hotels." 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 AMONG LAKES IN THE CLOUDS 
 
 Leonardo da Vinci wrote : " Listen to far-off bells, 
 you can find in their confused clang the very names and 
 words you lack." 
 
 Sitting on the balcony of the Mount Stephen House I 
 came across these words and I wished that bronze gongs 
 might chime from any of the peaks in the neighbourhood 
 and come to my assistance. But I waited in vain and be- 
 came convinced that all men must lack the words that 
 might convey an adequate description of the place to one 
 who has never beheld it. Perhaps Leonardo's words are 
 true ; perhaps the clanging of bells and their echoes from 
 these lofty heights and through these colossal valleys are 
 what is necessary, because it is certain that no writer has 
 found words to describe their grandeur. Even the ver- 
 bal enthusiast among these beautiful scenes finds himself 
 dumb, the pen halts and the writer concludes that it may 
 be better to attempt no description. Whole volumes writ- 
 ten by trained mountaineers have failed to tell the story, 
 long and familiar acquaintance with several individuals 
 in the various mountain groups has served no useful pur- 
 pose; and the valleys decline to reveal their awesome 
 mysteries, even when one has dwelt among them for 
 weeks, communed with them, feasted upon their never- 
 ending charms, made comrades of them day and night. 
 The solemn majesty of it all remains as it was in the 
 
 272 
 
Among Lakes in the Clouds 273 
 
 beginning, an unfathomable and indescribable miracle 
 concerning which even the scientists disagree as to main 
 facts. The geologists have found no Rosetta Stone to 
 guide them in a full understanding and interpretation of 
 the story. Perhaps the layman grasps the futility of at- 
 tempting the impossible as the scientist cannot ; to the for- 
 mer the district is a problem of the fourth dimension wait- 
 ing to be solved, but to the latter the scientific mysteries 
 are not apparent. Field and its neighbourhood are sim- 
 ply a profusion of never-failing delights to the lay trav- 
 eler and he asks nothing more. 
 
 Mount Stephen, the gigantic pillar at the town's thresh- 
 old, is said to be " the most climbed mountain in the 
 Canadian Switzerland." Had it been located somewhere 
 in the antique world there would be volumes of epics pre- 
 serving its legends. It would have been the abiding-place 
 of the gods, the High Place of pilgrimage. Perhaps the 
 world's most celebrated sacrificial altar would have been 
 upon its summit. Raising its towering bulk in the un- 
 known regions of the New World, it almost awaited dis- 
 covery by the railroad builders who followed a pathway 
 around its base and made it a future joy for the world's 
 people. Stephen is superb when viewed in any light. I 
 have seen it at night when it seemed to be an approach- 
 ing cloud brushing across the earth, levelling everything 
 in its wake. I have observed it at dawn, noon and at sun- 
 set; once it appeared to be a huge block of yellow ochre 
 when the morning light flashed over its walls, at noon it 
 w^as pink, and then at night the reddish tints dissolved and 
 a mantle of purplish-blue was spread over its form. It is 
 frightful in its majesty when one first beholds it, but on 
 closer acquaintance it has a compelling friendliness, an 
 alluring attractiveness that compels admiration. One 
 
274 Sunset Canada 
 
 hesitates when contemplating the ascent, if he recall 
 weary muscles from earlier adventures among the peaks, 
 for Stephen seems to tower above the others on account 
 of its isolation; but a forty-eight hour visit to Field 
 usually decides the inquiry in the traveler's mind and he 
 answers in the affirmative. He falls a victim to the mag- 
 netic appeal. " I will " he declares, and early in the 
 morning he starts out to follow the trail to the lofty crest 
 in the clouds. The ascent usually requires about ten 
 hours and one should plan to leave the hotel soon after 
 dawn, carry a lunch and return to the hotel limb-weary 
 no doubt, but with an unexpected appetite for dinner. 
 
 This will be the most strenuous among the number of 
 days that the tourist allots to the stop-over at Field. 
 Plans have been made for his comfort and he may mount 
 a saddle or lounge in the cushioned seat of a carriage 
 when visiting most of the wonders of the region. First 
 place among the regular tours is to Emerald Lake, which 
 lies only seven miles away, the return drive being accom- 
 plished with ease in a half day. The road winds around 
 the spurs of Mount Burgess, through a splendid spruce 
 forest along " Snow Peak Avenue," a straight highway 
 for over a mile, to the placid water in the bowl among 
 the mountains. On the way the Natural Bridge is 
 crossed, there are foaming rapids just over the brink; 
 and one may be fortunate enough to witness the slide of 
 a distant avalanche if the time is the early summer when 
 the sun has loosened the ice claws by which great drifts 
 hang to the mountain-side. At Emerald Lake is a com- 
 fortable chalet hotel owned and operated by the railroad. 
 It is set in a basin of ten-thousand feet peaks, a delightful 
 retreat in which to spend a few days and nights. A fine 
 evening excursion from Field is to the Bridge where the 
 
Among Lakes in the Clouds 275 
 
 Kicking Horse River has built a span across the river 
 torrent by the action of its waters against the limestone 
 rock. 
 
 The Ottertail Drive is another half -day excursion to the 
 Alpine flower fields of the Ottertail Range, where a fine 
 view may be gained of the Van Home peaks. This trip 
 also offers an unequalled opportunity to observe the Kick- 
 ing Horse Canyon and takes the tourist over the high- 
 est traffic bridge in the Canadian Rockies. 
 
 The amateur geologist who does not make the ascent 
 to the summit of Mount Stephen will be interested in 
 taking the pony trail twenty-six hundred feet above the 
 railway, where in a lentile of shale there is a fossil-bed 
 from which thirty-two species of tribolites and brachio- 
 pods have been determined. As a horse-owner re- 
 marked : " There are fossils enough for everybody up 
 there," and all who desire to do so may find them, and 
 a new fossil-bed has been recently discovered on the 
 same mountain which makes the " supply " practically 
 limitless. These beds contain the shell impressions of 
 marine animals which lived in the sea that at one time 
 covered the present site of the mountains. When the 
 animals died their shells were covered with sediment and 
 impressions of them were preserved, thus providing an 
 insight into conditions of life in the Middle Cambrian 
 Age. 
 
 The de luxe exhibit adjacent to Field is the celebrated 
 Yoho Valley. Aware of its importance and desiring to 
 make its beauties visible to the largest number of people, 
 the railroad conducts a three-day camping tour that in- 
 creases in popularity each season and may one day become 
 impracticable owing to the large numbers of people desir- 
 ing accommodation. In time, no doubt, hotels will rise 
 
276 Sunset Canada 
 
 where tents are now pitched in the summer season. 
 Fashionably-gowned women will be promenading the 
 verandas and their escorts will be experiencing compara- 
 tively small relief from the tedium of offices and busy 
 city streets. It will then be a holiday ground for the 
 men and women who enjoy the crowded hotels at sea 
 beaches, board walks and balls. The scenery will still 
 be there, the never-to-be-forgotten scenery ; but the place 
 will have lost much of the natural and rugged charm 
 which it now possesses. One feels rather envious of all 
 who have the fortune to make the trip as it is conducted 
 at the present time; almost a feeling of pity for those 
 who will come in future days of the hotels. White- 
 tops amid these pines, glaciers and cataracts seem more 
 appropriate than hotel roofs when viewed from a dis- 
 tance ; a camp in the Yoho Valley seems to be something 
 more wonderful than a hotel can be, even though it be 
 erected beneath the Takakkaw cataract itself, with veran- 
 das commanding a view of much that is difficult to equal 
 for superlative grandeur elsewhere. The falls are the 
 highest in America, eight times as high as Niagara, and 
 yet the falls are but one of the attractions that make 
 the three-day excursion unusual. From Field the pony 
 trail skirts Emerald Lake and leads to Summit Lake, 
 where lunch is served, followed by a brief rest before 
 the ascent to Lookout Point, where a view is obtained of 
 the Wapta Glacier, Takakkaw Falls, and the long sw^eep 
 of the Yoho Valley. From here the bridle path leads 
 down to what is known as the Upper Camp at the head 
 of the Yoho, where the first night is spent. It is not 
 upon a bed of pine needles, there is no bacon and flap- 
 jack breakfast beloved of the w^oodman. none of that de- 
 lightful building of camp-fires, scurrying for dry fuel 
 
Among Lakes in the Clouds 277 
 
 and blissful " discomforts " of the camper who goes 
 further afield on his own responsibility; but there is 
 splendidly appointed camping equipment, luxurious fare 
 for the wilderness, and one has not the slightest reason 
 for doubt that all will move in clock-like precision so 
 far as creature-comforts being amply provided for him 
 are concerned. Competent guides and servants who 
 know exactly what is expected from them and who have 
 learned by experience exactly what is possible to make 
 the tourist's pilgrimage a pleasant detail of his entire 
 tour of the mountains, move by schedule and arrange 
 everything. One has but to sit in a saddle, follow the 
 leader, eat his meals, and sleep in comfort. There is no 
 suggestion of hardship nor discomfort, and there is a 
 constant feast for the eyes. Gentle and gentlemanly in- 
 dividuals these guides! They are men who would deal 
 gently with a suffering dog; most of them would prob- 
 ably hesitate before shooting an animal unless they wanted 
 it for food. But experience has taught them and their 
 employers that the much heralded " Wild West " must 
 not entirely lose its wildness if it comes up to tourist's 
 expectations. So they make up as skilfully as actors do 
 and in their weird, brilliant costumes, hats, chaps, spurs 
 and perhaps manner of speaking which has been care- 
 fully cultivated to be used when required, there survives 
 the " atmosphere " of the theatrical West, that legend- 
 ary region which is peopled with men and women whose 
 portraits appear upon the covers of popular magazines. 
 " We are starting for the Yoho Valley to-morrow morn- 
 ing," said a young lady to me as we met on the hotel 
 veranda. " We have just been talking things over with 
 our guide. He is a very devil of a fellow, as wild as they 
 make them out here, I guess. It almost frightens us when 
 
278 Sunset Canada 
 
 we think that we shall trust ourselves to him for three 
 days. I'll bet that man has a record! " 
 
 The young gentleman referred to was just leaving the 
 hotel. He strutted down the walk with a devil-may-care 
 stride. He wore magenta-pinkish chaps, a red silk 'ker- 
 chief was knotted about his throat, and a combrero with 
 a wide band of Indian bead-work — perhaps at one time 
 a belt — was perched on one side of his head. " Per- 
 haps a good motion picture star was lost when that 
 man became a Rocky Mountains guide," I thought, but 
 I admit that I said something else to the lady, who with 
 her pale husband v/as on her honeymoon. Had I spoken 
 my thoughts, her dream of the romantic West might have 
 been shattered, which would have been a cruel blunder on 
 my part, because she was radiant with joy. 
 
 As it chanced, I was on the station platform that night 
 when the east-bound train arrived. The young guide was 
 there, much admired and commented upon by tourists 
 who were departing. As a young woman and certainly 
 their little child stepped from the car, they were met by 
 this " very devil of a fellow," who gathered the two of 
 them in his arms and spoke to them as gently as any 
 husband and father from the efTete East could have 
 done as they passed along and were lost in the crowd. 
 
 A third time I saw this conspicuously dressed individ- 
 ual, so quickly observed in a crowd. It was the follow- 
 ing morning. His " party," the honeymooners from 
 New York, were in the saddle. The guide, " wild as 
 they make them," sat jauntily astride his restless pony, 
 still as cleverly playing his role as any actor of the theatri- 
 cal stage could have done. I waved them farewell and 
 the bride threw me a wistful glance. I am certain that 
 she was not certain that they were acting wisely in going 
 
Among Lakes in the Clouds 279 
 
 beyond " civilization " alone with this man for whom she 
 had created a romantic " record." 
 
 After a night in the Upper Camp the trail leads past 
 Twin Falls and Laughing Falls and slowly descends the 
 mountain to the foot of Takakkaw Falls, where supper 
 and another camp await the riders. On the third day 
 the return trip is make over Burgess Pass and down the 
 southern slope of Mount Field into the Kicking Horse 
 Valley. At Surprise Point the traveler suddenly beholds 
 Field, Emerald Lake and the Bow and Yoho Valleys. 
 
 There are several other " favourite " excursions from 
 Field and the list is being added to each season with 
 the arrival of mountaineers who seem always looking 
 for new ascents. Most of them long ago covered the 
 " routine tours " of this fascinating neighbourhood, and 
 while they come back with the enthusiasm of first-timers 
 they follow different canyons to peaks not before reached 
 by them, and though it seems that by this time the entire 
 Rocky Mountain system has been " covered," some one 
 more daring or energetic than the crowd frequently brings 
 tidings of a " new " lake " just beyond " one of the old 
 trails, a " new " and better trail to a certain peak, or 
 another cataract that does not appear in tourists' cata- 
 logues. Another pony journey of three days, upon which 
 one must carry his own equipment — provided by the 
 guides — is to O'Hara Lake and McArthur Lake. W. 
 D. Wilcox in The Rocky Mountains of Canada, gives 
 O'Hara, Lake first place among all bodies of water 
 above the clouds. " In all the mountain wilderness the 
 most complete picture of natural beauty," he declares, and 
 again: " of all the finer lakes, O'Hara presents the great- 
 est variety of pleasing views." McArthur Lake is over 
 seven thousand feet above sea level, a pocket of clear 
 
280 Sunset Canada 
 
 water over two miles in length, fed by a glacier from 
 which icebergs break and float in a manner that gives it 
 what Wilcox calls a " thoroughly Ar<:tic " appearance. 
 
 As the railway circles around Mount Stephen, starting 
 eastward from Field, the tourist feels that he has ar- 
 rived close to the third-act climax of the great mountain 
 drama. A backward glance at the fading city gives a 
 better impression of its splendid location than it was 
 possible to gain upon arrival. The train performs some 
 remarkable feats in its last great ascent towards the roof 
 of the Canadian Rockies and arrives at Hector, which is 
 five thousand one hundred and ninety-nine feet in the 
 air and named after Sir James Hector, the first presi- 
 dent of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Just beyond this 
 point there is a large arch of logs, which in two-feet high 
 rustic letters announces arrival at The Great Divide. 
 The train does not stop; but one realizes the wonderful 
 moment as he glances at the trickling stream flowing 
 over gravel and small pebbks at the train-side. Its 
 course is westward and in time its waters will join other 
 streams and reach the Pacific Ocean. Another glance. 
 The rustic sign-post has been passed. There is another 
 stream flowing over the pebbles, and it is flowing towards 
 the Atlantic Ocean. The train reaches Stephen and the 
 great descent begins. There are twists and curves, 
 other ascents around rock masses that lie in the direct 
 pathway, there are halts by the way and it is a long dis- 
 tance ahead, just as it was a long approach up the 
 great granite stairway from the Pacific; but the tourist 
 knows that he has crossed the highest rock touched by the 
 rails ; he is descending toward the plains of Alberta ! Al- 
 most before the mind is capable of grasping the wonder 
 of it all, before he is fully aware of its tremendous im- 
 
Among Lakes in the Clouds 281 
 
 portance, the traveler finds that the train has arrived at 
 Lake Louise Station, a log chalet over five thousand feet 
 above the sea. One " changes cars " if he make this 
 place a stop-over, and quickly finds himself and his lug- 
 gage aboard a tram-car. Perhaps it is July, even August, 
 but the hotel attendants caution new-comers to fold big 
 red blankets over their knees as the car begins an ascent 
 of another six hundred feet over glacial streams, through 
 pine woods, a three-mile ride " that may be chilly in the 
 open car." The tram- way leads to the big entrance of 
 Chateau Lake Louise. The tourist has been transported 
 to fairyland, the Princess has brought him to her castle 
 by the sapphire lake ! 
 
 Lake Louise and the Chateau are the aristocrats among 
 Rocky Mountains scenes and hotels. Probably it is the 
 ultra- fashionable resort of the western part of Canada. 
 It is the summer Palm Beach and the Newport of the 
 Rocky Mountains, although this distinction is claimed by 
 other localities, the piece de resistance in a sumptuous 
 menu. Just how long the tourist should remain here 
 varies in individual cases, according to purse and ward- 
 robe. One thing is certain, however, it should receive a 
 visit from every trans-Canada traveler although he be un- 
 able to give it more than a passing glance between trains. 
 Three days are preferable to one, and a week is better than 
 three days. Lake Louise is essentially a place that sug- 
 gests leisure — pony trails, tallyho-drives and short 
 walks, rather than the more strenuous activities of the 
 Alpinist. The train and tram deposit the visitor in the 
 midst of charming views; it is not imperative to leave 
 one of the huge plate-glass windows of a Chateau lounge, 
 in reality not necessary to leave one's apartment, if he 
 arrange to be located in one of the towers, to feast his 
 
282 Sunset Canada 
 
 eyes for many hours on a rare landscape. In fact, I 
 believe that the first day of the visit may be most 
 profitably spent before a window or upon the hotel 
 veranda. In the course of a few silent hours in a rustic 
 chair it may be possible to gain a somewhat compre- 
 hensive idea of the picture which cannot reveal itself 
 suddenly and which cannot be appreciated by one who 
 hurries forth for the announced " excursions " soon 
 after arrival. 
 
 Perhaps one comes to understand better what was in 
 his mind when Pater described a landscape as " state 
 of soul." Dawn throws rare daffodil, coral and amethyst 
 tints over the rocks, snow and water. Each quarter- 
 hour later in the day plays a new prank in chromatic 
 experiment. Sometimes, when the sun blazes at high 
 noon and the sky seems white, I have seen the v^-ater of the 
 lake as blue as sapphire. When fleecy clouds play around 
 the sun the lake sometimes turns pale gray and the huge 
 rocky walls at its sides throw a shadow that is a deep 
 myrtle green. At sunset I have seen the water indigo, 
 while the rocks were splotched with bright yellow. In 
 the moonlight I have seen the landscape from a chateau 
 window when it looked as if it were viewed through 
 Tyrian purple gauze. Always it is fantastic, because at 
 all hours it is just a little different from other landscapes. 
 One recalls the lady who told the artist that she had 
 never seen the colours that he put on a canvas sunset and 
 his reply: " I know it, Madam, but don't you wish you 
 could? " One has seen many canvases that represented 
 lakes, snow, evergreens and mountains. Sometimes the 
 artists have depicted realities; sometimes they have 
 painted things not as they are, but as they wish they 
 were. Louise the Magnificent seems the reality of 
 
Among Lakes in the Clouds 283 
 
 what all who have not seen it may consider idealization in 
 landscape painting. Here the master painter seems to 
 have assembled within small compass everything that is 
 sublimely beautiful. No human being is capable of 
 grasping such realities in less than twenty-four hours, and 
 as it is well to have one's first peep at Paris from the 
 balcony of the Eiffel Tower so it is advisable to arrive 
 at the Chateau on the night train, retire, awaken with 
 the sun and spend the first day in contemplation of one of 
 earth's most beautiful amphitheaters with a glance at 
 projecting prongs of white peaks beyond that insure 
 many happy excursions for the days to follow. 
 
 These days may have taken the visitor along the trails 
 that lead to rocky heights, beside avalanches of snow or 
 ice, or through heaps of logs piled high by the landslides, 
 he may have wandered into rather distant valleys, taking 
 lunch on mossy banks by crystal streams, and he may feel 
 that he has tasted all the joys of Lake Louise and the 
 neighbourhood. Then he may proceed a few steps from 
 the Chateau to the boat-landing, hire a rowboat and drift 
 out onto this fascinating blue. It seems that a few 
 strokes of the oar will bring one to the other end; but if 
 he follow the shore-line he will find it a ride of two miles 
 going and two returning. He makes the circuit of the 
 lake and frequently looks into the awful depths that like 
 a mirror reflect the masses of stone that have tumbled 
 from the heights in recent or distant days. The skiff 
 will enter little bays over which there are frowning preci- 
 pices that often are obscured in clouds. The celebrated 
 Palisades of the Hudson seem pigmy by comparison — 
 yet a few more strokes of the oar and he is within arm's 
 reach of the mold where wild flowers grow in profusion, 
 where towering pines, spruces and hemlocks throw their 
 
284 Sunset Canada 
 
 roots in a tight grasp around boulders that at some time 
 dropped from the great Victoria Glacier which seems to 
 rise a greenish-white triangle with bow pointed toward 
 the water. Lake Louise has been called " liquid music " 
 and one slowly arrives at realization that the appellation 
 was not a meaningless poetic flight. The Indians knew 
 it as The Big Snow Mountain Above the Lake of Little 
 Fishes, by which they meant to offer it rhetorical homage. 
 Red Men and white men, savage and civilized, meet on 
 common ground when they behold this rare pearl among 
 the crown jewels of Canada. 
 
 The Chateau is just what it should be, a rambling series 
 of structures united by large towers and passage-ways 
 of concrete and glass. It is not a " formal " structure 
 in any way and one would have difficulty in classifying 
 it by architectural phraseology. Additions to the orig- 
 inal building have been made until the outline is no more 
 like the first " Chateau " than this building was like the 
 small frame cottage to which the first " visitors " were 
 admitted soon after the completion of the railroad. It 
 sits on a terrace overlooking the " stage " of the amphi- 
 theater, with a full view of lake, mountains, glacier and 
 forests. Around it are grouped attractive chalets, like 
 the lesser buildings of an ancient town around the castle. 
 Yellow poppy gardens and a close cropped lawn slope 
 to the water's edge. It is the hub of a great excursion 
 wheel from which well-built trails radiate in all direc- 
 tions. 
 
 The one-day visitor usually contents himself with a 
 circuit of the lake and perhaps a climb to Mirror Lake 
 and Lakfe Agnes (called The Goat's Looking Glass by 
 the Indians) not at all difficult nor dangerous, as fre- 
 quent rest-cabins have been roofed along the route, foot- 
 
Among Lakes in the Clouds 285 
 
 bridges have been constructed with rustic railings that 
 hedge back the adventurous but inexperienced cHmber, 
 and a refreshing cup of tea is at the summit waiting for 
 travelers who rest before undertaking the descent and 
 revel in the new view gained from the heights. This 
 trip may be taken by pony and in this way about four 
 hours are usually allotted to it, the return being made by 
 what is known as the High Trail which leads back to the 
 Chateau. Lake Agnes was named for Miss Agnes Knox 
 of Toronto, who is said to have been the first woman 
 to visit it. Lake Louise was named for Princess Louise, 
 daughter of Queen Victoria. 
 
 The two-day tripper usually includes the trip to Vic- 
 toria Glacier in his itinerary. It is advisable to secure 
 the services of a Swiss guide from the hotel and accom- 
 pany his party which is usually made up twice a day for 
 the excursion. It is also advisable to allow one full day 
 for this jaunt, where much information may be gained 
 concerning the weird formations of glacial ice, aided by 
 close contact with what is being described, as at the Ille- 
 cillewaet Glacier. The giant snow-capped Mount Vic- 
 toria, over eleven thousand feet high, which lies at the 
 end of the lake, is frequently ascended, and it is not 
 counted difficult by experienced climbers. The trip can- 
 not be recommended unless in the company of guides, 
 however, and should not be undertaken by one subject 
 to mountain sickness. " Easy " say the guides and the 
 professionals, but the trail so lightly dismissed leads 
 through the Abbot Pass or Death Trap, where there is 
 frequently soft snow and along g^ven-hundred-feet 
 ledges, where a " ladder-like snow curtain must be scaled 
 and then a long, narrow ridge traversed," which are 
 counted the only trying experiences on the entire route. 
 
286 Sunset Canada 
 
 This information is enough to send the ordinary pleas- 
 ure-seeker into other locahties. 
 
 The three-day visitor should not fail to visit the Val- 
 ley of the Ten Peaks and Moraine Lake, and while the 
 trip, like that to Victoria Glacier, may be accomplished in 
 four hours, it is well to spend the entire day there, 
 going by the morning stage or automobile and returning 
 in the evening. The road leads by the base of Mount 
 Temple, a stupendous mound of rock that seems to be a 
 gigantic cathedral of ornate carvings. Lake Annette 
 lies here, nestled in a pocket surrounded by forests, five 
 thousand feet beneath the glacier which forms the sum- 
 mit. It is a favourite climb for the Alpinists, up this 
 precipitous slope of a giant among giants; but it should 
 not be undertaken by the timid. Fifty-three members of 
 the Canadian Alpine Club made the ascent in 1907 dur- 
 ing their annual camp in Paradise Valley. 
 
 Moraine Lake is two miles long and a half mile wide. 
 It is flanked on one side by ten sharp mountain peaks 
 and in another direction by the celebrated Tower of 
 Babel, a monster bastion that seems to have been built 
 of blocks of masonry. The *' entrance " seems to be 
 guarded by two rounded towers, perfectly matched, and 
 a pathway of rock seems to lead between them from the 
 valley. 
 
 There are trout in this clear lake and a camp for 
 fishermen. Also a tea-house, which so far as my experi- 
 ence goes, holds the world's record in at least one particu- 
 lar. Having entered the cabin and supped a cup of tea 
 from a small Japanese cup, in addition to a nibble from 
 a biscuit as large as a silver dollar, I inquired the price. 
 A genteel English lady who had served the tea replied: 
 " One dollar, please." " And have you a photograph? " 
 
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Among Lakes in the Clouds 287 
 
 I inquired. " A photograph of what? " " Yourself. I 
 would like to preserve a photographic likeness of one who 
 has enough — what I will call ' courage ' — to charge one 
 dollar for a cup of tea! " and I departed. 
 
 W. D. Wilcox, the discoverer of Moraine Lake, named 
 it for the ridge of glacial formation at its lower end. He 
 has written : " At the time of my arrival the lake was 
 partly calm and reflected the rough escarpments and 
 cliffs from its surface. No scene has ever given me an 
 equal impression of inspiring solitude and rugged grand- 
 eur." Might it not be possible, I reflected as I read these 
 words, that the lady of the tea-house had become " in- 
 spired " in this solitude, inspired to demand a profit of 
 about five thousand per cent, for selling tea?" I re- 
 called a year before when I was in similarly far-away 
 places in the Japanese mountains and stopped beneath a 
 sheltered cabin of bamboo, ordered tea, drank a potful if 
 I wanted to do so and pleased the attendants by paying 
 them the equivalent of about five cents ! 
 
 There is another half-day pony trip to the Saddle Back, 
 where may be obtained a splendid view of Paradise Val- 
 ley, Horseshoe Glacier and Lake Annette. The trail 
 through Paradise Valley to the foot of the glacier and 
 Giant Steps Waterfall passes close to the foot of Mount 
 Temple, as on the excursion to Moraine Lake. At the 
 head of Paradise Valley is Mount Hungabee, which is 
 considered one of the difficult peaks of the region, even 
 for Alpinists. 
 
 The guides say that one of the easiest mountains to 
 climb is Mount St. Piran, reached from the Chateau by 
 the " Lakes in the Clouds " trail, and they tell that the 
 view from its summit is so beautiful that when the ascent 
 was made by Edward Whymper, who had conquered the 
 
288 Sunset Canada 
 
 Matterhorn, he became entranced and stayed over night 
 for the purpose of making the descent in the morning 
 light. 
 
 Mount Lefroy is not supposed to be more difficult than 
 some of the others, but it has a tragic record, which is re- 
 lated at length in a chapter called " The Tragedy of 
 Mount Lefroy " in Outram's book on the Rocky Moun- 
 tains. Fatal accidents have been few in these mountains 
 among the climbers, thus more publicity has been given 
 to the death of Philip Stanley Abbot of Boston than 
 would be the case for example among Swiss mountains, 
 where there have been so many fatalities. He was a man 
 of long experience and a member of the Appalachian 
 Mountain Club. A party of four, including Mr. Abbot, 
 left the Chateau August 3, 1895, and started out to ascend 
 Lefroy. A local guide tells the following story : " The 
 party at five-thirty drew up under an immense bastion and 
 Abbot, who was leading, saw an angle in the bastion a 
 vertical cleft up which it was possible to climb. Unrop- 
 ing, Abbot ascended some thirty feet when Professor Lit- 
 tle called to him if it would not be better to try and turn 
 the bastion on the shelf. To this question Abbot re- 
 plied: ' I think not. I have a good lead.' These were 
 the last words he ever spoke. A moment later Professor 
 Little, whose attention was for the instant diverted, was 
 conscious that something had fallen swiftly past him and 
 knew only too well what it must be. Thompson, stand- 
 ing at the base of the cliff, saw Abbot fall backward 
 and then saw him strike the upper margin of the ice head 
 foremost, turn completely over and begin rolling down a 
 steep incline. As the limp body rolled downward two 
 lengths of rope coiled upon it as upon a spool, which 
 affected the velocity of the descent of nine hundred feet 
 
Courtesy of Byron Harmon. 
 
 DIFFICULT CLIMBING ON MOUNT LEFROY 
 
Among Lakes in the Clouds 289 
 
 and prevented the unconscious man from falling over the 
 cliff below. Abbot died a few moments after his friends 
 reached the place where his body had been arrested in its 
 terrible fall. Two days later the party returned and re- 
 covered Abbot's body, now wrapped in a mantle of snow." 
 Mount Fay receives its name from the president of 
 the American Alpine Club, who thus describes its ascent : 
 " The approach of Mount Fay is from one of the most 
 exquisite of those deep blue Alpine lakes, in the number 
 and beauty of which Switzerland is quite outclassed by 
 this region — Moraine Lake. Its environment is most 
 impressive, yet almost forbidding. Mount Fay is an- 
 other massive ridge, rising as if to form a second terrace, 
 from a great arena filled to the depths of hundreds of 
 feet with a crevassed glacier. Its feeding never sweeps 
 at a precipitous angle up this frowning ridge and seems 
 to curl backward like a breaking wave in a ponderous 
 changing cornice that precludes secure approach from 
 this side. And this is, in part, why the ascent was one 
 of the longest as well as most arduous that I have hitherto 
 made, fifteen hours from our camp by the lakeside and 
 return from 3 130 a. m. until 6 :^o p. m. To the top of 
 the couloir we made our way, chiefly on the ice, with fre- 
 quent step cutting but with one diversion for variety to 
 the crags. It was a parlous-looking place, and as we 
 noted it upon our return by the ice below, we asked our- 
 selves : ' How many persons inexperienced in such 
 climbing would consider a passage over such a frowning 
 donjon as in any way possible without wings ? ' Then 
 over snow fields and a brief rocky ridge between peaks 
 Three and Two, then skirting over the latter's snowy 
 side — avoiding in one place a mass of rock discharged 
 at us as if in fury from the outcrop near its summit — 
 
290 Sunset Canada 
 
 and we found ourselves at the col or depression, between 
 Two and the great snow-faced ridge still left for us to 
 surmount, and even now towering some thousand feet 
 above us. It remained only to pass over the ponderous 
 dome of snow that crowns the midway portion of the 
 great ridge, and then beyond it by an easy slope to 
 gain its culmination. A vast panorama is here unfolded, 
 the most impressive feature of which is the seemingly 
 perpendicular drop of about five thousand feet, on its 
 northern side to the lakelets of Consolation Valley." 
 
 Another popular pony trip from Lake Louise is to the 
 Great Divide, where one may observe " the parting of the 
 waters " at greater leisure than is possible when passing 
 the point on the railroad. Also highly recommended is 
 the trail that leads away ten miles to the Ptarmigan 
 Valley, where there is a fossil-bed ; and an extension of 
 the trip to Pipestone River, where there is good fishing. 
 A camping excursion certain to be full of adventures is 
 the ten-day route that leads to Banff; and, as mentioned 
 in an earlier chapter, it is the opinion of several experi- 
 enced mountaineers and wilderness-lovers who have 
 made the journey, that the finest views in the entire 
 Rocky Mountain system are to be gained over the long 
 passage between Lake Louise and Jasper Park. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 CAPITAL OF THE ROCKIES 
 
 When the railway surveyors reached the valley of 
 the Bow River they saw " smoke " rising from what 
 seemed to be a perpetual fire at the base of one of the 
 mountains that surround the huge basin. Perhaps they 
 suspected that it was " perpetual devotion " before some 
 altar that was held sacred by the Indians. Certainly it 
 was a place of pilgrimage, because the Red Men came 
 from all directions and bathed in a " sacred " pool. The 
 suspected " sacrificial " fire burned dim and the surveyors 
 never saw its flame. Day and night, however, they could 
 detect a curling column of smoke that arose from the pine 
 trees. Inquiries from Indians brought no satisfactory 
 explanation, so as they came near to the torrential waters 
 of the Bow they followed the stream to a point where it 
 could be crossed. Whatever it was, the origin of this 
 column of " smoke " was worthy of investigation. 
 Arriving near the base of the mountain they found that 
 the pillar of vapor came from a large hole in the ground. 
 Cutting down a tree and crossing it with limbs for steps, 
 they dropped the huge ladder into the hole until it struck 
 bottom and then explored a large cave, the ceiling of 
 which was hung with stalactites and the floor of which 
 was a pool of hot water. Further investigation around 
 the big hill revealed several places where the hot water 
 came to the surface. The fumes that arose from the 
 water were laden with sulphur, so the hill was named 
 Sulphur Mountain. Sir George Stephen named the basin 
 
 291 
 
292 Sunset Canada 
 
 Banff, after his native town in Scotland. It was the be- 
 ginning of the metropoHs of the Rocky Mountains. Al- 
 though situated forty miles from the eastern boundary 
 of the great Canadian National Park of five thousand 
 seven hundred and thirty-two square miles, it is the official 
 " entrance " to the mountain wonderland from the East, 
 while it is the glorious climax to the tour of the Canadian 
 Alps, when approached from the West. The great basin 
 when entered from either direction is of predominating 
 importance to the tourist ; one who makes no other stop- 
 over on the trans-mountain tour will stop at Banff. And 
 in consequence, an enterprising and thriving litde city 
 has arisen in the valley of the Bow River — across the 
 river by the railway whose surveyors followed the 
 " smoke " shaft that arose from the base of the moun- 
 tain. 
 
 The Indians bathed in the warm sulphur pools and 
 went away rejoicing. White men followed their ex- 
 ample and found relief from many human ills. The 
 locality seemed destined to become known as a "cure." 
 The warm waters were collected in huge basins and peo- 
 ple came in such numbers that rustic stairways were 
 built along the steep portions of the trail to make the pools 
 more easily accessible to the invalids who went up to 
 them from the valley. In time the stairway railings be- 
 came the repositories for the crutches of sufferers who 
 had no further use for them. It was counted a great 
 advertisement for Banff Springs, this display of sticks 
 and crutches upon which people had hobbled to the heal- 
 ing pools before what they considered almost miraculous 
 cures. Then one day there was a fire that destroyed these 
 relics of bygone suffering, and as Banff's promoters real- 
 ized that these somewhat primitive advertising methods 
 
Capital of the Rockies 293 
 
 were no longer necessary, and as things generally had 
 taken a new and favourable turn, it was decided to place 
 less emphasis upon the curative properties of Banff's 
 waters and more upon the locality itself as an ideal tourist 
 resort for those who enjoyed perfect health as well as for 
 the ailing. The Canadian Pacific Railway company built 
 the mammoth castle-like hotel in a large park overlooking 
 the Bow Rapids. The water from sulphur pools were 
 piped to splendid outdoor tanks beside the hotel verandas, 
 and while it remained one of the " attractions "of the 
 place, wealth and fashion soon decreed in favour of Banff 
 and its fate was sealed. Almost without effort the place 
 became the best-known resort in the Rocky Mountains, 
 and European writers have frequently declared that it is 
 easily the equal of any similar playground in Switzerland 
 or Italy. 
 
 Such is the Banff of to-day. The invalids still come to 
 bathe in the sulphur waters, but they are no more con- 
 spicuous in the crowd than the water-drinkers at Saratoga 
 Springs are during the race week. Banff is the capital 
 of the mountains, the metropolis of the scenic Northwest. 
 Here are to be fired the opening guns in the well-planned 
 campaign to make the Canadian Rockies a winter as well 
 as a summer resort. The world is being brought to a 
 realization of its qualifications in this respect and there 
 is believed to be little doubt that within a few years 
 such pastimes as tobogganing, ski-ing, skating and curl- 
 ing will gain in popular favour among excursionists here 
 as they have in Switzerland. The Alps were considered 
 only a summer resort a few years ago; but before the 
 war they were sharing popularity with the flower-bor- 
 dered towns of the northern Mediterranean coast. One 
 great winter attraction which other Alpine resorts can- 
 
294 Sunset Canada 
 
 not boast will be the sulphur hot springs. In winter time 
 with the thermometer falling to twenty degrees below 
 zero, a bath in the open-air pool is said to be attractive, 
 stimulating and healthful. It is a distinct novelty to 
 plunge into an open-air pool the sides of which are hung 
 with icicles and the banks covered by snow drifts, yet 
 this is an everyday possibility at Banff during the coldest 
 period of winter. 
 
 Banff has become a mountain Atlantic City on week- 
 days and a mountain Coney Island on Sunday — unless 
 one is sheltered within the huge stone walls of the big 
 hotel on the mountain-side, or comfortably located within 
 the shelter of a sequestered bungalow among the pine 
 forests. One who stays here for two hours realizes the 
 distinction between " the man who lived in the terraced 
 house and the brother in the streets below " — the old 
 verses we formerly heard so much at school rhetoricals — 
 for one either stops at The Hotel, or he does not. Many 
 tourists do, and many do not. There are several hotels 
 — some on hillsides set in pleasant parks, others on the 
 banks of the Bow River and some on the main street of 
 town — and then there is the Banff Springs Hotel, with 
 its great arcade like an European castle entrance, through 
 which four horses prance dragging a tallyho as guests 
 arrive from the station. In the courtyard are riding- 
 horses and grooms in cowboy costumes, smartly tailored 
 women about to go for a ride, guides and their parties 
 starting out for a climb in the mountains, and uniformed 
 servants standing at the entrance eager to be of assistance 
 to arriving or departing guests. It is a picture that one 
 imagines exists only in reality at some medieval castle in 
 the Tyrol. The furnishings and appointments of the 
 hostelry complete this picture that was suggested by the 
 
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Capital of the Rockies 295 
 
 external view. Spacious corridors and balconies are 
 hung with tapestries and trophies of the hunt. Recep- 
 tion-rooms, drawing-rooms, writing-rooms and smoking- 
 rooms are occupied by groups of cosmopolitan guests 
 who make the hotel a rendezvous in their world wander- 
 ings. Mother sits in a glass-enclosed balcony and " chap- 
 erons " daughter who is taking her daily plunge in the 
 sulphur pools. In the dining-room, as at the Cafe de la 
 Paix, one meets all the world, for no self-respecting 
 round-the-world tripper overlooks Banfif, and he has 
 heard of this mountain hotel and includes it in his 
 itinerary as soon as he finds that he will cross Canada. 
 
 In recent years, however, an increasing number of 
 Banff visitors have availed themselves of the opportunity 
 to lease furnished bungalows. They stay at the hotel a 
 few days and then a leisurely walk around town brings 
 a " For Rent " sign to their attention. Regular resi- 
 dents of Banff are encouraging the idea by moving into 
 tents for the months of July, August and September. In 
 many instances one may move into the dwelling and take 
 full possession for a price ranging from fifteen to twenty- 
 five dollars a week. This makes " roughing it " and 
 " camping in the Rockies " possible " with all the com- 
 forts of home," and the plan has ' et with favour from 
 hosts and guests alike and shows great possibilities for 
 future development. Tourists leave large sums of money 
 in Banff every year, and the municipal. Provincial and 
 Dominion governments continue to spend money to at- 
 tract larger numbers of them each season. It has been 
 said that nobody ever went to Banff and left the city dis- 
 appointed with what he had seen and experienced. This 
 is an enviable record and one that may be difficult to main- 
 tain with the increasing horde of visitors; but it is hoped 
 
296 Sunset Canada 
 
 in future to please all tastes as well as all pocketbooks. 
 The city possesses all natural attractions, so an effort 
 will be made to make them available to the larger 
 crowd. 
 
 It is one of the best localities imaginable for the vaca- 
 tion devoted entirely to hiking. It is reminiscent of the 
 wonderful country on the borderland of Italy and Aus- 
 tria, with its mountains, heavily-timbered hills, rapidly 
 flowing streams and trails. Most of these pathways in 
 the environs of Banff have been well made and they are 
 being improved constantly. There are one hundred and 
 eighteen miles of roads and two hundred and forty-nine 
 miles of trails that have been specially constructed in this 
 monster park which covers over nine hundred thousand 
 acres. It consists principally of mountains, lakes and 
 rivers and it has been the aim of the authorities to keep 
 it in as nearly its primeval condition as possible, at the 
 same time making it convenient and comfortable to visit 
 the most attractive localities. The park, as its promoters 
 claim, is in reality " a paradise for the nature-lover, the 
 admirer of grandeur, the individual seeking rest, or him 
 who seeks mountain climbing, rambles in the valley or 
 forest, drives along the banks of rivers or lakes, horse- 
 back riding, invalids, campers, fishers, hunters, canoeists, 
 botanists, geologists or explorers." And to this list might 
 be added the still larger number of travelers who are not 
 so easily classified, those who go everywhere and do not 
 expect to be disappointed when they arrive. 
 
 Most of the roads and trails around Banff have been 
 well made. In the first instance they did not follow the 
 zigzag runway of grazing cattle as is so frequently the 
 case elsewhere; most of them were laid out by profes- 
 sional hunters, guides, trappers and mountain-climbers 
 
Capital of the Rockies 297 
 
 who studied the territory and found the best routes to 
 afford an opportunity to view beauty spots and vistas of 
 great charm and rarity. Just at present the automobile 
 tourist is being much thought of by all road-builders, 
 by powerful governments, as well as by keepers of tiny 
 tea-houses. Where roads exist, they are being improved 
 and repaired to provide motor-ways ; new ones are being 
 built, and roads are in prospect that will make it possible 
 for the owner of a car and his party to roll along luxuri- 
 ously in districts of the Rocky Mountains where only the 
 surveyors and a few lovers of the wilds have ventured to 
 go, either on horses, or toting blankets and provisions with 
 them. This is highly preferable to not seeing the region 
 at all. It is as if an individual possessed some beautiful 
 painting which all the world wanted to see, and instead of 
 keeping it in his own dark palace he placed it in a well- 
 lighted museum, where every one could admire its beau- 
 ties. The Dominion Government is placing its chief 
 treasures on exhibition. It is making the means of see- 
 ing them as practicable and convenient as possible. 
 Whatever its motive, for the motive is immaterial, the 
 Canadian government has accomplished a great work in 
 this respect of making beautiful scenery accessible to the 
 public — and it is continuing this work. It was doing 
 so even in wartime, when Provincial and Dominion re- 
 sources were being rather severely taxed. Interned pris- 
 oners of war were put to work on roads, either building 
 new ones or adding safety to old ones by piling pyra- 
 mids and rows of stone at curbs along streams, lakes, 
 and on mountain curves. At a glance it is apparent that 
 all the improvements, like those in city parkways, are 
 made " for all the people." Of course it is a compara- 
 tively small percentage of the people who will tour over 
 
298 Sunset Canada 
 
 the roads in large automobiles; but I think the time is 
 coming — there are already signs of it — when the 
 walking-tour will be as popular in this country as it is 
 in Europe. Distances are vast in this great western 
 section of Canada. The casual reader of a map fails to 
 appreciate them ; but railroads are convenient avenues to 
 follow between the principal towns. With these towns 
 as a center, the footpaths of the walking tourist will lead 
 to thousands of places that for a long time or perhaps 
 always, will remain invisible to the motorist. In fact 
 there are hundreds of these paths already — hundreds of 
 them around Banff alone. The walkers should avail 
 themselves of this splendid opportunity to see how much 
 more enjoyable a walk of ten miles can be among moun- 
 tains, rivers and lakes, than a one-hundred-mile tour 
 is likely to be. An early start, breakfast at the hotel, 
 lunch in knapsack, and back to hotel or cottage in time 
 for an eight o'clock dinner ! This is the way to " see " 
 Banff — the best way, or at least the best way to spend 
 two weeks of the month that one could spend here en- 
 joyably. 
 
 Perhaps the newcomer may best begin his excursions 
 in Banff by short walks to the principal points of interest 
 in the town itself and the immediate vicinity reached by 
 the extension of city streets. Near the river in the center 
 of town is a park where there are living specimens of the 
 principal animals of the region, bears, mountain lions, 
 coyotes, porcupines, gophers, foxes, and several others. 
 In the park is the Rocky Mountains Park Museum, where 
 one may inspect mounted specimens of almost every kind 
 of animal to be found in the mountains. Across the 
 bridge the roads lead to the baths on Sulphur Mountain, 
 where the water comes splashing down the hill at a tem- 
 
Capital of the Rockies 299 
 
 perature of ninety degrees to the hotel, and in another 
 direction to the Cave and Basin, the springs from which 
 the surveyors saw steam arising and where the Dominion 
 Government has now constructed a pubHc bathing station 
 which is popularly believed to be the finest in America. 
 The pool is two hundred feet long and one hundred feet 
 wide and it is constantly filled by the water flowing from 
 the Cave. The stone of which it and the adjoining Pavil- 
 ion are constructed were quarried from the neighbouring 
 flinty mountain, but the cost of construction was two hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand dollars. The big basin has no 
 roof, but is surrounded by huge plate glass windows, al- 
 lowing bathers a full view of the mountains on all sides. 
 There are nearly two hundred dressing-rooms, chutes and 
 jumping-boards, and at night the place is lighted by over 
 fourteen hundred bulbs. An easy climb is to Tunnel 
 Mountain, whence a fine view of the valley may be 
 gained. Walks beside the Bow River, either in the for- 
 ests, where it flows rapidly, or to its Falls, and where it is 
 joined by the Spray River will consume pleasant hours. 
 Another nearby excursion is to the beautiful Vermillion 
 Lakes, which lie at the city's front door, but are invisible 
 unless the road is followed for a distance of a mile or so, 
 where the waters are hidden by forest trees. To Sun 
 Dance Canyon is a round-trip of about four miles. Fol- 
 lowing an automobile road, one is likely to be fortunate 
 enough to see deer browsing at shrubs by the roadside. 
 A stream of water splashes from a great height in this 
 canyon, where the scenery is rugged and usually betrays 
 the results of the season's snow-slides. 
 
 The animal paddocks are only two miles from town and 
 here one may see " big game " confined within com- 
 paratively limited quarters, but living as upon the plains, 
 
300 Sunset Canada 
 
 or in the mountains. Elk, yak, moose, deer of various 
 kinds, mountain sheep, and mountain goats roam at will 
 over a large territory that is penetrated by convenient 
 walks and drives, where they may be observed at close 
 range. Of principal importance in this park is the splen- 
 did herd of buffalo, which with another herd under gov- 
 ernment protection at Wainwright, Alberta are counted 
 the finest specimens of the American bison extant. The 
 history of these herds dates back to 1873, when an Indian 
 captured four bison calves, by cutting them out of a 
 stampeding herd on the Flathead Reservation in Mon- 
 tana. The Indians gave them to the mission of St. 
 Ignatius, where they were kept as pets and became as do- 
 mesticated as ordinary cattle. They gradually increased 
 in number until in 1884 there were thirteen, and the In- 
 dian owner, finding the care of them too great a tax on his 
 scant resources, decided to give the Dominion government 
 an option to sell them. Ten were purchased for $250 
 apiece by C. A. Allard and Michel Pablo, who were 
 ranching on the reservation. The buffalo herd increased 
 under their supervision, and in a few^ years it became 
 possible to sell specimens at very high prices. Some idea 
 of the average rate of increase may be deduced from the 
 observed fact that half the cows give birth to calves every 
 year, while twin calves are not uncommon. As a rule, the 
 bison calf is a very hardy creature. There are instances 
 of the Pablo-Allard calves finding their feet in less than 
 a minute after birth and showing fight within half an 
 hour. In 1906 Hon. Frank Oliver, then Minister of the 
 Interior, obtained an option on the six hundred unsold 
 head belonging to Messrs. Pablo and Allard, and event- 
 ually they were bought for two hundred thousand dollars. 
 The " round-up " lasted two months, and was carried out 
 
Capital of the Rockies 301 
 
 by seventy-five cowboys, horsemen picked for their abil- 
 ity from every part of the great Montana ranges. 
 
 In addition to preserving one of the most interesting 
 quadrupeds in America, many cross-breeding experiments 
 have been made between buffalo and domestic cattle, 
 with a view to the development of a new type of domestic 
 animal which will be able to " rustle " or take care of it- 
 self under conditions that are fatal to ordinary range 
 cattle, and which, in addition, will possess the value of 
 producing a robe like that of the buffalo. The animal 
 born of cross-breeding is called the cattalo and great 
 future importance is attached to the experiments already 
 made. 
 
 One sees fine and healthy specimens of buffalo at 
 Banff, big fellows, some of which weigh over two thou- 
 sand pounds. They are ranging over the field and occa- 
 sionally come close to the walks and look at visitors with 
 noticeable curiosity and interest. When one pauses to 
 think of what was almost the miracle that saved this 
 noble animal from total extinction he becomes more in- 
 terested than before in its life history. Buffalo were 
 more numerous than any other large animal of historic 
 times (the first record of a white man having seen one 
 was in Montezuma's menagerie in Mexico in 1521, and 
 the first one not in captivity in Texas in 1530) and if 
 the keepers of the large paddocks are inclined to do so, 
 they can discourse interestingly upon one of the great 
 tragedies of this north-western part of the continent. At 
 one time it was possible to drive for twenty-five miles 
 through an unbroken herd. It is said that Buffalo Bill, 
 while a hunter for the construction company of the Kan- 
 sas Pacific Railway in 1867-68, killed nearly five thou- 
 sand buffalo, which were consumed by the men employed 
 
302 Sunset Canada 
 
 in track-laying. Colonel Henry Inman says in The 
 Old Santa Fc Trail that in 1868 he rode for three days 
 through one herd. In 1868 a train of the Kansas Pacific 
 Railway was delayed from nine o'clock in the morning 
 until five o'clock in the evening to permit one herd of 
 buffalo to cross the tracks. In Kansas alone in thirteen 
 years following 1868, when they were ruthlessly slaugh- 
 tered for their tongues and hides, it is claimed that about 
 thirty-one millions of the animals were slain; a figure 
 arrived at by assuming that it took about one hundred 
 carcasses to provide one ton of bone, that eight dollars 
 per ton was the usual price paid, and that $2,500,000 
 was spent for bone to be used at carbon works, which is 
 believed to be the correct jfigure. 
 
 Buffalo once roamed over the vast territory between 
 Pennsylvania and Mexico and as far north as Great Slave 
 Lake, the home of the muskox. His favourite grounds 
 were the great plains, but he was found at an elevation 
 of eleven thousand feet in the Rocky Mountains and he 
 came near to tide water east of the Appalachian Moun- 
 tains. As late as 1870 they ranged from Texas to the 
 Arctic Circle. They were the most valuable possession of 
 the Indians, because they provided meat which tastes like 
 beef, covering for tents and clothing for the body, and 
 hunting implements were made from the bones and horns. 
 Hendry, who went into the Saskatchewan country with 
 the Indians in 1754, wrote: " So expert are the natives 
 buffalo hunting, they wall take an arrow out of the buffalo 
 when the beasts are foaming and raging and tearing the 
 ground up with their feet and horns. The buffalo are 
 so numerous like herds of English cattle, that we are 
 obliged to make them sheer out of our way." It is re- 
 corded by witnesses that a chief of the Kiowas named 
 
Capital of the Rockies 303 
 
 Smoke Shield was a giant over seven feet tall and that 
 he never rode a horse when buffalo hunting but ran after 
 the animals and despatched them with a lance. Another 
 Indian called Two Lance was distinguished for his ability 
 to shoot an arrow through the body of a buffalo so that 
 it fell out on the other side. 
 
 The buffalo existed in such almost unbelievable num- 
 bers, however, that the annual death toll of the Indians 
 made no inroads upon the herds which multiplied with 
 great rapidity. It was the coming of the white man that 
 sealed their doom. They fell by the millions and were 
 threatened with extinction when a few were gathered as 
 here at Banff in a somewhat desperate endeavour to per- 
 petuate the species. The only buffalo so far as known 
 which continue to roam in a wild state are near Great 
 Slave Lake, where there are said to be about five hundred 
 of the variety known as Wood bison. 
 
 Seven miles beyond the huge buffalo corrals lies Lake 
 Minnewanka, a beautiful body of water that provides ex- 
 cellent trout fishing and a long launch ride through a 
 curving channel bordered by gigantic cliffs. On the route 
 may be obtained good views of Mount Aylmer, over ten 
 thousand feet. Peechee and Ingilismaldie, nine thousand 
 feet peaks. The drive to Mount Edith Pass leads along 
 the shores of Vermillion Lakes as far west as necessary 
 to obtain a fine view of Mount Edith. In the foothills to 
 the north the tourist may usually observe mountain sheep 
 and deer on natural grassy lawns. What is known as 
 the Loop Drive follows the Bow Valley in view of the 
 Falls, crosses the Spray Bridge and skirts the base of 
 Mount Rundle with a view of the stone pillars known as 
 the Hoodoos, across the river. Probably the longest 
 mountain trip to make an appeal to amateurs in this vicin- 
 
304 Sunset Canada 
 
 ity is to the Observatory on Sulphur Mountain, a distance 
 of twelve miles. The Pavilion is three thousand feet 
 above the town and commands a grand view of the sur- 
 rounding mountains and valleys. Mount Assiniboine 
 rises over eleven thousand feet and the trail is usually 
 counted about thirty-five miles to its summit. It is a 
 difficult climb as the rocky side is almost vertical and has 
 won for it the popular name of " The Matterhorn of the 
 Rockies." Its ascent, like so many of the long and ardu- 
 ous climbs from nearby resorts, is accounted one of the 
 " rare " experiences by the guides and outfitters who are 
 always attempting to lure their patrons from the " tame 
 cat " excursions near the railroad. The vast majority of 
 travelers, however, will find enough to satisfy them in 
 Banff and its easily accessible environments. As in other 
 things, however, Banff offers something that will satisfy 
 all visitors, those who desire a quiet holiday in a fash- 
 ionable or a moderate price hotel, those who prefer to 
 saunter in beautiful woodland, the walkers, riders, driv- 
 ers; and those who desire for the strenuous leads them 
 to undertake long trips that require from one week to 
 thirty days. Banff provides it all, in reality, the little 
 city that has grown up around the steaming springs is all 
 embracing, the climax of the mountain tour from the 
 West, a summing up and review of all that has been seen 
 or experienced elsewhere. When approached from the 
 East it offers its dazzling variety of marvels almost as 
 soon as one has entered the gateway from the plains, and 
 the tourists' first hours are spent in bewilderment and 
 amazement that such scenic prodigality exists — not in 
 some faroff corner of the Urals, Caucasus, Andes or 
 Himalayas, but so close to home, just beyond the great 
 wheat fields around Winnipeg, Regina and Calgary. 
 
The T href Sisters, near Banff. 
 
 Cotirfesy' of' Canadian Pacific Railway. 
 
Capital of the Rockies 305 
 
 As the departing train leaves Banff it circles into the 
 great eight-hundred-acre corral of the buffalo and soon 
 reaches the coal-mining towns of Bankhead and Canniore. 
 A good view is obtained of Three Sisters Mountain in 
 profile and of Wind and Pigeon Mountains looming in the 
 far distance. The peaks still raise their heads into the 
 clouds as if in an heroic effort to defy the inevitable mo- 
 notony of the plains. The Bow River, which is to provide 
 the water for vast irrigation systems in the wheatlands 
 and power for great electric plants in its descent toward 
 the prairie, bursts through the Gap and the rails follow its 
 channel. At Exshaw is one of the largest cement works 
 in Canada, and the surrounding mountains have now be- 
 come tremendous uplifts of the Carboniferous and the 
 Devonian Ages, which have broken through the earth's 
 crust and slowly heaved aloft as if in a futile effort to 
 reach the majestic proportions of sister peaks to the west- 
 M^ard. At Cochrane the descent is becoming rapid and 
 the train runs along the great terraces of the foothills. 
 From the observation platform this slide to the plains is 
 easily perceptible as one sees the snow tips of the dis- 
 tance receding and the billow^y grass hills of Alberta 
 bordering the staircase that has its base in one of the 
 colossal cereal gardens of the world. The river froths 
 and foams as if from habits contracted in its youth 
 among mountain chasms, but its bed seems level and it 
 will soon flow as undisturbed as the meadow brook. The 
 mountains and hills are visible off there to the West 
 among the clouds, but the rails lie flat upon the earth's 
 floor. Man-built peaks appear on the eastern sky-line, 
 grouped together like the rims of the basins of Glacier, 
 Field, Lake Louise and Banff; they are the towering 
 " skyscrapers " of Calgary. 
 
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 Camping in Canadian Rockies. 
 
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INDEX 
 
 Abbot Pass, 285. 
 Agassiz, 165. 
 
 Alaska, to, from Prince Ru- 
 pert, 151. 
 Alberta, 159, 204, 227, 280. 
 Albert Canyon, described, 258. 
 Alberni, on fjord, 63; Indian 
 
 Agent quoted, 65-67, 69, 70, 
 
 73 ; how named, 80 : begimiing 
 
 of boom, 81; hit by war, 82; 
 
 resources, 83 ; hunting near, 
 
 84, 85, 87; fishing at, 83, 85- 
 
 87 ; logging operations, 88-92 ; 
 
 cost of fuel, 93. 
 Alberni Canal, 63, 80, 82, 93; 
 
 like Norwegian fjords, 64; 
 
 villages along, 65; whaling 
 
 operations, 73-75. 
 Alberni, Don Pedro, 80. 
 Alert Bay, 137, 138. 
 Algiers, Prince Rupert harbour 
 
 compared to, 146. 
 Alice Arm, 137. 
 Amalfi, 146. 
 Anyox, 137; to, from Prince 
 
 Rupert, 151. 
 Arctic Ocean, 27; Mackenzie at, 
 
 114. 
 Arrow Lakes, 198, 207, 214, 215, 
 
 227; cruise on, 228. 
 Ashcroft, 4, 192. 
 Asulkan Glacier; trip from 
 
 Glacier to, 269. 
 Asulkan Pass ; views from, 269. 
 Athabasca; Mackenzie reaches, 
 
 114. 
 Athabasca Falls, 153. 
 Athabasca Pass. 154. 
 Athabasca River; at Jasper 
 
 Park, 153, 154. 
 Atlin; to, from Prince Rupert, 
 
 151- 
 
 6 
 
 Balfour, 227. 
 
 Balloo Pass; view from summit 
 of, 267. 
 
 Bancroft, Herbert Howe, 
 quoted, 193. 
 
 Banff; from Vancouver to, 196; 
 named by Sir George Stephen, 
 292 ; winter as well as summer 
 resort, 293 ; hotel at, 294 : sul- 
 phur pools, furnished bunga- 
 lows, 295 ; trails and roads 
 around, 296, 297 ; museum, 
 298 ; Cave and Basin, 299 ; ani- 
 mal paddocks, 299, 300; buf- 
 falo, 300-303 ; to Lake Minne- 
 wanka. Mounts Aylmer, Pee- 
 chee, Ingilismaldie, Edith 
 Pass, Vermillion Lakes, 
 Mount Edith, Spray Bridge, 
 Mount Rundle, Hoodoos, 303; 
 observatory, 304. 
 
 Bankhead, 305. 
 
 Bamfield, 64. 
 
 Barkerville, 176, 185, 192, 
 
 Battleford, 232. 
 
 Bear Ci'eek, 157. 
 
 Beau Pass, 158. 
 
 Beau Vert Lake, 153, 154; camp 
 at, 155- 
 
 Beaverfoot River, 270. 
 
 Beaverfoot Range, 270. 
 
 Beavermouth, 269. 
 
 Behring Strait, 27. 
 
 Bella Bella, 137, 138. 
 
 Bella Coola; Mackenzie reaches, 
 115- 
 
 Bellingham, 168-169. 
 
 Berg Lake, 159. 
 
 Berlin, 214. 
 
 Bombay, 214. 
 
 Bonnington Falls, 217. 
 
 Borden Glacier, 161. 
 
 Borden, Sir Robert ; mountain 
 named for, 161. 
 
 Boule Roche Mountain, 152. 
 
 Bonner's Ferry ; from Nelson to, 
 by water, 223. 
 
 Bow River; from Surprise 
 Point, 278 ; discoveries at, 291 ; 
 
312 
 
 Index 
 
 sulphur pools near, 292; rapids 
 of, 293 ; hotels beside, 294 ; 
 Loop Drive along, 303, falls 
 of, 303 ; irrigates prairies, 305. 
 
 Bowen Island, 135. 
 
 Brazeau Lake, 153. 
 
 Brazeau River, 153. 
 
 Bridal Chamber, 267. 
 
 Brilliant ; arrival of Doukho- 
 bors at, 232, 233 ; story of col- 
 onists at, 235-251. 
 
 British Columbia ; prosperity be- 
 gins, 47 ; favourable to confed- 
 eration, 46 ; length of tour in, 
 2; called " B. C," "Land of 
 Sunshine," 3; climate, 4, 8; 
 sunset gateway, 5 ; vastness, 
 mines, 6 ; fruit, 6, 7 ; water- 
 falls, fisheries, forests, 7; all 
 embracing, 9 ; named by Queen 
 Victoria, 11, 12; coat of arms 
 described, 22, 23 ; independent 
 colony, 44 ; first governor, 44. 
 
 Buccaneer Bay, 136. 
 
 Buffalo Bill, 301. 
 
 Buffalo; in park at Banfif, 300- 
 303. 
 
 Bulkley River, 161. 
 
 Burrard's Channel, 135, 164; 
 how named. 97. 
 
 Burrard, Sir Harry, 97. 
 
 Butte Inlet, 135. 
 
 Buttle Lake, 59. 
 
 Calgary, i, 2, 146, 156, 253, 304, 
 306, 308. 
 
 California, 24, 25, 26, 31, 162, 
 168, 169, 172, 185, 213. 
 
 Calvert Island, 138. 
 
 Cameron Lake, 62. 
 
 Campbell Lake, 59. 
 
 Campbell River, 57, 59, 137. 
 
 Camsell, Charles; quoted on 
 geology of National Parks, 
 257. 
 
 Canadian Alpine Club; ascent 
 of Mount Temple, 286. 
 
 Canadian Pacific Railway, 56, 96, 
 117, 152, 164, 192, 254. 256, 258, 
 261, 263, 271, 280, 293; con- 
 struction guaranteed, cost of, 
 hotels of, 46. 
 
 Canmore^'igo^. 
 
 Capilano'-6.^^on,''lo6 ; described, 
 131 ; suspension bridge, 132, 
 133 ; romantic history, 134 ; ex- 
 cursion from, 135. 
 
 Carbonate Grotto, 267. 
 
 Cariboo, 115, 167, 174-176. 
 
 Cariboo Road ; beginning at 
 Yale, 179; described, 180-183; 
 building of, 183, 184; Bar- 
 nard's Express on, 184; acci- 
 dents on, 185-187. 
 
 Cascade, 213. 
 
 Cascade Range, 198. 
 
 Castlegar, 217. 
 
 Cavell River, 1^5. 
 
 Charles II, 38, 39. 
 
 Chemainus, 55. 
 
 Chicago, 114. 
 
 Chilcotlin, 174. 
 
 Chilliwack, 115, 119, 1G5. 
 
 China Bar, 173. 
 
 China Creek, 80. 
 
 China Hat, 137. 
 
 Chinook Winds, 138. 
 
 Clayoquot, 64. 
 
 Coal ; discovered on Vancouver 
 Island, 42, 55. 
 
 Coast Range, i, 192. 
 
 Cochrane, 305. 
 
 Colin Range, 154. 
 
 Columbia River, 115, 198, 214, 
 227, 254, 256, 269; described, 
 215, 216; at Golden, 270. 
 
 Committee's Punch Bowl, 154. 
 
 Consolation Valley, 280. 
 
 Cook, Captain; explorations of, 
 27, 30, 37- 
 
 Cook's Ferry, 183. 
 
 Cook's Inlet, 27. 
 
 Cordova Bay, 21. 
 
 Craigellachle ; railroad completed 
 at, 256. 
 
 Creston, 229, 245. 
 
 Crotton, 55. 
 
 Crow's Nest Route, 227, 270. 
 
 Cougar Creek; at Nakimu 
 Caves, 265, 267 ; valley of, 268. 
 
 Courtenay, 51. 
 
 Dawson Peaks; views of, 268. 
 Dead Sea, 215. 
 Dean Channel, 138. 
 
Index 
 
 313 
 
 Deasy, Thomas (Indian Agent), 
 quoted, 140. 
 
 Death Trap ; near Lake Louise, 
 285. 
 
 De Guigues (Sinologist) 
 
 quoted, 29. 
 
 Deutchman, Charles Henry; dis- 
 coverer of Nakimu Caves, 264. 
 
 Dietz, Wilhclm ; finds gold, 174; 
 " Humbug- Creek," 175. 
 
 Discovery Passage, 138. 
 
 Doreen, 161. 
 
 Douglas, James, 45, 169; selects 
 site of Victoria, 42; first gov- 
 ernor, 43, 44; "King of 
 Roads," 183. 
 
 Doukho1)ors, 229; Tolstoi vi^rote 
 of them, 230; Dominion in- 
 vestigates, 231 ; at Brilliant, 
 232, 233 ; concerning education, 
 234. 235; vegetarians, 236; 
 plan of working, 237; com- 
 munity savings, 238 ; arrival at 
 Brilliant, 239; beliefs of, 240- 
 242 ; history of, 243, 244, 245 ; 
 Peter Veregin, leader, 246- 
 248; arrive in America, 249;, 
 trails 250, 251. 
 
 Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan; in 
 Jasper Park, 153. 
 
 Duncan, 55. 
 
 "Dutch Bill" (see Wilhelm 
 Dietz). 
 
 Eagle Peak; trails to, 269. 
 
 Eagle Pass ; naming of, 256. 
 
 Eburne, 119. 
 
 Echo Lake, 59. 
 
 Edelweiss ; i^omgi^^f Swiss 
 guides, 261, 262. '^-:' 
 
 Edith Lake, 153. ""^ 
 
 Edmonton, 150, 232. 
 
 Ellis, Thomas, 188, 189, 203. 
 
 Elk Lake, 21. 
 
 Emerald Lake ; near Field, 274, 
 276 ; hotel at, 274 ; from Sur- 
 prise Point, 279. 
 
 Emperor Falls, 159. 
 
 Esquimault, 54. 
 
 Exshaw, 305. 
 
 Fernie, 227. 
 
 Field; arrival at, 271, 306; view 
 from hotel, 272; Mount Ste- 
 phen at, 273 ; excursions from, 
 272 ; Alount Burgess, 'Snow 
 Peak Avenue, Natural Bridge, 
 274 ; Ottertail Drive, Van 
 Home peaks visible, trip to 
 Yoho Valley, 275; to Summit 
 Lake, Lookout Point, Wapta 
 Glacier visible, to Takakkaw 
 Falls, 276; guides at, 277; 
 Twin Falls, Laughing Falls, 
 Mount Field, from Surprise 
 Point, O'Hara Lake, McAr- 
 thur Lake, 279; leaving, 2S0. 
 
 Finlayson Channel, 139. 
 
 Fishing ; calendar suggested for 
 Vancouver Island, 60, 61, 62; 
 commercial, 127-129. 
 
 Fort Kootenay; built by Thomp- 
 son, 227. 
 
 Fort Langley, 44, 45. 
 
 Forbes' Landing, 59. 
 
 Eraser River, 24, 180, 186, 190, 
 198, 214, 216; discovered, 115; 
 important history, 116; rail- 
 road follows, 117, 165; com- 
 pared to Yangtze, 118, 119; sal- 
 mon catch, 123; sturgeon, 128; 
 gold in, 163, 167-169, 174; 
 head of navigation, 164. 
 
 Eraser, Simon, 172, 191 ; explo- 
 rations, 115; describes Eraser 
 Canyon, 181, 182. 
 
 "Gentlemen Adventurers," (see 
 Hudson's Bay Co.). 
 
 Giant Steps Waterfall, 287. 
 
 Glacier; arrival at, 258, 306; 
 described, 259 ; mountain- 
 climbing and Swiss guides, 
 260; marvelous excursions 
 from, 261 ; guide recom- 
 mended, 262; to Nakimu 
 Caves, 264-267; to Rogers 
 Pass, Baloo Pass, 267; ideal 
 resort, 268; short and long 
 trips from, 269; to Asulkan 
 Glacier, to Lake Marion, to 
 
314 
 
 Index 
 
 Mount Abbot, to Mount Ava- 
 lanche, to Cascade Pavilion, 
 269. 
 
 Glacier Crest, 269. 
 
 Goat Lake, 137. 
 
 Gold; discovery of, 43, 116, 
 168; seekers, 162, 166, 167, 169, 
 170, 172; yield of, from 
 Fraser country, 174; at Wil- 
 liam's Creek, 174-176; amount 
 of placer, 179. 
 
 Golden, 227; described, 269; 
 sights near, 270. 
 
 Gold Harbour, 168. 
 
 Goose Neck Lake, 59. 
 
 Gopher Bridge, 265. 
 
 Graham Island, 139. 
 
 Grand Forks; town of orchards, 
 213. 
 
 Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, 
 I4S. 152. 
 
 Granville, 97. 
 
 Great Central Lake, 85. 
 
 Great Divide, The ; arrival at, 
 280; from Lake Louise, 290. 
 
 Gulf of Georgia, 115. 
 
 Great Slave Lake; Mackenzie 
 at, 114. 
 
 Greenville Channel, 139. 
 
 H 
 
 Haesler, Christiaan, Swiss 
 Guide ; interview, 262-264. 
 
 Haida Indians ; at Queen Char- 
 lotte Islands, 139; described, 
 140; strange customs, 141. 
 
 Halifax, 3 ; Doukhobors arrive 
 at, 248. 
 
 Hanna, Captain James, 31. 
 
 Harmon, Byron; quoted, 155- 
 
 159- 
 Hawes, Jasper, 152. 
 Hays, Charles Melville, 145, 146. 
 Hazelton, 151, 161. 
 Hector; origin of name, 280. 
 Hector Lake, 158. 
 Hector, Sir James, 280. 
 Hell's Gate; where Fraser River 
 
 narrows, 191. 
 Hermit Range ; view of, 268. 
 Hichens, Robert; quoted, 214. 
 Higginson, Ella; quoted, 142. 
 Hill's Bar; gold at, 169, 170. 
 
 Holberg, 64. 
 
 Hongkong, 156; Prince Rupert 
 Harbour compared to, 146. 
 
 Hoodoos ; near Banff, 303. 
 
 Horseshoe Bay, 135. 
 
 Horseshoe Glacier ; visible, 287. 
 
 Horseshoe Lake (see Beau Vert 
 Lake). 
 
 Howe Sound, 135. 
 
 Hubbard, Elbert; quoted, 109. 
 
 Hudson's Bay, 3, 38, 39, 114. 
 
 Hudson's Bay Company, 169. 
 194; beginnings of, 38; early 
 profits, 39 ; oath of share-hold- 
 ers in, 40; history of, 41; pos- 
 sess Vancouver Island, 42; 
 Gladstone's criticism of, 43; 
 controls British Columbia, 44; 
 holds to charter, 113; rival of, 
 114; Fraser to oppose, 115; 
 old route of, 157. 
 
 Hudson River, 214, 228. 
 
 Ice Cave, 267. 
 
 Illecillewaet Glacier, 157, 285 ; 
 at Glacier Station, 262, 264. 
 
 Illecillewaet River, 267 ; view of, 
 at Albert Canyon, 258. 
 
 Indians, 170-172; of Nootka 
 Sound, 2iT\ of Vancouver 
 Island, 2)7- 64-69 ; totems of, 
 65-69; as fishermen, 69, 71-79; 
 neglect of elders, 70, 71 ; edu- 
 cation among, jz; oosh-mish, 
 TT,; legend of lions, 103-106; 
 legend of Siwash Rock, iio- 
 III ; respect , .for salmon, 124, 
 125 ; legend of salmon, 126, 
 127 ; Haida Nation, 139-141 ; 
 salmon-spearing, 191. 
 
 Inman, Col. Henry ; quoted, 302. 
 
 Island Automobile Club, 21, 
 
 Jack Lake ; trout fishing at, 153. 
 Japan Current; effect of, 8, 138. 
 Jasper Mountain; in Jasper 
 
 Park. 153, 154. 
 Jasper Park ; Mecca for tourists, 
 
 151; trading post in, 152; 
 
 sights, 153, 154; camping at, 
 
Index 
 
 315 
 
 155 ; trail to Lake Louise de- 
 scribed, 155, 156-159, 290. 
 
 Jervis Inlet, 135. 
 
 Jewitt, John; youth in England, 
 3S ; massacre at Nootka, 34 ; 
 book on his captivity, 35-37; 
 rescue of, 37 ; on whales, 76. 
 
 Johnstone Straits, 137, 138. 
 
 Jordan River; like Columbia, 
 
 215- 
 
 Juan de Fuca; explorations of, 
 26. 
 
 K 
 
 Kaien Island, 142, 145, 147, 149. 
 
 Kalso, 227. 
 
 Kamloops, 16S, 192; early days, 
 193, 194; slogan of, 195. 
 
 Kamloops Lake, 192. 
 
 Kelowna ; described, 200-202. 
 
 Kettle River; picturesque ride 
 along, 211. 
 
 Kettle Valley Route, 198, 227; 
 thrilling ride, 207, 208; 
 through mountain forests, 
 209; climbing on, 210; along 
 Kettle River, 211; big game 
 along, 212; over Lake Chris- 
 tina, 213 ; to Arrows Lakes, 
 214; route of fur-traders, 215; 
 amazing panorama, 216; com- 
 pared to Alps, 217; arrival at 
 Nelson, 217. 
 
 Kicking Horse Pass, 279: rail- 
 road in, 270; origin of name, 
 270, 271 ; from Field, 275. 
 
 Kicking Horse River; confluence 
 with Columbia, 270; with 
 Beaverfoot, 270; origin of 
 name, 271 ; builds Natural 
 Bridge, 275. 
 
 Kingcome Inlet, 137. 
 
 King George Sound, 30. 
 
 Knox, Agnes ; lake named for, 
 285. 
 
 Kootenay District, 229; land- 
 scape. 218; hunting, 219, 220; 
 mountain goat, 221, 222; big 
 game, 223 ; fruit from, 224 ; 
 mining in, 225; fur-traders in, 
 227. 
 
 Kootenay Lake, 198; cruise on, 
 
 224-226; like Arrow Lakes, 
 228. 
 
 Kootenay Landing; from Nel- 
 son, 224 ; described, 226. 
 
 Kootenay River, 227, 233. 
 
 Lady Franklin Rock, 190. 
 
 Ladysmith, 55. 
 
 Lake Agnes ; near Lake Louise, 
 284; how named, 285. 
 
 Lake Annette ; near Mount 
 Temple, 286. 
 
 Lake Christina; described, 213. 
 
 Lake Erie, 215. 
 
 Lake Helena, 159. 
 
 Lake Huron, 215. 
 
 Lake Louise, 142, 306; arrival 
 at, 281; hotel, 281, 284; de- 
 scribed, 282 ; fascination of, 
 283 ; " liquid music," 284 ; to 
 Mirror Lake, 284; to Lake 
 Agnes, Victoria Glacier, ascent 
 of Mount Victoria, to Abbot 
 Pass and Death Trap, 285 ; to 
 Valley of the Ten Peaks, Mo- 
 raine Lake, Mount Temple, 
 Lake Annette, 286 ; to Saddle- 
 back, Horseshoe Glacier, Giant 
 Steps Waterfall, Mount Hun- 
 gabee visible on trip from, 
 trail to J\Tount St. Piran. 287; 
 ascent of Mount Lefroy, 288, 
 289; to Mount Fay, 289, 290; 
 to Great Divide, 290; to Jas- 
 per Park, 152, 155-159, 290; 
 to Ptarmigan Valley, Pipe- 
 stone River and Banff, 290. 
 
 Lake Marion ; near Glacier, 269. 
 
 Lake Minnewanka ; trip to, 303. 
 
 Lake Ontario, 215. 
 
 Lake Superior, 215. 
 
 Laughing Falls ; trail to, 279. 
 
 Laut, Agnes C. ; history of Hud- 
 son's Bay Company, 41-42. 
 
 Lardo, 227. 
 
 Leancholl, 270. 
 
 Leonardo da Vinci; quoted, 272. 
 
 Lightning Creek, 174. 
 
 Lillooet, 115. 
 
 Liverpool, 144. 
 
 Logging; operations near Al- 
 berni, 88-92. 
 
316 
 
 Index 
 
 London, 156, 162. 
 Lookout Point, 276. 
 Lords of the Outer Marches 
 (see Hudson's Bay Company). 
 Lower Campbell Lake, 59. 
 Lulu Island, 119; dikes at, 121. 
 Lund, 136. 
 Lytton, 183, 192. 
 
 M 
 
 McArthur Lake ; described, 279, 
 280. 
 
 Mclvor Lake, 59. 
 
 McTavish, Simon, 114. 
 
 Mackenzie, Alexander; explora- 
 tions, 114; reaches Pacific, 
 115, 138. 
 
 Mackenzie River, 214, 216; ex- 
 plorer reaches, 114. 
 
 Malahat Drive, 59. 
 
 Maligne Canyon, 153. 
 
 Maligne Lake, 154, 157, 158. 
 
 Maligne Mountain, 154. 
 
 Maligne River, 153. 
 
 Manitoba, 145, 204. 
 
 Mara Lake, 198. 
 
 Martinez, Don Estevan; takes 
 possession of Nootka, 31. 
 
 Massett, 139. 
 
 Mears, Captain John; expedi- 
 tion from China, 30; first mer- 
 chant in British Columbia, 
 first shipbuilder, 31. 
 
 Medicine Lake, 153, 154. 
 
 Midway. 198, 212. 
 
 Mill Bridge, 265. 
 
 Mirror Lake, 59; near Lake 
 Louise, " Goat's Looking 
 Glass,'' 284. 
 
 Mississippi River, 214, 228. 
 
 Mitchell, Maj. C. H. ; quoted, 
 159-160. 
 
 Moberly, Walter; 69, 183-184; 
 locating Eagle Pass, 256. 
 
 Montreal, 8. 
 
 Moraine Lake; from Lake 
 Louise, described, 286; trip to, 
 287. 
 
 Mount Abbot; trip from Gla- 
 cier, 269. 
 
 Mount Arrowsmith, 62. 
 
 Mount Avalanche; trails to, 269; 
 Cascade Pavilion on, 269. 
 
 Mount Aylmer; visible, 303. 
 Mount Begbie, 252; south of 
 
 Revelstoke, 255. 
 Mount Burgess ; near Field, 274. 
 Mount Columbia, 157-158. 
 Mount Diadem, 136. 
 Mount Douglas, 21. 
 Mount Edith ; visible, drive to. 
 
 Pass, 303. 
 Mount Edith Cavell ; named for 
 
 British nurse, 154, 155. 
 Mount Field ; down slope of, 
 
 279. 
 Mount Geikie (see Mount Edith 
 
 Cavell). 
 Mount Goodsir, 270. 
 INIount Hungabee ; visible, 287. 
 Mount Hunter ; visible, 270. 
 Mount Ingilismaldie ; visible, 
 
 303- 
 Mount Lefroy; tragedy of, 288- 
 
 289. 
 Mount Macdonald ; tunnel into, 
 
 259, 269; view of, 268. 
 Mount Peechee ; visible, 303. 
 Mount Resplendent, 159-160. 
 Mount Revelstoke, 252, 255. 
 Mount Robson, 151," 156, 159; 
 
 glacier on, 157 ; described, 160. 
 Mount Rundle : base of, 303. 
 Mount Sir Robert, 161. 
 Mount Sir Donald. 157. 
 Mount St. Piran ; ascent of, 287. 
 Mount Stephen. 157, 280; Gibral- 
 tar of Canada, 271 ; described, 
 
 273 ; ascent of, 274-275 ; fossil 
 
 beds of, 275. 
 Mount Sorrow, 155. 
 Mount Temple; from Lake 
 
 Louise, 286-287. 
 Mount Victoria, 57; ascent of, 
 
 285. 
 Mountain of Minerals, 161. 
 Mountain Goat; hunting, 219; 
 
 described, 220-221 ; " Big 
 
 Billy," 222; rugs from wool 
 
 of, 222. 223. 
 Myette River, 153. 
 
 N 
 
 Nakimu Caves ; exploration of, 
 264; Gopher Bridge, 265; 
 Cougar Creek, Mill Bridge, 
 
Index 
 
 317 
 
 265-266 ; Auditorium, Ball- 
 room, 266; Carbonate Grotto, 
 White Grotto, Art Gallery, 
 Gimlet, Bridal Chamber, Ice 
 Cave, 267. 
 
 Nanaimo ; city of coal, 55 ; 
 Dunsmuir comes, 55-56. 
 
 Naramata, 201. 
 
 National Parks, 58. 
 
 Nechako Valley, 161. 
 
 Nelson, 229, 231, 234; situation 
 of. 217; mines around, 218; 
 hunter's paradise, 2IQ, 220; 
 mountain goat near, 221 ; wa- 
 ter sports, 223 ; to Kootenay 
 Landing, 224-227. 
 
 New Brunswick, 46. 
 
 New Caledonia ; name suggested 
 for British Columbia, 11. 
 
 New Cornwall ; name suggested 
 for British Columbia, 11, 28. 
 
 New Georgia ; name suggested 
 for British Columbia, 11, 28. 
 
 New Hanover ; name suggested 
 for British Columbia. 11, 28. 
 
 New Westminster, 184: seat of 
 government, 45 ; rivalry with 
 Victoria, 45; first name, 116; 
 boom subsides, 117; location 
 of, 118. 
 
 New York, 214. 
 
 Nile River, 214, 228. 
 
 North Bend, igi. 
 
 Northwest Company, 114. 
 
 Nootka, 64, 80; arrival of Van- 
 couver, 27, 32 ; Meares' trad- 
 ing post at. Captain Cook at, 
 30, 31 ; celebrated place, otter 
 skins from, 31 ; Boston trad- 
 ers at, John Jewitt at, 33 ; 
 Maquinna, chieftain, 34, 35, 
 36 ; massacre at, 34 ; totems, 
 138. 
 
 Nootka Convention, 28. 
 
 Nootka Sound, 27. 
 
 Observatory Inlet, 151. 
 O'Hara Lake ; described, 
 
 279, 
 
 Okanagan Falls, 209. 
 Okanagan Lake, 207, 213, 224; 
 fruit, 189, 198, 205, 210; 
 
 steamer on, 199; cruismg on, 
 200 ; Kelowna, Peachland, 
 Summerland, Narawata, 201 ; 
 hotels along. West Bank, 202; 
 Penticton, 203-206; from 
 Kettle Valley railroad, 208- 
 210. 
 
 Olympia Mountains, 21. 
 
 Ontario, 145. 
 
 Oosh-mish (Indian shrine), 73. 
 
 Osaka, 214. 
 
 Ottawa, 46. 
 
 Ottertail Range, 270; flower 
 fields near, 275. 
 
 Paradise Valley, 287 ; camp at, 
 286. 
 
 Paris, 214. 
 
 Parksville Junction, 56, 57, 62. 
 
 Peace River, 214; Mackenzie at, 
 114. 
 
 Peachland, 201. 
 
 Penticton; founding of, 189; 
 hotel at, 190, 204; from 
 Sicamous, 198 ; arrival at, 
 199 ; described, 202-206 ; over 
 Kettle Valley Route, 208-210. 
 
 Pender Harbour, 136. 
 
 Perez, Juan, 30. 
 
 Pigeon Mountain, 305. 
 
 Pipestone River ; trip to, 290. 
 
 Porpoise Bay, 136. 
 
 Port Alberni ; by automobile, 51. 
 
 Port Discovery, 32. 
 
 Port Lorenzo ; named for saint, 
 30. 
 
 Port Quadra, 32. 
 
 Port Simpson; to, from Prince 
 Rupert, 151. 
 
 Powell Lake, 136. 
 
 Powell River, 136. 
 
 Prince George, 151, 160. 
 
 Prince Rupert, 4, 137 ; to, from 
 Vancouver, 139 ; beginnings 
 of, 144 ; railroad to, 145 ; 
 mushroom growth, 146; spec- 
 ulation in real estate, 147; 
 building of city, 148; resources 
 of, 149; beautiful harbour of, 
 150, 151; cruises from, 151; 
 from, eastward, 152. 
 
 Prince William Sound, 27. 
 
318 
 
 Index 
 
 Ptarmigan Valley; excursion to, 
 
 290. 
 Pyramid Lake, 153. 
 Pyramid Mountain, 153. 
 
 Q 
 
 Quadra Island, 33. 
 
 Quadra, Captain, 28, 32. 
 
 Qualicum Beach, 57. 
 
 Quebec, province, 145. 
 
 Queen Charlotte Islands ; tour 
 to, 137; Haida nation at, 139- 
 141; Massctt, 139-140; to, 
 from Prince Rupert, 151 ; gold 
 discovered, 168. 
 
 Queen Charlotte Sound, 138; as 
 vacation grounds, 142. 
 
 Quesnel River, 174. 
 
 Railways ; trans-continental line 
 guaranteed, 46 ; on Vancouver 
 Island, 48, 51-57, 62-64; Es- 
 quimault and Nanaimo, 80; 
 Pacific Great Eastern, 135; 
 Grand Trunk Pacific, 145 ; Ca- 
 nadian Pacific, 165 ; Kettle 
 Valley Route, 198. 
 
 Regina, 304. 
 
 Revelstoke, 227, 269; base of 
 Selkirks, 252 ; commercial 
 center, 253; "capital of Cana- 
 dian Alps," 254 ; mountain- 
 climbing at, 255 ; excursions, 
 256. 
 
 Rhine River, 228. 
 
 Rich field, 176. 
 
 Rocky Mountains, i, 11, 50, 115, 
 152, 154, 157, 158, 270; geology 
 of, 257, 258, 262 ; finest views 
 in, 290; best known resort in, 
 293- 
 
 Roche a Pedrix. 152. 
 
 Rogers Pass, 160; trail through, 
 267 ; roadbed to, 268. 
 
 Rossland, 217. 
 
 Saddle Back; pony trip to, 287. 
 St. Lawrence River, 215. 
 St. Petersburg, 244. 
 
 Salmon; vast quantity of, 123; 
 life story, 123-124; Indians re- 
 spect for, 124-125 ; Indian leg- 
 end, 126-127 ; preparation for 
 market, 127-129; industry at 
 Prince Rupert, 149. 
 
 Salmon Arm, 195. 
 
 San Francisco, 24, 25, 46, 99, 144, 
 145. 162, 164, 170. 
 
 Sandwich Island, 27. 
 
 Saskatchewan (province), 204, 
 238, 242, 250. 
 
 Saskatchewan River, 114, 157- 
 158. 
 
 Saskatoon, 232. 
 
 Scholefield, O. S. ; quoted, 30. 
 
 Sea of Galilee, 215. 
 
 Seattle, 12, 145. 
 
 Sechelt, 136. 
 
 Selkirks, i, 227, 270; compared 
 to Alps, 218; backgrounds of 
 Kootenay Lake, 225 ; geology 
 of, 257-258, 262. 
 
 Seymour Narrows, 137. 
 
 Shawnigan Lake, 54; hotel at, 
 55- 
 
 Shuswap Lake, 195. 
 
 Shuswap River, 198. 
 
 Shovel Pass, 154. 
 
 Sicamous, 256 ; arrival by 
 launch, 195 ; compared to 
 Switzerland, 196 ; described, 
 IQ7; to Penticton, 198. 
 
 Silver Tip Falls; from Revel- 
 stoke, 256. 
 
 Similkameen District, 209. 
 
 Skagway; to, from Prince Ru- 
 pert, 151. 
 
 Skeena River, 137, 160, l6l, 214, 
 216; scenic route along, 151. 
 
 Skidegate, 140. 
 
 Somass River, 80, 85. 
 
 Sooke Lake. 55. 
 
 South Esk River, 153. 
 
 Sproat Lake, 85. 
 
 Spuzzum, 166, 172, 190-191. 
 
 Stephen, 280. 
 
 Stephen, Sir George; named 
 Banff, 292. 
 
 Stevetson ; city of Japanese, iiQ- 
 122; Sockeye hotel, 120: dikes 
 and bridges, 121; salmon run 
 at, 123; preparing market sal- 
 mon, 127-129. 
 
Index 
 
 319 
 
 Stout, Ned, old miner, 166-168; 
 
 tells of gold hunting, 170; of 
 
 Indians, 171-174; of "Dutch 
 
 Bill,'' 174-175; of early prices, 
 
 176-178; of Yale, 179-180. 
 Straits of Juan de Fuca, 126- 
 
 127. 
 Strathcona, Lord; drives last 
 
 spike, 256. 
 Strathcona Park ; gateway to, 
 
 57; ready for travelers, 58; 
 
 description of, 59-60. 
 Sulphur Mountain ; named, 291 ; 
 
 observatory on, 304. 
 Summerland, 201. 
 Summit Lake ; near Field, 276. 
 Sunwapiti River, 153. 
 Swiss Guides; at Glacier, 260; 
 
 history of, 261 ; interview with, 
 
 262-264. 
 Sydney, 21. 
 
 Talbot, F. A.; quoted. 148. 
 Takakkaw Falls; highest in 
 
 America, 276. 
 Tete Jaune (see Yellowhead 
 
 Pass). 
 Thormanby Islands, 136. 
 Three Sisters Mountain, 305. 
 Thompson, David ; discoverer of 
 
 Columbia River, 227. 
 Thompson River, 191-192. 
 Tokyo, 214. 
 Tolstoi, Leo ; quoted, 230, 234, 
 
 239, 244, 248. 
 Toronto, 3, 15, 214. 
 Totems ; Indian agent quoted on, 
 
 65-69; tattooed on body, 67; 
 
 origin of bear, 68; at Alert 
 
 Bay, 138. 
 Trail, 217. 
 Tranquille, 193. 
 Twin Falls; trail to, 279. 
 
 U 
 
 Upper Campbell Lake, 59. 
 
 V 
 
 Valley of Consolation, 232-233. 
 Valley of the Ten Peaks; from 
 
 Lake Louise, 286; described, 
 286, 287. 
 
 Valley of a Thousand Falls, 
 159-160. 
 
 Van Ilorne Peaks ; visible, 275. 
 
 Van Home, Sir W. C. ; named 
 Vancouver, 97. 
 
 Vancouver, 12, 19, 55, 80-81, 99, 
 116-117, 144-146, 150-151, 164, 
 195-196, 199, 229, 234, 253, 259; 
 Brittania copper mines, 135 ; 
 beginning of, 97; city incor- 
 porated, 97 ; metropolis of 
 coast, 98; arrival by steamer, 
 100; population, loi ; climate, 
 102; gateway of lions, 103, 
 105-106, 164; Capilano Can- 
 yon, 106, 131, 135; Stanley 
 Park, 106-110; Siwash Rock, 
 iio-iii; side trips, 130-131 ; 
 North Arm, Cathedral Can- 
 yon, Horseshoe Bay, English 
 Bay, Bowen Island, Whyte- 
 cliff, Howe Sound, Seaside 
 Park, Jervis Inlet, Butte In- 
 let, 135; Sechlet, Porpoise, 
 Pender, Mount Diadem, 
 Painted Point, Lund, Yeucal- 
 tau Rapids, Buccaneer Bay, 
 Thormanby Island, Powell 
 River, 136; Powell Lake. Goat 
 Lake, Kingcome Inlet, three- 
 day trips from, six-day ex- 
 cursions from, to Alaska, to 
 Prince Rupert. T37; Johnstone 
 Straits. 137-138. 
 
 Vancouver, Captain George, 22, 
 27, 28, 97, IT2; names Island, 
 T,2; at Yeucaltan Rapids, 136. 
 
 Vancouver Island, 2, 12, t,2„ 46, 
 136, 139, 162 ; motor route, 22 ; 
 Chinese " discoverers " of, 26. 
 28-30; three names of, 32; 
 called "The Island," 33; In- 
 dians of, T,7, 64-73 ; possession 
 of Hudson's Bay company, 42; 
 first parliament, 43; independ- 
 ent Colony, first governor, 44; 
 union with mainland, 45 ; un- 
 favorable to confederation, 
 46; easily accessible, 48; at- 
 tractions of, hotels of, 49; big 
 game of, 50; viewed from au- 
 tomobile, 51 ; trees of, 51, 53- 
 
320 
 
 Index 
 
 54; compared to Switzerland, 
 52; Malahat Drive, 59; fishing 
 and shooting calendar, 60-62; 
 whale fisheries of, 73-75 ; log- 
 ging operations, 88-92 ; tour 
 of, 94- 
 
 Vanderhof, 161. 
 
 Veregin, Peter; leader of 
 Doukhobors, 229; writes to 
 Russian Empress, 244-248 ; 
 succeeds to leadership, 245 ; in 
 British Columbia, 251. 
 
 Victoria, 2, 11, 32, 33, 46, 48, 52, 
 55> 59, 64, 94- 98, 116, 117, 162, 
 163, 169, 176, 184, 199, 201, 214; 
 harbour of, 3, 13, 14; climate, 
 4; called Fort Camosun, 12, 
 42 ; named for Queen Vic- 
 toria, 12 ; cosmopolitan popu- 
 lation of, 14-16; parliament 
 house, 14, 22 ; " City of Sun- 
 shine," 15 ; gardens of, 16, 18, 
 19; church-going in, 17; first 
 mass, population of, 18; streets 
 of, ig; Oak Bay, 20; Beacon 
 Hill Park, Stadacona Park, 
 Gorge Park, Cordova Bay, 
 Mount Douglas, Elk Lane, 
 Sydney, Brentwood, Foul 
 Bay, 21 ; Provincial Library, 
 22; Provincial Museum, 23, 
 222 ; early days in, 24-25 ; 
 Hudson's Bay Fort, 42; ar- 
 rival of gold hunters, 43-44 ^ 
 becomes capital, 45 ; beginnin,;?; 
 of Island tour, 51-54. 
 
 Victoria Glacier; near Lake 
 Louise, 285. 
 
 W 
 
 Wainwrigbt ; buffalo at, 300. 
 Wapta Glacier; visible, 276. 
 Washington, 21. 
 Watrous, Richard; quoted, 58. 
 
 West Bank ; described, 202. 
 West Robson, 217, 22T. 
 Westminster Junction, 165. 
 William's Creek, 174-175; yield 
 
 of gold at, 176. 
 Wilcox Pass, 158. 
 Wilcox, W. D. ; quoted, 279, 280, 
 
 287. 
 Wind Mountain, 305. 
 Windermere Lake, 22^. 
 Winnipeg, 80, 144, 146, 149, 151, 
 
 304. 
 Whale Fisheries; on Alljerni 
 
 Canal, 73-79; station at Prince 
 
 Rupert, 149. 
 Wheeler, A. O. ; quoted on 
 
 Nakimu Caves, 264-267. 
 Whirlpool River, 154. 
 White Grotto, 267. 
 Whytecliff, 135. 
 
 Yale, 115, 185, 187, IQO; "Paris 
 of British Columbia," 163 ; 
 present changes, 164: arrival 
 at, 165-166 ; oldest citizen of, 
 167; "Ned" Stout at, 168; 
 Hill's Bar, 169-170; Indian 
 treachery, 171-173; Stout 
 quoted, 170-179; gay days at, 
 177-178; beginning of Cariboo 
 Road, 179; half-way house, 
 180; Barnard's Express, 184. 
 
 Yangtze River, 214, 228. 
 
 Yard, Robert Sterling; quoted 
 on parks, 58. 
 
 Yellowhead Pass, 151-152, 160. 
 
 Yeucaltau Rapids, 136. 
 
 Yoho Valley, 157; trip to, from 
 Field and camping tour de- 
 scribed, 275-279; from Sur- 
 prise Point, 279. 
 
 Yokohama, 144. 
 
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