344 THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE BY LAND. 



o 



very jolly and happy under their heavy labour, 

 and never failed to salute us with a friendly smile 

 and "Klahowya?" or "How do you do?" The 

 melody of their voices and soft intonation was 

 most pleasing, overcoming all the roughness and 

 uncouthness of the vile Chinook jargon. (^) 



Between Lytton and Yale lie most of the bars, 

 or sandbanks, which yielded such an extraordinary 

 amount of gold when first discovered. They are 

 now deserted, except by a few Chinamen, who 

 make from one to ten dollars a day. As vie 

 descended the Fraser, the vegetation began to 

 change. The terraces disappeared, and the flat 

 stretches, covered only with bunch-grass and scat- 

 tered yellow pine, gave place to an irregular for- 

 mation and a thicker growth of white pine, with 

 here and there a small birch, and a plentiful under- 

 growth of deciduous shrubs. 



On our way we passed many Indians engaged in 

 salmon fishing, which they practise in a very peculiar 

 manner. They select some point in the fierce rapids 

 where a quiet eddy forms under the lee of a project- 

 ing rock. Over the rock they sling a little platform 

 of poles, within a convenient distance of the surface 

 of the water, and from this position grope untiringly 



(^) Chinook is a jargon which was invented by the Hudson's Bay 

 Company for the purpose of facilitating communication with the 

 different Indian tribes. These were so numerous, and their lan- 

 guages so various, that the traders found it impossible to learn them 

 all, and adopted the device of a judicious mixture of English, French, 

 Russian, and several Indian tongues, which has a very limited voca- 

 bulary ; but which, by the help of signs, is readily understood by all 

 the natives, and serves as a common language. 



