THE CANONS ABOVE YALE. 345 



in tlie eddy witli a kind of oval landing net. The 

 salmon, wearied by tlieir exertions in overcoming 

 the torrent, rest for a time in the little eddy before 

 making the next attempt to mount the rapid, and are 

 taken in hundreds by these clever fishermen. Here 

 and there were Indian graves adorned A^dth numerous 

 flags ; and in many instances carved images, nearly 

 the size of life, and elaborately painted, were placed 

 around. The dead man's gun and blankets, with 

 most of his other property, were generally suspended 

 to poles about the grave. Occasionally we passed 

 an Indian winter store for fish — a rough box, slung 

 in a tree high out of reach. Some tribes bury their 

 dead in the same manner. 



About fifteen miles above Yale, the gorge 

 through which the Eraser runs, as it bursts through 

 the Cascade Range, becomes very narrow, and the 

 river flows in a succession of terrific rapids, called 

 the Canons — or canyons^ as the word is pronounced — 

 for the remaining distance. The mountains on 

 each side, 3,000 or 4,000 feet high, seem almost 

 to meet overhead, peak after peak rising in close 

 proximity. The Eraser, rarely anything but a 

 rocky rapid in any part of its course, here goes 

 utterly mad, and foams and^ rages down the 

 narrow and falling channel at the rate of twenty 

 miles an hour. The volume of water which passes 

 through this outlet, here not more than forty yards 

 in width, will be more readily conceived when it 

 is stated that the Eraser has already collected the 

 waters of over 800 miles, and amongst other rivers 

 receives the Thompson, of almost equal size with 



