TRAVEL IN THE MOUNTAINS 37 



horses cannot travel along them without exhausting 

 labor. It is therefore a fixed line of action that when- 

 ever a laden pack-train is seeking to cover distance it 

 must stick to the bottoms of the valleys; and when it 

 climbs a steep ascent, it is either to surmount a pass, or 

 to avoid an obstruction. 



The ascent of Goat Creek to its source may well be 

 taken as an example of travel by pack-train in the moun- 

 tains of British Columbia. 



For farm wagons, the Sulphur Spring is at present 

 the head of navigation, and on the morning after our day 

 on Fording River our pack-train was regularly made up. 

 In rugged mountains, the proper making up of the load 

 for each horse is a matter which no packer can make 

 light of. Charlie, Mack and John spent a long hour in 

 overhauling our freight, weighing sections of it on my 

 game-scales, and parcelling out the loads. They accepted 

 " air-tights " nailed up in their original packages, with a 

 cheerfulness that spoke volumes for their experience. I 

 never before saw such an array of heavy wooden boxes 

 put upon six horses with such supreme indifference. 

 And I never before saw six packs made up and cinched 

 with so little fuss. The work the horses did during the 

 next four weeks in carrying those packs was really very 

 severe, and to the credit of " the boys " I must record 

 the fact that not once did a load cause trouble; not a 

 single breakable object was broken; and above all, no 

 horse was punished by a sore back. 



The foundation principle in making up packs is to 

 class things according to their genera and species, and 



