In North-West Canada. 105 



light indicates that we have emerged from the pass, and we 

 see stretcliing away before us the Shuswap lakes, whose crys- 

 tal waters are hemmed in by abruptly rising mountains. This 

 is a fine section for game. To the north is a great caribou 

 range, and upon all the higher mountains are bands of white 

 goats, while scattered wherever their fancies choose are pro- 

 miscuous families of bears interesting brutes, no doubt, but not 

 to be encouraged to any closer intimacy than point-blank rifle 

 range. 



After travelling through tli^se beautiful lakes for two hours 

 the valley of the South Thompson River is reached — a wide, 

 almost treeless valley, occupied by farms and cattle ranches. 

 Then comes Kamloops, the principal town in the interior of 

 British Columbia, further on the railway winds its way for 

 hours through rugged mountains, and we suddenly cross the deep 

 black gorge of the Fraser River on a massive steel bridge, and 

 then enter the famous canon of the Fraser. The views here 

 change from the grand to the terrible. Through this gorge, so 

 deep and narrow in many places that the rays of the sun hardly 

 enter it, the black and ferocious waters of the great river force 

 their way. We are in the heart of the Cascade range, and 

 above the walls of the canon we occasionally see the moun- 

 tain peaks gleaming against the sky. Hundreds of feet above 

 the river is the railway, notched into the face of the cliffs, now 

 and then crossing a great chasm by a tall viaduct and disap- 

 pering in a tunnel through a projecting spur of rock. For 

 hours we are deafened by the roar of the waters below, and 

 we pray for the broad sunshine once more. The scene is fasci- 

 nating in its terror, and we finally leave it gladly, yet re- 

 gretfully. 



At Yale the canon ends and the river widens out, but we 

 have mountains yet in plenty. We see Chinamen washing 

 gold on the sand-bars, and Indians herding cattle in the mea- 

 dows, and the villages of the Indians and collection of huts 

 where the Chinamen congregate. Salmon drying on poles near 

 the river give brilliant touches of colour to the landscape, and 

 here and there we see the curious graveyards of the Indians 



