Pioneering in Kootenay. 255 



The Midge was the first steamer to navigate any part of the 

 Kootenay river or lake, and can therefore claim to be a historical 

 craft. Amongst the Flatbows she created the most profound 

 surprise, the whole tribe dashing down to the river bank when 

 they heard her infantile puffs. The biggest thing about the Midge- 

 was her whistle, and to get permission to pull the string and send 

 forth a shrill blast was the most prized privilege I could bestow 

 on any buck I desired to distinguish. This I turned to practical 

 use, for as dry wood was unobtainable for fuel, driftwood on the 

 river banks had to be used. So long as I provided a " buck-saw," 

 the like of which instrument these primitive Indians had never 

 seen, they were quite ready to cut up big stacks at different 

 points of the river in return for a few minutes at the whistle, or, 

 what was equally prized, getting their canoes towed. This was. 

 an economical way of solving a difficulty which besets most 

 pioneer steamers navigating the waters of uninhabited countries, 

 and generally causes either much delay in having the crew land 

 and cut the necessary supply, or considerable expense by having 

 to establish wood camps along the route. 



The experience of that summer, 1884, in spite of the hard 

 work and the sinister events to which I have already referred, 

 were of the pleasantest kind, for there is something strangely 

 attractive about the exploration of virgin wilderness amid such 

 superb scenery as met the eye at every point along the winding 

 Lower Kootenay river and the seventy miles long lake. Camping 

 now on smooth sandy beaches of the lake, or, when overtaken by ' 

 the violent gales that occasionally sweep its length with a force 

 to which in later years much larger steamers have succumbed,, 

 running for some rock-encircled cove where our little craft could 

 be snugly anchored ; or, at other times, trying to force a passage 

 up the swift Lardo, one of the principal feeders of the lake, which 

 led into unknown regions beyond, every day brought new ex- 

 periences and fresh scenery. 



I have mentioned that Dick Fry was the only white resident 

 in all that vast country, the American portion of the Lower 



