Pioneering in Kootenay. 273 



boiler, in the absence of a suction pipe, was kept filled with a 

 hand bucket. As the banks of the Columbia are mostly dense 

 swamps, out of which the mountains forming the valley rise 

 precipitously on both sides, and the rains had drenched all the dead 

 wood we could find, the fuel question was a momentous one, and 

 firewood collecting expeditions into the swamps every few hours 

 were the result. The huge planks out of which the Cline was 

 constructed made her " sit kinder heavy in the water," as the 

 owner expressed himself, and as there was no room on board the 

 Cline, her chief load, the sawmill boiler, was placed on a sort of raft 

 and towed. The much rivetted interior of this boiler was about 

 the only dry place during most of those twenty-three nights, and I 

 bagged it for my sleeping quarters the very first day, a sensible 

 dog, who made the ninth of the Cline 's crew, and whom I found 

 curled up in the fire-box the first afternoon we were out, giving me 

 a lead in this bright idea. 



The funniest thing about the Cline was her steering. So un- 

 compromisingly square was her trough-like hull, that but for the 

 little stern wheel at one end, it would have been hard to tell 

 which of her four sides was supposed to act as bow. Her persistent 

 desire was to go up the Columbia broadside on, hence this did not 

 matter so much. So ludicrous was this at first, until the novelty 

 was worn off, that we passengers, seated on cogwheels or kegs 

 filled with nails, whose business ends wore out the seats of our 

 breeches, made the silent scrub-clothed banks of the Columbia 

 ring with our laughter. If the craft was a singular looking one, 

 the river we were on was but a counterpart to it. Such a variety 

 of sand and mud banks, such an array of snags, consisting of wholly 

 or partially submerged tree trunks, lying with the stream, and 

 hence forming dangerous projections for crafts to impale them- 

 selves on when going up stream, had never been seen. At numerous 

 points the river, winding through the swamps, splits into a 

 multitude of channels, their deceptive appearance luring one 

 into cul-de-sacs miles in length, out of which one had to retrace 

 one's course when at last the true character of the blind 



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