276 Sport and Life. 



valve, assisted by a good coal oil fire, for I believe there are such 

 beings as steamboat inspectors. But presently even a 2oolb. 

 pressure of steam and a ton pressure of western eloquence failed to 

 secure a sufficiently broad high-road through an obstinate old mudbar 

 which stoutly refused to be shoved on one side, and disputed with 

 more might than right the freedom of the highway. The Cline, 

 and not the bar, was shoved aside by the current, and we got stuck 

 hard and fast in the clammy embrace of good stickfast Columbia 

 mud. The water looked, and felt, cold ; snow was low down on 

 the mountain side, and the air was, to say the least, "chippy," but 

 there was no choice. All of us, except the engineer, who about 

 that time gave extra attention to the old safety valve, had to 

 jump out into the water, which reached to our waists, and to prise 

 the Cline over the bar by means of long crowbars made from 

 young trees on the bank. This we had to repeat more than once, 

 but presently this no longer sufficed, and we had to make portages 

 of her load, or, in other words, take out half of her load of bulky 

 machinery, &c., dump it on the bank, make a bold dash at the bar 

 and shove the lightened steam-trough over the obstructing bank by 

 the sheer lifting power of eight men, then unload what remained of 

 the cargo above the bar and go back for the first half, and repeat 

 this .steamer shoving ad infinitum. That the novelty of this sport 

 began presently to pall, need not be said, and by the time we did 

 get to our goal, I was quite of the same opinion one of my fellow 

 sufferers had expressed respecting the desirableness of forthwith 

 ordering a glass case wherein to preserve for all time the Cline, 

 lock, stock, and barrel. 



A description of the difficulties obstructing access in those 

 days would not be complete were the " rustlers " to be omitted. 



What is rustling ? Rustling ! Well, rustling is a pleasant way 

 they had on the romantic Columbia in those early days of raising 

 a winter's supply of grub, liquor, stoves, coal oil, clothing, canned 

 fruits, and all the etceteras a man wants to carry him over the 

 winter in a pleasant manner. People living in other countries 

 might have transgressed the ethics of the Columbia by giving it 



