Pioneering in Kootenay. 277 



some such hard name as Grand Larceny or Wholesale Stealing, but 

 then it would not have been safe for such high-toned morals to be 

 bandied about within earshot of your genuine knight of the river. 

 The way it was done is simple in the extreme. Wherever the 

 steamer, row-boat, or pack-train dumped its load on the lonely 

 banks of the idyllic Columbia to await further transportation, which 

 might occur after a couple of days, or only after a fortnight, during 

 which the bags of sugar or flour, sacks of bacon or ham, boxes of 

 dried fruit or tobacco, remained exposed to rain and hail, the 

 ravages of wolves, skunks, and rats, and, worst of all, to human 

 animals of prey. There the rustler rustled in the darkness of the 

 night, in the silvery romantic light of the moon, or, if pressed for 

 time, even in broad daylight, for your true rustler knew no fear in 

 a country where officers of the law were exceedingly far between. 

 Some of these pleasant gentry were modest, and contented 

 themselves with a half, nay, actually even with a third of the 

 contents of the tobacco caddy, coal-oil case, tea chest or coffee bag, 

 and I have actually received, among the thousands of pounds of 

 provisions needed for my different camps, tobacco caddies where only 

 a fourth of the contents had been rustled, tea chests reduced by 

 only a third, but then I was told I was in luck, in big luck, and I 

 think I was, if I compare with it some other people's experiences, 

 whose kegs, boxes, cases, and bales reached them only on 

 paper, i.e., on the bills of lading. 



Some of the rustlers went in for the ornamental as well 

 as the useful, and filched sets of tableware, fancy dress goods ; 

 and one, evidently a stranger, even fitted himself out with some 

 wash-boards, but no doubt he soon found that one could get along 

 in Kootenay without " cottage pianos." Those who were getting 

 machinery of any kind into the valley were even worse off, for the 

 loss of any one part, impossible to replace at any price, caused, 

 of course, the whole to be useless, and great pecuniary losses 

 were thus inflicted upon people getting in agricultural and mining 

 machinery. The western man, they say, has always his wits 

 about him, carries them ready in his waistcoat pocket if he has 



