48 A SPORTSMAN'S EDEN. 



and at 1 a.m. was on board the boat for Van- 

 couver. Here I divested myself of that badge 

 of civilization, a collar, wound a comforter round 

 my neck, and prepared to settle down to the 

 enjoyments of barbarism. But I was not free 

 yet. A friend arrived, and begged ere the boat 

 started to be allowed to introduce two brother 

 sportsmen. Good fellows they were, too ; but 

 Avhy brother sportsmen ? Surely there is no one 

 to whom you feel less fraternally inclined than to 

 ' that other fellow ' who happens to be going to 

 shoot at the very spot you had marked for your- 

 self at the very moment at which you mean to 

 visit it. 



Of course, these two ' brothers ' were going to 

 the Ashinola country, but luckily by another and, 

 it seemed to me, slower route. I parted with 

 them at Hope, a station not ill-named as far as 

 we were concerned, for as our train rushed 

 towards it we saw a young black bear scuttle 

 off the ' track ' into the forest, a sight which we 

 accepted as a good omen for our trip. At Hope 

 a wooden shed and platform stand alone beside 

 the rails ; around is forest ; below, a broad bend 

 of the Frazer River ; beyond, an amphitheatre of 

 mountains, grim and forbidding, sparsely clothed 

 with the gray stems of pines, blasted by fire or 

 frost ; while on the other side the river a few 



