206 WITH GUN AND GUIDE 



in " packing " our supplies. Two hundred pounds is 

 the limit that they will load on one of their horses, and 

 if the load weighs any less than that, no allowance is 

 made. 



It therefore required live horses carrying two hun- 

 dred pounds each, at $4 per head, and their total 

 freight bill was $20. In the olden days, when " grub " 

 was " packed " on the Indians' backs hundreds of miles, 

 the freight on flour or sugar was $1 a pound and on 

 potatoes and turnips a half dollar more. One man 

 made considerable money by spearing salmon in the 

 fall near where our cabin stands, then salting them 

 down, and on the snow taking them over the trail to 

 Barkerville on dog-sleds and selling them at $1 and 

 $1.25 apiece. 



A stove which warms Kibbee's kitchen, and on 

 which all the cooking is done, cost $47 to bring over 

 the trail only three years ago, and that without count- 

 ing his time and labor in helping to drag it on a sled. 

 To-day a loaf of bread in Barkerville is two bits (twen- 

 ty-five cents). 



In Quesnelle, on the Frazer River, I saw a box of 

 raisins opened on a shelf in a grocery store. Although 

 a year old, they looked to be in good condition, so I 

 asked the proprietor to weigh me out a pound. 



Then I asked him how much. " Four bits " (fifty 

 cents) was the laconic answer. In Barkerville there is 

 no single article priced at less than " two bits " except- 



