SPEARING SALMON 207 



ing postage stamps, and, of course, the government sees 

 to it that they, at any rate, shall be sold at the face 

 value. 



It can easily be imagined that the mails must neces- 

 sarily carry a great deal of freight, as the cost of one 

 cent per ounce up to four pounds in weight enables a 

 large assortment of different kinds of merchandise to 

 be forwarded in the very quickest time at the minimum 

 postal rate. 



For instance, I mailed in Philadelphia to a friend in 

 Cottonwood, near Barkerville, two packages, each 

 weighing two pounds eight ounces, and they went 

 through safely at a total cost of eighty cents. Our 

 government must have lost some money upon them ; 

 but see what the Canadian Postal Department must 

 have lost taking into consideration the three hundred- 

 mile stage route over which the packages had to go. 



But there's another side to the problem of values up 

 here. The wages of working men in the mines in 

 Barkerville and vicinity are $4.50 per day, and Kibbee 

 pays $7.50 per day to the guides he uses for our con- 

 venience, and we furnish the provisions into the 

 bargain. 



This is the tenth day of September, and, as I am 

 writing, Henry, the cook, is shelling green peas and 

 washing the most tender and delicious lettuce any one 

 could wish for, both grown in a little plot near the 

 bank of the river. It is pouring rain, and the rain may 



