AN EXCITING TRIP 321 



" Mister, the mile posts will say eight miles, all right 

 enough, but the road winds around from the river's 

 elevation of 1,200 feet to 4,500 feet, and before you 

 will get to ' Billy's ' you'll say it's a good twenty miles 

 when your walk is finished." 



Not far from the hotel a Chinaman was feeding his 

 chickens, and I accosted him : " John, is it going to 

 rain?" 



"Ya ya, him soon rain belly hard!" I thought 

 John was right, but still went on. 



When the first bench of the mountains was climbed 

 it was necessary to remove all of my superfluous cloth- 

 ing and tie it in a bundle, as I was perspiring freely. 

 An Indian village with a small white Catholic church 

 in its midst lured me off to the right of the road to in- 

 spect it. A young Indian was carrying a set of har- 

 ness through the only street of the village. Did he 

 think it would rain ? 



He looked up and surveyed the sky and then said : 

 " He make heap dam fuss he no rain." Here was the 

 opinion of the aboriginal American against that of the 

 Oriental; which would be right? The Indian was 

 right ; there was a " heap fuss," but no rain. 



At " Billy " Lyons' I found three other men who had 

 walked, rather than take another meal at the Soda 

 Creek Hotel. We found the proprietor and his wife to 

 be half-breeds (the wife having been educated in a con- 

 vent school). We had a good dinner and a good long 



