128 DOWN THE PEACE RIVER 



were off long before daylight, but, as the day broke, we saw that 

 we were in for a snowstorm. We halted in a little clump of wil- 

 lows and had a cup of tea. 



We had scarcely started again when the storm broke and, in 

 a few minutes, the air was filled with driving snow. For the next 

 sixteen miles, there was neither bush nor tree, and for the whole 

 of this distance we tramped against a furious gale and driving 

 storm. Late in the afternoon of the 24th, we reached the timber 

 and, under the direction of our experienced guide, penetrated to 

 a little marsh surrounded by wood, and camped. We could hear 

 the roar of the gale outside, but not a breath stirred where we 

 were. There was fine pasture for the horses and cattle in the 

 marsh and we had no difficulty in making ourselves comfortable. 

 In a short time, we had blazing fires and, after the ice was thawed 

 off our clothes, we sat about the fire making a shelter for the 

 night. I lay under the wagon with my feet to the fire and was 

 so comfortable that I never wakened until the morning. 



Next morning, the snow continued to fall just as heavily as 

 before and a consultation was held as to what was best to be done. 

 Most of us preferred to remain in camp, but my guide would not 

 hear of it. He said that our only hope lay in pushing on as fast 

 as possible before the horses and cattle gave out. We trudged 

 on and at one o'clock reached Boggy Creek. In this valley, we 

 had dinner, and, as it seemed to be clearing, the young fellow, 

 who was with us, and myself, remained behind intending to over- 

 take the others in a short time. When we left the creek, we 

 thought the snow was falling less heavily, but, when we reached 

 the ridge, we found it was blowing a blizzard, and exactly in our 

 faces, as we started out on the trail. We now had twelve miles 

 over an open trail to go before we would reach Pine Creek where 

 we had decided to camp for the night. The young man and my- 

 self decided to trot along with our heads lowered to see if we could 

 escape the force of the wind. We knew we were on the trail, but 

 were without any tracks as the wind had obliterated the tracks 

 of our party immediately after they had passed. We wondered 

 why we did not overtake them, as we knew we were going very 

 fast, but we learned later that they all ran for their lives. By 



