ON THE ISLAND OF VANCOUVER 



added to the mass of fallen and drifted trees behind 

 it, until the present impassable tangle had been the 

 result. A high spring flood raging over and through 

 this gigantic obstacle would have been a sight worth 

 seeing. 



Having carried our tent and stores through the 

 forest to the river above, we re-embarked in a fresh 

 canoe and continued our course upstream, stopping 

 here and there to take a cast in a likely-looking rapid 

 or pool. 



The engineer had already killed a couple of ducks 

 with his gun, but now strict silence was enjoined, for 

 we had seen fresh deer-tracks on a sand- bank, and in 

 another place the track, evidently not many days old, 

 of a good- sized bear. Presently we turned off the main 

 river into a branch leading into a lake, where at some 

 distance off there showed once or twice the round, 

 dark, human-looking head of what was evidently a 

 hair- seal. I tried to get near enough for a shot, but 

 the Indians shook their heads. The seals had evidently 

 been following running fish up the river, but to get a 

 shot at this wary animal in its native element was 

 quite another matter. In the lake we found it im- 

 possible, and returned to the main stream. Shortly 

 after, having poled up a rapid, we came to a long pool 

 of the river, narrow but deep, at the far end of which 

 we again saw a seal's head, some 200 yards away, 

 gazing inquiringly in our direction. As we quickly 

 paddled up he disappeared. 



Now for a masterpiece of strategy. All is fair in 

 love and war. I hastily communicated my plan to 

 the Indians, and was quietly landed on the rocks at 

 the lower end of the pool, the canoe then proceeding 

 on its course upstream. The result from my point 



