scener>', the wealth of wild fowl and its wonderful 

 climate — it is destined to become a prominent summer 

 resort for residents of the Pacific coast near Vancouver 

 and Victoria. 



The lake and the town of Vernon are reached by a 

 branch of the Canadian Pacific Railroad fifty-one miles 

 long. This branch, though in operation but a short time 

 (it was opened on the twenty-fifth of last June) is said to 

 be already paying handsomely. Previous to the building 

 of the C. P. R. R. main line all merchandise had to be 

 transported on pack horses a distance of two hundred and 

 fifty miles from Fort Hope, on the Frazer River. The 

 item of freight was then a very serious one, as it amounted 

 to eleven cents per povmd on sugar, nails, hardware, 

 coffee and all heavy articles, and a proportionately higher 

 rate on more bulky merchandise. It must be from this 

 reason then, that, although the railroad has been opened 

 over three months and the freight charges are very mod- 

 erate, the merchants have not got used to the changed 

 condition of affairs. 



Everything is absurdly high. You are charged 

 twenty-five cents for a shave, fifty cents for a pint bottle 

 of apoUinaris or Bass' ale, and corresponding prices for 

 everything else. But the livery stable men are the real 

 Shylocks of the town. A physician was dilating upon the 

 qualities of a very good young mare he had just bought 

 for ten dollars, and assured me he could Iniy any number 

 of them at that price. I thought, as horse flesh was so 

 cheap, I should be able to enjoy many drives and see the 

 country without injuring my pocket. The thought was 

 hardly a sound one. At my first trial of it, the stable 



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