A New Gharr from British Columbia. 341 



other, tlie ' cc store keeper " squirrel (Tamias quadrivittatus) 

 scampers along from tree to tree, chattering, whistling, and 

 scolding, as if in angry remonstrance at so impudent an intru- 

 sion into its solitudes. It is ticklish work getting up some of 

 the rapids ; paddles are of no avail, and the canoe has to be 

 propelled with light poles (poling a canoe up a swift rapid is a 

 feat I have never .geen a white man perform with the same 

 skill as an Indian, not even the oldest and most skilful voya- 

 geurs belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company are equal to 

 the red-skins ; the art of holding the canoe with the pole, and 

 whilst propelling her against the current, preventing its 

 sweeping her round, is an art Indians, and only Indians, know 

 how to manage) the slightest slip and over we go, with the 

 water running like a mill-race, rocks, boulders, and snags 

 everywhere, and eddies, and whirlpools strong enough to suck 

 down a boat ; why, a man would not have the slightest chance 

 of saving himself from drowning, even if he could swim like a 

 beaver ; but somehow the red-men get us through in safety. 

 Now and then we pass beneath a rocky cliff, the splintery 

 points of which knock the water into spray as it hurries on 

 its way ; then coaxing the frothy current into clefts and hol- 

 lows, whirls it round in countless eddies. Here in these dark 

 retreats salmon love to linger, as they toil on against every 

 obstacle in search of some gravelly stream, wherein to make a 

 nest and bury their eggs; and we may count these noble fish 

 by the thousand, and then fail to arrive at a fair estimate of 

 the numbers which every year ascend the Fraser and its 

 tributaries. Stages suspended by ropes of twisted bark 

 dangle over these gloomy whirlpools, frail are they in con- 

 struction, being simply light poles tied clumsily together, one 

 shudders even to look at the fearless savages, as kneeling or 

 sitting on their heels they ply a small round net affixed to the 

 end of a long handle, and one by one land goodly salmon on 

 the treacherous platform. It is no easy feat to lift a heavy 

 fish, flapping and struggling in the full vigour of superfluous 

 health, on to a stage swinging in mid-air, or to knock it 

 senseless with a single blow when it is there ; and yet these 

 untutored men manage to do it, every day and all day long. 

 To fall from off the stage must be certain death, and yet they 

 are compelled by hard necessity thus to imperil life and limb in 

 order to obtain food, on which to exist during the biting cold 

 of a six months' winter. 



We need not linger to describe all our different camping- 

 places, but we will pass theni by as offering little worthy of 

 particular notice. Fort Hope, our destination, is visible 

 a-head, perched upon a bluif some height above the river. 

 The scenery is grand and massive beyond description ; lofty 



