342 A New Charr from British Columbia. 



mountains, some of -them crowned with, perpetual snow, com- 

 pletely shut the river in on both sides. A dense impenetrable 

 forest of pine-trees seem to rise from out the water, and in a 

 series of green slopes end only at the sky-line. But this mass 

 of dark green is so broken, divided, and grouped, if I may so 

 express it, by craggy masses of rock, deep ravines, and narrow 

 valleys, through which streams rattle noisily, that all idea of 

 monotony vanishes, and on every side is a magnificent natural 

 picture, wherein are all the elements requisite to make a land- 

 scape beautiful, but on such a scale of immensity, that it fairly 

 staggers one to gaze upon it. The river sweeps past Fort 

 Hope with great velocity, then making a sudden bend to the 

 right, is suddenly lost amidst the jutting points of land and 

 the dense foliage of the forest. 



Fort Hope is but a small place, consisting of the Hudson's 

 Bay trade post, some scattered log houses, and a kind of street 

 facing the water, made up of stores, groggeries, billiard 

 saloons, and barber's shops. This town, since the period of 

 which I am writing (being the head of steamer navigation) 

 has grown to be a place of some importance, because one of 

 the routes to Cariboo is via Fort Hope and Lytton. A steamer 

 in old days did occasionally come up to Fort Hope at certain 

 periods of the year, in order to take away the furs collected 

 there during the year, and at the same time to bring goods for 

 barter with Indians, which goods were destined for the supply 

 of the frontier trading posts. 



We are now near the home of our new charr, and I shall 

 continue this imaginary journey, because it will the better 

 enable me to describe the character of the river in which the 

 fish lives, and the kind of country through which the stream 

 flows, matters of importance, as showing how the charr of 

 British Columbia differs in habit and habitat from its better 

 known British brethren. 



The distance to our fishing-ground is rather too great to 

 walk comfortably, and the hills are steep, so we will mount 

 our mustangs, and ride. Our route is along a flat at first, 

 covered with shingle and large rounded boulders, which were 

 brought here, in all probability, on the shoulders of the ice 

 king, for in no other way could masses of rock, differing 

 entirely from the rocks comprising the encircling mountains 

 have been transported from a distance. Water power could 

 never have rolled them ; their weights must be calculated by 

 tons, not pounds. The flat we are traversing was, most 

 likely, the bed of an ancient lake. The best evidence obtain- 

 able respecting the age of these vast accumulations of water- 

 worn stones is at best but very imperfect. Whether this huge 

 continent has been depressed in the mass, or whether tho 



