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CRUISING THE FJORDS ‘OF NORTH PACIFIC 209 
acres of floor space devoted to the sale of 
almost everything from a ‘“‘tally-ho to a 
tack.”? Vancouver, like many another old 
Hudson’s Bay post, stands on the very 
brink of the great, lone North. A few miles 
inland or seaward and an almost inter- 
minable wilderness of woods and waters, 
sweeping farther northward to frozen seas 
and shores, awaits pathfinders and navi- 
gators of nerve and energy sufficient to win 
it over to map and chart. Some have gone 
over this brink, never to return; others of 
luckier star have won rare riches from the 
sub-arctic wealth of mineral, fur and fish, 
and come back to civilization and forgot 
the past. But few, however, have sung its 
wondrous story; but few have traveled in 
and out for travel’s sake; but few have 
sailed its mains and camped upon its shores 
for recreation, for sport. And yet a world 
of waters, encompassing a myriad of islands, 
with many intricate channels bisecting and 
trisecting, and sandy beaches of wondrous 
white, backed by gloomy woodland and 
capped by lofty mountains of jagged and 
rugged rocks, topped by snow and glacial 
ice, all filled with game galore, both finned 
and footed, is there for the mere reaching 

over the brink—the safest and grandest 
cruising grounds in the world whether the 
‘“‘voyage”’ be overland or by water. 
Northern British Columbia is the sports- 
men’s neglected ‘‘land of opportunity.”’ 
Every camper should awaken to its ideality 
for him, for he there can pitch his tent or_ 
sleep 
The open sleep, whose bed is earth, 
With airy ceiling pinned with stars, 
Or vaultage more confined, plastered with 
clouds,, 
amid more romantic surroundings and with 
‘more ozone to the square inch than else- 
where the campers’ realm over. Every 
hunter should aspire to a ‘‘head of heads”’ 
from its supply of big game. Every angler 
should long to reel in its game fish from sea, 
lake and stream where canoe and rowboat 
seldom stir the primeval waters. Every 
yachtsman should trim his sails and calk 
his ship (metaphorically speaking, for by all 
means hire Siwash* craft on the spot). for 
a cruise amidst the North Pacific fjords. 
In years gone by we had packed by pony 
beyond the mighty Athabasca and viewed 

*The Chinook word for ‘* Indian.” 
THE SLOOP “JOSEPHINE,” SAM HUNT AT THE TILLER, D. W. IDDINGS ON THE CABIN }| a - 
In this boat three men cruised from Fort Rupert to Vancouver, exploring the countless fjords along the coast, with occasional 
stops for a trip into the near-by mountains, 
