*b o h B. C. 1887. Three in Norway. By Two of Them. With a Map and 59 Illustrations. Crown 8vo, 2s. boards ; zs. bd. cloth. The Skipper in Arctic Seas. By w. J. Clutterbuck, one of the Authors of "Three in Norway." With 39 Illustrations. Crown 8vo, io.r. bd. B.C. 1887, A Ramble in British Columbia. By J. A. Lees and W. J. Clutterbuck. With Map and 75 Illustrations. Crown 8vo, 6s. About Ceylon and Borneo : Being an Ac- count of Two Visits to Ceylon, one to Borneo, and How we Fell Out on our Homeward Journey. By W. J. Clutterbuck, F.R.G.S., Author of "The Skipper in Arctic Seas," and Joint-Author of " Three in Norway " and "B.C. 1887." With 47 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. LONDON : LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. B. C. 1887 A RAMBLE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA J. A. LEES and W. J. CLUTTERBUCK AUTHORS OF "THREE IN NORWAY" WITH MAP AND 75 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM SKETCHES AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHORS NEW EDITION. LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. AND NEW YORK : 15 EAST i6'h STREET 1892 All rights reserved TBaHantgne prow BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBURGH AND LONDON NOTE. T6e rapid changes which are taking place in the western part of Canada have made it advisable to supplement the original matter in these pages by additional information. This has, whenever practicable, been obtained and added to the present edition, so as to keep it as far as possible level with the march of events. Nov. 1891. " To any person who has all his senses about him a quiet walk along not more than ten or twelve miles of road a day is the most amusing of all travelling. ... If advancing thus slowly after some days we approach any more interesting scenery, every yard of the changeful ground becomes precious and piquant ; and the continual increase of hope and of surrounding beauty affords one of the most exquisite enjoyments possible to the healthy mind ; besides that real knowledge is acquired of whatever it is the object of travelling to learn, and a certain sublimity given to all places, so attained, by the true sense of the spaces of earth that separate them." — Ruskin. "Reading makes us intelligent and learn about things we would otherwise hear nothing. " It is pleasant to recapitulate stories to persons who probably have not had the opportunity of reading them, and it therefore passes many a dreary hour away and makes many a person renew his happiness by hoping for such a favourable end as some characters as are described in the book." — English as she is taught. v CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE INTRODUCTION I I. THE ATLANTIC 7 II. THE ST. LAWRENCE l6 III. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 24 IV. PREPARATIONS 33 V. BY STEAMER. . . . . . . -42 VI. THE C.P.R 50 VII. THE ROCKIES ....... 63 VIII. B. C 68 IX. MOSQUITO CAMP 76 X. CANYON CREEK 91 XI. THE COLUMBIA 98 XII. THE SINCLAIR PASS 1 06 XIII. MUTTON Il8 XIV. THE KOOTENAY 130 XV. THE INDIAN RISING 145 XVI. CHARR l6l XVII. CANOEING ; .175 XVIII. SKOOKUMCHUCK 1 89 XIX. CRANBROOK 203 XX. LAKE MOOYIE 211 viii Contents. CHAP. PAGE XXI. PACKING 225 XXII. ON THE TRAMP 238 XXIII. ELK RIVER 254 XXIV. THE SOUTH FORK 266 XXV. BREAD AND HONEY 279 XXVI. BACK AGAIN 293 XXVII. OPENING OF THE LODGE 302 XXVIII. THE MOOYIE TRAIL 312 XXIX. YANKEE DOODLE 322 xxx. mud 333 XXXI. THE FLATBOWS 342 XXXII. DICK FRY'S 352 XXXIII. THE N.P.R 362 XXXIV. THE PACIFIC 372 XXXV. EASTWARD HO ! 382 INTRODUCTION. WHO. The wise men, we are told, came from the East, a fact which is conspicuously apparent to any traveller in those counties which are reached from Liverpool Street Station. Whither they have gone is another matter not so easily decided, but it seems to be very natural to suppose that they went to the West. Through countless ages the same process has been going on, and still the wiser ones of our own time year by year betake themselves to those regions which, in the words of an eminent divine, are " bounded on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by the Setting Sun, on the north by the Aurora Borealis, and on the south by the Day of Judgment." Thus it came about that the writers, seeing no other chance of commending their wisdom to a too censorious world, determined to try a ramble in the mountains of British Columbia. But for the benefit of those who may have scanned the pages of Three in Norway (and survived), it must be confessed that a slight change has taken place. John — good luck to him — is married and settled ; the Skipper unmarried but settled — in his determination to remain so ; and Esau married but unsettled, and searching for a place to settle in, in which quest the A Introduction. Skipper volunteered to assist him. A third com- panion neither married nor settled was deemed neces- sary, and a very suitable one was found in Esau's younger brother, who will be known throughout the following pages as " Cardie," while Esau himself re- appears as "Jim," a title which he considers more appropriate to his present domesticated condition. Our only reason for using these names is that as they happen to belong to their reputed owners, it saves us the trouble of inventing others. Cardie is long, dark, and good-looking : he lives absolutely alone in a log-cabin 1 0,000 feet above sea- level in the Rocky Mountains, accompanied only by a silver (?) mine rejoicing in the appropriate title of the " Micawber." As the silver has not yet " turned up," he was easily persuaded to make one of the party. Jim and the Skipper are, we hope, sufficiently well- known already. WHY. Our object in exploring this little known country was to test its capabilities as a home for some of the public-school and university young men who, in this overcrowded old England of ours, every year find themselves more dc trop. What are they and their wives, the English country girls, to do ? The Girton and Newnham young ladies are of course a sufficiency unto themselves (and even more than that to most other people), but what of the not unimportant majo- rity ? They cannot dig — that handicraft having under the new Slade Professor been eliminated, we believe, from the academic course, — their soul is distinctly unfettered to an office stool ; the Arts, the Profes- Introduction. sions, and the Services are all " Full inside," while in that indefinite article the Stage the " Free List is Entirely Suspended," and even on the Turf the supply of welshers always seems in excess of the demand. Emigration is the one hope left, and from all the information we could obtain in England, the region selected seemed likely to provide the necessary attrac- tions for this class of colonists. WHERE. A glance at the map will reveal a curious fact in the physical geography of our only Pacific province. Almost the whole of the south-eastern portion is occupied by three parallel ranges of high mountains — the Rockies on the east, further west the Selkirks, and still further the Gold Range. It is only in the valleys, which in some parts attain to the dignity of plains between these ranges, that any room can be found for a man to live and plant domestic animals and vegetables, without being in danger of falling off a ledge or slipping into a mountain torrent. Close to the intersection of lat. 50° and long. 11 6° is the Upper Columbia Lake, the head waters of the mighty river of that name, which flows out of the lake in a northerly direction. It will be seen that another river, the Kootenay, which rises in the Rockies north of this point, almost runs into the same lake, the strip of land which separates them being in fact little more than a mile in width. Having avoided that premature termination to his career, the Kootenay continues his southerly course across the border into Montana and Idaho. There, apparently not thinking Introduction. so much of Republican institutions as those who have not tried them are apt to do, he takes a sudden turn northwards, and again becomes a British river shortly before flowing in placid grandeur into the great Kootenay Lake. In the meantime the Columbia, repenting of the precipitate behaviour which led her to turn her back on the Kootenay in the giddy days of her youth, has about lat. 52° made an equally sudden turn to the south, and arrived so close to the Kootenay that it is an easy matter for the latter to simply rush into the arms of his long-lost love ; after which they no doubt live happily ever after- wards. The result of this coquettish separation and subsequent reunion is that the land on which the Selkirks stand would be an island but for the narrow isthmus close to the Columbia Lake already spoken of. The guiding principle of our wanderings was the exploration of as much of this river-girt region as could be accomplished during the autumn months. HOW. The reader is now in possession of all the know- ledge that we had while on this side of the Atlantic. If with us he will struggle to the Pacific, he will obtain various additional pieces of information, the value of which he is at liberty to estimate for him- self. We say at once, however, that the seeker after sporting adventures and nothing else will be dis- appointed. Rifles and rods were necessarily taken, but their use was almost strictly confined to pro- viding food, there being no time in the five months that were spent on the expedition which could be Introduction. devoted to " the chase " pure and simple. Another and more selfish motive (but one which will, we hope, commend itself to many readers") for the absence of much hunting lore is this : — The country abounds with game of various kinds, but except in the winter it is extremely difficult to find places where any sport can be obtained. We did in our wanderings find out a little about such spots, but knowledge so hardly won is too precious for publication, and — we hope to make use of it ourselves in the near future. Voila tout. We ought to say that nearly all of the birds whose portraits are given are careful pen and ink copies of Audubon's beautiful plates. To him and to the artist who drew them we hereby express our thanks. WHAT. And now all explanations being made, the story of the Three and all that they did, and a great deal that they didn't, and even more also, will be found set forth in the succeeding pages. WHIR ROOt CHAPTER I. THE ATLANTIC. Things looked very promising for a successful start, when, on Wednesday the 27th of July, this note was received from the Skipper : — " Tuesday. " Dear Jim, — I shall leave here to-morrow for Liver- pool, so as to be in good time for the steamer on Friday. Wire if you want me to get anything. — Yours ever, Skipper." Any indication of where "here" might be was carefully omitted, and as the Sardinian with our berths secured was timed to sail on Thursday after- noon, this missive was productive of much disquietude. Frantic telegrams were hastily despatched to every address which had ever been known to act as a home for the Skipper during his comet-like visits to the British Isles ; but no answers having come to any of them, it was with a sinking heart that Jim approached the landing stage at Liverpool, about mid-day on Thursday the 28th. Mournfully he boarded the tender, and at once stumbled over a huge pile of what the Skipper imagines to be absolutely necessary per- sonal luggage. And then the recriminations commenced which will The Atlantic. by any one who has undertaken a like expedition be understood to have continued (with brief intervals for refreshments) during the next five months. These encounters, by the way, always terminate with the satisfactory and cogent piece of argument, " Oh yes, I know ; but then you're different." However, a mutual desire to reserve our most telling rhetoric for really great emergencies smoothed matters to some extent, and we were driven into an alliance offensive and defensive against the common foe — the dock porter. He, worthy soul, having during your wrangle with the cabman captured and carried off every scrap of your possessions, graciously informs you that the charge for each article transferred is One Shilling. This he announces with the assured air of one protected in a hazardous calling by a special act of Parliament. Your indebtedness for the porterage of rug, umbrella, sketch-book, fishing-rod, and cigar-case is therefore the same as that for the five huge com- mercial sample boxes which two cranes and a lighter are with difficulty swinging on to the tender. Having compounded with this fiend for a sum at which rate we calculate his income to be about ^"2000 a year, and thereby acquired a knowledge of three distinct novelties in the art of blasphemy, we soon stood on the deck of what it is usual to call the good ship Sardinian. It may as well be said at once that in these days of improved transatlantic communication the Allan Line is an anachronism ; but if this word is libellous, we apologise, and substitute one that is not. For their own sake, as well as in the interests of the mother-country and the great colony between which The Atlantic. they form the most important connecting link, the Allan people ought to bestir themselves. Why should they not get their fleet up to the same standard of modern excellence as that of all the great lines steam- ing between Great Britain and the United States ? It is probably not too much to say that the inferiority of the Canadian service is accountable for a large proportion of the preference which is still shown by emigrants for the Republic as their future home. Happily we have reason to believe that the enterprise which has given Canada her splendid railway is not to stop there, but that we are shortly to see established a line of swift steamers inferior to none on the ocean in point of accommodation, and superior to even the swiftest of the present wonders in point of speed. We may therefore confidently look forward to seeing at no distant date the journey between Liverpool and Vancouver City, the furthest point by land of the Dominion, performed in absolute ease and comfort in 10^ days.* It cannot be too often pointed out that with a fast Atlantic service the saving by this route over all others (the Suez Canal, the Cape, and Cape Horn) to any point east of Singapore is immense. At a low estimate it will be between England and Sydney two days, Brisbane four or five, Hong-kong two, Shanghai a week, and between England and Japan nearly three weeks. And not only is the actual distance to all these places much shortened, but the climate through- out is temperate, the land journey is over British territory, and the sea courses are direct and free from the dangers of coasting navigation. * See note, p. 15. io The Atlantic. Having had our little grumble at the Allan line, which, we trust, as the nurses say, will be a warning to them, we admit that the Sardinian is a good, comfortable sea-boat, and makes her thirteen knots or so with considerable regularity. The state-rooms are badly lighted and not remarkable for smartness or convenience ; the attendance on passengers is not good, the supply of stewards being apparently hardly adequate ; but she shines nobly in the commissariat department. While lying at Moville we studied the intricacies of this question, the times of the various meals being a very important — in fact, the only important — matter on shipboard. We elicited from the steward that breakfast was at 8.30, but that most of the passengers took a cup of tea or so and a handful of biscuits or some such trifle in their cabins before turning out ; luncheon, with soup, hot meat, and pudding, &c, at 1 ; dinner at 5 ; tea, with hot buttered toast and jam, at 7 ; " and," he went on with glee at the growing look of horror on our faces, " supper is served hot at 9." Well did Horace exclaim, "Illi.robur et aes triplex circum pectus erat." Surely that man was fashioned like unto a three-hooped oaken barrel who first went to sea. And how did one of us who shall be nameless bear his part in the conflict ? Simply by meanly lying in his berth for two days and taking no food at all, unless half a pint of champagne may fairly be so- called. Having thus on the third day got a handicap of ten meals in his favour, he naturally was able to eat twice as much as every one else for the remainder of the voyage, and to traitorously scoff at any one who The Atlantic. 1 1 suggested that feeding-time came round with perhaps unnecessary frequency. Life on the Atlantic is a dull performance, and it is singular to note how very scarce are the amusing episodes, and how very amusing those that occur appear at the time to be. The passengers, with few exceptions, were uninteresting, but we had a few shining ones revolving among us. The greatest of these was a Cambridge professor of the very highest celebrity, who knew everything and divers other Alan cut Hi situ tr . . t. rnuifhr com? <£. A/ien^ ? 'V ««* . matters. Before we were two days out he had taken charge of the entire ship from truck to kelson, and from the captain down to the Irish baby, and very well he did it — for a Cambridge man. Then we had among the steerage passengers an irrepressible Frenchman in a blue blouse, who before we were clear of the Mersey invaded the sacred soil of the saloon deck. At him went the third officer, " Parlez vous Francais ? " (with an unimpeachable accent). Frenchman, with the most affable of smiles, 12 The Atlantic. " Mais oui, M'sieu." " Then (" then " is delicious) you mustn't come to this end of the deck." Nor must there be forgotten the dear old bespec- tacled and chinabowlpiped German, who seemed to be generally lost in profound meditation, and was never able to find his way to the cabin where he and a friend were lodged. Shortly before Jim became con- valescent this worthy Teuton appeared one day in the A Terrible Apparition. doorway of our state-room, and after gazing at him in stolid bewilderment for a couple of minutes, re- marked, " Ach ! Dot aind't you." We regret to say that the untruthful answer he received was, " No, it ain't ; " but perhaps the trials of sea-sickness are a fair excuse for bad temper. Another individual who became of some importance to us was bringing over to Canada for free distribution samples of Edwards' Desiccated (or Dissipated) Soup. The Atlantic. We are not quite sure what desiccated means, and certainly a large number of packages were dissipated before we arrived, so we do not commit ourselves to either word. We were presented with half a dozen small tins of the stuff, and found it about the best portable soup we have tried. Then there was an exceedingly knowing gentleman of uncertain nationality who informed us in confidence that he was " not exactly of any profession, something between a solicitor and a broker," but who struck us as being much more likely to be between two police- men. And we had several members of the Canadian rifle team returning from Wimbledon, good, quiet fellows, with an insatiable appetite for deck quoits and mild poker ; two ladies and several other members of the more selfish sex ; a well-known member of the Canadian Bar ; and some schoolboys going home for the holidays, who, with the last-named Q.C. and a navy man on special service, were the best company on board. Nothing very exciting occurred. We had the usual fleet of icebergs in and about the Straits of Belleisle ; very beautiful some of them were under a brilliant moon, with their white gleaming snowy slopes and sharp blue pinnacles wherever the bare ice could be seen. The announcement of these caused the whole company to clothe their eyes with telescopes, the naked eye being insufficiently powerful to discern the coldness which is an iceberg's most prominent characteristic. And how the man with the longest telescope lied as to what he could see on the most remote berg ! A few whales and petrels served to break the monotony of the constant dining, and a 14 The Atlantic. strong enough breeze sprang up in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to keep our decks awash and make lands- men again of some of the passengers, who during the mild weather of the Atlantic had developed into the jackest of jack-tars. At last came the customary misery without which no North Atlantic voyage would be complete. The enemy had threatened all along the banks of New- foundland, now lying in light smoky wreaths all round us, and anon lifting in patches under the gleams of a dazzling sun for a few minutes, only to shut down in greater density for a like period, and then perhaps without any warning or apparent reason to vanish as if by magic. Right in the mouth of the river there swooped down upon us the coldest, densest, drizzling sea-fog that can be imagined, which, with the smoke from our own funnels, made the atmosphere something akin to that enjoyed by travellers on the Underground Railway, and left the decks and every- thing on them in the filthiest condition of black slime. Is there a more weird, dispiriting, and God-forsaken sound in the world than the perpetually recurring wail of a great ship's steam-whistle ? We only know of one, and that is the miserable though half defiant yell of that Ishmaelite the coyote. Fortunately Providence has ordained that where the coyote is there the steam-whistle cannot be, for anything more suggestive of the lamentation of lost souls in Sheol cannot be imagined. And through it all we could only pace the slippery deck and grumble, first at the half-speed and then the stopped engines, and picture to ourselves our friends at home, probably lying on the grass under the green lime-trees, while we who brave the The Atlantic. 15 raging seas have to submit to this scene of desola- tion and utter loneliness, surrounded by misty im- mensity. Occasionally came the evidence of the existence of other mortals in the despairing cry of another steamer in like pitiable plight, and then the fateful rattle, rattle, bang of the cable, and the change from that awful whistle to the still more exasperating ding, ding, ding, ding, ding of the bell, and we were informed that we were anchored for that indefinite period " till the fog clears." Note. — These anticipations, which in 18S7 were usually considered profligate, have already been more than realised. The C.P.R. has now actually running on the Pacific three of the finest steamers afloat (the Empress of Japan, the Empress of India, and the Empress of China), all of 6000 tons, 10,000 horse power, 485 feet length, and 18 knot speed, with, of course, electric light, and all the latest improve- ments in marine construction. The sailings are at intervals of about 3 weeks, and the usual time from Vancouver to Yokohama 13 or 14 days, and another week or 8 days to Hong Kong. These figures are, however, much more modest than the record of accomplished facts. On Aug. 29, 1S91, the Empress of Japan arrived at Victoria (Van- couver's Island) in a little under 10 days from Yokohama, and 7 hours afterwards the mails were at Vancouver City, on the mainland. Another hour was spent in transferring them to the train, and then the C.P.R. performed the marvellous feat of carrying them across the continent to New York in 3 days 15 hours and 35 minutes. The Inman liner City of Nezv York took them across the Atlantic, and they were in London within 21 days of leaving Yokohama. The ordinary time by the Suez route is set down in the Postal Guide as 43 days. When (and when will that be ?) we get a Canadian Atlantic service equal to the Pacific one, the time will be still further reduced. — Nov. 1 891. ( 16 ) CHAPTER II. THE ST. LAWRENCE. Most things have an end, and by noon on the 6th of August we were, with our pilot at the masthead — for the fog only lay for a few feet above the water — slowly steaming with frequent pauses up the mighty river, losing many of our passengers at Rimouski, where the mail tender meets the steamer, and the inter-colonial railway is available for any one to whom a few hours are of importance. The weather kept improving, and soon the wooded southern bank of the St. Lawrence was plainly visible, and the air was laden with the delicious scent of the pine forests, while the eye was charmed and rested after the weary waste of waters by the ever varying and ever harmonious green and grey of the distant hills, and the spotlessly white dwellings of the French Canadian settlers along the shores. Howbeit, we are told that much enchantment is lent to the view, and that it is more pleasing to every sense to contemplate these inviting-looking cottages from afar than to form a closer acquaintance with them and their inhabitants, human and otherwise. Everything except the forests is whitewashed, and a school of whales which accompanied us about this period seemed to have undergone the same opera- The St. Lawrence. 17 tion, but we can only speak to their appearance, and it is possible that the silvery gleam of their tummies in the water is due to some other cause. Having prepared ourselves for our experiences in America by a strict course of Fennimore Cooper, Mayne Reid, and Mark Twain, we knew all about " buffler bulls," " bars " and " catamounts," " shooting- irons " and " pill-pumps," and were carefully on the watch against the well-worn traveller's tales with which the native of foreign parts is wont to delude the unwary. It was therefore no surprise to us to hear the pilot enlarging upon a "bar" that he had shot a day or two before, and all the lead that it had taken to do it. We smiled incredulously and dis- puted it not, but when he presently announced that he thought the mist had cleared enough for him to shoot the " bar " again, and we perceived nothing but the same wide expanse of river, without so much as a bottle-cork for a "bar" to hide behind, we felt that he was deceiving us. It was only when we saw a couple of leadsmen in the chains, and heard the cry of 7, 6^, 6, 5^, 5^, and then suddenly 8, 10, 14, that we realised that the "bar" was the one at the bottom of the river. Life is too short to bother with precautions against those miscreants who deem it entertaining to entrap their fellow mortals. When we were in the middle of the gulf, and the nearest coast was 200 miles away, a Yankee quietly remarked, " Wal, I guess we are quite close to land now ; it ain't more than three-quarter of a mile away nohow." Personally we took no interest in facts of this nature, so were content to sit and believe, but many excited travellers dashed out of the 1 8 The St. Lawrence. smoking room to have a look at the long hoped for continent. They presently came back in the worst of tempers, and said that the charts and other authorities all declared it to be at least 200 miles away, and there was certainly none in sight. Then said the champion seller, " Wal, I didn't say the shore ; I guess there's land right under us not three-quarter of a mile away." These ancient impositions ought to be posted up in a conspicuous place on every ship by order of the Board of Trade, and any one practising them should be made to walk the plank. The last part of the voyage was as charming as the prelude to it was wretched. We left the fog to drearily linger far behind us, and instead we had that rarity in a Canadian summer, a cloud-flecked sky, giving additional beauty to the scene by the shadows which alternated with the most glorious sunshine over the rippling water, rocky islands, and steep fir-clad banks. The whole of the river, after it becomes narrow enough for its shores to be seen, is exceedingly beautiful with its constant succession of lovely islands, which, now when the grass has just been cut in patches, have a most vividly green undergrowth, and the most perfect background of hills looking marvellously blue in the evening light, with here and there a waif of mist still flitting across them. Once by a curious effect of mirage a piece of the river was seen high up the hillside, looking so like a lake that it was difficult to realise the absurdity of a lake tilted on one side sufficiently for us to see its surface from below. At last we passed on the north bank the splendid falls of Montmorenci, and soon afterwards came into The St. Lawrence. 19 full view of one of the three most grandly situated cities in the world — Quebec. Edinburgh surely de- serves a place among them, but who will agree as to the third out of Athens, Constantinople, Genoa, Salz- burg, Granada, and a host of others ? By the time that the big ship had made a circle under the frowning Heights of Abraham, and was lying alongside the wharf at Point Levis, night had come on, and the city was outlined from citadel to water's edge with twinkling stars of electric light, reflected and multi- plied to our feet by the ripples of the restless river. Here we lay all night, and here again we had cause to be dissatisfied with the Allan management. Just before arriving at Quebec we were told that all luggage would be landed there, and that any one who wished to go on to Montreal would have to watch the landing, and prevent his or her property leaving the ship. All this might have been arranged with the greatest ease during the last two days when we were doing nothing in the river, or even provided for by a notice to that effect and careful stowing at Liverpool, but nothing of the sort had been attempted. Late at night, by the light of a miserable ship's lantern at each of the two hatches, the work of hoisting the baggage out began, while frantic passengers stood helplessly round and clawed at their belongings, not unfrequently getting a heavy trunk dropped on their toes, and being reviled for it by the slaves of the capstan. One lady who was travelling by herself was natu- rally unable to attend to two hatches about thirty yards apart at once, so we volunteered to look out on her behalf. Of course our only chance was to 20 The St. Lawrence. stop everything which bore the least resemblance to her baggage, as hastily described ; the result was that when the last package had been swung on shore, there was to be seen on the deck at each hatch a heterogeneous pile as big as a haystack, which we confidently asserted to be " Miss C.'s portmanteaus," and as luck would have it she did ultimately succeed in unearthing from the depths of this loot all of her trunks save one, a kind of a low one-roomed cottage on wheels, which ladies take about and imagine to be a bonnet-box, or some such necessity of existence. This we afterwards heard she ultimately recovered at Winnipeg, as it was abundantly addressed, and simply could not be lost. Even the man who lost the big drum would have had no chance with it. We fared about the same, losing in the darkness and confusion one of our most cherished packages, a box full of the best photographic plates, which of course could not be replaced here, though we were lucky enough to get very fair substitutes. This box turned up at Toronto five months afterwards, just in time to give us all the trouble of passing it through the Custom House at Montreal and Liverpool, so naturally we are still annoyed at the Allan people and their want of method. Quebec has been described and re-described ad nauseam. We do not intend to add to its literature, but Ichabod may be written on its walls, if, as the apostles of Free Trade teach us, commercial prosperity is the only test of greatness and the only goal for a nation's ambition. In vain did hostile armies encamp against her and pour out blood and treasure to bring her into subjection, but what the guns of the French The St. Lawrence. 21 and the devotion of Arnold failed to do, the steam- dredger and that potent engine trades-unionism have accomplished. The pre-eminence of Quebec is a thing of the past, for there is now a low- water channel of twenty-five (soon to be twenty-seven) feet * clear up the river to Montreal. While the struggle between the two cities was going on, and Quebec was still a formidable rival in many branches of the shipping trade, the final coup was given by her own dock-labourers, who one day took it into their sapient heads to decree that no man should work under a price that seemed good to them in their wisdom. They were not troubled in the execution of their edict ; this sword thrown into the balance turned the scale against Quebec ; the shipowners then and there forsook her, and Montreal is now beyond question the port of Canada. At the time we lay at Point Levis there was but one solitary barque in the harbour, and we were told that this is now quite an ordinary state of affairs there. Early on Sunday morning we were once more under way, and enjoyed the rare delight of a daylight cruise up the river — as a rule this run is made in the night-time — passing numerous places large and small, all with a tidy and prosperous appearance about them, and getting a very good view of the magnificent water- way, with here and there the mild excitement of a passing steamer or a quaint old-world boat, Argo-like in rig, and with a perfectly flat bow like the end of a barrel, strange contrast to the modern fleet of dredgers moored in some obstinate reach of shallows. The * The dredging of this channel to a depth of 2"j\ feet was completed in November 1 888. 22 The St. Lawreiice. course is buoyed or marked with long poles the whole way. One cannot but admire the pluck which has carried out this splendid enterprise — pluck which will, we hope, be sufficient to place Canada in the front rank of nations, if not actually at the head of them. It being Sunday, we had service of a mixed Church of England and Free Kirk character. The captain On tkt S'LaiLrence : near Quebec. had particularly impressed upon us all that on no account must we miss seeing the town of Three Rivers. Owing to the difficulties encountered by our worthy "meenister" in fusing the two services together, he had only just arrived at " sixthly and lastly," when the whistle warned us that the town was in sight. And then did the resource and polite- ness of the captain rise to the occasion most nobly ; the saloon door suddenly opened, and in came a The St. Lawrence. 23 long string of seamen whom the thoughtful com- mander had sent, so that if as he expected the congre- gation proper rushed out of church to look at Three Rivers, the preacher might not feel slighted, but would still have a room full of eager listeners to pound away at. Original, and, like all great ideas, simple, was it not ? ( 24 ) CHAPTER III. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. The tale of the river has been as much and as well told as that of Quebec ; and of Montreal we have nothing new to add : its great Cathedral of Notre Dame and still greater copy of St. Peter's, its Tubular Bridge and docks, its Windsor Hotel and its moun- tain, are all well known to the world, and our stay- there was of the briefest. We had just time to hustle through a particularly obliging custom-house, part with all the last faithful remnants of our once large party, and jump into a sleeping car on the Canadian Pacific (or C.P.R., as it is always called out here) bound for Toronto, where we expected to get whatever we needed for our up country journey. The cars on this line are as near perfection as skill, taste, and money can make them ; we have not seen anything approaching them for comfort on the American continent, and of course Europe is out of the running altogether in the matter of railway travelling. To understand what an enormous amount of discomfort it is possible to secure by a lavish expenditure of time and cash, it is unnecessary to do more than travel in the best wagon-lits that France and Spain can boast, from Calais down to I run and Cadiz, or by the mail from Paris to Manners and- Customs. 25 Brindisi. Such a journey is about as fit to be com- pared with one on the C.P.R. as the speed and luxury of an ancient coach with that of the Irish mail of our own time. Suffice it to say that this great railway has been written up, puffed, adver- tised, and belauded in the most extravagant terms, and yet it is really doubtful whether one single word in excess of its deserts has been or could be said. The only evil fate that could befall it would be a feeling that enough had been done for glory, but with the men at present at its head there is little fear of any lotus-eating. The C.P.R. will go on as it has begun, and we hope prosper as it deserves to do. The above paragraph owes much of its inspiration to the fact that when we tumbled into the train in an extremely dishevelled and hungry condition about eight o'clock at night, Jim discovered that " lunches are served hot on board the cars," and in about five minutes he was seated at a table, on which the whole of the fare mentioned on the bill was arranged before him. The Skipper had haughtily retired to the smok- ing room, and did not know what was going on until he had finished a cigar and spoilt his appetite for food, and it was beautiful to hear his lofty remarks on the vulgarity of eating in a train, and the im- prudence of people who ate scrambled eggs and Welsh rarebits just before bed-time — all very improving and moral, but somehow reminding the hearer of the Fox and Grapes too much to make any lasting impression upon him. Then the evil-doer turned in and slept the sleep of the unjust until breakfast-time, when he arose like a giant and shouted for more. The poor Skipper meanwhile having been informed by a 26 Manners and Customs. courteous stranger in the smoking car that this was a " sudden " train, was unable to sleep a wink either from pondering over the suddenness of the travelling, or from want of food. Ottawa was passed about midnight, and breakfast- time next morning found us in the Queen's Hotel at Toronto, a most comfortable place. Jim had only just had breakfast in the train, but meanly making as his excuse those ten lost meals on the first two days of the Atlantic, insisted on eating another in the hotel before commencing our real work, which was to begin here. Most instructors of the people seem to take it for granted that every one knows all about American hotels, but as this knowledge cannot really be universal, we propose to enlighten the ignorant, and the learned may skip this part. In those which prevail at places of any size, both in the States and Canada, you enter by a large hall, bounded at one end by a long counter, behind which are the clerks and other authorities. These are very great swells indeed, and smoke cigars and chew tooth- picks with such a lordly air that you probably fear to address them, and moreover it is very little use to do so. You take your turn with the other arrivals to write your name in a book of fate which is called the Register, and against this the clerk writes your destiny by the number of a room, hands 3 r ou a key with that number on it, and leaves you to find the room as best you can. The most satisfactory method is to keep asking every one you meet, which, though annoying to them, is on the whole less trying to yourself than wandering up and down miles of passages for a day Manners and Customs. 2 7 or two, and camping out on the stairs. There is no place in most of them where you can sit with any comfort, as the corresponding apartment to an English coffee-room is used only for meals, so that you have to spend your indoor time in the hall among the smoke and spittoons, unless you go up to the " parlour," which is either empty and fireless, or else tenanted by half a dozen ladies in full talking array. The meals are at set hours, generally breakfast 8 to 10, lunch or rather dinner I to 2.30, supper 5 to 8. The man of thrifty mind usually attends them all, as he will have to pay for them whether he eats them or not, the charge for board and lodging varying from 8s. a day up to about 25s., according to the standing of the hotel. An enormous variety of dishes is provided, and you are at liberty to partake of them all if you like, and are young enough to do so. A breakfast carte of the Queen's Hotel will give some idea of the usual fare, the supper being still more elaborate. Fruit and Marmalade, Fish. — Fresh herrings ; broiled fresh fish ; salt mackerel ; Loch Fyne herrings; fish balls; finnan haddie; salt codfish with cream. Oysters. — Raw; stewed; fried. Broiled. — St. Louis ham; mutton chops; kidneys; sirloin steak ; English breakfast bacon ; veal cutlets ; calf liver and bacon ; pork chops ; beefsteak and onions ; tripe ; Glasgow beef ham. Figs' Feet. Stewed. — Kidneys ; corned beef hash ; chicken. Fried. — Veal cutlets breaded ; calf sliver; tripe; sausage. Potatoes.— Fried; Lyonnaise; saute; baked; stewed. 28 Manners and Customs. Eggs. — Boiled ; fried; scrambled; poached; plain omelette; stirred omelette with parsley ; omelette with ham. Bread. — French rolls ; Graham bread ; white bread ; corn bread ; dry and dipped toast ; Graham rolls ; hominy ; Irish oatmeal ; griddle cakes ; maple syrup. English breakfast tea ; coffee ; green tea ; chocolate. But if you happen to arrive at the hotel late at night or between any of the fixed meal-times, you can get nothing to eat until the next one comes round, which is distressing to the last degree. There is generally a cigar- cum-newspaper-and-novel shop, a barber's, and a bar in the hall or somewhere near it, which in wet weather is convenient. When leaving, you pay your bill at the counter in the hall, and are not pestered for tips by the waiters ; but if you wish to get any attention from these coloured gentlemen, it is advisable to commence your career by the presentation of a dollar, as they do not understand the English custom of tipping after favours received. On the whole, however, there is not the same necessity for this as in England, as the white men, with very few exceptions, will not take money, though they are not too proud to allow you to stand drinks. The American village hotel is a very different institution : its cheerlessness can hardly be imagined. There is only one public room, which is generally full of roughs, in the spaces between the spittoons. It has a stove in the middle, and smells unpleasantly if wind proof ; but if, as more usually happens, its walls are largely composed of cracks held apart by logs, the draughts whistle through the apartment with an intensity unknown to good stay-at-home people. Even Manners ii7id Customs. if you are lucky enough to get within reach of the stove, the only chance of keeping your circulation unfrozen is to warm one side at a time, while the other one rapidly drops below zero. The lowest depth of all is reached in the " saloon " of the western " city " or miner's camp. This is I'. I pi; {.■■■> >■«:•-' ■:;■ ■> MS VtM v'