CHAPTER XIX

FISHING WITH A SIWASH

The next morning, with Mr. James, Jack and Hugh boarded the comfortable steamer which was to take them up the Fraser to the town of Yale, the head of navigation of the lower river. Mr. James was anxious to have them see the end of the Canadian Pacific railroad, of which all the residents of the Province were immensely proud at that time, for it was the first railroad that had been built in British Columbia. Incidentally they would view the scenery of the Fraser, and would see many other interesting things.

Near its mouth the Fraser is very muddy, and Hugh and Jack spoke of its resemblance in this respect to the Missouri, with which they were so familiar. As the steamer ploughed its way up the river the water became less and less turbid, until, when Yale was reached, though by no means colorless, it had lost its muddy appearance and was beautifully green. The current is everywhere rapid, and at certain points where the channel is narrow the water rushes between the steep banks with such violence that at times it seemed doubtful whether the vessel could overcome its force. At such points Jack and Hugh were always interested in watching the struggle, and noting by points on the bank the slow but steady passage which the vessel made in overcoming the force of the water. For some distance above New Westminster the river is broad and flows through a wide alluvial bottom covered with a superb growth of cotton-wood trees; but farther up the channel is narrow; and mountains rise on either side, not very high but very steeply, and on them they saw frequent evidences of landslips which had laid bare long stretches of dark red rock, which contrasted beautifully with the green of the forests.

As they passed along, Mr. James pointed out one mountain after another, and told of the silver mines and the silver prospects that had been found on each. In many places along the river were seen extensive stretches of barren land covered with cobblestones and boulders which to Jack seemed out of place in a region where vegetation was so universal.

"Why is it, Mr. James," he asked, "that nothing seems to grow on these great piles of pebbles and cobblestones?"

"Why," said Mr. James, "that is old mining ground. Many of these gravel bars have been worked over by placer miners; and these piles of stones were left after the soil and fine sand had been washed for the gold which it contained. Many of these bars have been worked over a number of times, and all of them, twice. Along this river it has been just as it has been back in the States. After gold was discovered, the white man first went over the ground and washed the gravel, getting most of the gold; and then, after he got through, the Chinaman, slow, patient, persistent, and able to subsist on little or nothing, went over the ground again and found in the abandoned claims money enough to pay what seemed to him good wages; in other words sufficient to give him a living, and enable him to save up money enough to take him back to his own country, where he lived comfortably for the rest of his life.

"I am no miner," Mr. James continued, "but you must talk with Hunter. He is a civil engineer with a lot of experience, and I saw him on the boat this morning. I understand that he has a mining scheme which is big, though, of course, it is only a speculation as yet."

Mr. James stopped talking and looked about the deck, and then walked over to a tall, thin man who was standing near the rail, smoking. After speaking to him, the two came to where Jack and Hugh were sitting. Introductions followed, and after a little time Mr. Hunter explained what it was that he proposed to do.

"Quesnelle Lake," he said, "lies away north of Yale and east of the river, in a country where some good prospects have been found. From the Lake, Quesnelle River flows into the Fraser. The bed of Quesnelle River is supposed to be very rich in gold. It is said that it is so rich that the Chinamen anchor their boats in the river and dredge the dirt from the bottom, take it ashore and wash it, and in this way make good wages. I have received a Dominion grant to mine this river, or so much of it as I can. Of course, as yet, this is a mere prospect, but I am going up there now to find something definite about it. I shall have to do some dredging to find out what there is in the bottom of the river. If I find that the dirt there is rich enough, I shall build, across the river near Quesnelle Lake, a dam strong enough to hold back for three or six months of the year--during the dry season, in other words--the water of the lake, so that the volume which passes through the river channel will be greatly diminished. This will leave bare a great portion of the river channel, which can then be mined by ordinary hydraulic processes. As I say, there is as yet nothing certain about the matter, but there seems sufficient prospect of profit in it to make it worth while to attempt it."

"That seems a reasonable scheme," said Hugh, "though, of course, as yet there are a number of 'ifs' to it."

"There are a good many," said Mr. Hunter; "but I believe that in the course of the next three months I shall know much more about it than I do now."

"I believe, Mr. Hunter," said Jack, "that you have travelled a great deal over the Province, have you not?"

"Yes," said Mr. Hunter, "a good deal. I have been over the whole length of it and over much of its width, but I know little about its northwest corner. There I never happened to be; but from the Fraser and Kootenay rivers, down to the boundary line and all along the western part of the Province, I have been."

"Is there any place near here," said Jack, "where one could go into the mountains for say a week or ten days, with a prospect of getting a little hunting? I don't mean for deer and goats, because I suppose these are found almost everywhere, but with some prospect of finding sheep, and perhaps elk? I believe that bears exist everywhere, and of course the meeting with them is a matter of luck."

Mr. Hunter considered for a moment or two, and then said: "Do you want to make a little hunting trip of this kind, and now?"

"Yes," said Jack, "Mr. Johnson, here, and I were thinking of doing that."

"Well," said Mr. Hunter; "I believe I know just the place for you. It's only a short distance from Hope, a town just below Yale, on the river, and if you can get started at once, four or five days ought to take you into a good sheep country, where there are also a few deer and goats. You could have three or four days hunting there, and could get back to take the steamer down the river and get to Westminster inside of two weeks."

"That's a little bit more time than we have to give to the trip," said Jack, "but perhaps we could do that, and perhaps we could gain a day or two in the travelling."

"Perhaps you might," said Mr. Hunter, "those things depend largely upon the outfit you have and chiefly on the energy of the man who runs your outfit. If you get somebody who is a rustler, who will get you up every morning before day and have the train on the march before the sun is up, and travel all day, you can get along pretty rapidly."

"Well," said Hugh, "it seems to be a matter that depends largely upon ourselves. Son and I are fair packers, and if we can get horses and a man to wrangle them and somebody that knows the road, we ought to be able to keep them moving."

"I'll tell you what I will do," said Mr. Hunter. "When we get to Yale I will telegraph to an acquaintance of mine in Hope, and find out what the prospect is of getting the outfit that you want."

Hugh and Jack both thanked Mr. Hunter, and after some inquiry about the character of the country to be traversed, the talk turned to other subjects. It was but a little later when the boat began to pass groups of Indians camping along the shore; and near each camp were seen the drying stages on which they were curing the fish that they took. Horizontal poles were raised five or six feet above the ground and these were thickly hung with the red flesh, making a band of bright color which stood out in bold relief against the green of the trees and the cold gray of the rocks.

Jack and Hugh looked at these camps with much interest.

"It looks some like a little camp on the plains when there has been a killing and the meat is just hung up to dry, doesn't it, son?" remarked Hugh.

"A little," said Jack, "but I cannot separate the camp from its surroundings of mountains and timber and big water."

"No," said Hugh, "that is hard to do, but of course these people are gathering their meat and drying it just as our Indians gather their meat and dry it."

In front of the tents and shelters in which the Indians lived down on the bank of the river, were scaffolds made of long poles thrust into the rocks and resting on other rocks, projecting out well over the water. On each one of these stood one or more Indians engaged in fishing with a hand net which he swept through the water, just as had been described the day before by Mr. McIntyre. To see it actually done made the operation so much easier to understand than when it had been simply described. The Indians swept their nets through the water from up stream downward, and at almost every sweep the net brought up a fish, which the man took from it with his left hand and threw to a woman standing on the bank above the stream. They could be seen to perform some operation on it, and sometimes a woman with an armful of fish went up and hung them on the drying scaffold.

Mr. Hunter was standing by them, also observing the fishing, and Jack said to him: "Mr. Hunter, I can't see clearly enough to understand just what these nets are and how they are worked. Can you explain it to me?"

"Yes," said Mr. Hunter. "It's very simple, and when you go ashore at Yale, you will be able to see the Indians catch fish in just this way, and you can see for yourself just how it is done. You know what an ordinary landing net is, don't you--a net such as we use for trout?"

"Yes, of course I do," said Jack, "it's pretty nearly what we call a scap net along the salt water, except that it is not so large or so coarse."

"Yes," said Mr. Hunter. "You know that a landing net has a handle, a hoop, to which the net is attached, and a large net hanging down below the hoop. Now if you imagine a landing net four or five times as big as any you ever saw, you will have an idea of the general appearance of one of these purse nets when spread. The hoop of the purse net is oval and made of a round stick, the branch of a tree bent so that the hoop is about four feet long by three feet broad. This hoop is attached to a long handle. Running on the stick, which forms the hoop, are a number of wooden rings, large enough to run freely. The net is attached to these small wooden rings, and if the handle is held vertically the weight of the net and rings will bring all the rings together at the bottom of the hoop, so that the net is a closed bag. Now from the end of the handle of the purse net a string runs to the hoop and is attached to the wooden rings that run on it in such a way that if you pull on the string the little wooden rings spread themselves out at equal distances all around the hoop, and the net becomes open, just as an ordinary landing net is when open. As the Indian is about to sweep the net to try to catch a fish, he pulls the string which spreads the net, and the net is then swept through the water with a slow motion. The string which holds it open passes around the little finger of one hand; and if the fisherman feels anything strike against the net, the string is loosened, the rings run together, and the net becomes a closed bag which securely holds the object within it. The salmon, swimming against the current, pass along close to the steep bank where the force of the water is least, and the eddies help them. The Indians know where the salmon pass, and sweep their nets along there to meet them; and, as you see, catch lots of fish."

"That makes it just as clear as anything," said Jack, "and I am very much obliged to you for telling me about it. I want to understand these things that I see, and sometimes it is pretty hard to do so without an explanation. Now, if you will let me, there is another question I would like to ask you. What do the women do in preparing the salmon for drying? I can see that they are using knives. Do they just cut off the head, or do they take out the backbone?"

"I am glad you asked me this question," said Mr. Hunter, "because there's a difference in the way the Indians save the fish. The coast Indians just cut off the head and remove the entrails, but these Indians up here are more dainty; I suppose, as a matter of fact, they are more primitive, and do not understand the importance of collecting all the food they can, although they ought to understand that, for they have certainly starved many times when the salmon run has been a poor one. Up here, the Indians only save the belly of the fish. By a single slash of her knife, the woman cuts away the whole belly from the throat back to a point behind the anal fins, and extending up on the sides to where the solid flesh begins. This portion is retained and hung up to dry. The whole shoulders, back and tail are thrown into the water again. There is another thing that I believe will interest you. You see these stages from which they are fishing? Well, you might think that anybody might come along and build a stage and go to fishing, or that whoever came first in the summer to one of these stages might occupy it, and use it during the season, but that isn't the fact. These stages are private property, or rather family property, and the right to occupy and use each point descends from the father to the oldest son of the family."

"Well," said Jack, "that's new to me. I never heard of anything like it. Did you, Hugh?"

"No," said Hugh, "it's one ahead of me."

"Well," said Mr. Hunter, "you will find quite a lot of customs of that kind along this coast. Certain tribes and certain families have the right to hunt or fish in certain localities and it's a right that is universally respected among the Indians. A man would no more think of interfering with another family's fishing stage or trespassing on his hunting ground than he would think of disturbing a cache of food that did not belong to him."

"That's another thing I had not heard of, Mr. Hunter," said Jack; "the fact that the Indians have separate special places where they have the right to hunt and where other people have not that right."

"Yes," said Hugh, "that's new to me, and would seem quite queer to anybody in our country."

"What is your country, if I may ask?" said Mr. Hunter, courteously.

"Why," said Hugh, "son and I have been for the last three or four years on the plains and in the mountains back in the States."

"Oh, in the Rocky Mountains?" said Mr. Hunter.

"Yes," said Hugh.

"There, of course, your game is chiefly buffalo, I suppose, and they wander a good deal, do they not?"

"Yes," said Hugh, "they wander some, but not so much as most people think. A great many people say that in summer the buffalo all go north and in winter they all go down south, but that's not so. There are movements of the herds with the seasons, but they are not very extensive."

"Mr. Hunter," said Jack, taking advantage of a moment's pause, "I have heard something about the caches that the Indians make of their food, but I have never seen one in this country. Will you tell me how they arrange them?"

"Certainly," said Mr. Hunter. "These Indians, here, after their fish have dried, pack them together; and in a tree, far above the reach of animals or insects, they build something that you might call a little house or a big box, in which they store the food and leave it there against a time of need. The house or box, whichever you choose to call it, is built of shakes, that is, of thin planks split from the cedar, is fairly well jointed, and has a tight and slightly sloping roof so that the moisture cannot get into it. Usually they are seen along the streams or near favorite camping grounds, and I should not be at all surprised if we saw one before reaching Yale. They are quite commonly seen."

"And you say," said Jack, "that they are never disturbed?"

"Absolutely never," said Mr. Hunter. "Indians would suffer great privations before taking food belonging to other people, because they know to take away this food might mean starvation to the owners. Of course if an absolutely starving outfit of Indians found a cache they might take from it a little food, perhaps enough to carry them on for a day or two along their road; but if they did, they would leave some sign at the cache to say who had taken the food, and they would feel bound, at some later day, whenever it were possible, to return what they had taken with good interest."

By this time the day was well advanced, and a little later Mr. Hunter pointed to a few dilapidated buildings standing near the river and said: "There is all that's left of the town of Hope. The situation is a beautiful one, in a wide bottom; but there is no life in the settlement. It is from this point on the river that the trail starts for Kootenay about five hundred miles distant, and all the mail and express matters used to leave from here. The town was founded in the early days of the mining excitement, when it was thought that the diggings of the Fraser were inexhaustible. People used to think that this would be a great town, and there was an active speculation in building lots, but as the washing on the lower river ceased to pay, the tide of emigration passed on. Hope was left behind, and the owners of town lots will have to wait a long time for their money. At the same time, when the railroad is finished it will of course pass through Hope or near it, and there may be a future for the place; but that will depend upon agriculture and not on mining."

A little later in the day the steamer tied up to the bank at Yale. It was quite a large town, spread out at the foot of a great mountain, and it seemed to have the characteristics of all western railroad towns. It was from here that the Canadian Pacific Railroad was being built eastward, and Yale was thus the supply point and the locality where all the laborers employed on the road congregated during holidays. To Jack the place seemed as cosmopolitan almost as San Francisco. He recognized English, Scotch, and French; and noticed some Germans, Swedes, and some Americans; Indians and Chinese were numerous, and negroes jostled Mexican packers and muleteers; while there were many mixed bloods whose parentage could hardly be determined from their countenances.

Jack learned that a stage ran from Yale to Lytton, where the river is again practicable for steamers, and that this was the route taken by persons going to the mines at Cariboo.

Mr. Hunter, knowing Jack's interest in birds, took him to see a taxidermist who had a considerable collection of bird skins brought together from the immediate neighborhood. Here he saw many eastern and western birds, the most interesting of which were the evening grosbeak, the pine grosbeak, and a species of gray crowned finch. By the time the birds had been inspected the sun had set and they returned to their quarters at the hotel.

Immediately after breakfast next morning, Jack, Hugh, and Mr. James walked along the railroad two or three miles up the river and into the cañon. The scenery was very beautiful. The walls of the cañon were nearly vertical, the stream tearing along between them at a high rate of speed. Just at the entrance of the cañon stands a high rock or island, which divides the current into two streams of nearly equal size. On a flat rock they all sat down, and while the two older men filled their pipes and smoked Mr. James told Jack the story of this rock.

"Of course you understand," he said, "that the salmon has always been the most important food of the year to the Fraser River Indians. It supplies them with their winter food, and indeed with provisions for almost the entire year. To them, as to almost all the Indians along this coast, the salmon is the staple food, just as back on the plains the buffalo is what the Indians there depend upon. Just as back in that country the buffalo is somewhat a sacred animal, so here the salmon are in a degree sacred; and just as back there the Indians perform certain ceremonies when they are going out to make a big hunt, so here the capture of the first salmon is celebrated with religious ceremony."

Hugh nodded and said, "I guess Indians are alike the whole continent over."

"Well," said Mr. James, "each summer the first fish that came up the river and was taken, was regarded not as belonging to the person who took it but to the Good Spirit; I suppose that means the chief god. As soon as caught, therefore, it was to be taken to the chief of the tribe, and delivered into his keeping. A young girl was then chosen and after having been purified, she was stripped naked and all over her body were marked crossed lines in red paint, which represented the meshes of the net. She was then taken to the water's edge and with solemn ceremonies the net marks were washed off. This was supposed to make the people's nets fortunate. Prayers were made to the Good Spirit and the salmon was then cut up into small pieces, a portion was sacrificed, and the remainder was divided into still smaller pieces, one of which was given to each individual of those present. This, Squawitch tells me, was the regular annual custom. Now, about this rock. One season the people had eaten all their food and had gathered here at the river for the fishing, but as yet no fish had been caught, and they were starving. It happened that the first salmon caught was taken by a woman, and she being very hungry, said nothing about its capture but at once devoured it. This was a crime and for it she was changed by the Good Spirit into this rock, which was thrown into the river where we see it now, to remain there forever as a memorial of her offence, and a warning to others."

"My, that's a good story, Mr. James," said Jack.

"Yes," said Hugh, "that's a sure enough Indian story."

The pipes being knocked out they started on up the river. Just above the first tunnel Jack saw on a stage down near the water's edge, an old Indian fishing with a purse net, and as it seemed, catching a salmon at every sweep he made. This was too much for Jack to resist, so he clambered down the rocks to the Indian's stage. After watching him for a little while, and noticing closely how he handled the net, Jack took from his pocket a quarter and held it out to the Indian, at the same time reaching out his hand for the net. The Indian gave it to him readily enough, and began to dress the fish he had already caught, while Jack stepping out on the stage over the water, began to sweep the net through the current just as the Indian had done. At the first sweep he felt something strike the net and loosened the string. He raised the net and--with some difficulty, for it was big--brought up to the stage a great ten pound salmon. He reached the net back to the Indian to take the fish from it; and, then spreading it again, he repeated the operation. In ten minutes he had caught nearly as many salmon, all of which were about the same size. No doubt the Indian would have been willing to have him fish all day for him, but his two companions, on the railroad track above, were getting impatient and called to him. Jack gave back the net to the Indian, climbed up the bank and overtook his companions, all three then going on up the track. It was an interesting experience, and one that not many people have enjoyed.

On their return to town Hugh asked Mr. James if there was any one in the town, so far as he knew, that had ever crossed the mountains to the head of the Peace River, and followed that stream down to the eastward.

Mr. James thought for a moment or two, and then said: "Why, of course. I know just the man, and I can take you to him. It's old man McClellan. He used to be an old Hudson Bay man, and has travelled all over the country. I am very sure that I have heard him tell about making that trip across the mountains."

A little inquiry brought them to Mr. McClellan's store. They found him a hardy old Scotchman who seemed glad to give them such information as he could. He told them about the streams that they must go up to reach the head of the Peace River, and that there was a two days' portage between the two waters, those flowing east into the Hudson Bay, and those west into the Pacific.

"The distance is not so great," he said, "but it's a rough country and ye'll have to go slowly, but it is a fine country to travel through; lots of game, moose, caribou, and mountain goats, and plenty of fish. Ye'll never have to starve there."

"Well," said Hugh, "I don't know as we'll ever be able to make that trip, but I've often thought about it and wanted to. One time, a good many years ago, I got hold of the travels of Alexander McKenzie, the man who found the frozen ocean, and he crossed the mountains from Hudson Bay to the Pacific Ocean, and I have always thought that I would like to make that trip myself, but I am getting old now for trips. I can't get around as easy as I could twenty years ago."

"Pshaw, man," said the old Hudson Bay voyager, "never talk like that! You're good for many years of travel yet. Faith, I'd like to take that trip with you, if you don't put it off too long. It's a fine country, and I'd like to go through it again."

That evening at the hotel they saw Mr. Hunter, who told them that he had communicated with the people at Hope, and had found that it would be easy for them to get a packer and an Indian guide and horses to go off on the hunting trip if they wished to. The outfit could be ready to start to-morrow morning if they felt like it. Jack and Hugh thought this would be a good thing to do, and got from Mr. Hunter the name of the man at Hope who could give them the desired information and assistance. They asked Mr. James if he would not join them on the hunt, but his business required him to return to New Westminster at once. It was determined, then, that all should start on the boat at three o'clock the next morning, Jack and Hugh getting off at Hope and trying to make a start for the sheep country that same morning.