From Temple Bar. FROM VANCOUVER ISLAND TO THE MOUND PRAIRIES. IN Vancouver Island, June is to my mind by far the most enjoyable month of the twelve; the miserable sloppy transition state, filling the gap, as it were, betwixt winter and summer, has gone, and in its place we have clear sky, bright sunshine, dry ground, and gay flowers, whilst everywhere one's ears are greeted with the hum and buzz of insects and the cheery songs of birds. Soon after daylight on one of these lovely summer mornings, now some four years ago, I was on board a small steamer, named the Otter, belonging to the Honourable Hudson's Bay Company. It is not a long and perilous voyage we are going to undertake, but simply a pleasure-trip across the Straits of Georgia, first to reach the entrance to Puget Sound, and thence to steam up this singular inland canal, in order to land at Nisqually, a large district of country so named by the Indians, and at this time in the occupation of and farmed by the Puget Sound Company. Victoria Harbour-round which is built the town of Victoria, the capital of Vancouver Island is by no means an easy place for a vessel of large tonnage to enter, but when once she has been steered safely past the rocks intersecting its entrance, the harbour is far from objectionable. Bad as getting into it is, getting out again is ten times worse. The passage is shoal, aud intricate as a labyrinth; and should the wind blow from S.E. or S.W., the sea comes tumbling in as if seeking safety in the rockbound harbour from the rough usage of old Eolus outside. It is true there are buoys to mark the way between the rocks, which run out beneath the sea from Ogden Point on the one side, to M'Lauchlin on the other, stil, for all this, the navigation is not easy, even to the experienced. In the absence of all the bustle and confusion which usually precede the departure of a steamer from a pier, it seemed to me that everything was uncomfortably quiet on this particular June morning. But few sounds were audible; the drowsy town was, at so early an hour, hushed in sleep; the water, smooth as polished metal, scarcely murmured its ripple song, as gently flowing over the beach it trickled lazily back again betwixt the shining pebbles. A small flock of "herring gulls" floating near us did not even quarrel on this occasion, -a most unusual event when there are more than two together, but drifted by, silent as all about them. The few blinking, red-eyed savages, who had crept like animals from out their lairs to witness our departure, appeared too lethargic to move even the muscles of their tongues, as they noiselessly squatted themselves upon their heels on the overhanging bank amidst the green herbage. Perhaps this excessive quietness was the rea 66 son why the captain's voice sounded to me so like that of a Stentor's, as "Larboard," "Starboard," Half-speed," "Go-ahead," mingled with a torrent of incomprehensible orders to the "deck hands" in " Chinook jargon," appeared to my unsailorlike ears as if the confusion of Babel was concentrated in this sea-captain's nautical vocabulary. What was confusion to me was clear enough to others, for the Otter twisted her away through the crooked passage with such ease and certainty, that I found we were "screwing along at full speed before I well knew we had got clear of the pier. There are very few prettier scenes than is the one suddenly revealed as we leave Victoria Harbour to cross the Gulf of Georgia. To my left, the coast-line of Vancouver Island vividly recalls many familiar spots on our British coasts; its bold rocky sea-line is cut into numerous bays and creeks; above the cliffs, which are far from lofty, grassy lawn-like patches of open ground slope gently towards the timber which crowns to their very summits the rounded metamorphic hills, so strangely different from those of the mainland, which we can see in the distance, towering apparently into the very sky; their summits, white with perpetual snow, appear more like fleecy clouds than the craggy outlines of stupendous mountains. Mount Baker, one of the most conspicuous of the group, has (so say the Indians) been seen to throw out smoke from its lofty summits by men still alive. To my right, the Straits of Juan de Juca resemble a vast canal, shut in on either side by an impenetrable mat of dark-green foliage. Straight ahead, a mere speck in the hazy distance, I can make out the famed San Juan Island. For a wonder, the sea was quite smooth, and it was amusing to watch the velvet surf-ducks (Pelionetta perspicillata), in flocks of four and five, sitting on the water, and looking wonderingly at the vessel, until one imagined they must be struck down by the ship's cut water; not so, however: they just pop under at the right moment, to re-appear in the ripple at the stern, fluttering their wings, and uttering their cry, as if the performance was altogether an excellent joke. Save the spouting of a distant whale or two, or the little bands of black fish that roll on, on and on, through the blue water, without any other apparent object than that of exhibiting their india-rubber-like backs, there was nothing of any particular interest to while the time away. The countless islands we threaded our way amidst were all pretty much alike, and, except that they differed in size and shape from each other, one might have supposed, without drawing largely upon his imagination, that the whole group had been chopped off one by one from the mainland; Vancouver Island being the outer slice, was cut off in a junk, in order to get rid of the ragged inequalities of the coast-line. As we round a sandy point towards sundown, the captain points out a little vil lage I should call it; at any rate, I cannot count more than twenty small log and frame houses, picturesquely situated in a sheltered nook, overlooking a wide lake-like expanse of water. This place, I am further informed, is "a city," named Port Townsend, and that the wide tract of water is the entrance to Puget Sound. The Otter's head bears straight for a rickety old pier, which runs out about fifty or more feet into the sea, but so covered are its supports with barnacles, mussels, green tangleweed, together with hosts of curious molluscs, up to the tide-line (which tide, by the way, is at this present time at its lowest), that I can hardly divest myself of the idea this pier must have been lifted up in all its entirety from out old Neptune's realms. Climbing the steps was a service of danger I did not accomplish very creditably; in my zeal to capture a chiton I had not seen before, I reached a little too far over the edge of the narrow ladder by which the ascent had to be made from the boat - it being, as I have said, low-water to the top of the pier leading to the " city," both feet suddenly slipped on the green seaweed; I clutched a bunch of mussels, but their beards snapped like thread, down I slid, over the ladder, towards the water, into which I went souse; the boat, perhaps fortunately for me, having been pulled away for the ship. This would not have been so bad a mishap if the damage had been entirely of a personal nature; as ill-fate would have it, two Indians, "deek hands," were following me, and as I spread my legs over the edge of the ladder, a system I was wont to adopt in early life when practising perilous descents on the stair-rail, of course my Indian friends were swept off the treacherous sea-stairs, as spiders are scattered by a housemaid's broom. I could swim well, so was not much frightened, but ere either of us could reach the ladder, the boat had been turned, and was close upon us; spite of all my shouts to be let alone, the wouldbe humane boatman made savage plunges at me with his boat-hook, which were just as likely to split my skull as fish me out- the latter was, however, my fate; the hook fixed in my coat, I was dragged into the boat nolens volens, shaken violently, turned upside down, and, when reinstated on my legs, very nearly choked by having strong rum poured down my throat, and all this without being allowed a moment's chance to utter a single remonstrance, or doing so to be entirely disregarded. The savages, deemed of no value, got off safely, apart from the wetting and fright. Now all this arose from a wish to gratify my curiosity to visit the city, added to a greedy desire to eapture a new species of mollusc. I rowed to the Otter, changed my clothes, and made a second attempt to scale the ladder, and this time very successfully. The captain was awaiting my arrival, and, having regaled himself with a hearty laugh at my misfortune, we adjourned to the residence of the United States official, whose duty it was to sign the requisite papers, connected with the customs. The office of this magnate was a small dingy room, its only furniture two rocking-chairs, a square table, a six-shooter suspended from the wall, a hugh china spittoon, and the "Customs" representative, who occupied one of the rocking chairs. I include the inmate amongst the furniture, because he gave me the idea of being a part of it; for, in addition to the chair he sat on, his right leg dangled over the arm of the second chair, whilst the other reposed on the table; a plug of tobacco, like a small plank, filled his left hand, and, judging from the semicircular spaces visible in its ends and sides, it was pretty evident Seth Naylor - such, I found, was the officer's name made good use of his incisor teeth; and, as he rolled round the mass of tobacco thus bitten off from cheek to cheek, anon squirting out a rivulet of brown fluid, I could not help thinking that the Rodent and Ruminant were closely alied in Seth's organization. The process of signing completed, we left the office and its occupant pretty nearly in the same position as we found him. There was but little worth noticing in the city except gaudy bar-rooms, billiard and barbers' saloons, dry-goods stores, and half-naked savages, who were everywhere crouched in corners, or at the entrances to the stores and bar-rooms. One particularly distinguished individual, who, I am told, calls himself the Chief of the Clallums, and is perhaps the only representative of the aristocracy in Port Townsend, bears the distinguished title of "The Duke of York." The peer was decidedly intoxicated right royally drunk, in plainer English; but, far gone as he was, still he discerned I was a stranger and a King George man." Staggering towards me, the "duke" held out his filthy hand in order to grasp mine, at the same time saying, as best he could, between the hiccoughs, "Patletchlum, patletch-lum" (Give rum, give rum). I felt more inclined to give the disgusting beast a kick. If there is one type of mankind more degraded than another, it is a drunken savage. 66 The tide was rapidly rising, and the captain anxious to start, so I had no further time allowed me to investigate the "lions" of this diminutive city. Puget Sound, up which we steamed in the morning — having made fast the Otter during the night to a tree, much in the same fashion as adopted in tethering a horse is, I should say, unlike any other natural tidal canal in the known world; its length, from its commencement in the Straits of Juan de Juca to its end at the town of Olympia, is, in round numbers, two hundred miles, but of varying width; and although numerous streams, fed by the mountain snow. empty into it-I may name, as examples, the Nisqually, Dwamish, Snohomish, and Puyallup: all these streams are rapid, intensely cold, and short of extent-yet the waters of Puget Sound are nearly as briny salt at the head of it as they are at its junction with the sea. We shape our course betwixt beautiful islands, now winding through narrow crooked passages, wherein we brush the rich green foliage of the pines as we puff beneath their pleasant shade, and so frighten the grebes, ducks, ria) were busy excavating, building, and otherwise attending to their domestic duties. On the loftiest pinnacles the bald-headed eagle (Haliaetus leuco-cephalus) might be seen enthroned, spreading its powerful wings, and with half-closed eyes, enjoying the warm rays of the morning sun; whilst lower down, perched upon the splintered ledges, the American osprey (Pandion carolinensis) and the belt kingfisher (Alcede alcyon) are watching warily for a chance to pounce upon some passing fish. Now and then we pass by an Indian village, placed on the bank of some clear stream, the fire "caneim "* or steamer adding much to the terror of the dingy little urchins playing on the greensward; like frightened rabbits, when a fox or a keeper suddenly appears bits, too, dash head first into the conical lodges dotted picturesquely about beneath the shadows of the trees. The men are fishing, and we get several fine salmon in the way of barter, which are handed up the steamer's side from out the frail canoes of the Redmen. These salmon (Salmo quinnat) are taken by trolling, the line being made fast to the paddle is jerked in the act of propelling the canoe, and the slightest tug is readily felt by the paddler. and glossy green cormorants busy earning of the sandy rock, sand-martins (Hirundo ripatheir breakfasts, that they scarcely know where to fly, and in their terror often strike the vessel, and fall stunned into the water. Out again from these snug retreats, to coast along past immense sand-spits, in which are numerous shallow bays, the most perfect little nurseries imaginable for the baby-salmonidæ, wherein to gain strength to battle with the world of waters, into which they will sooner or later make their way; on some of these sand-flats, which are covered by the tide at high water, I notice long lines of tiny hurdles as if for folding liliputian flocks of sheep, but I find the sheep enfolded within these strange inclosures are herrings; when the "run" is at its full, the fish come up with the tide in veritable legions, and passing through small openings, purposely formed to beguile and entrap them, are left by the reced-in the warren, away they scamper, and, like rabing water in tons upon the sand. Thus easily the wily savage reaps his harvest of glittering fishes. Not only as "fish-farms" do the Indians use these sand-spits, but they are to them also game preserves; they waste no powder or shot, but wisely watch the habits of the wildfowl, and ingeniously turn the knowledge so obtained to their own advantage. Numbers of ducks of different species quit the bays, harbours, and inland waters at twilight, to go seaward for the night, returning again at sun-up to their favourite feeding-grounds. The "southsoutherly" duck, as it is called by the furtraders (Harelda glacialis), usually gives the signal, by uttering its peculiar cry, which has been construed into the words "south-southerly" often and rapidly repeated, then up gets flock after flock of whistle-wings, bald-pates, butter-bills, stock-ducks, and a host besides, and in wedge-shaped masses wing their way close to the water, eager to reach the open sea. Here and there these sand-spits run out into long narrow points, which the ducks cross in their flight, and at these places it is the savage intercepts them. The long stiff poles I can see on the point, as we pass along, are for the purpose of supporting the nets, which are stretched like telegraph wires from one pole to another; tiny lairs constructed of brushwood and sanded over, to deceive the wild-fowl, are just discernible near the foot of each pole. Every one of these cells conceals a savage, who creeps in just before the "birds fly," and awaits their coming like a crafty spider; whiz the unsuspecting flock of ducks comes against the net, some are knocked down to be instantly seized by the human spider and summarily despatched, others get entangled in the nets, and are thus easily caught, and very many make their escape. Now we glide along beneath high rocky bluffs, overshadowed on every side by massive pine-trees. The Douglas pine (Abies Douglasii), the yellow fir (A. grandis), and the Oregon cedar (Thuya gigantea), alike conspicuous for their immense size and altitude, look proudly down upon the green and tangled underbrush, which, like an impenetrable brake, We reach our disembarking place, some few miles above the regular pier, landing at Steilacome a small town built for the supply of the United States garrison. My destination-the Puget Sound Company's trading-post — is about two miles from the landing. I climb a very stiff ascent to reach the more level timbered land, and somewhat out of breath seat myself on a log, to have a good look round. On every side, the scenery— massive and noble-suggested the idea that it was planned on a scale three times the dimensions of anything I had ever seen before. At every bend of the singu lar tidal canal, as I looked down upon its glassy surface, varying scenes of the wildest beauty burst into view. The dense gloomy forest, clothing the mountain sides from the water to the snow-line, seemed alone monotonous, from presenting an unbroken surface of green; and it was quite a relief to see eagles and vultures soaring lazily in the lurid air, and to watch the water-fowl flapping along close to the water, quacking angrily at being disturbed in their siesta by the tiny fleet of canoes just discernible, gliding silently along beneath the shadows of the overhanging trees. Yet with all this magnificence fronting me, behind, as I commence my journey to the trading-post, there is no lack of scenes more home-like in their aspect; a gravelly road winds along through lawn-like prairies dotted with graceful clumps of the Pitch pine (Pinus ponderosa), the only place west of the cascades I ever saw this splendid pine growing: groves of oak (Quercus garryana) that would have made a Druid, however ancient, youthful in * Fire "cancim," or canoe, is the Indian name fills the spaces betwixt them. In the crevices for a steam-vessel. heart, if not in years, to wander beneath their | if tilled earlier. I rowed over the Sumass Praileafy shelter, stretched away to the right hand ries in a whale-boat in June, when, with the exand to the left, in lines so regular that one ception of a high ridge peeping up here and could hardly help thinking that the work of there, and the cotton-wood trees, flooded to their man must have been concerned in planting branches, appearing as though they grew from them. Beautiful lakes of fresh water, glitter- out of the water, not a sign of land or vegetation ing in the sunlight like tiny seas of mercury, was visible. In August following, I measured looked as if they had been purposely excavated the stalks of some grass, picked on the prairie for ornamental purposes, an idea rendered the after the water had gone, and found the grass more impressive by the flocks of sheep and had grown to a length of six feet three inches; herds of domestic cattle browsing peaceably in seven weeks, all the Cyperaceae grow with the round their grassy margins. Everything about same wild profusion, after the summer inundawas so suggestive of a fine old English farm, tion. I placed a very lean ox on this prairie (bethat it was really very hard to resist the illusion longing to her Majesty's commission) after the that I had not fallen suddenly upon a civilized waters subsided, and had it killed at Christmas, land, cultivated by man for hundreds of years, when it weighed eleven hundred pounds, and and adorned by touches of his highest art. Quite was so fat that the men grumbled to eat it. I lost in contemplation of the homelike scene I merely mention this in proof of the nutritious had so unexpectedly come upon, I did not ob- qualities of the herbage. Still higher up the serve the approach of the chief trader, Dr. rivers, frequently occurring among the craggy whose name I need not give, but of whom summits of the Cascades and Rocky Mountains, I may be permitted to say, that a kinder friend, one constantly comes upon small openings, more hospitable host, or pleasanter companion, misnamed wet prairies," clad thickly with it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find. Gramineæ, Cyperaceæ, and Equisetaceæ, all of We need not linger round the "trading-post; ' the most luxuriant growth. By far the most there is little worthy of observation, either interesting kind of prairies are those which are scenic or architectural, to detain us: our mis- designated "dry prairies," which are clearly sion is to the Mound Prairies; to visit which, I alluvial river deposits, although most of them start with the Doctor as guide, a few days after are raised over one hundred feet above the my arrival. The journey will occupy four present water-level, and are covered in many days, two to reach the prairie and two to return cases with a rich black loam, three feet and again to the "trading-post." Mounted on sturdy over in depth, the result of vegetable decompomustangs, we jog along the gh such a park- sition. These fertile patches of land produce like country that I can hardly believe the Doc- all the plants adapted to the climate in startor when he tells me nothing has ever been done tling profusion. The Nisqually Plains, over a to improve it. It may be of interest en passant portion of which we are jogging along, in exto glance very briefly at the general character tent measure thirty square miles. The Nisof the prairies common in North-western qually River—we shall cross it soon — may be considered in some degree the southern boundary, whilst the Puyallup River washes the northern border. Conspicuous from their extreme singularity are the "shingle terraces," rising successively from fifteen to fifty feet high, and taking a course, as a rule, parallel to that of the mountain ranges. This terrace formation is common both on the east and west sides of the Rocky Mountains. Near the Rocky Mountain House, Dr. Hector speaks of a valley excavated in the cretaceous strata by the eroding influence of the North Saskatchawan River. “In this valley there are three 'terraces,' extensively developed at twenty, sixty, and one hundred and ten feet above water-level." The terraces appear to be confined to valleys, through which flow large streams, until arriving near the mountains. "Then they gradually spread out, and at last cover the whole country along the base of the mounta ns, filling up the hollows and valleys of the outer ranges to the depth of several hundred feet." At Cypress Hills, east of the Rocky Mountains, these" shingle beds were observed at an altitude of three thousand eight hundred feet above the sea. This is, however, an older formation than the river terraces. I observed similar "terraces to those America. The lower level prairies are tide-lands, very analogous to the saline meadows so common on the eastern coast. The salt water overflows them only at its highest periods, which may happen three, or perhaps four, times in a year. If, however, this overflow is prevented by artificial embankment, these lands are rich and fertile beyond description. Their natural herbage is a tall, succulent grass, which grows four and five feet in height; but when cleared of the grass I have seen splendid potatoes and other vegetables grown upon these tidal prairies. On the Fraser, near its mouth, capital examples of these tide-lands may be seen from the steamer by the passenger en route to New Westminster; examples are also to be met with at the mouth of the Nainimo River, round Shoalwater Bay, on the banks of the Columbia, and in Puget Sound. Higher up the courses of the principal rivers I may instance the Columbia, at Fort Vancouver, as one case, and the Sumass Prairies, on the Fraser, as another-are examples of lands lying below the level of the summer inundation, which are entirely covered with snow-water from June to August. Here embanking is of no avail, but so fertile is the ground that crops put in after the subsidence of the floods are found to flourish quite as well as * Palliser's Expl. As to the age of the terrace formation, I should hesitate to offer an opinion. The terraces placed the greater distance from the coast, and on the higher elevations, are, in all probability, of a greater antiquity than are these we are traversing; and marked alterations must have taken place in the re-arrangement of the materials composing them whilst the continent was being gradually upheaved. Dr. Hector, with whom I travelled through California, thinks — and I am quite disposed to agree with him, although I do not set myself up as a profound thinker on matters geological — that lets of the Pacific coast of British North-western America, if elevated from the sea, would present but a slight difference from the sides of the narrow valleys in the Rocky Mountains, at an altitude of three thousand five hundred feet." It is very difficult to say whether the continent has been, in later times, depressed in the mass, or whether upheaval has been greater in the centre than along its margins. The latter theory, for many reasons space forbids my naming, appears to be the more reasonable supposition. on the Nisqually Plains at Nevada, on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, at an altitude of more than three thousand feet above the sea, and from two hundred to three hundred feet in thickness. It was curious to see the gold-seekers washing these great cliffs of shingle away by the "hydraulic method" of "washing for gold." In pursuit of the hidden treasure, the sharpest eye, if assisted even by a powerful lens, is powerless to discover it, so minute are the particles scattered through this mountain of fragments, broken from adjacent and far-away rocks; the miner simply does rapidly, by delivering jets of water, under high pressure, direct-“the shores of the intricate channels and inly against the cliff from metal nozzles, as used in our fire-engines, what frost, rain, and snow have been carrying on slowly, though surely, for ages: the latter three transport the produce of their erosive labour down the streams, to be whirled eventually by the eddying water into some hole, crack, or rocky receptacle, to be there left for man to discover, collected, and hoarded, so to speak, in a bank of deposit of the Creator's own contriving. The gold-washer, on the other hand, does his work rapidly; the result of minutes may represent centuries when compared with the destruction carried on by natural agencies. He could not afford to wait until the materials washed out settled again in obedience to their respective specific gravities; but to avoid this, the washer constructs miles of wooden troughs, or flumes," through which pours a swift stream of water, carrying along with it all the shingle syringed down by the nozzles. At short distances from each other, extending along the entire length of the flume,' "police" are stationed, or, in other words, there are small deposits of mercury, called riffles, whose duty it is to seize upon all the golden fugitives, be they large or diminutive, and to hold them prisoners until fire eventually volatilizes the gaoler and sets the captive free, for man to fashion and use as he deems best. Another thing puzzles me as I ride along. Lakes, large and small, are everywhere visible on these plains, having no apparent inlet or outlet for their contents; and yet the water, as I drink it, is cold, fresh, and pure, as if from a bubbling sprir The shingle, washed clean ke that on aach, round their margins, indicates a rise and fall in the water, yet the Doctor tells me few, if any, of the lakes are ever known to dry up, and further, that they never grow muddy or become stagnant. One can hardly reconcile the belief in a subterranean supply, and yet it appears very difficult to account for their purity and permanence on these shingle deposits in any other way. Encircling all their pools, are splendid growths of cottonwood, maple, and oak. As the eye wanders over this immense parkOn the great Columbian Desert on the like-looking tract, the surface appears broken by Spokan Plain, and along the bases of the Gal- numerous small rounded hills, all covered alike ton Mountains, past which the Kootanie River with "bunch grass," reminding one of the finds its way through the Tobacco Plains on "islands," so called, on the Texan prairies; Vancouver Island, at Nianimo, and again in now and then clumps of fir-trees (A. grandis) the "Flathead" country on the western slopes grow on these mounds: their graceful branches of the Rocky Mountains, where the "Flathead touch the ground, then the trees taper gradualIndians rear their immense herds of horses-ly to a sharp point, an appearance suggesting similar terraces, shingly plains, and dry prairies green sugar-loaves. Backing up the entire prevail. scene, though forty miles away, Mount Rainer and touch it - and yet I know it is so very distant-it has no apparent summit (I do not know the altitude), vanishing in misty cloud, sky and mountain seem blended together into impenetrable obscurity. I ride up on some of these terraces we are stands massive and majestic. It seems to me, passing along by; the surface is quite clear of as I gaze on its glittering white mantle of pertimber, b. t clothed with "bunch grass," a fes-petual snow, that I could stretch out my hand tuca remarkable for growing in tufts or bunches, differing entirely from the famed "buffalo grass" found on the plains east of the Rocky Mountains, which is a chondroxium. No underbrush is to be seen anywhere, and there is not a single obstacle to impede one from galloping just where his fa cy leads him, save the gulleys, ut by tiny streams through these terraces, which necessitate a scramble down and a climb up the opposite side. I did not observe many mammals, but the feathered community was extensively represented, particularly the flycatchers and their allies, a fact easily accounted for when viewing the varied species of flowers everywhere decking |