Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-10-30
IN BRITISH COLUMBIA.
Rivers That Run the Wrong Way-Lofty
Glaciers, and Enormous Mountain
Peaks.

they flow in the wrong direction while
they are young. For instance, the
Peace and Lizard persist in going to the
Arctic Ocean. in defiance of the Rocky
Mountains and the laws of nature.
while the Colum 0ia, Fraser and Koot-
enay only consent to travel seaward
after going in the opposite direction
some hundreds of miles. But they
also have very peculiar ways of max
ing ice. quite opposite to that laid
down IN the text books. In the Skeena
[ have observed the ice in autumn to
form on the river bed among the
powders in globules, like mass of
fish spawn, this often growing until
the reef actually reaches the surface;
but more often it breaks away in large
pieces and floats off down stream, bear
ing pebbles and even powders for
many miles. l have seen the river in
December entirely covered with this
ground ice adrift the globules being
the size of peas and cohering like loose
snow.
There are many natural bridges on
our rivers also. In the Kicking Horse,
three miles below Field Station, there
is a rock bridge in a slate formation,
which is inclined SO as to present sharp
edges very unpleasant to walk upon.
Every Observant passenger on the
Canadian Pacific Railroad has noticed
the snow bridge on the Illecillewaet,
but there are records Of ice bridges
also. think I have heard of one on
the Homatheo River, but of the Stick
cen marvellous story is told. There
is great glacier descending out of the
high snOwfeld to the north and this
in ancient times flowed right across
the valley, meeting a lesser ice stream
from the heights opposite. The Stick
cen flowed under the ice in tunnel,
and at very low water the passage was
too small for it, although the water
must have been banked up into a lake
at the spring freshet.
Now, the Sloane Indians of the up.
per valley used to regard this tunnel
in the ice as leading to the 'sweet by
and by" They were. therefore, very
anxious to avoid the place. But once
the tribe was encamped not far above
the glacier, and there was a very old
man and his wife with them who were
too mean to die because of the expense
OF giving Il funeral feast They were
very rich and of no use and had large
appet1tcs, and their relatives at last
! consented to part with them. They
| were, therefore set adrift in a leaky
canoe and consigned to the current,
| and all the people, conscious of self
sacrifice, stood on the bank and
| watched the canoe vanish into the tun.
mel and felt good. Now, the old peo-
pie were very much frightened and
squealed a good deal. but when the
blue shadows of the ice closed over
them they thought they were dead In
dians, and behaved accordingly. Pres
| emily the old lady thought it was get
looked about her. Then she kicked
! the old man and asked if he didn't
wish they were at the funeral feast.
! He looked up and found the canoe out
! in the open again, the glacier behind
| them, and the world pretty much as
usual. They got ashore, cut paddles
and poles, and prepared to 90 home
again. The old man began to be
! hungry for the grease boxes; the old
! lady set her heart on grease and ber-
rieS, and they both determined to get
| home for the banquet, since they had
! assisted at the funeral. Well, by dint
! OF making the old lady work while he
steered and gave good advice, they
| succeeded in making their way up
! through the tunnel and home and were
| in ample time for the feast. In fact
they lived happily ever afterward. But
! how shall we condole with the relatives,
! whose sweetest and most pious tradi-
h.,l oh, 81, a.
sweet by and by?
| Not least among the natural wonders
of the coast is Mckenzie Passage, u
! little to the westward of Kingcome
! inlet. It is chasm about six miles in
length, leading to the base of an isolat-
| ed and broken peak 1903, feet high
! The walls are very close together
! vertical and snow-crowned. The sun
! never shines in this awful gorge; the
/ YapOr from its waters hangs dark and
! bitter cold, Unmoyed by any wind. and
! no living being enters its solitude.
find but two records of this place hav-
| ING been visited by white men.
] Scarcely less wonderful is an inlet
! tributary to Deans Canal, and the
! scene of one of the most important
events in Canadian history. 1t is thus
described by Vancouver: The width
| of the channel did not anywhere ex-
! coed three-quarters of a mile; its shores
were bounded by precipices much more
| perpendicular than any we had yet
| seen during this excursion; and from
the SUBMITS of the mountains that
overlooked it, particularly on its north
! eastern shore, there fell several large
| cascades. These were extremely grand
| and by much the largest and most
tremendous of any we had ever be-
held" In conclusion of a long de-
scription he named the place Cascade
! Channel.
Two months afterward arrived here
! the greatest of Canadian explorers,
! having been the first man to cross
| North America. Much threatened by
! large body of Indians, he fortified
himself on a rock for the night, and the
next day mixed some yermilion and
| grease and painted on the enormous
mountain wall the following words:
Alexander Mckenzie, from Canada,
! by land, the twenty-second of July. one
thousand seven hundred and ninety
three" And in his record the explorer
! says that as he stood on the rocks a
native spoke to him of Vancouver.
AT some distance from the land a
channel opened to Us, at southwest by
west, and, pointing that way, he made
me understand that Macubah came
there with his large canoe.
La Perouse, the great French eX.
plorer entered Lituya Bay under the
! shadow of the ST Elias Alps. and said