The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1916-02-26
ON UNCHARTED RIVER
VESSELS CAPTAINS HAVE TO
TRUST A LOT TO LUCK,
Navigation on the Skeena, In North
western Canada, by No Means
Matter Of SfII-Man Tells
Of Experience.

The frontier is the place for make
shifts and stop-gaps. Something that
will serve must be made to do. Thus
when you take steamboat on the
| Skeena river in northwestern Canada
you must expect neither the comfort
| nor the safety you take for granted
on the Hudson. The author OF The
New Garden of Canada" writes:
The bronzed captain standing on
the bridge nodded his head significant
ly at the waterway boiling and rushing
at out feet
We don't navigate this river; we
juggle our way down it," he said.
What happens if you lose the
boat"
They give us another in double
quick time. We have no board of trads
Inquiries out here. What's the use?
No one has a chart of the river: It
never runs two days alike; captains
are few and far between. II you
lose the boat, It's Just hard buck.
That's all there is to It,"
Such is the Skeena river steamship
captains happy-go-lucky philosophy.
1t is typical OF those who have to
steer their way up and down this
fiercely moving channel of water.
These men have to learn from expert
ence where the innumerable dangers
Turk unseen, and knowledge OF the
position Of a great many rocks has
been gained in the Irish pilots man
ner. by scraping the boats hull over
them. generally with no benefit to the
boat, Numberless boats have gone
down. Why. in one year the whole
traffic between Hazelton and the coast
was tied up, just because every vessel
had hit hard luck. and was either
rusting. shattered hulk at the bottom
or lying a wreck on the bank. The
Indian canoe was for months the only
available vehicle of transportation.
In this upper stretch the worst
place is the Hornets Nest" Ger
tainly no band of yellow jackets was
ever reader to sting the interloper
than are those jagged rocks. The sur
face is merely an expanse of short.
choppy. milky waves tumbling and
tossing in all directions. The steam
er passes through strange contortions
to steer clear of this, that, and some
hing else. 1t Is a fortunate circum-
stance for the passengers that the
boats are of shallow draft, for often
here is only an inch or two between
4 granite tooth and the bottom of the
boat. particularly late in the year.
when the water Is low.
A few seasons ago one boat was
pulled warily up, hand over hand, by
means of the line. when there was
ar and scrape. Half the hull had
zone, and the captain just managed 20
get the cripple beached Another
raft. lower down, heard of her sis
er's fate and hurried to her assist,
lnce. But she had not gone far
ghen there was another greedy snap
nd shiver. Her captain had to make
quick turn for the bank. Both Law
n the mud within few feet Of each
Their all the winter, showing their
aping wounds, until the season broke
nd a third vessel came up the
tream with gang OF repairers on
GARD. They strapped up the injuries
and towed the disabled
raft down to Prince Rupert, where
ley were dropped on the slips and
Quipped with new hulls Soon both
ere wrestling with the river once
lore, but a short time before our Jour
ey one Of them got trapped again.
n the Skeena. hull patching is one OF
le busiest Of ccupations.-Youth's