The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1924-01-04
CAPTAINS OF
ADVENTURE
D0COCH
Com Thy Robbs. GerruC Conn
By ROGER POCOCK

with gum from the pine trees. Still,
after their canoe was totally destroyed
in Bad river and the stock of bullets
went to the bottom, the Indians sat
down and wept, while the Frenchmen,
after square meal with lot of rum,
patched up the wreck to go on. Far
down the Fraser valley there Is a
meadow of tall grass and flowers with
clumps of wild fruit orchard and brier
rose, gardens of tiger lilies and gol-
denrod. Nobody lived there in my
time in that country, but the place
is known as Alexandria In memory
of Alexander Mackenzie and Of the
only moment in his life when he
turned back, beaten. Below Alexan-
dria the Fraser plunges for two hun
dred miles through a range of noun
tains in one long roaring swoop.
So the explorers, warned by friend
ly Indians, climbed back upstream to
the Blackwater river; and if any big
game hunter wants to shoot mosqui-
toes for their hides that valley would
make first-class hunting ground. The
Journey from here to the coast was
made afoot with heavy loads by
broad Indian trail across the coast
range to the Bilthqula river, and here
the explorers were the guests of rich
powerful tribes. One young chief I'M
clasped a splendid robe of sea-otter
skins, and threw it around Mackenzie,
such a gift as no king could offer now.
They Toasted on salmon, service ber-
ries in grease, and cakes of inner hem
lock bark sprinkled with oil of sal
mon, a three-hour banquet, followed
by sleep in beds of furs, and blankets
sheep. The houses were low-pitched
barns of cedar, each large enough to
seat several hundred people, and at
the gable end rose cedar pole carved
in heraldic sculpture gaily painted,
with little round hole cut through
for the front door.
Each canoe was a cedar log hol-
lowed with fire, then spread with boil
ing water, a vessel not unlike gon-
dola. One such canoe, the Tillicum,
has made a voyage round the world,
but she is small compared with the
larger dugouts up to seven tons bur
den. An old chief showed Mackenzie
canoe forty-five feet in length, of
four-foot beam, painted with white anil
mails on a black hull, and set with
ivory of otter teeth. In this he had
made a voyage some years before,
when he met white men and saw ships,
most likely those of the great Cap
the native doctors describes them to
the life as they are today. '"They
blew on the patient, and then whistled;
they rubbed him violently on the stom-
ach; they thrust their forefngers In
to his mouth, and spouted water into
his face" Mackenzie, had he only
waited, would have seen them jump
on the patients stomach to drive the
devils out.
He borrowed canoes for the run
down the Bilthqula to Salt Water at
the head of one of British Columbia's
that only two moons ago Captain Van
couver's boats had been in the inlet.
An Indian chief must have been rude,
for one officer fired upon him, while
another struck him with the fiat of
sword. For this the chief must needs
get even with Alexander Mackenzie
as he wandered about the channels
in search of the open sea. He never
found the actual Pacific, but made his
final camp upon rock at the entrance
of Cascade inlet. Here Is Vancouver's
description of the place: "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 1t -. there fell
several large cascades These were
extremely grand, and by much the
most tremendous of any we had ever
beheld."
Those cataracts, like lace, fell from
the cornice glaciers through belt after
belt of clouds, to crash through the
lower gloom in deafening thunder
upon black abysmal channels. The
eagles swirl and circle far above, the
schools of porpoises are cleaving and
cleaning through the white-maned
tide. In such place, beset by hostile
Indians, as the dawn broke the great
explorer mixed vermilion and grease
to paint upon the precipice above him:
alexander Mackenzie, from Canada
by land 22nd July, 1893"
He had discovered one of the worlds
great rivers, and made the first cross
ing of North America.
H:L.