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Page 48
The outfit for this post is conveyed on horse-back from Stuart's Lake.
A more dreary situation can scarcely be imagined, surrounded by
towering mountains that almost exclude the light of day, and snow
storms not seldom occurring, so violent and long continued as to bury
the establishment. I believe there are few situations in the country
that present such local disadvantages; but there is the same miserable
solitude everywhere; and yet we find natives of England, Scotland, and
Ireland devoting their lives to a business that holds forth such
prospects! I remained with my new friend one day, enjoying the
comforts of his _eyry_, and then set off for the goal of my long
course, where I arrived on the 28th of October.
CHAPTER XVIII.
ARRIVAL AT NEW CALEDONIA--BEAUTIFUL SCENERY--INDIAN HOUSES--AMUSEMENTS
AT THE FORT--THREATENED ATTACK OF INDIANS--EXPEDITION AGAINST
THEM--BEEF-STEAKS--NEW CALEDONIAN FARE--MODE OF CATCHING
SALMON--SINGULAR DEATH OF NATIVE INTERPRETER--INDIAN FUNERAL
RITES--BARBAROUS TREATMENT OF WIDOWS.
Fort St. James, the dep�t of New Caledonia district, stands near the
outlet of Stuart's Lake, and commands a splendid view of the
surrounding country. The lake is about fifty miles in length, and from
three to four miles in breadth, stretching away to the north and
north-east for about twenty miles; the view from the Fort embraces
nearly the whole of this section of it, which is studded with
beautiful islands. The western shore is low, and indented by a number
of small bays formed by wooded points projecting into the lake, the
back-ground rising abruptly into a ridge of hills of varied height and
magnitude. On the east the view is limited to a range of two or three
miles, by the intervention of a high promontory, from which the eye
glances to the snowy summits of the Rocky Mountains in the distant
back-ground. I do not know that I have seen anything to compare with
this charming prospect in any other part of the country; its beauties
struck me even at this season of the year, when nature having partly
assumed her hybernal dress, everything appeared to so much greater
disadvantage.
The Indian village is situated in a lovely spot at the outlet of the
lake, and consists of only five or six houses, but every house is
occupied by several families. These buildings are of a very slight and
simple construction, being merely formed of stakes driven into the
ground; a square piece of timber runs horizontally along the top of
this wall, to which the stakes are fastened by strips of willow bark.
This inclosure, which is of a square form, is roofed in by placing two
strong posts at each gable, which support the ridge pole, on which the
roof sticks are placed, one end resting on the ridge pole, and the
other on the wall, the whole being covered with pine bark: there is
generally a door at each end, which is cut in the wall after the
building is erected. These apertures are of a circular form, and about
two and a half feet in diameter, so that a stranger finds it very
awkward to pass through them. In effecting a passage you first
introduce a leg, then bending low the body you press in head and
shoulders; in this position you will have some difficulty in
maintaining your equilibrium, for if you draw in the rest of the body
too quickly, it is a chance but you will find yourself with your head
undermost: the natives bolt through them with the agility of a weasel.
For some time after my arrival here, I had very little employment,
there being a scribe already in the establishment, whose experience
and industry required no assistance from me. I thus found myself a
supernumerary--a character that did not suit me, but I was obliged to
content myself for the present. We were joined early in winter by some
of the gentlemen in charge of posts, when we managed to pass the time
very agreeably. Mr. D----, superintendent of the district, played
remarkably well on the violin and flute, some of us "wee bodies" could
also do something in that way, and our musical soirees, if not in
melody, could at least compete in noise, numbers taken into account,
with any association of the kind in the British dominions. Chess,
backgammon, and whist, completed the variety of our evening pastimes.
In the daytime each individual occupied himself as he pleased. When
together, smoking, "spinning yarns" about _dog_ racing, canoe sailing,
and _l'amour_; sometimes politics; now and then an animated discussion
on theology, but without bitterness; these made our days fly away as
agreeably as our nights.
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