PREPARATION FOR THE VOYAGE
While Jack and Mr. Fannin had been talking the vessel had been moving
rapidly northward. The passengers were a mixed lot. On the upper deck
were English, Scotch, French, and Americans, while on the lower were
Chinamen, a negro or two, and Indians. Many of these had considerable
bundles of baggage; and with the Indians were their women, their
children, and their dogs.
The rounded islands that rose everywhere from the water showed gray
rocky slopes, the yellow of ripened grass, and here and there clumps of
evergreen trees. The scene was a lovely one.
"Mr. Fannin," said Hugh, "I wish you'd tell me what's that plant that
I see everywhere growing in the water. I suppose, maybe, it's a kind
of seaweed, but it's bigger than any seaweed that I ever heard tell
of, and there's worlds and worlds of it. The other day on the beach I
picked up some of its leaves, if that's what they are, and I found them
wonderfully tough. I found I couldn't break them apart with my hands,
yet they seemed soft and full of water."
"That's what we call kelp," said Mr. Fannin, "it grows in deep water,
and its roots are attached to rocks or to stones or even to the sand
at the bottom, and the stalk may be thirty or forty feet long. Down
in the deep water the stem is very slender, often scarcely as thick
as a quill, but it increases by a gradual taper, until near the top
it's nearly as thick as a man's wrist. At the end of the stem or stalk
is a globular swelling which varies in size, but may be as big as a
baseball. From the top of this swelling point, opposite to where it's
attached to the stem, grows a bundle of a dozen or twenty ribbon-like
leaves, each from one to six inches wide and from four to six feet
long, and fluted or crimped along its edge for the whole length. The
plant is brown in color throughout. Responding, as it does, constantly
to the motion of the water, it sometimes seems almost alive. It's
a queer plant. Sometimes it's a great hindrance to the man who is
travelling and sometimes a great help to him."
"I don't quite understand that," said Jack. "I can see that it might
be hard work to get through a bed of the kelp like that one over there
that we are just passing, but how should it help a man?"
"Why," said Fannin, "the stalks are very strong, and I've seen a large
canoe held at anchor by a single stalk of the kelp. Then, too, a big
bed of the kelp is a great break to the sea. The waves can't break over
a bed of kelp; and I have known of a case when a sudden squall got up,
where a canoe, unable to reach shore or to get any other lee, would lie
behind a kelp bed and hold onto the stalks until the squall was past."
"Do the Indians make any use of the kelp?" asked Jack.
"Yes," replied Mr. Fannin. "A number of the Indians along the coast
select the most slender stems, knot them together, and make fishing
lines for the deep-sea fishing, on which they catch halibut sometimes
weighing two hundred pounds. These stems are tremendously tough, and
they almost never wear out. A man may coil up one of these long lines
and hang it in his house for six months, and then, if he takes it down
and soaks it in water over night, in the morning it will be pliable and
perfectly fit to use."
Hugh had been listening to the conversation, but not taking any part in
it; but now he pointed off over the kelp bed and said: "Look there!
See those birds walking around on the weed. I reckon they are cranes
of some sort or other." Fannin looked at them through his glasses and
said, "Yes, that's just what they are. Two of those birds are great
blue herons, and the others are large birds, but I can't tell just what
they are. That's another thing that the kelp is useful for. You see
the plants grow in thick beds, and the stems are continually moving
in the current, and after a while they get tangled and twisted up so
that it's impossible to force them apart. In that case it's useless to
try to force a canoe through them. Then, lying there so long as they
do, and keeping the water quiet, a great deal of life is attracted to
these beds. There are many fish that live near the surface, and in the
warm waters there are crabs that live among the stems and sometimes
crawl out on them and rest in the sunshine. There are many shells. All
this smaller life entices the larger life, so that gulls and ducks and
sandpipers are often seen walking along or resting on the kelp. It is
just one of those things that we see often, where a lot of specially
favorable conditions will attract the animals that are to be favored by
these conditions."
"Well," said Hugh, "I can't get over wondering at all these things I
am seeing. This here is a new world to me, as different as can be from
what I've been used to all my life; and I expect, come to think about
it, that all over the world there are many such other strange bits of
country that would astonish me, just as much as this does, and maybe
would astonish you all, just as much as this does me."
"Yes," said Fannin, "I guess that's about so."
As they had been talking, the steamer had been winding in and out
among the islands, stopping occasionally at some little settlement,
and now and then slowing to take on goods or passengers, brought off
in boats or canoes from some little house that stood on one of the
yellow hillsides, half hidden among the trees. There were many settlers
on these islands. Most of them were engaged in stock raising. Some of
the islands had been turned into sheep ranges, and the settlers that
had gone into this business were said by Mr. Fannin to have done well.
Certainly there was here no winter which could by any chance kill the
sheep, while food was abundant.
As the boat proceeded the settlements became fewer and fewer, until at
last most of the island seemed unoccupied. All three of the travellers
kept watching the open hillsides in the hope that some game might be
seen, but none showed itself.
"I suppose," said Jack, "that there are some deer on these islands, are
there not?"
"Yes," replied Fannin, "on almost all the larger islands that are not
thickly settled there are a good many deer; and when the settlements
get to be too thick they can always start off and swim to another
island and try that for a while, and, if they don't like that, pass to
another."
"What sort of deer are these?" asked Jack. "Are they like the one we
killed at New Westminster?"
"Yes," said Fannin, "they are just like that; and I suppose they are
the regular black-tail deer; not the big fellow that you have out on
the plains, which, I understand, is properly called the mule deer. This
is the only kind found along this north coast, as far as I know, until
you get up far to the north and strike the moose. Down on the islands
of the Strait of Fuca, especially on Whidby Island, they have the
Virginia deer and plenty of them. But north of that I don't think they
are found."
It was noon when they passed Gabriola Island, where they had heard
there lived a man who owned a launch. They landed here, hoping that
possibly they might be able to engage this for their trip, but soon
discovered that the boat had not been inspected for a year, and
therefore could not be hired, unless the party was prepared to be
stopped at any minute by some government official and ordered back to
its starting point.
About four o'clock in the afternoon they reached Nanaimo, and Fannin,
Hugh, and Jack at once set out for the Indian village, where it was
believed a canoe could be had. The brisk walk through the quiet forest
was pleasant, and the Indian village of half a dozen great square plank
houses interesting. After some inquiry Fannin and a big Indian drew
off to one side and held a long and animated conversation in Chinook,
which, of course, was unintelligible to the other two. At length,
however, Fannin announced that he was prepared to close a bargain with
the Indian, by which a canoe, large enough to carry the whole party
and their baggage, including the necessary paddles and a bowman and
steersman, could be hired for a certain price per day, for as long a
time as they desired. After a short consultation it was agreed that if
the canoe proved satisfactory it should be engaged, and a start made
the next morning. The whole party adjourned to the water's edge, where,
drawn up on the beach were a number of canoes, all of them covered with
boards, mats, and boughs, to protect them from the sun and rain. The
canoe in question seemed satisfactory, and, the bargain having been
closed, the Indians promised solemnly that they would have the canoe at
the wharf at six o'clock the next morning, so that an early start could
be made.
Returning to town, the stores were visited and a number of necessary
articles purchased. The party was already well armed, having three
rifles, a shot-gun, and several revolvers; but a mess kit had to be
bought, a keg for water, all the provisions needed, a tent of some
kind, some mosquito net, rope, fine copper wire, saddler's silk or
waxed thread, packages of tobacco, fishing tackle, and many small
articles which do not take up much room, but which, under special
circumstances, may add much to one's comfort. Each of the party also
provided himself here with a set of oil-skin clothing. They knew that
they were going into a country where much rain falls, and wished to
provide against that.
After all their purchases had been made and they had seen them
transported to the hotel close to the water's edge, where they were to
pass the night, they started out to learn what they could about the
town.
The sole industry of Nanaimo at that time was coal mining. Here were
great shafts and inclines, worked day and night by a great multitude of
miners. Many of them were Canadians, but many, also, were quite newly
arrived emigrants from the Old World,--Scotch, Irish, and Welsh. The
coal--a good lignite--was in considerable demand along the coast, and
it was even said that it was to be imported to Puget Sound points to
supply newly built railroads there. The inhabitants of Nanaimo, and
indeed those of Vancouver Island, had talked much about a proposed
railroad that had been partially surveyed from Victoria up through the
middle of the island to Nanaimo. Such a railroad, it was generally
thought, would be an enormous benefit to the whole island. Nanaimo was
not an attractive place. The coal-dust with which it was everywhere
powdered, together with the black smoke sent forth by the chimneys,
gave the place an appearance of griminess which seemed to characterize
most coal-mining towns. Just why towns devoted to coal and iron mining
always used to look so shabby and forlorn and discouraged, it would
be hard to say; but most people familiar with such settlements in old
times will agree that this was usually the case. It may have been that
the laborers and their families were obliged to work so hard that
they had neither time nor inclination to devote to adorning, even by
simple and inexpensive methods, their dwellings or surroundings; or it
may have been that their work in the mines was so fatiguing that it
rendered them blind to the town's unattractiveness.
Even then great quantities of coal were mined at Nanaimo. But as there
were no railroads on Vancouver Island the coal was transported to its
destination wholly by water. The coal deposits were vast, and people
believed that in the future this would be a great mining town, and
might yet be like some of the great mining centres of Great Britain.
That night, after supper, as they were lounging about the office of the
hotel, Jack said to Mr. Fannin:
"You have told me a lot about the canoeing and canoes of these Indians,
Mr. Fannin, but I don't think that you have spoken to me about the way
they keep their canoes on the beach. Those we saw this afternoon were
all covered with mats and blankets, and I can understand how it might
be necessary to keep them protected from the weather in that way if
they were laid up for a long time; but, as I understand it, the canoes
that we saw were being used every day."
"That is true," said Mr. Fannin; "they are in use all the time, but,
nevertheless, Indians take the greatest precaution to protect them from
the weather. It is easy enough to see why this is, if you consider
that the making of a canoe is tremendously laborious, and at best
takes many months. Now, as I have already told you, the cedar of which
they are made splits very easily indeed, and it might well enough be
that exposure to the hot sun for a day or two would start a crack
which would constantly grow larger, and ultimately weaken the canoe so
that it could not be used. The Indians are far-sighted enough to do
everything in their power to protect their canoes. These coast Indians
take a great deal better care of their canoes than they do of any
other property that they possess. As I have told you, they are all sea
travellers, and their very existence depends on the possession of some
means of getting about over the water. I do not know anything about it
personally, but I understand that the Aleuts of Alaska, and the Eskimo
too, are just as careful about their boats as these Indians are. Of
course it is natural."
"Of course it is," said Hugh, "and you probably will see the same thing
in any class of men. Look at the way our plains' Indians take care of
their war horses and their arms and war clothes. Those are the things
on which they depend for food and for protection from their enemy; and
they cannot afford to take any chances about them. Of course their war
clothes often have something of a sacred character; but you will find
that if it comes to a pinch an Indian will stick to his fastest running
horse and his arms, and will let his war clothing go."
"Well," said Fannin, "all this is just saying that Indians are human
beings like the rest of us."
They went to bed pretty early that night, and Fannin had them astir
before the day had broken the next morning. On going down to the wharf
they found the canoe there, just off the shore, and the two Indians
sitting in it, holding the craft in its place by an occasional paddle
stroke. It took the men but a short time to bring down all their
baggage, provisions, and mess kit to the canoe and stow the load. After
a hasty meal at the hotel all stepped aboard and took their various
stations. Jack had been surprised to see how large a pile their baggage
made before they begun to stow it; and after the canoe had been loaded,
he wondered where they had packed it all.