We spent three pleasant days at Banff. Oh, the joy of a quiet night’s rest, a hot bath, and being clean again! I soon felt much better, though still stiff and shaken. The hotel was very comfortable, built like a huge Swiss chalet of pine-wood, with a big veranda, and beautifully situated, overlooking lake, forest, and river, and surrounded by high peaks in the distance. The hot, iron, and sulphur springs are a great feature of the place, and I much enjoyed the warm, open-air bath, formed out of the rocks, where I had a delightful swim each morning. The air at Banff is most invigorating--so clear and pure. We spent a good deal of our time on the Vermilion Lake, paddling about in a Canadian canoe, and exploring the many little creeks, some only a few feet wide. Trout are very abundant in the lake, and my father was fortunate in catching one weighing nearly thirty-five pounds, much to the envy and admiration of the other people at the hotel.
After leaving Banff we travelled in the observation-car of the train as far as Field, a little village five thousand feet up in the mountains, where we stopped to dine. It was intensely cold, and snow was already on the ground. The train after Field makes the most extraordinary turns and twists, and is called the loop-line. In some places both ends of the train were visible from the car. The skeleton iron bridges, hung from rock to rock, shook as we passed over them, and I felt dizzy as I looked down at the yawning chasms far below.
After leaving the Rockies we passed into the Selkirk Range, and crossed and recrossed the great Frazer River, with its high rocks and great boulders. The river is full of salmon, and in a clear pool we saw at least forty or fifty big fish basking. The Indians catch them in great quantities, and we passed several little encampments where queer-looking strings of red stuff were hanging from long sticks, which we were told was the salmon.
IN THE HEART OF THE ROCKIES.
Here and there were little wigwams by the river-bank, with Indians and their papooses, forming picturesque groups, some wading in the creeks, or busy at work hanging up the salmon to dry in the sun.
The scenery as we neared Vancouver became less wild. Mount Baker, over fifteen thousand feet high, rose up solitary and grand, its snow-capped summit standing out like a white pyramid against the deep blue of the sky. We were fortunate in seeing it in all its beauty, as it is generally hidden in clouds.
Vancouver is a clean, well-built town at the mouth of the Frazer River. The harbour there is large enough for men-of-war to anchor in, and there we found our steamer, the Empress of India, awaiting us--a fine boat of 6,000 tons, painted white and built on the lines of a large yacht. We spent Sunday, the day after our arrival, in visiting the park near Vancouver, where the famous big trees are to be seen--cedars, firs, and spruce; one, perhaps the largest in the world, measures sixty feet round, and a carriage and pair of horses can go inside the trunk, which is hollow. The forest is almost tropical with its luxuriant vegetation and beautiful ferns. Wild animals are to be found there, such as deer, panthers, and a kind of lion, but the latter are rarely seen now near the town.
The voyage between Vancouver and Yokohama takes fourteen days. I was glad to find on board a very nice-looking set of passengers, mostly English. The first day or two we took each other’s measure cautiously, and limited the conversation to a few polite nothings, but before the end of the voyage many of us were firm friends.
There were about a hundred first-class passengers, and three hundred miserable-looking Chinese in the steerage. Many of them looked wretchedly ill, and we saw a number of long black boxes in the hold, which we heard afterwards were coffins. It seems that the one desire of a Chinaman is to be buried in his native land, otherwise he believes that his soul will go into some low animal instead of to Paradise. Just before sailing at midnight, I noticed a long line of Chinese passing up the gangway to the steamer. Before being admitted, they were carefully examined by the ship’s doctor. Many poor wretches were turned back, discovered to be suffering from some fatal chest disease very prevalent amongst the Chinese. As it was, I believe, there were several deaths on board, in which case the steamship company was bound under contract to convey the Chinese passenger, alive or dead, to his destination.