rounds to the domain of Chief Bellyfull nd his bellicose Sickannies. Chief Bellyfull didn’t like the whites. ome years before he and the Wolf, with horde of mounted Beavers, had pounced na band of unoffending settlers camped n the brow of the thousand-foot hill behind he fort, and sent horses, wagons and outfit urtling down into the ravine, where the nouldering remains and skeletons may still e seen. Angered now by the intrusion of vhite trappers into the hunting grounds of ighbouring Beavers, Chief Bellyfull had erved notice on factor F. W. Beatton at ‘ort St. John that he’d shoot any white man vho crossed the Sickannie Chief River, outhern frontier of his tribe. And it was hrough this territory that I proposed to laze the road to meet the threat of com- eting traders. Fording mountain torrents, leading our ack - horses knee - deep through gripping vuskeg, and fighting pestiferous mosquitoes hat rose in droning clouds, I was forced to hoot two of my ponies near the Black River vhen they became too badly mired in the 1uskeg, it was impossible to extricate them. Jacking our way through tangled brule eyond Squaw Creek from forest fires set y the Sickannies to drive out invading trap- ers, we came in sight of Sickannie Moun’ ain and the thousand- foot drop which ormed the bank of the Sickannie River. Yervous and ill at ease, George had insisted or the last two days that we were being men fed and feasted, and, escorted by the dusky cavalcade, we stumbled and slid down the precipitous pack-trail. In vain I looked for the temporary outpost recently established by our factor at Fort Nelson. Instead, my nostrils were assailed with the pungent odour of dead smoke. A moment later I gazed on the smouldering re- mains of Fort Sickannie, while, a gun-shot away, with windows barred and trade goods snug and safe within, stood the outpost of the free traders! Blazing a site for a new post, and posting notice of possession, I turned the horses loose on a grassy island, cached saddles and equip- ment, and, transferring to a canoe borrowed from the Sickannies, paddled on down the Sickannie for our outpost at the Fontas, that was to form another link in the overland road to Fort Nelson. As we paddled at last into the mouth of the brakish stream I caught again the acrid odour of wood smoke. Again I was re- warded by the sight of the charred and smouldering ruins of our outpost. Nearby a man-made bush fire had left blackened carcasses of trees and smouldering roots— and again, miraculously, it had failed to even singe the post of the free traders. I'd read of the “good old days” when rival traders weren’t above settling scores by setting a torch to one another’s trading posts. But that was over a century ago, and I'd hardly expected to run into similar con- ditions in this so-called “enlightened” age. he writer, with pack train, blazing the route which now forms the Fort St. John-Fort Nelson link in the Alaska Defence Highway. lowed and spied on as we slept. Sud- enly a dark figure emerged from behind a narled cottonwood and the hawk-faced ellyfull stood, blocking the trail ahead. With Indian memory for faces, he re- ulled trading with me at Fort St. John welve years before. Dismounting, I ex- lained in Cree the object of my journey, romising to establish a trading post among is tribe, and to keep the road to the east de of the river. His resonant whoop rought a horde of wild looking, shaggy- aired Prophet River Indians from hiding. acks were unlashed, pipes smoked, the red- >UMMER EDITION Again I cut lines, blazed trees and posted formal notice of possession, choosing a bold, bare promontary at the mouth of the river. Paddling on to Fort Nelson, a hundred J. E. PAINTER & SONS Nanaimo-Wellington Coal Cordwood Slabwood Malahat Sawdust Telephone G 3451 617 Cormorant St. Victoria, B. C. miles to the northward, I met Mr. Hooker, of the Hudson’s Bay, who. after vainly try- ing to push on to Fontas with the M.B. Liard River, had thrown up his hands and was about to depart for Fort Simpson after HOTEL DOUGLAS J. EM. NEELY, Manager Victoria’s Standard Hotel e VICTORIA, B.C. When in Victoria with your Buick or Pontiac, make your headquarters for SERVICE with Davis-Drake Motors LIMITED oO | o 900 Fort Street at Quadra VICTORIA, B.C. Coffee Shop Squash Courts Telephone E-5233 Sussex Apartment Hotel W. H. DUNBAR, Manager Rooms or Suites by Day, Week or Month 1001 Douglas Street Victoria, B. C. EXIDE BATTERIES Phone E-6432 B. R. CICERI & CO. Vancouver Island Distributors for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, Limited 847 Yates Street VICTORIA, B.C. THE -B:.-WIESON CO, LID: Individual Cold Storage Lockers COLD STORAGE - ICE Ice Refrigerators Packers and Distributors of Frozen Fresh Fruits and Vegetables 536-538-540 Herald Street Victoria, B. C. McCALL BROS. The Floral Funeral Chapel 1400 Vancouver Street Phone G 2012 Victoria British Columbia Page Thirteen |