GAME TRAILS IN BRITISH
COLUMBIA

CHAPTER I
CHANGES IN THE COUNTRY AND ITS GAME SINCE EARLY DAYS

British CotuMBIA is said to have been discovered in the
year 1592 by a Greek named Juan de Fuca, but there
are no authentic records of explorers’ visits to this coast
prior to those of the Spaniards Bodega and Heceta in
1775, and that of Captain Cook in 1778. The latter only
touched at a few places—the principal of which was
Nootka, on the west coast of Vancouver Island—and then
proceeded to Alaska in quest of the north-west passage,
which was the main object of his voyage. From then
on the fauna of the country has played an important
part in its development and, but for it, this territory might
never have come under British rule. It was Captain
Cook’s discovery of the valuable fur trade that might
be done here that resulted in the North-West Fur Com-
pany of Montreal establishing a post at Nootka, where
they soon did a thriving business. More and more British
ships sailed here, and there were many quarrels with the
Spaniards, and some also with the Russians, over the
ownership of the territory. Subsequently there was a
bitter dispute with the United States regarding the
boundary line. By the time this trouble cropped up
the whole of what is now the State of Washington, and
some part of Oregon, were practically under the influence
of the Hudson’s Bay Company, which had already absorbed
the North-West Fur Company ; but, after much wrangling,
the British Government, being convinced that the country

was of little or no commercial value, ceded it to the
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