CHESEEY =POST ae 35

had already been pitched. The Post consists of a
single log house built on a small grass meadow, with
thick forest all around. In front of the house was a
small verandah decorated with two fine moose heads.

Mr. Andy Johnson, who looks after the telegraph
line, lives here alone all through the year, and as may
be imagined, was delighted to have company. He
proved a most genial fellow with a humorous glint in
his eye, and later on I learned that he greatly enjoyed
playing practical jokes on such tenderfeet as us.

At some distance behind the Post rises a high,
isolated mountain, Chesley Mountain, and Teit, who
knew a lot about the old traditions of the Indians,
told me that they have a story about a large flood
which bears a great resemblance to the Deluge of the
Bible, and this Chesley Mountain was the Ararat of
the Indians.

As I have already said, the telegraph line traverses
the wilderness from Edmonton, down on the C.P.R.
line, right up to Dawson in the Yukon Territory. At
certain intervals small stations have been erected
where one or two men live and look after the line,
patrolling it in both directions. Between these stations,
a day’s march apart, are small refuge huts where the
linesman may take shelter for the night or in stormy
weather. What a solitary life these men must lead !
But they get all the current news along the line.

After lunch the Colonel and I went down to the
river to try our luck. I was not very successful, but
the Colonel caught no less than thirteen Dolly Vardens.
The river was now full of salmon (humpback), and our
Indians speared several of them.

This little river is a tributary to the Chesley River