The Royal Mail Steamer “B. X.”

HIS handsome river steamer, which runs on regular

schedule between Soda Creek and Fort George, is

claimed to be the most up-to-date river steamer in North
America.

It is named the B.X., this being the popular contraction of
British Columbia Express Company, the fifty-year-old insti-
tution that operates the best-equipped and longest stage lines
in America. The stage coaches of this company have been
in continuous operation for half a century. By sledge, by
concord coach, by automobile or by river steamer, the B.X.
Company has carried mails and passengers since earliest
British Columbia days, and has long been regarded as one
of the most enterprising and reliable of provincial institutions.

The B.X., the flagship of the company’s fleet, is 160 feet
long, with 30-foot beam. She is equipped with steam steer-
ing gear and capstan, searchlight, and every device that can
make river navigation speedy and safe. ‘The boat was espe-

cially designed with enormous power so as to enable her to
run the famous Cottonwood and Fort George canyons, and
the B.X. is the only boat that has gone up those canyons
under her own steam, and without “lining” at any stage of
the water.

So far as comfort to its passengers is concerned, those
aboard the B.X. can go up and down the Fraser to or from
Fort George in almost the luxury of an Atlantic liner.

This season the B. C. Express Company has placed
another new steamer in commission, her name being the same
as that of the company. The Express will run from Fort
George up the Nechaco to Fraser Lake, and up the Fraser
to Grand Canyon. In every respect, except size (the Ex-
press is a few feet shorter), she is a sister ship to the B.X.,
and fitted and found with the same power and comfort.

‘The accompanying pictures of the B.X. were taken while
landing settlers at the Fort George wharf this spring.

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