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6 In Great Waters

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ments, or in groups of ten to twenty families, or very
frequently in separate families on lonely isolated
bush farms; or groups of men gather in logging camps
in far-off mountain valleys. Fishermen, from far
and near, live the most of their time on their little
launches, following the fish or fishing near the can-
neries situated handy to good fishing grounds.
Homes are rarely farther than eight miles from the
shore. Behind them, and crowding them into the
sea, is the vast, almost impenetrable wilderness of
the Coast Range, where wander only the cougar,
wolf, bear, and other wild animals of the mountains.
In front lies the ocean and around them on all sides
gathers the gloom and menace of the big timber.
Especially do the efforts of the homesteaders appeal
to me. Patiently trying to solve the problems of
the pioneer farmer they strenuously hew for them-
selves a home in the colossal jungle of a British
Columbia forest. Their efforts seem little short of
heroic. The physical strain is enormous and con-
tinuous. It takes a lifetime to get a poor score or
so of acres cleared, and in the long years these men
and women are away from the companionship of
all but a few other people, and lack many of those
common helps, comforts, and pleasures that would
seem almost essential to an endurable life. Their
families are reared usually without doctor or nurse
within reach, geographically or financially, at the
birth of the children or in any emergency of sickness
or accident. From Vancouver to the Alaskan