The west shore., September 20, 1890, Page 83, Image 3

WEST SHORE.
83
THE OLD FOOT LOQ,
Its mate have (alien, one by one
Their shade no more the wild birds greet
Across the stream still running on
Between the fields of growing wheat,
O'er it the pathway wanders down,
Through hollows deep, round wooded hill ;
No rale to follow bat its own,
It bends as winds the rippling rill.
I stand and gaie about to-day,
. At woodland haw, at changing sky ;
The memories of the far away,
With shadowy years come hurrying by.
I muse upon the friends a host
Who lie within the churchyard low ; .
The feet that once so nimbly crossed
Have feeble grown and very slow.
Here, merry children ran and played,
Where butterflies danced In the air,
A fairy garden ne'er to fade,
With flowers blooming everywhere.
Here grew the violet's modest cup
Low in the fern, a sweet surprise.
Methlnks I see her looking up,
Their hue within her gentle eyes.
The long, long years have fled away ;
I hear once more a quiet voice,
As wandering by this narrow way
She bade my sorrowing soul rejoice.
Hhe sleeps with violets on her bed,
Their hearts die out in fragrance there ;
And yet, above, so softly spread,
In beauty waves the maiden-hair.
Take but a blossom and a spray,
Else might this day seem but a dream,
To vanish with the mists away,
To die with murmurs of the stream.
Ah ! Life may lead through desert ways,
And, lacking Joy, all sorrow prove ;
Yet still, when done are earthly days,
Twere worth it all to only love.
Rosa Wilcox.
QVINAVLT LAKE, IS THE OLYMPIC MOUNTAINS, WASB.
It is a most delightful trip from the ocean, up the Qulnault river to
the lake of the same name, a distance of about thirty miles. For the first
eight miles there is no perceptible fall In the stream, and It averages in
width about 500 feet. The water is of a beautiful hue and bordered with a
fine growth of overhanging trees. The river at the present season of the
year is literally full of salmon, which play and skip about around the trav
elers' canoe, sometimes splashing the water Into their very faces. At the
upper end of this first section of river the Indians have built a weir across,
to impede the progress of the salmon up stream.
The trip to the lake Is made in Chinook canoes of about a ton capacity
in fact that is the only way it can be made from the weir to the mouth of
the lake. The water is so swift and full of bowlders that no little skill is re
quired to pilot a craft safely through such menacing dangers. The down
trip, however, is the most haiardous, as the canoe is more at the mercy of
the swift waters ; but a touch on a rock and a " spill " Is unavoidable. Usu
ally a canoe is manned by an Indian and his clutchman the slwash sitting
in the stern and the clutchman In the bow both using poles as means of
propulsion. At intervals the current is so rapid that they are compelled to
disembark and drag the canoe through the rushing waters after them.
Between the weir and the lake there are Jambs of timber at three dif
ferent places where it is necessary for all to alight, and the canoe is dragged
and the freight Mtd around a portage of four or five hundred feet, varying
the pleasures of a nowise monotonous trip. It is about a two days' Journey
from the fish traps to the lake, but the variety and picturesqueness of the
scenery and the attending excitement make It seem not half so long. About
thirty miles above It mouth the river widens into a beautiful lake two and
a half miles wide by five miles long. On either side the steep mountains,
cut with falls and cataracts and covered with Umber, come to the water's
edge, while above the lake there la a valley two miles wide extending on
either side of a cold and sparkling crystal stream that laughs its way over a
bed of white and glistening pebbles, a distance of eight to ten miles, where
the river forks, and surrounding a bald sugar loaf peak that stands at the
head of the valley, quickly divides itself Into a thousand mountain rills that
have their origin but a short distance above. Ob, what a panorama I The
lake, the river, the valley I The rising sun creeping from behind the hills,
sheds Its mellow light, tinging the deep shadows cast on the waters by the
surrounding mountains, in beautiful contrast to the reflections of the setting
sun the night before upon the Icy crest and everlasting snows of the Olym
pic range, bat a few miles in the background. Neither Mount Olympus nor
Constance can bs seen from the lake, yet the picture is complete la splendor
and their grandeur could add but little to Its impressiveness.
Where the river leaves the lake the orifice is not large enongh, in case
of a sudden freshet, to carry off the water; and at times, during the spring
rains, the water rises quite rapidly, backing several miles up the river,
Inundating (at rare periods, however) a large area of bottom land above the
lake. One instance, where It is said to have risen sixteen feet In three
hours, furnished me with rather an amusing Incident. A man whom a
neighbor bad furnished with a " grub stake," wrote to his benefactor the
day before this freshet: " I have erected a cabin on the bank of the lake
and am now clearing off a spot tor a garden. I have found God's country
at last, and expect to end my days right here. Bend more flour and bacon."
The surprise of the benefactor can be better imagined than told, when, the
next day after receiving the letter, hs met his man, armed, cap-a-pie, with
his skillet, frying pan, coffee pot and camp equipage, " hoofing it " down
the beach. " Well," said hs, " what's upt " " Why, the d d lake's
up, and I don't propose to stay In a country where Ute water rises so fast
you can't climb a tree ahead of it "and hs never went back. I opine,
however, that the loneliness of the situation had something to do with his
exit, as all the valley Is now taken np and prised very highly by the
squatters.
The hunters claim that the lake Is fed by subterranean streams, and
when the timber is removed from the surrounding mountains, cascades and
waterfalls, vieing in beauty with those on the Columbia river, will be dis
closed. This, If true, will in some measure account (or the sudden rises In
the lake. In it are found every variety of salmon and trout known to the
sportsman. Speckled trout, weighing from (our to five pounds and meal
wing from sixteen to twenty inches, are not uncommon; but the lake
has a specialty o( Its own a salmon weighing from five to fifteen pounds,
much resembling a Chinook in shape and color of Its flesb, but equally deli
cate and palatable as the brook trout. When transportation facilities are
furnished the salmon industry will be of no mean importance.
The country around the lake Is covered with a dense growth of spruce,
cedar and fir, and in the matter of game, as well as fish, is sportsman's
paradise. During the winter months hunting for sea otter along the beach
is not carried on, and the huoters generally move up to the lake for land
game. Here they find elk, deer, bear, fisher, mink, land otter, braver
and other game in great numbers; but the settlers on every side of the
Olymplo range, from Gray's harbor to the Htralts of Fuca and from I'uget