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16 THE CONDOR Vol. XIV air line the two points, Port Alberni and Friendly Cove, are not more than one hundred miles distant, but there are narrow, tortuous channels to be traversed be- tween, and interminable stops at canneries, missions, and mines, so that it was the evening of the second day before we reached our destination, and steamed into Nootka Sound. The Sound is enclosed between Nootka Island and the mainland of Vancouver Island, and to our left, on Nootka Island, lay the little village of Friendly Cove. There is no wharf, and as soon as we had come to anchor a huge canoe put off from' the shore, and approached the steamer. This, the property of the store-keeper and capable of holding a score of men, was a war canoe of former days, now reduced to the lowly task of transporting groceries and supplies! We made the acquaintance of Mr. H. L. W. Smith, the store-keeper and the only white inhabitant of the town, who gave us a cordial greeting, assisted us ashore, and did everything possible to make us comfortable. Three large arms or inlets open from Nootka Sound, the Muchalat Arm ex- tending eastward, Tlupana Arm to the northeast, and the Tahsis Canal, stretching due north. Upon our first arrival at Friendly Cove we remained only one night. and then, taking advantage of the temporary presence in the harbor of a small gasoline launch, had ourselves and outfit transported to the head of the Tahsis Canal, some twenty-five miles distant. We spent a week at this camp (July 24 to August 2), with but moderate success. Our only object in going such a distance from Friendly Cove was the chance of securing specimens of the larger mammals, naturally driven back from the vicinity of the town, but, whatever the reason, we found big game decidedly more scarce here than at some other points nearer civilization. Wolves and pan- thers are numerous, though difficult to obtain in summer, and they had apparently driven out the deer, for in a week's time we hardly saw a fresh track of the latter. On August 2 we returned to Friendly Cove. We secured the services of a trapper whom we found encamped on the Tahsis, and Mr. Smith also came to assist us in the moving. With some difficulty we stowed ourselves and outfit in the two small canoes, Smith and Despard in one, and Leiner (the trapper) and myself in the other. We started early, about 3 A.m., to avoid the wind which blew up the canal every day--thereby encountering swarms of tiny gnats also taking advantage of the calm weather--and alternately paddling and sailing, as occasional light puffs of wind came to our assistance, spent most of the day reach- ing our destination. Mr. Smith established us in a cabin about a mile from the village, where we found ourselves much more advantageously placed for collecting, and where we remained until our departure from the Sound, August 11. On the whole Pacific northwest there is no place of greater historical interest than this former center of the fur trade, NootkaSound, the name of which figured so conspicuously in the accounts of all the early explorations that it came to typify the entire region; but there is little about the place now to suggest its claims of former glory--that the first ship to be built on the Pacific northwest was launched here, and that at this point English and Spanish statesmen met to settle the differ- ences of their respective nations, as to the claims of each upon the countries of the north Pacific. On one of the islands in the bay there is a monument commemora- tive of the "Nootka Treaty"--a compromise by which both nations withdrew from the p6rt for the time being. From that day to this there has been no white settle- ment at Friendly Cove. The earliest detailed description of the Sound is given by Captain Cook, in the history of his third voyage, though the Spaniards had probably been there some years before. Cook was there in March and April, 1778, and it was visited by