ere and wrote a book about it which is
very useful even yet. They named a lot of mountains. I don't know who
named that wonderful peak Mount Robson, but it was named after Premier
Robson of British Columbia in 1865.

"Nobody knows much about this country, for the early travelers did not
make many maps or journals. But about 1872 they began to explore this
country with a view to railway explorations, and from that time on it
has been better known and more visited, although really very few
persons have ever been right where we are sitting now."

"Well," said Rob, thoughtfully, after a time, "after all, the best way
to learn about a country is to go and see it yourself. You can read
all about it in books, but still it looks different when you come to
see it yourself."

"Wait till I get my map done," said John, "and many a time after this
we'll talk it all over, and we can tell on the map right where we were
all the time."

"Well, you're at the summit now at this camp," said Uncle Dick.
"Yonder to the east is Miette water. Over yonder is the Fraser. It's
downhill from here west, and sometimes downhill rather faster than
you'll like. We've come a couple of hundred miles on our journey to
the summit here, and in a little more than fifty more we'll be at the
Tete Jaune Cache. That's on the Fraser--and a wicked old river she is,
too."

"How's the trail between here and there, Uncle Dick?" asked Jesse,
somewhat anxiously.

"Bad enough, you may depend."

"And don't we get any more fishing?"

Uncle Dick smiled. "Well, I'll tell you," said he; "we'll probably not
have a great many chances for trout as good as we'll have to-morrow.
It's only two or three miles from here to Yellowhead Lake, and I think
we'll find that almost as good a fishing-place as Rainbow Lake was the
other day."

XII

THE WILDERNESS

"It's cold up here, just the same," said Jesse, when he rolled out of
his blanket early on the following morning, "and the woods and
mountains make it dark, too, on ahead there. Somehow the trees don't
look just the same to me, Uncle Dick."

"They're not the same," said Uncle Dick, "and I am glad you are so
observing. From here on the trees'll get bigger and bigger. They
always are, on the Pacific side of the Rocky Mountains. The east side
is far more dry and barren. When you get down into the Columbia valley
or the Fraser country you'll see Douglas firs bigger than you ever
thought a tree could grow."

"