a question that can only be decided by a
proper exploration. The canon I have already described and will only add
that it is five-eighths of a mile long, about 100 feet wide, with
perpendicular banks of basaltic rock from 60 to 100 feet high.

"Below the canon proper there is a stretch of rapids for about a mile;
then about half a mile of smooth water, following which are the White
Horse Rapids, which are three-eighths of a mile long, and unsafe for
boats.

"The total fall in the canon and succeeding rapids was measured and
found to be 32 feet. Were it ever necessary to make this part of the
river navigable it will be no easy task to overcome the obstacles at
this point; but a tram or railway could, with very little difficulty, be
constructed along the east side of the river past the canon.

"For some distance below the White Horse Rapids the current is swift and
the river wide, with many gravel bars. The reach between these rapids
and Lake Labarge, a distance of twenty-seven and a half miles, is all
smooth water, with a strong current. The average width is about 150
yards. There is no impediment to navigation other than the swift
current, and this is no stronger than on the lower part of the river,
which is already navigated; nor is it worse than on the Saskatchewan and
Red Rivers in the more eastern part of our territory.

"About midway in this stretch the Tahkeena River[5] joins the Lewes.
This river is, apparently, about half the size of the latter. Its waters
are muddy, indicating the passage through a clayey district. I got some
indefinite information about this river, from an Indian who happened to
meet me just below its mouth, but I could not readily make him
understand me, and his replies were a compound of Chinook, Tagish, and
signs, and therefore largely unintelligible. From what I could
understand with any certainty, the river was easy to descend, there
being no bad rapids, and it came out of a lake much larger than any I
had yet passed.

[Footnote 5: The Tahkeena was formerly much used by the Chilkat Indians
as a means of reaching the interior, but never by the miners owing to
the distance from the sea to its head.]

"Here I may remark that I have invariably found it difficult to get
reliable or definite information from Indians. The reasons for this are
many. Most of the Indians it has been my lot to meet are expecting to
make something, and consequently are very chary about doing or saying
anything