6 PREFACE

of the expedition it reeords, its publication having been
unavoidably delayed. Jt is now given te the public with the
assurance tha at, whilst he does not claim freedom from error,
whieh would be absnrd, he fonk pains with It on the epot, and
ean vouch, at all events, for its general accuracy.

The writer, and doubtless some of his readers, can recall
the Hme when to go to “ Peace River” seemed almost like
going to another sphere, where, it was conjectured, Life was
lived yery differently from that of civilized man. And,
traby, it was to enter mito eerE vanfarniliar state at things ; &
region im which primitive peaple, net without faults or
depravities, lived on Nature's fre ‘d. and threve on her anfatl-
ing harvest of fur, A re cit in which ther offen left their
bearer, silver fox or marten packs-—f he envy of Fashion—
Is mg he the dag-t rail, ar ban ging fr anime sheltering tree,
beeanse no one stole, and tock thelr fellow's word without
qmestion, hecauae res ane lied, A very simple folk medeed, In
whose language profanity was unknown, and who had no
desire fo leave their congenital solitudes for any other spot on
earth: aalitudes which so charmer the educated minds who
brought the white man’s religion, or traflle, to their deors,
that, Like the Lotus-eaters, they, too, felt Htle eraving to
depart. Yet thes ~~ owere not regions of sloth or idleness, but of
necessary foal > af the Laherions chase and the endless activities
ef aboriginal life: the region of a peopl e familiar with its
fanna and flora—of skilled hut umeonseious naturalists, whe
knew ne selonec.

Suebh was the state of sowicty in that remote land in its
golden age: before the enterprising “ free-trader ” brought
with him the Rrst-frmts of the Tree of Knowledge; long
before the halter ared gold: fantes TS > rushed upen the scene,
the “ Klondikers ? Ne
York and C hicago, to whom ‘the ineredible € “honesty. of the
natives, the absence of money, and the strange barter in skins
(the wyan or aghti of the Indian) seemed like a phantas-
magoria—an existence utterly removed from “ veal” Hte—