On our way we met many Indians still competing with the mule-trains. Some of the men were loaded with 150 pounds, supporting them by a strap across the forehead; the women carried 50 or 100 pounds; and one squaw we met had on her back a fifty-pound sack of flour, on that a box of candles, and on the top of the box a child. They seemed very jolly and happy under their heavy labour, and never failed to salute us with a friendly smile and “Klahowya?” or “How do you do?” The melody of their voices and soft intonation was most pleasing, overcoming all the roughness and uncouthness of the vile Chinook jargon.[19] Between Lytton and Yale lie most of the bars, or sandbanks, which yielded such an extraordinary amount of gold when first discovered. They are now deserted, except by a few Chinamen, who make from one to ten dollars a day. As we descended the Fraser, the vegetation began to change. The terraces disappeared, and the flat stretches, covered only with bunch-grass and scattered yellow pine, gave place to an irregular formation and a thicker growth of white pine, with here and there a small birch, and a plentiful undergrowth of deciduous shrubs. On our way we passed many Indians engaged in salmon fishing, which they practise in a very peculiar manner. They select some point in the fierce rapids where a quiet eddy forms under the lee of a projecting rock. Over the rock they sling a little platform of poles, within a convenient distance of the surface of the water, and from this position grope untiringly in the eddy with a kind of oval landing net. The salmon, wearied by their exertions in overcoming the torrent, rest for a time in the little eddy before making the next attempt to mount the rapid, and are taken in hundreds by these clever fishermen. Here and there were Indian graves adorned with numerous flags; and in many instances carved images, nearly the size of life, and elaborately painted, were placed around. The dead man’s gun and blankets, with most of his other property, were generally suspended to poles about the grave. Occasionally we passed an Indian winter store for fish--a rough box, slung in a tree high out of reach. Some tribes bury their dead in the same manner.