LEGENDS OF VANCOUVER

all under the generalship of a wise old leader,
who, as king of the colony, advanced some
few yards ahead of his battalions. Out of the
waters through the forest towards the country
to the north they journeyed. Wandering
hunters said they saw them cross Burrard
Inlet at the Second Narrows, heading inland
as they reached the farther shore. But where
that mighty army of royal little Canadians
set up their new colony, no man knows. Not
even the astuteness of the first Capilano ever
discovered their destination. Only one thing
was certain, Deer Lake knew them no more.

After their passing, the Indian retraced
their trail to the water’s edge. In the red
glare of the encircling fires he saw what he
at first thought was some dead and dethroned
king beaver on the shore. A huge carcass lay
half in, half out, of the lake. Approaching it
he saw the wasted body of a giant seal. There
could never be two seals of that marvellous
size. His intuition now grasped the meaning of
the omen of the beckoning flame that had
called him from the far coasts of Point Grey.
He stooped above his dead conqueror and
found, embedded in its decaying flesh, the elk-
bone spear of his forefathers, and trailing
away at the water's rim was a long flexible
cedar-fibre rope.

As he extracted this treasured heirloom he

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