sturgeon, some of the latter weighing as much as 800 lb. After
a day's delay I parted with my half-breed Kalder, took canoe down the
Stuart River to the spot where the trail crosses the stream, and then
camped for the night. Having procured horses, we rode through a rich
land which fringes the banks of the Nacharcole River. Then during the
first two days of June we journeyed through a wild, undulating country,
filled with lakes and rolling hills, and finally drew rein on a ridge
overlooking Quesnelle. Before me spread civilisation and the waters of
the Pacific; behind me vague and vast, lay a hundred memories of the
Wild North Land; and for many reasons it is fitting to end this story
here.

JAMES COOK

Voyages Round the World

_I.--To the South Seas_

Captain James Cook, son of a farm labourer, was born at
Martin Cleveland, England, on October 27, 1728. Picking up
knowledge at the village school, tending cows in the
fields, apprenticed at Staithes, near Whitby, the boy
eventually ran away to sea. In 1755, volunteering for the
Royal Navy, he sailed to North America in the Eagle; then,
promoted to be master of the Mercury, he did efficient
service in surveying the St. Lawrence in co-operation with
General Wolfe. His first voyage of discovery was in the
Endeavour with a party to observe the transit of Venus in
1768, and after three years he returned, to start again,
on his second voyage, in 1772, with the Resolution and
Adventure to verify reports of a southern continent in the
Pacific. His third and last voyage in the Resolution led
him to explore the coast of North America as far as Icy
Cape, and returning to the Sandwich Islands, he met his
death while pacifying some angry natives on the shore of
Owhyhee (Hawaii), on February 14, 1779. The original folio
edition of the "Voyages" was published in 1784, compiled
from journals of Cook, Banks, Solander, and others who
accompanied him.

We left Plymouth Sound on August 26, 1768, and spent five days at
Madeira, where Nature has been very liberal with her gifts, but the
people lack industry. On reaching Rio de Janeiro, the captain met with
much incivility from the viceroy, who would not let him land for a long
time; but when we walked through the town the females showed their
welcome by throwing nosegays from the windows. Dr. Solander and two
other gentlemen of our party received so many of these love-tokens that
the