some of the boats in one of the rapids, in consequence of which the cargoes had to be removed by his men, and carried on their shoulders to the shore, the boats then freed, lowered past the obstruction, and reloaded. Such work necessarily entails considerable delay, and is of a slavish character, as all hands have to work in the ice-cold water for hours together.
Receiving again our four hundred pounds of supplies from Schott, we lost no more time at Fort McMurray, but at seven o'clock next morning the little expedition, consisting now of eight men and three canoes, pushed out into the river, and with a parting salute sped away with the current, which being swift, and our canoemen fresh, enabled us in a short time to place many miles between us and the Fort. At five o'clock in the evening, having then descended the river a distance of about sixty miles, we were delighted to meet the steamer Grahame on her up-stream trip from Fort Chippewyan to McMurray to receive the goods brought down the rapids by the scows. The steamer, being in charge of Dr. McKay, the Hudson's Bay Company's officer from Chippewyan, who had been informed of our expedition, was at once brought to a stand in the river, and we were kindly invited on board. When I commenced to clamber up the steamer's deck, whose hand should be offered to assist me but that of an old friend and fellow-shipmate for two years in Hudson Straits, Mr. J. W. Mills. The acquaintance of Dr. McKay and of the Bishop of Athabasca, who happened to be on board, was also made, and with right genial companions an hour quickly and very pleasantly passed. Mr. Mills, who was attired in the uniform of a steamboat captain, had lately been
