42 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 
these essential articles behind. We embarked at 
noon, and were honoured with a salute of eight 
guns and three cheers from the Governor and 
all the inmates of the fort, who had assembled to 
witness our departure. We gratefully returned 
their cheers, and then made sail, much delighted 
at having now commenced our voyage into the 
interior of America. The wind and tide failing 
us at the distance of six miles above the Factory, 
and the current being too rapid for using oars to 
advantage, the crew had to commence tracking, 
or dragging the boat by a line, to which they 
were harnessed. This operation is extremely 
laborious in these rivers, Our men were obliged 
to walk along the steep declivity of a high bank, 
rendered at this season soft and slippery by fre- 
quent rains, and their progress was often further 
impeded by fallen trees, which, having slipped 
from the verge of the thick wood above, hung-on 
the face of the bank in a great variety of direc- 
tions. Notwithstanding these obstacles, however 
we advanced at the rate of two miles an -hout; 
one-half of the crew relieving the other at inter- 
vals of an hour and a half. The banks of the 
iver, and its islands, composed of alluvial soil, 
ate well covered with pines, larches, poplars, 
and willows. The breadth of the stream, some 
distance above the Factory, is about half a mile, 
