302 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 
the customary dram. At noon we bade farewell 
to our kind friend Mr. Smith. The crews com- 
menced a lively paddling song on quitting the 
shore, which was continued until we had lost 
sight of the houses. We soon reached the west- 
em boundary of the lake, and at two entered the 
Stony River, one of the discharges of the Atha- 
basca Lake into the Slave River, and having a 
favouring current passed swiftly along. This 
narrow stream is confined between low swampy 
banks, which support willows, dwarf birch, and 
alder. At five we passed its conflux with the 
Peace River. The Slave River, ‘formed by the 
union of these streams, is about three quarters: of 
a mile wide. We descended ‘this magnificent 
river, with ‘much rapidity, and after passing 
through several narrow channels, formed by an 
assemblage of islands, crossed a spot where 
waters hhad a violent whirling motion, which, when 
the river ‘is low, is said to subside into a danger- 
ous Tapid; on the present occasion no other in- 
convenience was felt than the inability of steering 
the canoes, which were whirled about in every 
direction by the eddies, until the current carried 
them beyond their influence. We encamped at 
Seven, on the swampy bank of the river, but had 
scarcely pitched the tents ‘before we were visited 
by a terrible thunder-storm:; the rain fell in tor- 
