[how ay] argonauts OF 1862 41 



journey was to be accomplished. The diary, under date of June 5th, 

 1862, says: "Rained this morning heavy: are holding a meeting for 

 the purpose of appointing a captain, a committee, and forming general 

 rules for our protection while on our journey. Captain T. R. McMick- 

 ing (who was in command of those from Queenston) was elected 

 captain over the whole party to Cariboo by unanimous vote of the 

 party." The committee consisted of thirteen members, fairly repre- 

 sentative of the constituent bodies. The total enrollment at Long 

 Lake was: Queenston, 24; St. Thomas, 21; Huntingdon, Que., 19; 

 Ottawa, 8; Toronto, 7; Montreal, 7; Ogdensburg, N.Y., 7; Red 

 River, 7; Acton, 6; Whitby, 6; Waterloo, 6; Scarborough, 5; London, 

 5; Goderich, 5; Chatham, 3; total, 136. This was quite in accord- 

 ance with American precedent. When the movement towards Oregon 

 was at its zenith, it was the custom of the emigrants to delay their 

 final organization in some cases even for a week or ten days after the 

 journey commenced. Probably this was to enable the people "to 

 find themselves" in their new surroundings. 



And now the ninety-seven carts and one hundred and ten animals 

 that carried the emigrants and their Lares and Penates set out from 

 Long Lake, leaving behind them all real civilized life, not to meet it 

 again until two thousand miles with all their dangers happed by land 

 and water should have been slowly and painfully traversed, and then 

 in totally new conditions and arrid strange surroundings. We can 

 see the long procession; and the picture is the clearer because of its 

 variance from the familiar scene of emigrants on the way to Oregon. 

 The stately "prairie schooner" is replaced by these little Red River 

 carts, creaking and groaning at every move. Women and children 

 were counted by the dozens — yea, by the hundreds — in the advance to 

 Oregon ; but in this company, not one woman nor one child, with the 

 single exception of Mrs. Schubert and her family, who joined it at 

 Fort Garry. Old men were totally missing here, though quite com- 

 mon in the Oregon movement. In truth the Oregon advance was one 

 of real colonization ; but this was essentially for a temporary purpose. 

 The road was so indifferent that a guide was necessary to keep the 

 travellers upon the right path; while, in the Oregon immigration, 

 the miscalled Oregon Trail was a broad gash cut upon the bosom 

 of the prairie so deep and clean that it is scarce an exaggeration to 

 say that a blind man could not lose it. Considering that the Hudson's 

 Bay Company and its predecessors had been trading in this region 

 for nearly one hundred years the absence of roads may seem strange; 

 but we have only to remind ourselves that their trade was carried on 

 almost entirely by water communication. 



