ALBERTA cc 



the passage of which we were dashed with spray and our boat, 

 weakened with age, threatened with destruction. It was an 

 exciting experience — to be drawn into the boiling flood; the 

 bowsman, crouching low to avoid being hurled from the tossing 

 boat, signalled to the steersman who guided us with powerful 

 strokes of the great sweep and directed the crew with the com- 

 mand " pimiscow " — pull, or "see" — back-water. When run- 

 ning the Boiler Rapids, one of our Crees, instead of attend- 

 ing to his oar and assisting in bringing the boat around the 

 sunken boulder in the middle of the channel, turned to stare at 

 the rapids, his oar caught against the rocks and the inner end 

 struck him amidships, hurling him against the man next in 

 front. Had the thole pin not given way he would have been 

 pitched into the midst of the rapids. Such accidents are not 

 uncommon; if short of actual tragedy, the victim must bear 

 the ridicule of the whole boat's crew for the remainder of the 

 voyage. 



On the eighth day we reached McMurray, an insignificant 

 post at the mouth of the Clearwater River. Goods arriving 

 in boats from the Grand Rapids of the Athabasca are there 

 transferred to the steamer " Grahame," that being the south- 

 ern limit of her run. The Clearwater, also containing many 

 rapids, was the route followed to and from the North previous 

 to the building of the railway across the plains. Down this 

 stream Peter Pond made his way from the Long Portage, one 

 hundred and fifteen years ago. Mackenzie, Franklin and other 

 distinguished explorers have traversed and described the val- 

 ley of the Clearwater and the direct route thence to the Arctic 

 Sea. Below the " Forks" the bluffs recede from the river and 

 decrease in elevation. The Athabasca attains a width of nearly 

 half a mile and contains many islands of silt and driftwood, 

 covered with a dense growth of spruce. We drifted at night 

 on the lower river and made such rapid progress that we 

 reached Lake Athabasca on the tenth day. We were still 

 twelve miles from Chippewyan, but could not sail directly to it 

 owing to the ice not having broken up. We had been told that 

 Captain Segur was a "good judge of water," and expected he 

 would guide us through the shallow channels among the bars 

 and islands along shore. Leaving the main stream we entered 

 a channel which the Captain declared to be the Embarras 



