DOWN THE MACKENZIE 



131 



Twelve miles above Providence the narrow channel which 

 we were following terminated in an ice jam. We again cached 

 the load, and continued on foot, reaching the post on the even- 

 ing of the eleventh day after leaving Rae. I paid the men well 

 for their work and gave them several skins of ammunition be- 

 sides, which did not deter them from stealing all the powder 

 from the cache when they returned to their camp. 



On the 29th the ice had not yet broken up, and a letter from 

 Willow River informed us that the steamer would leave on June 

 2nd, if the ice permitted. I hired two men to pack down my 

 outfit, and accompanied them to the cache that evening. By 

 carrying a heavy load myself we were able to bring everything 

 except the sled and harness, for which I had no further use. 

 That evening, while Mr. Scott was paying the men in the store, 

 some of their friends, taking advantage of the absence of every- 

 one from the kitchen, stole the fish and potatoes that were 

 standing, cooked for our dinner, upon the stove. 



Providence, or as it is usually called, "The Rapids," stands 

 upon the north bank of the Mackenzie, forty miles below the 

 Great Slave Lake and twenty above the Little Lake. There is 

 a strong current in the channel before the post, but the steamer 

 ascends it without difficulty. Providence was originally built 

 on Marten Lake, then near Yellow Knife Bay, then removed 

 to Big Island, and later to its present site. 



There is a small clearing, in which both the Company and 

 the Roman Catholic mission raise barley and vegetables. The 

 grasshoppers have made their appearance about every third 

 year and have been more destructive to the crops than the 

 frosts. At most of the Company's stations a few bushels of 

 potatoes and other vegetables have been raised each year. 

 Cattle have been kept for years at every post, until orders 

 came in 1893 to kill them, as the expense of keeping them was 

 too great. Sufficient hay was easily obtainable, but not of good 

 quality. No hay had been provided for a cow which was 

 brought to Rae, late in the fall of 1856, so that she was fed 

 upon dried fish through the winter. Poultry has been kept 

 at Providence for several years. It is also fed upon dried fish, 

 which is preferred to barley. 



On the 2nd of June I made preparations for an early start 

 for the steamer, to which an Indian was to take me in a birch 



