ON BOARD THE JULIA A. DECKER. 55 



them to Rigolette. A storm and rain, catching them on a lee 

 shore and giving the already exhausted men one more tussle 

 with fortune to get their small vessel into a position of safety, 

 made a fitting end to their experiences. 



Tuesday at 4 P. M., they reached the schooner and their jour- 

 ney was done. Amid the banging of guns and rifles, yells of 

 delight and echoes of B-O-W-D-O-I-N flying over the hills, 

 they clambered over the rail from the boat that had been sent 

 to meet them and nearly had their arms wrung off in congratu- 

 lations upon their success, about which the very first questions 

 had been asked as soon as they came within hearing. They 

 were nearly deafened with exclamations that their appearance 

 called out, and by the questions that were showered on them. 

 At last some order was restored, and after pictures had been 

 made of them just as they came aboard, dressed in sealskin 

 tassock, sealskin and deerskin boots and moccasins, with which 

 they had provided themselves at Northwest River, ragged rem- 

 nants of trousers and shirts, and the barest apologies for hats, 

 they were given an opportunity to make themselves comfort- 

 able and eat supper, and then the professor took them into the 

 cabin to give an account of themselves. It was many days be- 

 fore their haggard appearance, with sunken eyes and dark rings 

 beneath them, and their extreme weakness disappeared. 



The return trip of Young and Smith from Lake Waminikapo, 

 who reached Rigolette Aug. i8th, was made in five days to North- 

 west River, and after resting two days, in two more to Rigolette. 

 Their trip was comparatively uneventful. At the foot of Gull 

 Island Lake they met Bryant and Kenaston, who with their 

 party of Indians were proceeding very leisurely and apparently 

 doing very little work themselves. At their rate of progress it 

 seemed to our party very doubtful if they ever reached the 

 falls. They had picked up, in the pool at the foot of the first 

 falls, one of the cans of flour lost in the upset, some fifty or six- 

 ty miles up the river, with its contents all right, and strange to say 

 not a dent in it, and returned it to Smith and Young when they 

 met them. That night, with the assistance of the officers and 

 passengers of the mail steamer, which lay alongside of us, a 



