Till: FATAL APRIL 27 247 



first of the ledges, and again we had to repair the large 

 boat, an operation which lasted until late into the night. 



On the following morning we were astir early. The 

 large boat was hastily reloaded, and it did not take us 

 long to get to the second ledge. The men were in high 

 spirits, for we were now well on our way homeward ; in a 

 couple of weeks we expected to be back at La Prision, to 

 which place most of my companions belonged. On that 

 fatal morning of April 27 no one of us suspected that in 

 a few short seconds the work of months would be lost, 

 and that for weeks we would have to struggle to reach 

 that settlement which some were doomed never to see. 



The following is an exact copy of the journal I kept 

 from this eventful day, to that on which eight starving 

 human beings, hardly able to walk, dragged their way 

 into the settlement at La Prision twenty-eight days after, 

 what happened during that time having been jotted down 

 while the incidents were still fresh in my mind. 



April 27. — Left early and reached the spot where we 

 had had to unload in the afternoon and drag the boats 

 over a shallow part encumbered with rocks when we 

 ascended the river. The large boat was let down first, 

 ropes being used at the bow and stern. Afterwards the 

 small boat was also successfully passed over. It was 

 about nine o'clock. The morning was so gloomy that 

 Jacobson, although he intended to take pictures of the 

 lowering of the boats at this spot, which is very pic- 

 turesque, thought it useless to expose any plates. About 

 300 yards lower down there is a narrow channel through 

 which we had passed without much difficulty on the up 

 trip. Beyond, the passage is dangerous, and it was our 

 intention to unload at least a part of the cargo before 

 attempting the more rapid channel lower down. So free 



