48 The Home of tlic Wolverene and Beaver. 



will find the life at Osnaburg a very lonely one, 

 but not on the whole uninteresting, particularly if 

 you have any taste for natural history. Mr. Groves, 

 the officer in charge, is a quiet, gentlemanly young 

 nian, and I make no doubt that you will both get on 

 Capitally together. I am sending Pierre with you 

 in charge of some stores for Osnaburg, and he will 

 soon initiate you into the mysteries of wood-craft." 



Within a fortnight from the conversation recorded 

 above, Paul Gresham stepped ashore from the 

 steamer at Thunder Bay — the Grande Portage 

 described in the previous chapter — and was warmly 

 welcomed by the agent at the Company's factory, 

 who, seeing the young man's impatience to reach 

 his ultimate destination, hurried forward the 

 preparations for the departure of the four canoes 

 that would be requisite to transport the stores and 

 luggage to Osnaburg House. Six half-breeds 

 composed the crew of each of the little birch-bark 

 craft, and with a salute of a couple of guns from 

 the fort, answered by a ringing cheer from the 

 voyagenrs, the long paddle up stream commenced, 

 and Paul Gresham was fairly embarked upon his 

 new life. 



How beautiful everything seemed to him, the 

 child of civilisation, who had never before seen 

 nature in her virgin grandeur, her waters unfurrowed 



