ANCIENT HUDSON S BAY COMPANY WAKENS UP 29 



gan a mountain pass (Yellow Head Pass). . . . The 

 river meanders much, . . . and we cut across, . . . 

 holding by one another s hands, . . . wading to the 

 hips in water, dashing in, frozen at one point, thawed 

 at the next, . . . frozen before we dashed in, . . . our 

 men carrying blankets and provisions on their heads; 

 . . . four days hard work before we got to Jasper 

 House at the source of the Athabasca, sometimes camp 

 ing on snow twenty feet deep, so that the fires we made 

 in the evening were fifteen or twenty feet below us in 

 the morning.&quot; 



They had now crossed the mountains, and taking to 

 canoes again paddled down-stream to the portage be 

 tween Athabasca River and the Saskatchewan. Tramp 

 ing sixty miles, they reached Fort Augustus (Edmon 

 ton) on the Saskatchewan, where canoes were made on 

 the spot, and the voyageurs launched down-stream a 

 trifling distance of two thousand miles by the windings 

 of the river, past Lake Winnipeg southward to Fort 

 William, the Nor Westers headquarters on Lake Su 

 perior. 



Here the capture of Astoria was reported, and bales 

 to the value of a million dollars in modern money sent 

 east in fifty canoes with an armed guard of three hun 

 dred men.* Coasting along the north shore of Lake 

 Superior, the voyageurs came to the Sault and found 

 Mr. Johnston s establishment a scene of smoking 

 ruins. It was necessary to use the greatest caution 

 not to attract the notice of warring parties on the 

 Lakes. 



* The enormous returns made up largely of the Astoria cap 

 ture. The unusually large guard was no doubt owing to the 

 Wr of 1812. 



