246 ACROSS THE ST. LAWRENCE 



thought was very sensible advice. He and the 

 Messrs. Blanchet, Fournier and Gagne drove us 

 to Metis, making no charge beyond their expenses 

 and that of the horses ; and I could not in any way 

 prevail upon them to accept a small remuneration. 

 It was really most generous on their part, as it 

 occasioned them the loss of more than a week's 

 time. 



About 8.30 p.m., on the first evening we were 

 at Cape Chatte, a messenger came in saying that 

 I was wanted at the telegraph office. On reach- 

 ing it I found that the possibility of our having 

 reached the South Shore in such weather seemed 

 so extraordinary that the genuineness of the tele- 

 grams sent had been doubted, our friends fearing 

 that they had been forwarded merely to pave the 

 way for worse news later. Seeing this, Mr. 

 Edwin Pope, Manager of the G.N.W. Telegraph 

 Company, at Quebec, had personally arranged a 

 connection of the different lines and the placing 

 of a repeating instrument in Quebec, to give us a 

 telegraphic connection clear through to Godbout, 

 so that I could communicate with my wife, who is 

 also an operator. How considerate this was on 

 the part of Mr. Pope and all concerned, I leave 

 to my readers to judge ! The combination repre- 

 sented nearly a thousand miles of wire, and over 

 this my wife and I exchanged greetings and I 

 gave her a brief account of our trip and our then 

 condition and intentions. The wire was left at 

 our disposal for an hour. 



