THIRD ANNUAL REPORT. 55 



Liard, 120 miles down the river, but this would have meant the 

 sacrifice of my outfit, a great part of which was necessary to the 

 success of my trip. I therefore decided to protect my property 

 if possible, and, after the breaking of the ice, make an effort to 

 boat it to Fort Liard. 



I could not secure any help from the Hell Gate Indians, for 

 their only ambition was to rob me; and for about ten days they 

 made my life almost a burden. First of all they insisted upon 

 knowing what my cache contained. Failing in their attempts to 

 find out, they began a campaign of begging, lasting daily from 

 early morn until late at night. Failing to accomplish their purpose 

 in that way, they began to offer insults and threats, until at last 

 1 was compelled to drive them from my camp with a club. Al- 

 though I expected the affair to terminate in serious trouble, for- 

 tunately it resulted in the departure of the Indians from my camp, 

 from whence they travelled toward their hunting grounds. After 

 ten days of time lost in keeping these people at bay, I again found 

 myself a free man. Immediately I set to work and moved my 

 baggage and supplies (about 2,000 pounds) four miles farther 

 down stream, to a place where I could get suitable material for 

 constructing a boat. 



I had not a particle of experience in boat-building, and although 

 I possessed a saw suitable for cutting lumber, there was no one 

 to assist in using it, and I was forced to build a boat without lum- 

 ber. Canvas was my only resource, and with this I was fortunate 

 enough to be supplied, although the quality was rather too light 

 for the construction of such a boat as I required. However, I set 

 to work cutting, hewing, and planing young spruce, and after a 

 good many days of very hard work at last completed a good frame 

 of bent timber. This frame I covered with spruce bark, to fur- 

 nish a smooth support tor the canvas, made my canvas into one 

 sheet, seven feet six inches by twenty-five feet, and after gather- 

 ing gum from the native trees, pitched one side of it, then stretched 

 it over the frame, leaving the unpitched side out. After the canvas 

 was securely fastened in place, I gave the outside a heavy coat of 

 pitch, and my boat, twenty-four feet long and five feet beam, was 

 complete. 



The ice had been running for five days, and the river was almost 

 clear of it. Getting under this immense boat, I moved it, " inch 

 by inch," until the edge of the water was reached, and then man- 



