FROM CHIPEWYAN TO THE RAILROAD 317 



gois (my old dog-driver) four skins to walk on with me to 

 Me Murray. 



There were quite a number of old friends in the boat's 

 crew, by-the-way. Besides Frangois there was his brother 

 William, who had given me my one day's cariole ride from 

 Chipewyan; and there was "old Jacob," who had run be- 

 fore the dogs from McMurray to Chipewyan, and was 

 now our steersman, and a good one, too ; and there was 

 Kipling, who, when John and I were lost on Jack -fish 

 Lake, had brought me the welcome tidings of Spencer's 

 whereabouts. 



Francois and I started out at about nine o'clock, and 

 after very hard walking, for the bank in many places was 

 covered with brush and in other places strewn with rocks, 

 we stopped for a spell opposite an island Frangois said 

 was much over half-way. 



Here as we sat smoking we sighted the flatboats of 

 Nagel, a white free trader at Slave Lake, coming down 

 the river in full sail before a very strong wind. As Nagel 

 approached he saluted us and I replied. Instantly he 

 shouted : 



" Hello, you are Whitney ?" 



" Yes," responded I. 



" They are getting worried about you at Edmonton," 

 he continued. " They are organizing a search party." 



To which I replied : " I hope to get there before they 

 are started." 



Meanwhile his boat was sailing rapidly from us as he 

 queried : " Were you successful ?" 



"Yes," said I, happily. 



And thus I had one of my few opportunities of speech 

 in the mother-tongue, and received the first tidings from 

 civilization. 



We came to Stony Island, eight miles from McMurray, 



