ARRIVAL AT THE COAST 67 



all the way to Fort McLeod, remarked, after the last of the caval- 

 cade had disappeared through the main gate of the Fort. "It is 

 too bad to be left behind in this offhand manner." "Never mind, 

 my dear Mac," said I, "We may not be so far behind them after 

 all, and, as they intend to proceed by canoe from Fort Assiniboine 

 to Lesser Slave Lake, we may steal a march on them and possibly 

 get ahead of them yet." 



"The fact that provisions could not be readily obtained when 

 once on the way from Edmonton until we reached Fort McLeod, 

 rendered it imperative to carry supplies in quantity sufficient for 

 a journey of nine weeks' duration. I accordingly packed two hun- 

 dred and thirty pounds of flour, twelve pounds of tea, twenty-four 

 pounds of sugar and sundries besides one hundred and fifty pounds 

 of pemmican (equal quantities of finely pounded dried buffalo 

 meat and grease). Meat and tea we expected to find at any of 

 the solitary establishments of the Hudson's Bay Company which 

 we might pass. Pack saddles and sundry horse trappings had to 

 be made and fitted, men had to be chosen, the horses picked out 

 from amongst the somewhat ill-conditioned animals left at the 

 Company's horse guard. In the meantime Mr. Macoun, who 

 was to be my fellow traveller as far as Stuart Lake, whence he 

 was to proceed to Quesnel and Victoria, busied himself by scouring 

 the surrounding country in search of further botanical additions 

 to his already bulky collection." 



"Our party, when ready, consisted of four persons, namely, 

 the Botanist, myself, and two hired men, one of them an Irish 

 miner, by name Armstrong, recently arrived from the Omineca 

 diggings on the Peace River; the other an English half-breed 

 named Thomas, who turned out to be as lazy a rascal as ever 

 munched pemmican. Of horses we had six to pack and four to 

 ride, making ten in all." 



After saying good-bye to Mr. Hardesty, I went on with the 

 horses and left Mr. Horetzky to settle up business at Edmonton. 

 At one p.m., Mr. Horetzky overtook our little train, which had 

 stopped by the side of a small creek, and found us busily and 

 pleasantly employed preparing dinner. The preparation of this 

 meal, indeed, of all our meals, was unvarying in kind and quality 



