78 ARRIVAL AT THE COAST 



immediately put ashore, built a fire, and he put on dry clothes; 

 and was none the worse for his bath. 



Next day, we saw two cabins on the bank and of course stopped 

 to have a chat with the occupants. They turned out to be 

 cabins belonging to Pete Toy and Bill Southworth, the former 

 owned a bar at the mouth of the Omineca and was noted all over the 

 country. He told us he dug for gold and hunted for beaver and 

 martin in the winter. We asked him where we were and he told 

 us twenty-two miles from Fort McLeod and that we had just 

 come up in the nick of time, for the river was going to freeze right 

 away. He said he was going up to the Fort the next day and 

 wished us to stay with him all night. We preferred, however, to 

 push on as the ice was floating in the river. "Mr. Toy gave us 

 some delicious fresh bread made from British Columbia flour. 

 We, in turn, presented him with a chunk of pemmican, manufac- 

 tured at Fort St. John, of which we had an ample supply. De- 

 clining his offer to make use of his cabin for the night we pushed 

 on and camped a mile above. Pete promised to join us the next 

 day as he too wished to go to the Fort. 'Gentlemen,' said Pete, 

 as we were shoving off, 'You may consider yourselves very lucky 

 to have got through as well as you did, but I see you are prepared 

 for the worst.' pointing to the snow-shoes and other paraphernalia 

 requisite for winter travelling, with which we had taken the pre- 

 caution to furnish ourselves, 'And mark my words,' added he, 

 'before three days, this 'ere river will be running ice, but you are 

 all right now!' 



We arrived at Fort McLeod on the 5th of November and the 

 next day the winter commenced. For the following four days, we 

 were waiting for the ice to form on the lakes and, finally, on the 

 ninth, Mr. Sinclair, who had charge of the fort, agreed to go with 

 us to Fort St. James on Stuart's Lake, over eighty miles distant. 

 We got ready on the ninth and started, Sinclair, Horetzky, my- 

 self and four dogs which drew a toboggan upon which was placed 

 our baggage. The thermometer marked nine degrees above zero 

 and the morning was beautifully clear. This was my first time 

 to travel with dogs and hence was a new experience. The snow was 

 hardly a foot deep and the dogs had no road to follow. It was 



