118 DOWN THE PEACE RIVER 



ment agrees exactly with what we found after we left Fort Mc- 

 Leod — that our two Indian boys seemed never to be satisfied, no 

 matter how much bread they ate. 



Multitudes of fish are taken in Lake Athabasca of many 

 kinds and all are fit for food. Geese are killed in prodigious 

 numbers in the latter part of September, it being no uncommon 

 occurrence for one man to kill one hundred in a few hours. 



On the afternoon of September 2nd, three large boats in 

 charge of Mr. King, accompanied by myself, as passenger, started 

 for Methye Portage. I left my kind friends with regret and 

 started on my homeward trip in the anticipation of reaching Fort 

 Garry before the setting in of winter. This part of my trip was 

 so different from that which I had just passed through that I 

 felt, as I sat in a large boat, that I was almost in Paradise. 



Our three boats contained twenty-seven men besides myself 

 and Mr. King, but, as usual, we were on half rations as we were 

 now on our way to get the supplies for Chipewyan for the winter. 

 We rowed for a short distance across the lake and entered the 

 delta of the Athabasca and when night fell we fastened our boat 

 to a log and lay down and went to sleep. I, being weary, never 

 awakened until morning. My slumbers were broken at the first 

 streak of dawn on the morning of the 3rd by the cries of innumer- 

 able geese which seemed to be above, around and beneath me. 

 On raising my head, I found all our men imitating the cries of the 

 flock of geese which were rapidly coming towards us and answer- 

 ing the cries of the men. On they came and, in less than five 

 minutes, twenty-seven shots had been fired into the flock and large 

 numbers of them were dead or dying in the water. During the 

 next two weeks, such scenes were almost of hourly occurrence and 

 the excitement was pleasing in the extreme. 



We had started with less than half rations, calculating to get 

 a partial supply of food by hunting as we ascended the river and 

 the men were not slow to take advantage of their opportunity. 

 Canada geese and large white waveys were the ones we obtained. 

 It took us a day and a half to pass through the delta. 



As we ascended the river, we gradually passed from mud to 

 sand, but were fully fifty miles up it before we saw anything like 



