PERMANENTLY APPOINTED TO GOVERNMENT 187 



of them. Some of them ate more than was good for them and 

 had trouble, though they made light of it. In going up Deep 

 River, which is the discharge of the Lake Winnipegosis, we kept 

 close to the shore as the river was deep and not rapid. My 

 nephew, Davie, got tired sitting in the boat and said he would 

 go on shore and stepped out of the boat on to what he thought 

 was the bank and immediately disappeared and, in a few moments, 

 rose again and, without saying a word, crawled back into the boat. 

 I remember asking him where he came from, as he looked more 

 like a drowned mouse than a man. This was the only episode, 

 that I can remember in going up the lake, that is worth recording. 

 In due time, we arrived at the mouth of Swan River and stopped 

 over Sunday. The river was in flood and the water very high 

 and the boys, being good swimmers, nothing would do but they 

 would do stunts. My son, Jim, showed himself to be the one 

 most willing to take risks and he swam up the river for a long 

 distance and, from where we were on the shore, he looked as if he 

 were standing up, but he yelled for the boys to come to his as- 

 sistance as he was going to drown. The men who owned the sail 

 boat realized what was the matter and started in our canvas 

 boat and reached Jim when he was almost exhausted. It seems 

 that all the time we thought him standing up he was treading 

 water to keep himself afloat. He was none the worse for his 

 exertions and I passed a law then that there was to be no more 

 swimming in the stunt line. 



Some time after this, we reached Swan Lake House and there 

 my agreement terminated with the Census taker. I now ar- 

 ranged with the authorities at Swan Lake House to have a skiff 

 built that would carry two of the party and the greater part of 

 our provisions. The skiff was flatbottomed and clinker built and 

 it was the boat that I steered for the remainder of the season. 

 After leaving Swan Lake House, we headed for the Red Deer 

 River, which enters Lake Winnipegosis at its head. Here, we 

 camped by some salt springs, and we found that the river was in 

 full flood, that even the banks were covered and the water, in 

 many places, right in amongst the trees. The boys volunteered 

 to take the canvas boat up the river and see what the prospects 



