Fig. 53. BUILDING A BOAT. 



In the region of Hell-Gate Canon, on the Liard River, in the spring of 1898, Mr. Stone's men 

 became afraid to venture further into the great northern wilderness and abandoned him to 

 return to the Pacific coast, leaving him surrounded by a lot of renegades known as the Hell-Gate 

 Indians, notorious for the murders they have committed, but who, owing to their obscurity and 

 great distance from Government officials, have escaped punishment for their crimes. Mr. Stone 

 had with him a ton of supplies, the things absolutely necessary to his further progress and work. 

 After much difficulty he -managed to rid himself of the presence of these renegade neighbors 

 without serious results, and then immediately set to work to plan and construct a boat for the 

 transportation of his supplies down the Liard River to the nearest Hudson Bay post. After 

 careful calculation he decided to build a boat 24 feet long, 7 feet beam, and 21 inches deep. 

 He first bent the frame from wood hewed from the forest, covering the frame with bark from 

 spruce trees, and this with canvas pieced together from scraps contained in his outfit. Over 

 this was spread a pitch made of spruce gum and bacon grease, making it waterproof. The boat 

 when completed weighed a thousand pounds, which with great difficulty he succeeded in launching. 



Putting aboard his supplies he descended what was to him an unknown river, following the 

 last of the ice, finally reaching a Hudson Bay post 150 miles below, without the loss of any of 

 his supplies. 



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