THE KED EIYER EXPEDITION. 237 



steamer from thence, and telegraphed for permission 

 to close the bargains, he was told by the Ottawa 

 Government to do nothing in the matter, as all such 

 arrangements would be made by their own agents. 

 The result was, that instead of starting about the 

 end of the first week in May, the first detachment 

 of the expeditionary force did not leave Collingwood 

 for Thunder Bay until the 21st of that month. 



The steamers used on these great Canadian lakes 

 are a sort of cross between the ocean-going and the 

 ordinary American river-steamboats. They have their 

 state-rooms and their bars, so that in calm weather 

 one can enjoy all the luxuries that are so dear to our 

 Transatlantic cousins ; whilst their hulls are strongly 

 built, and capable of enduring the heavy weather 

 so often encountered on these inland seas. The 

 scenery has been so frequently described, that we 

 make no apology for landing the reader without 

 more ado, together with the expeditionary force, on 

 the western shore of Thunder Bay, about four miles 

 north-west of where the Ivaministiquia River flows 

 into Lake Superior, the place being now known as 

 Prince Arthur's Landing. There was but a small 

 clearance in the woods when we landed, where a few 

 wooden shanties had been erected, and all around 

 the prospect was extremely desolate. One of those 

 dreadful fires which occasionally sweep over whole 

 districts in Canada, destroying houses, crops, cattle, 

 and sometimes many human lives, had raged over the 



