264 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



hold the perishable stores, could be obtained. A 

 wharf was soon run out into deep water, alongside of 

 which the boats were to be loaded. A cooper's shop 

 was established, where all the barrels that had re- 

 ceived injury during their many changes from carts 

 to boats, and vice versa, were re-hooped, those from 

 which the brine had leaked being refilled. Carpenters 

 were hard at work repairing the boats, many of which 

 leaked considerably, all having suffered more or less 

 from the sharp-pointed rocks of the Kaministiquia. 

 According to the arrangements made with the Cana- 

 dian authorities, the boats were to have been handed 

 over to us complete with all their own stores ; but 

 unfortunately, from want of an organised system, 

 and from the lack of an efficient staff to carry out 

 the instructions received from Ottawa, the details of 

 all such arrangements throughout the progress of the 

 Expedition invariably fell to the ground. The result 

 was, that according as every six or eight boats ar- 

 rived daily, they had to be fitted with rowlocks, 

 masts, sails, rudders, &c. : those made for each indi- 

 vidual boat were not to be found ; the onus of fitting 

 out the boats devolved upon the troops, each cap- 

 tain looking after the equipment for the boats of 

 his own brigade. This occasioned some delay ; for 

 as the boats were of many different models and sizes, 

 rudders, &c., required much alteration before they 

 could be made to fit boats of a different class from 

 those for which they had been constructed. 



