CANOES 39 



on Hudson Bay for a state and business 

 progress across the continent to Fort Van- 

 couver on the Columbia. One of his staff, 

 Archibald Macdonald, wrote an account of it, 

 called Peace River: a Canoe Voyage from 

 the Hudson Bay to the Pacific. The best of 

 birch-barks were used to ensure speed ; though 

 the birch-bark had already been superseded 

 as a cargo craft. There was a doctor in the 

 party, which included nine voyageurs to each 

 of the two canoes. Simpson's departure was 

 the signal for a salute of seven guns, which 

 was duly repeated at every subsequent fort. 

 The whole population lined the waterside as 

 the voyageurs struck up one of their old French 

 folk-songs to beguile the way. The arrival 

 at Norway House was still more imposing. 

 The Union Jack, with the magic letters ' H. B. C. ' 

 on its fly, was hoisted, to the admiration of all 

 the whites and Indians from that most im- 

 portant neighbourhood. Simpson's party had 

 landed out of sight to put on their best clothes ; 

 after which they shot through the gorge at 

 full speed, to the strains of the bagpipes from 

 Simpson's canoe and bugles from the other. 

 At Fort St James, the central point of ' New 

 Caledonia,' the approach was made by land. 

 ' Unfurling the British Ensign, it was given 



