FORT RAE 



73 



utmost importance. Then it is that the smartest colors are 

 worn; the canoeist takes a deliberate stroke, but those beside 

 him can see the bend of the paddle-blade, and the knotting of 

 his muscles, as he grips the handle more tightly. My canoe 

 seemed disposed, at first, to travel in a circle, and as the direction 

 of the revolution could not be foretold, my companion found 

 it safer to give me a wide seaway. There was little danger of 

 capsizing, however, owing to the load which steadied the craft, 

 and I soon succeeded in making tolerable progress. 



The only shelter we had been able to get was a leaky tar- 

 paulin, through which the rain, which came up that evening, 

 dripped upon us for the next thirty-six hours, for the wind 

 held us all that time in camp. 



On the evening of the fourth day we passed a group of rocky 

 islands, occupied as a breeding place by a colony of gulls, 

 which rose at our approach and settled in the tops of the 

 slender fir trees on the mainland. The unusual perch and the 

 pretty effect of the evening sun shining upon the snow-white 

 birds, a single one crowning each dark column of needles and 

 cones, attracted even Andrew's attention. 



Early the fifth day we overtook an Indian who, accompanied 

 by his wife, was on his way to the Yellow Knife. They had 

 just stopped to cook some Hutchins' geese, and of course 

 Andrew became very hungry at sight of their fire and wished 

 to join them. The old wife in plucking the birds, transferred 

 tufts of down to her own person by frequent attention to the 

 parasites with which all the Dog Ribs are infested. Stripping 

 the viscera through her fingers and eating the choicer mor- 

 sels, she continued to scratch, thus adding grease and more dirt 

 to her grotesque crown. We continued through the winding 

 chenals (anglicized as "schnys"), among low islands, where we 

 often ran uncomfortably close to sunken rocks. The Indian 

 couple guided us the rest of the day. They had two dogs in 

 each canoe that lay quietly in the bottom until we gave chase 

 to a flock of young geese, when they threatened to capsize the 

 canoes by their attempts to stand on the gunwales. These dogs 

 are trained when young to enter the canoes when called; any 

 disposition toward restlessness is met with a vigorous rap from 

 the paddle. 



Within five miles of Yellow Knife Bay the islands became 

 larger with high and precipitous cliffs of granite. 



