30 THEOUGH THE MACKENZIE BASi:tT 



thing more to be said. It has an old fort, or, rather, por- 

 tions of one, for the vandalism which has let disappear 

 another, and still more historic, stronghold, is manifest here 

 as well. And truly, what savage scenes have been enacted 

 on this very spot ! What strife in the days of the rival com- 

 panies ! Edmonton is a city still marked by the fine savour 

 of the " Old-Timers," who meet once a year to renew asso- 

 ciations, and for some fleeting but glorious hours recall the 

 past on the great river. Age is thinning them out, and by 

 and by the remainder man will shake his " few, sad, last 

 gray hairs," and slip out, too. But the tradition of him, it 

 is to be hoped, will live, and bind his memory forever to 

 the soil he trod, when all this Western world was a wilder- 

 ness, each primitive settlement a happy family, each unit an 

 unsophisticated, hospitable soul. 



To our mortification we found that our supplies, season- 

 ably shipped at Winnipeg, would not arrive for several days ; 

 a delay, to begin with, which seemed to prefigure all our 

 subsequent hindrances. Then rain set in, and it was the 

 afternoon of the 29th before Mr. Round could get us off. 

 Once under way, however, with our thirteen waggons, there 

 was no trouble save from their heavy loads, which could not 

 be moved faster than a walk. Our first camp was at Stur- 

 geon Eiver — ^the Namao Sepe of the Crees — a fine stream 

 in a defile of hills clothed with poplar and spruce, the for- 

 mer not quite in leaf, for the spring was backward, though 

 seeding and growth in the Edmonton District was much 

 ahead of Manitoba. The river flat was dotted with clumps 

 of russet-leaved willows, to the north of which our waggons 

 were ranged, and soon the quickly pitched tents, fires and 

 sizzling fry-pans filled even the tenderfoot with a sense of 

 comfort. 



ISText morning our route lay through a line of low, broken 

 hills, with scattered woods, largely burnt and blown down 

 by the wind; a desolate tract, which enclosed, to our left, 

 the Lily Lake — Asctitamo Sakaigon— a somewhat marshy- 



