32 THEOUGH THE MACKEISTZIE BASUST 



The seat of the fire was now an immense grassy circle, with 

 a low wall of blackened peat all around it. 



In the morning an endless succession of small creeks was 

 passed, screened by deep valleys which fell in from hills 

 and muskegs to the south, and at noon, jaded with slow 

 travel, we reached Athabasca Landing. A long hill leads 

 down to the flat, and from its brow we had a striking view 

 of the village below and of the noble river, which much 

 resembles the Saskatchewan, minus its prairies. We were 

 now fairly within the bewildering forest of the north, which 

 spreads, with some intervals of plain, to the 69th parallel 

 of north latitude; an endless jungle of shaggy spruce, black 

 and white poplar, birch, tamarack and Banksian pine. At 

 the Landing we pitched our tents in front of the Hudson's 

 Bay Company's post, where had stood, the previous year, a 

 big canvas town of " Klondikers." Here they made pre- 

 paration for their melancholy journey, setting out on the 

 great stream in every species of craft, from, rafts and 

 coracles to steam barges. Here was begun an episode of 

 that world-wide craze, which has run through all time, and 

 almost every country, in which were enacted deeds of dar- 

 ing and suffering which add a new chapter to the history of 

 human fearlessness and folly. 



The Landing was a considerable hamlet for such a wil- 

 derness, being the shipping point to Mackenzie River, and, 

 via the Lesser Slave Lake, to the Upper Peace. It consisted 

 of the Hudson's Bay Company's establishment, with large 

 storehouses, a sawmill, the residence and church of a 

 Church of England bishop, and a Roman Catholic station, 

 with a variety of shelters in the shape of boarding-houses, 

 shacks and tepees all around. From the number of scows 

 and barges in all stages of construction, and the high tim- 

 ber canting-tackles, it had quite a shipyard-like look, the 

 population being mainly mechanics, who constructed scows, 

 small barges, called " sturgeons," and the old " York," or 

 inland boat, carrying from four to five tons. Here, hauled 



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