34 THROUGH THE MACKEFZIE BASIN" 



much encumbered with lading; but all things being in readi- 

 ness, on the 3rd of June we took to the water, and, a photo- 

 graph of the scene having been taken, shoved off from the 

 Landing. The boats were furnished with long, cumbrous 

 sweeps, yet not a whit too heavy, since numbers of them 

 snapped with the vigorous strokes of the rowers during the 

 trip. A small sweep, passed through a ring at the stern, 

 served as a rudder, by far the best steering gear for the 

 " sturgeons," but not for a York boat, which is built with 

 a keel and can sail pretty close to the wind. Ordinarily 

 the only sail in use is a lug, which has a great spread, and 

 moves a boat quickly in a fair wind. In a calm, of course, 

 sweeps have to be used, and our first step in departure was 

 to cross the river with them, the boatmen rising with the 

 oars and falling back simultaneously to their seats vnth. per- 

 fect precision, and handling the great blades with practised 

 ease. When the opposite shore was reached, the four 

 trackers of each boat leaped into the water, and, splashing 

 up the bank, got into harness at once, and began, with 

 changes to the oars, the unflagging pull which lasted for two 

 weeks. This harness is called by the trackers " otapanapi " 

 — a Oree word — -and it must be borne in mind that scarcely 

 any language was spoken throughout this region other than 

 Cree. A little English or French was occasionally heard; 

 but the tongue, domestic, diplomatic, universal, was Cree, 

 into which every half-breed in common talk lapsed, sooner 

 or later, with undisguised delight. It was his mother 

 tongue, copious enough to express his every thought and 

 emotion, and its soft accents, particularly in the mouth of 

 woman, are certainly very musical. Emerson's phrase, 

 " fossil poetry," might be applied to our Indian languages, 

 in which a single stretched-out word does duty for a sentence. 

 But to the harness. This is simply an adjustment of 

 leather breast-straps for each man, tied to a very long track- 

 ing line, which, in turn, is tied to the bow of the boat. The 

 trackers, once in it, walk off smartly along the bank, the 



