EDMONTON TO LESSEE SLAVE LAKE 35 



men on board keeping the boats clear of it, and, on a fair 

 path, with good water, make very good time. Indeed, the 

 pull seems to give an impetus to the trackers as well as to 

 the boat, so that a loose man has to lope to keep up with 

 them. But on bad paths and bad water the speed is sadly- 

 pulled down, and, if rapids occur, sinks to the zero of a 

 few miles a day. The " spells " vary according to these cir- 

 cumstances, but half an hour is the ordinary pull between 

 " pipes," and there being no shifts in our case, the stoppages 

 for rest and tobacco were frequent. At this rate we cal- 

 culated that it would take eight or ten days to reach the 

 mouth of Lesser Slave Kiver. Mr. d'Eschambault and my- 

 self, having experienced the crowded state of the first and 

 second boats, and foregathered during the trip, decided tO' 

 take up our quarters on the scow, which had no awning, but 

 which offered some elbow room and a tolerably cozy nook 

 amongst the cases, bales and baggage with which it was 

 encumbered. 



We had a study on board, as well, in our steersman,. 

 Pierre Cyr, which partly attracted me — a bronzed man, 

 with long, thin, yet fine weather-beaten features, frosty 

 moustache and keenly-gazing, dry, gray eyes — a tall, slim 

 and sinewy man, over seventy years of age, yet agile and firm 

 of step as a man of thirty. Add the semi-silent, inward 

 laugh which Cooper ascribes to his Leather-Stocking, and 

 you have Pierre Cyr, who might have stood for that immor- 

 tal's portrait. That he had a history I felt sure when I 

 first saw him seated amongst his boatmen at the Landing,, 

 and, on seeking his acquaintance, was not surprised to learn 

 that he had accompanied Sir John Eichardson on his last 

 journey in Prince Eupert's Land, and Dr. Eae on his 

 eventful expedition to Eepulse Bay, in 1853, in search of 

 Franklin. He looked as if he could do it again— a vigorous, 

 alert man, ready and able to track or pole with the best — a 

 survivor, in fact, of the old race of Eed Eiver voyageurs, 

 whose record is one of the romances of history. 



