EDMONTON TO LESSEll SLAVE LAKE ?>7 



all that, and I learnt many interesting things from this old 

 trader, who seemed taciturn in our little crowd, hut was, in 

 reality, a tower of intelligent silence beat ahout by a flood of 

 good-humoured chaff and loquacity. 



At our first night's camp we were still in sight of the 

 Landing, which looked absurdly near, considering the men's 

 hard pull; and from there messengers were sent to Baptiste 

 Lake, the source of Baptiste Creek, which joins the Atha- 

 basca a few miles up, and where there was a settlement of 

 half-breed fishermen and hunters, to procure additional 

 trackers if possible. On their unsuccessful return, at eleven 

 a.m., we started again — ^newo pishawuk, as they call it,. 

 " four trackers to the line," as before — -and early in the 

 afternoon were opposite Baptiste Creek, and, weather com- 

 pelling, rowed across, and camped there that evening. It 

 rained dismally all night, and morning opened with a strong 

 head wind and every symptom of bad weather. A survey 

 party from the Kocky Mountains, in a York boat, tarried at 

 our camp, bringing word that the ice- jam was clear in Lesser 

 Slave Lake, which was cheering, but that we need scarcely 

 look for the expected assistance. They also gave a vague 

 account of the murder of a squaw by her husband for canni- 

 balism, which afterwards proved to be groundless, and, with 

 this comforting information, sped on. 



It is ridiculously easy to go down the Athabasca compared 

 with ascending it. The previous evening a Baptiste Lake 

 hunter, bound for the Landing, set out from our camp at a 

 great rate astride of a couple of logs, which he held together 

 with his legs, and disappeared round the bend below in a 

 twinkling. A priest, too, with a coinpanion, arrived about 

 dusk in a canoe, and set off again, intending to beach at the 

 Landing before dark. 



Of course, several surmises were current regarding the 

 non-arrival of our trackers, the most likely being Bishop 

 Grouard's, that, as the R. C. Mission boats and men had not 

 come down either, the Indians and half-breeds were too- 

 intent upon discussing the forthcoming treaty to stir. 



