46 THROUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN 



how often the same service, these same chants and canticles, 

 had awakened the sylvan echoes in like solitudes on the St. 

 Lawrence and Mississippi in the old days of exploration and 

 trade, and of missionary zeal and suffering. It recalled, too, 

 the thought of man's evanescence and the apparent fixedness 

 of his institutions. 



Shortly after our tents were pitched a boat drifted past 

 with five jaded-looking men aboard — more baffled Klondikers 

 returning from Peace Eiver. We had heard.; of numbers in 

 the interior who could neither go on nor return, and expected 

 to meet more castaways before we reached the lake. In this 

 we were not astray, and several days after in jthe upper river 

 we met a York boat loaded with them — alert and unmistak- 

 able Americans, but with the worn features of disappointed 

 men. 



We were now constantly encountering the rapids, which 

 extended for about twenty-five miles, and very difiicult and 

 troublesome they proved to be to our heavily-loaded craft. 

 Most of them were got over slowly by combined poling and 

 tracking, the line often breaking with the strain, and the 

 boats being kept in the channel only by the most strenuous 

 efforts of the experienced men on board. If a monias (a 

 greenhorn) took the bow pole, as was sometimes the case, the 

 orders of our steersman, Cyr, were amusing to listen to. 

 " Tughkenay asswayegh tamook!" (Be on your guard!) 

 " Turn de oder way ! Turn yourself ! Turn your pole — Hell !" 

 Then, of course, came the customary rasp on the rocks, but, 

 if not, the cheery cry followed to the trackers ashore, 

 " Ahchipitamook !" (Haul away!) and on we would go for 

 a few yards more. Once, towards the end of this dreary 

 business, when we were all crowded into the Commissioner's 

 boat, where we took our meals, in the first really stiff rapid 

 the keel grated as usual upon the rocks. With a better line 

 we might have pulled through, but it broke, and the boat at 

 once swung broadside to the current and listed on the rocks 

 immovably, though the men struggling in the water did their 

 best to heave her off. The third boat then came up, and 



