DOWN THE ATHABASCA 



a wild, uninhabited place ? The answer, however, was simple. 

 The place, though without any settled habitation, is the scene 

 •of the transhipment of considerable freight on its way to the 

 various trading-posts and mission stations of the great Mac- 

 kenzie River District. The river steamer Athabasca, belong- 

 ing to the Hudson's Bay Company, was now daily looked for 

 with its load from the Landing. Mission scows, loaded with 

 freight for Tort Chipewyan and other points, were expected, 

 and free-traders' outfits were likely to arrive at any time. It 

 was for the purpose of inspecting these cargoes and prevent- 

 ing liquor from being carried down and sold for furs to the 

 Indians, that Inspector Howard and his detachment were 

 stationed here. 



From the Grand Rapid, down stream for about eighty miles 

 to Fort McMurray, the river is not navigable for steamers, 

 and so all goods have to be transported over this distance by 

 •scows built for the purpose. The head of the Grand Rapid 

 is thus the northern steamboat terminus for the southern sec- 

 tion of the river. The whole distance of eighty miles is not 

 a continuous rapid, but eleven or twelve more or less im- 

 practicable sections occur in it, so that no great length of 

 navigable water is found at any place. As its name suggests, 

 the Grand Rapid is the main rapid of the river, and has a 

 fall of seventy or eighty feet. This fall occurs mostly within 

 a distance of half a mile, though the total length of the rapid 

 is about four times that. The upper part is divided by a long 

 narrow island into two channels, and it is through these com- 

 paratively narrow spaces that the cataract rushes so wildly. 

 Above and below the island, the river may with great care 

 be navigated by the loaded scows, but the water upon either 

 side is so rough that goods cannot be passed down or up in 

 -safety. The method of transportation adopted is as follows: 

 About a mile above the island, at the head of the rapid, the 

 -steamer Athabasca ties up to the shore. There she is met by 

 a number of flat-bottomed boats or scows capable of carrying 



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