DOWN THE ATHABASCA 



ever, the find is, of course, always destroyed. The news of 

 the arrival of the scows was welcomed by us, not because of 

 anything they brought with them, but because we expected 

 to obtain directions from Schott regarding the running of the 

 many rapids in the river ahead, and arrange with him for the 

 transport of the bulk of our canoe loads to Fort McMurray,. 

 below the rapids. After some consideration, rather less than 

 most Indians require to take, these matters were arranged,, 

 and all but our instruments, tents, blankets and three or four 

 days' provisions were handed over to Schott. 



On the evening of the 4th, the steamer Athabasca also put 

 in an appearance, and made fast to the shore a little above 

 the scows. Grand Rapids was no longer an uninhabited wil- 

 derness, but had now become transformed into a scene of 

 strange wild life. Large dark, 

 savage-looking figures, many 

 of them bare to the waist, and 

 adorned with head-dresses of 

 fox-tails or feathers, were 

 everywhere to be seen. Some 

 of them, notably those of the 

 Chipewyan tribe, were the 

 blackest and most savage-look- 

 ing Indians I had ever seen. 

 As it was already nearly night 

 when the last of them arrived 

 by the steamer, the work of 

 transhipping was left for the 

 morning. In the dark woods 

 the light of camp-fires began soon to appear, and around 

 them the whole night long the Indians danced and gambled, 

 at the same time keeping up their execrable drum music. 



At daylight the next morning the overhauling of cargoes 

 was commenced. One by one the scows were loosened and 

 piloted down the middle of the rapid to the wharf at the head 



31 



ENGLISH-CHIPEWYAN 

 HALF-BREED. 



