TENDING RAPT DS. 45 
some of the boats in one of the rapids, in consequence of 
which the cargoes had to be removed by his men, and 
carried on their shoulders to the shore, the boats then 
freed, lowered past the obstruction, and reloaded. Such 
work necessarily entails considerable delay, and is of a — 
slavish character, as all hands have to work in the ice- 
cold water for hours together. 
Receiving again our four hundred pounds of supples 
from Schott, we lost no more time at Fort McMurray, 
but at seven o’clock next morning the little expedition, 
consisting now of eight men and three canoes, pushed out 
into the river, and with a parting salute sped away with 
the current, which being swift, and our canoemen fresh, 
enabled us in a short time to place many miles between 
us and the Fort. At five o'clock in the evening, having 
then descended the river a distance of about sixty miles 
we were delighted to meet the steamer Grahame on 
her up-stream trip from Fort Chippewyan to McMurray 
to receive the goods brought down the rapids by the 
scows. The steamer, being in charge of Dr. McKay, 
the Hudson’s Bay Company’s officer from Chippewyan, 
who had been informed of our expedition, was at once 
brought to a stand in the river, and we were kindly 
invited on board. When I commenced to clamber up 
the steamer’s deck, whose hand should be offered to 
assist me but that of an old friend and fellow-shipmate 
for two years in Hudson Straits, Mr. J. W. Mills. The 
acquaintance of Dr. McKay and of the Bishop of Atha- 
basea, who happened to be on board, was also made, 
and with right genial companions an hour quickly and 
very pleasantly passed. Mr. Mills, who was attired in 
the uniform of a steamboat captain, had lately been 
