28 ACROSS THE SUB-ARCTICS OF CAR Ams 
rocky. From the foot of the island in the Grand Rapid 
the scows are then floated down the river, with more 
or less difficulty, according to the height of water, 
through the long succession of rapids to Fort MceMur- 
ray, where they are met by the second steamer, the 
Grahame, which receives their freight and carries it 
down the river to Fort Chippewyan on Lake Athabasca, 
and thence onward to Fort Smith, on Great Slave River, 
where a second transhipment has to be made over 
about sixteen miles of rapids. From the lower end of 
these rapids the steamer Wrigley, under the command 
of Captain Mills, takes charge of the cargo and delivers 
it at the various trading-posts along the banks of the 
Mackenzie River, for a distance of about twelve hundred 
miles, to the Arctic Ocean. 
But to return to our camp at the head of the Grand 
Rapid. Inspector Howard and his men proved to be in- 
teresting companions. I soon discovered, to my surprise, 
that the Inspector was a cousin of my wife’s, and that I 
had met him in former years in Toronto. Meeting with 
even so slight an acquaintance in such a place was in- 
deed a pleasure; and in justice to the occasion a banquet, 
shall I call it, was given us, at which moose-steak and 
bear-chops cut a conspicuous figure. In conversation 
with the Inspector some information was obtained re- 
garding the character of the rapids now before us, and 
all such was carefully noted, since none of our party 
had ever run the Athabasca. We had with us the re- 
ports of William Ogilvie, D.L.S., and Mr. McConnell, who 
had descended the river and published much valuable 
information regarding it, but even they could not alto- 
gether supply the place of a guide. We were putting 
