450 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



Saskatchewan, and that it had been dragged thither over 

 the prairies from Eed Eiver ; they looked upon it as a 

 novelty in traveling in the north-west. 



Messrs. Stewart and Anderson went in search of Sir 

 John Franklin in 1855, under the auspices of the Hon. 

 Hudson's Bay Company. They descended Back's Great 

 Fish Eiver to the Arctic Seas in bark canoes, and 

 obtained some relics near Point Ogle ; they also met 

 Esquimaux in the vicinity of Montreal Island who had 

 actually seen the whites, and who confirmed the account 

 which had been previously given to Dr. Eae. 



Sunday, August Ibth. — -A beautiful day. Another 

 brigade from Methy Portage came in and left about noon 

 to-day ; bound for York Factory under the pilotage of 

 the veteran guide, L'Esperance. The guide's boat con- 

 tained a gentleman in the Company's service, from the 

 McKenzie Eiver district, who was proceeding to Montreal 

 by the round-about way of York Factory and England. 



August 16th. — We left Cumberland this morning in 

 our new craft, a three-fathom birch-bark carloe. Not 

 being so deep nor of the same beam as the old one, our 

 load of baggage, instruments, and provisions, sank it to 

 within a few inches of the gunwale, rendering it rather 

 unsafe in a heavy sea. I succeeded in getting an Indian 

 guide, through the kindness of Mr. Stewart, but could not 

 prevail upon him to accompany us farther than the Grand 

 Eapid, which ultimately proved fortunate for us, as, had 

 he continued with our party, the pemmican, upon which 

 we had now solely to depend till we reached Eed Eiver, 

 would have been exhausted much sooner than it was. 

 We returned to the Saskatchewan via Big Stone Eiver ; 

 and passed the mouth of Tearing Eiver about fourteen miles 

 further down. Between the mouths of these rivers, the Sas- 

 katchewan flows occasionally among low alluvial islands, 



