94 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



preters. A heavy storm of wind and rain 

 from the north-east again delayed us till the 

 morning of the 13th. The account we had 

 received at York Factory of the numerous 

 stores at Cumberland House proved to be 

 very erroneous. The most material stores 

 we received did not amount, in addition to 

 our own, to more than two barrels of 

 powder, a keg of spirits, and two pieces of 

 tobacco, with pemmican for sixteen days. 



The crew of Dr. Richardson's canoe con- 

 sisted of three Englishmen and three Cana- 

 dians, and the other carried five Canadians ; 

 both were deeply laden, and the waves ran 

 high on the lake. No person in our party 

 being well acquainted with the rivers to the 

 northward, Mr. Conolly gave us a pilot, 

 on condition that we should exchange him 

 when we met with the Athabasca brigade 

 of canoes. At four A.M. we embarked. 



We soon found that birchen-bark canoes 

 were not calculated to brave rough weather 

 on a large lake, for we were compelled to 

 land on the opposite border, to free them 

 from the water which had already saturated 



