CHAPTER II.DOWN THE ATHABASCA.

The town of Athabasca Landing consists in all of six log buildings, picturesquely set in the deep and beautiful valley of one of the greatest rivers of America. Though not of imposing size, it is nevertheless an important station of the Hudson’s Bay Company, being the point from which all supplies for the many northern trading-posts along the Athabasca and Mackenzie rivers are shipped, and the point at which the furs from these places are received. In order to provide for this shipping business, the Company has a large warehouse and wharf.

It is a fact I think not very well known, that from this place up stream for about one hundred miles and down for fifteen hundred miles to the Arctic Ocean, this great waterway, excepting at two rapids, is regularly navigated by large river steamers, owned by the Hudson’s Bay Company and employed in carrying supplies for their posts and the furs which are secured in trade. Because of these two impassable rapids the river is divided into three sections, necessitating the use of three steamers, one for each section. Goods are transported from one boat to the other over the greater part of the rapids by means of scows, but for a shortdistance, at the Grand Rapid, by means of a tramway built for the purpose.

As we had previously ascertained, the steamerAthabascawas due to leave the Landing on her down-stream trip on or about the 1st of June, so, taking advantage of the opportunity, we shipped the bulk of our stuff to Fort Chippewyan, situated about three hundred and fifty miles down the river on Lake Athabasca. Everything excepting the canoes and provisions sufficient to take us to Chippewyan was loaded upon the steamer. Letters were written and sent back to Edmonton by the drivers, and on the evening of the last day of May we launched our handsome “Peterboroughs” in the great stream, and commenced our long canoe voyage.

The arrangement of the party was as follows: My brother occupied a central position in one canoe, and I a corresponding place in the other. As steersman he chose the eldest of the Iroquois, Pierre, with Michel as bowman. The remaining Iroquois, Louis, took the steering paddle of my canoe, and John, the western man, occupied the bow. Thus were our little crafts manned, each person, including my brother and myself, being provided with a broad maple paddle. Our loads being light, we were in good speeding condition. Just after launching we met some native Indians in their bark canoes, and by way of amusement and exhibition of speed paddled completely around them in the current, much to their amazement. Then with farewell salute, and the stroke of our paddles timed to the song of the canoemen, we glided swiftly down the stream.

As the start had been made late in the afternoon, not many miles were passed before it became necessary tolook for a camping place. The banks of the river, formed of boulder clay, were very high, and good landings were scarce. In places the mud on the shore was soft and deep, but about seven o’clock a landing was effected and camp pitched for the night. At this time only two small tents were used, an “A” tent for the canoemen and a wall tent, affording a little more head room, for ourselves. The banks being well wooded with white and black poplar, spruce and birch, plenty of fuel was available. A fire was soon kindled and our evening meal prepared, in the cooking of which John was given the first opportunity of distinguishing himself. He was assisted by little Michel, who proved to be a very good hand. Having some bread and biscuits in stock, baking was not yet a necessity.

The weather now being fair and cool, and the great pest of camp life, the mosquito, not having yet arrived, our experience at this time was most enjoyable. It was the season of spring, and the sweet perfume of the Balm of Gilead, so abundant in the valley of the Athabasca, permeated the air. The leaves on many of the trees were just opening, so that everywhere the woods presented a remarkable freshness and brilliancy of foliage. These were our environments at the commencement of the canoe voyage, and at our first camp on the banks of the Athabasca. How different were they to be at the other end of the journey!

On the morning of the 1st of June camp was called early, and we continued on our way. As we glided down stream a succession of grand views passed, panorama-like, before us. The banks were high, towering in some places three, four or five hundred feet above the river;here abrupt and precipitous, consisting of cut banks of stratified clay; in other places more receding, but by a gradual slope rising, beneath dense foliage, to an equal elevation.

At this season of the year the water being high and the current swift, we made good time, covering a distance of sixty miles for the first full day’s travel. About noon on the 2nd, having reached a narrow part of the river, very remarkable massive walls of ice were found upon either bank, some distance above the water’s edge. These walls were of irregular thickness, and from eight to ten feet in height; but the most striking feature about them was that they presented smooth vertical faces to the river, although built of blocks of every shape and shade from clear crystal to opaque mud. They extended thus more or less continuously for miles down the river, and had the appearance of great masonry dykes. The explanation of their existence is doubtless as follows: Earlier in the season the narrowness of the channel had caused the river ice to jam and greatly raised the water level. After a time, when the water had reached a certain height and much ice had been crowded up on the shores, the jam had given way and caused the water to rapidly lower to a considerable extent, leaving the ice grounded above a certain line. Thus the material for the wall was deposited, and the work of constructing and finishing the smooth vertical face was doubtless performed by the subsequent grinding of the passing jam, which continued to flow in the deeper channel. After the passing of the first freshet, and the formation of these great ice walls, the water had gradually lowered to the level at which we found it.

Late in the afternoon the first rapid of the trip was sighted, but the water being high we had no difficulty in running it. In the evening camp was made on a beautiful sandy beach. During supper-time we had a visit from an old Cree Indian, who came paddling up the river in a little bark canoe. Of course he landed at our camp, for it is a principle strictly observed by every Indian to lose no opportunity of receiving hospitalities, and in accordance with his ideas of propriety, refreshments were given him. He received them as those of his race usually receive all favors, as no more than his right, and without a smile or the least visible expression of pleasure, seated himself by the fire to enjoy them.

On the following morning the great walls of ice, which we had been passing for miles, began to disappear as the channel of the river became wider. At about 9.30 we reached a place known as the Rapid of the Jolly Fool. It is said to have received its name from the fact that at one time an awkward canoeman lost his life by allowing his canoe to be smashed upon the most conspicuous rock in the rapid. We wasted no time examining it, as it was reported to be an easy one, but keeping near the left bank, headed our little crafts into the rushing waters. We had descended only a short distance, and were turning a bend in the stream, when, a little ahead of us, my brother noticed moving objects on the shore. One of the men said they were wolves, while others maintained they were bears, but my brother getting his rifle in readiness, cut the discussion short by demanding silence. As we swept swiftly down with the current, the objects were seen to be a moose deer and her calf. Having no fresh meat on hand, these new-found acquaintances were hailedas “well met.” Not until our canoes had approached within about one hundred and fifty yards did the old moose, standing in the shallow water near the river bank, appear to notice us. Then, apparently apprehending danger, but without alarm, she turned toward the shore, and, followed by her calf, walked up the bank towards the woods. As she did so my brother fired from his canoe, wounding her in the hind-quarters. I then fired, but struck the clay bank above the animal’s head, and in attempting to fire again the shell stuck in my rifle, making it impossible for me to reload. Just as the moose was disappearing into the woods my brother fired again, and inflicted a body wound; but in spite of all away went the deer.

As our canoes were thrust ashore I succeeded in extracting the shell from my rifle, and leaving some of the men in charge of the canoes, my brother and I gave chase. The trail of blood was discovered on the leaves, but it led into such a jungle of fallen timber and thicket that it was no easy matter to follow. Scouts were sent out on either side, while with our rifles we followed the trail, running when we were permitted, jumping logs that came in the way, and clambering over or through windfalls that the moose had cleared at a bound. Presently through the leafy thicket we had a glimpse of our prey. Bang went both rifles and away bounded the moose with two more slugs in her body.

We were now pretty badly winded, but being anxious to complete the work we had undertaken, the chase was kept up. We knew from the wounds already inflicted that the capture was only a matter of physical endurance on our part, and we were prepared to do our best. Morethan once the trail was lost in the windfalls and jungle, but at length, getting another side view, I shot her through the heart, bringing the noble beast with a thud to the ground. Nothing had been seen of the calf since the beginning of the hunt, but going back to the shore to get assistance, I found that the men had captured and made it a prisoner beside the canoes. Taking charge of the captive myself, I sent the men into the woods to skin the deer and “pack” the meat out to shore. The little calf, which I held by the ear, was very young, and not at all wild. Indeed, though I let go my hold, the little creature did not care to go away, but kept on calling for its mother in such a pitiful way that it made me heartily sorry for having bereft it. After the space of an hour or so my brother and the men returned, well loaded with fresh meat and a fine moose-hide. The meat was placed in sacks and stowed away in the canoes, but the hide being heavy and of little value to us, was placed on a big stone in the sun to dry and await the ownership of the first Indian who should pass that way.

As it was now nearly noon, it was decided to take dinner before re-embarking, and while the cooks were devoting their attention to bannocks and moose-steaks my brother and I were debating as to what we should do with the calf. We had not the heart to deliberately shoot it, but were unable to take it with us alive, as we would like to have done. Through a suggestion of one of the men a happy alternative was decided on. Other moose were doubtless in the vicinity, so that the calling of the calf would likely attract some of them, and in the event of this taking place it was said that the little moose would attach itself to another female. With the hopethat such kind fortune would befall it, my brother, after having taken its photograph, led it away by the ear into the shelter of the woods, and there left the little creature to its fate.

During the afternoon of the same day, the head of the Grand Rapid of the Athabasca, situated just 165 miles below the Landing, was reached. Here we met a detachment of the Mounted Police, in charge of Inspector Howard; and as it was late in the day, and Saturday evening, it was decided to pitch camp. The police camp was the only other one in the neighborhood, so the first question which suggested itself was: What possible duty could policemen find to perform in such a wild, uninhabited place? The answer, however, was simple. The place, though without any settled habitation, is the scene of the transhipment of considerable freight on its way to the various trading-posts and mission stations of the great Mackenzie River District. The river steamerAthabasca, belonging to the Hudson’s Bay Company, was now daily looked for with its load from the Landing. Mission scows, loaded with freight for Fort Chippewyan and other points, were expected, and free-traders’ outfits were liable to arrive at any time. It was for the purpose of inspecting these cargoes and preventing liquor from being carried down and sold for furs to the Indians, that Inspector Howard and his detachment were stationed here.

TROOPER, N.-W. MOUNTED POLICE, IN WINTER UNIFORM.

From the Grand Rapid, down stream for about eighty miles to Fort McMurray, the river is not navigable for steamers, and so all goods have to be transported over this distance by scows built for the purpose. The head of the Grand Rapid is thus the northern steamboatterminus for the southern section of the river. The whole distance of eighty miles is not a continuous rapid, but eleven or twelve more or less impracticable sections occur in it, so that no great length of navigable water is found at any place. As its name suggests, the Grand Rapid is the main rapid of the river, and has a fall of seventy or eighty feet. This fall occurs mostly within a distance of half a mile, though the total length of the rapid is about four times that. The upper part is divided by a long narrow island into two channels, and it is through these comparatively narrow spaces that the cataract rushes so wildly. Above and below the island, the river may with great care be navigated by the loaded scows, but the water upon either side is so rough that goods cannot be passed down or up in safety. The method of transportation adopted is as follows: About a mile above the island, at the head of the rapid, the steamerAthabascaties up to the shore. There she is met by a number of flat-bottomed boats or scows capable of carrying about ten tons each, and to these the boat’s cargo is transferred. When loaded the scows are piloted one by one to the head of the island in the middle of the river, where a rough wharf is built, and to it all goods are again transferred, whence they are carried to the lower end of the island by means of a tramway. The unloaded scows, securely held with ropes by a force of men on the shore, and guided with poles by a crew on board, are then carefully lowered down stream to the foot of the island, where they again receive their loads. Accidents frequently happen in passing down the unloaded scows, for the channel (the eastern one always being chosen) is very rough androcky. 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 McMurray, where they are met by the second steamer, theGrahame, 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 steamerWrigley, 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 interesting 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 indeed 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 regarding 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 reports 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 altogether supply the place of a guide. We were putting great confidence in the skill of our Iroquois men at navigating rapids, and now in the succeeding eighty miles of the trip there would be ample opportunity of testing it.

LANDING OF SCOWS ABOVE GRAND RAPID.

On the morning following our arrival at the Grand Rapid, being the 4th of June, a number of mission scows, loaded with goods for Chippewyan and other mission stations, arrived. As they appeared, following each other in quick succession around a bend in the river, each boat manned by its wild-looking crew of half-naked Indians, all under the command of Schott, the big well-known river pilot, who is credited by Mr. Ogilvie with being the fastest dancer he has ever seen, they drew in towards the east bank, and one after the other made fast to the shore. The boats were at once boarded by Inspector Howard and his men, and a careful search made for any illegal consignments of “firewater.” Liquor in limited quantities is allowed to be taken into the country when accompanied by an official permit from the Lieut.-Governor of the Territories, but without this it is at once confiscated when found. Out of deference to those for whom these cargoes were consigned, I had better not say whether a discovery was made on this occasion or not. When confiscations are made, however, 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 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 with Schott, and all but our instruments, tents, blankets and three or four days’ provisions were handed over to him.

GRAND RAPID, ATHABASCA RIVER.

On the evening of the 4th, the steamerAthabascaalso put in an appearance, and made fast to the shore a little above the scows. Grand Rapid was no longer an uninhabited wilderness, 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 Chippewyan tribe, were the blackest and most savage-looking 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.

ENGLISH-CHIPPEWYAN HALF-BREED.

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 of the island. Here they were unloaded, and after being lightened, were lowered downthrough the boiling waters by means of lines from the shore and the assistance of poles on board, to again receive their loads at the foot of the island. Two or three scows were also similarly engaged in transporting the cargo of the steamer, of which our supplies formed part, and, much to our annoyance, there was considerable delay on account of having to repair the tramway across the island. We were informed that theGrahamecould not now reach Chippewyan before the 20th of June, which would be ten days later than we had expected to be able to leave that place. However, we could only accept the inevitable, and try to make the best use of the time.

While Schott and his crews were thus engaged with their transport, our own men were not idle. They had been told that the rapid would have to be portaged, as no canoeman would venture to run it; but having walked down the shore and themselves examined the river, the Iroquois asked and obtained permission to run it by taking one canoe down at a time. Schott and his Indians thought them mad to try such a venture, but seeming to have every confidence in their own abilities, we determined to see what they could do. John gladly chose the work of portaging along the rough boulder shore and over precipitous rocks in preference to taking a paddle, but the three Iroquois took their places, Louis in the bow, Michel in the middle, and old Pierre in the stern. As the three daring fellows pushed off from the shore into the surging stream, those of us who gazed upon them did so with grave forebodings. They had started, and now there was nothing to do but go throughor be smashed upon the rocks. Their speed soon attained that of an express train, while all about them the boiling waters were dashed into foam by the great rocks in the channel. Presently it appeared as if they were doomed to be dashed upon a long ugly breaker nearly in mid-stream; but no! with two or three lightning strokes of their paddles the collision was averted. But in a moment they were in worse danger, for right ahead were two great rocks, over and around which the tumbling waters wildly rushed. Would they try the right side or the left? Only an instant was afforded for thought, but in that instant Pierre saw his only chance and took it—heading his canoe straight for the shoot between the rocks. Should they swerve a foot to one side or the other the result would be fatal, but with unerring judgment and unflinching nerve they shot straight through the notch, and disappeared in the trough below. Rising buoyantly from the billows of foam and flying spray, they swept on with the rushing waters until, in a little eddy half-way down the rapid, they pulled in to the shore in safety. They were all well soaked by the spray and foam, but without concern or excitement returned for the second canoe. In taking this down a valise of stationery and photographic supplies, inadvertently allowed to remain in the canoe, got a rather serious wetting, but as soon as possible its contents were spread out upon the smooth clean rocks to dry. Past the remainder of the rapid a portage was made and camp pitched at the foot. While our Iroquois were thus occupied, Schott and his men had been hard at work running down their scows and hadbeen unfortunate enough to get one of them stranded on a big flat rock in the middle of the rapid. Had it not been for the timely assistance of our party and the generalship of old Pierre, he would probably never have gotten it off. As it was, the accomplishment of the task occupied our united energies for several hours.

NECK DEVELOPED BY THE TUMP-LINE.

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