“John,” said Jesse, at last, as he drew a full breath of warm yet invigorating air, “how is your map coming along?”
“Pretty well,” replied John. “I’ve got everything charted this far. Look here how I’ve put down our journey through the rapids of the Slave River; we zigzagged all about. I put down the rocks and the biggest headlands, so I think I’ve got it pretty close to correct. I wonder how we ever got through there, and how the old Company men first went through.”
“Two boats came through directly over the big rapids which we didn’t dare tackle,” said Rob. “They were tenderfeet, and they don’t know to this day how lucky they were.”
“Well, we were lucky enough, too,” said John, “for in spite of our bad omens at Chippewyan, everything has come through fine. Here we are, all ready for our last great swing to the North. Look here on the map, fellows—I always thought that the Mackenzie River ran straight north up to the Arctic Ocean, but look here—if you start from where we are right now, and follow the Great Slave River on out through Great Slave Lake, you’ll find it runs almost as much west as it does north. It lurches clear over toward Alaska, although it’s all on British ground.”
Jesse expressed his surprise at seeing so many “common-looking people,” as he called it, up here in the fur country, where he had expected to find only gaudily dressed traders and trappers; but Rob, who had observed more closely, explained some of this to him.
“A good many of these people,” he said, “are simply drifters who intend to live any way they can. They make a sort of fringe on the last thrust of west-bound settler folk; there is always such a wave goes out ahead of the permanent settlers.
“Not that they can settle this country permanently. They tell me that they raise potatoes even north of here, and, as you know, they raise fine wheat at Chippewyan; but this will never be an agricultural country. No, it’s the country of the fur trade—always has been, and I hope and believe always will be.”
“Well,” said John, drawing himself up to his full height, “I’m for a little more excitement. It’s getting slow here, watching the people load the boats.”
As to what did happen in the way of interest to our travelers, Rob’s diary will serve as well as anything to explain their experiences for the next few days: