friend, Captain "Wully
Mutchell," as he was called by his friends, and he had many, for he
was as jolly as a sandboy and always joking, in fact more like a man
of fifty instead of eighty, as he really was.

[Illustration: The steamer Beaver.]

"More than thirty-nine years have passed and a generation of men have
come and gone since the Hudson's Bay Company's steamer _Beaver_,
whose sale was chronicled yesterday, floated with the tide down the
River Thames, through the British Channel, and went out into the
open, trackless sea, rounded Cape Horn, clove the placid waters of
the Pacific Ocean, and anchored at length, after a passage that
lasted one hundred and sixty-three days, at Astoria on the Columbia
River, then the chief 'town' on the Pacific Coast. Built and equipped
at a period when the problem of steam marine navigation was yet to be
solved, is it any wonder that the little steamer which was
destined to traverse two oceans--one of them scarcely known outside
of books of travel--was an object of deep and engrossing interest
from the day that her keel was first laid until the morning when she
passed out of sight amidst the encouraging cheers of thousands
gathered on either shore, and the answering salvoes of her own guns,
on a long voyage to an unknown sea?

"Titled men and women watched the progress of construction. King
William and 160,000 of his loyal subjects witnessed the launch. A
Duchess broke the traditional bottle of champagne over the bow and
bestowed the name she has ever since proudly worn. The engines and
boilers, built by Bolton and Watt (Watt was a son of the great Watt)
were placed in their proper positions on board, but it was not
considered safe to work them on the passage; so she was rigged as a
brig and came out under sail. A bark accompanied her as convoy to
assist in case of accident; but the _Beaver_ set all canvas, ran
out of sight of her 'protector,' and reached the Columbia twenty-two
days ahead. Captain Home was the name of the first commander of the
_Beaver_; he brought her out, and we can well imagine the feeling
of pride with which he bestrode the deck of his brave little ship,
which carried six guns--nine-pounders. The _Beaver_, soon after
reaching Astoria, got up steam, and after having 'astonished the
natives' with her performances, sailed up to Nisqually, then the
Hudson's Bay Company's chief station on the Pacific. Here Captain
McNeil (now commander of the _Enterprise_), took co