e a cake or something. Other boys and Uncle Dick
very nice to me. Went out into the lake, but did not dare to
chance the waves, so came back in the channel. Our captain
is uneasy because he is afraid the independent traders will
get into Resolution before we do. Some competition even
here. Wind dropped at 9 P.M. We could have gone on, but the
Hudson's Bay always waits if it gets a chance.

"_Sunday, June 29th._--The _St. Marie_ and the _Caribou_, an
independent trading-boat, both sighted. Both probably will
beat us in to Resolution.

"_Monday, June 30th._--Loafed another day. Other boats
passed out at night. We started out late. Pulled the nose
out of our sturgeon nose scow and she began to settle. All
that the men and three pumps could do to keep her from
sinking. Got her in shallow water at last and tried to patch
her up. This was the Fort Nelson cargo, and it is ruined.
Boat covered with smeared calico and blankets and everything
else, hung up to dry. Pretty mess they will have at Fort
Nelson--but this is all they'll have for another year!
Nobody seems to care.

"_Tuesday, July 1st._--Anchored off Fort Resolution, and
went ashore. Indian tepees all over the beach. Hundreds of
dogs. Two trading-posts here, a mission school, and a
church. Mixed scenes, mostly savage. There is a York boat
down from Fort Rae. Says they are starving there. Plenty of
fish here. Hudson's Bay boat lost in this race. Independent
goods are now eighty miles farther down the river than we
are. Left a Mounted Policeman and a scientist here. No
Mounted Policeman ever had a horse up here.

"They say that the damaged cargo in the Fort Nelson boat
will lose half its value. Fort Nelson is up the Liard
River, and it takes twenty-five days of tracking from the
mouth of the Liard in the Mackenzie.

"As we go down the edge of the Great Slave Lake--the big
river runs through it--everything is quiet and the sky is
bright. Once in a while we see a belt of clear water now.
Have been on muddy water ever since we started out at
Athabasca Landing. Fort Resolution as we leave it under the
morning sun makes a pretty picture.

"All sorts of people on the boat. One Oxford man, an
interpreter and Indian agent, and his five breed children.
Another ex-Indian