reat route to the mouth
of the Mackenzie River. The supplies intended for each boat,
therefore, went into the proper boats. All the cargo intended for
Uncle Dick's party was marked in black, "M. S.," in courtesy to the
name of this boat, the _Midnight Sun_, which carried no number at all.

"We'll not go as heavily loaded as some of the others," Uncle Dick
explained, "although it is only courteous that we should take all we
can, since transportation is so hard. We need only enough to take us
to the mouth of the river and over the Rat Portage to the Yukon. Of
course we'll forget all about our boat when we get below the rapids,
but they'll tow her down alongside the steamer.

"I have told you," he went on, "that this is a starving country. Now
you can see why. They can't possibly carry into that far-away region
as much stuff as they need to eat and to wear. The Company does the
best it can, and so do all these mission men do the best they can.

"Now you see how the brigade goes north--not in birch-bark canoes, but
in scows, to-day. The scow has even taken the place of the old York
boat. That was the boat which they formerly used on the Saskatchewan
and some of these rivers for their up-stream work. It's a good deal
like a Mackinaw boat. You'll see here, too, one or two scows with
blunt ends, such as they call the 'sturgeon' nose. They tow a little
easier than the square-ended scow. But these new square-facers are
the best things in the world for going down-stream with the current."

"Hadn't we better get our packs ready?" asked Rob, methodical as ever.

"Yes," replied their leader, "you ought to get the bed rolls made up
and the tent in its bag before very long. I don't think we'll be
started a great while before sundown, but we'll get ready.

"It's enough to get ready," he continued. "Don't carry your own stuff
down to the boats."

"Why not?" asked John, curiously. "We can do it easily enough."

"Well, you're in another sort of country now," said Uncle Dick to him,
quietly. "Follow customs of the country. You must remember that the
Hudson's Bay Company is a very old monopoly, and it has its own ways.
Always it treats the natives as though they were children and it was
the Great Father. A factor is a sort of king up here. He wouldn't
think of carrying a pound of his own luggage for anything in the
world. If he began that sort of thing the natives would not respect
him as their _bourgeois_."

"_Bourgeois?_ What do