os were numerous and fiercely
persistent; and before turning in, the tent was sealed as hermetically
as possible, and there ensued a general and complete killing of the
insects that remained inside.

In the forenoon of the day following, July 17, we felt ready to start.
Even if our boat could have held all our freight, which weighed perhaps
a ton, it was not wise to carry it, on account of the extreme
shallowness of the stream, it being then, according to the "sour
doughs," unprecedentedly low, due to the unusual lack of rain. So half
of the freight was intrusted to John Dejus, a French Canadian, who, with
his partner, was "going up to Council anyhow," and who agreed to freight
our belongings at what was a very reasonable figure, considering the
toil which it entailed. A certain amount of unpacking and rearranging
had to be done in order to have readily at hand cooking-utensils and
food and all the comfort that could be manufactured for the trip up the
rivers. The tow-line was eighty or a hundred feet long, with small
pieces of rope branching out near the end to throw over the shoulder and
pull from, the object being to work from the shore and keep the boat
well out in the stream, in the deeper water. Three of us pulled, and one
sat in the stern and steered with an oar. As a matter of fact, the
fellow who had the latter occupation had the hardest time of it; and, as
we progressed, there was greater enthusiasm for the end of the line than
for the "steering" position, which meant a continual jumping out into
the stream and shoving the boat off from the shore, or backing it off a
riffle and pulling and guiding its nose out against the swift, adverse
current into water perhaps an inch deeper, which saved the situation.
Hip rubber boots were essential. Undoubtedly, it was hard, exhausting
work. We met others with boats less suited to the task than ours,
apparently hopelessly stuck, pulling, hauling, shoving, and swearing. It
was frequently necessary for some unfortunates to unload their boats,
get them over a riffle, and then reload. Others would "cache" part of
their freight (deposit it by the way), and struggle onward, to return
later for the remainder. At first we got along very well pulling from
the shore, though this meant not infrequently falling over one another
when the shore developed into a bank with uneven ground, or delays and
complications arose from the protruding brush. However, as the stream
was very low, mos