hurch and Mission house had been built at Jackson's Bay,
and many of the Indians had been converted. But the village was too far
from the Hudson's Bay Company's Post, where the Indians traded, and
where naturally they gathered. For several years the work had been left
in charge of a native teacher. The people regretted the absence of an
ordained Missionary, and the place suffered accordingly. Making all the
arrangements I could for the successful prosecution of the work in my
absence, I left Norway House in a small canoe, manned by two of my
Christian Indians, one of whom was my interpreter. With this wonderful
little boat I was now to make my first intimate acquaintance. For this
wild land of broad lakes and rapid rivers and winding creeks, the birch-
bark canoe is the boat of all others most admirably fitted. It is to
the Indian denizen here what the horse is to his more warlike red
brother on the great prairies, or what the camel is to those who live
and wander amidst Arabian deserts. The canoe is absolutely essential to
these natives in this land, where there are no other roads than the
intricate devious water routes. It is the frailest of all boats, yet it
can be loaded down to the water's edge, and, under the skilful guidance
of these Indians, who are unquestionably the finest canoe men in the
world, it can be made to respond to the sweep of their paddles, so that
it seems almost instinct with life and reason. What they can do in it,
and with it, appeared to me at times perfectly marvellous. Yet when we
remember that for about five months of every year some of the hunters
almost live in it, this may not seem so very wonderful. It carries them
by day, and in it, or under it, they often sleep by night. At the many
portages which have to be made in this land, where the rivers are so
full of falls and rapids, one man can easily carry it on his head to the
smooth water beyond. In it we have travelled thousands of miles, while
going from place to place with the blessed tidings of salvation to these
wandering bands scattered over my immense Circuit. Down the wild rapids
we have rushed for miles together, and then out into great Winnipeg, or
other lakes, so far from shore that the distant headlands were scarce
visible. Foam-crested waves have often seemed as though about to
overwhelm us, and treacherous gales to swamp us, yet my faithful, well-
trained canoe men were always equal to every emergency, and by th