o this great country for wild adventure and
exciting sport, they were rather pleased than otherwise at the contrast
it thus presented in comparison with the lands they had left behind.
The fact was, they were simply delighted with the absence of the
multitude, to whom they had been so accustomed, and were at once filled
with high expectations. Sam's explanation seemed to be the sentiment of
them all when he exclaimed, "Sure if there are so few people in the
country, there will be the more bears and wolves for us all to kill!"

The work of unloading the ship was necessarily slow, and so some days
would elapse ere a brigade of boats could be prepared to take the first
cargo to Fort Garry, on the Red River. The boys had been most cordially
welcomed by Mr McTavish, the principal officer in charge at the fort,
and by him they were all entertained most hospitably at his home.

Mr McTavish was an old sportsman himself, as nearly all the Hudson Bay
Company's officials are; and so, as soon as the boys had made the
acquaintance, as they call it, of their land legs; after the heaving and
rolling of the vessel, he had an old clever Indian hunter clean up some
guns and take the boys out in the birch canoe on their first wild
hunting expedition. This first excursion was not to be a very
formidable one; it was only a canoe trip several miles up the coast, to
a place where the wild ducks and geese were numerous. Like all white
people, on their first introduction to the birch canoe, they thought it
a frail, cranky boat, and were quite disgusted with it, and some of the
tricks it played upon them, on some of their first attempts to manage
it. For example, Frank, who prided himself on his ability in pulling an
oar, and in managing the ordinary small skiffs or punts on his native
waters, seeing the light, buoyant canoe at the side of the little
launch, boldly sprang into it, as he would into an ordinary boat of its
size in the Mersey.

To his utter amazement, and the amusement of the others he suddenly
found himself overbalanced and struggling in the waves on the other
side. Fortunately, the water was not more than four feet deep, and he,
being a good swimmer, was soon up and at once gave chase for the canoe,
which had now floated out several yards from the shore. In this he was
encouraged by the laughter and shouts of his comrades and others, who,
seeing that no harm had come to him from his sudden spill out of the
light boat, we