mmand of the
_Beaver_, and Captain Home, retiring to one of the Company's forts
on Columbia River, perished in 1837 in Death's Rapids by the
upsetting of a boat. From that period until the steamer passed into
the hands of the Imperial hydrographers, the history of the
_Beaver_ was that of most of the Company's trading vessels. She
ran north and south, east and west, collecting furs and carrying
goods to and from the stations for many years. Amongst the best known
of her officers during that period were Capt. Dodds, Capt. Brotchie,
Capts. Scarborough, Sangster, Mouat and others, all of whom passed
away long since, but have left their names behind them. We believe
we are correct in saying that not a single person who came out in
the _Beaver_ in 1835 is now alive; and nearly all the Company's
officers, with a few exceptions, who received her on her arrival at
Columbia River, are gone, too.

[Portrait: Captain "Willie" Mitchell.]

"Yesterday, through the courtesy of Capt. Rudlin (one of her new
owners and future commander) we visited the old ship. On board we met
the venerable Captain William Mitchell, who has had charge of the
vessel for some years. He was busily engaged in packing his clothes
into chests preparatory to going ashore. He remembers well the
_Beaver_ in her early days. Every room, every plank possesses
historic interest to him. He pointed out the Captain's room. 'Just
the same,' said he, 'as when I first saw it in '36. There's the chest
of drawers, there's the bunk, and there's the hook where the
Captain's pipe hung, and many's the smoke I've had in these cabins
nearly forty years ago. Nothing below has been changed,' continued
Captain Mitchell, 'except--except the faces that used to people these
rooms in the days long ago, and'--pointing to his thin, gray
locks--'I was a deal younger then!' He led the way into the
engine-room, chatting pleasantly as he went and relating incidents
connected with the _Beaver_ and her dead people of an interesting
character which we may some day give to the world. There are two
engines, of seventy-five horse-power, as bright and apparently as
little worn as when they first came from the shop of Bolton and Watt.
From some cuddy hole the Captain drew forth the ship's bell, on which
was inscribed '_Beaver_, 1835;' then he showed us into the little
forecastle with the hammock-hooks still attached to the timbers, from
which had swung two generations of sailors. Then the main deck