and started off up a
trail none too good at best. The boys, one on each side of the stern
of the boat, helped all they could, and thus they made considerable
progress, resting and carrying again and again, so that by noon the
_Jaybird_ was high and dry, and far enough indeed from the stream
which had brought her on so long a journey.

In short, they kept at this work, doubling back to portage the cargo,
and making a mid-way camp at the water, but always edging both their
boat and their baggage farther on over the trail, until in the course
of three days they actually finished the difficult portage, twelve
miles in length, alone, one man and two boys! This feat would have
been impossible for any man less powerful and determined than Alex,
and even he admitted himself to be very weary when at length they
paused not far from the scattered buildings of the old port of
Hudson's Hope.

They were now on the eastern side of the Rockies, and the river which
they had been following here took on yet a different character. It had
dropped down rapidly in the thirty miles of the canyon, and ran in a
wide flood, some hundreds of yards across, rapid and indeed violent,
but still steady in current, between banks which rose sharply to a
thousand feet in height on either side. It was easy to be seen why the
earlier traders thought they were among mountains, even before they
reached the Rockies, because from the river they really could not see
out over the country at all.

At the top of the steep bank above the river they left their boat and
most of their supplies, with the intention of waiting until the
arrival of the rest of their party. Meantime they paid a visit to the
half-abandoned trading-post. There were only two or three log houses,
where small stocks of goods sometimes were kept. There really were
two posts here, that of the Hudson Bay Company and of Revillon Freres,
but it seemed that only the Hudson Bay post was occupied in the
summer-time. Whether or not the trader in charge had any family or any
associate they could not tell, but on the door of the log building
they found a written notice saying that he was gone out bear hunting,
and did not know when he would return.

"Well, this isn't much of a settlement, young gentlemen," said Alex,
laughing, as he saw their plight. "But I think we can get through with
what supplies we have and not trouble the Company at all."

"I always thought there was a good trail from here to