—­A Pagan Hymn.

On July 14th, shortly after we leave Arctic Red River, an open scow passes us, floating northward with the stream.  It comes in close to the steamer, and we look down and see that every one of its seven occupants is sound asleep.  In traversing the Mackenzie, there is no danger of running into ferry-boats or river-locks, if you strike the soft alluvial banks here the current will soon free you and on you go.  The voyagers in the scow may sleep in peace.

At Point Separation, 67 deg. 37’ N., the Mackenzie delta begins.  Where the east and west branches diverge, the width of the river is fifty miles, the channel becoming one maze of islands, battures, and half-hidden sand-bars.  The archipelago at the Arctic edge extends a full hundred miles east and west.

The two lob-sticks at Point Separation are full of historic interest.  It was here, on the evening of July 3rd, 1826, that Sir John Franklin and Dr. Richardson parted, Franklin to trend west and Richardson east, in their mission of Arctic coastal exploration.  Twenty-two years later, Richardson, this time concerned with the Plover Relief Expedition of the lost Franklin, again visited Point Separation.  He records,

“July 30th, 1848, Point Separation.  In compliance with my instructions, a case of pemmican was buried at this place.  We dug a pit at a distance of ten feet from the best grown tree on the Point, and placed in it, along with the pemmican, a bottle containing a memorandum of the Expedition, and such information respecting the Company’s post as I judged would be useful to the boat party of the Plover should they reach this river.  The lower branches of the tree were lopped off, a part of its trunk denuded of bark, and a broad arrow painted thereon with red paint.  In performing these duties at this place, I could not but recall to mind the evening of July 3rd, 1826, passed on the very same spot with Sir John Franklin.  We were then full of joyous anticipation.”

As we look at these enduring lobsticks, we recollect that Commander Pullen, with two boats from the Plover in 1849, visited the depot and found the precious pemmican.  We leave the Mackenzie proper for the present and enter the easternmost channel of its farthest north tributary, the Peel, and follow this considerable stream thirty-three miles to Fort Macpherson, the most northerly post of the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Fort Macpherson has a striking site.  To the east, spreads a rolling wooded plain of alluvial origin, containing thousands of lakes.  The west aspect gives us an uninterrupted view of the wooded valley of the Peel, backed by a heathery slope with the northern Rockies on the far horizon.  Due north, upstarts a peak of the Rockies known locally as Black Mountain—­a dark barren spur two thousand feet in height.  A winter trail from Macpherson to Arctic Red River cuts no fewer than thirty-three small lakes.