The same official on March 15th, 1828, pleads with Montreal: 

“The white beads demanded for the Loucheux trade I hope will be sent, and of the size according to sample enclosed.  May I use the freedom of representing the importance of getting this article to the liking of the Indians, to come up by the Montreal canoes and be ready for outfit 1829?  Three kegs will contain the quantity required, 200 to 250 pounds.”

Again on the 29th of November, 1829, he writes Montreal: 

“The White Beads asked for the trade with the Loucheux are not according to the order sent, 15 pounds only of the quantity received (200 pounds) are of the proper size, the remainder being the same as those in outfit 1825 so much complained of.  They will not be satisfactory to the Indians.  We request you will be pleased to make a strong representation to their Honours at Home that this article be sent according to order and sample.  We now conceive to say anything further would be tiresome.”

The Fort Simpson Factor on March 19th, 1830, reports to Montreal: 

“The goods came.  The white beads was too small and not according to order or sample asked for.  The Indians would not take them and left the Fort dissatisfied.”

The Trader at Fort Good Hope augments the story by recording that the Indians would be better pleased in trade with two small kegs of the special beads they wanted than with half a ton of any other trade goods which London could manufacture and send out.  The sequel of the story is that, disappointed time and again in not getting their favourite beads, the Loucheux Indians failed to bring in the autumn supply of meat to Fort Good Hope and in consequence, before the snows of the winter of 1831 had melted, many of the white men attached to that post died of starvation.

[Illustration:  The Keele Party on the Gravel River]

We had gone North with the birds in spring and now, as we turn our faces homeward, the first migrants with strong wing are beginning their southward flight.  Our travel is against current now, for we make slower time than we did coming in and consequently see more of the passing shore-line.  The last specimens we gather within the Arctic Circle are the blue blossoms of the flax.  In them we see the earnest of many a cultivated farm of the future.  The days are getting perceptibly shorter and one by one the old familiar constellations come back in the heavens.  We find it a relief to have once more a twilight and a succeeding period of dusk.  Yet are we loath to leave this fascinating North with its sure future, its quaint to-days, and all the glamour of its rich past.