exception of the Factor's house, all the buildings were of rough-hewn
logs plastered with clay. Around the sweeping bend of the bay was a
village of tepees in which the Indian fur hunters and their families
spend their midsummer. Crowning a knoll in the rear stood a quaint
little church with a small tin spire glistening in the sun, and capped
by a cross that spread its tiny arms to heaven. On the hill in the
background the time-worn pines swayed their shaggy heads and softly
whispered to that, the first gentle touch of civilization in the
wilderness.

Presently, at irregular intervals, guns were discharged along the
shore, beginning at the point nearest the canoe and running round the
curve of the bay to the Indian camp, where a brisk fusillade took
place. A moment later the Hudson's Bay Company's flag fluttered over
Fort Consolation. Plainly, the arrival of our canoe was causing
excitement at the Post. Trader Spear laughed aloud:

"That's one on old Mackenzie. He's taking my canoe for that of the
Hudson's Bay Inspector. He's generally due about this time."

From all directions men, women, and children were swarming toward the
landing, and when our canoe arrived there must have been fully four
hundred Indians present. The first to greet us was Factor Mackenzie--a
gruff, bearded Scotsman with a clean-shaven upper lip, gray hair, and
piercing gray eyes. When we entered the Factor's house we found it to
be a typical wilderness home of an officer of the Hudson's Bay Company;
and, therefore, as far unlike the interiors of furtraders' houses as
shown upon the stage, movie screen, or in magazine illustration, as it
is possible to imagine. Upon the walls we saw neither mounted heads
nor skins of wild animals; nor were fur robes spread upon the floors,