Volume 4, 1951 - The Arctic Circle - Home

York boats, pointed at both ends like a canoe, and of
.8hallow draught, were the answer to a demand for a type of
boat light enough to be taken on rollers over the many inand
portages, seaworthy enough to navigate large bodies of
ter such as Lake Winnipeg, and commodious enough to carry
heavy cargo of furs, together with a crew of eight or nine
voyageurs. The boat was steered by a foreman standing in
·thestern, sweep in hand, and chanting out the rhythm for
the crew, each of whom managed a single, heavy sweep, bracing
·h1sfeet and rising from his seat during the course of each
power stroke. There was much rivalry, good-natured and other-
1ae, among the members of York boats when travelling in
convoy. Crews of the first boats to arrive at portages would
normally work together to get the boats over, but it often
happened that the crew of the last boat was left to shift
tor itself. The voyageurs were picked for their toughness,
but the work was killing, the customary portage load was
'twohundred pounds, the rations consisted of flour, lard,
;andtea, and the men were more often .soaked to the skin than
~. The useful life of a boatman was short, but carried a
definite prestige during that time.
It was in York boats that Lord Selkirk's Irish
oolonists, in 1812, travelled from York Factory to Norway
Bouse and down Lake Winnipeg, to found Red River Settlement.
Borway House receives its name from a group of Norwegians
oommissioned to build a "winter road" between there and York
lactory. They later received help from colonists driven
trom the settlement by the massacre at Seven Oaks in 1816,
but the road did not prove feas ible, and no traces remain
ot Swampy Lake House, a former supply de pot on Swampy Lake,
or of Rock Lake House, at the first of the rapids encountered
on the trip inlando York Factory itse1f is n~N merely a
distribution point for a few small stations sorne hundred
miles distant.
The first botanical collections along the Hayes-
Eohimamish route were made by John Richardson, a member of
l.ranklin's overland expeditions of 1819-22 and 1825-27.
Also with Franklin was George Back, who used the route during
the return trip of his 1833-35 expedition in search of John
Ross. ln 1845, John Rae, who later discovered relies of
f.ranklin's ill-fated third expedition, travelled down the
Hayes to York Factory, and made a collection of plants
between there and Churchill. The most recent collection of
,plants made along the route before the writer's 1949 expe-
4it1on is apparently that of Robert Bell, who, in 1880, made
a geological survey of the country b8tv:scm Lake Winnipeg and
Hudson Bay n The plants were d6ts:~illinedby John Macoun, the
tirst botanist of the Geolog~cal Survey of Canada, and founder
of the National He:rbs.T ':"um~