On the 3rd of June, 1863, we left Edmonton, amid the good wishes of the kind friends we had made there. But although they cheerfully wished us God speed, we found from the men that public opinion at the Fort had decided that our expedition would certainly end most disastrously,[7] for they considered that the party was too small, and comprised too many ineffectives, to succeed in overcoming the difficulties we must necessarily encounter. We were not much disheartened by these croakings, however, and started for St. Alban’s in the afternoon. Here we were joined by our friend Mr. O’B., who had walked on the night before to see the priest, and suffered dreadful anxiety at our non-appearance until dusk. The next day we stayed at St. Alban’s, exchanging some lean horses for fatter ones. Just before dark Mr. O’B. came to us, and begged us to move on that evening, as the next day would be the 5th of June, the anniversary of his departure from Red River, in the first portion of his journey to British Columbia, which had proved so unfortunate, and he felt a superstitious dread of the coincidence. However, it was already too late, and Mr. O’B. had the opportunity of verifying the truth of his presentiments. The road to Lake St. Ann’s passed through a fertile and park-like country for about fifty miles, but at St. Ann’s the thick forest commences, which extends far to the north, and westward to the mountains. St. Ann’s was, doubtless, chosen as the site for a settlement on account of the immense number of the _core-gonus_, or white-fish, furnished by the lake, forming the staple food of the inhabitants; but it is ill adapted for farming, on account of the timber, which has been very partially cleared away for little fields of potatoes and grain. This disadvantage has already been felt by the settlers, many of whom have migrated to the more promising site of St. Alban’s. The lake is a pretty sheet of water, several miles in length, its shores dotted on the western side by forty or fifty houses, and a church. Mr. Colin Fraser, the Company’s officer, treated us very kindly, gave us milk, potatoes, and delicious fresh white-fish, and amused us over our evening pipes by stories of the good old times, when the wood buffalo were found in plenty as far as Peace River, and game so abundant that starvation was unknown. He had been thirty-eight years in the country, seventeen of which he had spent as the solitary host of Jasper House, and told us that Cariboo deer and bighorns were so numerous when he first went there, that a “green hand” and a boy supplied the establishment with ample provision during one winter, when the regular hunter had died. Mr. Fraser had not seen Fort Garry for thirty years, and for fifteen had not been further than Edmonton, yet he was happy and contented as possible.