The boat's crew was under the command of the steersman, who sat on a raised platform in the stern of the boat. At the portages it was the part of the steersman to raise each piece from the ground and place two of them on the back of each tripsman, to be held in place by the "portage strap" on the forehead. It will be seen that the position of the captain was no sinecure. One of the eight tripsmen was known as "bowman." In running rapids he stood at the bow, and with a light pole directed the boat, giving information by word and sign to the steersman. The position of less responsibility though great toil was that of the "middlemen," or rowers. When a breeze blew, a sail hoisted in the boat lightened their labours. The captain or steersman of each boat was responsible to the "guide," who, as a commander of the brigade, was a man of much experience, and consequently held a position of some importance. Such were the means of transport over the vast water system of Rupert's Land up to the year 1869, although some years before that time transport by land to St. Paul in Minnesota had reached large proportions. Since the date named, railway and steamboat have directed trade into new channels, for even Mackenzie River now has a Hudson's Bay Company steamboat. CART AND CAYUSE. The lakes and rivers were not sufficient to carry on the trade of the country. Accordingly, land transport became a necessity. If the Ojibway Indians found the birch bark canoe and the snow-shoe so useful that they assigned their origin to the Manitou, then certainly it was a happy thought when the famous Red River cart was similarly evolved. These two-wheeled vehicles are entirely of wood, without any iron whatever. The wheels are large, being five feet in diameter, and are three inches thick. The felloes are fastened to one another by tongues of wood, and pressure in revolving keeps them from falling apart. The hubs are thick and very strong. The axles are wood alone, and even the lynch pins are wooden. A light box frame, tightened by wooden pegs, is fastened by the same agency and poised upon the axle. The price of a cart in Red River of old was two pounds. The harness for the horse which drew the cart was made of roughly-tanned ox hide, which was locally known as "shagganappe." The name "shagganappe" has in later years been transferred to the small-sized horse used, which is thus called a "shagganappe pony." The carts were drawn by single ponies, or in some cases by stalwart oxen. These oxen were harnessed and wore a collar, not the barbarous yoke which the ox has borne from time immemorial. The ox in harness has a swing of majesty as he goes upon his journey. The Indian pony, with a load of four or five hundred pounds in a cart behind him, will go at a measured jog-trot fifty or sixty miles a day. Heavy freighting carts made a journey of about twenty miles a day, the load being about eight hundred pounds.