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- AN HISTORIC STEAMER. 201
the hands of the Imperial hydrographers, the history of the Beaver was that of most of the Company's trading vessels. She ran north and south, east and west, collecting furs and carrying goods to and from the stations for many years. Amongst the best known of her officers during that period were Capt. Dodds, Capt. Brotchie, Capts. Scar-borough, Sangster, Mouat and others, all of whom passed away long since, but have left their names behind them. We believe we are correct in saying that not a single person who came out in the Beaver in 1835 is now alive; and nearly all the Company's officers, with a few exceptions, who received her on her arrival at Columbia River, are gone, too.
"Yesterday, through. the courtesy of Capt. Rudlin(one of her new owners and future commander) we visited the old ship. On board we met the venerable Captain William Mitchell, who has had charge of the vessel for some years. He was busily engaged in packing his clothes into chests preparatory to going ashore. He re-members well the Beaver in her early days. Every room, every plank possesses historic interest to him. He pointed out the Captain's room. `Just the same,' said he, `as when I first saw it in '36. There's the chest of drawers, there's the bunk, and there's the hook where the Captain's pipe hung, and many's the smoke I've had in these cabins nearly forty years ago. Nothing below has been changed,' continued Captain Mitchell, ` except?except the faces that used to people these rooms in the days long ago, and '?pointing to his thin, gray locks?' I was a deal younger then!' He led the way into the engine-room, chatting pleasantly as he went and relating incidents connected with the Beaver and her dead people of an interesting character which
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