dominant mode of transportation. York boats were made by searching forests for suitable wood, floating the wood back to posts on waterways, and then sawing wood into keels, planks, stems, and gunnels. Trading posts had specific areas set aside for York boat building. York boats were similar in structure to Orkney Isles fishing boats, likely because many of the men employed by the Hudson's Bay Company were Orkneymen. These boats most often traveled in brigades, transporting supplies and trading goods. By the 1820s, the Hudson's Bay Company had several York boat brigades traveling distinct routes. Permanent trading posts had been built at strategic sites along the main brigade routes and as soon as the waterways were free of ice the fur brigades would carry trade goods and food supplies to replenish the various trading posts along their route and pick up the accumulation of furs caught during the winter season. They also carried mail and passengers. The boat brigades were mostly crewed by Métis as were almost all the men employed by the Hudson's Bay Company in western Canada at the time. The York boats from Red River of the Portage La Loche brigades in 1862 were crewed by French Métis with a few Swampy Cree and Chippewa Christians. In 1862, Father Émile Petitot quoted William J. Christie then the chief factor of Fort Edmonton as saying in French; "I am myself a Métis." "We are almost all Métis in the Company. Among the chief factors there is not a single Englishman, and maybe not ten Scots with pure blood." (translation) The crews of some of these fur brigades had nicknames, some derived from their dietary habits. The Red River "tripmen" were called the Taureaux. A "Taureau" is a bag of pemmican weighing about 90 pounds. The Portage La Loche brigade's tripmen were called the Poissons-blancs (whitefish) and the Saskatchewan River brigade based in Fort Edmonton the Blaireaux (badgers). Les Cygnes (the swans) were from the Swan River district based in Fort Pelly, Les Rabasca (Athabascans) from the Athabasca district based in Fort Chipewyan and Les Gens de la Grande Riviere (men of the great river) from the Mackenzie River district based in Fort Simpson. The brigades were intensely rivalrous and would frequently stage fistfights between their "champions" to defend the brigade's honor. The challenger would strut about adorned with feathers in his cap bragging about his prowess (chantant le