This song strangely popped into my head tonight while brushing my teeth! Canadian Brownie and Girl Guide from Vancouver, British Columbia, and I remember singing this song at Camp Tsoona in the 80s (82 to 89 I think.) We were told it was written by a BC Girl Guide who was dying of cancer at the Vancouver hospital and she could see the barges off in the distance on the Fraser River and beyond. It made sense to me at the time, the river WAS visible from certain areas of the hospital. We also hummed the last verse because the dying girl never got to finish her song. We sang it in the round--two groups of girls starting the song at different times. It was lovely and it would tarnish a childhood memory to know that the dying girl story was not true!