March, 1919] 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



167 



as I did, and find that the dogs had swallowed the 

 grub pile, is no joke. The only thing one can do 

 till he gets to the next Indian house is to 'tighten 

 his belt.' I am now resting up after that trip. I 

 was to go down to Fort Simpson, but there was no 

 feed there for the dogs, so I had to give it up. 

 There is no fish for the dogs down the Mackenzie, 

 as many of the nets were lost." 



It may be said that the trip from Hay river to 

 Fort Chipewayan is considerably over three hundred 

 miles with but two posts en route. Forts Resolution 

 and Smith. So that the loss of one's provisions in 

 the terrible cold of last winter, would be indeed, 

 as Mr. Bowring puts it, "no joke". 



In a letter to Dr. Kindle, dated April 26, 1918, 

 Inspector Anderson, of the Royal North-West 

 Mounted Police, at Fort Smith, tells of a patrol 

 which he made from the latter place to Fort Simp- 

 son. He says: "I had a very hard trip on account 

 of the very cold and stormy weather and the un- 

 usual depth of snow. I escaped with a few frost- 

 bites, a common occurrence in this country. It is 

 not such a picnic travelling in winter time here. I 

 have had some tough trips in my time in the police 

 force, but this last one takes the cake. Snow has 

 been very deep and over 60 below zero on my 

 patrol. I camped at Jackfish Point at the outlet 

 of Great Slave lake without enough wood to keep 

 the fire going all night we had to let it go out ; no 

 tent, no stove; it was what you may call cold. 



"The caribou have moved away from here. One 

 thousand head in a bunch were seen crossing Great 

 Slave lake in March, going toward the Barren 

 Grounds, all females. The males will follow later. 

 Male stragglers only are left near here, about three 

 or four days out (i.e., days' journey from Fort 

 Smith). If it had not been for the caribou con- 

 siderable hardship would have been experienced 



among the natives. The snow is gradually going 

 away, and we look to the opening of Slave river 

 about the fifteenth of May." 



At the approach of spring, there comes an in- 

 terval, when the ice is breaking up, and the snow 

 is melting, when travel either by winter sledging or 

 summer canoeing becomes impossible. This period 

 varies in different places. As noted above. Slave 

 river breaks up about the middle of May. In 1917, 

 there was considerable ice in Great Slave lake on 

 June 28th, preventing the supply boats of the trad- 

 ing companies from proceeding beyond Fort Resolu- 

 tion, but by July 1, none was to be seen. The ice on 

 that portion of the Mackenzie above Fort Simpson 

 breaks up about the beginning of June, but below 

 that point, assisted by the earlier break up of the 

 Liard, the river commences to clear about the 

 middle of May. Farther down the Mackenzie, its 

 tributary. Great Bear river, opens about the first 

 week in June. Great Bear lake however, the other 

 great lake of the north, is not free of ice until the 

 middle of July, according to a memorandum re- 

 ceived by Dr. Kindle from Inspector Anderson. 

 The difference in latitude is amply reflected in the 

 dates of opening of Great Bear and Great Slave 

 lakes. 



In the winter of 1917-1918 we in Ottawa com- 

 plained of the bitterly cold weather experienced, 

 though the maximum of our discomfort was a short 

 ride in a co'd street car, and a rather constant worry 

 as to fuel. Our experience with sledging was lim- 

 ited to short hauls of a couple of bags of coal on a 

 toboggan. But, as the above letters show, our 

 troubles are rather insignificant, as compared with 

 those constantly encountered by these people of the 

 north, who labor whole-heartedly, summer and win- 

 ter, in these isolated regions. 



