Seasons and Equipment 51 



Grounds, which is reached, as I have shown, by 

 means of short portages and a chain of lakes, 

 starting from the northeast corner of Great Slave 

 Lake, and following Lockhart's River. If you 

 are not delayed and do not get too far into the 

 Barren Grounds, you would stand a chance of get- 

 ting out and back to Athabasca Landing on the 

 water ; but everything would have to go your 

 way and the trip be most expeditious in order 

 to do this. If you were not out in time to go 

 by open water, it would necessitate a nine hun- 

 dred mile snow-shoe trip, or laying over until the 

 following spring when the ice broke up again. 

 The Canadian government has protected musk- 

 oxen for several years, and in order to hunt, one 

 must be provided with a special permit from that 

 government. The protection of the musk-ox 

 seems scarcely necessary, for although the polar 

 expeditions have slaughtered a great many on 

 Greenland and on the Arctic islands, the killing 

 of them in the Barren Grounds proper never has 

 been, and never will be, sufiBciently large to give 

 concern to the Canadian government. The musk- 

 ox is of a genus that seems to be a declining type 

 among the world's animals, but if extinction 

 comes to those in the Barren Grounds, it cer- 



