Dog Sledging in the North 



Winnipeg and Winnipegosis, visited by our 

 party, are as flat as the flattest portions of 

 New Jersey, and for great distances nothing 

 could be more level except possibly a billiard 

 table. It is traversed by very few rivers or 

 even creeks, there being immense stretches of 

 territory where the only guide back to camp is 

 the sun when it shines, or when it does not 

 your compass, or the dog-sled trail through the 

 snow leading to the camp. The diff"erent por- 

 tions of this region are so much alike that it is 

 almost impossible to tell one from another. 



Owing to the fact that it is very dangerous 

 to be caught out over night, with the ther- 

 mometer ranging anywhere from zero to 50 

 degrees below, we took the precaution to 

 mount a big red flag in the top of the highest 

 spruce we could find near our camp, so that, by 

 climbing a high tree anywhere within a radius 

 of a mile or so, one could easily see this flag. 

 To still further reduce the chance of getting 

 lost, we blazed the trees in a straight line for 

 four miles due south of the camp, and, as the 

 dog-sled trail came into our camp (which was 

 in the heavy timber) from the north, it was 

 not difficult to find one's way home in the 

 evening. These precautions — needless else- 



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