12 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



such region above Cumberland Lake seventy miles wide by three 

 hundred long where you could not find solid ground to camp the 

 size of your foot. What did we do ? That is where the uses of a 

 really expert guide came in ; moored our canoe among the willows, 

 cut willows enough to keep feet from sinking, spread oil cloth and 

 rugs over this, erected the tents over all, tying the guy ropes to the 

 canoeth warts and willows, as the ground would not hold the tent pegs. 



It doesn't sound as if such regions would ever be overrun by 

 settlement — does it ? Now, look at your map, seventy miles 

 north of Saskatchewan. From the north-west corner down in 

 Labrador is a distance of more than 3000 miles. From the South 

 to North is a distance of almost 2000 miles. I once asked a guide 

 with a truly city air if these distances were "as the crow flies." 

 He gave me a look that I would not like to have a guide give me too 

 often — he might maroon a fool on one of those swamp areas. 



"There ain't no distances as the crow flies in this country," 

 he answered. "You got to travel 'cording as the waters collect or 

 the ice goes out." 



Well, here is your country, 3000 by 2000 miles, a great fur 

 preserve. What exists in it ? Very little wood, and that small. 

 Undoubtedly, some minerals. I myself saw brought by an Indian 

 from some unknown mine on Churchill River a piece of pure natural 

 copper the size of a man's hand. What else exists ? A very sparse 

 population of Indians, whose census no man knows, for it has never 

 been taken ; but when the total Indian population of Canada is 

 only 100,000 and you deduct from the total those on reserves and 

 those on the Pacific Coast, it is a pretty safe guess to say there are 

 not 20,000 Indians all told in the North fur country. I put this 

 guess tentatively and should be glad of information from any one 

 in a position to guess closer. I have asked the Hudson's Bay 

 Company and I have asked Revillons how many white hunters 

 and traders they thought were in the fur country of the North. 

 I have never met any one who placed the number in the North 

 at more than 2000. Spread 2000 white hunters with 10,000 Indians 



