WINTER TRAVEL no 



Indian did not get fifty skins instead of thirty for musk-ox 

 robes? Why had he not received the gun promised him, or 

 the suit of clothes, or other present? Would they receive a 

 thousand and one things when the steamer came in July? They 

 wanted iron kettles, field glasses, rifles, match safes, goggles, 

 and medicines, pencils and paper for writing letters in syllabics 

 when sending for supplies, and if the master would give him 

 some of his own tobacco, and a pair of his own trousers the 

 speaker's heart would be glad! 



Mr. Mackinlay replied that he was paying them as much for 

 robes as the dealers in the white man's country received for 

 them dressed and lined; that the steamer would bring an 

 enormous stock in the spring of much better goods than the 

 free traders could bring in; that he would give " debt" to help 

 his Yellow Knife brothers, a thing which no other officer in 

 the service was allowed to do. It all ended by his going 

 to the store and dealing out a few skins of tea, tobacco and 

 other supplies, to be paid for when the robes were delivered — 

 if the hunter had been so fortunate as to secure any furs in the 

 meantime which he had not sold to the free trader of whom 

 he also endeavored to obtain as much "debt" as possible. 



It was cold work for the "master," measuring dry goods and 

 counting bullets in the storeroom without any fire. During the 

 summer season, when there are hundreds at the post, only one 

 is admitted to the shop at a time. The door is kept locked 

 behind him until he has made his purchases before the broad, 

 high counter, over which the clerk must clamber to reach the 

 goods. As soon as he goes out he is surrounded by his friends 

 who overhaul his bundle and give him such varied and bewil- 

 dering advice that he would be pleased if permitted to exchange 

 everything. 



On Christmas eve a midnight mass was celebrated at the 

 Roman Catholic mission. The church was crowded with na- 

 tives, who were quite overcome by the splendor displayed, par- 

 ticularly by the scores of candles, the burning of which 

 appeared to be a sinful waste of several pounds of appetizing 

 and palatable grease. I no longer ridiculed their fondness for 

 grease. I had learned to value it above all other luxuries of 

 the country, and would not have exchanged a block of it, while 

 on the march, for the richest plum pudding ever made. 



