WINTER TRAVEL IQ o 



yielding snow, pushing with all my strength to keep up the cir- 

 culation of the blood, which was not warmed by the snail-like 

 pace, I thought of how much more slowly the buffaloes of the 

 plains would have been exterminated if those who had killed 

 them in sheer wantonness had been compelled to hunt them as 

 I was hunting the wood buffaloes of the North. 



At the end of the fourth day we reached the northern limit 

 of the buffalo range, perhaps fifty miles south of the Great 

 Slave Lake. The next day was spent in search of buffaloes, 

 the dogs being left in camp. 



The only result of the day's work, was the opening a trail, 

 six or seven miles in advance, which "set" during the night 

 and formed a hard track for the sleds. When the natives travel 

 in winter, the men keep such a track opened a day's march 

 ahead of the women, who follow with the sleds, set up the 

 deerskin lodge at nightfall, and cut wood for the camp-fire. 

 In this way the moose and caribou along the route are secured 

 by the hunters, and not driven away by the noisy company in 

 charge of the sleds, and then, too, the frozen track makes pro- 

 gress possible for the always overloaded and underfed dogs. 



We pushed on the next morning at a rapid pace until we fell 

 in with the soft snow again. Early in the afternoon we entered 

 an extensive grove of pines, Pinus banksiana Lamk., the cypres 

 of the metis. The trees were the largest that I saw in th t 

 country, of this species. 1 We camped late and were until 10 

 a. m. the next day, in reaching the prairie, at the farther side 

 of the banksian pines. There another day was spent in fruit- 

 less search for signs of the buffaloes. We had just enough 

 provision left for the return trip. Francois said that it was four 

 days' travel to the next prairie, and he did not know the way. 

 I had no alternative but to turn back. The snowstorm, which 

 prevailed during our stay at the last camp, filled our track and 

 made the hauling as heavy as during the outward journey. 

 One of my dogs had injured his shoulder on the way to Provi- 

 dence, and I had to turn him out of the harness and help the 

 others with the pushing-stick. 



We started down the Little Buffalo River late on the thir- 

 teenth day, against a strong wind. The thermometers at the 



X I found groves of fair-sized banksian pine as far north as the Sah-me- 

 t'ie-kfvva Hills, at least fifty miles north of Rae. 



