io 6 EXPLORATIONS IN THE FAR NORTH 



I occupied the few hours of daylight, at that season in cut- 

 ting firewood and in writing up my journals. I could not 

 work at night as I had neither lamp nor candles. I had great 

 difficult)- in keeping the cabin warm enough to prevent the ink 

 from freezing even when I sat beside the fireplace which was 

 kept well filled. Back, writing at the eastern end of the Great 

 Slave Lake in February, 1834, had a similar experience: "Ink 

 and paint froze. I made an attempt to finish a sketch by plac- 

 ing the table as near the fire as I could bear the heat; but a 

 scratchy mark, and small shining particles at the point of the 

 sable, convinced me that it was useless. On one occasion, 

 after washing my face within three feet of the fire, my hair was 

 actually clotted with ice before I could dry it." 1 



I several times found that the ice had formed upon my hair 

 in a few seconds so that the comb would not pass through 

 it readily. The fireplace was only large enough to contain a 

 few billets of wood in an upright position. The northern fire- 

 place is never broad or deep. It is designed to throw out as 

 much heat as possible from the small billets of quick-burning 

 pine and spruce wood. It is usually provided with two hooks, 

 one for the tea kettle and the other for the kettle in which 

 meat or fish is boiled. I preferred to cook my own venison, of 

 which I had secured an abundance, and occasionally indulged 

 in a bit of whitefish roasted by suspending it from the rafters 

 above. 



Without the daily visits of Mr. Hodgson I should have found 

 the monotony of fort life hard to endure, but his long residence 

 in the Far North had furnished him with a store of experience 

 that enabled him to make the most of the "pleasures of soli- 

 tude," and had given him a wide acquaintance with the natives 

 and the peculiar cult of the Company's people. Stalwart of 

 frame — standing six feet three inches in height — he was re- 

 spected by the natives as a man not to be trifled with. The 

 prestige of "The Honorable, the Hudson's Bay" has been in 

 no small degree acquired through the personal valor of its rep- 

 resentatives whom I have seen attacked by rowdy natives 

 (Crees) "out of pure cussedness," though the Northern Indian 

 as a rule is a very timid creature. 



^■Narrative of a Journey to the Shore of the Arctic Sea, p. 173. 



