130 



EXPLORATIONS IN THE FAR NORTH 



three feet in depth and a hundred yards in width. I waded 

 ashore and searched for the camps, which were of such a 

 material and so well hidden by the willows that I might easily 

 have passed without discovering them. 



Instead of the well-made caribouskin lodges of the Dog Ribs, 

 they had nothing but rude enclosures covered with grass and 

 reeds. Two families had smaller canvas tents, adjoining their 

 lodges, which afforded them shelter from the rain. 



They were surprised to see a white man traveling alone and 

 soon gathered in the chief's lodge to drink tea. They under- 

 stood neither French nor English, and we talked and gesticulated 

 for two hours before they seemed to understand that I desired 

 their assistance. They said that the ice was unsafe, the open 

 water did not extend to the post, and to travel through the 

 bush was impossible. They were living on jackfish, which they 

 killed with sharpened poles. I fed the dogs several fish, but 

 found to my surprise that they would not eat more than one 

 fresh jackfish each. After my fourth meal of boiled jackfish, 

 without salt, I, also, had little appetite for them. The next 

 morning I told the Indians that I was going to the post over 

 the ice, and that I would give them no more tea; this decided 

 the matter and two of them volunteered to accompany me. 

 We brought the sled to the camp, loaded everything but the 

 dogs in a canoe and pushed off. 



My dogs were to be fed and brought down to Providence as 

 soon as the river opened. It was not without regret that I 

 parted from that faithful team, which had hauled from the time 

 when the first snow fell until after the last bank had disap- 

 peared on the land. They had traveled over twenty-two hun- 

 dred miles, through trackless bush and dismal barrens. With 

 aching limbs and bleeding feet they had toiled on, their only 

 reward being the half-putrid fish of which I was often unable to 

 give them a full ration. Many a time they had been beaten into 

 the snow when exhausted and hungry. Many a time they had 

 been harnessed in the morning, too weak and stiff to start the 

 heavy load, only answering the cutting whip with their piteous 

 whine. Nudjuk, Treff, Major, and Corbeau, we have hunted, 

 eaten, and slept together for the last time. 



We camped that night upon a gravel bar across which the 

 geese and ducks were continually passing, so that we easily 

 killed enough for our use. 



