178 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



obliged to take off to enable us to climb the rocks. The 

 route was the most difficult of access of any I had hitherto 

 passed over, being steep rocks alternated with deep 

 gulches. There was no forest; only scattered spruce 

 trees of small size, and a few bushes. No game was 

 seen. A few ducks flying in the distance, and a few 

 small birds were the only living things met with. Of 

 the small birds the snowflake (snow-bunting already 

 described) was the only one I recognised with certainty, 

 for I had no ammunition to spare in shooting specimens ; 

 all my possessions for the winter's use being what I 

 carried on my back in a knapsack and a bag at the 

 waist-belt. 



Towards the close of the day we turned inward 

 toward the river, and passed the night in the hovel of 

 some lumberers, sleeping (nine of us altogether) so closely 

 together that there was literally no room to turn. 



We started again at daybreak over similar country, 

 but there was more wood; and near the river we saw 

 the stumps of many thousands of felled trees. As we 

 advanced, the timber became finer, more various, and 

 in greater quantity. The hovels of the timber-fellers, 

 also, were pretty numerous, and we stopped at one for 

 the mid-day meal, consisting of ship's biscuit and salt 

 pork. 



These lumberers' hovels are most wretched affairs. 

 They are generally a shed of logs erected over a hollow 

 in the ground, and are so low pitched that it is impossible 

 to stand upright in them. They are, in fact, like great 

 dog-kennels, and you have to stoop doubled up to enter 

 the hole which, by courtesy, is called the door. Inside, 

 the floor is strewn with spruce boughs which serve for 

 seat and bed, and there is really no furniture. Some 

 fastidious fellow may, perhaps, have a rough three-legged 

 stool to sit on, but anything like a table I never saw. 

 The cooking is done outside in the open air, no matter 

 how sharp the weather is ; and at night-time, if a fire is 



