Method of Hunting 63 



a problem, and every day draws on your slender 

 supply of wood. Of course the farther you pene- 

 trate, the nearer you get to the Arctic Coast, 

 the more likely you are to see musk-oxen; and 

 the faster you travel, of course, the farther you 

 can penetrate. We averaged about twenty 

 miles a day. That means that we kept busy 

 every hour from the time we started until we 

 camped. The hour of starting depended very 

 largely upon whether or not there was a moon. 

 If there was a moon, we would get started so 

 as to be well under way by daylight, which when 

 we first entered the Barren Grounds would be 

 about nine o'clock. If there was no moon, we 

 waited for daylight. There always was a moon 

 unless it stormed ; but it stormed most of the 

 time. When there was a moon, however, it was 

 always full. Travelling from Lac La Biche to 

 Great Slave Lake on the frozen rivers, where it 

 was a mere question of getting from one post to 

 another, we used to start about two o'clock in 

 the morning, the sun coming up about ten 

 o'clock and setting at about three, and darkness 

 falling almost immediately thereafter. In this 

 river travelling I averaged a full thirty-five miles 

 a day for the (about) nine hundred miles. 



