82 VIKINGS OF TO-DAY 



feet at the wrists and ankles from frost-bite. But 

 a still more vicious circle is established when, to 

 procure food for this winter, a settler has to part 

 with his means of " killing a voyage " next sum- 

 mer. The following is a case in point as related to 

 me on the spot : 



Some three years ago, at Big Bight, a Mr. 

 Olliver, with his wife and five children, had fallen 

 into great poverty. 'At last in spring, when all 

 his food was exhausted, he set out, taking his 

 last possessions, an old Jack plane and a trout 

 net, with him. Having no dogs, he had to travel 

 afoot over the ice and snow. At last he came to 

 the house of the best-off settler about, Mr. Tosten 

 Anderson, a Norwegian, and a splendid fellow. When 

 asked for food, Mr. Anderson, showing all the flour 

 he had, said, "To part with any more than I have 

 done, means we must all starve together." This was 

 thirty to forty miles from his own home. He then 

 went on twelve miles to a Mr. James Thomas, 

 whose reply was just the same. Two days later he 

 reached Richard Blomfield's house on his way back. 

 Here he met the same reply again. No more was 

 heard till three days later, when Blomfield was sum- 

 moned to the Ollivers' house. On the middle of the 

 floor, his coat off and his gun by his side, lay Mr. 

 Olliver, shot through the head. In a heap in one 

 corner lay the three youngest children, scarcely dead 

 from blows from an axe lying near them. Appar- 

 ently determined to spare those who might provide 



