236 VIKINGS OF TO-DAY 



from other settlers. This last fact is more patent as 

 one travels north. The census papers are in my 

 possession now. I will quote here some bad cases. 



Two families here quite destitute. R R 



and L R . There' was neither tea, molasses, 



nor flour in either house, and their clothing was 

 literally dropping to pieces, while one boy was bare- 

 foot and the others had boots tied on to their 

 feet by string to keep the pieces together. If ever 

 hunger wrote its name clearly on people's faces it 

 was written on these people's, the children being 

 pale and bloodless, the woman haggard and care- 

 worn. The mother told me, in most pathetic way, 

 " Even the berries will be covered deep in snow soon, 

 and then we have only starvation to look to." They 

 had no flour to face the winter, and apparently no 

 means of obtaining any. Neither family had seal 

 nets, salmon nets, or cod nets, or could pay for twine 

 to braid any, and both men showed me their powder- 

 horns and shot-bags empty, or nearly so. I found on 

 returning to the launch, the captain had given his 

 bag of biscuits away to these people. 



W. T. G. 



A P . Seven children, very poor and ill- 

 clad ; very poor supply of food, miserable hut, no 

 nets. The lay reader 1 found three inches of snow 

 blow in and remain on the floor of the only room one 



1 Mr. Dicks, of Cartwright. 



