230 ACROSS THE SUB-ARCTICS OF CANADA. 



limbs, but with considerable difficulty managed to keep 

 up with the rest. After making a small day's march we 

 camped for the night on the bank of a stream called by 

 the Indians White Bear Creek. The weather having 

 turned colder during the night, making the prospects for 

 travel more favorable, we started down stream the next 

 morning upon the ice of the creek, and then across 

 country to Duck Creek, where we found a second Indian 

 camp, occupied by two Crees and their families. 



From one of these Indians, named Morrison, we pur- 

 chased an additional dog with which to supplement our 

 team. The price asked was a new dress for one of the 

 squaws, but as we had no dress-goods with us, the best 

 we could offer was that the dress should be ordered at 

 the Hudson's Bay Company's store at York, and 

 delivered when the first opportunity afforded. After 

 some consideration, and several pipes of tobacco, the 

 offer was accepted and with seven dogs in our team the 

 journey resumed. We followed the creek till it led us 

 out to the low, dreary coast at the mouth of the Nelson, 

 where, having left the woods several miles inland, we 

 were exposed to the full sweep of a piercingly cold, raw, 

 south-west wind. 



We are accustomed to thinking of a coast as a definite, 

 narrow shore-line ; but to the inhabitants of the Hud- 

 son Bay region the word conveys a very different mean- 

 ing. There the coast is a broad mud and boulder flat, 

 several miles in width, always wet, and twice during the 

 day flooded by the tide. At this time of the year the 

 mud flats were covered by rough broken ice and drifted 

 snow, but above high-tide mark the surface of tlir 

 country was level and the walking good. For several 



