APPENDIX II 443 



total freeze approaching. One of the dogs came in before him, greatly 

 alarming Erie, who was about to start out in search of Mikkelsen as he came 

 to camp. The other dogs came in one by one, the last after eight days. 

 Erie's squaw nearly cried when she saw the last dog, and spent hours 

 nursing him, so that he recovered quickly. 



About February i Dr. Howe went with me to Erie's to aid his boys to 

 haul provisions down. We had extremely heavy loads, about 2,500 Ibs., 

 and twelve dogs, but they took it nicely. We had four good days in succes- 

 sion, and easily made one hundred and fifty miles in that time. Then 

 came four days of bad weather, which we " loafed out " in the cabin. 

 We had a beautiful day when we started home, clear, calm, and about 40 

 below zero. With a light sled we ran all the way, making thirty miles in 

 six hours. Then we were stuck in camp for two days by a gale, and were 

 very much cramped, as the snow gradually drifted over the tent. The 

 third day we dug ourselves out, and decided to face an unpleasant wind 

 rather than stay any longer in camp. The snow was drifting about a foot 

 high (temperature 33 Fahr.), and it was not pleasant to run against it. 

 However, we made twenty-five miles and the island in six hours with only a 

 few frostbites in our faces. In our excursions for pleasure, or semi-business 

 trips, in this country there is no reason why we should face unpleasant 

 weather if we do not feel disposed to do so. We have learned to take a 

 wide margin of food, and to stay in camp when we feel inclined. A properly 

 made camp is as comfortable and safe as a house, though of course smaller. 

 The tent used by natives and whites who have been long in the country is 

 made by sticking bent sticks into the snow and lashing the tops so as to 

 form a hemisphere. Over this is thrown a cariboo fur covering, hair side 

 out, and a drill cloth over that to keep the snow out of the fur. If one does 

 not possess a fur tent two drill covers are used, the air space between 

 making it many times warmer than one thickness of the heaviest canvas. 

 The floor is covered with fur, and the stove is set up, and one is ready to 

 defy the worst that can come. The tent is about 3^ feet high, and round, 

 so that the wind cannot get hold of it. Sometimes it is necessary to put a 

 few slabs of snow around the weather side, and to build a snow alley-way in 

 front of the door ; but that is the work of a few minutes with a saw or snow 

 knife, which one always has. In a fur tent water does not freeze except in 

 the most extreme weather. Even in a double drill tent no frost forms upon 

 one's clothes from the breath, and scarcely any upon the wall of the tent. 

 Snow houses were used a good deal in the past, but once in a while people 

 get caught out in exposed places where the tremendous winds will cut the 

 hardest snowblocks down in a few hours. 



Speaking of the high winds along here, I should have mentioned that on 

 this very island, a few years ago, a native girl went from the cabin to the 

 cache for something needed in the "house." As she did not return, the 

 man went out to find her, and he did not return either. After the gale was 

 over, the girl came in, but the man was found only when the snow that 

 buried him had melted, in the spring. The cache was not a hundred feet 

 from the cabin. The girl sat down with her back to the wind, and drew her 



