172 NEW YEAR'S DAY. — RACKET WALKING. 



CHAPTER XI. 



New Year's Day — How to walk on Rackets — " Fish, dogs and seal," the 

 general topics of conversation — Obtaining skeletons — Larch poultices — 

 "Small Talk — Low temperature — Deer stories — Trapping — Indians 

 — Up the river — At the Mission — Harnessing the puppies — A racket 

 walk. 



Saturday, January i, 1881. New Year's day passed much like 

 any other day here, and differed little from either the Christmas or 

 Thanksgiving that had preceded it. The "old wife's" saying, that 

 the twelve days after Christmas determine the weather for the twelve 

 months in the year, is here strongly and strangely believed, espec- 

 ially by the elderly people. I am of the opinion that, generally, 

 the people are rather inclined to superstitions. Sayings like the 

 above, together with such as the month " comes in like a lion 

 and goes out like a lamb," or the reverse, are frequently quoted ; and 

 though half in jest I fancy them to be more than half believed. 

 One will find a very fair practical example of the use or belief in 

 the value of Herschel's weather tables by the moon, here in the old 

 wife's almanac. Such elderly ladies almost invariably inquire when 

 the moon appeared before telling what weather may be expected. 

 Strange as it may be, they seldom assert that the weather will be 

 " so and so," but say'' I have always noticed ;" or " the last time" 

 it was so and so, so and so happened — thus they predict the fu- 

 ture from the past. 



I made my first trial to-day of walking on rackets. Racket- 

 walking is a feat very difficult for a stranger to acquire readily. 

 The motion is different from anything I know of; the peculiar swing 

 of the body much like that of a sailor walking the slippery or un- 



