THE GLORY OF AN ARCTIC NIGHT. 369 



weary miles, on snow-shoes, before you even get a 

 sight of your dinner in its raw state" and yet he 

 longs to go back again to the wild hunting grounds 

 far out in the dim wilderness of the frozen North. 



" On looking back (he says) one remembers only the good 

 times, when meat was plentiful, and a huge fire lit up the 

 snow and the spruce trees, and even now, in the midst of 

 luxury and civilisation., at times I have a longing to pitch 

 my tent once more at the edge of the Barren Ground: to 

 see the musk-ox standing on the snow drift, and the fat 

 caribou falling to the crack of the rifle ; to hear the ptarmigan 

 crowing among the little pines, as the sun goes down over 

 the frozen lake, and the glory of an arctic night commences. 

 To the man who is not a lover of nature, the Barren Ground 

 must always be a howling and desolate wilderness: but for 

 my part, I can understand the feeling that prompted Saltatha's 

 (the name of one of his Indians) answers to the worthy 

 priest, who was explaining to him the beauties of Heaven. 

 'My father you have spoken well! you have told me that 

 Heaven is very beautiful! tell me now one thing more. Is 

 it more beautiful than the country of the musk-ox, in summer, 

 when the mist blows over the lakes, and the water is blue, 

 and the loons cry very often. That is beautiful; and if 

 Heaven is still more beautiful, my heart will be glad; and I 

 shall be content to rest there till I am very old.' " * 



Such in brief is the unanimous testimony of those 

 who have enjoyed the wild freedom of existence in 

 these countries, though it is notorious that the climate 

 of the Great Slave Lake district is one of the sever- 

 est in the Hudson Bay Territories, and quite as cold 

 in winter as almost any place that could be found; 

 and yet still its wild mysterious charm haunts the 



* Closing paragraph of The Barren Grottnds of Northern Canada, 

 by Warburton Pike, 1892, p. 276. 



VOL. II. 24 



