PREFACE 



CANADA, in a great belt that runs from sea to 



sea, across the southern territory of her dominion, 



is the civilised, rapidly growing country which 



we all know to-day. Therein, in out-of-the-way 



places where mankind pass not too often, there 



are still quantities of big game and fur-bearing 



animals and wild-fowl to delight the lover of 



nature and solitude. But it is not of such places 



that I write in this narrative not of the outdoor 



places that are within reach of those who inhabit 



the populated south country of Canada ; for 



the wanderings which it has been my good 



fortune to experience, and which henceforth I 



will endeavour to describe, were through a part 



of the great unpeopled North, which even to-day 



comprises more than half of the large Dominion 



of Canada. So great is the far north territory 



that there is many a hundred miles on which 



no white man has yet set foot, and even where 



the white man has been, in the distant interior 



near to the Barren Lands, in many cases the 



footprints have been so few that an old Indian 



inhabitant of a district could easily count those 



who had passed in a lifetime on his ten fingers. 



Though I travelled 785 miles over ice and snow 



by dog-sled, and 1,044 miles over water in a 



single canoe, I lay no claim to having done a 



