CHAPTER II 



OUT TO LAKE ILE A LA CROSSE 



I WAS setting out on a long expedition into the 

 North, through little-known territory, west of 

 Hudson Bay, on exploration and natural-history 

 research. I had left my collecting " shack " on 

 the Plains, from which I had roamed the rolling 

 bluff-dotted country north of Qu'Appelle Valley 

 for more than a year, and was now in the frontier 

 settlement, which I have described, waiting for 

 " open water." 



On April 20 I had had an advice from the 

 Hudson Bay Co. at Prince Albert, saying : " The 

 ice in the northern lakes has not yet broken up. 

 We will advise you immediately navigation opens, 

 to enable you to go through by first open water." 



On May 4, having no further advice, and im- 

 patient to get away, I left the plains on a dull 

 cold morning, though the air and the scene had 

 little promise of spring. Still were the long 

 stretches of yellow grass and the bleak, dark- 

 coloured poplar bluffs, unrelieved by the first 

 fresh delicate green of budding vegetation. There 

 was still frost in the ground, and snow in the 

 hollows and sun-shaded nooks. But the call of 

 the North was in me, and I would be off. 



At Prince Albert, the northern town of the 



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