Ill 



NEW-YEAR'S AT LA IUCHE 



I DO not believe I was ever in a more advanced state 

 of exhilaration than on first viewing the unsightly cabins 

 of the La Biche post. Farther along on my trip I felt a 

 deeper thankfulness, when hope had almost fled, and mind 

 and body were too jaded to rejoice, but now I was as a 

 boy given an unexpected holiday, who wanted to shout 

 and throw his cap into the air; for here at last I beheld 

 the actual frontier, and the real starting-point of my 

 journey. Not that the trjp from Edmonton had been so 

 long or so hard, for, as a matter of fact, it was pleasant 

 and easy, but it was the realization of being on the scene 

 of action, so to say. When one has planned an adventure, 

 and discussed ways and means, there is a satisfaction in 

 reaching the base of operations ; and when one's friends 

 have tried to dissuade and natives to intimidate you, there 

 is added to satisfaction that other feeling, which puts you 

 on edge, fires your blood, and makes you keen to toe the 

 mark and be off. It was a blessing I arrived in such hu- 

 mor, for it was sorely tried at La Biche during the three 

 vexing days we were compelled to stop there. I had a 

 premonition we were going to run against a snag when I 

 saw Gairdner, the Hudson's Bay Company officer in 

 charge, saunter out of his cabin to greet us ; and when he 

 asked if we were not ahead of time, in a tone that implied 

 he would have been better pleased had we been overdue, I 



