NEW-YEAR'S AT LA BIG HE 35 



Indians have a custom between sexes of kissing on meet- 

 ing, and as it did not become an impartial officer to dis- 

 tinguish in this respect between old women and young, 

 unattractive and attractive, the feast was substituted ; so 

 now the women are fed and danced instead of being kissed. 



I hope that New -Year's night will not be recorded 

 against me. Those Indians danced until four o'clock in 

 the morning, and they danced to my utter demoralization. 

 We sat around and watched the " gymnastics " and pre- 

 tended we enjoyed them until about one o'clock; then we 

 retired. We all three slept in Gairdner's office, a tiny 

 apartment separated from the main room by a thin board 

 partition, of which a good quarter section in the centre 

 was removed to admit of the two rooms sharing a single 

 stove. There was a piece of loosened sheet-iron tacked 

 to the partition to protect it from the heat, and my head 

 was against that partition, and our blankets on the same 

 floor upon which those Indians sprinted and jumped and 

 shuffled ! 



New- Year's past and the fiddle hung up, I entered upon 

 the business of our getting under way for Fort McMurray, 

 the next Hudson's Bay post to the north, and then indeed 

 did the trouble begin. First of all, Gairdner earnestly 

 assured me I could not make the trip I contemplated, that 

 I could not get into the Barren Grounds at this season, 

 and would risk my life if I did, and could not get Indians 

 to accompany me if I would. Then, after finding me un- 

 dismayed by the lugubrious prospect, he informed me that 

 he had not been able to get matters ready, nor could he 

 say how soon we might start. He had first engaged two 

 men, but both backed out, one because he could not get 

 four dogs together, and the other because he had no house 

 to put his wife in during his absence. Finally he had se- 

 cured the services of a half-breed called " Shot," who, he 



