UNDER WAY FOR McMURRAY 



" Shot " and John might live up to the usual demands 

 of the country courtesy, and shake hands with the occu- 

 pants, and gossip about the white men they were guid- 

 ing over the first stage of their long journey. Shaking 

 hands always includes the further cere- 

 mony of filling up the pipes and a drink of 

 tea, should the host happen to have any of 

 that luxury, and so when we had left the 

 last Indian lodge, and crossed the north- 

 east end of the lake and got well into the 

 woods, it was sunset, and time to camp. 

 The going down of the sun is the invari- 

 able signal for camping, for the twilight is 

 of short duration, and the Indians will not 

 run the risk of accident by chopping wood 

 after dark. And they are quite right. A 

 cut foot or leg in civilization is ordinarily 

 little more than inconvenient, but in this 

 trackless wilderness any wound that handi- 

 caps a man's walking may lead to his death. 

 And so as the sun begins to disappear be- 

 low the horizon you grow watchful for a 

 place that is most sheltered and best wood 

 ed and nearest the direction in which you 

 are going. 



By the time we had gathered firewood it began to 

 snow, and we ate our first meal in the open, with backs 

 arched to windward, and capote hoods pulled up over 

 our heads to keep the flakes from going down our 

 necks. That first night out was an interesting one to me ; 

 with recollections of bivouacs in the Rockies, I thought 

 the fire insignificant and the timber small, but the dogs 

 sitting on their haunches watching the thawing of the 

 frozen fish that were to furnish them with supper, and 



TRACKER'S SHOE, 



Canadian Snow-Shoe 

 Club, 



$y> feet long 



