FITTING FOR ARCTIC WEATHER 



59 



a well-defined depression, which sometimes even showed 

 the ground. Nothing but fur can insure warmth or even 

 comfort in this chilling North. Farther along, and before 

 making my bison or musk-ox hunt, I secured a caribou- 

 skin capote with the fur on, but until I got one I was a 

 shivering victim of the wind, for the capote I had fetched 

 from Hamilton, Canada, was useless. Having been made 

 of unsmoked leather, the first snow-storm soaked and the 

 fire shrank it ; then it was too heavy to run in, and the 

 blanket lining for warmth was greatly inferior to fur. No 

 garment can excel the caribou capotes made by the Ind- 

 ians for exposure in the excessive cold and piercing winds 

 of this North country. They are very light, and do not 

 therefore add to the burden of the voyagcur, while being 

 literally impervious to all winds, save those deadly blasts 

 of the Barren Grounds. 



The Indian tripper in winter first secures stout moc- 

 casins and new " duffel," and next looks to his caribou- 

 skin capote. Anything may an- 

 swer for trousers or head cover- 

 ing, the former, indeed, being 

 moose or caribou skin, blanket, 

 or " store pants " got at the Hud- 

 son's Bay Company post in trade, 

 while the conventional hat is sup- 

 plied by a colored handkerchief 

 wound about the head, just above 

 the forehead and ears, to keep the 

 long hair in place. Formerly it 

 was, and still is in the more re- 

 mote sections, a moose or car- 

 ibou thong bound by sinew and decorated with por- 

 cupine quill. But the foot - covering must be of the 

 best. Moccasins are made of smoked moose-skin, because 



NORTHWEST SOCK OF 

 DUFFEL 



