THE NORTHLAND INDIAN AS HE IS 93 



plentiful in this country, where shanks' mare is the only 

 mount. 



To be a good dog-driver and to run forty miles a day is 

 to be a great man in this land of vast distances. There 

 are instances where men have gone farther, but in most 

 cases the going has been exceptional, or the " day " 

 stretched far into the night. In my effort to obtain au- 

 thenticated information on big runs I found the " day " 

 most elastic, extending, in fact, the full twenty-four hours, 

 from midnight to midnight, and the " running" of the 

 man to include riding on the sledge now and then when 

 the going was extra good. The best day of actual run- 

 ning I was able to corroborate was sixty miles, done be- 

 tween 6 A.M. and 5.30 P.M. by Alexander Linkletter, an 

 English-Cree half-breed now at Chipewyan, who made 

 two fires en route. Another half-breed covered eighty 

 miles between midnight and nine o'clock of the next 

 night, and an Indian went seventy miles between 3 A.M. 

 and 8 P.M., but these are notable chiefly because of the 

 dogs' endurance, for both men rode most of the distance, 

 and neither approaches the performance of Linkletter, 

 who ran every foot of the way. 



The condition of the going makes so great a difference 

 in travelling that thirty miles on one occasion might eas- 

 ily be a more notable performance than fifty miles on 

 another. Taking the average conditions of tripping, from 

 twenty-five to thirty miles is considered a fair day, thirty- 

 five miles a good day, and forty a big day's work. The 

 voyageur considers he is travelling well if he makes two 

 fires during the day, at which he drinks tea, and sleeps 

 thirty or thirty-five miles nearer his destination every 

 night. Spring is popularly spoken of as the time when 

 " the days are long and the dogs go well," and you travel 

 longer and farther each day. But as a matter of fact the 



