FROM CHIPEWYAN TO FORT SMITH m 



ceived all along my trip, of not being able to get into the 

 Barren Grounds and out again in winter, but Dr. Mackay 

 was good enough to yield to my determination to make 

 the attempt, and to aid me by advice, and, what was more 

 to the point, to place two of the post's best trains of dogs 

 at my disposal. One of these was for the luggage, and 

 the other to carry me a day on my journey, and then turn 

 back, in order that my ankle, still very sensitive, should 

 have another twelve hours' rest. We left Chipewyan on 

 January 24th, in greater style than I affected at any sub- 

 sequent time, with Maurice, one of the celebrated Beau- 

 lieu family, running before the dogs, and Roderick Fleet 

 and William Pini, English and French half-breeds respect- 

 ively, doing the driving. I cannot declare my first expe- 

 rience in a cariole to have been one of unalloyed pleasure. 

 It saved my ankle, and for that I was of course grateful ; 

 but despite all the furs it is miserably cold travelling ; and, 

 what is equally as trying, the cariole keeps upsetting, unless 

 you are on a well-worn lake or river track, and you, bun- 

 dled up in furs, are dragged along face downwards, like a 

 bag of meal, until the driver sets you up again. William 

 was very attentive, but not all his care made me regret 

 when the first day was over and my riding at an end. 



We camped that night at the junction of the Peace and 

 Slave rivers, and when we started the next morning, long 

 before daylight, the temperature was 35 below zero, and 

 our route lay down the Slave River. I noted very little 

 difference between the scenery of this and that of Atha- 

 basca River unless possibly the banks of the latter are 

 somewhat higher and more heavily wooded. In fact, 

 there is slight change in the scene anywhere in the coun- 

 try, except that caused by the gradual diminution of tim- 

 ber as you go north, until it dwarfs into the" land of little 

 sticks," above Great Slave Lake, and disappears altogether 



