i6o ON SNOW-SHOES TO THE BARREN GROUNDS 



writing up my journal, keeping in condition, and rejoicing 

 that I had found a country where whistling is an un- 

 known vice, and " Comrades " has not yet desecrated 



melody. 



I did not propose to have any more cramps in my legs 

 if training would provide against them. I knew such a 

 condition in the Barrens would put an end to all hope of 

 musk-ox, or of my getting out to tell how I didn't shoot 

 one. So nearly every afternoon I took a twelve to fifteen 

 mile run on Great Slave Lake, and, what with the good 

 meat I was eating three times daily and this exercise, I 

 was so " fit " when I started for the Barrens that no Ind- 

 ians ran me off my legs, as I was told they would on the 

 trip across the lake. On one of the afternoons I experi- 

 enced how suddenly a lake storm gathers, and with what 

 force it bursts upon the luckless traveller. Had I not 

 fortunately put my compass in my pocket that very 

 morning I should probably have been on that lake yet, 

 for the snow whirled around me at such a pace and in 

 such quantities as to darken the atmosphere, and the wind 

 beat upon me with so great a force that, bent almost 

 double, I could barely keep moving. I had great diffi- 

 culty in reading the needle or following the direction it 

 indicated ; but when the prospect of a night on the lake 

 seemed surest, the wand that was blowing off shore carried 

 the evening tolling of the mission bell to me, and sweeter 

 sound I never heard ! 



Fort Resolution is one of the most important posts in 

 the country. Though it has not so many claims to dis- 

 tinction as Chipewyan, its natural resources for food are 

 much greater; for near by is the most productive fishery 

 in the country ; the Dog-Rib and Yellow-Knife Indians 

 generally keep it supplied with caribou meat in winter, 

 and geese and ducks are fairly plentiful in spring. Fur- 



