2 6o ON SNOW-SHOES TO THE BARREN GROUNDS 



I had frequently to pull off my glove and stick my right 

 hand, with which I was using my knife, into the warm 

 stomach of the musk-ox. 



That was a fearful night we put in, for the storm in- 

 creased, and the howling of the wind was almost as 

 mournful as the howling of the dogs that piled in on top 



of us. 



Next morning the storm had developed into a blizzard. 

 The wind blew directly in our faces ; the snow was blind- 

 ing ; men and dogs were blown out of their tracks, and we 

 could hardly make headway. And yet it was a happy 

 day ; for three musk-ox heads were safely on my sledge (I 

 discarded the damaged one), and we had reached our most 

 northerly point. 



We had had four days of continuous storming and bit- 

 terest cold weather that no other Indian leader but Be- 

 niah would have faced. But cold and storm were insig- 

 nificant now that the success of my trip was assured, 

 and we should henceforth face the sun and turn our backs 

 on the arctic coast. 



Fortunately that night the storm ceased and the stars 

 came out, and I read my compass by the North Star, and 

 recorded its needle as showing a deflection of 47 east of 

 north. I knew, therefore, we could be but two or three 

 days from the Arctic Ocean, judging by the rate we 

 had travelled, and by a comparison with the reading of 

 Sir John Franklin's compass, which, when he descended 

 the Coppermine River in canoes, was recorded on the 

 6;th degree of latitude as 47 east of north. Judged also 

 by my knowledge of distances, Yellow Knife River takes 

 its source in latitude 64, and is 160 miles long. The spot 

 where Fort Enterprise is supposed to have stood is 29 

 miles from this river's source. Fort Enterprise by canoe 

 to the mouth of Coppermine River is 334 miles; arctic 



