BACK TO GREAT SLAVE LAKE 281 



became comfortably warm in running at the same rate. 

 And now on the first day out in the Land of Little Sticks 

 I was much warmer than I had been when the thermome- 

 ter was 30 below zero, so that I judge it was about 20. 



Moreover, the snow was now deeper than we had yet 

 encountered. The average depth of snow in this great 

 North country was not, I think, over a foot and a half. 

 The deepest I found anywhere was on the bison hunt, 

 where in some places it was about two and one-half or may- 

 be three feet deep. Snow does not fall at any time to 

 a very great depth in the Northland because of the exces- 

 sive cold and the continuous gale that blows to keep down 

 the average depth and pack it hard on the rivers and on 

 the Barren Grounds. 



On this first day in the Little Sticks we toiled through 

 snow up to our knees, and it was exceedingly hard going 

 for us and for the dogs. I think we made a less number 

 of miles that day than on any previous one, and the reflec- 

 tion from the dazzling white was fearful on the eyes. It 

 was a long day and a hard one, and when we camped at 

 eight o'clock the particular patch of Little Sticks in which 

 we had taken refuge was exceedingly small. 



The morning of our second day in the Land of Little 

 Sticks, after a night that filled our lodge with snow and 

 then threw it down, dawned with the most terrific storm 

 that had yet visited its wrath upon us. It was utterly out 

 of the question to raise the lodge, so fierce was the wind, 

 and we propped it up on the sledges while we made our 

 tea over the little sticks that we had gathered the night 

 before. The storm raged so savagely and the snow whirled 

 about us in such blinding fury that we should not have 

 attempted to travel that day, only there was not enough 

 wood for another night's camping in that patch of Little 

 Sticks, and it was better even to face the storm than to lie 



