3 i2 ON SNOW-SHOES TO THE BARREN GROUNDS 



goose. Swans are also to be seen, but very rarely shot, 

 as they fly so high and fast. One had been killed, how- 

 ever, shortly before my arrival which weighed twenty-five 

 pounds, drawn and without wings. Another of the bird 

 family in which Chipewyan abounds is the loon, of which 

 there are four different varieties on Lake Athabasca all 

 of very attractive plumage, from which the Indians make 

 handsome hunting-bags. 



Everybody in Chipewyan was much interested in my 

 trip to the Barren Grounds and its success, and Bishop 

 Grouard and Dr. Mackay wanted to give me an affidavit 

 of my having actually made it, because, as they said, 

 people might not credit it, and they themselves would not 

 have believed it had they not positive knowledge of its 

 accomplishment. I told them, however, I thought my 

 word good with the American public, and if I flattered 

 myself in that belief my camera was a witness that could 

 not be denied. 



I saw more of post life at this time than in going North, 

 and realized how very far out of the world these people 

 really are. Life at the post varies but little from one 

 end of the year to the other. In winter the topic of con- 

 versation is fur and dogs and snow-shoes and caribou ; in 

 summer it is boating and fishing. 



The day after I arrived Captain Segars, who commanded 

 the Grahamc (which he expected to float by June I5th), 

 and H. S. Malterner worked their way through the ice, 

 arriving from McMurray. Malterner is an American who 

 the year before had made an attempt to get into the 

 Barren Grounds. He informed me he did not propose 

 to make another, having had enough of it then, but in- 

 tended going down the Mackenzie River in his canoe. 

 I have since learned he succeeded, and came back on the 

 Hudson's Bay Company steamer. 



