MEETING OF THE WILD MEN 187 



River packet and the Reindeer Lake packet. Each travels 

 about five hundred miles by dogs in winter and by canoe in 

 summer. The Moose Factory packet from Temiscamingue to 

 James Bay goes by canoe in summer, but by men in winter. 

 All mails in and out from Hudson Bay or James Bay to or from 

 the next post in the interior, are hauled by men. Dogs are 

 seldom used on those routes, on account of the depth of the 

 snow and the scarcity of dog feed." 



Though I well knew that packeteers did not carry firearms, I 

 asked Chief Factor Thompson just for the sake of getting 

 the truth from him and giving it to the public: 



"How does the Hudson's Bay Company arm their 

 packeteers?" 



"Arm them?" the Chief Factor laughed outright, "why, we 

 always provide them with an axe." 



"Firearms, I mean." 



"Firearms! Why, they aren't allowed to carry firearms at 

 all. It's against the rules and regulations of the Company. 

 In the first place, packeteers are supplied with plenty of grub 

 for the trip; in the next place, if they had a gun they might go 

 hunting and fooling around with it instead of attending to their 

 business; and, moreover, it doesn't matter whether the mail 

 travels two hundred or two thousand miles, there is no occasion 

 for packeteers to carry firearms, for there are no highwaymen 

 and no animals in this country that would make an offensive 

 attack upon them." 



And in truth, in all that wild brigade there were no fire- 

 arms save Oo-koo-hoo's old muzzle-loader; but then The 

 Owl was a hunter by profession, and he carried a gun only as a 

 matter of business. Now for the last twenty-five years that is 

 exactly what I have wanted to tell the public. When one reads 

 a story, or sees a play or a moving picture, in which characters 

 bristling with firearms are set forth as veritable representatives 

 of life in the Canadian wilderness, he may rest assured that the 



