78 ON THE GREAT CHURCHILL RIVER 



to have been our main food supply for the next 

 month on the trail. 



There was no Factor at the Hudson Bay Post, 

 for he was south at the Lac La Ronge Post at 

 the time, and purchase of stores was made 

 through his halfbreed wife, who spoke Cree well, 

 but only a very little broken English, so that 

 conversation was carried on with difficulty ; for 

 at this time I knew but a few words of Cree. 

 There was only one more Hudson Bay Post be- 

 tween Stanley and my ultimate objective in the 

 north — that of Fort Bu Brochet at the far end 

 of Reindeer Lake — so here at Stanley I replenished 

 my stores to the extent of 150 lbs. from the 

 standard variety common to all fur-trading posts. 

 Selecting a limited quantity of almost every 

 available edible article in the store, my purchases 

 were : — Two 24 lb. sacks of flour, 25 lbs. " Hard- 

 tack " ship biscuits, 5 lbs. rice, 5 lbs. beans, 15 lbs. 

 bacon, 8 lbs. salt pork, 5 lbs. sugar, three cans of 

 syrup, 3 lbs. evaporated apples, 2 lbs. baking 

 powder, 2j lb. bag of fine salt, 2 cakes of soap, 

 \ lb. cut tobacco, J lb. black plug tobacco, three 

 hundred 12 -bore cartridges, one spoon troll for 

 pike, one tump line (for roping and carrying loads 

 over portage), two yards mosquito net, and one 

 pair of socks. 



The Provincial Government had arranged with 

 the Hudson Bay Company, previous to my depar- 

 ture, to take care of and transport whatever speci- 

 mens I collected on the expedition, so at their 

 trading post I packed 57 skins and 47 eggs for 

 shipment, those I had taken since passing lie a 

 la Crosse post. 



