COLD SPOILS CAMERA WORK 151 



heartbreaking failure on the part of the camera, 

 while the unalarmed animals even approached 

 the hide to investigate the click of the shutter 

 release, a sound which was apparently curious to 

 them. 



This was the end of patience. What use to 

 continue ? It needed no further trial to teach 

 me that my focal plane shutter was useless in the 

 intense cold. For the time I must give up. If I 

 lived to return in other years I would know what 

 to bring to overcome the cold. 



So the dogs were harnessed into their traces, 

 and we prepared to leave for Reindeer Lake. 

 But before vacating camp the wily Philip set 

 two traps — one for Marten at the foot of a tree, 

 and one for Fox at the remains of a Caribou 

 carcass. The observant old native had seen 

 Marten tracks on the snow near camp, and he 

 told me " he come seek about camp after we go, 

 that's their way." 



About 3.30, when dusk was falling, we led the 

 dogs from the forest to the lake and, muffled in 

 our robes, started grimly homeward over wither- 

 ing snowflelds. No one spoke — it was too cold 

 — and the dogs laboured on unguided, knowing 

 the home trail, while their deep breathing blew 

 back and froze whitely to their shaggy coats. 



Caribou and Caribou pictures were soon for- 

 gotten ; indeed, every ambition seemed trifling 

 — everything except the awful cold and the 

 boundless, ice-locked land. 



