DOGS OF FORT DU BROCHET 157 



loaded sleds to Fort Du B rochet. Thereafter 

 they are neither seen nor heard of until another 

 year comes round. They bring with them pelts 

 of White Wolves, Arctic Foxes, Bears, Wolverine, 

 and a few Musk-ox skins — the last-named animals 

 believed to be rare nowadays, but perhaps not 

 so rare as it is written down to be for it inhabits, 

 in most cases, country almost totally unknown 

 to white men, and unapproachable. Sometimes 

 the Eskimos bring a few Mink skins in their 

 packs, but never Marten, which are indigenous 

 to forested country. 



But to return to the subject of sled- dogs ; 

 there are eight cabins at Fort Du B rochet, 

 including the fur-traders', and the inhabitants of 

 those owned twenty-two trains of sled-dogs : 

 that is to say, 110 adult dogs, while a conserva- 

 tive estimate of pups — three to six months old — 

 would add some forty head to the total dog 

 population of the Post. Remember that only 

 records the number of dogs within that tiny 

 settlement, for beyond, on lone lake and river, 

 at the isolated cabins of the nomad Chipewyans 

 of the territory, were the dog-trains of each 

 hunting Indian— perhaps three hundred to four 

 hundred dogs in all in that district, if one might 

 guess a broadly approximate estimate. 



And there are times, if one camps at Fort Du 

 Brochet, when one is very forcibly reminded 

 that there is a mighty congregation of dogs 

 there, for, on certain nights, without visible 

 cause, it is the custom of the whole dog tribe to 

 point their muzzles to the moon, and in one 

 voluble, blood-curdling chorus to break in on 

 12 



