170 SLED-DOGS OF THE NORTH TRAILS 



ing fragrant hot tea and pemmican, or lumps 

 of cold Caribou meat saved from the previous 

 night's cooking. Afterwards pipes and laughter 

 while we stood, first back, then front, basking 

 in the luxurious warmth of the log-fire. 



The time of making " fires " of course varies. 

 There is really no mechanical measurement of 

 Time in the Far North ; only are the spans of 

 daylight measured by the sun, or by unfailing 

 instinct if there is no sun. However, a fair 

 guide to halts on the winter trail are : Morning 

 Fire, 6.30 a.m. (about an hour and a half before 

 daylight) ; First Fire Halt, 9.30 a.m. — 10 a.m. ; 

 Second Fire Halt, 2 p.m. — 2.30 p.m. Night 

 Camp, 5.30 p.m. (about an hour and a half after 

 dark). It is on account of those customary halts 

 that Indians always answer questions as to how 

 long a journey will take by giving you the num- 

 ber of times they sleep or make fire. Thus they 

 say : " To go Eskimo camp, we sleep ten times " 

 (twelve days' travel) ; or again, "To go Gull- 

 foot's wigwam, we make two small fires " (about 

 six hours' travel) ; or " two long fires " would 

 mean about nine hours' travel. 



Throughout the day we kept trailing into the 

 North over river and lake and land that ever 

 changed in line and aspect yet never lost the 

 dead white countenance of frigid snow. The 

 " first fire " we left behind, and the second, as 

 we had done on the days before — each marking so 

 much gained on the scale of man's ambition to 

 explore, yet piling up the leagues of snow that lay 

 behind, lengthening the gulf between solitude 

 and the voices of fellow-mankind. 



