336 WITH GUN AND GUIDE 



All that has been needed in the past to open up to 

 cultivation and civilization this great northern empire 

 was transportation. And now that the new railroad is 

 to be in operation all the way from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific by 1912, there is no living man who can ac- 

 curately predict the possibilities and the future of this 

 great country. 



I rejoice that I have been able to see even a small 

 portion of it ; to mingle with its pioneers ; to tramp 

 over an unsurveyed territory ; to see nature in perhaps 

 her roughest moods ; to breathe the wonderfully 

 stimulating air ; to endure hardships successfully, in 

 company with the trapper, the woodsman, the pros- 

 pector, the explorer; to have crossed dizzy mountain 

 heights on the back of the safe old packhorse ; to have 

 " packed " my share of the loads over portages and effi- 

 ciently used the bow paddle of the boat from first to 

 last of the whole trip : that in the time thus employed I 

 was always in prime health, no matter how great the 

 exposure to the weather, or how meagre the food sup- 

 ply : and, lastly, that I returned safely, freshened of 

 mind, strengthened of body, and with an experience 

 that will never be forgotten. 



And now my tale is told. The curtain is rung down, 

 but before the audience is dismissed, a last word might 

 well be said. 



For you, readers, who have followed my story from 

 that superheated day. the 24th of August, when we bade 



