58 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



the Company's depot, to dispose of the pelts collected 

 during the winter hunt. 



All my friends were in good heart, the collection of 

 pelts having been a good one, much above the usual 

 average. But it is not to be supposed that all hunting 

 ceases with the winter. On the contrary, some of those 

 animals which yield the most valuable furs hibernate, and, 

 consequently, can only be captured in the spring and 

 summer. 



The method of travelling and bartering the pelts to 

 the Hudson Company being of necessity incorporated in 

 my future narrative, I shall say nothing concerning it 

 here. Broadly, in winter, snow-shoes are resorted to to 

 enable the traveller to get over the ground, enabling him 

 to do twenty or thirty miles per day ; and more than 

 forty is sometimes covered by Indians when there is 

 occasion for making a quick journey. In the summer, 

 canoes and river and lake navigation is the invariable 

 method of travel, and " portages " is the distinguishing 

 feature of this kind of journey. The incidents of such 

 journey ings is a prominent factor in all descriptions of 

 the British possessions in North America, and will there- 

 fore, to avoid sameness in my narrative, only receive 

 such incidental notice as is unavoidable. 



My friends were in the habit of taking their pelts to 

 Moose Factory, on James Bay (an inlet of Hudson Bay), 

 for the purpose of barter, that being the most easily 

 reached, though not the nearest, of the Company's 

 depots; but I, wishing to have Indians whom I knew 

 and could rely on with me in my journey to Red River, 

 offered to purchase all their furs. As I gave them double 

 what the Company would, besides saving them a trouble- 

 some journey, they readily consented ; and I packed all 

 the pelts in my possession in my hut, to be disposed of 

 on a more convenient occasion. 



The Indians I selected to accompany me were Tom, 

 Sam, Natanyan, and Otmasquiloton ; the two latter young 



