OVER THE ARCTIC MOUNTAINS 213 



while this counted regularly for one day so far as wages 

 were concerned, it was not counted when people were 

 saying they could do the eighty-mile portage in four 

 days. They also explained that on the fourth of the 

 counted days we would camp a few miles away from 

 Bell River and make that distance the next morning 

 without counting that as a day either except in the pay- 

 ment of wages. There would, accordingly, be six wage 

 days although we would say that the journey had been 

 made in four days. All this might have been amusing 

 had I been on an ordinary journey but when I was 

 racing with Harrison and his bad news the idea did not 

 suit so well. There was nothing to do about it, how- 

 ever, for the Indians reminded me that they were still 

 near home and if their ways did not suit me they could 

 easily go back and I could hire some other Indians. 



I have learned it better since but I understood even 

 then that there is nothing to do except to make the best 

 of this sort of situation. I showed no hard feeling and 

 presently we were all laughing and chatting together. It 

 was then that the Indians explained that there was a 

 reason for their camping here, for to-morrow we would 

 find no suitable camping place until evening. They said 

 that if we proceeded now we would be tired out before 

 we could get to a tolerable camp site. All this I believed 

 that evening and it was a good thing I did, for it made 

 me sleep better. Next day I discovered there was no 

 truth in it, for there were good camp sites along the road 

 the whole day. Thereupon the Indians owned up that 

 they had not been over this road before. They said 

 they had always understood there were no good camping 

 places and professed to regret having misinformed me 

 the day before. 



