230 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



beyond my diary and some mail I was carrying out for 

 the police), and started to walk along the river. 



But if rafting had its disadvantages, walking had them 

 no less. To begin with, the river bank was made up of 

 angular blocks of rock which began to hurt my feet right 

 away and promised to hurt them more as I walked fur- 

 ther. Then my clothing and especially my footgear was 

 not in the best of condition. On the rest of my body 

 I was wearing woolen clothes but on my feet I had 

 Eskimo style water boots. The uppers of these are made 

 of seal skin as thin and soft as a kid glove but perfectly 

 waterproof. The soles are of the thick leather of the 

 bearded seal. This is almost perfect footgear for the 

 summer if it is kept in condition. But that can be ac- 

 complished only with extreme care. You must never 

 wear the same pair of boots more than at the most two 

 days in succession, when you take them off and dry them 

 thoroughly. Well taken care of, two pairs of boots regu- 

 larly alternated may last four or five months, but if you 

 wear one pair continuously it will rot to pieces in a few 

 days. On the march over the mountains from Mac- 

 pherson I had taken the boots off in the evening and 

 managed to dry them fairly well every night so that, 

 although I did not have another pair to change into, I 

 still kept them in fair condition. But it was chilly sleep- 

 ing on the raft and I had kept my boots on. Similarly 

 when I went ashore I had kept all my clothes on, for 

 I had no bedding and shivered as it was, especially as 

 I got soaking wet every day in the afternoon showers. 



After I had been walking a few hundred yards along 

 the river bank I stopped to adjust the laces that are 

 bound around the ankle of the water boot. When I 

 pulled on these one of them came off. A little later 



