DEPARTURE FOR THE NORTH 5 



but all were on the south side; not one was noted 

 on the north. 



The case is simple. During the past winter, while 

 the Antelope were gone southward, the Canadian 

 Pacific Railway Company had fenced its track. In 

 spring the migrants, returning, found themselves cut 

 off from their summer feeding-grounds by those im- 

 passable barb-wires, and so were gathered against the 

 barrier. One band of 8, at a stopping place, ran off 

 when they saw passengers alighting, but at half a mile 

 they turned, and again came up against the fence, 

 showing how strong is the northward impulse. 



Unless they learn some way of mastering the diffi- 

 culty, it means extermination for the Antelope of the 

 north Saskatchewan. 



From Calgary we went by train to Edmonton. This 

 is the point of leaving the railway, the beginning of 

 hard travel, and here we waited a few days to gather 

 together our various shipments of food and equipment, 

 and to await notice that the river was open. 



In the north the grand event of the year is the open- 

 ing of the rivers. The day when the ice goes out is 

 the official first day of spring, the beginning of the 

 season; and is eagerly looked for, as every day's de- 

 lay means serious loss to the traders, whose men are 

 idle, but drawing pay as though at work. 



On May 11, having learned that the Athabaska was 

 open, we left Edmonton in a livery rig, and drove 94 

 miles northward though a most promising, half-settled 

 country, and late the next day arrived at Athabaska 

 Landing, on the great east tributary of the Mackenzie, 



