264 



THE ARCTIC PRAIRIES 



drank in hot and copious tea the toast: "Long life 

 and prosperity to our host so far away, the brave old 

 hunter, Buffalo Jones." 



The woods were beautiful and abounded with life, 

 and the three days we spent there were profitably 

 devoted to collecting, but on September 17 we 



Old Fort Reliance from north 



crossed the bay, made the short portage, and at night 

 camped 32 miles away, on the home track. 



Next morning we found a camp of Indians down to 

 the last of their food. We supplied them with flour 

 and tobacco. They said that no Caribou had come to 

 the Lake, showing how erratic is the great migration. 



In the afternoon we came across another band in 

 still harder luck. They had nothing whatever but 

 the precarious catch of the nets, and this was the off- 

 season. Again we supplied them, and these were 

 among the unexpected emergencies for which our care- 

 fully guarded supplies came in. 



In spite of choppy seas we made from 30 to 35 miles 

 a day, and camped on Tal-thel-lay the evening of 

 September 20. That night as I sat by the fire the 

 moon rose in a clear sky and as I gazed on her calm 

 bright disc something seemed to tell me that at that 



