186 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



coal oil with the dog's rations and having them baked 

 into cakes before the trip was begun. Such a mixture made the 

 men sick when they tried to eat it, but the dogs didn't seem to 

 mind it at all." 



"Then kerosene is not included in the regular rations the 

 Company supplies for its trippers and voyageurs?" I ven- 

 tured, laughingly. 



"Hardly, for in the Northland that would be rather an 

 expensive condiment." The old gentleman smiled as he con- 

 tinued: "In outfitting our people for a voyage, we supply what 

 is known as a full ration for a man, a half ration for a woman 

 or a dog, and a quarter ration for a child. For instance, we 

 give a man eight pounds of fresh deer meat per day while we 

 give a woman or a dog only four pounds and a child two pounds. 

 A man's ration of fish is four pounds per day, of pemmican two 

 pounds, of flour or meal two pounds, of rabbits or ptarmigan 

 four of each," said he, as he knocked the ashes from 

 his pipe. I was afraid he was going to turn in, so I quickly 

 asked: 



"Which is the longest of the Company's packet routes at the 

 present day?" 



"That of the Mackenzie River packet from Edmonton to 

 Fort Macpherson. In winter it is hauled two thousand and 

 twelve miles by dog-train; and in summer it is carried by the 

 Company's steamers on the Athabasca, the Slave, and the 

 Mackenzie rivers. Next comes the Peace River packet from 

 Edmonton to Hudson's Hope, a distance of over a thousand 

 miles. In summer it goes by steamer, and in winter by dog- 

 train. There's the York Factory packet from Winnipeg to 

 Hudson Bay by way of Norway House, a distance of seven hun- 

 dred miles. In winter it is hauled by dogs from Selkirk as far 

 as Oxford House, and from there to York Factory by men with 

 toboggans. In summer it is carried by canoe on Hay River 

 and by steamboat on Lake Winnipeg. Then there's the Liard 



