XXII 

 NO LUCK (continued) 



1895 

 CARIBOO 



"TTTOODMEN report cariboo plentiful" was the pith of a 

 VV telegram received from the south-eastern end of Canada 

 proper, which finally decided me to try that country in prefer- 

 ence to another north of the St. Lawrence, which had also been 

 suggested as a hunting-ground by friends in Montreal. A 

 twenty-four hours' journey by train brought me to Rimouski on 

 the Gulf; it had been snowing heavily and freezing hard after- 

 wards, so that the drive next morning to Father Point lighthouse 

 was a very cold one and rough also in consequence of the snow- 

 drifts. Thence to St. Anneclet, one of those straggling villages 

 which join others in a string all along both shores of the St. 

 Lawrence River and Gulf villages composed of wooden farm- 

 houses on small fenced-in patches of land, with a picturesque 

 church and priest's house attached every nine miles. I put up 

 temporarily in quest of supplies at the house of a well-to-do 

 farmer, a French Canadian, of course ; he spoke a little English 

 and had consented to be my guide and cook. The ground floor 

 of all these houses consists of a day room into which open the 

 sleeping apartments of the family, in this case consisting of 

 eight. There was a large stove which also did the cooking, a 

 barrel of drinking-water with tin cup suspended above in one 

 corner, while highly coloured advertisement placards, a crucifix, 

 holy water, a rosary and pictures of saints adorned the walls. 

 Here we collected supplies while the wife prepared an ample 

 repast of excellent pancakes, and the more or less aromatic 



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