CHAPTER I 

 DEPARTURE FOR THE NORTH 



IN 1907 I set out to journey by canoe down the Atha- 

 baska and adjoining waters to the sole remaining 

 forest wilds the far north-west of Canada and the 

 yet more desert Arctic Plains, where still, it was said, 

 were to be seen the Caribou in their primitive condition. 



My only companion was Edward A. Preble, of 

 Washington, D. C., a trained naturalist, an expert 

 canoeist and traveller, and a man of three seasons' 

 experience in the Hudson's Bay Territory and the 

 Mackenzie Valley. While my chief object was to see 

 the Caribou, and prove their continued abundance, I 

 was prepared incidentally to gather natural-history 

 material of all kinds, and to complete the shore line 

 of the ambiguous lake called "Aylmer," as well as 

 explore its sister, the better-known Clinton-Golden. 



I went for my own pleasure at my own expense, and 

 yet I could not persuade my Hudson's Bay Company 

 friends that I was not sent by some government, mu- 

 seum or society for some secret purpose. 



On the night of May 5 we left Winnipeg, and our 

 observations began with the day at Brandon. 



From that point westward to Regina we saw abun- 

 dant evidence that last year had been a "rabbit year/' 

 that is, a year in which the ever-fluctuating popula- 



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