32 THE ARCTIC PRAIRIES 



with drill and block the same, I got the fire in half a 

 minute. 



On June 3 we left this camp of tall timber. As we 

 floated down we sighted a Lynx on the bank looking 

 contemplatively into the flood. One of the police boys 

 seized a gun and with a charge of No. 6 killed the 

 Lynx. Poor thing, it was in a starving condition, as 

 indeed are most meat-eaters this year in the north. 

 Though it was fully grown, it weighed but 15 pounds. 



Poplar Point, Athabaska River, from north 



In its stomach was part of a sparrow (white-throat?) 

 and a piece of rawhide an inch wide and 4 feet long, 

 evidently a portion of a dog-harness picked up some- 

 where along the river. I wonder what he did with 

 the bells. 



That night we decided to drift, leaving one man on 

 guard. Next day, as we neared Lake Athabaska, the 

 shores got lower, and the spruce disappeared, giving 

 way to dense thickets of low willow. Here the long 

 expected steamer, Graham, passed, going upstream. 

 We now began to get occasional glimpses of Lake 

 Athabaska across uncertain marshes and sand bars. 

 It was very necessary to make Fort Chipewyan while 

 there was a calm, so we pushed on. After four hours' 

 groping among blind channels and mud banks, we 

 reached the lake at midnight — though of course there 



