CHAPTER XXIX 



PIKE'S PORTAGE 



Part of my plan was to leave a provision cache every 

 hundred miles, with enough food to carry us 200 miles, 

 and thus cover the possibility of considerable loss. I 

 had left supplies at Chipewyan, Smith, and Resolution, 

 but these were settlements; now we were pushing off 

 into the absolute wilderness, where it was unlikely we 

 should see any human beings but ourselves. Now, 

 indeed, we were facing all primitive conditions. Other 

 travellers have made similar plans for food stores, 

 but there are three deadly enemies to a cache — weather, 

 ravens, and wolverines. I was prepared for all three. 

 Water-proof leatheroid cases were to turn the storm, 

 dancing tins and lines will scare the ravens, and each 

 cache tree was made unclimbable to Wolverines by the 

 addition of a necklace of charms in the form of large 

 fish-hooks, all nailed on with points downward. This 

 idea, borrowed from Tyrrell, has always proved a suc- 

 cess; and not one of our caches was touched or injured. 

 Tyrrell has done much for this region ; his name will 

 ever be linked with its geography and history. His 

 map of the portage was a godsend, for now we found 

 that our guide had been here only once, and that when 

 he was a child, with many resultant lapses of memory 

 and doubts about the trail. My only wonder was that 

 he remembered as much as he did. 



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