GRAND RAPIDS !p 



potency against the hardships which the arctic traveler has to 

 encounter was fully demonstrated. With a meat diet it is far 

 preferable to any other beverage; as the natives say, "it cuts 

 the grease." 1 



Jack Fiddler. On December 9th, I visited Selkirk Island, 

 where two white men remained during the winter to oversee 

 the Indian crews who put up the season's ice for the fisheries 

 there. Crossing the channel, four miles in width, to the main- 

 land, I found the cabin of "Old Jack Fiddler," a gray haired 

 and bent little Englishman who lived there alone, subsisting 

 upon the fish which were abundant in the bay before his door. 

 I visited him to inquire about the Great Bear Lake country, 

 where I thought of spending the following winter. Old Jack 

 had accompanied Sir John Richardson, in 1848, when that dis- 

 tinguished explorer descended the Mackenzie and followed the 

 Arctic coast as far eastward as the Coppermine. This party, 

 known as the "Arctic Searching Expedition," had wintered at 

 the northeastern extremity of the Great Bear Lake in build- 

 ings they erected upon the site of Fort Confidence, built by 

 Dease and Simpson in 1837. He had also been a member of 

 Stewart and Anderson's party which descended the Back River 

 in 1855. He had suffered much hardship upon the second ex- 

 pedition, which had passed through the Barren Ground during 

 the season of heavy rains. The rheumatism there contracted, 

 still afflicted him and must have made the life of the old man 

 almost unendurable in that solitary cabin. 



I had walked about twenty miles upon heavy snow-shoes on 

 the preceding day and was glad to have an opportunity to ride 

 back to the post with a party of Indians who were returning to 

 the reserve with light loads. I had no furs or rugs, and indeed, 

 could hardly have made myself comfortable with them, seated 

 upon the loaded sled. Before we had accomplished a half of 

 the fifteen-mile traverse I had become too cold and stiff to run 

 and too stupid and indifferent to realize that I was quivering 

 and shaking in the intensely cold wind that swept across the 



1 Admiral Inglefield strongly commends it. "Seamen with me up the 

 Wellington Channel, in the arctic regions, after one day's experience of 

 rum drinking, came to the conclusion that tea, which was the only bever- 

 age I used, was much preferable, and they quickly derived great advan- 

 tage from its use while undergoing hard work and considerable cold." 

 Quoted by Reade, Tea and Tea-Drinking, p. 68. 



