FORT RAE 



71 



leaders. I soon discovered, however, that arrangements could 

 not be made with ease and dispatch. Naohmby had supersti- 

 tious scruples about admitting a Mollah (white man) into their 

 hunting grounds. I afterwards learned that he thought, as did 

 all the Indians of the North, that if I sent down skins of the 

 caribou to be mounted in my country, they would live there 

 forever; which happy fate would induce all the vast herds that 

 roam over the Barren Ground to migrate southward to join 

 them. I did not know at the time why he found so many triv- 

 ial excuses for not accepting the terms offered him — his young 

 men already had their canoes loaded. Andrew and I could not 

 paddle alone because there were many dangerous rapids. They 

 would have to starve two weeks before reaching the caribou, 

 which were so far away that I would lose courage altogether. 

 His health was not good and perhaps he would stop some- 

 where and fish instead of making the long trip after caribou. 



He said that they had all decided not to make their usual 

 fall hunt for musk-ox, as the days were so short and the season 

 so stormy, that it was altogether too dangerous an undertaking 

 now that they had to go so far out from the timber. Five or 

 six years ago, the musk-ox were found west of the Coppermine 

 River, where a few clumps of stunted spruce maintain a foot- 

 hold in protected situations, but each year the hunters had 

 had to penetrate farther into the Barren Ground, and at least 

 one of their number had been stricken with paralysis upon each 

 trip. Three years before a hunter had been lost in a storm and 

 never found. They had therefore decided to hunt musk-ox in 

 the spring only. This was a great disappointment to me as I had 

 expected to engage in this hunt during November and be pre- 

 pared for an early start toward the Coppermine the next 

 spring. Naohmby also discouraged my plan. None of his 

 people ever saw the Arctic Sea; they were afraid of the Eski- 

 mos. They could not descend the Coppermine more than one 

 day's travel from the point where they crossed it on the way to 

 the musk-ox country. None of his brigade would accompany 

 me down the river. Nor did he know of any locality where 

 nests and eggs of water birds could be obtained. 



The Yellow Knife River. The Indians would not allow me to 

 accompany them on the caribou hunt. It was fifteen days' 

 travel by canoe to the nearest point where the caribou might 



