118 THE ARCTIC PRAIRIES 



We set out in two canoes, Bezkya and Jarvis in 

 the small one, Billy, Selig, Preble, and I in the large 

 one, leaving the other police boys to make Fort Res- 

 olution in the H. B. steamer. 



Being the 4th of July, the usual torrential rains set 

 in. During the worst of it we put in at Salt River 

 village. It was amusing to see the rubbish about the 



Comus canadensis 



doors of these temporarily deserted cabins. The mid- 

 den-heaps of the Cave-men are our principal sources 

 of information about those by-gone races; the future 

 ethnologist who discovers Salt River midden-heaps 

 will find all the usual skulls, bones, jaws, teeth, flints, 

 etc., mixed with moccasin beads from Venice, brass 

 cartridges from New England, broken mirrors from 

 France, Eley cap-boxes from London, copper rings, 

 silver pins, lead bullets, and pewter spoons, and inter- 

 persed with them bits of telephone wires and the 

 fragments of gramophone discs. I wonder what they 

 will make of the last! 



Eight miles farther we camped in the rain, reaching 

 the Buffalo Portage next morning at 10, and had every- 

 thing over its 5 miles by 7 o'clock at night. 



