120 THE ARCTIC PRAIRIES 



sufficiently protected from the stingers that roam in 

 clouds. It is the hardest work I ever saw performed 

 by human beings; the burdens are heavier than some 

 men will allow their horses to carry. 



Yet all this frightful labour was cheerfully gone 

 through by white men, half-breeds, and Indians alike. 

 They accept it as a part of their daily routine. This 



t— ^ 



Linnsea americana 



fact alone is enough to guarantee the industrial future 

 of the red-man when the hunter life is no longer pos- 

 sible. 



Next day we embarked on the Little Buffalo River, 

 beginning what should have been and would have 

 been a trip of memorable joys but for the awful, 

 awful, awful — see Chapter IX. 



The Little Buffalo is the most beautiful river in 

 the whole world except, perhaps, its affluent, the 

 Nyarling. 



This statement sounds like the exaggeration of mere 

 impulsive utterance. Perhaps it is; but I am writing 

 now after thinking the matter over for two and a half 

 years, durmg which time I have seen a thousand 



