PREFACE 



The literature descriptive of ISTorthern Canada, from tlie 

 days of Heame and Mackenzie to those of Tyrrell and Han- 

 bury, is by no means scanty. A copious bibliography might 

 be compiled of the records of its exploration with a view to 

 trade, science, or sport, particularly in recent years; whilst 

 the accounts of the search for Sir John Franklin furnish no 

 inconsiderable portion of such productions in the past. These 

 books are more or less available in our Public Libraries, and, 

 at any rate, do not enter into consideration here. Such 

 records, however, furnished almost our sole knowledge of 

 the Northern Territories until the year 1888, when the first 

 earnest effort of the Canadian Parliament was made " to 

 inquire into the resources of the great Mackenzie Basin." 



Through the instrumentality of the late Sir John Schultz, 

 then a Senator, a Select Committee of the Senate was 

 appointed for that purpose. Sir John had always taken a 

 great interest in the question, and was Chairman of the Com- 

 mittee which took evidence, oral and by letter, from a great 

 many persons who possessed more or less knowledge of the 

 regions in question. The evidence was voluminous, and the 

 reader who lacks access to the Blue Book containing it will 

 find the gist of the Keport in the Appendix to this volume. 



A treaty with the Indians of the region followed this 

 Eeport in 1899 ; but, owing to the absence of roads and mar- 

 kets, and other essentials of civilized life, not to speak of the 

 vast unsettled areas of prairie to the south, the incoming, 

 until now that railways are projected, of any great body of 

 immigrants was very wisely discouraged, and this in the 

 interest of the settler himself. The following narrative, 

 therefore, has lain in the author's diary since the year 



