DOWN THE PEACE RIVEE 95 



my old friend, Chief-factor Clarke, of Prince Albert, her 

 brother having charge of the trading store. The post is a 

 substantial one, and the store large, well stocked, and evi- 

 dently the headquarters of an extensive trade. At such 

 posts, vsfhich have generally a fringe of settlement, the Com- 

 pany's officers and their families, though, of course, cut off 

 from the outer world, lead, if somewhat monotonous, by no 

 means irksome lives. Books, music, cards and dances serve 

 to while away spare time, and an occasional wedding, last- 

 ing, as it generally does, for several days, stirs the little 

 community to its core. But sport, in a region abounding 

 with game of all kinds, is the great time-killer, giving the 

 longed-for excitement, and contributing as well to the daily 

 bill of fare the very choicest of human food. Such a life is 

 indeed to be envied rather than commiserated, and we met 

 with few, if any, who cared to leave it. But such posts are 

 the " plums " of the service, and are few and far between. 

 At many of the solitary outposts life has a very different 

 colour.* 



*" At an outpost," says Mr. Bleasdell Cameron, " where a clerk 

 is alone -with his Indian servant, the life is wearisome to a degree, 

 and privation not infrequently adds to the hardship of it. Supplies 

 may run short, and in any case he is expected to stock himself with 

 fish, taken in nets from the lake, near which his post is situated, 

 for his table and his dogs, as well as to augment his larder by the 

 expert and diligent use of his gun. Rare instances have occurred 

 where, through accident, supplies had not reached the far-out posts 

 for which they were intended, and the men had literally died of 

 starvation. Out of a York boat's crew, which was taking up the 

 annual supplies for a post far up among the Rocky Mountains, on a 

 branch of the Mackenzie River, two or three men were drowned, and 

 the ice beginning to take, the boat was obliged to put back to the 

 district headquarters. Tlie three men at the outpost were left for 

 some weeks without the supplies, and when, after winter had set 

 in, and it became possible to reach them with dog trains, and pro- 

 visions were at length sent them, two were found dead in the post, 

 while the third man was living by himself in a small hut some dis- 

 tance from the fort buildings. The explanation he gave was that he 

 had removed to where there was a chance of keeping himself alive 

 by snaring rabbits, which were more plentiful than at the post. But 

 a suggestion of cannibalism surrounded the affair, for only the bones 

 of his companions were found, and they were in the open chimney- 

 place. Nothing was done, however, and I myself saw the survivor 

 many times in after years." 



