ACROSS THE SUB-ARCTICS OF CANADA 



commeneement of the journey, which was particularly fortu- 

 nate on account of poor Michel, who would doubtless have 

 suffered had he been obliged to ride upon a sled all day dur- 

 ing severe weather. As it was, we were able to keep him 

 fairly comfortable by bundling him up in deerskin robes and 

 blankets. 



On the fourth day, meeting with no deer, we made about 

 twenty-seven miles, a good march under the circumstances. 

 This brought us to the banks of Owl Eiver, a stream two or 

 three hundred yards in width, situated about midway 

 between York and Churchill. 



At dawn the next morning we were again marching 

 southward, with the expectation of that day reaching Stony 

 Eiver, where William Westasecot, a brother of the guide, 

 was encamped, and where our parties were to separate. 



Three more deer were shot during the day, making a total 

 of twelve for the trip, most of them victims of the Indian 

 guide. About four o'clock in the afternoon we arrived at 

 Stony River, but there was no Indian camp to be seen, and 

 for a time we saw no signs of any human presence. We 

 turned down the river, and ere long came upon the tracks 

 of a solitary hunter. These Jimmie knew to be the tracks 

 of his brother, and by following them a mile or two into a 

 dense evergreen wood, we came upon the camp. It was a 

 solitary tepee, situated in the heart of a snow-clad thicket of 

 spruce trees and scrub, so dense that a bird could scarcely 

 fly through it. 



The lodge of the hunter was built of poles placed closely 

 together, and arranged in the shape of a cone. The cracks 

 between the poles were chinked tightly with moss, with 

 which the tepee was then covered, excepting a foot or so at 

 the top, where a hole was left for the chinmey. An opening 

 made in the wall to serve as a doorway was closed by a 

 heavy curtain of deerskin, and as we lifted it we saw in the 

 centre of the lod2;e, upon a square, mud-covered hearth, a 



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