THEOUGH THE FOREST AND HOME AGAIN 



stick to their snowshoes. It was here decided to divide our 

 party, and send the three western men home, assisted by the 

 team of Eskimo dogs which had accompanied us the whole 

 six hundred miles from Churchill. The valley of the Sas- 

 katchewan River would be their most direct course, in taking 

 which route they would reach their several homes by 

 travelling about the same distance as ourselves. Arthur 

 Omen, the driver from Churchill, chose to go up the Sas- 

 katchewan with the western men, so that of the original 

 party there only remained the two Iroquois, Pierre and 

 Louis, to accompany my brother and myseK. With the 

 least possible delay four good dog-teams, as many drivers, 

 and a guide were procured from Mr. J. K. Macdonald, the 

 Hudson's Bay Company's factor, who showed us much 

 kindness, and two days before Christmas the last and 

 longest division of our journey was begun. 



My brother and I were now warmly rolled up in robes 

 and blankets and lying in our carryalls. Supplies and bag- 

 gage were all loaded upon the two remaining sleds, and with 

 a driver trotting along beside or behind each team, the guide 

 running before, and the two Iroquois sometimes before and 

 sometimes behind, we travelled on an almost due south 

 course over the ice near the shore of Lake Winnipeg. About 

 the same time that we started for the south, the other section 

 set out across the lake to the westward for the mouth of the 

 Saskatchewan River. 



Our teams, of four dogs each, were for the most part fine 

 powerful animals, and we soon found there was no necessity 

 for my brother or myself exerting ourselves more than we 

 desired. The teams travelled all day, and, indeed, day after 

 day, at a rapid trot, sometimes breaking into a gallop, so 

 that it gave the Indians all they could do to keep up with 

 them. 



Taking smooth and rough together, we made an average 

 of about forty miles per day, and some days as much as 



227 



