222 A WINTER’S DAY IN THE YUKON TERRITORY. 
Hudson Bay men say the same, but between you and I, 
I don’t believe half of it. Mr. Carcajou is very intelligent, 
no doubt, but he takes the place of snakes in the legends of 
the northern trapper, and we all know what stories are told 
about snakes, in more southern latitudes. 
The sun, though very low, is at his noonday elevation, 
and a short time will be devoted with satisfaction to lunch. 
One takes the axe and starts for a dead dry spruce tree, an- 
other scrapes away the snow from a hillock, with his snow- 
shoe. There we see in the depth of winter bright green 
mosses and other small plants, with the partridge berry and 
cranberry vines loaded with berries beneath the snow. The 
white fleecy covering defends them from the frost, and when 
the snow melts in the spring they have only to put forth 
their blossoms and continue to grow, under the warm sun 
which endures almost till midnight in May and June. 
Here comes the wood, and we proceed to make a white 
man’s fire, which is built with the sticks laid parallel in layers 
which are at right angles to one another. This makes a flat 
top, and taking a dry stick we whittle a few shavings, which 
are put on top of the pile. Then with a flint and steel (for 
matches are luxuries in the Yukon Territory) we light a bit 
of punk, and with our breath as a bellows, in a few moments 
we have a light with which we proceed to kindle the fire, 
putting it on top of the pile, so that the air having free 
access, it soon produces a cheerful blaze. An Indian builds 
his fire conically, which is much less convenient and takes 
much longer to boil the kettle. It is a work of time and 
difficulty to melt enough snow to fill the teakettle, and 
taking the axe, we go yonder where a low, smooth depres- 
sion in the snow indicates the position of what was a pool of 
water. A few minutes vigorous chopping and the welcome 
fluid gushes up and rapidly overflows the surface of the ice 
where we have scraped away the snow. It is full of little 
red crustaceans, like sand fleas, etc., among which we may 
distinguish members of the genus Cyclops, giants of their 
