1895.] Geography and Travels. 47 
ing also that they would get out of ammunition and send a man two 
hundred miles back to the Fort for a new supply. When this messen- 
ger made his appearance as expected, Mr. Russell announced his deter- 
mination to accompany him back to the Barren Ground, no/ens volens. 
He persuaded him to make the best of the inevitable and accept pay 
for the enforced service. This was finally agreed to. Mr. Russell 
joined a band of the Indians at the edge of the Barren Ground, and 
accompanied them, driving his own dog-team and running behind the 
loaded sled until the “ Musk-Ox Hills,” two hundred miles distant on 
the treeless Barren Ground, were reached. These “ Hills,” by the way, 
he found to be mountains, several thousand feet high, and not far from 
Bathurst Inlet. The band of Indians separated into two squads, and 
succeeded in killing about one hundred of the musk-ox, including every 
one that was seen. ‘The animals were found in comparatively small 
herds, rounded up by the dogs and mercilessly slaughtered. Mr. Rus- 
sell killed four that had escaped from the main group as they were 
running off, and several others at another time. He was allowed five 
skins by the Indians, although he had killed a much larger number 
with his Winchester. These were all superb specimens—four males 
and a female, and, with the heavy horns and massive skulls, they made 
a sled load of such dimensions that the dog-team, although the strongest 
of the lot, became so weak before the woods were reached that Mr. 
Russell had to aid them almost constantly by pushing the sled from 
behind. Twenty-two days, in all, were passed on the Barren Ground. 
The explorer thought that about one thousand musk-ox were killed 
that season by the various bands of Indians who enter the Barren 
Ground from the south. The Esquimaux also penetrate the same re- 
gion from the Arctic Coast, and, on one occasion, the Indians and 
Esquimaux have met. It is therefore evident that the musk-ox of the 
Barren Ground is doomed to follow the bison of the Plains, and join 
the rapidly growing list of “ mammals recently exterminated.” 
On May 10th, Mr. Russell left Fort Rae, where he had received the 
kindest treatment and invaluable aid from the Hudson Bay officer: in 
charge, Mr, Hodgson, and proceeded around the north shore of Great 
Slave Lake to Fort Providence, which he reached after unusual suffer- 
ing from hunger and exposure. He found that the north shore of the 
lake was very inaccurately represented on the maps. At this time he 
was compelled to leave his faithful dogs with the Indians, although he 
exceedingly regretted the necessity. On May 25th, he succeeded in 
reaching a steamer, which had wintered about twenty miles below Fort 
Providence on the Mackenzie River, and proceeded down as far as 
