ACROSS THE SUB-ARCTICS. OF CANADA. 
Clr Di i 
TORONTO TO ATHABASCA LANDING. 
On the morning of the 10th of May, 1893, in response 
to a telegram from Ottawa, I took train at Hamilton for 
Toronto, to meet my brother, J. Burr Tyrrell, of the 
Canadian Geological Survey, and make final arrange- 
ments for a trip to the North. 
He had been authorized by the Director of that most 
important department of the Canadian Government to 
conduct, in company with myself, an exploration survey 
through the great mysterious region of terra incognita 
commonly known as the Barren Lands, more than two 
hundred thousand square miles in extent, lying north of 
the 59th parallel of latitude, between Great Slave Lake 
and Hudson Bay. Of almost this entire territory less 
was known than of the remotest districts of “ Darkest 
Africa,” and, with but few exceptions, its vast and dreary 
plains had never been trodden by the foot of man, save 
that of the dusky savage. 
During the summer of 1892 my brother had obiained 
some information concerning it from the Chippewyan 
Indians in the vicinity of Athabasca and Black Lakes, 
