478 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[June ii, 1904. 
ORT^HAN TOURIST 
The Labrador Expedition. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In describing the case of the Hubbard party as that of 
children in a woodlot, I cannot think that you have duly 
considered the actual history of the expedition, or have 
been well informed as to the resources of the region con- 
cerned. As a friend of Mr. Hubbard, I may perhaps be 
pardoned for feeling that the criticism which has thus 
far appeared in your paper is unnecessarily disparaging. 
To condemn the party outright for not taking large sup- 
plies and almost at the same time to support the theory 
that the country could be traveled safely without provi- 
sions, is confusing, and the explanation that the party 
was totally ignorant of the woodsman's craft is not war- 
ranted by what we know of its doings. 
It may be premised, as regards the party's knowledge 
of woodcraft, that George Elson, the Indian, while not 
especially experienced as his people go, came to Mr. 
Hubbard as a native of the Labrador, and withal ex- 
tremely well recommended for the trip by officers of the 
Hudson's Bay Company. His life had been spent in the 
very atmosphere of northern life and travel, and there is, 
I believe, no obvious reason for regarding him as defi- 
cient in the ordinary technique of wilderness life. 
Be this as it may, once cold weather has set in, there 
is not enough woodcraft in all North America to insure 
one's subsistence throughout a long cross-country trip in 
the northeastern inland. Native Indians, settled in well 
known and chosen spots in advance of cold weather, have 
an excellent chance of getting along; yet even with them, 
in the very country where Hubbard and Wallace turned 
back, a starving time occurs every few years, and per- 
haps half the people are dead in their todges by spring. 
On George River this seems in no way due to unusual 
destruction of the game, but is an old condition which 
appears to have been not substantially different genera- 
tions ago. 
Accordingly John McLean's account of his journeys 
between Ungava and Hamilton Inlet, sixty years ago, is 
largely a succession of references to narrow escapes and 
death from starvation. The circumstances of his return 
tc Chimo are singularly like those of Mr. Hubbard. He 
would surely have died but for an Indian who left him 
fifty miles out and fortunately had strength to reach the 
post and send back relief. Yet McLean had followed 
this life as a profession for many years, had local guides, 
and due _ equipment. A storm comparing with the one 
which windbound the Hubbard party would have sealed 
his fate also, as well as that of all his party, and his 
"Twenty-five Years' Service in the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany's Territory" would never have been written. It may 
be added that if he had perished his name as a traveler 
would by no means have suffered the disparagement 
brought down in the present instance. 
Still further back, Samuel Hearne writes feelingly of 
the hazard and mortality from want attending the longer 
journeys of the inland Indians to Fort Churchill (then 
Fort Prince of Wales) with their furs, and during the 
hundred and thirty years since Hearne's time the risks 
of such trips have been always recognized by those 
familiar with northern life. 
To the southwestward of the region we are concerned 
with, lies the basin of the great East Main River, many 
hundred miles long, which discharges into Hudson's Bay. 
On this river, for a long term of years, the deaths from 
starvation were more than from all other causes com- 
bined. The whole region was finally abandoned by the 
survivors, and was uninhabited for years, if it is not at 
the present time. The caribou had diminished to near ex- 
tinction, and in the end the people came to save every 
scrap of refuse and offal, every bone, tag of skin and 
entrail, whether of bird, beast or fish, drying and storing 
all in time of sufficiency to save life in expected straits. 
At Mistassini Post, although thirty-five thousand pounds 
ef_ freight were brought up each year from the Bay, Mr. 
Miller took evident pride in telling us that the post had 
never had a starving time since he had been in charge, 
though often before; and A. P. Low states in his formal 
report to the Geological Survey that the Indians about 
Mistassini could not subsist without help from the Hud- 
son's Bay Company. Now, are the doings of a party who 
have subsisted themselves almost three months in such a 
country to be regarded with contempt? Let him of us 
who has done anything like it cast the first stone. 
Unquestionably the party's initial equipment was defi- 
cient. They should have had a larger canoe— or better, a 
second canoe — more provisions, a shotgun, and, above all, 
a net. With the latter requisite there should have been 
practically no risk of starvation. But be it observed, 
even after freezing weather set in and they were unable 
to get fish with the hook, they still supported themselves 
on the country as long as John McLean did in going 
from Northwest River to Ungava over the same route. 
McLean traveled further, but had important advantages, 
one being that he had traveled the same route a few 
weeks before. Moreover, he started strong and well, 
while the later party were already weak and thin when 
they began their last month of travel. The exact paral- 
lelism of the final exhaustion of the two leaders, the 
forced march for life of an Indian in each case, and the 
veturn of a. rescue party — top late, alas | for one braive 
soul — may serve to emphasize the vicissitudes of north- 
eastern inland travel. As a matter of fact, for such a 
party as the present, one to subsist themselves so long on 
that particular piece of country with only rod and rifle, is 
an incredible feat of woodcraft, such as the hardiest 
natives would shrink ' from. Noting what Mr. Hallock 
says about the Hudson's Bay Company's putting the party 
right as to outfit, the supposition is quite natural; yet, 
very curiously, it happened that the one fatal deficiency 
111 outfit, and which almost surely cost Mr. Hubbard his 
life, was occasioned by his relying on getting a suitable 
net from one of the posts. There was none to be had at 
Rigolette, and it seems clear that the party traveled with- 
out one. And as to October not being a month to starve 
ill on the plateau of the northern interior, the very con- 
trary may well prove true. October there means early 
winter, and often zero weather. 
Concerning local guides, it is safe to say that for the 
more remote regions north and east they are hardly to be 
had. So far are the inland Indians from being disposed 
to assist one, that in a recent instance a Hudson's Bay 
Company's officer was turned upon with threats, and 
found it expedient to get back to the shore forthwith. 
Moreover, their ways are not always those of the ideal 
guide, as may be inferred from the attempt of a party 
of them not long since to rush an H. B. C. post in the 
face of active resistance. Very sensibly, they prefer not 
to have outsiders on their hunting grounds, and do not 
often care to serve as guides. As to Hamilton Inlet, no 
Indians are regularly tributary there of late years. The 
shore people hunt far up the Grand River, traveling in 
skiffs, and might do well as guides for parts of that large 
basin. From Rigolette Mr. Hubbard wrote me in July 
that he could find no one there who had knowledge of the 
N. W. river route. 
As to maps, if the average visitor tries to travel the 
further country by any other maps than Low's, he is not 
likely to get far enough to be in any personal danger 
whatever; and Low's routes really cover but little of the 
country.^ Even Low himself, with all assistance from the 
Hudson's Bay Company, was unable to get effective help 
at Hamilton Inlet, and did his important Grand River 
v/ork with his Lake St. John men. Among the Labrador 
natives I have some friends, and in the course of some- 
thing over two thousand miles of interior travel have had 
the fortune to potluck, winter or summer, with Indians 
from George River, Northwest River, Seven Islands, 
Bersimis, Mistassini and Pte. Bleue. These Indian 
hunters (and no one else) are really "absolutely ac- 
quainted" with the country. Yet I have to regret that to 
me the matter of getting any of these men for work in 
the north and east is not simple, if possible. 
So far as white men are concerned, the peninsula, while 
truly "not unexplored," as your editorial has it, has large 
areas on which no eye is known to have rested, and some, 
of its greater rivers and lakes have been mapped only 
by hearsay from Indians, or mere conjecture. From its 
barrenness the country is likely to remain longer un- 
known, in detail than any other large area on the 
continent. 
To return to subsistence and the starvation question. 
The eating of moss, barks, buds and the like is practiced 
under stress by the human race generally, and doubtless 
occurred to Elson. This browse-food does good service, 
but even when one is inactive will not maintain life long 
under north Labrador conditions, else the long list of 
cannibalistic horrors of the fur countries need never 
have been told. How far a man already weak could 
travel under the onset of winter upon such food may be 
readily surmised. Even the- ruminants get weak and 
thin upon a course of winter browse. The rodents do 
better, and chemistry may yet enable us to do as well; 
but although these things are not wanting in nutriment, 
and a porcupine can do well on a barky tree, the time has 
not yet come when one can send home a load of hay for 
farnily provision with satisfactory results. Finally, the 
intimation that berries might have saved the party (i they 
had been intelligent enough to pick them, is hard to take 
seriously. 
The best resource in the barrens is probably the rock- 
tripe' (wakwanapsk), which became important in Frank- 
lin's land expedition. Of this, on observing some, a 
Cree remarked to me with appreciation: "It has saved 
many an Indian family." It grows only on certain kinds 
of rocks, and may not be found on Northwest River. 
Broadly speaking, when it comes to the question of 
doing serious traveling in the peninsula without provi- 
sions to start with, it is safe to say that those best 
qualified to do so would be the least willing to under- 
take it, and the firmest in their demand for a sightly pile 
of pork and flour before starting. The Nascaupee I have 
seen, when journeying to the_ coast, carried supplies — men 
dressed in skins, living in skin tents, subsisting as wholly 
by the chase as their remotest ancestors, and growing 
sometimes to manhood without having seen a white face. 
It is not to be denied that Mr. Hubbard was willing 
to take chances which most persons would not care to 
accept. Rash he was, and with more experience would 
doubtless have estimated the undertaking more correctly. 
Yet the getting windbound at a critical time might well 
have happened to an older voyager than he, with as sad 
s result. The rivers more or les$ fail of fish in cold 
weather, and at times the Indians themselves perish even 
at their lakes, in spite of net and tackle. 
Mr. Hallock's citation of the disaster to Nordenskiold's 
party^in the Lena Delta doubtless refers instead to De- 
Longs party. They surely should have tried fishing, 
but It IS by no means certain from the printed accounts 
that the result would have been different. The fact that 
the natives were able to catch fish with nets a long way 
up stream from the party by no means proves that their 
own efforts in another place with hook and line would 
nave been successful. 
Without knowing the source of Mr. Hallock's account 
of i< actor ^McLean's great journey, I am inclined to think 
that It is based merely upon John McLean's trips already 
alluded to between Hamilton Inlet and Ungava No such 
event as the former is found in A. P. Low's long list of 
Labrador travels, nor is any tradition of the journev 
known to Mr. Peter McKenzie, the present manager of 
tne JrLudsons Bay Company, notwithstanding his long- 
service m the peninsula. 
It is not too much to say, finally, that if as unfriendly 
criticism were applied to other northern expeditions as 
has been bestowed upon the present one, not many would 
escape a bad showing. Not a few of the expeditions in 
such countries as northern Labrador have lost men or 
escaped by a mere chance. The region where Franklin 
and his hundred and five men left their bones had more 
game resources than did the country Hubbard traversed 
tor Schwatka subsisted a large party there during some- 
thing like a year's time. Consider the ships and parties 
that passed up the Baffin's Bay route, yet none until Pearv 
who ever thought to look over into the inland valleys and 
find the muskox feeding. Consider the precautions that 
Warburton Pike, with all his experience, neglected on 
his Peace River failure. And what one of us who have 
traveled m wild countries at all has not chanced upon 
the day when a turn of fortune less decided than that 
which bore against Hubbard when he turned back, would 
have cost a life or lives ? W B Cabot 
Boston, Mass. 
Wymore's Park System. 
Wymore, Nebraska.— £c?jYor Forest and Stream: I 
have been a reader of Foijest and Stream for many 
years, and I feel to-night like testifying to the good in- 
fluence the paper has exerted over me, and to point out 
m my feeble way, how good results have been attained 
by reason of that good influence. 
This little city was laid out twenty-three vears ago by 
a land company connected with the Burlington Railway 
L ompany. Six hundred and forty acres were platted into 
lots and placed upon the market. The eastern boundary 
ci the city w;as the Big Blue River; the southern boundary 
beautiful Indian Creek; the northern boundary is 
liills Creek, and the western boundary is the Rocky 
Mountains. No prettier location for a city can be found 
anywhere. But the company which laid out the town 
neglected one very important thing, and that was parks. 
Uot a lot, not a foot of ground,- was left unplatted to 
be dedicated for city parks. It is true that we have some 
pretty drives along the river and the creeks, and some 
nice picnic grounds in the woods along these streams 
but they are liable to overflow and do not belong to the 
city, and but few of these nice places can be utilized for 
the pleasure and comfort of our citizens, and do not in 
any_ sense take the place of nor obviate the necessity of 
having some nice parks in the city. 
Two years ago the City Council called upon me for an 
opinion as to the best way to collect delinquent taxes 
upon certain pieces of real estate in the city, and after 
due investigation and consideration, I recommended that 
the property be condemned for city parks, and accom- 
panied my report with the proper ordinances to carry it 
into effect. The Mayor and Council seemed to enjoy the 
joke, and adopted- my report, and passed the ordinances 
without a dissenting vote. Appraisers were appointed 
and the lands appraised. 
One of the pieces of land was a twenty-six acre tract 
on the north side of town, lying very high and sightly 
overlookmg Bill's Creek, and one corner of it taking in 
the creek, with about two acres of fine timber and shade 
trees. It had been a fair ground many years before but 
the society had failed, and the title to the land had passed 
into the hands of a non-resident, who owed the city 
$600 sidewalk taxes. The land was appraised at $50 an 
acre, or a total of $1,300, from which the appraisers de- 
aucted the taxes. There was an appeal from this ap- 
praisement to the District Court, and an injunction suit 
was commenced against the city in the same court. The 
city was successful in both suits. It was no longer a 
joke. The Mayor and Council and most of the people 
had become interested in the fight, and a settlement was 
effected under which we paid the owner $1,000, and the 
land was deeded to the city for park purposes forever 
1 he city then fenced the land at an expense of over $900' 
and otherwise improved it, and named it "City Park." A 
driving association has been formed, which now has a 
fine regulation half-mile track in this park. The Wymore 
Gun Club has a nice building there, and the finest shoot- 
ing grounds in the State. 
The second piece of ground was a single block, three 
