tie Ue 2 OB OING (BU Le by het N 3 
there wasn’t any place to take one and the weather too cold, and the last 
week—well, why spoil a perfectly good record? 
At The Pas we took the train for Churchill—and what a train it was! 
It was composed of about 20 freight cars and two old-time coaches called 
immigrant cars. We averaged about 18 miles an hour and took three days 
to cover the 510 miles to Churchill. Most of the passengers were Indians or 
half-breed trappers, although we carried a few white men who were going 
to work in the port. At night we made our beds on the seat, sleeping in 
our sleeping bags, often right across the aisle from an Indian. It is 
remarkable that during the ten years the railroad has been built never has 
Nest and eggs of Arctic loon 
anything been stolen from the train, yet at times the baggage car carries 
$30,000 worth of furs. Trappers brought many furs to the train, among 
them being such rare skins as the silver fox, otter, mink, and the more 
common muskrat. In this section the law of the frontier holds true; the 
people are hard-boiled but honest and willing to help a stranger in every 
possible way. Things must be that way in such a country in order that one 
may survive the hardships encountered by those who live there. 
Game is in abundance to within a hundred miles of Churchill. We saw 
a number of caribou from the train and they told us that in the winter it is 
often necessary to stop the train for these animals. 
During the first two days of our train journey we traveled through a 
heavily wooded section known as “muskeg swamp,” but on the third day as 
we neared Churchill we commenced to run out of the trees and get into what 
is known as the “barren grounds.”’ We arrived there on June 10 in a driving 
blizzard and were forced to spend our first night there on the train. The 
