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diff --git a/9857.txt b/9857.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d313466 --- /dev/null +++ b/9857.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8297 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Long Labrador Trail, by Dillon Wallace + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Long Labrador Trail + +Author: Dillon Wallace + +Posting Date: December 16, 2011 [EBook #9857] +Release Date: February, 2006 +First Posted: October 24, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LONG LABRADOR TRAIL *** + + + + +Produced by Martin Schub + + + + + + + + + + +THE LONG LABRADOR TRAIL + +by + +DILLON WALLACE + +Author of "The Lure of the Labrador Wild," etc. + +Illustrated + +MCMXVII + + + + + + + TO THE + MEMORY OF MY WIFE + + + + "A drear and desolate shore! + Where no tree unfolds its leaves, + And never the spring wind weaves + Green grass for the hunter's tread; + A land forsaken and dead, + Where the ghostly icebergs go + And come with the ebb and flow..." + + Whittier's "The Rock-tomb of Bradore." + + + +PREFACE + +In the summer of 1903 when Leonidas Hubbard, Jr., went to Labrador to +explore a section of the unknown interior it was my privilege to +accompany him as his companion and friend. The world has heard of the +disastrous ending of our little expedition, and how Hubbard, fighting +bravely and heroically to the last, finally succumbed to starvation. + +Before his death I gave him my promise that should I survive I would +write and publish the story of the journey. In "The Lure of The +Labrador Wild" that pledge was kept to the best of my ability. + +While Hubbard and I were struggling inland over those desolate wastes, +where life was always uncertain, we entered into a compact that in case +one of us fall the other would carry to completion the exploratory work +that he had planned and begun. Providence willed that it should become +my duty to fulfil this compact, and the following pages are a record of +how it was done. + +Not I, but Hubbard, planned the journey of which this book tells, and +from him I received the inspiration and with him the training and +experience that enabled me to succeed. It was his spirit that led me +on over the wearisome trails, and through the rushing rapids, and to +him and to his memory belong the credit and the honor of success. + +D. W. February, 1907. + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I THE VOICE OF THE WILDERNESS + II ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE UNKNOWN + III THE LAST OF CIVILIZATION + IV ON THE OLD INDIAN TRAIL + V WE GO ASTRAY + VI LAKE NIPISHISH IS REACHED + VII SCOUTING FOR THE TRAIL + VIII SEAL LAKE AT LAST + IX WE LOSE THE TRAIL + X "WE SEE MICHIKAMAU" + XI THE PARTING AT MICHIKAMAU + XII OVER THE NORTHERN DIVIDE + XIII DISASTER IN THE RAPIDS + XIV TIDE WATER AND THE POST + XV OFF WITH THE ESKIMOS + XVI CAUGHT BY THE ARCTIC ICE + XVII TO WHALE RIVER AND FORT CHIMO + XVIII THE INDIANS OF THE NORTH + XIX THE ESKIMOS OF LABRADOR + XX THE SLEDGE JOURNEY BEGUN + XXI CROSSING THE BARRENS + XXII ON THE ATLANTIC ICE + XXIII BACK TO NORTHWEST RIVER + XXIV THE END OF THE LONG TRAIL + APPENDIX + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +The Perils of the Rapids (in color, from a painting by Oliver Kemp) + +Ice Encountered Off the Labrador Coast + +"The Time For Action Had Come" + +"Camp Was Moved to the First Small Lake" + +"We Found a Long-disused Log Cache of the Indians" + +Below Lake Nipishish + +Through Ponds and Marshes Northward Toward Otter Lake + +"We Shall Call the River Babewendigash" + +"Pete, Standing by the Prostrate Caribou, Was Grinning From Ear to Ear" + +"A Network of Lakes and the Country as Level as a Table" + +Michikamau + +"Writing Letters to the Home Folks" + +"Our Lonely Perilous Journey Toward the Dismal Wastes ...Was Begun" + +Abandoned Indian Camp On the Shore of Lake Michikamats + +"One of the Wigwams Was a Large One and Oblong in Shape" + +"At Last ...We Saw the Post" + +"A Miserable Little Log Shack" + +A Group of Eskimo Women + +A Labrador Type + +Eskimo Children + +A Snow Igloo + +The Silence of the North (in color, from a painting by Frederic C. +Stokes) + +"Nachvak Post of the Hudson's Bay Company". + +"The Hills Grew Higher and Higher" + +"We Turned Into a Pass Leading to the Northward" + +The Moravian Mission at Ramah + +"Plodding Southward Over the Endless Snow" + +"Nain, the Moravian Headquarters in Labrador" + +"The Indians Were Here" + +Geological Specimens + +Maps. + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE VOICE OF THE WILDERNESS + +"It's always the way, Wallace! When a fellow starts on the long trail, +he's never willing to quit. It'll be the same with you if you go with +me to Labrador. When you come home, you'll hear the voice of the +wilderness calling you to return, and it will lure you back again." + +It seems but yesterday that Hubbard uttered those prophetic words as he +and I lay before our blazing camp fire in the snow-covered Shawangunk +Mountains on that November night in the year 1901, and planned that +fateful trip into the unexplored Labrador wilderness which was to cost +my dear friend his life, and both of us indescribable sufferings and +hardships. And how true a prophecy it was! You who have smelled the +camp fire smoke; who have drunk in the pure forest air, laden with the +smell of the fir tree; who have dipped your paddle into untamed waters, +or climbed mountains, with the knowledge that none but the red man has +been there before you; or have, perchance, had to fight the wilds and +nature for your very existence; you of the wilderness brotherhood can +understand how the fever of exploration gets into one's blood and draws +one back again to the forests and the barrens in spite of resolutions +to "go no more." + +It was more than this, however, that lured me back to Labrador. There +was the vision of dear old Hubbard as I so often saw him during our +struggle through that rugged northland wilderness, wasted in form and +ragged in dress, but always hopeful and eager, his undying spirit and +indomitable will focused in his words to me, and I can still see him as +he looked when he said them: + +"The work must be done, Wallace, and if one of us falls before it is +completed the other must finish it." + +I went back to Labrador to do the work he had undertaken, but which he +was not permitted to accomplish. His exhortation appealed to me as a +command from my leader--a call to duty. + +Hubbard had planned to penetrate the Labrador peninsula from Groswater +Bay, following the old northern trail of the Mountaineer Indians from +Northwest River Post of the Hudson's Bay Company, situated on Groswater +Bay, one hundred and forty miles inland from the eastern coast, to Lake +Michikamau, thence through the lake and northward over the divide, +where he hoped to locate the headwaters of the George River. + +It was his intention to pass down this river until he reached the +hunting camps of the Nenenot or Nascaupee Indians, there witness the +annual migration of the caribou to the eastern seacoast, which +tradition said took place about the middle or latter part of September, +and to be present at the "killing," when the Indians, it was reported, +secured their winter's supply of provisions by spearing the caribou +while the herds were swimming the river. The caribou hunt over, he was +to have returned across country to the St. Lawrence or retrace his +steps to Northwest River Post, whichever might seem advisable. Should +the season, however, be too far advanced to permit of a safe return, he +was to have proceeded down the river to its mouth, at Ungava Bay, and +return to civilization in winter with dogs. + +The country through which we were to have traveled was to be mapped so +far as possible, and observations made of the geological formation and +of the flora, and as many specimens collected as possible. + +This, then, Hubbard's plan, was the plan which I adopted and which I +set out to accomplish, when, in March, 1905, I finally decided to +return to Labrador. + +It was advisable to reach Hamilton Inlet with the opening of navigation +and make an early start into the country, for every possible day of the +brief summer would be needed for our purpose. + +It was, as I fully realized, no small undertaking. Many hundreds of +miles of unknown country must be traversed, and over mountains and +through marshes for long distances our canoes and outfit would have to +be transported upon the backs of the men comprising my party, as pack +animals cannot be used in Labrador. + +Through immense stretches of country there would be no sustenance for +them, and, in addition to this, the character of the country itself +forbids their use. + +The personnel of the expedition required much thought. I might with +one canoe and one or two professional Indian packers travel more +rapidly than with men unused to exploration work, but in that case +scientific research would have to be slighted. I therefore decided to +sacrifice speed to thoroughness and to take with me men who, even +though they might not be physically able to carry the large packs of +the professional voyageur, would in other respects lend valuable +assistance to the work in hand. + +My projected return to Labrador was no sooner announced than numerous +applications came to me from young men anxious to join the expedition. +After careful investigation, I finally selected as my companions George +M. Richards, of Columbia University, as geologist and to aid me in the +topographical work, Clifford H. Easton, who had been a student in the +School of Forestry at Biltmore, North Carolina (both residents of New +York), and Leigh Stanton, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, a veteran of the +Boer War, whom I had met at the lumber camps in Groswater Bay, +Labrador, in the winter of 1903-1904, when he was installing the +electric light plant in the large lumber mill there. + +It was desirable to have at least one Indian in the party as woodsman, +hunter and general camp servant. For this position my friend, Frank H. +Keefer, of Port Arthur, Ontario, recommended to me, and at my request +engaged, Peter Stevens, a full-blood Ojibway Indian, of Grand Marais, +Minnesota. "Pete" arrived in New York under the wing of the railway +conductor during the last week in May. + +In the meantime I had devoted myself to the selection and purchase of +our instruments and general outfit. Everything must be purchased in +advance--from canoes to repair kit--as my former experience in Labrador +had taught me. It may be of interest to mention the most important +items of outfit and the food supply with which we were provided: Two +canvas-covered canoes, one nineteen and one eighteen feet in length; +one seven by nine "A" tent, made of waterproof "balloon" silk; one +tarpaulin, seven by nine feet; folding tent stove and pipe; two +tracking lines; three small axes; cooking outfit, consisting of two +frying pans, one mixing pan and three aluminum kettles; an aluminum +plate, cup and spoon for each man; one .33 caliber high-power +Winchester rifle and two 44-40 Winchester carbines (only one of these +carbines was taken with us from New York, and this was intended as a +reserve gun in case the party should separate and return by different +routes. The other was one used by Stanton when previously in Labrador, +and taken by him in addition to the regular outfit). One double barrel +12-gauge shotgun; two ten-inch barrel single shot .22 caliber pistols +for partridges and small game; ammunition; tumplines; three fishing +rods and tackle, including trolling outfits; one three and one-half +inch gill net; repair kit, including necessary material for patching +canoes, clothing, etc.; matches, and a medicine kit. + +The following instruments were also carried: Three minimum registering +thermometers; one aneroid barometer which was tested and set for me by +the United States Weather Bureau; one clinometer; one pocket transit; +three compasses; one pedometer; one taffrail log; one pair binoculars; +three No. 3A folding pocket Kodaks, sixty rolls of films, each roll +sealed in a tin can and waterproofed, and six "Vanguard" watches +mounted in dust-proof cases. + +Each man was provided with a sheath knife and a waterproof match box, +and his personal kit, containing a pair of blankets and clothing, was +carried in a waterproof canvas bag. + +I may say here in reference to these waterproof bags and the "balloon" +silk tent that they were of the same manufacture as those used on the +Hubbard expedition and for their purpose as nearly perfect as it is +possible to make them. The tent weighed but nine pounds, was +windproof, and, like the bags, absolutely waterproof, and the material +strong and firm. + +Our provision supply consisted of 298 pounds of pork; 300 pounds of +flour; 45 pounds of corn meal; 40 pounds of lentils; 28 pounds of rice; +25 pounds of erbswurst; 10 pounds of prunes; a few packages of dried +vegetables; some beef bouillon tablets; 6 pounds of baking powder; 16 +pounds of tea; 6 pounds of coffee; 15 pounds of sugar; 14 pounds of +salt; a small amount of saccharin and crystallose, and 150 pounds of +pemmican. + +Everything likely to be injured by water was packed in waterproof +canvas bags. + +My friend Dr. Frederick A. Cook, of the Arctic Club, selected my +medical kit, and instructed me in the use of its simple remedies. It +was also upon the recommendation of Dr. Cook and others of my Arctic +Club friends that I purchased the pemmican, which was designed as an +emergency ration, and it is worth noting that one pound of pemmican, as +our experience demonstrated, was equal to two or even three pounds of +any other food that we carried. Its ingredients are ground dried beef, +tallow, sugar, raisins and currants. + +We had planned to go north from St. Johns on the Labrador mail boat +_Virginia Lake_, which, as I had been informed by the Reid-Newfoundland +Company, was expected to sail from St. Johns on her first trip on or +about June tenth. This made it necessary for us to leave New York on +the Red Cross Line steamer _Rosalind_ sailing from Brooklyn on May +thirtieth; and when, at eleven-thirty that Tuesday morning, the +_Rosalind_ cast loose from her wharf, we and our outfit were aboard, +and our journey of eleven long months was begun. + +As I waved farewell to our friends ashore I recalled that other day two +years before, when Hubbard and I had stood on the _Silvia's_ deck, and +I said to myself: + +"Well, this, too, is Hubbard's trip. His spirit is with me. It was +he, not I, who planned this Labrador work, and if I succeed it will be +because of him and his influence." + +I was glad to be away. With every throb of the engine my heart grew +lighter. I was not thinking of the perils I was to face with my new +companions in that land where Hubbard and I had suffered so much. The +young men with me were filled with enthusiasm at the prospect of +adventure in the silent and mysterious country for which they were +bound. + + + +CHAPTER II + +ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE UNKNOWN + +"When shall we reach Rigolet, Captain?" + +"Before daylight, I hopes, sir, if the fog holds off, but there's a +mist settling, and if it gets too thick, we may have to come to." + +Crowded with an unusual cargo of humanity, fishermen going to their +summer work on "The Labrador" with their accompanying tackle and +household goods, meeting with many vexatious delays in discharging the +men and goods at the numerous ports of call, and impeded by fog and +wind, the mail boat _Virginia Lake_ had been much longer than is her +wont on her trip "down north." + +It was now June twenty-first. Six days before (June fifteenth), when +we boarded the ship at St. Johns we had been informed that the steamer +_Harlow_, with a cargo for the lumber mills at Kenemish, in Groswater +Bay, was to leave Halifax that very afternoon. She could save us a +long and disagreeable trip in an open boat, ninety miles up Groswater +Bay, and I bad hoped that we might reach Rigolet in time to secure a +passage for myself and party from that point. But the _Harlow_ had no +ports of call to make, and it was predicted that her passage from +Halifax to Rigolet would be made in four days. + +I had no hope now of reaching Rigolet before her, or of finding her +there, and, resigned to my fate, I left the captain on the bridge and +went below to my stateroom to rest until daylight. Some time in the +night I was aroused by some one saying: + +"We're at Rigolet, sir, and there's a ship at anchor close by." + +Whether I had been asleep or not, I was fully awake now, and found that +the captain had come to tell me of our arrival. The fog had held off +and we had done much better than the captain's prediction. Hurrying +into my clothes, I went on deck, from which, through the slight haze +that hung over the water, I could discern the lights of a ship, and +beyond, dimly visible, the old familiar line of Post buildings showing +against the dark spruce-covered hills behind, where the great silent +forest begins. + +All was quiet save for the thud, thud, thud of the oarlocks of a small +boat approaching our ship and the dismal howl of a solitary "husky" dog +somewhere ashore. The captain had preceded me on deck, and in answer +to my inquiries as to her identity said he did not know whether the +stranger at anchor was the _Harlow_ or not, but he thought it was. + +We had to wait but a moment, however, for the information. The small +boat was already alongside, and John Groves, a Goose Bay trader and one +of my friends of two years before, clambered aboard and had me by the +hand. + +"I'm glad to see you, sir; and how is you?" + +Assuring him that I was quite well, I asked the name of the other ship. + +"The _Harlow_, sir, an' she's goin' to Kenemish with daylight." + +"Well, I must get aboard of her then, and try to get a passage up. Is +your flat free, John, to take me aboard of her?" + +"Yes, sir. Step right in, sir. But I thinks you'd better go ashore, +for the _Harlow's_ purser's ashore. If you can't get passage on the +_Harlow_ my schooner's here doing nothin' while I goes to St. Johns for +goods, and I'll have my men run you up to Nor'west River." + +I thanked him and lost no time in going ashore in his boat, where I +found Mr. James Fraser, the factor, and received a hearty welcome. In +Mr. Fraser's office I found also the purser of the _Harlow_, and I +quickly arranged with him for a passage to Kenemish, which is ninety +miles up the inlet, and just across Groswater Bay (twelve miles) from +Northwest River Post. The _Harlow_ was to sail at daylight and I at +once returned to the mail boat, called the boys and, with the help of +the _Virginia's_ crew and one of their small boats, we were +transferred, bag and baggage, to the _Harlow_. + +Owing to customs complications the _Harlow_ was later than expected in +leaving Rigolet, and it was evening before she dropped anchor at +Kenemish. I went ashore in the ship's boat and visited again the +lumber camp "cook house" where Dr. Hardy and I lay ill throng those +weary winter weeks, and where poor Hardy died. Hardy was the young +lumber company doctor who treated my frozen feet in the winter of +1903-1904. Here I met Fred Blake, a Northwest River trapper. Fred had +his flat, and I engaged him to take a part of our luggage to Northwest +River. Then I returned to the ship to send the boys ahead with the +canoes and some of our baggage, while I waited behind to follow with +Fred and the rest of the kit in his flat a half hour later. + +Fred and I were hardly a mile from the ship when a heavy thunderstorm +broke upon us, and we were soon drenching wet--the baptism of our +expedition. This rain was followed by a dense fog and early darkness. +On and on we rowed, and I was berating myself for permitting the men to +go on so far ahead of us with the canoes, for they did not know the way +and the fog had completely shut out the lights of the Post buildings, +which otherwise would have been visible across the bay for a +considerable distance. + +Suddenly through the fog and darkness, from shoreward, came a "Hello! +Hello!" We answered, and heading our boat toward the sound of +continued "Hellos," found the men, with the canoes unloaded and hauled +ashore, preparing to make a night camp. I joined them and, launching +and reloading the canoes again, with Richards and Easton in one canoe +and Pete and I in the other, we followed Fred and Stanton, who preceded +us in the rowboat, keeping our canoes religiously within earshot of +Fred's thumping oarlocks. Finally the fog lifted, and not far away we +caught a glimmer of lights at the French Post. All was dark at the +Hudson Bay Post across the river when at last our canoes touched the +sandy beach and we sprang ashore. + +What a flood of remembrances came to me as I stepped again upon the old +familiar ground! How vividly I remembered that June day when Hubbard +and I had first set foot on this very ground and Mackenzie had greeted +us so cordially! And also that other day in November when, ragged and +starved, I came here to tell of Hubbard, lying dead in the dark forest +beyond! The same dogs that I had known then came running to meet us +now, the faithful fellows with which I began that sad funeral journey +homeward over the ice. I called some of them by name "Kumalik," +"Bo'sun," "Captain," "Tinker"--and they pushed their great heads +against my legs and, I believe, recognized me. + +It was nearly two o'clock in the morning. We went immediately to the +Post house and roused out Mr. Stuart Cotter, the agent (Mackenzie is no +longer there), and received from him a royal welcome. He called his +Post servant and instructed him to bring in our things, and while we +changed our dripping clothes for dry ones, his housekeeper prepared a +light supper. It was five o'clock in the morning when I retired. + +In the previous autumn I had written Duncan McLean, one of the four men +who came to my rescue on the Susan River, that should I ever come to +Labrador again and be in need of a man I would like to engage him. +Cotter told me that Duncan had just come from his trapping path and was +at the Post kitchen, so when we had finished breakfast, at eight +o'clock that morning, I saw Duncan and, as he was quite willing to go +with us, I arranged with him to accompany us a short distance into the +country to help us pack over the first portage and to bring back +letters. + +He expressed a wish to visit his father at Kenemish before starting +into the country, but promised to be back the next evening ready for +the start on Monday morning, the twenty-sixth, and I consented. I knew +hard work was before us, and as I wished all hands to be well rested +and fresh at the outset, I felt that a couple of days' idleness would +do us no harm. + +Some five hundred yards east of Mr. Cotter's house is an old, abandoned +mission chapel, and behind it an Indian burying ground. The cleared +space of level ground between the house and chapel was, for a century +or more, the camping ground of the Mountaineer Indians who come to the +Post each spring to barter or sell their furs. In the olden time there +were nearly a hundred families of them, whose hunting ground was that +section of country between Hamilton Inlet and the Upper George River. + +These people now, for the most part, hunt south of the inlet and trade +at the St. Lawrence Posts. The chapel was erected about 1872, but ten +years ago the Jesuit missionary was withdrawn, and since then the +building has fallen into decay and ruin, and the crosses that marked +the graves in the old burying grounds have been broken down by the +heavy winter snows. It was this withdrawal of the missionary that +turned the Indians to the southward, where priests are more easily +found. The Mountaineer Indian, unlike the Nascaupee, is very +religious, and must, at least once a year, meet his father confessor. +The camping ground since the abandonment of the mission, has lain +lonely and deserted, save for three or four families who, occasionally +in the summer season, come back again to pitch their tents where their +forefathers camped and held their annual feasts in the old days. + +Competition between the trading companies at this point has raised the +price of furs to such an extent that the few families of Indians that +trade at this Post are well-to-do and very independent. There were two +tents of them here when we arrived--five men and several women and +children. I found two of my old friends there--John and William +Ahsini. They expressed pleasure in meeting me again, and a lively +interest in our trip. With Mr. Cotter acting as interpreter, John made +for me a map of the old Indian trail from Grand Lake to Seal Lake, and +William a map to Lake Michikamau and over the height of land to the +George River, indicating the portages and principal intervening lakes +as they remembered them. + +Seal Lake is a large lake expansion of the Nascaupee River, which +river, it should be explained, is the outlet of Lake Michikamau and +discharges its waters into Grand Lake and through Grand Lake into +Groswater Bay. Lake Michikamau, next to Lake Mistasinni, is the +largest lake in the Labrador peninsula, and approximately from eighty +to ninety miles in length. Neither John nor William had been to Lake +Michikamau by this route since they were young lads, but they told us +that the Indians, when traveling very light without their families, +used to make the journey in twenty-three days. + +During my previous stay in Labrador one Indian told me it could be done +in ten days, while another said that Indians traveling very fast would +require about thirty days. It is difficult to base calculations upon +information of this kind. But I was sure that, with our comparatively +heavy outfit, and the fact that we would have to find the trail for +ourselves, we should require at least twice the time of the Indians, +who know every foot of the way as we know our familiar city streets at +home. + +They expressed their belief that the old trail could be easily found, +and assured us that each portage, as we asked about it in detail, was a +"miam potagan" (good portage), but at the same time expressed their +doubts as to our ability to cross the country safely. + +In fact, it has always been the Indians' boast, and I have heard it +many times, that no white man could go from Groswater Bay to Ungava +alive without Indians to help him through. "Pete" was a Lake Superior +Indian and had never run a rapid in his life. He was to spend the +night with Tom Blake and his family in their snug little log cabin, and +be ready for an early start up Grand Lake on the morrow. It was Tom +that headed the little party sent by me up the Susan Valley to bring to +the Post Hubbard's body in March, 1904; and it was through his +perseverance, loyalty and hard work at the time that I finally +succeeded in recovering the body. Tom's daughter, Lillie, was +Mackenzie's little housekeeper, who showed me so many kindnesses then. +The whole family, in fact, were very good to me during those trying +days, and I count them among my true and loyal friends. + +We had supper with Cotter, who sang some Hudson's Bay songs, Richards +sang a jolly college song or two, Stanton a "classic," and then all who +could sing joined in "Auld Lang Syne." + +My thoughts were of that other day, when Hubbard, so full of hope, had +begun this same journey-of the sunshine and fleecy clouds and beckoning +fir tops, and I wondered what was in store for us now. + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE LAST OF CIVILIZATION + +The time for action had come. Our canoes were loaded near the wharf, +we said good-by to Cotter and a group of native trapper friends, and as +we took our places in the canoes and dipped our paddles into the waters +that were to carry us northward the Post flag was run up on the +flagpole as a salute and farewell, and we were away. We soon rounded +the point, and Cotter and the trappers and the Post were lost to view. +Duncan was to follow later in the evening in his rowboat with some of +our outfit which we left in his charge. + +Silently we paddled through the "little lake." The clouds hung somber +and dull with threatening rain, and a gentle breeze wafted to us now +and again a bit of fragrance from the spruce-covered hills above us. +Almost before I realized it we were at the rapid. Away to the westward +stretched Grand Lake, deep and dark and still, with the rugged outline +of Cape Corbeau in the distance. + +Tom Blake and his family, one and all, came out to give us the +whole-souled, hospitable welcome of "The Labrador." Even Atikamish, the +little Indian dog that Mackenzie used to have, but which he had given +to Tom when he left Northwest River, was on hand to tell me in his dog +language that he remembered me and was delighted to see me back. Here +we would stay for the night--the last night for months that we were to +sleep in a habitation of civilized man. + +The house was a very comfortable little log dwelling containing a small +kitchen, a larger living-room which also served as a sleeping-room, and +an attic which was the boys' bedroom. The house was comfortably +furnished, everything clean to perfection, and the atmosphere of love +and home that dwelt here was long remembered by us while we huddled in +many a dreary camp during the weeks that followed. + +Duncan did not come that night, and it was not until ten o'clock the +next morning (June twenty-seventh) that he appeared. Then we made +ready for the start. Tom and his young son Henry announced their +intention of accompanying us a short distance up Grand Lake in their +small sailboat. Mrs. Blake gave us enough bread and buns, which she +had baked especially for us, to last two or three days, and she gave us +also a few fresh eggs, saying, "'Twill be a long time before you has +eggs again." + +At half-past ten o'clock our canoes were afloat, farewell was said, and +we were beyond the last fringe of civilization. + +The morning was depressing and the sky was overcast with low-hanging, +heavy clouds, but almost with our start, as if to give us courage for +our work and fire our blood, the leaden curtain was drawn aside and the +deep blue dome of heaven rose above us. The sun shone warm and bright, +and the smell of the fresh damp forest, the incense of the wilderness +gods, was carried to us by a puff of wind from the south which enabled +Duncan to hoist his sails. The rest of us bent to our paddles, and all +were eager to plunge into the unknown and solve the mystery of what lay +beyond the horizon. + +Our nineteen-foot canoe was manned by Pete in the bow, Stanton in the +center and Easton in the stern, while I had the bow and Richards the +stern of the eighteen-foot canoe. We paddled along the north shore of +the lake, close to land. Stanton, with an eye for fresh meat, espied a +porcupine near the water's edge and stopped to kill it, thus gaining +the honor of having bagged the first game of the trip. At twelve +o'clock we halted for luncheon, in almost the same spot where Hubbard +and I had lunched when going up Grand Lake two years before. While +Pete cooked bacon and eggs and made tea, Stanton and Richards dressed +the porcupine for supper. + +After luncheon we cut diagonally across the lake to the southern shore, +passed Cape Corbeau River and landed near the base of Cape Corbeau +bluff, that the elevation might be taken and geological specimens +secured. After making our observations we turned again toward the +northern shore, where more specimens were collected. Here Tom and +Henry Blake said goodby to us and turned homeward. + +During the afternoon Stanton and I each killed a porcupine, making +three in all for the day--a good beginning in the matter of game. + +At sunset we landed at Watty's Brook, a small stream flowing into Grand +Lake from the north, and some twenty miles above the rapid. Our +progress during the day had been slow, as the wind had died away and we +had, several times, to wait for Duncan to overtake us in his slower +rowboat. + +While the rest of us "made camp" Duncan cut wood for a rousing fire, as +the evening was cool, and Pete put a porcupine to boil for supper. We +were a hungry crowd when we sat down to eat. I had told the boys how +good porcupine was, how it resembled lamb and what a treat we were to +have. But all porcupines are not alike, and this one was not within my +reckoning. Tough! He was certainly "the oldest inhabitant," and after +vain efforts to chew the leathery meat, we turned in disgust to bread +and coffee, and Easton, at least, lost faith forever in my judgment of +toothsome game, and formed a particular prejudice against porcupines +which he never overcame. Pete assured us, however, that, "This +porcupine, he must boil long. I boil him again to-night and boil him +again to-morrow morning. Then he very good for breakfast. Porcupine +fine. Old one must be cooked long." + +So Pete, after supper, put the porcupine on to cook some more, +promising that we should find it nice and tender for breakfast. + +As I sat that night by the low-burning embers of our first camp fire I +forgot my new companions. Through the gathering night mists I could +just discern the dim outlines of the opposite shore of Grand Lake. It +was over there, just west of that high spectral bluff, that Hubbard and +I, on a wet July night, had pitched our first camp of the other trip. +In fancy I was back again in that camp and Hubbard was talking to me +and telling me of the "bully story" of the mystic land of wonders that +lay "behind the ranges" he would have to take back to the world. + +"We're going to traverse a section no white man has ever seen," he +exclaimed, "and we'll add something to the world's knowledge of +geography at least, and that's worth while. No matter how little a man +may add to the fund of human knowledge it's worth the doing, for it's +by little bits that we've learned to know so much of our old world. +There's some hard work before us, though, up there in those hills, and +some hardships to meet." + +Ah, if we had only known! + +Some one said it was time to "turn in," and I was brought suddenly to a +sense of the present, but a feeling of sadness possessed me when I took +my place in the crowded tent, and I lay awake long, thinking of those +other days. + +Clear and crisp was the morning of June twenty-eighth. The atmosphere +was bracing and delightful, the azure of the sky above us shaded to the +most delicate tints of blue at the horizon, and, here and there, bits +of clouds, like bunches of cotton, flecked the sky. The sun broke +grandly over the rugged hills, and the lake, like molten silver, lay +before us. + +A fringe of ice had formed during the night along the shore. We broke +it and bathed our hands and faces in the cool water, then sat down in a +circle near our camp fire to renew our attack upon the porcupine, which +had been sending out a most delicious odor from the kettle where Pete +had it cooking. But alas for our expectations! Our teeth would make +no impression upon it, and Easton remarked that "the rubber trust ought +to hunt porcupines, for they are a lot tougher than rubber and just as +pliable." + +"I don't know why," said Pete sadly. "I boil him long time." + +That day we continued our course along the northern shore of the lake +until we reached the deep bay which Hubbard and I had failed to enter +and explore on the other trip, and which failure had resulted so +tragically. This bay is some five miles from the westerly end of Grand +Lake, and is really the mouth of the Nascaupee and Crooked Rivers which +flow into the upper end of it. There was little or no wind and we had +to go slowly to permit Duncan, in his rowboat, to keep pace with us. +Darkness was not far off when we reached Duncan's tilt (a small log +hut), three miles up the Nascaupee River, where we stopped for the +night. + +This is the tilt in which Allen Goudy and Duncan lived at the time they +came to my rescue in 1903, and where I spent three days getting +strength for my trip down Grand Lake to the Post. It is Duncan's +supply base in the winter months when he hunts along the Nascaupee +River, one hundred and twenty miles inland to Seal Lake. On this +hunting "path" Duncan has two hundred and fifty marten and forty fox +traps, and, in the spring, a few bear traps besides. + +The country has been burned here. Just below Duncan's tilt is a +spruce-covered island, but the mainland has a stunted new growth of +spruce, with a few white birch, covering the wreck of the primeval +forest that was flame swept thirty odd years ago. Over some +considerable areas no new growth to speak of has appeared, and the +charred remains of the dead trees stand stark and gray, or lie about in +confusion upon the ground, giving the country a particularly dreary and +desolate appearance. + +The morning of June twenty-ninth was overcast and threatened rain, but +toward evening the sky cleared. + +Progress was slow, for the current in the river here was very strong, +and paddling or rowing against it was not easy. We had to stop several +times and wait for Duncan to overtake us with his boat. Once he halted +to look at a trap where he told us he had caught six black bears. It +was nearly sunset when we reached the mouth of the Red River, nineteen +miles above Grand Lake, where it flows into the Nascaupee from the +west. This is a wide, shallow stream whose red-brown waters were quite +in contrast to the clear waters of the Nascaupee. + +Opposite the mouth of the Red River, and on the eastern shore of the +Nascaupee, is the point where the old Indian trail was said to begin, +and on a knoll some fifty feet above the river we saw the wigwam poles +of an old Indian camp, and a solitary grave with a rough fence around +it. Here we landed and awaited Duncan, who had stopped at another of +his trapping tilts three or four hundred yards below. When he joined +us a little later, in answer to my inquiry as to whether this was the +beginning of the old trail, he answered, "'Tis where they says the +Indians came out, and some of the Indians has told me so. I supposes +it's the place, sir." + +"But have you never hunted here yourself?" I asked. + +"No, sir, I've never been in here at all. I travels right past up the +Nascaupee. All I knows about it, sir, is what they tells me. I always +follows the Nascaupee, sir." + +Above us rose a high, steep hill covered for two-thirds of the way from +its base with a thick growth of underbrush, but quite barren on top +save for a few bunches of spruce brush. + +The old trail, unused for eight or ten years, headed toward the hill +and was quite easily traced for some fifty yards from the old camp. +Then it disappeared completely in a dense undergrowth of willows, +alders and spruce. + +While Pete made preparation for our supper and Duncan unloaded his boat +and hauled it up preparatory to leaving it until his return from the +interior, the rest of us tried to follow the trail through the brush. +But beyond where the thick undergrowth began there was nothing at all +that, to us, resembled a trail. Finally, I instructed Pete to go with +Richards and see what he could do while the rest of us made camp. Pete +started ahead, forging his way through the thick growth. In ten minutes +I heard him shout from the hillside, "He here--I find him," and saw +Pete hurrying up the steep incline. + +When Richards and Pete returned an hour later we had camp pitched and +supper cooking. They reported the trail, as far as they had gone, very +rough and hard to find. For some distance it would have to be cut out +with an ax, and nowhere was it bigger than a rabbit run. Duncan rather +favored going as far, as Seal Lake by the trail that he knew and which +followed the Nascaupee. This trail he believed to be much easier than +the long unused Indian trail, which was undoubtedly in many places +entirely obscured and in any case extremely difficult to follow. I +dismissed his suggestion, however, with little consideration. My, +object was to trace the old Indian trail and explore as much of the +country as possible, and not to hide myself in an enclosed river +valley. Therefore, I decided that next day we should scout ahead to +the first water to which the trail led and cut out the trail where +necessary. The work I knew would be hard, but we were expecting to do +hard work. We were not on a summer picnic. + +A rabbit which Stanton had shot and a spruce grouse that fell before +Pete's pistol, together with what remained of our porcupine, hot +coffee, and Mrs. Blake's good bread, made a supper that we ate with +zest while we talked over the prospects of the trail. Supper finished, +Pete carefully washed his dishes, then carefully washed his dishcloth, +which latter he hung upon a bough near the fire to dry. His cleanliness +about his cooking was a revelation to me. I had never before seen a +camp man or guide so neat in this respect. + +The real work of the trip was now to begin, the hard portaging, the +trail finding and trail making, and we were to break the seal of a land +that had, through the ages, held its secret from all the world, +excepting the red man. This is what we were thinking of when we +gathered around our camp fire that evening, and filled and lighted our +pipes and puffed silently while we watched the newborn stars of evening +come into being one by one until the arch of heaven was aglow with the +splendor of a Labrador night. And when we at length went to our bed of +spruce boughs it was to dream of strange scenes and new worlds that we +were to conquer. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +ON THE OLD INDIAN TRAIL + +Next morning we scouted ahead and found that the trail led to a small +lake some five and a half miles beyond our camp. For a mile or so the +brush was pretty thick and the trail was difficult to follow, but +beyond that it was comparatively well defined though exceedingly steep, +the hill rising to an elevation of one thousand and fifty feet above +the Nascaupee River in the first two miles. We had fifteen hundred +pounds of outfit to carry upon our backs, and I realized that at first +we should have to trail slowly and make several loads of it, for, with +the exception of Pete, none of the men was in training. The work was +totally different from anything to which they had been accustomed, and +as I did not wish to break their spirits or their ardor, I instructed +them to carry only such packs as they could walk under with perfect +ease until they should become hardened to the work. + +The weather had been cool and bracing, but as if to add to our +difficulties the sun now boiled down, and the black flies--"the devil's +angels" some one called them, came in thousands to feast upon the +newcomers and make life miserable for us all. Duncan was as badly +treated by them as any of us, although he belonged to the country, and +I overheard him swearing at a lively gait soon after the little beasts +began their attacks. + +"Why, Duncan," said I, "I didn't know you swore." + +"I does, sir, sometimes--when things makes me," he replied. + +"But it doesn't help matters any to swear, does it?" + +"No, sir, but" (swatting his face) "damn the flies--it's easin' to the +feelin's to swear sometimes." + +On several occasions after this I heard Duncan "easin' his feelin's" in +long and astounding bursts of profane eloquence, but he did try to +moderate his language when I was within earshot. Once I asked him: + +"Where in the world did you learn to swear like that, Duncan?" + +"At the lumber camps, sir," he replied. + +In the year I had spent in Labrador I had never before heard a planter +or native of Groswater Bay swear. But this explained it. The +lumbermen from "civilization" were educating them. + +At one o'clock on July first, half our outfit was portaged to the +summit of the hill and we ate our dinner there in the broiling sun, for +we were above the trees, which ended some distance below us. It was +fearfully hot--a dead, suffocating heat--with not a breath of wind to +relieve the stifling atmosphere, and some one asked what the +temperature was. + +"Eighty-seven in the shade, but no shade," Richards remarked as he +threw down his pack and consulted the thermometer where I had placed it +under a low bush. "I'll swear it's a hundred and fifty in the sun." + +During dinner Pete pointed to the river far below us, saying, "Look! +Indian canoe." I could not make it out without my binoculars, but with +their aid discerned a canoe on the river, containing a solitary +paddler. None of us, excepting Pete, could see the canoe without the +glasses, at which he was very proud and remarked: "No findin' glass +need me. See far, me. See long way off." + +On other occasions, afterward, I had reason to marvel at Pete's +clearness of vision. + +It was John Ahsini in the canoe, as we discovered later when he joined +us and helped Stanton up the hill with his last pack to our night camp +on the summit. I invited John to eat supper with us and he accepted +the invitation. He told us he was hunting "moshku" (bear) and was +camped at the mouth of the Red River. He assured us that we would find +no more hills like this one we were on, and, pointing to the northward, +said, "Miam potagan" (good portage) and that we would find plenty +"atuk" (caribou), "moshku" and "mashumekush" (trout). After supper I +gave John some "stemmo," and he disappeared down the trail to join his +wife in their wigwam below. + +We were all of us completely exhausted that night. Stanton was too +tired to eat, and lay down upon the bare rocks to sleep. Pete +stretched our tent wigwam fashion on some old Indian tepee poles, and, +without troubling ourselves to break brush for a bed, we all soon +joined Stanton in a dreamless slumber upon his rocky couch. + +The night, like the day, was very warm, and when I aroused Pete at +sunrise the next morning (July second) to get breakfast the mosquitoes +were about our heads in clouds. + +A magnificent panorama lay before us. Opposite, across the valley of +the Nascaupee, a great hill held its snow-tipped head high in the +heavens. Some four miles farther up to the northwest, the river +itself, where it was choked with blocks of ice, made its appearance and +threaded its way down to the southeast until it was finally lost in the +spruce-covered valley. Beyond, bits of Grand Lake, like silver +settings in the black surrounding forest, sparkled in the light of the +rising sun. Away to the westward could be traced the rushing waters of +the Red River making their course down through the sandy ridges that +enclose its valley. To the northward lay a great undulating +wilderness, the wilderness that we were to traverse. It was Sunday +morning, and the holy stillness of the day engulfed our world. + +When Pete had the fire going and the kettle singing I roused the boys +and told them we would make this, our first Sunday in the bush, an easy +one, and simply move our camp forward to a more hospitable and +sheltered spot by a little brook a mile up the trail, and then be ready +for the "tug of war" on Monday. + +In accordance with this plan, after eating our breakfast we each +carried a light pack to our new camping ground, and there pitched our +tent by a tiny brook that trickled down through the rocks. While +Stanton cooked dinner, Pete brought forward a second pack. After we +had eaten, Richards suggested to Pete that they take the fish net ahead +and set it in the little lake which was still some two and a half miles +farther on the trail. They had just returned when a terrific +thunderstorm broke upon us, and every moment we expected the tent to be +carried away by the gale that accompanied the downpour of rain. It was +then that Richards remembered that he had left his blankets to dry upon +the tepee poles at the last camp. The rain ceased about five o'clock, +and Duncan volunteered to return with Richards and help him recover his +blankets, which they found far from dry. + +Mosquitoes, it seemed to me, were never so numerous or vicious as after +this thunderstorm. We had head nets that were a protection from them +generally, but when we removed the nets to eat, the attacks of the +insects were simply insufferable, so we had our supper in the tent. +After our meal was finished and Pete had washed the dishes, I read +aloud a chapter from the Bible--a Sunday custom that was maintained +throughout the trip--and Stanton sang some hymns. Then we prevailed +upon him to entertain us with other songs. He had an excellent tenor +voice and a repertoire ranging from "The Holy City" to "My Brother +Bob," and these and some of the old Scotch ballads, which he sang well, +were favorites that he was often afterward called upon to render as we +gathered around our evening camp fire, smoking our pipes and drinking +in the tonic fragrance of the great solemn forest around us after a day +of hard portaging. These impromptu concerts, story telling, and +reading aloud from two or three "vest pocket" classics that I carried, +furnished our entertainment when we were not too tired to be amused. + +The rain cleared the atmosphere, and Monday was cool and delightful, +and, with the exception of two or three showers, a perfect day. Camp +was moved and our entire outfit portaged to the first small lake. Our +net, which Pete and Richards had set the day before, yielded us +nothing, but with my rod I caught enough trout for a sumptuous supper. + +The following morning (July fourth) Pete and I, who arose at half-past +four, had just finished preparing breakfast of fried pork, flapjacks +and coffee, and I had gone to the tent to call the others, when Pete +came rushing after me in great excitement, exclaiming, "Caribou! Rifle +quick!" He grabbed one of the 44's and rushed away and soon we heard +bang-bang-bang seven times from up the lake shore. It was not long +before Pete returned with a very humble bearing and crestfallen +countenance, and without a word leaned the rifle against a tree and +resumed his culinary operations. + +"Well, Pete," said I, "how many caribou did you kill?" + +"No caribou. Miss him," he replied. + +"But I heard seven shots. How did you miss so many times?" I asked. + +"Miss him," answered Pete. "I see caribou over there, close to water, +run fast, try get lee side so he don't smell me. Water in way. Go +very careful, make no noise, but he smell me. He hold his head up like +this. He sniff, then he start. He go through trees very quick. See +him, me, just little when he runs through trees. Shoot seven times. +Hit him once, not much. He runs off. No good follow. Not hurt much, +maybe goes very far." + +"You had caribou fever, Pete," suggested Richards. + +"Yes," said Easton, "caribou fever, sure thing." + +"I don't believe you'd have hit him if he hadn't winded you," Stanton +remarked. "The trouble with you, Pete, is you can't shoot." + +"No caribou fever, me," rejoined Pete, with righteous indignation at +such a suggestion. "Kill plenty moose, kill red deer; never have moose +fever, never have deer fever." Then turning to me he asked, "You want +caribou, Mr. Wallace?" + +"Yes," I answered, "I wish we could get some fresh meat, but we can +wait a few days. We have enough to eat, and I don't want to take time +to hunt now." + +"Plenty signs. I get caribou any day you want him. Tell me when you +want him, I kill him," Pete answered me, ignoring the criticisms of the +others as to his marksmanship and hunting prowess. All that day and +all the next the men let no opportunity pass to guy Pete about his lost +caribou, and on the whole he took the banter very good-naturedly, but +once confided to me that "if those boys get up early, maybe they see +caribou too and try how much they can do." + +After breakfast Pete and I paddled to the other end of the little lake +to pick up the trail while the others broke camp. In a little while he +located it, a well-defined path, and we walked across it half a mile to +another and considerably larger lake in which was a small, round, +moundlike, spruce-covered island so characteristic of the Labrador +lakes. + +On our way back to the first lake Pete called my attention to a fresh +caribou track in the hard earth. It was scarcely distinguishable, and +I had to look very closely to make it out. Then he showed me other +signs that I could make nothing of at all--a freshly turned pebble or +broken twig. These, he said, were fresh deer signs. A caribou had +passed toward the larger lake that very morning. + +"If you want him, I get him," said Pete. I could see he felt rather +deeply his failure of the morning and that he was anxious to redeem +himself. I wanted to give him the opportunity to do so, especially as +the young men, unused to deprivations, were beginning to crave fresh +meat as a relief from the salt pork. At the same time, however, I felt +that the fish we were pretty certain to get from this time on would do +very well for the present, and I did not care to take time to hunt +until we were a little deeper into the country. Therefore I told him, +"No, we will wait a day or two." + +Pete, as I soon discovered, had an insatiable passion for hunting, and +could never let anything in the way of game pass him without qualms of +regret. Sometimes, where a caribou trail ran off plain and clear in +the moss, it was hard to keep from running after it. Nothing ever +escaped his ear or eye. He had the trained senses and instincts of the +Indian hunter. When I first saw him in New York he looked so youthful +and evidently had so little confidence in himself, answering my +question as to whether he could do this or that with an aggravating "I +don't know," that I felt a keen sense of disappointment in him. But +with every stage of our journey he had developed, and now was in his +element. He was quite a different individual from the green Indian +youth whom I had first seen walking timidly beside the railway +conductor at the Grand Central Station in New York. + +The portage between the lakes was an easy one and, as I have said, well +defined, and we reached the farther shore of the second lake early in +the afternoon. Here we found an old Indian camping ground covering +several acres. It had evidently been at one time a general rendezvous +of the Indians hunting in this section, as was indicated by the large +number of wigwams that had been pitched here. That was a long while +ago, however, for the old poles were so decayed that they fell into +pieces when we attempted to pick them up. + +There was no sign of a trail leading from the old camp ground, and I +sent Pete and Richards to circle the bush and endeavor to locate one +that I knew was somewhere about, while I fished and Stanton and Duncan +prepared an early supper. A little later the two men returned, +unsuccessful in their quest. They had seen two or three trails, any of +which might be our trail. Of course but one of them _could_ be the +right one. + +This report was both perplexing and annoying, for I did not wish to +follow for several days a wrong route and then discover the error when +much valuable time had been lost. + +I therefore decided that we must be sure of our position before +proceeding, and early the following morning dispatched Richards and +Pete on a scouting expedition to a high hill some distance to the +northeast that they might, from that view-point, note the general +contour of the land and the location of any visible chain of lakes +leading to the northwest through which the Indian trail might pass, and +then endeavor to pick up the trail from one of these lakes, noting old +camping grounds and other signs. As a precaution, in case they were +detained over night each carried some tea and some erbswurst, a rifle, +a cup at his belt and a compass. When Pete took the rifle he held it +up meaningly and said, "Fresh meat to-night. Caribou," and I could see +that he was planning to make a hunt of it. + +When they were gone, I took Easton with me and climbed another hill +nearer camp, that I might get a panoramic view of the valley in which +we were camped. From this vantage ground I could see, stretching off +to the northward, a chain of three or four small lakes which, I +concluded, though there was other water visible, undoubtedly marked our +course. Far to the northwest was a group of rugged, barren, +snow-capped mountains which were, perhaps, the "white hills," behind +which the Indians had told us lay Seal Lake. At our feet, sparkling in +the sunlight, spread the lake upon whose shores our tent, a little +white dot amongst the green trees, was pitched. A bit of smoke curled +up from our camp fire, where I knew Stanton and Duncan were baking +"squaw bread." + +We returned to camp to await the arrival and report of Richards and +Pete, and occupied the afternoon in catching trout which, though more +plentiful than in the first lake, were very small. + +Toward evening, when a stiff breeze blew in from the lake and cleared +the black flies and mosquitoes away. Easton took a canoe out, +stripped, and sprang into the water, while I undressed on shore and was +in the midst of a most refreshing bath when, suddenly, the wind died +away and our tormentors came upon us in clouds. It was a scramble to +get into our clothes again, but before I succeeded in hiding my +nakedness from them, I was pretty severely wounded. + +It was scarcely six o'clock when Richards and Pete walked into camp and +proudly threw down some venison. Pete had kept his promise. On the +lookout at every step for game, he had espied an old stag, and, +together, he and Richards had stalked it, and it had received bullets +from both their rifles. I shall not say to which hunter belonged the +honor of killing the game. They were both very proud of it. + +But best of all, they had found, to a certainty, the trail leading to +one of the chain of little lakes which Easton and I had seen, and these +lakes, they reported, took a course directly toward a larger lake, +which they had glimpsed. I decided that this must be the lake of which +the Indians at Northwest River had told us--Lake Nipishish (Little +Water). This was very gratifying intelligence, as Nipishish was said +to be nearly half way to Seal Lake, from where we had begun our portage +on the Nascaupee. + +What a supper we had that night of fresh venison, and new "squaw +bread," hot from the pan! + +In the morning we portaged our outfit two miles, and removed our camp +to the second one of the series of lakes which Easton and I had seen +from the hill, and the fourth lake after leaving the Nascaupee River. +The morning was fearfully hot, and we floundered through marshes with +heavy packs, bathed in perspiration, and fairly breathing flies and +mosquitoes. Not a breath of air stirred, and the humidity and heat +were awful. Stanton and Duncan remained to pitch the tent and bring up +some of our stuff that had been left at the second lake, while +Richards, Easton, Pete and I trudged three miles over the hills for the +caribou meat which had been cached at the place where the animal was +killed, Richards and Pete having brought with them only enough for two +or three meals. + +The country here was rough and broken, with many great bowlders +scattered over the hilltops. When we reached the cache we were +ravenously hungry, and built a fire and had a very satisfying luncheon +of broiled venison steak and tea. We bad barely finished our meal when +heavy black clouds overcast the sky, and the wind and rain broke upon +us in the fury of a hurricane. With the coming of the storm the +temperature dropped fully forty degrees in half as many minutes, and in +our dripping wet garments we were soon chilled and miserable. We +hastened to cut the venison up and put it into packs, and with each a +load of it, started homeward. On the way I stopped with Pete to climb +a peak that I might have a view of the surrounding country and see the +large lake to the northward which he and Richards had reported the +evening before. The atmosphere was sufficiently clear by this time for +me to see it, and I was satisfied that it was undoubtedly Lake +Nipishish, as no other large lake had been mentioned by the Indians. + +We hastened down the mountain and made our way through rain-soaked +bushes and trees that showered us with their load of water at every +step, and when at last we reached camp and I threw down my pack, I was +too weary to change my wet garments for dry ones, and was glad to lie +down, drenched as I was, to sleep until supper was ready. + +None of our venison must be wasted. All that we could not use within +the next day or two must be "jerked," that is, dried, to keep it from +spoiling. To accomplish this we erected poles, like the poles of a +wigwam, and suspended the meat from them, cut in thin strips, and in +the center, between the poles, made a small, smoky fire to keep the +greenbottle flies away, that they might not "blow" the venison, as well +as to aid nature in the drying process. + +All day on July seventh the rain poured down, a cold, northwest wind +blew, and no progress was made in drying our meat. There was nothing +to do but wait in the tent for the storm to clear. + +When Pete went out to cook dinner I told him to make a little corn meal +porridge and let it go at that, but what a surprise he had for us when, +a little later, dripping wet and hands full of kettles, he pushed his +way into the tent! A steaming venison potpie, broiled venison steaks, +hot fried bread dough, stewed prunes for dessert and a kettle of hot +tea! All experienced campers in the north woods are familiar with the +fried bread dough. It is dough mixed as you would mix it for squaw +bread, but not quite so stiff, pulled out to the size of your frying +pan, very thin, and fried in swimming pork grease. In taste it +resembles doughnuts. Hubbard used to call it "French toast." Our young +men had never eaten it before, and Richards, taking one of the cakes, +asked Pete: + +"What do you call this?" + +"I don't know," answered Pete. + +"Well," said Richards, with a mouthful of it, "I call it darn good." + +"That's what we call him then," retorted Pete, "darn good." + +And so the cakes were christened "darn goods," and always afterward we +referred to them by that name. + +The forest fire which I have mentioned as having swept this country to +the shores of Grand Lake some thirty-odd years ago, had been +particularly destructive in this portion of the valley where we were +now encamped. The stark dead spruce trees, naked skeletons of the old +forest, stood all about, and that evening, when I stepped outside for a +look at the sky and weather, I was impressed with the dreariness of the +scene. The wind blew in gusts, driving the rain in sheets over the +face of the hills and through the spectral trees, finally dashing it in +bucketfuls against our tent. + +The next forenoon, however, the sky cleared, and in the afternoon +Richards and I went ahead in one of the canoes to hunt the trail. We +followed the north shore of the lake to its end, then portaged twenty +yards across a narrow neck into another lake, and keeping near the +north shore of this lake also, continued until we came upon a creek of +considerable size running out of it and taking a southeasterly course. +Where the creek left the lake there was an old Indian fishing camp. It +was out of the question that our trail should follow the valley of this +creek, for it led directly away from our goal. We, therefore, returned +and explored a portion of the north shore of the lake, which was very +bare, bowlder strewn, and devoid of vegetation for the most part--even +moss. + +Once we came upon a snow bank in a hollow, and cooled ourselves by +eating some of the snow. Our observations made it quite certain that +the trail left the northern side of the second lake through a +bowlder-strewn pass over the hills, though there were no visible signs +of it, and we climbed one of the hills in the hope of seeing lakes +beyond. There were none in sight. It was too late to continue our +search that day and we reluctantly returned to camp. Our failure was +rather discouraging because it meant a further loss of time, and I had +hoped that our route, until we reached Nipishish at least, would lie +straight and well defined before us. + +Sunday was comfortably cool, with a good stiff breeze to drive away the +flies. I dispatched Richards, with Pete and Easton to accompany him, +to follow up our work of the evening before, and look into the pass +through the hills, while I remained behind with Stanton and Duncan and +kept the fire going under our venison. + +I Had expected that Duncan, with his lifelong experience as a native +trapper and hunter in the Labrador interior, would be of great +assistance to us in locating the trail; but to my disappointment I +discovered soon after our start that he was far from good even in +following a trail when it was found, though he never got lost and could +always find his way back, in a straight line, to any given point. + +The boys returned toward evening and reported that beyond the hills, +through the pass, lay a good-sized lake, and that some signs of a trail +were found leading to it. This was what I had hoped for. + +Our meat was now sufficiently dried to pack, and, anxious to be on the +move again, I directed that on the morrow we should break camp and +cross the hills to the lakes beyond. + + + +CHAPTER V + +WE GO ASTRAY + +At half-past four on Monday morning I called the men, and while Pete +was preparing breakfast the rest of us broke camp and made ready for a +prompt start. All were anxious to see behind the range of +bowlder-covered hills and to reach Lake Nipishish, which we felt could +not now be far away. As soon as our meal was finished the larger canoe +was loaded and started on ahead, while Richards, Duncan and I remained +behind to load and follow in the other. + +With the rising sun the day had become excessively warm, and there was +not a breath of wind to cool the stifling atmosphere. The trail was +ill-defined and rough, winding through bare glacial bowlders that were +thick-strewn on the ridges; and the difficulty of following it, +together with the heat, made the work seem doubly hard, as we trudged +with heavy packs to the shores of a little lake which nestled in a +notch between the bills a mile and a half away. Once a fox ran before +us and took refuge in its den under a large rock, but save the always +present cloud of black flies, no other sign of life was visible on the +treeless hills. Finally at midday, after three wearisome journeys back +and forth, bathed in perspiration and dripping fly dope and pork +grease, which we had rubbed on our faces pretty freely as a protection +from the winged pests, we deposited our last load upon the shores of +the lake, and thankfully stopped to rest and cook our dinner. + +We were still eating when we heard the first rumblings of distant +thunder and felt the first breath of wind from a bank of black clouds +in the western sky, and had scarcely started forward again when the +heavens opened upon us with a deluge. + +The brunt of the storm soon passed, but a steady rain continued as we +paddled through the lake and portaged across a short neck of land into +a larger lake, down which we paddled to a small round island near its +lower end. Here, drenched to the bone and thoroughly tired, we made +camp, and in the shelter of the tent ate a savory stew composed of +duck, grouse, venison and fat pork that Pete served in the most +appetizing camp style. + +I was astounded by the amount of squaw bread and "darn goods" that the +young men of my party made away with, and began to fear not only for +the flour supply, but also for the health of the men. One day when I +saw one of my party eat three thick loaves of squaw bread in addition +to a fair quantity of meat, I felt that it was time to limit the flour +part of the ration. I expressed my fears to Pete, and advised that he +bake less bread, and make the men eat more of the other food. + +"Bread very good for Indian. Not good when white an eat so much. Good +way fix him. Use not so much baking powder, me. Make him heavy," +suggested Pete. + +"No, Pete, use enough baking powder to make the bread good, and I'll +speak to the men. Then if they don't eat less bread of their own +accord, we'll have to limit them to a ration." + +I decided to try this plan, and that evening in our camp on the island +I told them that a ration of bread would soon have to be resorted to. +They looked very solemn about it, for the bare possibility of a limited +ration, something that they had never had to submit to, appeared like a +hardship to them. + +On Tuesday morning when we awoke the rain was still falling steadily. +During the forenoon the storm abated somewhat and we broke camp and +transferred our goods to the mainland, where the trail left the lake +near a good-sized brook. Our portage led us over small bills and +through marshes a mile and a half to another lake. While Pete remained +at our new camp to prepare supper and Easton stayed with him, the rest +of us brought forward the last load. Richards and I with a canoe and +packs attempted to run down the brook, which emptied into the lake near +our camp; but we soon found the stream too rocky, and were forced to +cut our way through a dense growth of willows and carry the canoe and +packs to camp on our backs. + +The rain had ceased early in the afternoon, and the evening was +delightfully cool, so that the warmth of a big camp fire was most +grateful and comforting. Our day's march had carried us into a +well-wooded country, and the spectral dry sticks of the old burnt +forest were behind us. The clouds hung low and threatening, and in the +twilight beyond the glow of our leaping fire made the still waters of +the lake, with its encircling wilderness of fir trees, seem very dark +and somber. The genial warmth of the fire was so in contrast to the +chilly darkness of the tent that we sat long around it and talked of +our travels and prospects and the lake and the wilderness before us +that no white man had ever before seen, while the brook near by +tumbling over its rocky bed roared a constant complaint at our +intrusion into this land of solitude. + +The following morning was cool and fine, but showers developed during +the day. Our venison, improderly dried, was molding, and much of it we +found, upon unpacking, to be maggoty. After breakfast I instructed the +others to cut out the wormy parts as far as possible and hang the good +meat over the fire for further drying, while with Easton I explored a +portion of the lake shore in search of the trail leading out. We +returned for a late dinner, and then while Easton, Richards and I +caught trout, I dispatched Pete and Stanton to continue the search +beyond the point where Easton and I had left off. It was near evening +when they came back with the information that they had found the trail, +very difficult to follow, leading to a river, some two miles and a half +beyond our camp. This was undoubtedly the Crooked River, which empties +into Grand Lake close to the Nascaupee, and which the Indians had told +us had its rise in Lake Nipishish. + +The evening was very warm, and mosquitoes were so thick in the tent +that we almost breathed them. Stanton, after much turning and +fidgeting, finally took his blanket out of doors, where he said it was +cooler and he could sleep with his head covered to protect him; but in +an hour he was back, and with his blanket wet with dew took his usual +place beside me. + +Below the point where the trail enters the Crooked River it is said by +the Indians to be exceedingly rough and entirely impassable. We +portaged into it the next morning, paddled a short distance up the +stream, which is here some two hundred yards in width and rather +shallow, then poled through a short rapid and tracked through two +others, wading almost to our waists in some places. We now came to a +widening of the river where it spread out into a small lake. Near the +upper end of this expansion was an island upon which we found a +long-disused log cache of the Indians. A little distance above the +island what appeared to be two rivers flowed into the expansion. +Richards, Duncan and I explored up the right-hand branch until we +struck a rapid. Upon our return to the point where the two streams +came together we found that the other canoe, against my positive +instructions not to proceed at uncertain points until I had decided +upon the proper route to take, had gone up the branch on the left, +tracked through a rapid and disappeared. + +There were no signs of Indians on either of these branches so far as we +could discover, and I was well satisfied that somewhere on the north +bank of the expansion, probably not far from the island and old cache +which we had passed, was the trail. But evening was coming on and rain +was threatening, so there was nothing to do but follow the other canoe, +which had gone blindly ahead, until we should overtake it, as it +contained all the cooking utensils and our tent. This failure of the +men to obey instructions took us a considerable distance out of our way +and cost us several days' time, as we discovered later. + +We tracked through some rapids and finally overhauled the others at a +place where the river branched again. It was after seven o'clock, a +drizzling rain was falling, and here we pitched camp on the east side +of the river just opposite the junction of the two branches. + +On the west fork and directly across from our camp was a rough rapid, +and while supper was cooking I paddled over with Richards to try for +fish. We made our casts, and I quickly landed a twenty-inch ouananiche +and Richards hooked a big trout that, after much play, was brought +ashore. It measured twenty-two and a half inches from tip to tip and +eleven and a half inches around the shoulders. I had landed a couple +more large trout, when Richards enthusiastically announced that he had +a big fellow hooked. He played the fish for half an hour before he +brought it to the edge of the rock, so completely exhausted that it +could scarcely move a fin. We had no landing net and he attempted to +lift it out by the line, when snap went the hook and the fish was free! +I made a dash, caught it in my hands and triumphantly brought it +ashore. It proved to be an ouananiche that measured twenty-seven and +one-half inches in length by eleven and one-quarter inches in girth. + +In our excitement we had forgotten all about supper and did not even +know that it was raining; but we now saw Pete on the further shore +gesticulating wildly and pointing at his open mouth, in pantomime +suggestion that the meal was waiting. + +"Well, that _is_ fishing!" remarked Richards. "I never landed a fish +as big as that before." + +"Yes," I answered; "we're getting near the headwaters of the river now, +where the big fish are always found." + +"I never expected any such sport as that. It's worth the hard work +just for this hour's fishing." + +"You'll get plenty more of it before we're through the country. There +are some big fellows under that rapid. The Indians told us we should +find salmon in this section too, but we're ahead of the salmon, I +think. They're hardly due for a month yet." + +"Let's show the fellows the trout, first. They're big enough to make +'em open their eyes. Then we'll spring the ouananiche on 'cm and +they'll faint. It'll, be enough to make Easton want to come and try a +cast too." + +So when we pushed through the dripping bushes to the tent we presented +only the few big trout, which did indeed create a sensation. Then +Richards brought forward his ouananiche, and it produced the desired +effect. After supper Pete and Easton must try their hand at the fish, +and they succeeded in catching five trout averaging, we estimated, from +two to three pounds each. Richards, however, still held the record as +to big fish, both trout and ouananiche, and the others vowed they would +take it from him if they had to fish nights to do it. + +_En route_ up the river, in the afternoon, Pete had shot a muskrat, and +I asked him that night what he was going to do with it. + +"I don't know," he answered. "Muskrat no good now." + +"Well, never kill any animal while you are with me that you cannot use, +except beasts of prey." + +This was one of the rules that I had laid down at the beginning: that +no member of the party should kill for the sake of killing any living +thing. I could not be angry with Pete, however, for he was always so +goodnatured. No matter how sharply I might reprove him, in five +minutes he would be doing something for my comfort, or singing some +Indian song as he went lightheartedly about his work. I understood how +hard it was for him to down the Indian instinct to kill, and that the +muskrat bad been shot thoughtlessly without considering for a moment +whether it were needed or not. The flesh of the muskrat at this season +of the year is very strong in flavor and unpalatable, and besides, with +the grouse that were occasionally killed, the fish that we were +catching, and the dried venison still on hand, we could not well use +it. No fur is, of course, in season at this time of year, and so there +was no excuse for killing muskrats for the pelts. + +In the vicinity of this camp we saw some of the largest spruce timber +that we came upon in the whole journey across Labrador. Some of these +trees were fully twenty-two inches in diameter at the butt and perhaps +fifty to sixty feet in height. These large trees were very scattered, +however, and too few to be of commercial value. For the most part the +trees that we met with were six to eight, and, occasionally, ten inches +through, scrubby and knotted. In Labrador trees worth the cutting are +always located near streams in sheltered valleys. + +That evening before we retired the drizzle turned to a downpour, and we +were glad to leave our unprotected camp fire for the unwarmed shelter +of our tent. While I lay within and listened to the storm, I wrote in +my diary: "As I lie here, the rain pours upon the tent over my head and +drips--drips--drips through small holes in the silk; the wind sweeps +through the spruce trees outside and a breath of the fragrance of the +great damp forest comes to me. I hear the roar of the rapid across the +river as the waters pour down over the rocks in their course to the +sea. I wonder if some of those very waters do not wash the shores of +New York. How far away the city seems, and how glad I shall be to +return home when my work here is finished! + +"This is a feeling that comes to one often in the wilderness. Perhaps +it is a touch of homesickness--a hunger for the sympathy and +companionship of our friends." + +The days that followed were days of weary waiting and inactivity. A +cold northeast storm was blowing and the rain fell heavily and +incessantly day and night. Trail hunting was impracticable while the +storm lasted, but the halt offered an opportunity that was taken +advantage of to repair our outfit; also there was much needed mending +to be done, as some of our clothing was badly torn. + +Everything we had in the way of wearing apparel was wet, and we set up +our tent stove for the first time, that we might dry our things under +cover. This stove proved a great comfort to us, and all agreed that it +was an inspiration that led me to bring it. It was not an inspiration, +however, but my experience on the trip with Hubbard that taught the +necessity of a stove for just such occasions as this, and for the +colder weather later. + +Some of us went to the rapid to fish, but it was too cold for either +fly or bait, and we soon gave it up. I slipped off a rock in the lower +swirl of the rapid, and went into the river over head and ears. Pete, +who was with me, gave audible expression to his amusement at my +discomfiture as I crawled out of the water like a half drowned rat; but +I could see no occasion for his hilarity and I told him so. + +This experience dampened my enthusiasm as a fisherman for that day. The +net was set, however, which later yielded us some trout. A fish +planked on a dry spruce log hewn flat on one side, made a delicious +dinner, and a savory kettle of fish chowder made of trout and dried +onions gave us an equally good supper. + +On July fifteenth sleet was mingled with the rain in the early morning, +and it was so cold that Duncan used his mittens when doing outdoor +work. Easton was not feeling well, and I looked upon our delay as not +altogether lost time, as it gave him an opportunity to get into shape +again. + +A pocket copy of "Hiawatha," from which Stanton read aloud, furnished +us with entertainment. Pete was very much interested in the reading, +and I found he was quite familiar with the legends of his Indian hero, +and he told us some stories of Hiawatha that I had never heard. +"Hiawatha," said Pete, "he the same as Christ. He do anything he want +to." Pete produced his harmonica and proved himself a very good +performer. + +July sixteenth was Sunday, and I decided that rain or shine we must +break camp on Monday and move forwards for the inactivity was becoming +unendurable. + +A little fishing was done, and Pete landed a twenty-two and +three-quarter inch trout, thus wresting the big-trout record from +Richards. Pete was proud and boasted a great deal of this feat, which +he claimed proved his greater skill as a fisherman, but which the +others attributed to luck. + +We were enabled to do some scouting in the afternoon, which resulted in +the discovery that our camp was on an island. Nowhere could we find +any Indian signs, and we were therefore quite evidently off the trail. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +LAKE NIPISHISH IS REACHED + +As already stated, the Indians at Northwest River Post had informed us +that the Crooked River had its rise in Lake Nipishish, and I therefore +decided to follow the stream from the point where we were now encamped +to the lake, or until we should come upon the trail again, as I felt +sure we should do farther up, rather than retrace our steps to the +abandoned cache on the island in the expansion below, and probably +consume considerable time in locating the old portage route from that +point. + +Accordingly, on Monday morning we began our work against the almost +continuous rapids, which we discovered as we proceeded were +characteristic of the river. A heavy growth of willows lined the +banks, forcing us into the icy water, where the swift current made it +very difficult to keep our footing upon the slippery bowlders of the +river bed. Tracking lines were attached to the bows of the canoes and +we floundered forward. + +The morning was cloudy and cool and resembled a day in late October, +but before noon the sun graciously made his appearance and gave us new +spirit for our work. When we stopped for dinner I sent Pete and Easton +to look ahead, and Pete brought back the intelligence that a half-mile +portage would cut off a considerable bend in the river and take us into +still water. It was necessary to clear a portion of the way with the +ax. This done, the portage was made, and then we found to our +disappointment that the still water was less than a quarter mile in +length, when rapids occurred again. + +As I deemed it wise to get an idea of the lay of the land before +proceeding farther, I took Pete with me and went ahead to scout the +route. Less than a mile away we found two small lakes, and climbing a +ridge two miles farther on, we had a view of the river, which, so far +as we could see, continued to be very rough, taking a turn to the +westward above where our canoes were stationed, and then swinging again +to the northeast in the direction of Nipishish, which was plainly +visible. The Indians, instead of taking the longer route that we were +following, undoubtedly crossed from the old cache to a point in the +river some distance above where it took its westward swing, and thus, +in one comparatively easy portage, saved themselves several miles of +rough traveling. It was too late for us now, however, to take +advantage of this. + +Pete and I hurried back to the others. The afternoon was well +advanced, but sufficient daylight remained to permit us to proceed a +little way up the river, and portage to the shores of one of the lakes, +where camp was made just at dusk. + +Field mice in this section were exceedingly troublesome. They would +run over us at night, sample our food, and gnawed a hole as large as a +man's hand in the side of the tent. Porcupines, too, were something of +a nuisance. One night one of them ate a piece out of my tumpline, +which was partially under my head, while I slept. + +The next morning we passed through the lakes to the river above, and +for three days, in spite of an almost continuous rain and wind storm, +worked our way up stream, "tracking" the canoes through a succession of +rapids or portaging around them, with scarcely any opportunity to +paddle. + +On the afternoon of the third day, with the wind dashing the rain in +sheets into our faces, we halted on a rough piece of ground just above +the river bank and pitched our tent. + +When camp was made Pete took me to a rise of ground a little distance +away, and pointing to the northward exclaimed: "Look, Lake Nipishish! I +know we reach him to-day." + +And sure enough, there lay Lake Nipishish close at hand! I was more +thankful than I can say to see the water stretching far away to the +northward, for I felt that now the hardest and roughest part of our +journey to the height of land was completed. + +"That's great, Pete," said I. "We'll have more water after this and +fewer and easier portages, and we can travel faster." + +"Maybe better, I don't know," remarked Pete, rather skeptically. +"Always hard find trail out big lakes. May leave plenty places. Take +more time hunt trail maybe now. Indian maps no good. Maybe easier +when we find him." + +Pete was right, and I did not know the difficulties still to be met +with before we should reach Michikamau. + +Duncan was of comparatively little help to us now, and as I knew that +he was more than anxious to return to Groswater Bay, I decided to +dispense with his further services and send him back with letters to be +mailed home. When I returned to the tent I said to him: + +"Duncan, I suppose you would like to go home now, and I will let you +turn back from here and take some letters out. Does that suit you?" + +"Yes, sir, that suits me fine," replied be promptly, and in a tone that +left no doubt of the fact that he was glad to go. + +"Well, this is Thursday. I'll write my letters tomorrow, and you may +go on Saturday." + +"All right, sir." + +The letters were all written and ready for Duncan on Friday night, and +he packed sufficient provisions into a waterproof bag I gave him to +carry him out, and prepared for an early start in the morning. But the +rain that had been falling for several days still poured down on +Saturday, and he decided to postpone his departure another day in the +hope of better weather on Sunday. He needed the time anyway to mend +his sealskin boots before starting back, for he had pretty nearly worn +them out on the sharp rocks on the portages. The rest of us were well +provided with oil-tanned moccasins (sometimes called larigans or +shoe-packs), which I have found are the best footwear for a journey +like ours. Pete's khaki trousers were badly torn; and Richards and +Easton, who wore Mackinaw trousers, were in rags. This cloth had not +withstood the hard usage of Labrador travel a week, and both men, when +they bad a spare hour, occupied it in sewing on canvas patches, until +now there was almost as much canvas patch as Mackinaw cloth in these +garments. Richards, however, carried an extra pair of moleskin +trousers, and I wore moleskin. This latter material is the best +obtainable, so far as my experience goes, for rough traveling in the +bush, and my trousers stood the trip with but one small patch until +winter came. + +Sunday morning was still stormy, but before noon the rain ceased, and +Duncan announced his intention of starting homeward at once. We raised +our flags and exchanged our farewells and Godspeeds with him. Then he +left us, and as he disappeared down the trail a strange sense of +loneliness came upon us, for it seemed to us that his going broke the +last link that connected us with the outside world. Duncan was always +so cheerful, with his quaint humor, and so ready to do his work to the +very best of his ability, that we missed him very much, and often spoke +of him in the days that followed. + +We had made the best of our enforced idleness in this camp to repack +and condense and dry our outfit as much as possible. The venison, at +the first imperfectly cured, had been so continuously soaked that the +most of what remained of it was badly spoiled and we could not use it, +and with regret we threw it away. The erbswurst was also damp, and +this we put into small canvas bags, which were then placed near the +stove to dry. + +A rising barometer augured good weather for Monday morning. A light +wind scattered the clouds that had for so many days entombed the world +in storm and gloom, and the sun broke out gloriously, setting the +moisture-laden trees aglinting as though hung with a million pearls and +warming the damp fir trees until the air was laden with the forest +perfume. It was as though a pall had been lifted from the world. How +our hearts swelled with the new enthusiasm of the returned sunshine! It +was always so. It seemed as if the long-continued storms bound up our +hearts and crushed the buoyancy from them; but the returning sunshine +melted the bonds at once and gave us new ambition. A robin sang gayly +from a near-by tree--a messenger from the kindlier Southland come to +cheer us--and the "whisky jacks," who had not shown themselves for +several days, appeared again with their shrill cries, venturing +impudently into the very door of our tent to claim scraps of refuse. + +I was for moving forward that very afternoon, but some of our things +were still wet, and I deemed it better judgment to let them have the +day in which to dry and to delay our start until Monday morning. + +After supper, in accordance with the Sunday custom established by +Hubbard when I was with him, I read aloud a selection from the +Testament--the last chapter of Revelation--and then went out of the +tent to take the usual nine o'clock weather observation. Between the +horizon and a fringe of black clouds that hung low in the north the +reflected sun set the heavens afire, and through the dark fir trees the +lake stretched red as a lake of blood. I called the others to see it +and Easton joined me. We climbed a low hill close at hand to view the +scene, and while we looked the red faded into orange, and the lake was +transformed into a mirror, which reflected the surrounding trees like +an inverted forest. In the direction from which we had come we could +see the high blue hills beyond the Nascaupee, very dim in the far +distance. Below us the Crooked River lost itself as it wound its +tortuous way through the wooded valley that we had traversed. Somewhere +down there Duncan was bivouacked, and we wondered if his fire was +burning at one of our old camping places. + +Darkness soon came and we returned to the tent to find the others +rolled in their blankets, and we joined them at once that we might have +a good night's rest preparatory to an early morning advance. + +Before seven o'clock on Monday morning (July twenty-fourth) we had made +our portage to the water that we had supposed to be an arm of Lake +Nipishish, but which proved instead to be an expansion of the river +into which the lake poured its waters through a short rapid. This rapid +necessitated another short portage before we were actually afloat upon +the bosom of Nipishish itself. There was not a cloud to mar the azure +of the sky, hardly a breath of wind to make a ripple on the surface of +the lake, and the morning was just cool enough to be delightful. + +It was the kind of day and kind of wilderness that makes one want to go +on and on. I felt again the thrill in my blood of that magic something +that had held possession of Hubbard and me and lured us into the heart +of this unknown land two years before, and as I looked hungrily away +toward the hills to the northward, I found myself repeating again one +of those selections from Kipling that I had learned from him: + + "Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges-- + Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!" + + + +CHAPTER VII + +SCOUTING FOR THE TRAIL + +Lake Nipishish is approximately twenty miles in length, and at its +broadest part ten or twelve miles in width. It extends in an almost +due easterly direction from the place where we launched our canoes near +its outlet. The shores are rocky and rise gradually into low, +well-wooded hills, by which the lake is surrounded. Five miles from +the outlet a rocky point juts out into the water, and above the point +an arm of the lake reaches into the hills to the northward to a +distance of six miles, almost at right angles to the main lake. In the +arm there are several small, rocky islands which sustain a scrubby +growth of black spruce and fir balsam. + +Hitherto the Indian maps had been of little assistance to us. No +estimate of distance could be made from them, and the lakes through +which we had passed (not all of them shown on the map) were represented +by small circles with nothing to indicate at what point on their shores +the trail was to be found. Lake Nipishish, however, was drawn on a +larger scale and with more detail, and we readily located the trail +leading out of the arm which I have mentioned. + +After a day's work through several small lakes or ponds, with short +intervening portages, and a trail on the whole well defined and easily +followed, we came one afternoon to a good-sized lake of irregular shape +which Pete promptly named Washkagama (Crooked Lake). + +A stream flowed into Washkagama near the place where we went ashore, +and it seemed to me probable that our route might be along this stream, +which it was likely drained lakes farther up; but a search in the +vicinity failed to uncover any signs of the trail, and the irregular +shape of the lake suggested several other likely places for it. We +were, therefore, forced to go into camp, disappointing as it was, until +we should know our position to a certainty. + +The next day was showery, but we began in the morning a determined hunt +for the trail. Stanton remained in camp to make needed repairs to the +outfit; Easton went with Pete to the northward, while Richards and I in +one of the canoes paddled to the eastern side of the lake arm, upon +which we were encamped, to climb a barren hill from which we hoped to +get a good view of the country, and upon reaching the summit we were +not disappointed. A wide panorama was spread before us. To the north +lay a great rolling country covered with a limitless forest of firs, +with here and there a bit of sparkling water. A mile from our camp a +creek, now and again losing itself in the green woods, rushed down to +join Washkagama, anxious to gain the repose of the lake. To the +northeast the rugged white hills, that we were hoping to reach soon, +loomed up grand and majestic, with patches of snow, like white sheets, +spread over their sides and tops. From Nipishish to Washkagama we had +passed through a burned and rocky country where no new growth save +scant underbrush and a few scattering spruce, balsam and tamarack trees +had taken the place of the old destroyed forest. The dead, naked tree +trunks which, gaunt and weather-beaten, still stood upright or lay in +promiscuous confusion on the ground, gave this part of the country from +our hilltop view an appearance of solitary desolation that we had not +noticed when we were traveling through it. But this unregenerated +district ended at Washkagama; and below it Nipishish, with its +green-topped hills, seemed almost homelike. + +The creek that I have mentioned as flowing into the lake a mile from +our camp seemed to me worthy to be explored for the trail, and I +determined to go there at once upon our return to camp, while Richards +desired to climb a rock-topped hill which held its head above the +timber line three or four miles to the northwest, that he might make +topographical and geological observations there. + +We returned to camp, and Richards, with a package of erbswurst in his +pocket to cook for dinner and my rifle on his shoulder, started +immediately into the bush, and was but just gone when Pete and Easton +appeared with the report that two miles above us lay a large lake, and +that they had found the trail leading from it to the creek I had seen +from the hill. The lake lay among the hills to the northward, and the +bits of water I had seen were portions of it. I was anxious to break +camp and start forward, but this could not be done until Richards' +return. Easton, Pete and I paddled up to the creek's mouth, therefore, +and spent the day fishing, and landed eighty-seven trout, ranging from +a quarter pound to four pounds in weight. The largest ones Stanton +split and hung over the fire to dry for future use, while the others +were applied to immediate need. + +When Richards came into camp in the evening he brought with him an +excellent map of the country that he had seen from the hill and +reported having counted ten lakes, including the large one that Easton +and Pete had visited. He also had found the trail and followed it back. + +The next morning some tracking and wading up the creek was necessary +before we found ourselves upon the trail with packs on our backs, and +before twelve o'clock we arrived with all our outfit at the lake, which +we shall call Minisinaqua. It was an exceedingly beautiful sheet of +water, the main body, perhaps, ten or twelve miles in length, but +narrow, and with many arms and indentations and containing numerous +round green islands. The shores and surrounding country were well +wooded with spruce, fir, balsam, larch, and an occasional small white +birch. + +I took my place in the larger canoe with Pete and Easton and left +Stanton to follow with Richards. Pete's eyes, as always, were scanning +with keen scrutiny every inch of shore. Suddenly he straightened up, +peered closely at an island, and in a stage whisper exclaimed "Caribou! +Caribou! Don't make noise! Paddle, quick!" + +We saw them then--two old stags and a fawn--on an island, but they had +seen us, too, or winded us more likely, and, rushing across the island, +took to the water on the opposite side, making for the mainland. We +bent to our paddles with all our might, hoping to get within shooting +distance of them, but they had too much lead. We all tried some shots +when we saw we could not get closer, but the deer were five hundred +yards away, and from extra exertion with our paddles, we were unable to +hold steady, and missed. + +Our canoes were turned into an arm of the lake leading to the +northward. Amongst some islands we came upon a flock of five +geese--two old ones and three young ones. The old ones had just passed +through the molting season, and their new wing feathers were not long +enough to bear them, and the young ones, though nearly full grown, had +not yet learned to fly. Pete brought the mother goose and two of her +children down with the shotgun, but father gander and the other +youngster escaped, flapping away on the surface of the lake at a +remarkable speed, and they were allowed to go with their lives without +a chase. + +We stumbled upon the trail leading from Lake Minisinaqua, almost +immediately upon landing. Its course was in a northerly direction +through the valley of a small river that emptied into the lake. This +valley was inclosed by low hills, and the country, like that between +Washkagama and Lake Minisinaqua, was well covered with the same +varieties of small trees that were found there. For a mile and +three-quarters, the stream along which the trail ran was too swift for +canoeing, but it then expanded into miniature lakes or ponds which were +connected by short rapids. Each of us portaged a load to the first +pond, where the canoes were to be launched, and I directed Pete and +Stanton to remain here, pluck the geese, and prepare two of them for an +evening dinner, while Richards, Easton and I brought forward a second +load and pitched camp. + +This was Easton's twenty-second birthday and it occurred to me that it +would be a pleasant variation to give a birthday dinner in his honor +and to have a sort of feast to relieve the monotony of our daily life, +and give the men something to think about and revive their spirits; for +"bucking the trail" day after day with no change but the gradual change +of scenery does grow monotonous to most men, and the ardor of the best +of them, especially men unaccustomed to roughing it, will become damped +in time unless some variety, no matter how slight, can be brought into +their lives. A good dinner always has this effect, for after men are +immersed in a wilderness for several weeks, good things to eat take the +first place in their thoughts and, to judge from their conversation, +the attainment of these is their chief aim in life. + +My instructions to Pete included the baking of an extra ration of bread +to be served hot with the roast geese, and I asked Stanton to try his +hand at concocting some kind of a pudding out of the few prunes that +still remained, to be served with sugar as sauce, and accompanied by +black coffee. Our coffee supply was small and it was used only on +Sundays now, or at times when we desired an especial treat. + +We were pretty tired when we returned with our second packs and dropped +them on a low, bare knoll some fifty yards above the fire where Pete +and Stanton were carrying on their culinary operations, but a whiff of +roasting goose came to us like a tonic, and it did not take us long to +get camp pitched. + +"Um-m-m," said Easton, stopping in his work of driving tent pegs to +sniff the air now bearing to us appetizing odors of goose and coffee, +"that smells like home." + +"You bet it does," assented Richards. "I haven't been filled up for a +week, but I'm going to be to-night." + +At length dinner was ready, and we fell to with such good purpose that +the two birds, a generous portion of hot bread, innumerable cups of +black coffee, and finally, a most excellent pudding that Stanton had +made out of bread dough and prunes and boiled in a canvas specimen bag +disappeared. + +How we enjoyed it! "No hotel ever served such a banquet," one of the +boys remarked as we filled our pipes and lighted them with brands from +the fire. Then with that blissful feeling that nothing but a good +dinner can give, we lay at full length on the deep white moss, +peacefully puffing smoke at the stars as they blinked sleepily one by +one out of the blue of the great arch above us until the whole +firmament was glittering with a mass of sparkling heaven gems. The +soft perfume of the forest pervaded the atmosphere; the aurora borealis +appeared in the northern sky, and its waves of changing light swept the +heavens; the vast silence of the wilderness possessed the world and, +wrapped in his own thoughts, no man spoke to break the spell. Finally +Pete began a snatch of Indian song: + + "Puhgedewawa enenewug + Nuhbuggesug kamiwauw." + +Then he drew from his pocket a harmonica, and for half an hour played +soft music that harmonized well with the night and the surroundings; +when he ceased, all but Richards and I went to their blankets. We two +remained by the dying embers of our fire for another hour to enjoy the +perfect night, and then, before we turned to our beds, made an +observation for compass variation, which calculations the following +morning showed to be thirty-seven degrees west of the true north. + +Paddling through the ponds, polling and tracking through the rapids or +portaging around them up the little river on which we were encamped the +night before, brought us to Otter Lake, which was considerably larger +than Lake Minisinaqua, but not so large as Nipishish. The main body +was not over a mile and a half in width, but it had a number of bays +and closely connected tributary lakes. Its eastern end, which we did +not explore, penetrated low spruce and balsam-covered hills. To the +north and northeast were rugged, rock-tipped hills, rising to an +elevation of some seven hundred feet above the lake. The country at +their base was covered with a green forest of small fir, spruce and +birch, and near the water, in marshy places, as is the case nearly +everywhere in Labrador, tamarack, but the hills themselves had been +fire swept, and were gray with weather-worn, dead trees. On the +summits, and for two hundred feet below, bare basaltic rock indicated +that at this elevation they had never sustained any growth, save a few +straggling bushes. On some of these hills there still remained patches +of snow of the previous winter. + +We paddled eastward along the northern shore of the lake. Once we saw +a caribou swimming far ahead of us, but he discovered our approach and +took to the timber before we were within shooting distance of him. A +flock of sawbill ducks avoided us. No sign of Indians was seen, and +four miles up the lake we stopped upon a narrow, sandy point that +jutted out into the water for a distance of a quarter mile, to pitch +camp and scout for the trail. All along the point and leading back +into the bush, were fresh caribou tracks, where the animals came out to +get the benefit of the lake breezes and avoid the flies, which torment +them terribly. Natives in the North have told me of caribou having +been worried to death by the insects, and it is not improbable. The +"bulldogs" or "stouts," as they are sometimes called, which are as big +as bumblebees, are very vicious, and follow the poor caribou in swarms. +The next morning a caribou wandered down to within a hundred and fifty +yards of camp, and Pete and Stanton both fired at it, but missed, and +it got away unscathed. + +After breakfast, with Pete and Easton, I climbed one of the higher +hills for a view of the surrounding country. Near the foot of the +hill, and in the depth of the spruce woods, we passed a lone Indian +grave, which we judged from its size to be that of a child. It was +inclosed by a rough fence, which had withstood the pressure of the +heavy snows of many winters and a broken cross lay on it. From the +summit of the hill we could see a string of lakes extending in a +general northwesterly direction until they were lost in other hills +above, and also numerous lakes to the south, southwest, east and +northeast. We could count from one point nearly fifty of these lakes, +large and small. To the north and northwest the country was rougher +and more diversified, and the hills much higher than any we had as yet +passed through. + +Down by our camp it had been excessively warm, but here on the hilltop +a cold wind was blowing that made us shiver. We found a few scattered +dry sticks, and built a fire under the lee of a high bowlder, where we +cooked for luncheon some pea-meal porridge with water that Pete, with +foresight, had brought with him from a brook that we passed half way +down the hillside. We then continued our scouting tour several miles +inland, climbing two other high hills, from one of which an excellent +view was had of the string of lakes penetrating the northwestern hills. +Everywhere so far as our vision extended the valleys were comparatively +well wooded, but the treeless, rock-bound hills rose grimly above the +timber line. + +When we returned to camp we were still unsettled as to where the trail +left the lake, but there was one promising bay that had not been +explored, and Richards and Easton volunteered to take a canoe and +search this bay. They were supplied with tarpaulin, blankets, an ax +and one day's rations, and started immediately. + +I felt some anxiety as to our slow progress. August was almost upon us +and we had not yet reached Seal Lake. Here, as at other places, we had +experienced much delay in finding the trail, and we did not know what +difficulties in that direction lay before us. I had planned to reach +the George River by early September, and the question as to whether we +could do it or not was giving me much concern. + +Pete and Stanton had been in bed and asleep for an hour, but I was +still awake, turning over in my mind the situation, and planning +to-morrow's campaign, when at ten o'clock I heard the soft dip of +paddles, and a few moments later Richards and Easton appeared out of +the night mist that hung over the lake, with the good news that they +had found the trail leading northward from the bay. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SEAL LAKE AT LAST + +A thick, impenetrable mist, such as is seldom seen in the interior of +Labrador, hung over the water and the land when we struck camp and +began our advance. For two days we traveled through numerous small +lakes, making several short portages, before we came to a lake which we +found to be the headwaters of a river flowing to the northwest. This +lake was two miles long, and we camped at its lower end, where the +river left it. Portage Lake we shall call it, and the river that +flowed out of it Babewendigash. + +The portage into the lake crossed a sand desert, upon which not a drop +of water was seen, and instead of the usual rocks there were uncovered +sand and gravel knolls and valleys, where grew only occasional bunches +of very stunted brush; the surface of the sand was otherwise quite bare +and sustained not even the customary moss and lichens. The heat of the +sun reflected from the sand was powerful. The day was one of the most +trying ones of the trip, and the men, with faces and hands swollen and +bleeding from the attacks of not only the small black flies, which were +particularly bad, but also the swarms of "bulldogs," complained +bitterly of the hardships. When we halted to eat our luncheon one of +the men remarked, "Duncan said once that if there are no flies there, +hell can't be as bad as this, and he's pretty near right." + +The river left the lake in a rapid, and while Pete was making his fire, +Richards, Easton and I went down to catch our supper, and in half an +hour had secured forty-five good-sized trout--sufficient for supper +that night and breakfast and dinner the next day. + +Since leaving Otter Lake, caribou signs had been plentiful, fresh +trails running in every direction. Pete was anxious to halt a day to +hunt, but I decreed otherwise, to his great disappointment. + +The scenery at this point was particularly fine, with a rugged, wild +beauty that could hardly be surpassed. Below us the great, bald snow +hills loomed very close at hand, with patches of snow glinting against +the black rocks of the hills, as the last rays of the setting sun +kissed them good-night. Nearer by was the more hospitable wooded +valley and the shining river, and above us the lake, placid and +beautiful, and beyond it the line of low sand hills of the miniature +desert we had crossed. One of the snow hills to the northwest had two +knobs resembling a camel's back, and was a prominent landmark. We +christened it "The Camel's Hump." + +Heretofore the streams had been taking a generally southerly direction, +but this river flowed to the northwest, which was most encouraging, for +running in that direction it could have but one outlet-the Nascaupee +River. + +A portage in the morning, then a short run on the river, then another +portage, around a shallow rapid, and we were afloat again on one of the +prettiest little rivers I have ever seen. The current was strong +enough to hurry us along. Down we shot past the great white hills, +which towered in majestic grandeur high above our heads, in some places +rising almost perpendicularly from the water, with immense heaps of +debris which the frost had detached from their sides lying at their +base. The river was about fifty yards wide, and in its windings in and +out among the hills almost doubled upon itself sometimes. The scenery +was fascinating. One or two small lake expansions were passed, but +generally there was a steady current and a good depth of water. "This +is glorious!" some one exclaimed, as we shot onward, and we all +appreciated the relief from the constant portaging that had been the +feature of our journey since leaving the Nascaupee River. + +The first camp on this river was pitched upon the site of an old Indian +camp, above a shallow rapid. The many wigwam poles, in varying states +of decay, together with paddles, old snowshoes, broken sled runners, +and other articles of Indian traveling paraphernalia, indicated that it +had been a regular stopping place of the Indians, both in winter and in +summer, in the days when they had made their pilgrimages to Northwest +River Post. Near this point we found some beaver cuttings, the first +that we had seen since leaving the Crooked River. + +Babewendigash soon carried us into a large lake expansion, and six +hours were consumed paddling about the lake before the outlet was +discovered. At first we thought it possible we were in Seal Lake, but +I soon decided that it was not large enough, and its shape did not +agree with the description of Seal Lake that Donald Blake and Duncan +McLean had given me. + +During the morning I dropped a troll and landed the first namaycush of +the trip--a seven-pound fish. The Labrador lakes generally have a +great depth of water, and it is in the deeper water that the very large +namaycush, which grow to an immense size, are to be caught. Our outfit +did not contain the heavy sinkers and larger trolling spoons necessary +in trolling for these, and we therefore had to content ourselves with +the smaller fish caught in the shallower parts of the lakes. We had +two more portages before we shot the first rapid of the trip, and then +camped on the shores of a small expansion just above a wide, shallow +rapid where the river swung around a ridge of sand hills. This ridge +was about two hundred feet in elevation, and followed the river for +some distance below. In the morning we climbed it, and walked along +its top for a mile or so, to view the rapid, and suddenly, to the +westward, beheld Seal Lake. It was a great moment, and we took off our +hats and cheered. The first part of our fight up the long trail was +almost ended. + +The upper part of the rapid was too shallow to risk a full load in the +canoes, so we carried a part of our outfit over the ridge to a point +where the river narrowed and deepened, then ran the rapid and picked up +our stuff below. Not far from here we passed a hill whose head took +the form of a sphinx and we noted it as a remarkable landmark. Stopping +but once to climb a mountain for specimens, at twelve o'clock we landed +on a sandy beach where Babewendigash River emptied its waters into Seal +Lake. We could hardly believe our good fortune, and while Pete cooked +dinner I climbed a hill to satisfy myself that it was really Seal Lake. +There was no doubt of it. It had been very minutely described and +sketched for me by Donald and Duncan. We had halted at what they +called on their maps "The Narrows," where the lake narrowed down to a +mere strait, and that portion of it below the canoes was hidden from my +view. It stretched out far to the northwest, with some distance up a +long arm reaching to the west. A point which I recognized from +Duncan's description as the place where the winter tilt used by him and +Donald was situated extended for some distance out into the water. The +entire length of Seal Lake is about forty miles, but only about thirty +miles of it could be seen from the elevation upon which I stood. Its +shores are generally well wooded with a growth of young spruce. High +hills surround it. + +We visited the tilt as we passed the point and, in accordance with an +arrangement made with Duncan, added to our stores about twenty-five +pounds of flour that he had left there during the previous winter. Five +miles above the point where Babewendigash River empties into Seal Lake +we entered the Nascaupee, up which we paddled two miles to the first +short rapid. This we tracked, and then made camp on an island where +the river lay placid and the wind blew cool and refreshing. + +Long we sat about our camp fire watching the glories of the northern +sunset, and the new moon drop behind the spruce-clad hills, and the +aurora in all its magnificence light our silent world with its wondrous +fire. Finally the others left me to go to their blankets. + +When I was alone I pushed in the ends of the burning logs and sat down +to watch the blaze as it took on new life. Gradually, as I gazed into +its depths, fantasy brought before my eyes the picture of another camp +fire. Hubbard was sitting by it. It was one of those nights in the +hated Susan Valley. We had been toiling up the trail for days, and +were ill and almost disheartened; but our camp fire and the relaxation +from the day's work were giving us the renewed hope and cheer that they +always brought, and rekindled the fire of our half-lost enthusiasm. +"Seal Lake can't be far off now," Hubbard was saying. "We're sure to +reach it in a day or two. Then it'll be easy work to Michikamau, and +we 'll soon be with the Indians after that, and forget all about this +hard work. We'll be glad of it all when we get home, for we're going +to have a bully trip." How much lighter my pack felt the next day, when +I recalled his words of encouragement! How we looked and looked for +Seal Lake, but never found it. It lay hidden among those hills that +were away to the northward of us, with its waters as placid and +beautiful as they were to-day when we passed through it. I had never +seen Michikamau. Was I destined to see it now? + +The fire burned low. Only a few glowing coals remained, and as they +blackened my picture dissolved. The aurora, like a hundred +searchlights, was whipping across the sky. The forest with its hidden +mysteries lay dark beneath. A deep, impenetrable silence brooded over +all. The vast, indescribable loneliness of the wilderness possessed my +soul. I tried to shake off the feeling of desolation as I went to my +bed of boughs. + +To-morrow a new stage of our journey would begin. It was ho for +Michikamau! + + + +CHAPTER IX + +WE LOSE THE TRAIL + +Saturday morning, August fifth, broke with a radiance and a glory +seldom equaled even in that land of glorious sunrises and sunsets. A +flame of red and orange in the east ushered in the rising sun, not a +cloud marred the azure of the heavens, the moss was white with frost, +and the crisp, clear atmosphere sweet with the scent of the new day. +Labrador was in her most amiable mood, displaying to the best advantage +her peculiar charms and beauties. + +While we ate a hurried breakfast of corn-meal mush, boiled fat pork and +tea, and broke camp, Michikamau was the subject of our conversation, +for now it was ho for the big lake! A rapid advance was expected upon +the river, and the trail above, where it left the Nascaupee to avoid +the rapids which the Indians had told us about, would probably be found +without trouble. So this new stage of our journey was begun with +something of the enthusiasm that we had felt the day we left Tom +Blake's cabin and started up Grand Lake. + +We had gone but a mile when Pete drew his paddle from the water and +pointed with it at a narrow, sandy beach ahead, above which rose a +steep bank. Almost at the same instant I saw the object of his +interests--a buck caribou asleep on the sand. The wind was blowing +toward the river, and maintaining absolute silence, we landed below a +bend that hid us from the caribou. Fresh meat was in sight and we must +have it, for we were hungry now for venison. To cover the retreat of +the animal should it take alarm, Pete was to go on the top of the bank +above it, Easton to take a stand opposite it and I a little below it. +We crawled to our positions with the greatest care; but the caribou was +alert. The shore breeze carried to it the scent of danger, and almost +before we knew, that we were discovered it was on its feet and away. +For a fraction of a second I had one glimpse of the animal through the +brush. Pete did not see it when it started, but heard it running up +the shore, and away be started in that direction, running and leaping +recklessly over the fallen tree trunks. Presently the caribou turned +from the river and showed itself on the burned plateau above, two +hundred yards from Pete. The Indian halted for a moment and +fired--then fired again. I hastened up and came upon Pete standing by +the prostrate caribou and grinning from ear to ear. + +The carcass was quickly skinned and the meat stripped from the bones +and carried to the canoe. Here on the shore we made a fire, broiled +some thick luscious steaks, roasted some marrow bones and made tea. All +the bones except the marrow bones of the legs were abandoned as an +unnecessary weight. Pete broke a hole through one of the shoulder +blades and stuck it on a limb of a tree above the reach of animals. +That, you know, insures further good luck in hunting. It is a sort of +offering to the Manitou. We took the skin with us. "Maybe we need him +for something," said Pete. "Clean and smoke him nice, me; maybe mend +clothes with him." + +The larger pieces of our venison were to be roasted when we halted in +the evening. We could not dally now, and I chose this method of +preserving the meat, rather than "jerk" it (that is, dry it in the open +air over a smoky fire), which would have necessitated a halt of three +or four days. + +Within three hours after we had first seen the caribou we were on our +way again. The river up which we were passing was from two to four +hundred yards in width, and with the exception of an occasional rock, +had a gravelly bottom, and the banks were generally low and gravelly. A +little distance back ridges of low hills paralleled the stream, and on +the south side behind the lower ridge was a higher one of rough hills; +but none of them with an elevation above the valley of more than three +hundred feet. The country had been burned on both sides of the river +and there was little new growth to hide the dead trees. + +Twenty-five miles above Seal Lake we encountered a rapid which +necessitated a mile and a half portage around it. Where we landed to +make the portage I noticed along the edge of the sandy beach a black +band about two feet in width. I thought at first that the water had +discolored the sand, but upon a closer examination discovered that it +was nothing more nor less than myriads of our black fly pests that had +lost their lives in the water and been washed ashore. + +We had much rain and progress was slow and difficult in the face of a +strong wind and current. Seven or eight miles above the rapid around +which we had portaged we passed into a large expansion of the river +which the Indians at Northwest River Post had told us to look for, and +which they called Wuchusknipi (Big Muskrat) Lake. + +High gravelly banks, rising in terraces sometimes fully fifty feet +above the water's edge, had now become the feature of the stream. The +current increased in strength, and only for short distances above +Wuchusknipi, where the river occasionally broadened, were we able to +paddle. The tracking lines were brought into service, one man hauling +each canoe, while the others, wading in the water, or walking on the +bank with poles where the stream was too deep to wade, kept the canoes +straight in the current and clear of the shore. Once when it became +necessary to cross a wide place in the river a squall struck us, and +Richards and Stanton in the smaller canoe were nearly swamped. The +strong head wind precluded paddling, even when the current would +otherwise have permitted it. + +Finally the sky cleared and the wind ceased to blow; but with the calm +came a cause for disquietude. A light smoke had settled in the valley +and the air held the odor of it, suggesting a forest fire somewhere +above. This would mean retreat, if not disaster, for when these fires +once start rivers and lakes prove small obstacles in their path. From +a view-point on the hills no dense smoke could be discovered, only the +light haze that we had seen and smelled in the valley, and we therefore +decided that the gale that had blown for several days from the +northwest may have carried it for a long distance, even from the +district far west of Michikamau, and that at any rate there was no +cause for immediate alarm. + +The ridges with an increasing altitude were crowding in upon us more +closely. Once when we stopped to portage around a low fall we climbed +some of the hills that were near at hand that we might obtain a better +knowledge of the topography of the country than could be had from the +confined river valley. Away to the northwest we found the country to +be much more rugged than the district we had recently passed through. +Observations showed us that the highest of the hills we were on had an +elevation of six hundred feet above the river. We had but a single day +of fine weather and then a fog came so thick that we could not see the +opposite banks of the Nascaupee, and after it a cold rain set in which +made our work in the icy current doubly hard. One morning I slipped on +a bowlder in the river and strained my side, and for me the remainder +of the day was very trying. That evening we reached a little group of +three or four islands, where the Nascaupee was wide and shallow, but +just above the islands it narrowed down again and a low fall occurred. +Not far from the fall a small river tumbled down over the rocks a sheer +thirty feet, and emptied into the Nascaupee. Since leaving Seal Lake we +had passed two rivers flowing in from the north, and this was the +second one coming from the south, marking the point on the Indian map +where we were to look for the portage trail leading to the northward. +Therefore a halt was made and camp was pitched. + +During the night the weather cleared, and Pete, Richards and Easton +were dispatched in the morning to scout the country to the northward in +search of the trail and signs of Indians. The ligaments of my side +were very stiff and sore from the strain they received the previous +day, and I remained in camp with Stanton to write up my records, take +an inventory of our food supply, and consider plans for the future. + +It was August twelfth. How far we had still to go before reaching +Michikamau was uncertain, but, in view of our experiences below Seal +Lake and the difficulties met with in finding and following the old +Indian trail there, our progress would now, for a time at least, if we +traveled the portage route, be slower than on the river where we had +done fairly well. True, our outfit was much lighter than it had been +in the beginning, and we were in better shape for packing and were able +to carry heavier loads. Still we must make two trips over every +portage, and that meant, for every five miles of advance, fifteen miles +of walking and ten of those miles with packs on our backs. Had we not +better, therefore, abandon the further attempt to locate the trail and, +instead, follow the river which was beyond doubt the quicker and the +easier route? My inclinations rebelled against this course. One of +the objects of the expedition, for it was one of the things that +Hubbard had planned to do, was to locate the old trail, if possible. +To abandon the search for it now, and to follow the easier route, +seemed to me a surrender. + +On the other hand, should we not find game or fish and have delays +scouting for the trail, it would be necessary to go on short rations +before reaching Michikamau, for enough food must be held back to take +us out of the country in safety. + +In my present consideration of the situation it seemed to me highly +improbable that we could reach George River Post in season to connect +with the Hudson's Bay Company's steamer _Pelican_, which touches there +to land supplies about the middle of September, and that is the only +steamer that ever visits that Post. Not to connect with the _Pelican_ +would, therefore, mean imprisonment in the north for an entire year, or +a return around the coast by dog train in winter. The former of these +alternatives was out of the question; the latter would be impossible +with an encumbrance of four men, for dog teams and drivers in the early +winter are usually all away to the hunting grounds and hard to engage. +I therefore concluded that but one course was open to me. Three of the +men must be sent back and with a single companion I would push on to +Ungava. This, then, was the line of action I decided upon. + +Toward evening gathering clouds augured an early renewal of the storm, +and Stanton and I had just put up the stove in the tent in anticipation +of it when Pete and Easton, the latter thoroughly fagged out, came into +camp. + +"Well, Pete," I asked, "what luck?" + +"Find trail all right," he answered. "Can't follow him easy. Long +carry. First lake far, maybe eleven, twelve mile. Little ponds not +much good for canoe. Trail old. Not used long time. All time go up +hill." + +"Where's Richards?" I inquired, noticing his absence. + +"Left us about four miles back to take a short cut to the river and +follow it down to camp," said Easton. "He thought you might want to +know how it looked above, and perhaps keep on that way instead of +tackling the portage, for the trail's going to be mighty hard. It +looks as though the river would be better." + +We waited until near dark for Richards, but he did not come. Then we +ate our supper without him. + +The rain grew into a downpour and darkness came, but no Richards, and +at length I became alarmed for his safety. I pushed back the tent +flaps and peered out into the pitchy darkness and pouring rain. + +"He'll never get in to-night," I remarked. "No," said some one, "and +he'll have a hard time of it out there in the rain." There was nothing +to do but wait. Pete rummaged in his bag and produced a candle (we had +a dozen in our outfit), sharpened one end of a stick, split the other +end for two or three inches down, forced open the split end and set the +candle in it and stuck the sharpened end in the ground, all the while +working in the dark. Then he lit the candle. + +I do not know how long we had been sitting by the candle light and +putting forth all sorts of conjectures about Richards and his +uncomfortable position in the bush without cover and the probable +reasons for his failure to return, when the tent front opened and in he +came, as wet as though he had been in the river. + +"Well, Richards," I asked, when he was comfortably settled at his meal, +"what do you think of the river?" + +"The river!" he paused between mouthfuls to exclaim, "that's the only +thing within twenty miles that I didn't see. I've been looking for it +for four hours, but it kept changing its location and I never found it +till I struck camp just now." + +"Now, boys," said I, when all the pipes were going, "I've something to +say to you. Up to this time we've had no real hardships to meet. We've +had hard work, and it's been most trying at times, but there's been no +hardship to endure that might not be met with upon any journey in the +bush. If we go on we _shall_ have hardships, and perhaps, some pretty +severe ones. There'll soon be sleet and snow in the air, and cold days +and shivery nights, and the portages will be long and hard. On the +whole, there's been plenty to eat--not what we would have had at home, +perhaps, but good, wholesome grub--and we're all in better condition +and stronger than when we started, but flour and pork are getting low, +lentils and corn meal are nearly gone, and short rations, with hungry +days, are soon to come if we don't strike game, and you know how +uncertain that is. I cannot say what is before us, and I'm not going +to drag you fellows into trouble. I'm going to ask for one volunteer +to go on with me to Ungava with the small canoe, and let the rest +return from here with the other canoe and what grub they need to take +them out. Who wants to go home?" + +It came to them like a shock. Outside, the wind howled through the +trees and dashed the rain spitefully against the tent. The water +dripped through on us, and the candle flickered and sputtered and +almost went out. In the weird light I could see the faces of the men +work with emotion. For a moment no one spoke. Finally Richards, in a +tone of reproach that made me feel sorry for the very suggestion, +asked: "Do you think there's a quitter here?" + +The loyalty and grit of the men touched my heart. Not one of them +would think of leaving me. Nothing but a positive order would have +turned them back, and I decided to postpone our parting until we +reached Michikaumau at least, if it could be postponed so long +consistently with safety. + +The next day was Sunday, and it was spent in rest and in preparation +for our advance up the trail. The weather was damp and cheerless, with +rain falling intermittently throughout the day. + +To cover a possible retreat a cache was made near our camp of thirty +pounds of pemmican in tin cans and forty-five pounds of flour and some +tea in a waterproof bag. A hole was dug in the ground and the +provisions were deposited in it, then covered with stones as a +pro-tection from animals. + +By Monday morning the storm had gained new strength, and steadily and +pitilessly the rain fell, accompanied by a cold, northwest wind. + +What narrowly escaped being a serious accident occurred when we halted +that day for dinner. Easton was cutting firewood, when suddenly he +dropped the ax he was using with the exclamation "That fixes me!" He +had given himself what looked at first like an ugly cut near the shin +bone. Fortunately, however, upon examination, it proved to be only a +flesh wound and not sufficiently severe to interfere with his +traveling. Stanton dressed the cut. Our adhesive plaster we found had +become useless by exposure and electrician's tape was substituted for +it to draw the flesh together. + +On the evening of the second day after leaving the Nascaupee, our tent +was pitched upon the site of an extensive but ancient Indian camp +beside a mile-long lake, four hundred and fifty feet above the river. +Five ponds had been passed _en route_, but all of them so small it was +scarcely worth while floating the canoe in any of them. + +In these two days we had covered but eleven miles, but during the whole +time the wind had driven the rain in sweeping gusts into our faces and +made it impossible for a man, single-handed, to portage a canoe. Thus, +with two men to carry each canoe we had been compelled to make three +loads of our outfit, and this meant fifty-five miles actual walking, +and thirty-three miles of this distance with packs on our backs. The +weather conditions had made the work more than hard--it was +heartrending--as we toiled over naked hills, across marshes and +moraines, or through dripping brush and timber land. + +A beautiful afternoon, two days later, found us paddling down the first +lake worthy of mention since leaving the Nascaupee River. The azure +sky overhead shaded to a pearly blue at the horizon, with a fleecy +cloud or two floating lazily across its face. The atmosphere was +perfect in its purity, and only the sound of screeching gulls and the +dip of our paddles disturbed the quiet of the wilderness. Lake +Bibiquasin, as we shall call it, was five miles in length and nestled +between ridges of low, moss-covered hills. It lay in a southeasterly +and northwesterly direction, and rested upon the summit of a subsidiary +divide that we had been gradually ascending. A creek ran out of its +northwesterly end, flowing in that direction. + +Until now we had found the trail with little difficulty, but here we +were baffled. A search in the afternoon failed to uncover it, and we +were forced to halt, perplexed again as to our course. Camp was +pitched in a grove of spruces at the lower end of the lake. Not far +from us was an old hunting camp which Pete said was "most hundred years +old," and he was not far wrong in his estimate, for the frames upon +which the Indians had stretched skins and the tepee poles crumbled to +pieces when we touched them. + +Strange to say, not a fish of any description had been seen for several +days and not one could be induced to rise to fly or bait, and our net +was always empty now. Game, too, was scarce. There were no fresh +caribou tracks this side of the Nascaupee River, and but one duck and +one spruce partridge had been killed. The last bit of our venison was +eaten the day before. It was pretty badly spoiled and turning a little +green in color, but Pete washed it well several times and we all +avoided the lee side of the kettle while it was cooking. It was +pronounced "not so bad." + +Another day was lost on Lake Bibiquasin in an ineffectual hunt for the +trail. I scouted alone all day and in my wanderings came upon the +first ptarmigans of the trip and shot one of them with my rifle. The +others flew away. They wore their mottled summer coat, as it was still +too early for them to don their pure white dress of winter. + +During my scouting trip I also discovered the first ripe bake-apple +berries we had seen. This is a salmon-colored berry resembling in size +and shape the raspberry, and grows on a low plant like the strawberry. + +On Saturday morning, August nineteenth, the temperature was four +degrees below the freezing point, and the ground was stiff with frost. +In a further search on the north side of the lake opposite our camp we +found an old blaze and a trail leading from it along a ridge and +through marshes to a small lake. This was the only trail that we could +find anywhere, so we decided to follow it, though it did not bear all +the earmarks of the portage trail we had been tracing--it was decidedly +more ancient. We started our work with a will. It was a hard portage +and we sometimes sank knee deep into the marsh and got mired +frequently, but finally reached the lake. + +Indian signs now completely disappeared. Down the lake, where a creek +flowed out, was a bare hill, and Pete and I climbed it. From its +summit we could easily locate the creek taking a turn to the north and +then to the northeast and, finally, flowing into one of a series of +lakes extending in an easterly and westerly direction. The land was +comparatively flat to the eastward and the lakes no doubt fed a river +flowing out of that end, probably one of those that we had noted as +joining the Nascaupee on its north side. To the north of these lakes +were high, rugged ridges. It was possible there was an opening in the +hills to the westward, where they seemed lower; we could not tell from +where we were, but we determined to portage along the creek into the +lakes with that hope. + +Again the smoke of a forest fire hung in the valleys and over the +hills, and the air was heavy with the smell of it, which revived the +former uneasiness, but by the next day every trace of it had +disappeared. + +Another day found us afloat upon the first of the lakes. Several short +carries across necks of land took us from this lake into the one which +Pete and I had seen extending back to the ridges to the westward, and +which we shall call Lake Desolation. + +On the northern shore of Lake Desolation we stopped to climb a +mountain. A decided change in the features of the country had taken +place since leaving Lake Bibiquasin, and the low moss-covered hills had +given place to rough mountains of bare rock. To the northward from +where we stood nothing but higher mountains of similar formation met +our view--a great, rolling vista of bare, desolate rocks. To the +westward the country was not, perhaps, so rough, though there, too, in +the far distance could be discerned the tops of rugged hills breaking +the line of the horizon. Through a valley in that direction was +distinguishable, with a considerable interval between them, a string of +small lakes or ponds. This valley led up from the western end of Lake +Desolation, and there was no other possible place for the trail to +leave the lake. The valley was the only opening. + +Our mountain climbing had consumed a good part of an afternoon, and it +was evening when finally we reached the western end of the lake and +pitched our camp near a creek flowing in. As we paddled we tried our +trolls, but were not rewarded with a single strike. When camp was made +the net was stretched across the creek's mouth and we tried our rods in +the stream for trout, but our efforts were useless. No fish were +caught. + +The prospect for game had not improved, in fact was growing steadily +worse. We were now in a country that had been desolated by a forest +fire within four or five years. The moss under foot had not renewed +itself and where any of it remained at all, it was charred and black. +The trees were dead and the land harbored almost no life. It seemed to +me that even the fish had been scalded out of the water and the streams +had never restocked themselves. + +A thorough search was made for Indian signs, but there were absolutely +none. There was nothing to show that any human being had ever been +here before us. Back on Lake Bibiquasin we had lost the trail and now +on Lake Desolation we were far and hopelessly astray, with only the +compass to guide us. + +After supper the men sat around the camp fire, smoking and talking of +their friends at home, while I walked alone by the lake shore. It was +a wild scene that lay before me--the aurora, with its waves of changing +color flashing weirdly as they swept and lighted the sky, the dead +trees everywhere like skeletons gray and gaunt, the blazing camp fire +in the foreground, with the figures lying about it and the little white +tent in the background. Somewhere hidden in the depths of that vast +and silent wilderness to the westward lay Michikamau. + +There was no mark on the face of the earth to direct us on our road. We +must blaze a new trail up that valley and over those ridges that looked +so dark and forbidding in the uncertain light of the aurora. We must +find Michikamau. + + + +CHAPTER X + +"WE SEE MICHIKAMAU" + +"It's no use, Pete. You may as well go back to your blankets." + +It was the morning of the second day after reaching the lake which we +named Desolation. We had portaged through a valley and over a low +ridge to the shores of a pond, out of which a small stream ran to the +southeast. The country was devastated by fire and to the last degree +inhospitable. Not a green shrub over two feet in height was to be +seen, the trees were dead and blackened; not even the customary moss +covered the naked earth, and loose bowlders were scattered everywhere +about. + +There was no fixed trail now to look for or to guide us, but by keeping +a general westerly course, we knew that we must, sooner or later, reach +Michikamau. Rough, irregular ridges blocked our path and it was +necessary to look ahead that we might not become tangled up amongst +them. One hill, higher than the others, a solitary bailiff that +guarded the wilderness beyond, was to have been climbed this morning, +but when Pete and I at daybreak came out of the tent we were met by +driving rain and dashes of sleet that cut our faces, and a mist hung +over the earth so thick we could not even see across the tiny lake at +our feet. I looked longingly into the storm and mist in the direction +in which I knew the big hill lay, and realized the hopelessness and +foolhardiness of attempting to reach it. + +"It's no use, Pete," I continued, "to try to scout in this storm. You +could see nothing from the hill if you reached it, and the chances are, +with every landmark hidden, you couldn't find the tent again. I don't +want to lose you yet. Go back and sleep." + +Later in the morning to my great relief the weather cleared, and +Richards and Pete were at once dispatched to scout. We who remained +"at home," as we called our camp, found plenty of work to keep us +occupied. The bushes had ravaged our clothing to such an extent that +some of us were pretty ragged, and every halt was taken advantage of to +make much needed repairs. + +It was nearly dark when Richards and Pete came back. They had reached +the high hill and from its summit saw, some distance to the westward, +long stretches of water reaching far away to the hills in that +direction. A portage of several miles in which some small lakes +occurred would take us, they said, into a large lake. Beyond this they +could not see. + +Pete brought back with him a hatful of ripe currants which he stewed +and which proved a very welcome addition to our supper of corn-meal +mush. + +The report of water ahead made us happy. It was now August +twenty-third. If we could reach Michikamau by September first that +should give me ample time, I believed, to reach the George River before +the caribou migration would take place. + +The following morning we started forward with a will, and with many +little lakes to cross and short portages between them, we made fairly +good progress, and each lake took us one step higher on the plateau. + +The character of the country was changing, too. The naked land and +rocks and dead trees gave way to a forest of green spruce, and the +ground was again covered with a thick carpet of white caribou moss. + +We were catching no fish, however, although our efforts to lure them to +the hook or entangle them in the net were never relinquished. Pork was +a luxury, and no baker ever produced anything half so dainty and +delicious as our squaw bread. A strict distribution of rations was +maintained, and when the pork was fried, Pete, with a spoon, dished out +the grease into the five plates in equal shares. Into this the quarter +loaf ration of bread was broken and the mixture eaten to the last +morsel. Sometimes the men drank the warm pork grease clear. Finally it +became so precious that they licked their plates after scraping them +with their spoons, and the longing eyes that were cast at the frying +pan made me fear that some time a raid would be made on that. + +One day, an owl was shot and went into the pot to keep company with a +couple of partridges. Pete demurred. "Owl eat mice," said he. "Not +good man eat him. + +"You can count me out on owl, too," Richards volunteered. + +"Oh! they're all right," I assured them. "The Labrador people always +eat them and you'll find them very nice." + +"Not me. Owl eat mice," Pete insisted. + +"Well," I suggested, "possibly we'll be eating mice, too, before we get +home, and it's a good way to begin by eating owl--for then the mice +won't seem so bad when we have to eat them." + +Stanton took charge of the kettle and dished out the rations that night. + +"Partridge is good enough for me," said Richards, fearing that Stanton +might forget his prejudice against owl. + +"Me, too," echoed Pete. + +"I'll take owl," said I. + +Easton said nothing. + +After we had eaten, Stanton asked: "How'd you like the partridge, +Richards?" + +"It was fine," said he. "Guess it was a piece of a young one you gave +me, for it wasn't as tough as they usually are." + +"Maybe it was young, but that partridge was _owl_." "I'll be darned!" +exclaimed Richards. His face was a study for a moment, then he +laughed. "If that was owl they're all right and I'm a convert. I'll +eat all I can get after this." + +After leaving Lake Desolation the owls had begun to come to us, and +Richards was one of the best owl hunters of the party. At first one or +two a day were killed, but now whenever we halted an owl would fly into +a tree and twitter, and, with a very wise appearance, proceed to look +us over as though he wanted to find out what we were up to anyway, for +these owls were very inquisitive fellows. He immediately became a +candidate for our pot, and as many as six were shot in one day. The +men called them the "manna of the Labrador wilderness." Pete's +disinclination to eat them was quickly forgotten, for hunger is a +wonderful killer of prejudices, and he was as keen for them now as any +of us. + +An occasional partridge was killed and now and again a black duck or +two helped out our short ration, but the owls were our mainstay. We +did not have enough to satisfy the appetites of five hungry men, +however; still we did fairly well. + +The days were growing perceptibly shorter with each sunset, and the +nights were getting chilly. On the night of August twenty-fifth, the +thermometer registered a minimum temperature of twenty-five degrees +above zero, and on the twenty-sixth of August, forty-eight degrees was +the maximum at midday. + +During the forenoon of that day we reached the largest of the lakes +that the scouting party had seen three days before, and further +scouting was now necessary. At the western end of the lake, about two +miles from where we entered, a hill offered itself as a point from +which to view the country beyond, and here we camped. + +We were now out of the burned district and the scant growth of timber +was apparently the original growth, though none of the trees was more +than eight inches or so in diameter. In connection with this it might +be of interest to note here the fact that the timber line ended at an +elevation of two hundred and seventy-five feet above the lake. The +hill was four hundred feet high and there was not a vestige of +vegetation on its summit. The top of the hill was strewn with +bowlders, large and small, lying loose upon the clean, storm-scoured +bed rock, just as the glaciers had left them. + +What a view we had! To the northwest, to the west, and to the +southwest, for fifty miles in any direction was a network of lakes, and +the country was as level as a table. The men called it "the plain of a +thousand lakes," and this describes it well. To the far west a line of +blue hills extending to the northwest and southeast cut off our view +beyond. They were low, with but one high, conical peak standing out as +a landmark. Another ridge at right angles to this one ran to the +eastward, bounding the lakes on that side. I examined them carefully +through my binoculars and discovered a long line of water, like a +silver thread, following the ridge running eastward, and decided that +this must be the Nascaupee River, though later I was convinced that I +was mistaken and that the river lay to the southward of the ridge. To +the cast and north of our hill was an expanse of rolling, desolate +wilderness. Carefully I examined with my glass the great plain of +lakes, hoping that I might discover the smoke of a wigwam fire or some +other sign of life, but none was to be seen. It was as still and dead +as the day it was created. It was a solemn, awe-inspiring scene, +impressive beyond description, and one that I shall not soon forget. + +We outlined as carefully as possible the course that we should follow +through the maze of lakes, with the round peak as our objective point, +for just south of it there seemed to be an opening through the ridge: +beyond which we hoped lay Michikamau. + +The next day we portaged through a marsh and into the lake country and +made some progress, portaging from lake to lake across swampy and +marshy necks. It was Sunday, but we did not realize it until our day's +work was finished and we were snug in camp in the evening. + +Monday's dawn brought with it a day of superb loveliness. The sky was +cloudless, the earth was white with hoarfrost, the atmosphere was crisp +and cool, and we took deep breaths of it that sent the blood tingling +through our veins. It was a day that makes one love life. + +Through small lakes and short portages we worked until afternoon and +then--hurrah! we were on big water again. Thirty or forty miles in +length the lake stretched off to the westward to carry us on our way. +It was choked in places with many fir-topped islands, and the channels +in and out amongst these islands were innumerable, so Pete called it +Lake Kasheshebogamog, which in his language means "Lake of Many +Channels." + +As we paddled I dropped a troll and before we stopped for the night +landed a seven-pound namaycush, and another large one broke a troll. +The "Land of God's Curse" was behind us. We were with the fish again, +and caribou and wolf tracks were seen. + +The next day found us on our way early. A fine wind sent us spinning +before it and at the same time kept us busy with a rough sea that was +running on the wide, open lake when we were away from the shelter of +the islands. At one o'clock we boiled the kettle at the foot of a low +sand ridge, and upon climbing the ridge we found it covered with a mass +of ripe blueberries. We ate our fill and picked some to carry with us. + +At three o'clock we were brought up sharply at the end of the water +with no visible outlet. The nature of the lake and the lateness of the +season made it impracticable to turn back and look in other channels +for the connection with western waters. Former experience had taught +me that we might paddle around for a week before we found it, for these +were big waters. Five miles ahead was the high, round peak that we +were aiming for, and I had every confidence that from its top +Michikamau could be seen and a way to reach the big lake. I decided +that it must be climbed the next morning, and selected Pete and Easton +for the work. A fall the day before had given me a stiff knee, and it +was a bitter disappointment that I could not go myself, for I was +nervously anxious for a first view of Michikamau. However, I realized +that it was unwise to attempt the journey, and I must stay behind. + +That night Stanton made two roly-polies of the blueberries we picked in +the afternoon, boiling them in specimen bags, and we used the last of +our sugar for sauce. This, with coffee, followed a good supper of +boiled partridge and owl. It was like the old days when I was with +Hubbard. We were making good progress, our hopes ran high, and we must +feast. Pete's laughs, and songs and jokes added to our merriment. +Rain came, but we did not mind that. We sat by a big, blazing fire and +ate and enjoyed ourselves in spite of it. Then we went to the tent to +smoke and every one pronounced it the best night in weeks. + +On Wednesday rain poured down at the usual rising time and the men were +delayed in starting, for we were in a place where scouting in thick +weather was dangerous. It was the morning of the famous eclipse, but +we had forgotten the fact. The rain had fallen away to a drizzle and +we were eating a late breakfast when the darkness came. It did not last +long, and then the rain stopped, though the sky was still overcast. +Shortly after breakfast Pete and Easton left us. I gave Pete a new +corncob pipe as he was leaving. When he put it in his pocket he said, +"I smoke him when I see Michikaman, when I climb hill, if Michikamau +there. Sit down, me, look at big water, feel good then. Smoke pipe, +me, and call hill Corncob Hill." + +"All right," said I, laughing at Pete's fancy. "I hope the hill will +have a name to-day." + +It was really a day of anxiety for me, for if Michikamau were not +visible from the mountain top with the wide view of country that it +must offer, then we were too far away from the lake to hope to reach it. + +A mile from camp, Richards discovered a good-sized river flowing in +from the northwest and set the net in it. Then he and Stanton paddled +up the river a mile and a half to another lake, but did not explore it +farther. + +With what impatience I awaited the return of Pete and Easton can be +imagined, and when, near dusk, I saw them coming I almost dreaded to +hear their report, for what if they had not seen Michikamau? + +But they had seen Michikamau. When Pete was within talking distance of +me, he shouted exultantly, "We see him! We see him! We see +Michikamau!" + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE PARTING AT MICHIKAMAU + +Pete and Easton had taken their course through small, shallow, rocky +lakes until they neared the base of the round hill. Here the canoe was +left, and up the steep side of the hill they climbed. "When we most +up," Pete told me afterward, "I stop and look at Easton. My heart beat +fast. I most afraid to look. Maybe Michikamau not there. Maybe I see +only hills. Then I feel bad. Make me feel bad come back and tell you +Michikamau not there. I see you look sorry when I tell you that. Then +I think if Michikamau there you feel very good. I must know quick. I +run. I run fast. Hill very steep. I do not care. I must know soon +as I can, and I run. I shut my eyes just once, afraid to look. Then I +open them and look. Very close I see when I open my eyes much water. +Big water. So big I see no land when I look one way; just water. Very +wide too, that water. I know I see Michikamau. My heart beat easy and +I feel very glad. I almost cry. I remember corncob pipe you give me, +and what I tell you. I take pipe out my pocket. I fill him, and light +him. Then I sit on rock and smoke. All the time I look at Michikamau. +I feel good and I say, 'This we call Corncob Hill.'" + +And so we were all made glad and the conical peak had a name. + +Pete told me that we should have to cut the ridge to the south of +Corncob Hill, taking a rather wide detour to reach the place. A chain +of lakes would help us, but some long portages were necessary and it +would require several days' hard work. This we did not mind now. We +were only anxious to dip our paddles into the waters of the big lake. +At last Michikamau, which I had so longed to see through two summers of +hardship in the Labrador wilds, was near, and I could hope to be +rewarded with a look at it within the week. + +But with the joy of it there was also a sadness, for I must part from +three of my loyal companions. The condition of our commissariat and +the cold weather that was beginning to be felt made it imperative that +the men be sent back from the big lake. + +The possibility of this contingency had been foreseen by me before +leaving New York, and I had mentioned it at that time. Easton had +asked me then, if the situation would permit of it, to consider him as +a candidate to go through with me to Ungava. When the matter had been +suggested at the last camp on the Nascaupee River he had again +earnestly solicited me to choose him as my companion, and upon several +subsequent occasions had mentioned it. Richards was the logical man +for me to choose, for he had had experience in rapids, and could also +render me valuable assistance in the scientific work that the others +were not fitted for. He was exceedingly anxious to continue the +journey, but his university duties demanded his presence in New York in +the winter, and I had promised his people that he should return home in +the autumn. This made it out of the question to keep him with me, and +it was a great disappointment to both of us. That I might feel better +assured of the safety of the returning men, I decided to send Pete back +with them to act as their guide. Stanton, too, wished to go on, but +Easton had spoken first, so I decided to give him the opportunity to go +with me to Ungava, as my sole companion. + +That night, after the others had gone to bed, we two sat late by the +camp fire and talked the matter over. "It's a dangerous undertaking, +Easton," I said, "and I want you to understand thoroughly what you're +going into. Before we reach the George River Post we shall have over +four hundred miles of territory to traverse. We may have trouble in +locating the George River, and when we do find it there will be heavy +rapids to face, and its whole course will be filled with perils. If +any accident happens to either of us we shall be in a bad fix. For +that reason it's always particularly dangerous for less than three men +to travel in a country like this. Then there's the winter trip with +dogs. Every year natives are caught in storms, and some of them +perish. We shall be exposed to the perils and hardships of one of the +longest dog trips ever made in a single season, and we shall be +traveling the whole winter. I want you to understand this." + +"I do understand it," he answered, "and I'm ready for it. I want to go +on." + +And so it was finally settled. + +It was not easy for me to tell the men that the time had come when we +must part, for I realized how hard it would be for them to turn back. +The next morning after breakfast, I asked them to remain by the fire +and light their pipes. Then I told them. Richards' eyes filled with +tears. Stanton at first said he would not turn back without me, but +finally agreed with me that it was best he should. Pete urged me to +let him go on. Later he stole quietly into the tent, where I was alone +writing, and without a word sat opposite me, looking very woebegone. +After awhile he spoke: "To-day I feel very sad. I forget to smoke. My +pipe go out and I do not light it. I think all time of you. Very +lonely, me. Very bad to leave you." + +Here he nearly broke down, and for a little while he could not speak. +When he could control himself he continued: + +"Seems like I take four men in bush, lose two. Very bad, that. Don't +know how I see your sisters. I go home well. They ask me, 'Where my +brother?' I don't know. I say nothing. Maybe you die in rapids. +Maybe you starve. I don't know. I say nothing. Your sisters cry." +Then his tone changed from brokenhearted dejection to one of eager +pleading: + +"Wish you let me go with you. Short grub, maybe. I hunt. Much +danger; don't care, me. Don't care what danger. Don't care if grub +short. Maybe you don't find portage. Maybe not find river. That bad. +I find him. I take you through. I bring you back safe to your +sisters. Then I speak to them and they say I do right." + +It was hard to withstand Pete's pleadings, but my duty was plain, and I +said: + +"No, Pete. I'd like to take you through, but I've got to send you back +to see the others safely out. Tell my sisters I'm safe. Tell +everybody we're safe. I'm sure we'll get through all right. We'll do +our best, and trust to God for the rest, so don't worry. We'll be all +right." + +"I never think you do this," said he. "I don't think you leave me this +way." After a pause he continued, "If grub short, come back. Don't wait +too long. If you find Indian, then you all right. He help you. You +short grub, don't find Indian, that bad. Don't wait till grub all +gone. Come back." + +Pete did not sing that day, and he did not smoke. He was very sad and +quiet. + +We spent the day in assorting and dividing the outfit, the men making a +cache of everything that they would not need until their return, that +we might not be impeded in our progress to Michikamau. They would get +their things on their way back. Eight days, Pete said, would see them +from this point to the cache we had made on the Nascaupee, and only +eight days' rations would they accept for the journey. They were more +than liberal. Richards insisted that I take a new Pontiac shirt that +he had reserved for the cold weather, and Pete gave me a new pair of +larigans. They deprived themselves that we might be comfortable. +Easton and I were to have the tent, the others would use the tarpaulin +for a wigwam shelter; each party would have two axes, and the other +things were divided as best we could. Richards presented us with a +package that we were not to open until the sixteenth of September--his +birthday. It was a special treat of some kind. + +Some whitefish, suckers and one big pike were taken out of the net, +which was also left for them to pick up upon their return. A school of +large pike had torn great holes in it, but it was still useful. + +We were a sorrowful group that gathered around the fire that night. The +evening was raw. A cold north wind soughed wearily through the fir +tops. Black patches of clouds cast a gloom over everything, and there +was a vast indefiniteness to the dark spruce forest around us. I took a +flashlight picture of the men around the fire. Then we sat awhile and +talked, and finally went to our blankets in the chilly tent. + +September came with a leaden sky and cold wind, but the clouds were +soon dispelled, and the sun came bright and warm. Our progress was +good, though we had several portages to make. On September second, at +noon, we left the larger canoe for the men to get on their way back, +and continued with the eighteen-foot canoe, which, with its load of +outfit and five men, was very deep in the water, but no wind blew and +the water was calm. + +Here the character of the lakes changed. The waters were deep and +black, the shores were steep and rocky, and some labradorite was seen. +One small, curious island, evidently of iron, though we did not stop to +examine it, took the form of a great head sticking above the water, +with the tops of the shoulders visible. + +Sunday, September third, was a memorable day, a day that I shall never +forget while I live. The morning came with all the glories of a +northern sunrise, and the weather was perfect. After two short +portages and two small lakes were crossed, Pete said, "Now we make last +portage and we reach Michikamau." It was not a long portage--a half +mile, perhaps. We passed through a thick-grown defile, Pete ahead, and +I close behind him. Presently we broke through the bush and there +before us was the lake. We threw down our packs by the water's edge. +_We had reached Michikamau._ I stood uncovered as I looked over the +broad, far-reaching waters of the great lake. I cannot describe my +emotions. I was living over again that beautiful September day two +years before when Hubbard had told me with so much joy that he had seen +the big lake--that Michikamau lay just beyond the ridge. Now I was on +its very shores--the shores of the lake that we had so longed to reach. +How well I remembered those weary wind-bound days, and the awful weeks +that followed. It was like the recollection of a horrid dream--his +dear, wan face, our kiss and embrace, my going forth into the storm and +the eternity of horrors that was crowded into days. Pete, I think, +understood, for he had heard the story. He stood for a moment in +silence, then he fashioned his hat brim into a cup, and dipping some +water handed it to me. "You reach Michikamau at last. Drink +Michikamau water before others come." I drank reverently from the hat. +Then the others joined us and we all stood for a little with bowed +uncovered beads, on the shore. + +Our camp was pitched on an elevated, rocky point a few hundred yards +farther up--the last camp that we were to have together, and the +forty-sixth since leaving Northwest River. We had made over half a +hundred portages, and traveled about three hundred and twenty-five +miles. + +The afternoon was occupied in writing letters and telegrams to the home +folks, for Richards to take out with him; after which we divided the +food. Easton and I were to take with us seventy-eight pounds of +pemmican, twelve pounds of pea meal, seven pounds of pork, some beef +extract, eight pounds of flour, one cup of corn meal, a small quantity +of desiccated vegetables, one pound of coffee, two pounds of tea, some +salt and crystallose. Richards gave us nearly all of his tobacco, and +Pete kept but two plugs for himself. + +Toward evening we gathered about our fire, and talked of our parting +and of the time when we should meet again. Every remaining moment we +had of each other's company was precious to us now. + +The day had been glorious and the night was one of rare beauty. We +built a big fire of logs, and by its light I read aloud, in accordance +with our custom on Sunday nights, a chapter from the Bible. After this +we talked for a while, then sat silent, gazing into the glowing embers +of our fire. Finally Pete began singing softly, "Home, Sweet Home" in +Indian, and followed it with an old Ojibway song, "I'm Going Far Away, +My Heart Is Sore." Then he sang an Indian hymn, "Pray For Me While I +Am Gone." When his hymn was finished he said, very reverently, "I +going pray for you fellus every day when I say my prayers. I can't +pray much without my book, but I do my best. I pray the best I can for +you every day." Pete's devotion was sincere, and I thanked him. +Stanton sang a solo, and then all joined in "Auld Lang Syne." After +this Pete played softly on the harmonica, while we watched the moon +drop behind the horizon in the west. The fire burned out and its +embers blackened. Then we went to our bed of fragrant spruce boughs, +to prepare for the day of our parting. + +The morning of September fourth was clear and beautiful and perfect, +but in spite of the sunshine and fragrance that filled the air our +hearts were heavy when we gathered at our fire to eat the last meal +that we should perhaps ever have together. + +When we were through, I read from my Bible the fourteenth of John--the +chapter that I had read to Hubbard that stormy October morning when we +said good-by forever. + +The time of our parting had come. I do not think I had fully realized +before how close my bronzed, ragged boys had grown to me in our months +of constant companionship. A lump came in my throat, and the tears +came to the eyes of Richards and Pete, as we grasped each other's hands. + +Then we left them. Easton and I dipped our paddles into the water, and +our lonely, perilous journey toward the dismal wastes beyond the +northern divide was begun. Once I turned to see the three men, with +packs on their backs, ascending the knoll back of the place where our +camp had been. When I looked again they were gone. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +OVER THE NORTHERN DIVIDE + +Michikamau is approximately between eighty and ninety miles in length, +including the unexplored southeast bay, and from eight to twenty-five +miles in width. It is surrounded by rugged hills, which reach an +elevation of about five hundred feet above the lake. They are +generally wooded for perhaps two hundred feet from the base, with black +spruce, larch, and an occasional small grove of white birch. Above the +timber line their tops are uncovered save by white lichens or stunted +shrubs. The western side of the lake is studded with low islands, but +its main body is unobstructed. The water is exceedingly clear, and is +said by the Indians to have a great depth. The shores are rocky, +sometimes formed of massive bed rock in which is found the beautifully +colored labradorite; sometimes strewn with loose bowlders. Our entrance +had been made in a bay several miles north of the point where the +Nascaupee River, its outlet, leaves the lake and we kept to the east +side as we paddled north. + +No artist's imaginative brush ever pictured such gorgeous sunsets and +sunrises as Nature painted for us here on the Great Lake of the +Indians. Every night the sun went down in a blaze of glory and left +behind it all the colors of the spectrum. The dark hills across the +lake in the west were silhouetted against a sky of brilliant red which +shaded off into banks of orange and amber that reached the azure at the +zenith. The waters of the lake took the reflection of the red at the +horizon and became a flood of restless blood. The sky colorings during +these few days were the finest that I ever saw in Labrador, not only in +the evening but in the morning also. + +Michikamau has a bad name amongst the Indians for heavy seas, +particularly in the autumn months when the northwest gales sometimes +blow for weeks at a time without cessation, and the Indians say that +they are often held on its shores for long periods by high running seas +that no canoe could weather. These were the same winds that held +Hubbard and me prisoners for nearly two weeks on the smaller Windbound +Lake in 1903, bringing us to the verge of starvation before we were +permitted to begin our race for life down the trail toward Northwest +River. Fate was kinder now, and but one day's rough water interfered +with progress. + +Early on the third day after parting from the other men, we found +ourselves at the end of Michikamau where a shallow river, in which +large bowlders were thickly scattered, flowed into it from the north. +This was the stream draining Lake Michikamats, the next important point +in our journey. Michikamau, it might be explained, means, in the +Indian tongue, big water--so big you cannot see the land beyond; +Michikamats means a smaller body of water beyond which land may be +seen. So somebody has paradoxically defined it "a little big lake." + +Barring a single expansion of somewhat more than a mile in length the +Michakamats River, which runs through a flat, marshy and uninteresting +country, was too shallow to float our canoes, and we were compelled to +portage almost its entire length. + +In the wide marshes between these two lakes we met the first evidences +of the great caribou migration. The ground was tramped like a +barnyard, in wide roads, by vast herds of deer, all going to the +eastward. There must have been thousands of them in the bands. Most +of the hoof marks were not above a day or two old and had all been made +since the last rain had fallen, as was evidenced by freshly turned +earth and newly tramped vegetation. We saw none of the animals, +however, and there were no hills near from which we might hope to sight +the herds. + +Evidences of life were increasing and game was becoming abundant as we +approached the height of land. Some geese and ptarmigans were killed +and a good many of both kinds of birds were seen, as well as some +ducks. We began to live in plenty now and the twittering owls were +permitted to go unmolested. + +Lake Michikamats is irregular in shape, about twenty miles long, and, +exclusive of its arms, from two to six miles wide. The surrounding +country is flat and marshy, with some low, barren hills on the westward +side of the lake. The timber growth in the vicinity is sparse and +scrubby, consisting of spruce and tamarack. The latter had now taken +on its autumnal dress of yellow, and, interspersing the dark green of +the spruce, gave an exceedingly beautiful effect to the landscape. + +Where we entered Michikamats, at its outlet, the lake is very shallow +and filled with bowlders that stand high above the water. A quarter of +a mile above this point the water deepens, and farther up seems to have +a considerable depth, though we did not sound it. The western shore of +the upper half is lined with low islands scantily covered with spruce +and tamarack. + +During two days that we spent here in a thorough exploration of the +lake, our camp was pitched on an island at the bottom of a bay that, +half way up the lake, ran six miles to the northward. This was +selected as the most likely place for the portage trail to leave the +lake, as the island had apparently, for a long period, been the regular +rendezvous of Indians, not only in summer, but also in winter. Tepee +poles of all ages, ranging from those that were old and decayed to +freshly cut ones, were numerous. They were much longer and thicker +than those used by the Indians south of Michikamau. Here, also, was a +well-built log cache, a permanent structure, which was, no doubt, +regularly used by hunting parties. Some new snowshoe frames were +hanging on the trees to season before being netted with babiche. On +the lake shore were some other camping places that had been used within +a few months, and at one of them a newly made "sweat hole," where the +medicine man had treated the sick. These sweat holes are much in favor +with the Labrador Indians, both Mountaineers and Nascaupees. They are +about two feet in depth and large enough in circumference for a man to +sit in the center, surrounded by a circle of good-sized bowlders. +Small saplings are bent to form a dome-shaped frame for the top. The +invalid is placed in the center of this circle of bowlders, which have +previously been made very hot, water is poured on them to produce +steam, and a blanket thrown over the sapling frame to confine the +steam. The Indians have great faith in this treatment as a cure for +almost every malady. + +On the mainland opposite the island upon which we were encamped was a +barren hill which we climbed, and which commanded a view of a large +expanse of country. On the top was a small cairn and several places +where fires had been made--no doubt Indian signal fires. The fuel for +them must have been carried from the valley below, for not a stick or +bush grew on the hill itself. "Signal Hill," as we called it, is the +highest elevation for many miles around and a noticeable landmark. + +To the northward, at our feet, were two small lakes, and just beyond, +trending somewhat to the northwest, was a long lake reaching up through +the valley until it was lost in the low hills and sparse growth of +trees beyond. Great bowlders were strewn indiscriminately everywhere, +and the whole country was most barren and desolate. To the south of +Michikamats was the stretch of flat swamp land which extended to +Michikaman. Petscapiskau, a prominent and rugged peak on the west +shore of Michikamau near its upper end, stood out against the distant +horizon, a lone sentinel of the wilderness. + +The head waters of the George River must now be located. There was +nothing to guide me in the search, and the Indians at Northwest River +had warned us that we were liable at this point to be led astray by an +entanglement of lakes, but I felt certain that any water flowing +northward that we might come to, in this longitude, would either be the +river itself or a tributary of it, and that some such stream would +certainly be found as soon as the divide was crossed. + +With this object in view we kept a course nearly due north, passing +through four good-sized lakes, until, one afternoon, at the end of a +short portage, we reached a narrow, shallow lake lying in an easterly +and westerly direction, whose water was very clear and of a +bottle-green color, in marked contrast to that of the preceding lakes, +which had been of a darker shade. + +This peculiarity of the water led me to look carefully for a current +when our canoe was launched, and I believed I noticed one. Then I +fancied I heard a rapid to the westward. Easton said there was no +current and he could not hear a rapid, and to satisfy myself, we +paddled toward the sound. We had not gone far when the current became +quite perceptible, and just above could be seen the waters of a brook +that fed the lake, pouring down through the rocks. We were on the +George River at last! Our feelings can be imagined when the full +realization of our good fortune came to us, and we turned our canoe to +float down on the current of the little stream that was to grow into a +mighty river as it carried us on its turbulent bosom toward Ungava Bay. + +The course of the stream here was almost due east. The surrounding +country continued low and swampy. Tamarack was the chief timber and +much of it was straight and fine, with some trees fully twelve inches +in diameter at the butt, and fifty feet in height. + +A rocky, shallow place in the river that we had to portage brought us +into an expansion of considerable size, and here we pitched our first +camp on the George River. This was an event that Hubbard had planned +and pictured through the weary weeks of hardship on the Susan Valley +trail and the long portages across the ranges in his expedition of 1903. + +"When we reach the George River, we'll meet the Indians and all will be +well," he used to say, and how anxiously we looked forward for that +day, which never came. + +At the time when he made the suggestion to turn back from Windbound +Lake I at first opposed it on the ground that we could probably reach +the George River, where game would be found and the Indians would be +met with, in much less time than it would take to make the retreat to +Northwest River. Finally I agreed that it was best to return. On the +twenty-first of September the retreat was begun and Hubbard died on the +eighteenth of October. Now, two years later, I realized that from +Windbound Lake we could have reached Michikamau in five or six days at +the very outside, and less than two weeks, allowing for delays through +bad weather and our weakened condition, would have brought us to the +George River, where, at that time of the year, ducks and ptarmigans are +always plentiful. All these things I pondered as I sat by this camp +fire, and I asked myself, "Why is it that when Fate closes our eyes she +does not lead us aright?" Of course it is all conjecture, but I feel +assured that if Hubbard and I had gone on then instead of turning back, +Hubbard would still be with us. + +Below the expansion on which our first camp on the river was pitched +the stream trickled through the thickly strewn rocks in a wide bed, +where it took a sharp turn to the northward and emptied into another +expansion several miles in length, with probably a stream joining it +from the northeast, though we were unable to investigate this, as high +winds prevailed which made canoeing difficult, and we had to content +ourselves with keeping a direct course. + +It seemed as though with the crossing of the northern divide winter had +come. On the night we reached the George River the temperature fell to +ten degrees below the freezing point, and the following day it never +rose above thirty-five degrees, and a high wind and snow squalls +prevailed that held traveling in check. On the morning of the +fifteenth we started forward in the teeth of a gale and the snow so +thick we could not see the shore a storm that would be termed a +"blizzard" in New York--and after two hours' hard work were forced to +make a landing upon a sandy point with only a mile and a quarter to our +credit. + +Here we found the first real butchering camp of the Indians--a camp of +the previous spring. Piles of caribou bones that had been cracked to +extract the marrow, many pairs of antlers, the bare poles of large +lodges and extensive arrangements, such as racks and cross poles for +dressing and curing deerskins. In a cache we found two muzzle-loading +guns, cooking utensils, steel traps, and other camping and hunting +paraphernalia. + +On the portage around the last shallow rapid was a winter camp, where +among other things was a _komatik_ (dog sledge), showing that some of +these Indians at least on the northern barrens used dogs for winter +traveling. In the south of Labrador this would be quite out of the +question, as there the bush is so thick that it does not permit the +snow to drift and harden sufficiently to bear dogs, and the use of the +komatik is therefore necessarily confined to the coast or near it. The +Indian women there are very timid of the "husky" dogs, and the animals +are not permitted near their camps. + +The sixteenth of September--the day we passed through this large +expansion--was Richards' birthday. When we bade good-by to the other +men it was agreed that both parties should celebrate the day, wherever +they might be, with the best dinner that could be provided from our +respective stores. The meal was to be served at exactly seven o'clock +in the evening, that we might feel on this one occasion that we were +all sitting down to eat together, and fancy ourselves reunited. In the +morning we opened the package that Richards gave us, and found in it a +piece of fat pork and a quart of flour, intended for a feast of our +favorite "darn goods." With self-sacrificing generosity he had taken +these from the scanty rations they had allowed themselves for their +return that we might have a pleasant surprise. With the now plentiful +game this made it possible to prepare what seemed to us a very +elaborate menu for the wild wastes of interior Labrador. First, there +was bouillon, made from beef capsules; then an entr'ee of fried +ptarmigan and duck giblets; a roast of savory black duck, with spinach +(the last of our desiccated vegetables); and for dessert French toast +_'a la Labrador_ (alias darn goods), followed by black coffee. When it +was finished we spent the evening by the camp fire, smoking and talking +of the three men retreating down our old trail, and trying to calculate +at which one of the camping places they were bivouacked. Every night +since our parting this had been our chief diversion, and I must confess +that with each day that took us farther away from them an increased +loneliness impressed itself upon us. Solemn and vast was the great +silence of the trackless wilderness as more and more we came to realize +our utter isolation from all the rest of the world and all mankind. + +The marsh and swamp land gradually gave way to hills, which increased +in size and ruggedness as we proceeded. We had found the river at its +very beginning, and for a short way portages, as has been suggested, +had to be made around shallow places, but after a little, as other +streams augmented the volume of water, this became unnecessary, and as +the river grew in size it became a succession of rapids, and most of +them unpleasant ones, that kept us dodging rocks all the while. + +Mr. A. P. Low, of the Canadian Geological Survey, in other parts of the +Labrador interior found black ducks very scarce. This was not our +experience. From the day we entered the George River until we were +well down the stream they were plentiful, and we shot what we needed +without turning our canoe out of its course to hunt them. This is +apparently a breeding ground for them. + +Several otter rubs were noted, and we saw some of the animals, but did +not disturb them. In places where the river broadened out and the +current was slack every rock that stuck above the water held its +muskrat house, and large numbers of the rats were seen. + +After the snow we had one or two fine, bright days, but they were +becoming few now, and the frosty winds and leaden skies, the +forerunners of winter, were growing more and more frequent. When the +bright days did come they were exceptional ones. I find noted in my +diary one morning: "This is a morning for the gods--a morning that +could scarcely be had anywhere in the world but in Labrador--a +cloudless sky, no breath of wind, the sun rising to light the heavy +hoarfrost and make it glint and sparkle till every tree and bush and +rock seems made of shimmering silver." + +One afternoon as we were passing through an expansion and I was +scanning, as was my custom, every bit of shore in the hope of +discovering a wigwam smoke, I saw, running down the side of a hill on +an island a quarter of a mile away, a string of Indians waving wildly +at us and signaling us to come ashore. After twelve weeks, in which +not a human being aside from our own party had been seen, we had +reached the dwellers of the wilderness, and with what pleasure and +alacrity we accepted the invitation to join them can be imagined. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +DISASTER IN THE RAPIDS + +It was a hunting party--four men and a half-grown boy--with two canoes +and armed with rifles. The Indians gave us the hearty welcome of the +wilderness and received us like old friends. First, the chief, whose +name was Toma, shook our hand, then the others, laughing and all +talking at once in their musical Indian tongue. It was a welcome that +said: "You are our brothers. You have come far to see us, and we are +glad to have you with us." + +After the first greetings were over they asked for _stemmo,_ and I gave +them each a plug of tobacco, for that is what stemmo means. They had +no pipes with them, so I let them have two of mine, and it did my heart +good to see the look of supreme satisfaction that crept into each dusky +face as its possessor inhaled in long, deep pulls the smoke of the +strong tobacco. It was like the food that comes to a half-starved man. +After they had had their smoke, passing the pipes from mouth to mouth, +I brought forth our kettle. In a jiffy they had a fire, and I made tea +for them, which they drank so scalding hot it must have burned their +throats. They told us they had had neither tea nor tobacco for a long +while, and were very hungry for both. These are the stimulants of the +Labrador Indians, and they will make great sacrifices to secure them. + +All the time that this was taking place we were jabbering, each in his +own tongue, neither we nor they understanding much that the other said. +I did make out from them that we were the first white men that had ever +visited them in their hunting grounds and that they were glad to see us. + +Accepting an invitation to visit their lodges and escorted by a canoe +on either side of ours, we finally turned down stream and, three miles +below, came to the main camp of the Indians, which was situated, as +most of their hunting camps are, on a slight eminence that commanded a +view of the river for several miles in either direction, that watch +might be constantly kept for bands of caribou. + +We were discovered long before we arrived at the lodges, and were met +by the whole population--men, women, children, dogs, and all. Our +reception was tumultuous and cordial. It was a picturesque group. The +swarthy-faced men, lean, sinewy and well built, with their long, +straight black hair reaching to their shoulders, most of them hatless +and all wearing a red bandanna handkerchief banded across the forehead, +moccasined feet and vari-colored leggings; the women quaint and odd; +the eager-faced children; little hunting dogs, and big wolf-like +huskies. + +All hands turned to and helped us carry our belongings to the camp, +pitch our tent and get firewood for our stove. Then the men squatted +around until eleven of them were with us in our little seven by nine +tent, while all the others crowded as near to the entrance as they +could. I treated everybody to hot tea. The men helped themselves +first, then passed their cups on to the women and children. The used +tea leaves from the kettle were carefully preserved by them to do +service again. The eagerness with which the men and women drank the +tea and smoked the tobacco aroused my sympathies, and I distributed +amongst them all of these that I could well spare from our store. In +appreciation of my gifts they brought us a considerable quantity of +fresh and jerked venison and smoked fat; and Toma, as a special mark of +favor presented me with a deer's tongue which had been cured by some +distinctive process unlike anything I had ever eaten before, and it was +delicious indeed, together with a bladder of refined fat so clear that +it was almost transparent. + +The encampment consisted of two deerskin wigwams. One was a large one +and oblong in shape, the other of good size but round. The smaller +wigwam was heated by a single fire in the center, the larger one by +three fires distributed at intervals down its length. Chief Toma +occupied, with his family, the smaller lodge, while the others made +their home in the larger one. + +This was a band of Mountaineer Indians who trade at Davis Inlet Post of +the Hudson's Bay Company, on the east coast, visiting the Post once or +twice a year to exchange their furs for such necessaries as ammunition, +clothing, tobacco and tea. Unlike their brothers on the southern +slope, they have not accustomed themselves to the use of flour, sugar +and others of the simplest luxuries of civilization, and their food is +almost wholly flesh, fish and berries. They live in the crude, +primordial fashion of their forefathers. To aid them in their hunt +they have adopted the breech-loading rifle and muzzle-loading shotgun, +but the bow and arrow has still its place with them and they were +depending wholly upon this crude weapon for hunting partridges and +other small game now, as they had no shotgun ammunition. The boys were +constantly practicing with it while at play and were very expert in its +use. + +These Indians are of medium height, well built, sinewy and strong, +alert and quick of movement. The women are generally squatty and fat, +and the greater a woman's avoirdupois the more beautiful is she +considered. + +All the Mountaineer Indians of Labrador are nominally Roman Catholics. +Those in the south are quite devoted to their priest, and make an +effort to meet him at least once a year and pay their tithes, but here +in the north this is not the case. In fact some of these people had +seen their priest but once in their life and some of the younger ones +had never seen him at all. Therefore they are still living under the +influence of the ancient superstitions of their race, though the women +are all provided with crucifixes and wear them on their breasts as +ornaments. + +They are perfectly honest. Indians, until they become contaminated by +contact with whites, always are honest. It is the white man that +teaches them to steal, either by actually pilfering from the ignorant +savage, or by taking undue advantage of him in trade. Human nature is +the same everywhere, and the Indian will, when he finds he is being +taken advantage of and robbed, naturally resent it and try to "get +even." Our things were left wholly unguarded, and were the object of a +great deal of curiosity and admiration, not only our guns and +instruments, but nearly everything we had, and were handled and +inspected by our hosts, but not the slightest thing was filched. No +Labrador Indian north of the Grand River will ever disturb a cache +unless driven to it by the direst necessity, and even then will leave +something in payment for what he takes. + +We told them of the evidences we had seen of the caribou migration +having taken place between Michikamau and Michikamats, and they were +mightily interested. They had missed it but were, nevertheless, +meeting small bands of caribou and making a good killing, as the +quantities of meat hanging everywhere to dry for winter use bore +evidence. The previous winter, they told us, was a hard one with them. +Reindeer and ptarmigan disappeared, and before spring they were on the +verge of starvation. + +Our visit was made the occasion of a holiday and they devoted +themselves wholly to our entertainment, and I believe were genuinely +sorry when, on the afternoon after our arrival, I announced my decision +to break camp and proceed. They helped us get ready, drew a rough +sketch of the river so far as they knew it, and warned us to look out +for numerous rapids and some high falls around which there was a +portage trail. Farther on, they said, the river was joined by another, +and then it became a "big, big river," and for two days' journey was +good. Beyond that it was reported to be very bad. They had never +traveled it, because they heard it was so bad, and they could not tell +us, from their own knowledge, what it was like, but repeated the +warning, "Shepoo matchi, shepoo matchi" (River bad), and told us to +look out. + +When we were ready to go, as a particular mark of good feeling, they +brought us parting gifts of smoked deer's fat and were manifestly in +earnest in their urgent invitations to us to come again. The whole +encampment assembled at the shore to see us off and, as our canoes +pushed out into the stream, the men pitched small stones after us as a +good luck omen. If the stones hit you good luck is assured. You will +have a good hunt and no harm will come to you. None of the stones +happened to hit us. We could see the group waving at us until we +rounded the point of land upon which the lodges stood; then the men all +appeared on the other side of the point, where they had run to watch us +until we disappeared around a bend in the river below, as we passed on +to push our way deeper and deeper into the land of silence and mystery. + +The following morning brought us into a lake expansion some twelve +miles long and two miles or so in width, with a great many bays and +arms which were extremely confusing to us in our search for the place +where the river left it. The lower end was blocked with islands, and +innumerable rocky bars, partially submerged, extended far out into the +water. A strong southwest wind sent heavy rollers down the lake. Low, +barren hills skirted the shores. + +Early in the afternoon we turned into a bay where I left Easton with +the canoe while I climbed one of the barren knolls. I had scarcely +reached the summit when I heard a rifle shot, and then, after a pause, +three more in quick succession. There were four cartridges in my +rifle. I ran down to the canoe where I found Easton in wild +excitement, waving the gun and calling for cartridges, and half-way +across the bay saw the heads of two caribou swimming toward the +opposite shore. I loaded the magazine and sat down to wait for the +animals to land. + +When the first deer got his footing and showed his body above the water +three hundred and fifty yards away, I took him behind the shoulder. He +dropped where he stood. The other animal stopped to look at his +comrade, and a single bullet, also behind his shoulder, brought him +down within ten feet of where he had stood when he was hit. I mention +this to show the high efficiency of the .33 Winchester. At a +comparatively long range two bullets had killed two caribou on the spot +without the necessity of a chase after wounded animals, and one bullet +had passed from behind the shoulder, the length of the neck, into the +head and glancing downward had broken the jaw. + +I desired to make a cache here that we might have something to fall +back upon in case our retreat should become necessary, and four days +were employed in fixing up the meat and preparing the cache, and this +gave us also sufficient time, in spite of continuous heavy wind and +rain, to thoroughly explore the lake and its bays. An ample supply of +the fresh venison was reserved to carry with us. + +We now had on hand, exclusive of the pemmican and other rations still +remaining, and the meat cached, eight weeks' provisions, with plenty of +ducks and ptarmigans everywhere, and there seemed to be no further +danger from lack of food. + +One day, while we were here, five caribou tarried for several minutes +within two hundred yards of us and then sauntered off without taking +alarm, and later the same day another was seen at closer range; but we +did not need them and permitted them to go unmolested. + +From a hill near this bay, where we killed the deer, on the eastern +side of the lake, we discovered a trail leading off toward a string of +lakes to the eastward. This is undoubtedly the portage trail which the +Indians follow in their journeys to the Post at Davis Inlet. Toma had +told me we might see it here, and that, not far in, on one of these +lakes was another Indian camp. + +An inordinate craving for fat takes possession of every one after a +little while in the bush. We had felt it, and now, with plenty, +overindulged, with the result that we were attacked with illness, and +for a day or two I was almost too sick to move. + +The morning we left Atuknipi, or Reindeer Lake, as we shall call the +expansion, a blinding snowstorm was raging, with a strong head wind. +Several rapids were run though it was extremely dangerous work, for at +times we could scarcely see a dozen yards ahead. At midday the snow +ceased, but the wind increased in velocity until finally we found it +quite out of the question to paddle against it, and were forced to +pitch camp on the shores of a small expansion and under the lee of a +hill. For two days the gale blew unceasingly and held us prisoners in +our camp. The waves broke on the rocky shores, sending the spray fifty +feet in the air and, freezing on the surrounding bowlders, covered them +with a glaze of ice. I cannot say what the temperature was, for on the +day of our arrival here my last thermometer was broken; but with half a +foot of snow on the ground, the freezing spray and the bitter cold +wind, we were warned that winter was reaching out her hand toward +Labrador and would soon hold us in her merciless grasp. This made me +chafe under our imprisonment, for I began to fear that we should not +reach the Post before the final freeze-up came, and further travel by +canoe would be out of the question. On the morning of September +twenty-ninth, the wind, though still blowing half a gale in our faces, +had so much abated that we were able to launch our canoe and continue +our journey. + +It was very cold. The spray froze as it struck our clothing, the canoe +was weighted with ice and our paddles became heavy with it. We ran one +or two short rapids in safety and then started into another that ended +with a narrow strip of white water with a small expansion below. We +had just struck the white water, going at a good speed in what seemed +like a clear course, when the canoe, at its middle, hit a submerged +rock. Before there was time to clear ourselves the little craft swung +in the current, and the next moment I found myself in the rushing, +seething flood rolling down through the rocks. + +When I came to the surface I was in the calm water below the rapid and +twenty feet away was the canoe, bottom up, with Easton clinging to it, +his clothing fast on a bolt under the canoe. I swam to him and, while +he drew his hunting knife and cut himself loose, steadied the canoe. We +had neglected--and it was gross carelessness in us--to tie our things +fast, and the lighter bags and paddles were floating away while +everything that was heavy had sunk beyond hope of recovery. The +thwarts, however, held fast in the overturned canoe a bag of pemmican, +one other small bag, the tent and tent stove. Treading water to keep +ourselves afloat we tried to right the canoe to save these, but our +efforts were fruitless. The icy water so benumbed us we could scarcely +control our limbs. The tracking line was fast to the stern thwart, and +with one end of this in his teeth, Easton swam to a little rocky island +just below the rapid and hauled while I swam by the canoe and steadied +the things under the thwarts. It took us half an hour to get the canoe +ashore, and we could hardly stand when he had it righted and the water +emptied out. + +Then I looked for wood to build a fire, for I knew that unless we could +get artificial heat immediately we would perish with the cold, for the +very blood in our veins was freezing. Not a stick was there nearer +than an eighth of a mile across the bay. Our paddles were gone, but we +got into the canoe and used our hands for paddles. By the time we +landed Easton had grown very pale. He began picking and clutching +aimlessly at the trees. The blood had congealed in my hands until they +were so stiff as to be almost useless. I could not guide them to the +trousers pocket at first where I kept my waterproof match-box. Finally +I loosened my belt and found the matches, and with the greatest +difficulty managed to get one between my benumbed fingers, and +scratched it on the bottom of the box. The box was wet and the match +head flew off. Everything was wet. Not a dry stone even stuck above +the snow. I tried another match on the box, but, like the first, the +head flew off, and then another and another with the same result. +Under ordinary circumstances I could have secured a light somehow and +quickly, but now my hands and fingers were stiff as sticks and refused +to grip the matches firmly. I worked with desperation, but it seemed +hopeless. Easton's face by this time had taken on the waxen shade that +comes with death, and he appeared to be looking through a haze. His +senses were leaving him. I saw something must be done at once, and I +shouted to him: "Run! run! Easton, run!" Articulation was difficult, +and I did not know my own voice. It seemed very strange and far away +to me. We tried to run but had lost control of our legs and both fell +down. With an effort I regained my feet but fell again when I tried to +go forward. My legs refused to carry me. I crawled on my hands and +knees in the snow for a short distance, and it was all I could do to +recover my feet. Easton had now lost all understanding of his +surroundings. He was looking into space but saw nothing. He was +groping blindly with his hands. He did not even know that he was cold. +I saw that only a fire could save his life, and perhaps mine, and that +we must have it quickly, and made one more superhuman effort with the +matches. One after another I tried them with the same result as before +until but three remained. All depended upon those three matches. The +first one flickered for a moment and my hopes rose, but my poor +benumbed fingers refused to hold it and it fell into the snow and went +out. The wind was drying the box bottom. I tried another--an old +sulphur match, I remember. It burned! I applied it with the greatest +care to a handful of the hairy moss that is found under the branches +next the trunk of spruce trees, and this ignited. Then I put on small +sticks, nursing the blaze with the greatest care, adding larger sticks +as the smaller ones took fire. I had dropped on my knees and could +reach the sticks from where I knelt, for there was plenty of dead wood +lying about. As the blaze grew I rose to my feet and, dragging larger +wood, piled it on. A sort of joyful mania took possession of me as I +watched the great tongues of flames shooting skyward and listened to +the crackling of the burning wood, and I stood back and laughed. I had +triumphed over fate and the elements. Our arms, our clothing, nearly +all our food, our axes and our paddles, and even the means of making +new paddles were gone, but for the present we were safe. Life, no +matter how uncertain, is sweet, and I laughed with the very joy of +living. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +TIDE WATER AND THE POST + +When Easton came to his senses, he found himself warming by the fire. +It is wonderful how quickly a half-frozen man will revive. As soon as +we were thoroughly thawed out we stripped to our underclothing and hung +our things up to dry, permitting our underclothing to dry on us as we +stood near the blaze. We were little the worse for our dip, escaping +with slightly frosted fingers and toes. I discovered in my pockets a +half plug of black tobacco such as we use in the North, put it on the +end of a stick and dried it out, and then we had a smoke. We agreed +that we had never in our life before had so satisfactory a smoke as +that. The stimulant was needed and it put new life into us. + +Easton was very pessimistic. He was generally inclined to look upon +the dark side of things anyway, and now he believed our fate was +sealed, especially if we could not find our paddles, and he began to +talk about returning to our cache and thence to the Indians. But I had +been in much worse predicaments than this, and paddles or no paddles, +determined to go on, for we could work our way down the river somehow +with poles and the bag of pemmican would keep us alive until we reached +the Post--unless the freeze-up caught us. + +When we had dried ourselves we went to the canoe to make an inventory +of our remaining goods and chattels, and with a vague hope that a +paddle might be found on the shore. What, then, was our surprise and +our joy to find not only the paddles but our dunnage bags and my +instrument bag amongst the rocks, where an eddy below the rapid swirled +the water in. Thus our blankets and clothing were safe, we had fifty +pounds of pemmican, our tent and tent stove, and in the small bag that +I have mentioned as having remained in the canoe with the other things +was all our tea and five or six pounds of caribou tallow. Our +matches--and this was a great piece of good fortune--were uninjured, +and we had a good stock of them. The tent stove seemed useless without +the pipe, but we determined to cling to it, as our luggage now was +light. Our guns, axes, the balance of our provisions, including salt, +the tea kettle and all our other cooking utensils, were gone, and worst +of all, three hundred and fifty unexposed photographic films. Only +twenty or thirty unexposed films were saved, but fortunately, only one +roll of ten exposed films, which was in one of the cameras, was +injured, and none of the exposed films was lost. One camera was damaged +beyond use, as were also my aneroid barometer and binoculars. However, +we were fortunate to get off so easily as we did, and the accident +taught us the lesson to take no chances in rapids and to tie everything +fast at all times. Carelessness is pretty sure to demand its penalty, +and the wilderness is constantly springing surprises upon those who +submit themselves to its care. + +A pretty dreary camp we pitched that evening near the place of our +mishap. Fortunately there was plenty of dead wood loose on the ground, +and we did very well for our camp fire without the axes. A pemmican +can with the end cut off about an inch from the top, with a piece of +copper wire that I found in my dunnage bag fashioned into a bale, made +a very serviceable tea pail, from which we drank in turn, as our cups +were lost. The top of the can answered for a frying pan in which to +melt our caribou tallow and pemmican when we wanted our ration hot, and +as a plate. Tent pegs were cut with our jackknives and the tent +stretched between two trees, which avoided the necessity of tent poles. +Thus, with our cooking and living outfit reduced to the simplest and +crudest form, and with a limited and unvaried diet of pemmican, tallow +and tea, we were on the whole able, so long as loose wood could be +found for our night camps, to keep comparatively comfortable and free +from any severe hardships. + +We certainly had great reason to be thankful, and that night before we +rolled into our blankets I read aloud by the light of our camp fire +from my little Bible the one hundred and seventh Psalm, in thanksgiving. + +The next morning before starting forward we paddled out to the rapid, +in the vain hope that we might be able to recover some of the lost +articles from the bottom of the river, but at the place where the spill +had occurred the water was too swift and deep for us to do anything, +and we were forced to abandon the attempt and reluctantly resume our +journey without the things. + +That night we felt sorely the loss of the axes. Our camp was pitched +in a spot where no loose wood was to be found save very small sticks, +insufficient in quantity for an adequate fire in the open, for the +evening was cold. We could not pitch our tent wigwam fashion with an +opening at the top for the smoke to escape, as to do that several poles +were necessary, and we had no means of cutting them. However, with the +expectation that enough smoke would find its way out of the stovepipe +hole to permit us to remain inside, we built a small round Indian fire +in the center of the tent. We managed to endure the smoke and warm +ourselves while tea was making, but the experiment proved a failure and +was not to be resorted to again, for I feared it might result in an +attack of smoke-blindness. This is an affliction almost identical in +effect to snow-blindness. I had suffered from it in the first days of +my wandering alone in the Susan Valley in the winter of 1903, and knew +what it meant, and that an attack of it would preclude traveling while +it lasted, to say nothing of the pain that it would inflict. + +Here a portage was necessary around a half-mile canyon through which +the river, a rushing torrent, tumbled in the interval over a series of +small falls, and all the way the perpendicular walls of basaltic rock +that confined it rose on either side to a height of fifty to +seventy-five feet above the seething water. Just below this canyon +another river joined us from the east, increasing the volume of water +very materially. Our tumplines were gone, but with the tracking line +and pieces of deer skin we improvised new ones that answered our +purpose very well. + +The hills, barren almost to their base, and growing in altitude with +every mile we traveled, were now closely hugging the river valley, +which was almost destitute of trees. Rapids were practically +continuous and always strewn with dangerous rocks that kept us +constantly on the alert and our nerves strung to the highest tension. + +The general course of the river for several days was north, thirty +degrees east, but later assumed an almost due northerly course. It +made some wide sweeps as it worked its tortuous way through the ranges, +sometimes almost doubling on itself. At intervals small streams joined +it and it was constantly growing in width and depth. Once we came to a +place where it dropped over massive bed rock in a series of falls, some +of which were thirty or more feet in height. Few portages, however, +were necessary. We took our chances on everything that there was any +prospect of the canoe living through--rapids that under ordinary +circumstances we should never have trusted--for the grip of the cold +weather was tightening with each October day. The small lakes away +from the river, where the water was still, must even now have been +frozen, but the river current was so big and strong that it had as yet +warded off the frost shackles. When the real winter came, however, it +would be upon us in a night, and then even this mighty torrent must +submit to its power. + +At one point the valley suddenly widened and the hills receded, and +here the river broke up into many small streams--no less than five--but +some four or five miles farther on these various channels came together +again, and then the growing hills closed in until they pinched the +river banks more closely than ever. + +On the morning of October sixth we swung around a big bend in the +river, ran a short but precipitous rapid and suddenly came upon another +large river flowing in from the west. This stream came through a sandy +valley, and below the junction of the rivers the sand banks rose on the +east side a hundred feet or so above the water. The increase here in +the size of the stream was marked--it was wide and deep. A terrific +gale was blowing and caught us directly in our faces as we turned the +bend and lost the cover of the lee share above the curve, and paddling +ahead was impossible. The waves were so strong, in fact, that we +barely escaped swamping before we effected a landing. + +We here found ourselves in an exceedingly unpleasant position. We were +only fitted with summer clothing, which was now insufficient +protection. There was not enough loose wood to make an open fire to +keep us warm for more than an hour or so, and we could not go on to +look for a better camping place. In a notch between the sand ridges we +found a small cluster of trees, between two of which our tent was +stretched, but it was mighty uncomfortable with no means of warming. +"If we only had our stovepipe now we'd be able to break enough small +stuff to keep the stove going," said Easton. With nothing else to do +we climbed a knoll to look at the river below, and there on the knoll +what should we find but several lengths of nearly worn-out but still +serviceable pipe that some Indian had abandoned. "It's like Robinson +Crusoe," said Easton. "Just as soon as we need something that we can't +get on very well without we find it. A special Providence is surely +caring for us." We appropriated that pipe, all right, and it did not +take us long to get a fire in the stove, which we had clung to, useless +as it had seemed to be. + +A mass of ripe cranberries, so thick that we crushed them with every +step, grew on the hills, and we picked our pailful and stewed them, +using crystallose (a small phial of which I had in my dunnage bag) as +sweetening. A pound of pemmican a day with a bit of tallow is +sustaining, but not filling, and left us with a constant, gnawing +hunger. These berries were a godsend, and sour as they were we filled +up on them and for once gratified our appetites. We had a great +desire, too, for something sweet, and always pounced upon the stray +raisins in the pemmican. When either of us found one in his ration it +was divided between us. Our great longing was for bread and molasses, +just as it had been with Hubbard and me when we were short of food, and +we were constantly talking of the feasts we would have of these +delicacies when we reached the Post--wheat bread and common black +molasses. + +The George River all the way down to this point had been in past years +a veritable slaughter house. There were great piles of caribou antlers +(the barren-ground caribou or reindeer), sometimes as many as two or +three hundred pairs in a single pile, where the Indians had speared the +animals in the river, and everywhere along the banks were scattered dry +bones. Abandoned camps, and some of them large ones and not very old, +were distributed at frequent intervals, though we saw no more of the +Indians themselves until we reached Ungava Bay. + +Wolves were numerous. We saw their tracks in the sand and fresh signs +of them were common. They always abound where there are caribou, which +form their main living. Ptarmigans in the early morning clucked on the +river banks like chickens in a barnyard, and we saw some very large +flocks of them. Geese and black ducks, making their way to the +southward, were met with daily. But we had no arms or ammunition with +which to kill them. I saw some fox signs, but there were very few or +no rabbit signs, strange to say, until we were a full hundred miles +farther down the river. + +This camp, where we found the stovepipe, we soon discovered was nearly +at the head of Indian House Lake, so called by a Hudson's Bay Company +factor-John McLean-because of the numbers of Indians that he found +living on its shores. McLean, about seventy years earlier, had +ascended the river in the interests of his company, for the purpose of +establishing interior posts. The most inland Post that he erected was +at the lower end of this lake, which is fifty-five miles in length. He +also built a Post on a large lake which he describes in his published +journal as lying to the west of Indian House Lake. The exact location +of this latter lake is not now known, but I am inclined to think it is +one which the Indians say is the source of Whale River, a stream of +considerable size emptying into Ungava Bay one hundred and twenty miles +to the westward of the mouth of the George River. These two rivers are +doubtless much nearer together, however, farther inland, where Whale +River has its rise. The difficulty experienced by McLean in getting +supplies to these two Posts rendered them unprofitable, and after +experimenting with them for three years they were abandoned. The +agents in charge were each spring on the verge of starvation before the +opening of the waters brought fish and food or they were relieved by +the brigades from Ungava. They had to depend almost wholly upon their +hunters for provisions. It was not attempted in those days to carry in +flour, pork and other food stuffs now considered by the traders +necessaries. And almost the only goods handled by them in the Indian +trade were axes, knives, guns, ammunition and beads. + +Indian House Lake now, as then, is a general rendezvous for the Indians +during the summer months, when they congregate there to fish and to +hunt reindeer. In the autumn they scatter to the better trapping +grounds, where fur bearing animals are found in greater abundance. We +were too late in the season to meet these Indians, though we saw many +of their camping places. + +A snowstorm began on October seventh, but the wind had so far abated +that we were able to resume our journey. It was a bleak and dismal +day. Save for now and then a small grove of spruce trees in some +sheltered nook, and these at long intervals, the country was destitute +and barren of growth. Below our camp, upon entering the lake, there +was a wide, flat stretch of sand wash from the river, and below this +from the lake shore on either side, great barren, grim hills rose in +solemn majesty, across whose rocky face the wind swept the snow in +fitful gusts and squalls. Off on a mountain side a wolf disturbed the +white silence with his dismal cry, and farther on a big black fellow +came to the water's edge, and with the snow blowing wildly about him +held his head in the air and howled a challenge at us as we passed +close by. Perhaps he yearned for companionship and welcomed the sight +of living things. For my part, grim and uncanny as he looked, I was +glad to see him. He was something to vary the monotony of the great +solemn silence of our world. + +The storm increased, and early in the day the snow began to fall so +heavily that we could not see our way, and forced us to turn into a bay +where we found a small cluster of trees amongst big bowlders, and +pitched our tent in their shelter. The snow had drifted in and filled +the space between the rocks, and on this we piled armfuls of scraggy +boughs and made a fairly level and wholly comfortable bed; but it was a +long, tedious job digging with our hands and feet into the snow for +bits of wood for our stove. The conditions were growing harder and +harder with every day, and our experience here was a common one with us +for the most of the remainder of the way down the river from this point. + +The day we reached the lower end of the lake I summed up briefly its +characteristics in my field book as follows: + +"Indian House Lake has a varying width of from a quarter mile to three +miles. It is apparently not deep. Both shores are followed by ridges +of the most barren, rocky hills imaginable, some of them rising to a +height of eight to nine hundred feet and sloping down sharply to the +shores, which are strewn with large loose bowlders or are precipitous +bed rock. An occasional sand knoll occurs, and upon nearly every one +of these is an abandoned Indian camp. The timber growth--none at all +or very scanty spruce and tamarack. Length of lake (approximated) +fifty-five miles." + +I had hoped to locate the site of McLean's old Post buildings, more +than three score years ago destroyed by the Indians, doubtless for +firewood, but the snow had bidden what few traces of them time had not +destroyed, and they were passed unnoticed. The storm which raged all +the time we were here made progress slow, and it was not until the +morning of the tenth that we reached the end of the lake, where the +river, vastly increased in volume, poured out through a rapid. + +Below Indian House Lake there were only a few short stretches of slack +water to relieve the pretty continuous rapids. The river wound in and +out, in and out, rushing on its tumultuous way amongst ever higher +mountains. There was no time to examine the rapids before we shot +them. We had to take our chances, and as we swung around every curve +we half expected to find before us a cataract that would hurl us to +destruction. The banks were often sheer from the water's edge, and +made landing difficult or even impossible. In one place for a distance +of many miles the river had worn its way through the mountains, leaving +high, perpendicular walls of solid rock on either side, forming a sort +of canyon. In other places high bowlders, piled by some giant force, +formed fifty-foot high walls, which we had to scale each night to make +our camp. In the morning some peak in the blue distance would be noted +as a landmark. In a couple of hours we would rush past it and mark +another one, which, too, would soon be left behind. + +The rapids continued the characteristic of the river and were terrific. +Often it would seem that no canoe could ride the high, white waves, or +that we could not avoid the swirl of mighty cross-current eddies, which +would have swallowed up our canoe like a chip had we got into them. +There were rapids whose roar could be distinctly heard for five or six +miles. These we approached with the greatest care, and portaged around +the worst places. The water was so clear that often we found ourselves +dodging rocks, which, when we passed them, were ten or twelve feet +below the surface. It was here that a peculiar optical illusion +occurred. The water appeared to be running down an incline of about +twenty degrees. At the place where this was noticed, however, the +current was not exceptionally swift. We were in a section now where the +Indians never go, owing to the character of the river--a section that +is wholly untraveled and unhunted. + +After leaving Indian House Lake, as we descended from the plateau, the +weather grew milder. There were chilly winds and bleak rains, but the +snow, though remaining on the mountains, disappeared gradually from the +valley, and this was a blessing to us, for it enabled us to make camp +with a little less labor, and the bits of wood were left uncovered, to +be gathered with more ease. Every hour of light we needed, for with +each dawn and twilight the days were becoming noticeably shorter. The +sun now rose in the southeast, crossed a small segment of the sky, and +almost before we were aware of it set in the southwest. + +The wilderness gripped us closer and closer as the days went by. +Remembrances of the outside world were becoming like dreamland +fancies--something hazy, indefinite and unreal. We could hardly bring +ourselves to believe that we had really met the Indians. It seemed to +us that all our lives we had been going on and on through rushing +water, or with packs over rocky portages, and the Post we were aiming +to reach appeared no nearer to us than it did the day we left Northwest +River--long, long ago. We seldom spoke. Sometimes in a whole day not +a dozen words would be exchanged. If we did talk at all it was at +night over soothing pipes, after the bit of pemmican we allowed +ourselves was disposed of, and was usually of something to +eat--planning feasts of darn goods, bread and molasses when we should +reach a place where these luxuries were to be had. It was much like +the way children plan what wonderful things they will do, and what +unbounded good things they will indulge in, when they attain that high +pinnacle of their ambition--"grown-ups." + +After our upset in the rapid Easton eschewed water entirely, except for +drinking purposes. He had had enough of it, he said. I did bathe my +hands and face occasionally, particularly in the morning, to rouse me +from the torpor of the always heavy sleep of night. What savages men +will revert into when they are buried for a long period in the +wilderness and shake off the trammels and customs of the +conventionalism of civilization! It does not take long to make an +Indian out of a white man so far as habits and customs of living go. + +Our routine of daily life was always the same. Long before daylight I +would arise, kindle a fire, put over it our tea water, and then get +Easton out of his blankets. At daylight we would start. At midday we +had tea, and at twilight made the best camp we could. + +The hills were assuming a different aspect--less conical in form and +not so high. The bowlders on the river banks were superseded by +massive bed-rock granite. The coves and hollows were better wooded and +there were some stretches of slack water. On October fifteenth we +portaged around a series of low falls, below which was a small lake +expansion with a river flowing into it from the east. Here we found +the first evidence of human life that we had seen in a long while--a +wide portage trail that had been cut through now burned and dead trees +on the eastern side of the river. It was fully six feet in width and +had been used for the passage of larger boats than canoes. The moss +was still unrenewed where the tramp of many moccasins had worn it off. +This was the trail made by John McLean's brigades nearly three-quarters +of a century before, for in their journeys to Indian House Lake they +had used rowboats and not canoes for the transportation of supplies. + +The day we passed over this portage was a most miserable one. We were +soaked from morning till night with mingled snow and rain, and numb +with the cold, but when we made our night camp, below the junction of +the rivers, one or two ax cuttings were found, and I knew that now our +troubles were nearly at an end and we were not far from men. The next +afternoon (Monday, October sixteenth) we stopped two or three miles +below a rapid to boil our kettle, and before our tea was made the canoe +was high and dry on the rocks. We had reached tide water at last! How +we hurried through that luncheon, and with what light hearts we +launched the canoe again, and how we peered into every bay for the Post +buildings that we knew were now close at hand can be imagined. These +bays were being left wide stretches of mud and rocks by the receding +water, which has a tide fall here of nearly forty feet. At last, as we +rounded a rocky point, we saw the Post. The group of little white +buildings nestling deep in a cove, a feathery curl of smoke rising +peacefully from the agent's house, an Eskimo _tupek_ (tent), boats +standing high on the mud flat below, and the howl of a husky dog in the +distance, formed a picture of comfort that I shall long remember. + + + +CHAPTER XV + +OFF WITH THE ESKIMOS + +The tide had left the bay drained, on the farther side and well toward +the bottom of which the Post stands, and between us and the buildings +was a lake of soft mud. There seemed no approach for the canoe, and +rather than sit idly until the incoming tide covered the mud again so +that we could paddle in, we carried our belongings high up the side of +the hill, safely out of reach of the water when it should rise, and +then started to pick our way around the face of the clifflike hill, +with the intention of skirting the bay and reaching the Post at once +from the upper side. + +It was much like walking on the side of a wall, and to add to our +discomfiture night began to fall before we were half way around, for it +was slow work. Once I descended cautiously to the mud, thinking that I +might be able to walk across it, but a deep channel filled with running +water intercepted me, and I had to return to Easton, who had remained +above. We finally realized that we could not get around the hill +before dark and the footing was too uncertain to attempt to retrace our +steps to the canoe in the fading light, as a false move would have +hurled us down a hundred feet into the mud and rocks below. Fortunately +a niche in the hillside offered a safe resting place, and we drew +together here all the brush within reach, to be burned later as a +signal to the Post folk that some one was on the hill, hoping that when +the tide rose it would bring them in, a boat to rescue us from our +unpleasant position. When the brush was arranged for firing at an +opportune time we sat down in the thickening darkness to watch the +lights which were now flickering cozily in the windows of the Post +house. + +"Well, this _is_ hard luck," said Easton. "There's good bread and +molasses almost within hailing distance and we've likely got to sit out +here on the rocks all night without wood enough to keep fire, and it's +going to rain pretty soon and we can't even get back to our pemmican +and tent." + +"Don't give up yet, boy," I encouraged. "Maybe they'll see our fire +when we start it and take us off." + +We filled our pipes and struck matches to light them. They were wax +taper matches and made a good blaze. "Wonder what it'll be like to eat +civilized grub again and sleep in a bed," said Easton meditatively, as +he puffed uncomfortably at his pipe. + +While he was speaking the glow of a lantern appeared from the Post +house, which we could locate by its lamp-lit windows, and moved down +toward the place where we had seen the boats on the mud. The sight of +it made us hope that we had been noticed, and we jumped up and combined +our efforts in shouting until we were hoarse. Then we ignited the pile +of brush. It blazed up splendidly, shooting its flames high in the +air, sending its sparks far, and lighting weirdly the strange scene. +We stood before it that our forms might appear in relief against the +light reflected by the rocky background, waving our arms and renewing +our shouts. Once or twice I fancied I heard an answering hail from the +other side, like a far-off echo; but the wind was against us and I was +not sure. The lantern light was now in a boat moving out toward the +main river. Even though it were coming to us this was necessary, as +the tide could not be high enough yet to permit its coming directly +across to where we were. We watched its course anxiously. Finally it +seemed to be heading toward us, but we were not certain. Then it +disappeared altogether and there was nothing but blackness and silence +where it had been. + +"Some one that's been waiting for the tide to turn and he's just going +down the river, where he likely lives," remarked Easton as we sat down +again and relit our pipes. "I began to taste bread and molasses when I +saw that light," he continued, after a few minutes' pause. "It's just +our luck. We're in for a night of it, all right." + +We sat smoking silently, resigned to our fate, when all at once there +stepped out of the surrounding darkness into the radius of light cast +by our now dying fire, an old Eskimo with an unlighted lantern in his +hands, and a young fellow of fifteen or sixteen years of age. + +"Oksutingyae," * said the Eskimo, and then proceeded to light his +lantern, paying no further attention to us. "How do you do?" said the +boy. + +* [Dual form meaning "You two be strong," used by the Eskimos as a +greeting. The singular of the same is Oksunae, and the plural (more +than two) Oksusi] + +The Eskimo could understand no English, but the boy, a grandson of Johm +Ford, the Post agent, told us that the Eskimo had seen us strike the +matches to light our pipes and reported the matter at once at the +house. There was not a match at the Post nor within a hundred miles of +it, so far as they knew, so Mr. Ford concluded that some strangers were +stranded on the hill--possibly Eskimos in distress--and he gave them a +lantern and started them over in a boat to investigate. Their lantern +had blown out on the way--that was when we missed the light. + +With the lantern to guide us we descended the slippery rocks to their +boat and in ten minutes landed on the mud flat opposite, where we were +met by Ford and a group of curious Eskimos. We were immediately +conducted to the agent's residence, where Mrs. Ford received us in the +hospitable manner of the North, and in a little while spread before us +a delicious supper of fresh trout, white bread such as we had not seen +since leaving Tom Blake's, mossberry jam and tea. It was an event in +our life to sit down again to a table covered with white linen and eat +real bread. We ate until we were ashamed of ourselves, but not until +we were satisfied (for we had emerged from the bush with unholy +appetites) and barely stopped eating in time to save our reputations +from utter ruin. And now our hosts told us--and it shows how really +generous and open-hearted they were to say nothing about it until we +were through eating--that the _Pelican_, the Hudson's Bay Company's +steamer, had not arrived on her annual visit, that it was so late in +the season all hope of her coming had some time since been +relinquished, and the Post provisions were reduced to forty pounds of +flour, a bit of sugar, a barrel or so of corn meal, some salt pork and +salt beef, and small quantities of other food stuffs, and there were a +great many dependents with hungry mouths to feed. Molasses, butter and +other things were entirely gone. The storehouses were empty. + +This condition of affairs made it incumbent upon me, I believed, in +spite of a cordial invitation from Ford to stay and share with them +what they had, to move on at once and endeavor to reach Fort Chimo +ahead of the ice. Fort Chimo is the chief establishment of the fur +trading companies on Ungava Bay, and is the farthest off and most +isolated station in northern Labrador. This journey would be too +hazardous to undertake in the month of October in a canoe--the rough, +open sea of Ungava Bay demanded a larger craft--and although Ford told +me it was foolhardy to attempt it so late in the season with any craft +at all, I requested him to do his utmost the following day to engage +for us Eskimos and a small boat and we would make the attempt to get +there. It has been my experience that frontier traders are wont to +overestimate the dangers in trips of this kind, and I was inclined to +the belief that this was the case with Ford. In due time I learned my +mistake. + +Ford had no tobacco but the soggy black chewing plug dispensed to +Eskimos, and we shared with him our remaining plugs and for two hours +sat in the cozy Post house kitchen smoking and chatting. Over a year +had passed since his last communication with the outside world, for no +vessel other than the _Pelican_ when she makes her annual call with +supplies ever comes here, and we therefore had some things of interest +to tell him. + +Our host I soon discovered to be a man of intelligence. He was +sixty-six years of age, a native of the east coast of Labrador, with a +tinge of Eskimo blood in his veins, and as familiar with the Eskimo +language as with English. For twenty years, he informed me, with the +exception of one or two brief intervals, he had been buried at George +River Post, and was longing for the time when he could leave it and +enjoy the comforts of civilization. + +After our chat we were shown to our room, where the almost forgotten +luxuries of feather beds and pillows, and the great, warm, fluffy +woolen blankets of the Hudson's Bay Company--such blankets as are found +nowhere else in the world--awaited us. To undress and crawl between +them and lie there, warm and snug and dry, while we listened to the +rain, which had begun beating furiously against the window and on the +roof, and the wind howling around the house, seemed to me at first the +pinnacle of comfort; but this sense of luxury soon passed off and I +found myself longing for the tent and spruce-bough couch on the ground, +where there was more air to breathe and a greater freedom. I could not +sleep. The bed was too warm and the four walls of the room seemed +pressing in on me. After four months in the open it takes some time +for one to accustom one's self to a bed again. + +The next day at high tide, with the aid of a boat and two Eskimos, we +recovered our things from the rocks where we had cached them. + +There were no Eskimos at the Post competent or willing to attempt the +open-boat journey to Fort Chimo. Those that were here all agreed that +the ice would come before we could get through and that it was too +dangerous an undertaking. Therefore, galling as the delay was to me, +there was nothing for us to do but settle down and wait for the time to +come when we could go with dog teams overland. + +On Thursday afternoon, three days after our arrival at the Post, we saw +the Eskimos running toward the wharf and shouting as though something +of unusual importance were taking place and, upon joining the crowd, +found them greeting three strange Eskimos who had just arrived in a +boat. The real cause of the excitement we soon learned was the arrival +of the _Pelican_. The strange Eskimos were the pilots that brought her +from Fort Chimo. All was confusion and rejoicing at once. Ford manned +a boat and invited us to join him in a visit to the ship, which lay at +anchor four miles below, and we were soon off. + +When we boarded the Pelican, which, by the way, is an old British +cruiser, we were received by Mr. Peter McKenzie, from Montreal, who has +superintendence of eastern posts, and Captain Lovegrow, who commanded +the vessel. They told us that they had called at Rigolet on their way +north and there heard of the arrival of Richards, Pete and Stanton at +Northwest River. This relieved my mind as to their safety. + +We spent a very pleasant hour over a cigar, and heard the happenings in +the outside world since our departure from it, the most important of +which was the close of the Russian-Japanese war. We also learned that +the cause of delay in the ship's coming was an accident on the rocks +near Cartwright, making it necessary for them to run to St. Johns for +repairs; and also that only the fact of the distressful condition of +the Post, unprovisioned as they knew it must be, had induced them to +take the hazard of running in and chancing imprisonment for the winter +in the ice. + +Mr. McKenzie extended me a most cordial invitation to return with them +to Rigolet, but the Eskimo pilots had brought news of large herds of +reindeer that the Indians had reported as heading eastward toward the +Koksoak, the river on which Fort Chimo is situated, and I determined to +make an effort to see these deer. This determination was coupled with +a desire to travel across the northern peninsula and around the coast +in winter and learn more of the people and their life than could be +observed at the Post; and I therefore declined Mr. McKenzie's +invitation. + +Captain James Blanford, from St. Johns, was on board, acting as ship's +pilot for the east coast, and he kindly offered to carry out for me +such letters and telegrams as I might desire to send and personally +attend to their transmission. I gladly availed myself of this offer, +as it gave us an opportunity to relieve the anxiety of our friends at +home as to our safety. Captain Blanford had been with the auxiliary +supply ship of the Peary Arctic expedition during the summer and told +us of having left Commander Peary at eighty degrees north latitude in +August. The expedition, he told us, would probably winter as high as +eighty-three degrees north, and he was highly enthusiastic over the +good prospects of Peary's success in at least reaching "Farthest North." + +The Eskimo pilots of the _Pelican_ were more venturesome than their +friends at George River. They had a small boat belonging to the +Hudson's Bay Company, and in it were going to attempt to reach Fort +Chimo. Against his advice I had Ford arrange with them to permit +Easton and me to accompany them. It was a most fortunate circumstance, +I thought, that this opportunity was opened to us. + +Accordingly the letters for Captain Blanford were written, sufficient +provisions, consisting of corn meal, flour, hard-tack, pork, and tea to +last Easton and me ten days, were packed, and our luggage was taken on +board the _Pelican_ on Saturday afternoon, where we were to spend the +night as Mr. McKenzie's and Captain Lovegrow's guests. + +Mr. McKenzie, before going to Montreal, had lived nearly a quarter of a +century as Factor at Fort Chimo, and, thoroughly familiar with the +conditions of the country and the season, joined Ford in advising us +strongly against our undertaking, owing to the unusual hazard attached +to it, and the probability of getting caught in the ice and wrecked. +But we were used to hardship, and believed that if the Eskimos were +willing to attempt the journey we could get through with them some way, +and I saw no reason why I should change my plans. + +Low-hanging clouds, flying snowflakes and a rising northeast wind +threatened a heavy storm on Sunday morning, October twenty-second, when +the _Pelican_ weighed anchor at ten o'clock, with us on board and the +small boat, the _Explorer_, that was to carry us westward in tow, and +steamed down the George River, at whose mouth, twenty miles below, we +were to leave her, to meet new and unexpected dangers and hardships. + +At the Post the river is a mile and a half in width. About eight miles +farther down its banks close in and "the Narrows" occur, and then it +widens again. There is very little growth of any kind below the +Narrows. The rocks are polished smooth and bare as they rise from the +water's edge, and it is as desolate and barren a land as one's +imagination could picture, but withal possesses a rugged grand beauty +in its grim austerity that is impressive. + +About three or four miles above the open bay the _Pelican's_ engines +ceased to throb and the _Explorer_ was hauled alongside. Everything +but the provisions for the Eskimo crew was already aboard. We said a +hurried adieu and, watching our chances as the boat rose and fell on +the swell, dropped one by one into the little craft. A bag of ship's +biscuit, the provisions of our Eskimos, was thrown after us. Most of +them went into the sea and were lost, and we needed them sadly later. I +thought we should swamp as each sea hit us before we could get away, +and when we were finally off the boat was half full of water. + +The Eskimos hoisted a sail and turned to the west bank of the river, +for it was too rough outside to risk ourselves there in the little +_Explorer_. The pulse of the big ship began to beat and slowly she +steamed out into the open and left us to the mercies of the unfeeling +rocks of Ungava. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +CAUGHT BY THE ARCTIC ICE + +We ran to shelter in a small cove and under the lee of a ledge pitched +our tent, using poles that the Eskimos had thoughtfully provided, and +anchoring the tent down with bowlders. + +When I say the rocks here are scoured bare, I mean it literally. There +was not a stick of wood growing as big as your finger. On the lower +George, below the Narrows, and for long distances on the Ungava coast +there is absolutely not a tree of any kind to be seen. The only +exception is in one or two bays or near the mouth of streams, where a +stunted spruce growth is sometimes found in small patches. There are +places where you may skirt the coast of Ungava Bay for a hundred miles +and not see a shrub worthy the name of tree, even in the bays. + +The Koksoak (Big) River, on which Fort Chimo is situated, is the +largest river flowing into Ungava Bay. The George is the second in +size, and Whale River ranks third. Between the George River and Whale +River there are four smaller ones--Tunulik (Back) River, Kuglotook +(Overflow) River, Tuktotuk (Reindeer) River and Mukalik (Muddy) River; +and between Whale River and the Koksoak the False River. I crossed all +of these streams and saw some of them for several miles above the +mouth. The Koksoak, Mukalik and Whale Rivers are regularly traversed +by the Indians, but the others are too swift and rocky for canoes. +There are several streams to the westward of the Koksoak, notably Leaf +River, and a very large one that the Eskimos told me of, emptying into +Hope's Advance Bay, but these I did not see and my knowledge of them is +limited to hearsay. + +The hills in the vicinity of George River are generally high, but to +the westward they are much lower and less picturesque. + +After our camp was pitched we had an opportunity for the first time to +make the acquaintance of our companions. The chief was a man of about +forty years of age, Potokomik by name, which, translated, means a hole +cut in the edge of a skin for the purpose of stretching it. The next +in importance was Kumuk. Kumuk means louse, and it fitted the man's +nature well. The youngest was Iksialook (Big Yolk of an Egg). +Potokomik had been rechristened by a Hudson's Bay Company agent +"Kenneth," and Kumuk, in like manner, had had the name of "George" +bestowed upon him, but Iksialook bad been overlooked or neglected in +this respect, and his brain was not taxed with trying to remember a +Christian cognomen that none of his people would ever call or know him +by. + +Potokomik was really a remarkable man and proved most faithful to us. +It is, in fact, to his faithfulness and control over the others, +particularly Kumuk, that Easton and I owe our lives, as will appear +later. He was at one time conjurer of the Kangerlualuksoakmiut, or +George River Eskimos, and is still their leader, but during a visit to +the Atlantic coast, some three or four years ago, he came under the +influence of a missionary, embraced Christianity, and abandoned the +heathen conjuring swindle by which he was, up to that time, making a +good living. Now he lives a life about as clean and free from the +heathenism and superstitions of his race as any Eskimo can who adopts a +new religion. The missionary whom I have mentioned led Potokomik's +mother to accept Christ and renounce Torngak when she was on her +deathbed, and before she died she confessed to many sins, amongst them +that of having aided in the killing and eating, when driven to the act +by starvation, of her own mother. + +After our tent was pitched and the Eskimos had spread the _Explorer's_ +sail as a shelter for themselves, Kumuk and Iksialook left us to look +for driftwood and, in half an hour, returned with a few small sticks +that they had found on the shore. These sticks were exceedingly scarce +and, of course, very precious and with the greatest economy in the use +of the wood, a fire was made and the kettle boiled for tea. + +At first the Eskimos were always doing unexpected things and springing +surprises upon us, but soon we became more or less accustomed to their +ways. Not one of them could talk or understand English and my Eskimo +vocabulary was limited to the one word "Oksunae," and we therefore had +considerable difficulty in making each other understand, and the +pantomime and various methods of communication resorted to were often +very funny to see. Potokomik and I started in at once to learn what we +could of each other's language, and it is wonderful how much can be +accomplished in the acquirement of a vocabulary in a short time and how +few words are really necessary to convey ideas. I would point at the +tent and say, "Tent," and he would say, "Tupek"; or at my sheath knife +and say, "Knife," and he would say, "Chevik," and thus each learned the +other's word for nearly everything about us and such words as "good," +"bad," "wind" and so on; and in a few days we were able to make each +other understand in a general way, with our mixed English and Eskimo. + +The northeast wind and low-hanging clouds of the morning carried into +execution their threat, and all Sunday afternoon and all day Monday the +snowstorm raged with fury. I took pity on the Eskimos and on Sunday +night invited all of them to sleep in our tent, but only Potokomik +came, and on Monday morning, when I went out at break of day, I found +the other two sleeping under a snowdrift, for the lean-to made of the +boat sail had not protected them much. After that they accepted my +invitation and joined us in the tent. + +It did not clear until Tuesday morning, and then we hoisted sail and +started forward out of the river and into the broad, treacherous waters +of Hudson Straits, working with the oars to keep warm and accelerate +progress, for the wind was against us at first until we turned out of +the river, and we had long tacks to make. + +At the Post, as was stated, there is a rise and fall of tide of forty +feet. In Ungava Bay and the straits it has a record of sixty-two feet +rise at flood, with the spring or high tides, and this makes navigation +precarious where hidden reefs and rocks are everywhere; and there are +long stretches of coast with no friendly bay or harbor or lee shore +where one can run for cover when unheralded gales and sudden squalls +catch one in the open. The Atlantic coast of Labrador is dangerous +indeed, but there Nature has providentially distributed innumerable +safe harbor retreats, and the tide is insignificant compared with that +of Ungava Bay. "Nature exhausted her supply of harbors," some one has +said, "before she rounded Cape Chidley, or she forgot Ungava entirely; +and she just bunched the tide in here, too." + +That Tuesday night sloping rocks and ominous reefs made it impossible +for us to effect a landing, and in a shallow place we dropped anchor. +Fortunately there was no wind, for we were in an exposed position, and +had there been we should have come to grief. A bit of hardtack with +nothing to drink sufficed for supper, and after eating we curled up as +best we could in the bottom of the boat. No watch was kept. Every one +lay down. Easton and I rolled in our blankets, huddled close to each +other, pulled the tent over us and were soon dreaming of sunnier lands +where flowers bloom and the ice trust gets its prices. + +Our awakening was rude. Some time in the night I dreamed that my neck +was broken and that I lay in a pool of icy water powerless to move. +When I finally roused myself I found the boat tilted at an angle of +forty-five degrees and my head at the lower incline. All the water in +the boat had drained to that side and my shoulders and neck were +immersed. The tide was out and we were stranded on the rocks. It was +bright moonlight. Kumuk and Iksialook got up and with the kettle +disappeared over the rocks. The rising tide was almost on us when they +returned with a kettle full of hot tea. Then as soon as the water was +high enough to float the boat we were off by moonlight, fastening now +and again on reefs, and several times narrowly escaped disaster. + +It was very cold. Easton and I were still clad in the bush-ravaged +clothing that we had worn during the summer, and it was far too light +to keep out the bitter Arctic winds that were now blowing, and at night +our only protection was our light summer camping blankets. When we +reached the Post at George River not a thing in the way of clothing or +blankets was in stock and the new stores were not unpacked when we +left, so we were not able to re-outfit there. + +Wednesday night we succeeded in finding shelter, but all day Thursday +were held prisoners by a northerly gale. On Friday we made a new +start, but early in the afternoon were driven to shelter on an island, +where with some difficulty we effected a landing at low tide, and +carried our goods a half mile inland over the slippery rocks above the +reach of rising water. The Eskimos remained with the boat and worked +it in foot by foot with the tide while Easton and I pitched the tent +and hunted up and down on the rocks for bits of driftwood until we had +collected sufficient to last us with economy for a day or two. + +That night the real winter came. The light ice that we had encountered +heretofore and the snow which attained a considerable depth in the +recent storms were only the harbingers of the true winter that comes in +this northland with a single blast of the bitter wind from the ice +fields of the Arctic. It comes in a night--almost in an hour--as it +did to us now. Every pool of water on the island was congealed into a +solid mass. A gale of terrific fury nearly carried our tent away, and +only the big bowlders to which it was anchored saved it. Once we had +to shift it farther back upon the rock fields, out of reach of an +exceptionally high tide. For three days the wind raged, and in those +three days the great blocks of northern pack ice were swept down upon +us, and we knew that the _Explorer_ could serve us no longer. There +was no alternative now but to cross the barrens to Whale River on foot. +With deep snow and no snowshoes it was not a pleasant prospect. + +Our hard-tack was gone, and I baked into cakes all of our little stock +of flour and corn meal. This, with a small piece of pork, six pounds +of pemmican, tea and a bit of tobacco was all that we had left in the +way of provisions. The Eskimos had eaten everything that they had +brought, and it now devolved upon us to feed them also from our meager +store, which at the start only provided for Easton and me for ten days, +as that had been considered more than ample time for the journey. I +limited the rations at each meal to a half of one of my cakes for each +man. Potokomik agreed with me that this was a wise and necessary +restriction and protected me in it. Kumuk thought differently, and he +was seen to filch once or twice, but a close watch was kept upon him. + +With infinite labor we hauled the _Explorer_ above the high-tide level, +out of reach of the ice that would soon pile in a massive barricade of +huge blocks upon the shore, that she might be safe until recovered the +following spring. Then we packed in the boat's prow our tent and all +paraphernalia that was not absolutely necessary for the sustenance of +life, made each man a pack of his blankets, food and necessaries, and +began our perilous foot march toward Whale River. I clung to all the +records of the expedition, my camera, photographic films and things of +that sort, though Potokomik advised their abandonment. + +At low tide, when the rocks were left nearly uncovered, we forded from +the island to the mainland. It was dark when we reached it, and for +three hours after dark, bending under our packs, walking in Indian +file, we pushed on in silence through the knee-deep snow upon which the +moon, half hidden by flying clouds, cast a weird ghostlike light. +Finally the Eskimos stopped in a gully by a little patch of spruce +brush four or five feet high, and while Iksialook foraged for handfuls +of brush that was dry enough to burn, Potokomik and Kumuk cut snow +blocks, which they built into a circular wall about three feet high, as +a wind-break in which to sleep, and Easton and I broke some green brush +to throw upon the snow in this circular wind-break for a bed. While we +did this Iksialook filled the kettle with bits of ice and melted it +over his brush fire and made tea. There was only brush enough to melt +ice for one cup of tea each, which with our bit of cake made our +supper. . We huddled close and slept pretty well that night on the snow +with nothing but flying frost between us and heaven. + +We were having our breakfast the next morning a white arctic fox came +within ten yards of our fire to look us over as though wondering what +kind of animals we were. Easton and I were unarmed, but the Eskimos +each carried a 45-90 Winchester rifle. Potokomik reached for his and +shot the fox, and in a few minutes its disjointed carcass was in our +pan with a bit of pork, and we made a substantial breakfast on the +half-cooked flesh. + +That was a weary day. We came upon a large creek in the forenoon and +had to ascend its east bank for a long distance to cross it, as the +tide had broken the ice below. Some distance up the stream its valley +was wooded by just enough scattered spruce trees to hold the snow, and +wallowing and floundering through this was most exhausting. + +During the day Kumuk proposed to the other Eskimos that they take all +the food and leave the white men to their fate. They had rifles while +we had none, and we could not resist. Potokomik would not hear of it. +He remained our friend. Kumuk did not like the small ration that I +dealt out, and if they could get the food out of our possession they +would have more for themselves. + +That night a snow house was built, with the exception of rounding the +dome at the top, over which Potokomik spread his blanket; but it was a +poor shelter, and not much warmer than the open. When I lay down I was +dripping with perspiration from the exertion of the day and during the +night had a severe chill. + +The next day a storm threatened. We crossed another stream and halted, +at twelve o'clock, upon the western side of it to make tea. The Eskimos +held a consultation here and then Potokomik told us that they were +afraid of heavy snow and that it was thought best to cache everything +that we had--blankets, food and everything--and with nothing to +encumber us hurry on to a tupek that we should reach by dark, and that +there we should find shelter and food. Accordingly everything was left +behind but the rifles, which the Eskimos clung to, and we started on at +a terrific pace over wind-swept hills and drift-covered valleys, where +all that could be seen was a white waste of unvarying snow. We had +been a little distance inland, but now worked our way down toward the +coast. Once we crossed an inlet where we had to climb over great +blocks of ice that the tide in its force had piled there. + +Just at dusk the Eskimos halted. We had reached the place where the +tupek should have been, but none was there. Afterward I learned that +the people whom Potokomik expected to find here had been caught on +their way from Whale River by the ice and their boat was crushed. + +Another consultation was held, and as a result we started on again. +After a two hours' march Potokomik halted and the others left us. +Easton and I threw ourselves at full length upon the snow and went to +sleep on the instant. A rifle shot aroused us, and Potokomik jumped to +his feet with the exclamation, "Igloo!" We followed him toward where +Kumuk was shouting, through a bit of bush, down a bank, across a frozen +brook and up a slope, where we found a miserable little log shack. No +one was there. It was a filthy place and snow had drifted in through +the openings in the roof and side. The previous occupant of the hut +had left behind him an ax and an old stove, and with a few sticks of +wood that we found a fire was started and we huddled close to it in a +vain effort to get warm. When the fire died out we found places to lie +down, and, shivering with the cold, tried with poor success to sleep. + +I had another chill that night and severe cramps in the calves of my +legs, and when morning came and Easton said he could not travel another +twenty yards, I agreed at once to a plan of the Eskimos to leave us +there while they went on to look for other Eskimos whom they expected +to find in winter quarters east of Whale River. Potokomik promised to +send them with dogs to our rescue and then go on with a letter to Job +Edmunds, the Hudson's Bay Company's agent at Whale River. This letter +to Edmunds I scribbled on a stray bit of paper I found in my pocket, +and in it told him of our position, and lack of food and clothing. + +Potokomik left his rifle and some cartridges with us, and then with the +promise that help should find us ere we had slept three times, we shook +hands with our dusky friend upon whose honor and faithfulness our lives +now depended, and the three were gone in the face of a blinding +snowstorm. + +Shortly after the Eskimos left us we heard some ptarmigans clucking +outside, and Easton knocked three of them over with Potokomik's rifle. +There were four, but one got away. It can be imagined what work the +.45 bullet made of them. After separating the flesh as far as possible +from the feathers, we boiled it in a tin can we had found amongst the +rubbish in the hut, and ate everything but the bills and +toe-nails--bones, entrails and all. This, it will be remembered, was +the first food that we had had since noon of the day before. We had no +tea and our only comfort-providing asset was one small piece of plug +tobacco. + +Fortunately wood was not hard to get, but still not sufficiently +plentiful for us to have more than a light fire in the stove, which we +hugged pretty closely. + +The storm grew in fury. It shrieked around our illy built shack, +drifting the snow in through the holes and crevices until we could not +find a place to sit or lie that was free from it. On the night of the +third day the weather cleared and settled, cold and rasping. I took +the rifle and looked about for game, but the snow was now so deep that +walking far in it was out of the question. I did not see the track or +sign of any living thing save a single whisky-jack, but even he was shy +and kept well out of range. + +We had nothing to eat--not a mouthful of anything--and only water to +drink; even our tobacco was soon gone. Day after day we sat, sometimes +in silence, for hours at a time, sometimes calculating upon the +probabilities of the Eskimos having perished in the storm, for they +were wholly without protection. I had faith in Potokomik and his +resourcefulness, and was hopeful they would get out safely. If there +had been timber in the country where night shelter could be made, we +might have started for Whale River without further delay. But in the +wide waste barrens, illy clothed, with deep snow to wallow through, it +seemed to me absolutely certain that such an attempt would end in +exhaustion and death, so we restrained our impatience and waited. On +scraps of paper we played tit-tat-toe; we improvised a checkerboard and +played checkers. These pastimes broke the monotony of waiting +somewhat. No matter what we talked about, our conversation always +drifted to something to eat. We planned sumptuous banquets we were to +have at that uncertain period "when we get home," discussing in the +minutest detail each dish. Once or twice Easton roused me in the night +to ask whether after all some other roast or soup had not better be +selected than the one we had decided upon, or to suggest a change in +vegetables. + +We slept five times instead of thrice and still no succor came. The +days were short, the nights interminably long. I knew we could live +for twelve or fifteen days easily on water. I had recovered entirely +from the chills and cramps and we were both feeling well but, of +course, rather weak. We had lost no flesh to speak of. The extreme +hunger had passed away after a couple of days. It is only when +starving people have a little to eat that the hunger period lasts +longer than that. Novelists write a lot of nonsense about the pangs of +hunger and the extreme suffering that accompanies starvation. It is +all poppycock. Any healthy person, with a normal appetite, after +missing two or three meals is as hungry as he ever gets. After awhile +there is a sense of weakness that grows on one, and this increases with +the days. Then there comes a desire for a great deal of sleep, a sort +of lassitude that is not unpleasant, and this desire becomes more +pronounced as the weakness grows. The end is always in sleep. There +is no keeping awake until the hour of death. + +While, as I have said, the real sense of hunger passes away quickly +there remains the instinct to eat. That is the working of the first +law of nature--self-preservation. It prompts one to eat anything that +one can chew or swallow, and it is what makes men eat refuse the +thought of which would sicken them at other times. Of course, Easton +and I were like everybody else under similar conditions. Easton said +one day that he would like to have something to chew on. In the refuse +on the floor I found a piece of deerskin about ten inches square. I +singed the hair off of it and divided it equally between us and then we +each roasted our share and ate it. That was the evening after we had +"slept" five times. + +After disposing of our bit of deerskin we huddled down on the floor +with our heads pillowed upon sticks of wood, as was our custom, for a +sixth night, after discussing again the probable fate of the Eskimos. +While I did not admit to Easton that I entertained any doubt as to our +ultimate rescue, as the days passed and no relief came I felt grave +fears as to the safety of Potokomik and his companions. The severe +storm that swept over the country after their departure from the shack +had no doubt materially deepened the snow, and I questioned whether or +not this had made it impossible for them to travel without snowshoes. +The wind during the second day of the storm had been heavy, and it was +my hope that it had swept the barrens clear of the new snow, but this +was uncertain and doubtful. Then, too, I did not know the nature of +Eskimos--whether they were wont to give up quickly in the face of +unusual privations and difficulties such as these men would have to +encounter. They were in a barren country, with no food, no blankets, +no tent, no protection, in fact, of any kind from the elements, and it +was doubtful whether they would find material for a fire at night to +keep them from freezing, and, even if they did find wood, they had no +ax with which to cut it. How far they would have to travel surrounded +by these conditions I had no idea. Indians without wood or food or a +sheltering bush would soon give up the fight and lie down to die. If +Potokomik and his men had perished, I knew that Easton and I could hope +for no relief from the outside and that our salvation would depend +entirely upon our own resourcefulness. It seemed to me the time had +come when some action must be taken. + +It was a long while after dark, I do not know how long, and I still lay +awake turning these things over in my mind, when I heard a strange +sound. Everything had been deathly quiet for days, and I sat up. In +the great unbroken silence of the wilderness a man's fancy will make +him hear strange things. I have answered the shouts of men that my +imagination made me hear. But this was not fancy, for I heard it +again--a distinct shout! I jumped to my feet and called to Easton: +"They've come, boy! Get up, there's some one coming!" Then I hurried +outside and, in the dim light on the white stretch of snow, saw a black +patch of men and dogs. Our rescuers had come. + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +TO WHALE RIVER AND FORT CHIMO + +The feeling of relief that came to me when I heard the shout and saw +the men and dogs coming can be appreciated, and something of the +satisfaction I felt when I grasped the hands of the two Eskimos that +strode up on snowshoes can be understood. + +The older of the two was an active little fellow who looked much like a +Japanese. He introduced himself as Emuk (Water). His companion, who, +we learned later, rejoiced in the name Amnatuhinuk (Only a Woman), was +quite a young fellow, big, fat and goodnatured. + +Without any preliminaries Emuk pushed right into the shack and, from a +bag that he carried, produced some tough dough cakes which he gave us +to eat, and each a plug of tobacco to smoke. He was all activity and +command, working quickly himself and directing Amnatuhinuk. A candle +from his bag was lighted. Amnatuhinuk was sent for a kettle of water; +wood was piled into the stove, and the kettle put over to boil. The +stove proved too slow for Emuk and he built a fire outside where tea +could be made more quickly, and when it was ready he insisted upon our +drinking several cups of it to stimulate us. Then he brought forth a +pail containing strong-smelling beans cooked in rancid seal oil, which +he heated. This concoction he thought was good strong food and just +the thing for half-starved men, and he set it before us with the air of +one who has done something especially nice. We ate some of it but were +as temperate as Emuk with his urgings would permit us to be, for I knew +the penalty that food exacts after a long fast. + +A comfortable bed of boughs and blankets was spread for us, and we were +made to lie down. Emuk, on more than one occasion, bad been in a +similar position to ours and others had come to his aid, and he wanted +to pay the debt he felt he owed to humanity. + +He told us that Potokomik and the others, after suffering great +hardships, had reached his tupek near the Mukalik the day before, but I +could not understand his language well enough to draw from him any of +the details of their trip out. + +At midnight Emuk made tea again and roused us up to partake of it and +eat more dough cakes and beans with seal oil. I feared the +consequences, but I could not refuse him, for he did not understand why +we should not want to eat a great deal. The result was that with +happiness and stomach ache I could not sleep, and before morning was +going out to vomit. Even at the danger of seeming not to appreciate +Emuk's hospitality, I was constrained to decline to eat any breakfast. + +Emuk noticed a hole in the bottom of one of my seal-skin boots. He +promptly pulled off his own and made me put them on. He had another +though poorer pair for himself. + +It was a delight to be moving again. We were on the trail before dawn, +Emuk with his snowshoes tramping the road ahead of the dogs and +Amnatuhinuk driving the team. The temperature must have been at least +ten degrees below zero. The weather was bitterly cold for men so +thinly clad as Easton and I were, and the snow was so deep that we +could not exercise by running, for we had no snowshoes, and while we +wallowed through the deep snow the dogs would have left us behind, so +we could do nothing but sit on the komatik (sledge) and shiver. + +At noon we stopped at the foot of a hill before ascending it, and the +men threw up a wind-break of snow blocks, back of which they built a +fire and put over the teakettle. Easton and I had just squatted close +to the fire to warm our benumbed hands when the husky dogs put their +noses in the air and gave out the long weird howl of welcome or +defiance that announces the approach of other dogs, and almost +immediately a loaded team with two men came over the hill and down the +slope at a gallop toward us. It proved to be Job Edmunds, the +half-breed Hudson's Bay Company officer from Whale River, and his +Eskimo servant, coming to our aid. + +Edmunds was greatly relieved to find us safe. He knew exactly what to +do. From his komatik box he produced a bottle of port wine and made us +each take a small dose of it which he poured into a tin cup. He put a +big, warm reindeer-skin koolutuk [the outer garment of deerskin worn by +the Eskimos] on each of us and pulled the hoods over our heads. He had +warm footwear--in fact, everything that was necessary for our comfort. +Then he cut two ample slices of wheat bread from a big loaf, and +toasted and buttered them for us. He was very kind and considerate. +Edmunds has saved many lives in his day. Every winter he is called +upon to go to the rescue of Eskimos who have been caught in the barrens +without food, as we were. He had saved Emuk from starvation on one or +two occasions. + +After a half-hour's delay we were off again, I on the komatik with +Edmunds, and Easton with Emuk. We passed the snow house where Edmunds +and his man had spent the previous night. They would have come on in +the dark, but they knew Emuk was ahead and would reach us anyway. + +Edmunds had a splendid team of dogs, wonderfully trained. The big, +wolfish creatures loved him and they feared him. He almost never had +to use the long walrus-hide whip. They obeyed him on the instant +without hesitation--"Ooisht," and they pulled in the harness as one; +"Aw," and they stopped. There was a power in his voice that governed +them like magic. The wind had packed the snow hard enough on the +barrens beyond the Tuktotuk--and the country there was all barren--to +bear up the komatik; the dogs were in prime condition and traveled at a +fast trot or a gallop, and we made good time. Once Emuk stopped to +take a white fox out of a trap. He killed it by pressing his knee on +its breast and stifling its heart beats. + +Big cakes of ice were piled in high barricades along the rivers where +we crossed them, and at these places we had to let the komatik down +with care on one side and help the dogs haul it up with much labor on +the other; and on the level, through the rough ice hummocks or amongst +the rocks, the drivers were kept busy steering to prevent collisions +with the obstructions, while the dogs rushed madly ahead, and we, on +the komatik, clung on for dear life and watched our legs that they +might not get crushed. Once or twice we turned over, but the drivers +never lost their hold of the komatik or control of the dogs. + +It was dark when we reached Emuk's skin tupek and were welcomed by a +group of Eskimos, men, women and children. Iksialook was of the +number, and he was so worn and haggard that I scarcely recognized him. +He had seen hardship since our parting. The people were very dirty and +very hospitable. They took us into the tupek at once, which was +extremely filthy and made insufferably hot by a sheet-iron tent stove. +The women wore sealskin trousers and in the long hoods of their +_adikeys_, or upper garments, carried babies whose bright little +dusky-hued faces peeped timidly out at us over the mothers' shoulders. +A ptarmigan was boiled and divided between Easton and me, and with that +and bread and butter from Edmunds's box and hot tea we made a splendid +supper. After a smoke all around, for the women smoke as well as the +men, polar bear and reindeer skins were spread upon spruce boughs, +blankets were given us for covering, and we lay down. Eleven of us +crowded into the tupek and slept there that night. How all the Eskimos +found room I do not know. I was crowded so tightly between one of the +fat women on one side and Easton on the other that I could not turn +over; but I slept as I had seldom ever slept before. + +The next forenoon we crossed the Mukalik River and soon after reached +Whale River, big and broad, with blocks of ice surging up and down upon +the bosom of the restless tide. The Post is about ten miles from its +mouth. We turned northward along its east bank and, in a little while, +came to some scattered spruce woods, which Edmunds told me were just +below his home. Then at a creek, above which stood the miniature log +cabin and small log storehouse comprising the Post buildings, I got off +and climbed up through rough ice barricades. + +Never in my life have I had such a welcome as I received here. Mrs. +Edmunds came out to meet me. She told me that they had been watching +for us at the Post all the morning and how glad they were that we were +safe, and that we had come to see them, and that we must stay a good +long time and rest. For two-score years they had lived in that +desolate place and never before had a traveler come to visit them. In +all that time the only white people they had ever met were the three or +four connected with the Post at Fort Chimo, for the ship never calls at +Whale River on her rounds. Edmunds brings the provisions over from +Fort Chimo in a little schooner. There are five in the family--Edmunds +and his wife, their daughter (a young woman of twenty) and her husband, +Sam Ford (a son of John Ford at George River), and Mary's baby. + +A good wash and clean clothing followed by a sumptuous dinner of +venison put us on our feet again. I suffered little as a result of the +fasting period, but Easton had three or four days of pretty severe +colic. This is the usual result of feast after famine, and was to be +expected. + +And now I learned the details of Potokomik's journey out. When the +three Eskimos left us in the shack they started at once in search of +Emuk's tupek. The storm that raged for two days swept pitilessly +across their path, but they never halted, pushing through the deepening +snow in single file, taking turns at going ahead and breaking the way, +until night, and then they stopped. They had no ax and could have no +fire, so they built themselves a snow igloo as best they could without +the proper implements and it protected them against the drifting snow +and piercing wind while they slept. On the second day they shot, with +their rifles, seven ptarmigans. These they plucked and ate raw. They +saw no more game, and finally became so weak and exhausted they could +carry their rifles no farther and left them on the trail. Each night +they built a snow house. With increasing weakness their progress was +very slow; still they kept going, staggering on and on through the +snow. It was only their lifelong habit of facing great odds and +enduring great hardships that kept them up. Men less inured to cold +and privation would surely have succumbed. They were making their +final fight when at last they stumbled into Emuk's tupek. Kumuk sat +down and cried like a child. It was two weeks before any of them was +able to do any physical work. They looked like shadows of their former +selves when I saw them at Whale River. + +It was after dark Sunday night when my letter to Edmunds reached the +Post. Earlier in the evening Edmunds and his man had crossed the +river, which is here over half a mile in width, and pitched their camp +on the opposite shore, preparatory to starting up the river the next +morning on a deer hunt, herds having been reported to the northward by +Eskimos. Mrs. Edmunds read the letter, and she and Mary were at once +all excitement. They lighted a lantern and signaled to the camp on the +other side and fired guns until they had a reply. Then, for fear that +Edmunds might not understand the urgency of his immediate returns they +kept firing at intervals all night, stopping only to pack the komatik +box with the clothing and food that Edmunds was to bring to us. +Neither of the women slept. With the thought of men starving out in +the snow they could not rest. The floating ice in the river and the +swift tide made it impossible for a boat to cross in the darkness, but +with daylight Edmunds returned, harnessed his dogs, and was off to meet +us as has been described. + +We had left George River on October twenty-second, and it was the +eighth of November when we reached Whale River, and in this interval +the caribou herds that the Indians had reported west of the Koksoak had +passed to the east of Whale River and turned to the northward. Fifty +miles inland the Indian and Eskimo hunters had met them. The killing +was over and they told us hundreds of the animals lay dead in the snow +above. So many had been butchered that all the dogs and men in Ungava +would be well supplied with meat during the winter, and numbers of the +carcasses would feed the packs of timber wolves that infested the +country or rot in the next summer's sun. Sam Ford had gone inland but +was too late for the big hunt and only killed four or five deer. The +wolves were so thick, he told us, that he could not sleep at night in +his camp with the noise of their howling. One Eskimo brought in two +wolf skins that were so large when they were stretched a man could +almost have crawled into either of them. I saw wolf tracks myself +within a quarter mile of the Post, for the animals were so bold they +ventured almost to the door. + +Edmunds is a famous hunter. During the previous winter, besides +attending to his post duties, he killed nearly half a hundred caribou +to supply his Post and Fort Chimo with man and dog food, and in the +same season his traps yielded him two hundred fox pelts--mostly white +ones--his personal catch. This was not an unusual year's work for him. +Mary inherits her father's hunting instincts. In the morning she would +put her baby in the hood of her adikey, shoulder her gun, don her +snowshoes, and go to "tend" her traps. One day she did not take her +gun, and when she had made her rounds of the traps and started homeward +discovered that she was being followed by a big gray timber wolf. When +she stopped, the wolf stopped; when she went on, it followed, stealing +gradually closer and closer to her, almost imperceptibly, but still +gaining upon her. She wanted to run, but she realized that if she did +the wolf would know at once that she was afraid and would attack and +kill her and her baby; so without hastening her pace, and only looking +back now and again to note the wolf's gain, she reached the door of the +house and entered with the animal not ten paces away. Now she always +carries a gun and feels no fear, for she can shoot. + +I took advantage of the delay at Whale River to partially outfit for +the winter. Edmunds and his family rendered us valuable assistance and +advice, securing for us, from the Eskimos, sealskin boots, and from the +Indians who came to the Post while we were there, deer skins for +trousers, koolutuks and sleeping bags, Mrs. Edmunds and Mary themselves +making our moccasins, mittens and duffel socks. + +The Eskimos were all away at their hunting grounds and it was not +possible to secure a dog team to carry us on to Fort Chimo. Therefore, +when Edmunds announced one day that he must send Sam Ford and the +Eskimo servant over with the Post team for a load of provisions, I +availed myself of the opportunity to accompany them, and on the +twenty-eighth of November we said good-by to the friends who had been +so kind to us and again faced toward the westward. + +The morning was clear, crisp and bracing; the temperature was twenty +degrees below zero. We ascended the river some seven or eight miles +before we found a safe crossing, as the tide had kept the ice broken in +the center of the channel below, and piled it like hills along the +banks. + +I noted that the Whale River valley was much better wooded than any +country we had seen for a long time--since we had left the head waters +of the George River, in fact--and the Indians say it is so to its +source. The trees are small black spruce and larch, but a fairly thick +growth. This "bush," however, is evidently quite restricted in width, +for after crossing the river we were almost immediately out of it, and +the same interminable, barren, rocky, treeless country that we had seen +to the eastward extended westward to the Koksoak. + +That night was spent in a snow igloo. The next day we crossed the +False River, a wide stream at its mouth, but a little way up not over +two hundred yards wide. At twelve o'clock a halt was made at an Eskimo +tupek for dinner. + +The people were, as these northern people always are, most hospitable, +giving us the best they had--fresh venison and tea. After but an +hour's delay we were away again, and at three o'clock, with the dogs on +a gallop, rounded the hill above Fort Chimo and pulled into the Post, +the farthest limit of white man's habitation in all Labrador. + +We were welcomed by Mr. Duncan Mathewson, the Chief Trader, who has +charge of the Ungava District for the Hudson's Bay Company, and Dr. +Alexander Milne, Assistant Commissioner of the Company, from Winnipeg, +who had arrived on the _Pelican_ and was on a tour of inspection of the +Labrador Coast Posts. + +The Chief Trader's residence is a small building, and Mr. Mathewson was +unable to entertain us in the house, but he gave orders at once to have +a commodious room in one of the dozen or so other buildings of the Post +fitted up for us with beds, stove and such simple furnishings as were +necessary to establish us in housekeeping and make us comfortable +during our stay with him. Here we were to remain until the Indian and +Eskimo hunters came for their Christmas and New Year's trading, at +which time, I was advised, I should probably be able to engage Eskimo +drivers and dogs to carry us eastward to the Atlantic coast. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE INDIANS OF THE NORTH + +Fort Chmio is situated upon the east bank of the Koksoak River and +about twenty-five miles from its mouth, where the river is nearly a +mile and a half wide. There are two trading posts here; one, that of +the Hudson's Bay Company, consisting of a dozen or so buildings, which +include dwelling and storehouses and native cabins; the other that of +Revellion Brothers, the great fur house of Paris, colloquially referred +to as "the French Company," which stands just above and adjoining the +station of the Hudson's Bay Company. This latter Post was erected in +the year 1903, and has nearly as many buildings as the older +establishment. We used to refer to them respectively as "London" and +"Paris." + +The history of Fort Chimo extends back to the year 1811, when Kmoch and +Kohlmeister, two of the Moravian Brethren of the Okak Mission on the +Atlantic coast, in the course of their efforts for the conversion of +the Eskimos to Christianity cruised into Ungava Bay, discovered the +George River, which they named in honor of King George the Third, and +then proceeded to the Koksoak, which they ascended to the point of the +present settlement. The natives received them well. They erected a +beacon on a hill, tarried but a few days and then turned back to Okak. +Upon their return they gave glowing accounts of their reception by the +natives and the great possibilities for profitable trade, but they did +not deem it advisable themselves to extend their labors to that field. + +In the course of time this report drifted to England and to the ears of +the officials of the Hudson's Bay Company, who were attracted by it, +and in 1827 Dr. Mendry, an officer of the Company at Moose Factory, +with a party of white men and Indian guides crossed the peninsula from +Richmond Gulf, through Clearwater Lake to the head waters of the Larch +River, a tributary of the Koksoak, thence descended the Larch and +Koksoak to the place where the Moravians had erected the beacon, and on +a low terrace, just across the river from the beacon, established the +original Fort Chimo. The difficulties of navigation and the consequent +uncertainty and expense of keeping the Post supplied with provisions +and articles of trade were such, however, that after a brief trial +Ungava was abandoned. + +The opportunities for lucrative trade here were not forgotten by the +Company, and in the year 1837 Factor John McLean was detailed to +re-establish Fort Chimo. This he did, and a year later built the first +Post at George River. During the succeeding winter he crossed the +interior with dogs to Northwest River. Upon their return journey +McLean and his party ate their dogs and barely escaped perishing from +starvation; one of his Indians, who was sent ahead, reaching Fort Chimo +and bringing succor when McLean and the others, through extreme +weakness, were unable to proceed farther. In the following summer +McLean built the fort on Indian House Lake, and the other one that has +been mentioned, on a large lake to the westward--Lake Eraldson he +called it--presumably the source of Whale River. Later he succeeded in +crossing to Northwest River by canoe, ascending the George River and +descending the Atlantic slope of the plateau by way of the Grand River. +His object was to establish a regular line of communication between +Fort Chimo and Northwest River, with interior posts along the route. +The natural obstacles which the country presented finally forced the +abandonment of this plan as impracticable, and the two interior posts +were closed after a brief trial. This was before the days of steam +navigation, and with sailing vessels it was only possible to reach +these isolated northern stations in Ungava Bay with supplies once every +two years. Even these infrequent visits were so fraught with danger +and uncertainty that finally, in 1855, Fort Chimo and George River were +again abandoned as unprofitable. In 1866, however, the building of the +Company's steamship Labrador made yearly visits possible, and in that +year another attack was made upon the Ungava district and Fort Chimo +was rebuilt, George River Post re-established, and a little later the +small station at Whale River was erected. With the improved facilities +for transportation the trade with Indians and Eskimos, and the salmon +and white whale fisheries carried on by the Posts, now proved most +profitable, and the Company has since and is still reaping the reward +of its persistence. + +Dr. Milne, as has been stated, was not a permanent resident of the +Post. Regularly stationed here, besides Mathewson, there is a young +clerk, a cooper, a carpenter, and a handy man, all Scotchmen, and a +comparatively new arrival, Rev. Samuel M. Stewart, a missionary of the +Church Mission Society of England. Of Mr. Stewart, who did much to +relieve the monotony of our several weeks' sojourn at Fort Chimo, and +his remarkable self-sacrifice and work, I shall have something to say +later. + +The day after our arrival we took occasion to pay our respects to +Monsieur D. The'venet, the officer in charge of the "French Post." Our +reception was most cordial. M. The'venet is a gentleman by birth. He +was at one time an officer in the French cavalry, but his love of +adventure and active temperament rebelled against the inactivity of +garrison duty and he resigned his commission in the army, came to +Canada, and joined the Northwest mounted police in the hope of +obtaining a detail in the Klondike. In this he was disappointed, and +the outbreak of the South African war offering a new field of adventure +he quit the police, enlisted in the Canadian Mounted Rifles, and served +in the field throughout the war. After his return to Canada and +discharge from the army, he took service with Revellion Brothers. + +M. The'venet invited us to dine with him that very evening, and we were +not slow to accept his hospitality. His bright conversation, pleasing +personality and unstinted hospitality offered a delightful evening and +we were not disappointed. This and many other pleasant evenings spent +in his society during our stay at Fort Chimo were some of the most +enjoyable of our trip. + +Here an agreeable surprise awaited me. When we sat down to dinner +The'venet called in his new half-breed French-Indian interpreter, and +who should he prove to be but Belfleur, one of the dog drivers who in +April, 1904, accompanied me from Northwest River to Rigolet, when I +began that anxious journey over the ice with Hubbard's body. He was +apparently as well pleased at the meeting as I. Belfleur and a +half-breed Scotch-Eskimo named Saunders are employed as Indian and +Eskimo interpreters at the French Post, and are the only ones of M. +The'venet's people with whom he can converse. Belfleur speaks French +and broken English, and Saunders English, besides their native +languages. + +None of the people of Ungava, with the exception of two or three, +speaks any but his mother tongue, and they have no ambition, +apparently, to extend their linguistic acquirements. It is, indeed, a +lonely life for the trader, who but once a year, when his ship arrives, +has any communication with the great world which he has left behind +him. No white woman is here with her softening influence, no physician +or surgeon to treat the sick and injured, and never until the advent of +Mr. Stewart any permanent missionary. + +The natives that remain at Fort Chimo all the year are three or four +families of Eskimos, a few old or crippled Indians, and some half-breed +Indians and Eskimos, who do chores around the Posts and lead an +uncertain existence. The half-breed Indian children are taken care of +at the "Indian house," a log structure presided over by the "Queen" of +Ungava, a very corpulent old Nascaupee woman, who lives by the labor of +others and draws tribute from trading Indians who make the Indian house +their rendezvous when they visit the Post. She is and always has been +very kind, and a sort of mother, to the little waifs that nearly every +trader or white servant has left behind him, when the Company's orders +transferred him to some other Post and he abandoned his temporary wife +forever. + +The Indians of the Ungava district are chiefly Nascaupees, with +occasionally a few Crees from the West. "Nenenot" they call +themselves, which means perfect, true men. "Nascaupee" means false or +untrue men and is a word of opprobrium applied to them by the +Mountaineers in the early days, because of their failure to keep a +compact to join forces with the latter at the time of the wars for +supremacy between the Indians and Eskimos. Nascaupee is the name by +which they are known now, outside of their own lodges, and the one +which we shall use in referring to them. In like manner I have chosen +to use the English Mountaineer, rather than the French _Montagnais_, in +speaking of the southern Indians. North of the Straits of Belle Isle +the French word is never heard, and if you were to refer to these +Indians as "Montagnais" to the Labrador natives it is doubtful whether +you would be understood. + +Both Mountaineers and Nascaupees are of Cree origin, and belong to the +great Algonquin family. Their language is similar, with only the +variation of dialect that might be expected with the different +environments. The Nascaupees have one peculiarity of speech, however, +which is decidedly their own. In conversation their voice is raised to +a high pitch, or assumes a whining, petulant tone. An outsider might +believe them to be quarreling and highly excited, when in fact they are +on the best of terms and discussing some ordinary subject in a most +matter of fact way. + +In personal appearance the Nascaupees are taller and more angular than +their southern brothers, but the high cheek bones, the color and +general features are the same. They are capable of enduring the +severest cold. In summer cloth clothing obtained in barter at the +Posts is, worn, but in winter deerskin garments are usual. The coat +has the hair inside, and the outside of the finely dressed, chamoislike +skin is decorated with various designs in color, in startling +combinations of blue, red and yellow, painted on with dyes obtained at +the Post or manufactured by themselves from fish roe and mineral +products. When the garment has a hood it is sometimes the skin of a +wolf's head, with the ears standing and hair outside, giving the wearer +a startling and ferocious appearance. Tight-fitting deerskin or red +cloth leggings decorated with beads, and deerskin moccasins complete +the costume. + +Some beadwork trimming is made by the women, but they do little in the +way of needlework embroidery, and the results of their attempts in this +direction are very indifferent. This applies to the full-blood +Nascaupees. I have seen some fairly good specimens of moccasin +embroidery done by the half-breed women at the Post, and by the +Mountaineer women in the South. + +The Nascaupees are not nearly so clean nor so prosperous as the +Mountaineers, and, coming very little in contact with the whites, live +now practically as their forefathers lived for untold generations +before them--just as they lived, in fact, before the white men came. +They are perhaps the most primitive Indians on the North American +continent to-day. + +The Mountaineers, on the other hand, see much more, particularly during +the summer months, of the whites and half-breeds of the coast. Most of +those who spend their summers on the St. Lawrence, west of St. +Augustine, have more or less white blood in their veins through +consorting with the traders and settlers. With but two or three +exceptions the Mountaineers of the Atlantic coast, Groswater Bay, and +at St. Augustine and the eastward, are pure, uncontaminated Indians. + +The line of territorial division between the Nascaupee and Mountaineer +Indians' hunting grounds is pretty closely drawn. The divide north of +Lake Michikamau is the southern and the George River the eastern +boundary of the Nascaupee territory, and to the south and to the east +of these boundaries, lie the hunting grounds of the Mountaineers. + +These latter, south of the height of land, as has been stated, are +practically all under the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, and +are most devout in the observance of their religious obligations. While +it is true that their faith is leavened to some extent by the +superstitions that their ancestors have handed down to them, yet even +in the long months of the winter hunting season they never forget the +teachings of their father confessor. + +The Nascaupees are heathens. About the year 1877 or 1878 Father P'ere +Lacasse crossed overland from Northwest River, apparently by the Grand +River route, to Fort Chimo, in an attempt to carry the work of the +mission into that field. The Nascaupees, however, did not take kindly +to the new religion, and unfortunately during the priest's stay among +them, which was brief, the hunting was bad. This was attributed to the +missionary's presence, and the sachems were kept busy for a time +dispelling the evil charm. No one was converted. Let us hope that Mr. +Stewart, who is there to stay, and is an earnest, persistent worker, +will reach the savage confidence and conscience, though his opportunity +with the Indians is small, for these Nascaupees tarry but a very brief +time each year within his reach. With open water in the summer they +come to the Fort with the pelts of their winter catch. These are +exchanged for arms, ammunition, knives, clothing, tea and tobacco, +chiefly. Then, after a short rest they disappear again into the +fastnesses of the wilderness above, to fish the interior lakes and hunt +the forests, and no more is seen of them until the following summer, +excepting only a few of the younger men who usually emerge from the +silent, snow-bound land during Christmas week to barter skins for such +necessaries as they are in urgent need of, and to get drunk on a sort +of beer, a concoction of hops, molasses and unknown ingredients, that +the Post dwellers make and the "Queen" dispenses during the holiday +festivals. + +Reindeer, together with ptarmigans (Arctic grouse) and fish, form their +chief food supply, with tea always when they can get it. All of these +northern Indiana are passionately fond of tea, and drink unbelievable +quantities of it. Little flour is used. The deer are erratic in their +movements and can never be depended upon with any degree of certainty, +and should the Indians fail in their hunt they are placed face to face +with starvation, as was the case in the winter of 1892 and 1893, when +full half of the people perished from lack of food. + +Formerly the migrating herds pretty regularly crossed the Koksoak very +near and just above the Post in their passage to the eastward in the +early autumn, but for several years now only small bands have been seen +here, the Indians meeting the deer usually some forty or fifty miles +farther up the river. When the animals swim the river they bunch close +together; Indian canoe men head them off and turn them up-stream, +others attacking the helpless animals with spears. An agent of the +Hudson's Bay Company told me that he had seen nearly four hundred +animals slaughtered in this manner in a few hours. When bands of +caribou are met in winter they are driven into deep snow banks, and, +unable to help themselves, are speared at will. + +Of course when the killing is a large one the flesh of all the animals +cannot be preserved, and frequently only the tongues are used. Of late +years, however, owing to the growing scarcity of reindeer, it is said +the Indians have learned to be a little less wasteful than formerly, +and to restrict their kill more nearly to their needs, though during +the winter I was there hundreds were slaughtered for tongues and sinew +alone. Large quantities of the venison are dried and stored up against +a season of paucity. Pemmican, which was formerly so largely used by +our western Indians, is occasionally though not generally made by those +of Labrador. When deer are killed some bone, usually a shoulder blade, +is hung in a tree as an offering to the Manitou, that he may not +interfere with future hunts, and drive the animals away. + +The Indian religion is not one of worship, but one of fear and +superstition. They are constanly in dread of imaginary spirits that +haunt the wilderness and drive away the game or bring sickness or other +disaster upon them. The conjurer is employed to work his charms to +keep off the evil ones. They evidently have some sort of indefinite +belief in a future existence, and hunting implements and other +offerings are left with the dead, who, where the conditions will +permit, are buried in the ground. + +Sometimes the very old people are abandoned and left to die of +starvation unattended. Be it said to the honor of the trading +companies that they do their utmost to prevent this when it is +possible, and offer the old and decrepit a haven at the Post, where +they are fed and cared for. + +The marriage relation is held very lightly and continence and chastity +are not in their sight virtues. A child born to an unmarried woman is +no impediment to her marriage. If it is a male child it is, in fact, +an advantage. Love does not enter into the Indian's marriage +relationship. It is a mating for convenience. Gifts are made to the +girl's father or nearest male relative, and she is turned over, whether +she will or no, to the would-be husband. There is no ceremony. A +hunter has as many wives as he is physically able to control and take +care of--one, two or even three. Sometimes it happens that they +combine against him and he receives at their hands what is doubtless +well-merited chastisement. + +The men are the hunters, the women the slaves. No one finds fault with +this, not even the women, for it is an Indian custom immemorial for the +woman to do all the hard, physical work. + +The Mountaineer Indians that we met on the George River, and one Indian +who visited Fort Chimo while we were there, are the only ones of the +Labrador that I have ever seen drive dogs. This Fort Chimo Indian, +unlike the other hunters of his people, has spent much time at the +Post, and mingled much with the white traders and the Eskimos, and, for +an Indian, entertains very progressive and broad views. He was, with +the exception of a humpbacked post attache' who had an Eskimo wife, the +only Indian I met that would not be insulted when one addressed him in +Eskimo, for the Indians and Eskimos carry on no social intercourse and +the Indians rather despise the Eskimos. The Indian referred to, +however, has learned something of the Eskimo language, and also a +little English--English that you cannot always understand, but must +take for granted. He informed me, "Me three man--Indian, husky +(Eskimo), white man." He was very proud of his accomplishments. + +The Indian hauls his loads in winter on toboggans, which he +manufactures himself with his ax and crooked knife--the only +woodworking tools he possesses. The crooked knives he makes, too, from +old files, shaping and tempering them. + +The snowshoe frames are made by the men, the babiche is cut and netted +by the women, who display wonderful skill in this work. The +Mountaineers make much finer netted snowshoes than the Nascaupees, and +have great pride in the really beautiful, light snowshoes that they +make. No finer ones are to be found anywhere than those made by the +Groswater Bay Mountaineers. Three shapes are in vogue--the beaver +tail, the egg tail and the long tail. The beaver-tail snowshoes are +much more difficult to make, and are seldom seen amongst the +Nascaupees. With them the egg tail is the favorite. + +The Ungava Indians never go to the open bay in their canoes. They have +a superstition that it will bring them bad luck, for there they say the +evil spirits dwell. Of all the Indians that visit Fort Chimo only two +or three have ever ventured to look upon the waters of Ungava Bay, and +these had their view from a hilltop at a safe distance. + +It is safe to say that there is not a truthful Indian in Labrador. In +fact it is considered an accomplishment to lie cheerfully and well. +They are like the Crees of James Bay and the westward in this respect, +and will lie most plausibly when it will serve their purpose better +than truth, and I verily believe these Indians sometimes lie for the +mere pleasure of it when it might be to their advantage to tell the +truth. + +One good and crowning characteristic these children of the Ungava +wilderness possess--that of honesty. They will not steal. You may +have absolute confidence in them in this respect. And I may say, too, +that they are most hospitable to the traveler, as our own experience +with them exemplified. For their faults they must not be condemned. +They live according to their lights, and their lights are those of the +untutored savage who has never heard the gospel of Christianity and +knows nothing of the civilization of the great world outside. Their +life is one of constant struggle for bare existence, and it is truly +wonderful how they survive at all in the bleak wastes which they +inhabit. + +NOTE.--It must not be supposed that all of the statements made in this +chapter with reference to the Indian, particularly the Nascaupees, are +the result of my personal observations. During our brief stay at +Ungava, much of this information was gleaned from the officers of the +two trading companies, and from natives. In a number of instances they +were verified by myself, but I have taken the liberty, when doubt or +conflicting statements existed, of referring to the works of Mr. A. P. +Low of the Canadian Geological Society and Mr. Lucien M. Turner of the +Bureau of Ethnology at Washington, to set myself right. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE ESKIMOS OF LABRADOR + +During our stay in Ungava, and the succeeding weeks while we traveled +down the ice-bound coast, we were brought into constant and intimate +contact with the Eskimos. We saw them in almost every phase of their +winter life, eating and sleeping with them in their tupeks and igloos, +and meeting them in their hunting camps and at the Fort, when they came +to barter and to enjoy the festivities of the Christmas holiday week. + +The Cree Indians used to call these people "Ashkimai," which means "raw +meat eaters," and it is from this appellation that our word Eskimo is +derived. Here in Ungava and on the coast of Hudson's Bay, they are +pretty generally known as "Huskies," a contraction of "Huskimos," the +pronunciation given to the word _Eskimos_ by the English sailors of the +trading vessels, with their well-known penchant for tacking on the "h" +where it does not belong, and leaving it off when it should be +pronounced. + +The Eskimos call themselves "Innuit," [Singular, Innuk; dual, Innuek] +which means people--humans. The white visitor is a "Kablunak," or +outlander, while a breed born in the country is a "Kablunangayok," or +one partaking of the qualities of both the Innuk and the Kablunak. +Those who live in the Koksoak district are called "Koksoagmiut," * and +those of the George River district are the "Kangerlualuksoagmiut." ** + +The ethnologists, I believe, have never agreed upon the origin of the +Eskimo, some claiming it is Mongolian, some otherwise. In passing I +shall simply remark that in appearance they certainly resemble the +Mongolian race. If some of the men that I saw in the North were +dressed like Japanese or Chinese and placed side by side with them, the +one could not be told from the other so long as the Eskimos kept their +mouths closed. + +In our old school geographies we used to see them pictured as stockily +built little fellows. In real life they compare well in stature with +the white man of the temperate zone. With a very few exceptions the +Eskimos of Ungava average over five feet eight inches in height, with +some six-footers. + +* _Kok_, river; _soak_, big; _miut_, inhabitants; _Koksoagmiut_, +inhabitants of the big river. + +** Literally, inhabitants of the very big bay. The George River mouth +widens into a bay which is known as the Very Big Bay. + +Their legs are shorter and their bodies longer than the white man's, +and this probably is one reason why they have such wonderful capacity +for physical endurance. In this respect they are the superior of the +Indian. With plenty of food and a bush to lie under at night the +Indian will doubtless travel farther in a given time than the Eskimo. +But turn them both loose with only food enough for one meal a day for a +month on the bare rocks or ice fields of the Arctic North, and your +Indian will soon be dead, while your Eskimo will emerge from the test +practically none the worse for his experience, for it is a usual +experience with him and he has a wonderful amount of dogged +perseverance. The Eskimo knows better how to husband his food than the +Indian; and give him a snow bank and he can make himself comfortable +anywhere. The most gluttonous Indian would turn green with envy to see +the quantities of meat the Eskimo can stow away within his inner self +at a single sitting; but on the other hand he can live, and work hard +too, on a single scant meal a day, just as his dogs do. + +The facial characteristics of the Eskimo are wide cheek bones and +round, full face, with a flat, broad nose. I used to look at these +flat, comfortable noses on very cold days and wish that for winter +travel I might be able to exchange the longer face projection that my +Scotch-Irish forbears have handed down to me for one of them, for they +are not so easily frosted in a forty or fifty degrees below zero +temperature. By the way, if you ever get your nose frozen do not rub +snow on it. If you do you will rub all the skin off, and have a pretty +sore member to nurse for some time afterward. Grasp it, instead, in +your bare hand. That is the Eskimo's way, and he knows. My advice is +founded upon experience. + +They are not so dark-hued as the Indians--in fact, many of them are no +darker than the average white man under like conditions of exposure to +wind and storm and sun would be. The hair is straight, black, coarse +and abundant. The men usually wear it hanging below their ears, cut +straight around, with a forehead bang reaching nearly to the eyebrows. +The women wear it braided and looped up on the sides of the head. + +What constitutes beauty is of course largely a question of individual +taste. My own judgment of the Eskimos is that they are very ugly, +although I have seen young women among them whom I thought actually +handsome. This was when they first arrived at the Post with dogs and +komatik and they were dressed in their native costume of deerskin +trousers and Koolutuk, their cheeks red and glowing with the exercise +of travel and the keen, frosty atmosphere. A half hour later I have +seen the same women when stringy, dirty skirts had replaced the +neat-fitting trousers, and Dr. Grenfell's description of them when thus +clad invariably came to my mind: "A bedraggled kind of mop, soaked in +oil and filth." This tendency to ape civilization by wearing civilized +garments, is happily confined to their brief sojourns at the Post. +When they are away at their camps and igloos their own costume is +almost exclusively worn, and is the best possible costume for the +climate and the country. The adikey, or koolutuk, of the women, has a +long flap or tail, reaching nearly to the heels, and a sort of apron in +front. The hood is so commodious in size that a baby can be tucked +away into it, and that is the way the small children are carried. The +men wear cloth trousers except in the very cold weather, when they don +their deer or seal skins. Their adikey or koolutuk reaches half way to +their knees, and is cut square around. The hood of course, in their +case, is only large enough to cover the head. It might be of interest +to explain that if this garment is made of cloth it is an _adikey_; if +of deerskin, a _koolutuk_, and if made of sealskin, a _netsek_--all cut +alike. If they wear two cloth garments at the same time, as is usually +the case, the inner one only is an adikey, the outer one a silapak. + +Their language is the same from Greenland to Alaska. Of course +different localities have different dialects, but this is the natural +result of a different environment. Missionary Bohlman, whom I met at +Hebron, told me that before coming to Labrador he was attached to a +Greenland mission. When he came to his new field he found the language +so similar to that in Greenland that he had very little difficulty in +making himself understood. When Missionary Stecker a few years ago +went from Labrador to Alaska he was able to converse with the Alaskan +Eskimos. It is held by some authorities that Greenland was peopled by +Labrador Eskimos who crossed Hudson Strait to Baffin Land, and thence +made their way to Greenland, having originally crossed from Siberia +into Alaska, thence eastward, skirting Hudson Bay. This is entirely +feasible. I heard of one _umiak_ (skin boat) only a few years ago +having crossed to Cape Chidley from Baffin Land. Even in Labrador +there are many different dialects. The "Northerners," the people +inhabiting the northwest arm of the peninsula, have many words that the +Koksoagmiut do not understand. The intonation of the Ungava Eskimos, +particularly the women, is like a plaint. At Okak they sing their +words. Each settlement on the Atlantic coast has its own dialect. It +is a difficult language to learn. Words are compounded until they +reach a great and almost unpronounceable length.* Naturally the coming +of the trader has introduced many new words, as tobaccomik, teamik, +etc., "mik" being the accusative ending. The Eskimo in his language +cannot count beyond ten. If he wishes to express twelve, for instance, +he will say, "as many fingers as a man has and two more." To express +one hundred he would say, "five times as many fingers and toes as a man +has," and so on. It is not a written language, but the Moravians have +adapted the English alphabet to it and are teaching the Eskimos to read +and write. Mr. Stewart in his work has adapted the Cree syllabic +characters to the Eskimo, and he is teaching the Ungava people to write +by this method, which is largely phonetic. Both the Moravians and Mr. +Stewart are instructing them in the mystery of counting in German. + +*The following will illustrate this; it is part of a sentence quoted +from a Moravian missionary pamphlet: "Taimailinganiarpok, illagget +Labradormiut namgminek akkilejungnalerkartinaget pijariakartamingnik +tamainik, sakkertitsijungnalerkartinagillo ajokertnijunik." + +** The Eskimo numerals are as follows: 1, attansek; 2, magguk; 3, +pingasut; 4, sittamat; 5, tellimat; 6, pingasoyortut; 7, aggartut; 8, +sittamauyortut; 9, sittamartut; 10, tellimauyortut. + +Cleanliness is not one of the Eskimos' virtues, and they are frequently +infested with vermin, which are wont to transfer their allegiance to +visitors, as we learned in due course, to our discomfiture. For many +months of the year the only water they have is obtained by melting snow +or ice. In sections where there is no wood for fuel this must be done +over stone lamps in which seal oil is burned, and it is so slow a +process that the water thus procured is held too precious to be wasted +in cleansing body or clothing. One of the missionaries remarked that +"the children must be very clean little creatures, for the parents +never find it necessary to wash them." + +They treat the children with the greatest kindness and +consideration--not only their own, but all children, generally. I did +not once see an Eskimo punish a child, nor hear a harsh word spoken to +one, and they are the most obedient youngsters in the world. A +missionary on the Atlantic coast told me that once when he punished his +child an Eskimo standing near remarked: "You don't love you child or +you wouldn't punish it." And this is the sentiment they hold. + +Love is not essential to a happy marriage among the Eskimos. When a +man wants a woman he takes her. In fact they believe that an unwilling +bride makes a good wife. Potokomik's wife was most unwilling, and he +took her, dragging her by the tail of her adikey from her father's +igloo across the river on the ice to his own, and they have "lived +happily ever after," which seems to prove the correctness of the Eskimo +theory as to unwilling brides. Of course if Potokomik's wife had not +liked him after a fair trial, she could have left him, or if she had +not come up to his expectations he could have sent her back home and +tried another. It is all quite simple, for there is no marriage +ceremony and resort to South Dakota courts for divorce is unnecessary. +If a man wants two wives, why he has them, if there are women enough. +That, too, is a very agreeable arrangement, for when he is away hunting +the women keep each other company. Small families are the rule, and I +did not hear of a case where twins had ever been born to the Eskimos. + +Dancing and football are among their chief pastimes. The men enter +into the dance with zest, but the women as though they were performing +some awful penance. Both sexes play football. They have learned the +use of cards and are reckless gamblers, sometimes staking even the +garments on their backs in play. + +The Eskimo is a close bargainer, and after he has agreed to do you a +service for a consideration will as likely as not change his mind at +the last moment and leave you in the lurch. At the same time he is in +many respects a child. + +The dwellings are of three kinds: The _tupek_--skin tent; +_igloowiuk_--snow house; and permanent igloo, built of driftwood, +stones and turf--the larger ones are _igloosoaks_. + +Flesh and fish, as is the case with the Indians, form the principal +food, but while the Indians cook everything the Eskimos as often eat +their meat and fish raw, and are not too particular as to its age or +state of decay. They are very fond of venison and seal meat, and for +variety's sake welcome dog meat. A few years ago a disease carried off +several of the dogs at Fort Chimo and every carcass was eaten. One old +fellow, in fact, as Mathewson related to me, ate nothing else during +that time, and when the epidemic was over bemoaned the fact that no +more dog meat could be had. + +On the Atlantic coast where the snow houses are not used and the +Eskimos live more generally during the winter in the close, vile +igloos, there is more or less tubercular trouble. Even farther south, +where the natives have learned cleanliness, and live in comfortable log +cabins that are fairly well aired, this is the prevailing disease. +After leaving Ramah, the farther south you go the more general is the +adoption of civilized customs, food and habits of life, and with the +increase of civilization so also comes an increased death rate amongst +the Eskimos. Formerly there was a considerable number of these people +on the Straits of Belle Isle. Now there is not one there. South of +Hamilton Inlet but two full-blood Eskimos remain. Below Ramah the +deaths exceed the births, and at one settlement alone there are fifty +less people to-day than three years ago. + +Civilization is responsible for this. At the present time there +remains on the Atlantic coast, between the Straits of Belle Isle and +Cape Chidley, but eleven hundred and twenty-seven full-blood Eskimos. +Five years hence there will not be a thousand. In Ungava district, +where they have as yet accepted practically nothing of civilization, +the births exceed the deaths, and I did not learn of a single +well-authenticated case of tuberculosis while I was there. There were +a few cases of rheumatism. Death comes early, however, owing to the +life of constant hardship and exposure. Usually they do not exceed +sixty or sixty-five years of age, though I saw one man that had rounded +his three score years and ten. + +Formerly they encased their dead in skins and lay them out upon the +rocks with the clothing and things they had used in life. Now rough +wooden boxes are provided by the traders. The dogs in time break the +coffins open and pick the bones, which lie uncared for, to be bleached +by the frosts of winter and suns of summer. Mr. Stewart has collected +and buried many of these bones, and is endeavoring now to have all +bodies buried. + +Of all the missionaries that I met in this bleak northern land, devoted +as every one of them is to his life work, none was more devoted and +none was doing a more self-sacrificing work than the Rev. Samuel +Milliken Stewart of Fort Chimo. His novitiate as a missionary was +begun in one of the little out-port fishing villages of Newfoundland. +Finally he was transferred to that fearfully barren stretch among the +heathen Eskimos north of Nachvak. Here he and his Eskimo servant +gathered together such loose driftwood as they could find, and with +this and stones and turf erected a single-roomed igloo. It was a small +affair, not over ten by twelve or fourteen feet in size, and an +imaginary line separated the missionary's quarters from his servant's. +On his knees, in an old resting place for the dead, with the bleaching +bones of heathen Eskimos strewn over the rocks about him, he +consecrated his life efforts to the conversion of this people to +Christianity. Then he went to work to accomplish this purpose in a +businesslike way. He set himself the infinite task of mastering the +difficult language. He lived their life with them, visiting and +sleeping with them in their filthy igloos--so filthy and so filled with +stench from the putrid meat and fish scraps that they permit to lie +about and decay that frequently at first, until he became accustomed to +it, he was forced to seek the open air and relieve the resulting +nausea. But Stewart is a man of iron will, and he never wavered. He +studied his people, administered medicines to the sick, and taught the +doctrines of Christianity--Love, Faith and Charity--at every +opportunity. That first winter was a trying one. All his little stock +of fuel was exhausted early. The few articles of furniture that he had +brought with him he burned to help keep out the frost demon, and before +spring suffered greatly with the cold. The winter before our arrival +he transferred his efforts to the Fort Chimo district, where his field +would be larger and he could reach a greater number of the heathens. +During the journey to Fort Chimo, which was across the upper peninsula, +with dogs, he was lost in storms that prevailed at the time, his +provisions were exhausted, and one dog had been killed to feed the +others, before he finally met Eskimos who guided him in safety to +George River. At Fort Chimo the Hudson's Bay Company set aside two +small buildings to his use, one for a chapel, the other a little cabin +in which he lives. Here we found him one day with a pot of +high-smelling seal meat cooking for his dogs and a pan of dough cakes +frying for himself. With Stewart in this cabin I spent many delightful +hours. His constant flow of well-told stories, flavored with native +Irish wit, was a sure panacea for despondency. I believe Stewart, with +his sunny temperament, is really enjoying his life amongst the heathen, +and he has made an obvious impression upon them, for every one of them +turns out to his chapel meetings, where the services are conducted in +Eskimo, and takes part with a will. + +The Eskimo religion, like that of the Indian, is one of fear. Numerous +are the spirits that people the land and depths of the sea, but the +chief of them all is Torngak, the spirit of Death, who from his cavern +dwelling in the heights of the mighty Torngaeks (the mountains north of +the George River toward Cape Chidley) watches them always and rules +their fortunes with an iron hand, dealing out misfortune, or +withholding it, at his will. It is only through the medium of the +Angakok, or conjurer, that the people can learn what to do to keep +Torngak and the lesser spirits of evil, with their varying moods, in +good humor. Stewart has led some of the Eskimos to at least outwardly +renounce their heathenism and profess Christianity. In a few instances +I believe they are sincere. If he remains upon the field, as I know he +wishes to do, he will have them all professing Christianity within the +next few years, for they like him. But he has no more regard for +danger, when he believes duty calls him, than Dr. Grenfell has, and it +is predicted on the coast that some day Dr. Grenfell will take one +chance too many with the elements. + +Of course, coming among the Eskimos as we did in winter, we did not see +them using their kayaks or their umiaks,* but our experience with dogs +and komatik was pretty complete. These dogs are big wolfish creatures, +which resemble wolves so closely in fact that when the dogs and wolves +are together the one can scarcely be told from the other. It sometimes +happens that a stray wolf will hobnob with the dogs, and litters of +half wolf, half dog have been born at the posts. + +* A large open boat with wooden frame and sealskin covering. The women +row the umiaks while the men sit idle. It is beneath the dignity of +the latter to handle the oars when women are present to do it. + +There are no better Eskimo dogs to be found anywhere in the far north +than the husky dogs of Ungava. Wonderful tales are told of long +distances covered by them in a single day, the record trip of which I +heard being one hundred and twelve miles. But this was in the spring, +when the days were long and the snow hard and firm. The farthest I +ever traveled myself in a single day with dogs and komatik was sixty +miles. When the snow is loose and the days are short, twenty to thirty +miles constitute a day's work. + +From five to twelve dogs are usually driven in one team, though +sometimes a man is seen plodding along with a two-dog team, and +occasionally as many as sixteen or eighteen are harnessed to a komatik, +but these very large teams are unwieldy. + +The komatiks in the Ungava district vary from ten to eighteen feet in +length. The runners are about two and one-half inches thick at the +bottom, tapering slightly toward the top to reduce friction where they +sink into the snow. They are usually placed sixteen inches apart, and +crossbars extending about an inch over the outer runner on either side +are lashed across the runners by means of thongs of sealskin or heavy +twine, which is passed through holes bored into the crossbars and the +runners. The use of lashings instead of nails or screws permits the +komatik to yield readily in passing over rough places, where metal +fastenings would be pulled out, or be snapped off by the frost. On +either side of each end of the overlapping ends of the crossbars +notches are cut, around which sealskin thongs are passed in lashing on +the load. The bottoms of the komatik runners are "mudded." During the +summer the Eskimos store up turf for this purpose, testing bits of it +by chewing it to be sure that it contains no grit. When the cold +weather comes the turf is mixed with warm water until it reaches the +consistency of mud. Then with the hands it is molded over the bottom +of the runners. The mud quickly freezes, after which it is carefully +planed smooth and round. Then it is iced by applying warm water with a +bit of hairy deerskin. These mudded runners slip very smoothly over +the soft snow, but are liable to chip off on rough ice or when they +strike rocks, as frequently happens, for the frozen mud is as brittle +as glass. On the Atlantic coast from Nachvak south, mud is never used, +and there the komatiks are wider and shorter with runners of not much +more than half the thickness, and as you go south the komatiks continue +to grow wider and shorter. In the south, too, hoop iron or whalebone +is used for runner shoeing. + +A sealskin thong called a bridle, of a varying length of from twenty to +forty feet, is attached to the front of the komatik, and to the end of +this the dogs' traces are fastened. Each dog has an individual trace +which may be from eight to thirty feet in length, depending upon the +size of the team, so arranged that not more than two dogs are abreast, +the "leader" having, of course, the longest trace of the pack. This +long bridle and the long traces are made necessary by the rough +country. They permit the animals to swerve well to one side clear of +the komatik when coasting down a hillside. In the length of bridle and +trace there is also a wide variation in different sections, those used +in the south being very much shorter than those in the north. The dog +harness is made usually of polar bear or sealskin. There are no reins. +The driver controls his team by shouting directions, and with a walrus +hide whip, which is from twenty-five to thirty-five feet in length. An +expert with this whip, running after the dogs, can hit any dog he +chooses at will, and sometimes he is cruel to excess. + +To start his team the driver calls "oo-isht," (in the south this +becomes "hoo-eet") to turn to the right "ouk," to the left "ra-der, +ra-der" and to stop "aw-aw." The leader responds to the shouted +directions and the pack follow. + +The Ungava Eskimo never upon any account travels with komatik and dogs +without a snow knife. With this implement he can in a little while +make himself a comfortable snow igloo, where he may spend the night or +wait for a storm to pass. + +In winter it is practically impossible to buy a dog in Ungava. The +people have only enough for their own use, and will not part with them, +and if they have plenty to eat it is difficult to employ them for any +purpose. This I discovered very promptly when I endeavored to induce +some of them to take us a stage on our journey homeward. + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE SLEDGE JOURNEY BEGUN + +Tighter and tighter grew the grip of winter. Rarely the temperature +rose above twenty-five degrees below zero, even at midday, and oftener +it crept well down into the thirties. The air was filled with rime, +which clung to everything, and the sun, only venturing now a little way +above the southern horizon, shone cold and cheerless, weakly +penetrating the ever-present frost veil. The tide, still defying the +shackles of the mighty power that had bound all the rest of the world, +surged up and down, piling ponderous ice cakes in mountainous heaps +along the river banks. Occasionally an Eskimo or two would suddenly +appear out of the snow fields, remain for a day perhaps, and then as +suddenly disappear into the bleak wastes whence he had come. + +Slowly the days dragged along. We occupied the short hours of light in +reading old newspapers and magazines, or walking out over the hills, +and in the evenings called upon the Post officers or entertained them +in our cabin, where Mathewson often came to smoke his after-supper pipe +and relate to us stories of his forty-odd years' service as a fur +trader in the northern wilderness. + +One bitter cold morning, long before the first light of day began to +filter through the rimy atmosphere, we heard the crunch of feet pass +our door, and a komatik slipped by. It was Dr. Milne, away to George +River and the coast on his tour of Post inspection, and our little +group of white men was one less in number. + +We envied him his early leaving. We could not ourselves start for home +until after New Year's, for there were no dogs to be had for love or +money until the Eskimos came in from their hunting camps to spend the +holidays. Everything, however, was made ready for that longed-for +time. Through the kindness of The'venet, who put his Post folk to work +for us, the deerskins I had brought from Whale River were dressed and +made up into sleeping bags and skin clothing, and other necessaries +were got ready for the long dog journey out. + +Christmas eve came finally, and with it komatik loads of Eskimos, who +roused the place from its repose into comparative wakefulness. The +newcomers called upon us in twos or threes, never troubling to knock +before they entered our cabin, looked us and our things over with much +interest, a proceeding which occupied usually a full half hour, then +went away, sometimes to bring back newly arriving friends, to introduce +them. A multitude of dogs skulked around by day and made night hideous +with howling and fighting, and it was hardly safe to walk abroad +without a stick, of which they have a wholesome fear, as, like their +progenitors, the wolves, they are great cowards and will rarely attack +a man when he has any visible means of defense at hand. + +Christmas afternoon was given over to shooting matches, and the evening +to dancing. We spent the day with The'venet. Mathewson was not in +position to entertain, as the Indian woman that presided in his kitchen +partook so freely of liquor of her own manufacture that she became +hilariously drunk early in the morning, and for the peace of the +household and safety of the dishes, which she playfully shied at +whoever came within reach, she was ejected, and Mathewson prepared his +own meals. At The'venet's, however, everything went smoothly, and the +sumptuous meal of baked whitefish, venison, with canned vegetables, +plum pudding, cheese and coffee--delicacies held in reserve for the +occasion--made us forget the bleak wilderness and ice-bound land in +which we were. + +It seemed for a time even now as though we should not be able to secure +dogs and drivers. No one knew the way to Ramah, and on no account +would one of these Eskimos undertake even a part of the journey without +permission from the Hudson's Bay Company. As a last resort The'venet +promised me his dogs and driver to take us at least as far as George +River, but finally Emuk arrived and an arrangement was made with him to +carry us from Whale River to George River, and two other Eskimos agreed +to go with us to Whale River. The great problem that confronted me now +was how to get over the one hundred and sixty miles of barrens from +George River to Ramah, and it was necessary to arrange for this before +leaving Fort Chimo, as dogs to the eastward were even scarcer than +here. Mathewson finally solved it for me with his promise to instruct +Ford at George River to put his team and drivers at my disposal. Thus, +after much bickering, our relays were arranged as far as the Moravian +mission station at Ramah, and I trusted in Providence and the coast +Eskimos to see us on from there. The third of January was fixed as the +day of our departure. + +Our going in winter was an event. It gave the Post folk an opportunity +to send out a winter mail, which I volunteered to carry to Quebec. + +Straggling bands of Indians, hauling fur-laden toboggans, began to +arrive during the week, and the bartering in the stores was brisk, and +to me exceedingly interesting. Money at Fort Chimo is unknown. Values +are reckoned in "skins"--that is, a "skin" is the unit of value. There +is no token of exchange to represent this unit, however, and if a +hunter brings in more pelts than sufficient to pay for his purchases, +the trader simply gives him credit on his books for the balance due, to +be drawn upon at some future time. As a matter of fact, the hunter is +almost invariably in debt to the store. A "skin" will buy a pint of +molasses, a quarter pound of tea or a quarter pound of black stick +tobacco. A white arctic fox pelt is valued at seven skins, a blue fox +pelt at twelve, and a black or silver fox at eighty to ninety skins. +South of Hamilton Inlet, where competition is keen with the fur +traders, they pay in cash six dollars for white, eight dollars for blue +(which, by the way, are very scarce there) and not infrequently as high +as three hundred and fifty dollars or even more for black and silver +fox pelts. The cost of maintaining posts at Fort Chimo, however, is +somewhat greater than at these southern points. + +Here at Ungava the Eskimos' hunt is confined almost wholly to foxes, +polar bears, an occasional wolf and wolverine, and, of course, during +the season, seals, walrus, and white whales. An average hunter will +trap from sixty to seventy foxes in a season, though one or two +exceptional ones I knew have captured as many as two hundred. The +Indians, who penetrate far into the interior, bring out marten, mink +and otter principally, with a few foxes, an occasional beaver, black +bear, lynx and some wolf and wolverine skins. There is a story of a +very large and ferocious brown bear that tradition says inhabits the +barrens to the eastward toward George River. Mr. Peter McKenzie told +me that many years ago, when he was stationed at Fort Chimo, the +Indians brought him one of the skins of this animal, and Ford at George +River said that, some twenty years since, he saw a piece of one of the +skins. Both agreed that the hair was very long, light brown in color, +silver tipped and of a decidedly different species from either the +polar or black bear. This is the only definite information as to it +that I was able to gather. The Indians speak of it with dread, and +insist that it is still to be found, though none of them can say +positively that he has seen one in a decade. I am inclined to believe +that the brown bear, so far as Labrador is concerned, has been +exterminated. + +New Year's is the great day at Fort Chimo. All morning there were +shooting matches and foot races, and in the afternoon football games in +progress, in which the Eskimo men and women alike joined. The Indians, +who were recovering from an all-night drunk on their vile beer, and a +revel in the "Queen's" cabin, condescended to take part in the shooting +matches, but held majestically aloof from the other games. Some of +them came into the French store in the evening to squat around the room +and watch the dancing while they puffed in silence on their pipes and +drank tea when it was passed. That was their only show of interest in +the festivities. Early on the morning of the second they all +disappeared. But these were only a fragment of those that visit the +Post in summer. It is then that they have their powwow. + +At last the day of our departure arrived, with a dull leaden sky and +that penetrating cold that eats to one's very marrow. The'venet and +Belfleur came early and brought us a box of cigars to ease the tedium +of the long evenings in the snow houses. All the little colony of +white men were on hand to see us off, and I believe were genuinely +sorry to have us go, for we had become a part of the little coterie and +our coming had made a break in the lives of these lonely exiles. Men +brought together under such conditions become very much attached to +each other in a short time. "It's going to be lonesome now," said +Stewart. "I'm sorry you have to leave us. May God speed you on your +way, and carry you through your long journey in safety." + +Finally our baggage was lashed on the komatik; the dogs, leaping and +straining at their traces, howled their eagerness to be gone; we shook +hands warmly with everybody, even the Eskimos, who came forward +wondering at what seemed to them our stupendous undertaking, the +komatik was "broken" loose, and we were away at a gallop. + +Traveling was good, and the nine dogs made such excellent time that we +had to ride in level places or we could not have kept pace with them. +When there was a hill to climb we pushed on the komatik or hauled with +the dogs on the long bridle to help them along. When we had a descent +to make, the drag--a hoop of walrus hide--was thrown over the front end +of one of the komatik runners at the top, and if the place was steep +the Eskimos, one on either side of the komatik, would cling on with +their arms and brace their feet into the snow ahead, doing their utmost +to hold back and reduce the momentum of the heavy sledge. To the +uninitiated they would appear to be in imminent danger of having their +legs broken, for the speed down some of the grades when the crust was +hard and icy was terrific. When descending the gentler slopes we all +rode, depending upon the drag alone to keep our speed within reason. +This coasting down hill was always an exciting experience, and where +the going was rough it was not easy to keep a seat on the narrow +komatik. Occasionally the komatik would turn over. When we saw this +was likely to happen we discreetly dropped off, a feat that demanded +agility and practice to be performed successfully and gracefully. + +It was a relief beyond measure to feel that we were at length, after +seven long months, actually headed toward home and civilization. Words +cannot express the feeling of exhilaration that comes to one at such a +time. + +We did not have to go so far up Whale River to find a crossing as on +our trip to Fort Chimo, and reached the eastern side before dark. +Sometimes the ice hills are piled so high here by the tide that it +takes a day or even two to cut a komatik path through them and cross +the river, but fortunately we had very little cutting to do. Not long +after dark we coasted down the hill above the Post, and the cheerful +lights of Edmunds' cabin were at hand. + +Here we had to wait two days for Emuk, and in the interim Mrs. Edmunds +and Mary went carefully over our clothes, sewed sealskin legs to +deerskin moccasins, made more duffel socks, and with kind solicitation +put all our things into the best of shape and gave us extra moccasins +and mittens. "It is well to have plenty of everything before you +start," said Mrs. Edmunds, "for if the huskies are hunting deer the +women will do no sewing on sealskin, and if they're hunting seals +they'll not touch a needle to your deerskins, though you are freezing." + +"Why is that?" I asked. + +"Oh, some of their heathen beliefs," she answered. "They think it +would bring bad luck to the hunters. They believe all kinds of +foolishness." + +Emuk had never been so far away as George River, and Sam Ford was to be +our pilot to that point, and to return with Emuk. The Eskimos do not +consider it safe for a man to travel alone with dogs, and they never do +it when there is the least probability that they will have to remain +out over night. Two men are always required to build a snow igloo, +which is one reason for this. It was therefore necessary for me at +each point, when employing the Eskimo driver for a new stage of our +journey, also to engage a companion for him, that he might have company +when returning home. + +Our coming to Whale River two months before had made a welcome +innovation in the even tenor of the cheerless, lonely existence of our +good friends at the Post--an event in their confined life, and they +were really sorry to part from us. + +"It will be a long time before any one comes to see us again--a long +time," said Mrs. Edmunds, sadly adding: "I suppose no one will ever +come again." + +When we said our farewells the women cried. In their Godspeed the note +of friendship rang true and honest and sincere. These people had +proved themselves in a hundred ways. In civilization, where the +selfish instinct governs so generally, there are too many Judases. On +the frontier, in spite of the rough exterior of the people, you find +real men and women. That is one reason why I like the North so well. + +We left Whale River on Saturday, the sixth of January, with one hundred +and twenty miles of barrens to cross before reaching George River Post, +the nearest human habitation to the eastward. Our fresh team of nine +dogs was in splendid trim and worked well, but a three or four inch +covering of light snow upon the harder under crust made the going hard +and wearisome for the animals. The frost flakes that filled the air +covered everything. Clinging to the eyelashes and faces of the men it +gave them a ghostly appearance, our skin clothing was white with it, +long icicles weighted our beards, and the sharp atmosphere made it +necessary to grasp one's nose frequently to make certain that the +member was not freezing. + +When we stopped for the night our snow house which Emuk and Sam soon +had ready seemed really cheerful. Our halt was made purposely near a +cluster of small spruce where enough firewood was found to cook our +supper of boiled venison, hard-tack and tea, water being procured by +melting ice. Spruce boughs were scattered upon the igloo floor and +deerskins spread over these. + +After everything was made snug, and whatever the dogs might eat or +destroy put safely out of their reach, the animals were unharnessed and +fed the one meal that was allowed them each day after their work was +done. Feeding the dogs was always an interesting function. While one +man cut the frozen food into chunks, the rest of us armed with cudgels +beat back the animals. When the word was given we stepped to one side +to avoid the onrush as they came upon the food, which was bolted with +little or no chewing. They will eat anything that is fed them--seal +meat, deer's meat, fish, or even old hides. There was always a fight +or two to settle after the feeding and then the dogs made holes for +themselves in the snow and lay down for the drift to cover them. + +The dogs fed, we crawled with our hot supper into the igloo, put a +block of snow against the entrance and stopped the chinks around it +with loose snow. Then the kettle covers were lifted and the place was +filled at once with steam so thick that one could hardly see his elbow +neighbor. By the time the meal was eaten the temperature had risen to +such a point that the place was quite warm and comfortable--so warm +that the snow in the top of the igloo was soft enough to pack but not +quite soft enough to drip water. Then we smoked some of The'venet's +cigars and blessed him for his thoughtfulness in providing them. + +Usually our snow igloos allowed each man from eighteen to twenty inches +space in which to lie down, and just room enough to stretch his legs +well. With our sleeping bags they were entirely comfortable, no matter +what the weather outside. The snow is porous enough to admit of air +circulation, but even a gale of wind without would not affect the +temperature within. It is claimed by the natives that when the wind +blows, a snow house is warmer than in a period of still cold. I could +see no difference. A new snow igloo is, however, more comfortable than +one that has been used, for newly cut snow blocks are more porous. In +one that has been used there is always a crust of ice on the interior +which prevents a proper circulation of air. + +On the second day we passed the shack where Easton and I had held our +five-day fast, and shortly after came out upon the plains--a wide +stretch of flat, treeless country where no hills rise as guiding +landmarks for the voyageur. This was beyond the zone of Emuk's +wanderings, and Sam went several miles astray in his calculations, +which, in view of the character of the country, was not to be wondered +at, piloting as he did without a compass. However, we were soon set +right and passed again into the rolling barrens, with ever higher hills +with each eastern mile we traveled. + +At two o'clock on the afternoon of Tuesday, January ninth, we dropped +over the bank upon the ice of George River just above the Post, and at +three o'clock were under Mr. Ford's hospitable roof again. + +Here we had to encounter another vexatious delay of a week. Ford's +dogs had been working hard and were in no condition to travel and not +an Eskimo team was there within reach of the Post that could be had. +There was nothing to do but wait for Ford's team to rest and get into +condition before taking them upon the trying journey across the barren +grounds that lay between us and the Atlantic. + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +CROSSING THE BARRENS + +On Tuesday morning, January sixteenth, we swung out upon the river ice +with a powerful team of twelve dogs. Will Ford and an Eskimo named +Etuksoak, called by the Post folk "Peter," for short, were our drivers. + +The dogs began the day with a misunderstanding amongst themselves, and +stopped to fight it out. When they were finally beaten into docility +one of them, apparently the outcast of the pack, was limping on three +legs and leaving a trail of blood behind him. Every team has its +bully, and sometimes its outcast. The bully is master of them all. He +fights his way to his position of supremacy, and holds it by punishing +upon the slightest provocation, real or fancied, any encroachment upon +his autocratic prerogatives. Likewise he disciplines the pack when he +thinks they need it or when he feels like it, and he is always the +ringleader in mischief. When there is an outcast he is a doomed dog. +The others harass and fight him at every opportunity. They are +pitiless. They do not associate with him, and sooner or later a +morning will come when they are noticed licking their chops +contentedly, as dogs do when they have had a good meal--and after that +no more is seen of the outcast. The bully is not always, or, in fact, +often the leader in harness. The dog that the driver finds most +intelligent in following a trail and in answering his commands is +chosen for this important position, regardless of his fighting prowess. + +This morning as we started the weather was perfect--thirty-odd degrees +below zero and a bright sun that made the hoar frost sparkle like +flakes of silver. For ten miles our course lay down the river to a +point just below the "Narrows." Then we left the ice and hit the +overland trail in an almost due northerly direction. It was a rough +country and there was much pulling and hauling and pushing to be done +crossing the hills. Before noon the wind began to rise, and by the +time we stopped to prepare our snow igloo for the night a northwest +gale had developed and the air was filled with drifting snow. + +Early in the afternoon I began to have cramps in the calves of my legs, +and finally it seemed to me that the muscles were tied into knots. +Sharp, intense pains in the groin made it torture to lift in feet above +the level of the snow, and I was never more thankful for rest in my +life than when that day's work was finished. Easton confessed to me +that he had an attack similar to my own. This was the result of our +inactivity at Fort Chimo. We were suffering with what among the +Canadian voyageurs is known as _mal de roquette_. There was nothing to +do but endure it without complaint, for there is no relief until in +time it gradually passes away of its own accord. + +This first night from George River was spent upon the shores of a lake +which, hidden by drifted snow, appeared to be about two miles wide and +seven or eight miles long. It lay amongst low, barren hills, where a +few small bunches of gnarled black spruce relieved the otherwise +unbroken field of white. + +The following morning it was snowing and drifting, and as the day grew +the storm increased. An hour's traveling carried us to the Koroksoak +River--River of the Great Gulch--which flows from the northeast, +following the lower Torngaek mountains and emptying into Ungava Bay +near the mouth of the George. The Koroksoak is apparently a shallow +stream, with a width of from fifty to two hundred yards. Its bed forms +the chief part of the komatik route to Nachvak, and therefore our +route. For several miles the banks are low and sandy, but farther up +the sand disappears and the hills crowd close upon the river. The +gales that sweep down the valley with every storm had blown away the +snow and drifted the bank sand in a layer over the river ice. This +made the going exceedingly hard and ground the mud from the komatik +runners. + +The snowstorm, directly in our teeth, increased in force with every +mile we traveled, and with the continued cramps and pains in my legs it +seemed to me that the misery of it all was about as refined and +complete as it could be. It may be imagined, therefore, the relief I +felt when at noon Will and Peter stopped the komatik with the +announcement that we must camp, as further progress could not be made +against the blinding snow and head wind. + +Advantage was taken of the daylight hours to mend the komatik mud. This +was done by mixing caribou moss with water, applying the mixture to the +mud where most needed, and permitting it to freeze, which it did +instantly. Then the surface was planed smooth with a little jack plane +carried for the purpose. + +That night the storm blew itself out, and before daylight, after a +breakfast of coffee and hard-tack, we were off. The half day's rest +had done wonders for me, and the pains in my legs were not nearly so +severe as on the previous day. + +January and February see the lowest temperatures of the Labrador +winter. Now the cold was bitter, rasping--so intensely cold was the +atmosphere that it was almost stifling as it entered the lungs. The +vapor from our nostrils froze in masses of ice upon our beards. The +dogs, straining in the harness, were white with hoar frost, and our +deerskin clothing was also thickly coated with it. For long weeks +these were to be the prevailing conditions in our homeward march. + +Dark and ominous were the spruce-lined river banks on either side that +morning as we toiled onward, and grim and repellent indeed were the +rocky hills outlined against the sky beyond. Everything seemed frozen +stiff and dead except ourselves. No sound broke the absolute silence +save the crunch, crunch, crunch of our feet, the squeak of the komatik +runners complaining as they slid reluctantly over the snow, and the +"oo-isht-oo-isht, oksuit, oksuit" of the drivers, constantly urging the +dogs to greater effort. Shimmering frost flakes, suspended in the air +like a veil of thinnest gauze, half hid the sun when very timidly he +raised his head above the southeastern horizon, as though afraid to +venture into the domain of the indomitable ice king who had wrested the +world from his last summer's power and ruled it now so absolutely. + +With every mile the spruce on the river banks became thinner and +thinner, and the hills grew higher and higher, until finally there was +scarcely a stick to be seen and the lower eminences had given way to +lofty mountains which raised their jagged, irregular peaks from two to +four thousand feet in solemn and majestic grandeur above our heads. The +gray basaltic rocks at their base shut in the tortuous river bed, and +we knew now why the Koroksoak was called the "River of the Great +Gulch." These were the mighty Torngaeks, which farther north attain an +altitude above the sea of full seven thousand feet. We passed the +place where Torngak dwells in his mountain cavern and sends forth his +decrees to the spirits of Storm and Starvation and Death to do +destruction, or restrains them, at his will. + +In the forenoon of the third day after leaving George River we stopped +to lash a few sticks on top of our komatik load. "No more wood," said +Will. "This'll have to see us through to Nachvak." That afternoon we +turned out of the Koroksoak River into a pass leading to the northward, +and that night's igloo was at the headwaters of a stream that they said +ran into Nachvak Bay. + +The upper part of this new gulch was strewn with bowlders, and much +hard work and ingenuity were necessary the following morning to get the +komatik through them at all. Farther down the stream widened. Here the +wind had swept the snow clear of the ice, and it was as smooth as a +piece of glass, broken only by an occasional bowlder sticking above the +surface. A heavy wind blew in our backs and carried the komatik before +it at a terrific pace, with the dogs racing to keep out of the way. +Sometimes we were carried sidewise, sometimes stern first, but seldom +right end foremost. Lively work was necessary to prevent being wrecked +upon the rocks, and occasionally we did turn over, when a bowlder was +struck side on. + +There were several steep down grades. Before descending one of the +first of these a line was attached to the rear end of the komatik and +Will asked Easton to hang on to it and hold back, to keep the komatik +straight. There was no foothold for him, however, on the smooth +surface of the ice, and Easton found that he could not hold back as +directed. The momentum was considerable, and he was afraid to let go +for fear of losing his balance on the slippery ice, and so, wild-eyed +and erect, he slid along, clinging for dear life to the line. Pretty +soon he managed to attain a sitting posture, and with his legs spread +before him, but still holding desperately on, he skimmed along after +the komatik. The next and last evolution was a "belly-gutter" +position. This became too strenuous for him, however, and the line was +jerked out of his hands. I was afraid he might have been injured on a +rock, but my anxiety was soon relieved when I saw him running along the +shore to overtake the komatik where it had been stopped to wait for him +below. + +This gulch was exceedingly narrow, with mountains, lofty, rugged and +grand rising directly from the stream's bank, some of them attaining an +altitude of five thousand feet or more. At one point they squeezed the +brook through a pass only ten feet in width, with perpendicular walls +towering high above our heads on either side. This place is known to +the Hudson's Bay Company people as "The Porch." + +In the afternoon Peter caught his foot in a crevice, and the komatik +jammed him with such force that he narrowly escaped a broken leg and +was crippled for the rest of the journey. Early in the afternoon we +were on salt water ice, and at two o'clock sighted Nachvak Post of the +Hudson's Bay Company, and at half past four were hospitably welcomed by +Mrs. Ford, the wife of George Ford, the agent. + +This was Saturday, January twentieth. Since the previous Tuesday +morning we had had no fire to warm ourselves by and had been living +chiefly on hard-tack, and the comfort and luxury of the Post sitting +room, with the hot supper of arctic hare that came in due course, were +appreciated. Mr. Ford had gone south with Dr. Milne to Davis Inlet +Post and was not expected back for a week, but Mrs. Ford and her son +Solomon Ford, who was in charge during his father's absence, did +everything possible for our comfort. + +The injury to Peter's leg made it out of the question for him to go on +with us, and we therefore found it necessary to engage another team to +carry us to Ramah, the first of the Moravian missionary stations on our +route of travel, and this required a day's delay at Nachvak, as no +Eskimos could be seen that night. The Fords offered us every +assistance in securing drivers, and went to much trouble on our behalf. +Solomon personally took it upon himself to find dogs and drivers for +us, and through his kindness arrangements were made with two Eskimos, +Taikrauk and Nikartok by name, who agreed to furnish a team of ten dogs +and be on hand early on Monday morning. I considered myself fortunate +in securing so large a team, for the seal hunt had been bad the +previous fall and the Eskimos had therefore fallen short of dog food +and had killed a good many of their dogs. I should not have been so +ready with my self-congratulation had I seen the dogs that we were to +have. + +Nachvak is the most God-forsaken place for a trading post that I have +ever seen. Wherever you look bare rocks and towering mountains stare +you in the face; nowhere is there a tree or shrub of any kind to +relieve the rock-bound desolation, and every bit of fuel has to be +brought in during the summer by steamer. They have coal, but even the +wood to kindle the coal is imported. The Eskimos necessarily use stone +lamps in which seal oil is burned to heat their igloos. The Fords have +lived here for a quarter of a century, but now the Company is +abandoning the Post as unprofitable and they are to be transferred to +some other quarter. + +"God knows how lonely it is sometimes," Mrs. Ford said to me, "and how +glad I'll be if we go where there's some one besides just greasy +heathen Eskimos to see." + +The Moravian mission at Killenek, a station three days' travel to the +northward, on Cape Chidley, has deflected some of the former trade from +Nachvak and the Ramah station more of it, until but twenty-seven +Eskimos now remain at Nachvak. + +Early on Monday morning not only our two Eskimos appeared, but the +entire Eskimo population, even the women with babies in their hoods, to +see us off. The ten-dog team that I had congratulated myself so +proudly upon securing proved to be the most miserable aggregation of +dogskin and bones I had ever seen, and in so horribly emaciated a +condition that had there been any possible way of doing without them I +should have declined to permit them to haul our komatik. However I had +no choice, as no other dogs were to be had, and at six o'clock--more +than two hours before daybreak--we said farewell to good Mrs. Ford and +her family and started forward with our caravan of followers. + +We took what is known as the "outside" route, turning right out toward +the mouth of the bay. By this route it is fully forty miles to Ramah. +By a short cut overland, which is not so level, the distance is only +about thirty miles, but our Eskimos chose the level course, as it is +doubtful whether their excuses for dogs could have hauled the komatik +over the hills on the short cut. An hour after our start we passed a +collection of snow igloos, and all our following, after shaking hands +and repeating, "Okusi," left us--all but one man, Korganuk by name, who +decided to honor us with his society to Ramah; so we had three Eskimos +instead of the more than sufficient two. + +Though the traveling was fairly good the poor starved dogs crawled +along so slowly that with a jog trot we easily kept in advance of them, +and not even the extreme cruelty of the heathen drivers, who beat them +sometimes unmercifully, could induce them to do better. I remonstrated +with the human brutes on several occasions, but they pretended not to +understand me, smiling blandly in return, and making unintelligible +responses in Eskimo. + +Before dawn the sky clouded, and by the time we reached the end of the +bay and turned southward across the neck, toward noon, it began to snow +heavily. This capped the climax of our troubles and I questioned +whether our team would ever reach our destination with this added +impediment of soft, new snow to plow through. + +From the first the snow fell thick and fast. Then the wind rose, and +with every moment grew in velocity. I soon realized that we were +caught under the worst possible conditions in the throes of a Labrador +winter storm--the kind of storm that has cost so many native travelers +on that bleak coast their lives. + +We were now on the ice again beyond the neck. Perpendicular, clifflike +walls shut us off from retreat to the land and there was not a +possibility of shelter anywhere. Previous snows had found no lodgment +into banks, and an igloo could not be built. Our throats were parched +with thirst, but there was no water to drink and nowhere a stick of +wood with which to build a fire to melt snow. The dogs were lying down +in harness and crying with distress, and the Eskimos had continually to +kick them into renewed efforts. On we trudged, on and endlessly on. +We were still far from our goal. + +All of us, even the Eskimos, were utterly weary. Finally frequent +stops were necessary to rest the poor toiling brutes, and we were glad +to take advantage of each opportunity to throw ourselves at full length +on the snow-covered ice for a moment's repose. Sometimes we would walk +ahead of the komatik and lie down until it overtook us, frequently +falling asleep in the brief interim. Now and again an Eskimo would +look into my face and repeat, "Oksunae" (be strong), and I would +encourage him in the same way. + +Darkness fell thick and black. No signs of land were visible--nothing +but the whirling, driving, pitiless snow around us and the ice under +our feet. Sometimes one of us would stumble on a hummock and fall, +then rise again to resume the mechanical plodding. I wondered +sometimes whether we were not going right out to sea and how long it +would be before we should drop into open water and be swallowed up. My +faculties were too benumbed to care much, and it was just a calculation +in which I had no particular but only a passive interest. + +The thirst of the snow fields is most agonizing, and can only be +likened to the thirst of the desert. The snow around you is +tantalizing, for to eat it does not quench the thirst in the slightest; +it aggravates it. If I ever longed for water it was then. + +Hour after hour passed and the night seemed interminable. But somehow +we kept going, and the poor crying brutes kept going. All misery has +its ending, however, and ours ended when I least looked for it. +Unexpectedly the dogs' pitiful cries changed to gleeful howls and they +visibly increased their efforts. Then Korganuk put his face close to +mine and said: "Ramah! Ramah!" and quite suddenly we stopped before +the big mission house at Ramah. + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +ON THE ATLANTIC ICE + +The dogs had stopped within a dozen feet of the building, but it was +barely distinguishable through the thick clouds of smothering snow +which the wind, risen to a terrific gale, swirled around us as it swept +down in staggering gusts from the invisible hills above. A light +filtered dimly through one of the frost-encrusted windows, and I tapped +loudly upon the glass. + +At first there was no response, but after repeated rappings some one +moved within, and in a moment the door opened and a voice called to us, +"Come, come out of the snow. It is a nasty night." Without further +preliminaries we stepped into the shelter of the broad, comfortable +hall. Holding a candle above his head, and peering at us through the +dim light that it cast, was a short, stockily built, bearded man in his +shirt sleeves and wearing hairy sealskin trousers and boots. To him I +introduced myself and Easton, and he, in turn, told us that he was the +Reverend Paul Schmidt, the missionary in charge of the station. + +Mr. Schmidt's astonishment at our unexpected appearance at midnight and +in such a storm was only equaled by his hospitable welcome. His broken +English sounded sweet indeed, inviting us to throw off our snow-covered +garments. He ushered us to a neat room on the floor above, struck a +match to a stove already charged with kindling wood and coal, and in +five minutes after our entrance we were listening to the music of a +crackling fire and warming our chilled selves by its increasing heat. + +Our host was most solicitous for our every comfort. He hurried in and +out, and by the time we were thoroughly warmed told us supper was ready +and asked us to his living room below, where Mrs. Schmidt had spread +the table for a hot meal. Each mission house has a common kitchen and +a common dining room, and besides having the use of these the separate +families are each provided with a private living room and a sleeping +room. + +It is not pleasant to be routed out of bed in the middle of the night, +but these good missionaries assured us that it was really a pleasure to +them, and treated us like old friends whom they were overjoyed to see. +"Well, well," said Mr. Schmidt, again and again, "it is very good for +you to come. I am very glad that you came tonight, for now we shall +have company, and you shall stay with us until the weather is fine +again for traveling, and we will talk English together, which is a +pleasure for me, for I have almost forgotten my English, with no one to +talk it to." + +It was after two o'clock when we went to bed, and I verily believe that +Mr. Schmidt would have talked all night had it not been for our hard +day's work and evident need of rest. + +When we arose in the morning the storm was still blowing with unabated +fury. We had breakfast with Mr. Schmidt in his private apartment and +were later introduced to Mr. Karl Filsehke, the storekeeper, and his +wife, who, like the Schmidts, were most hospitable and kind. At all of +the Moravian missions, with the exception of Killinek "down to +Chidley," and Makkovik, the farthest station "up south," there is, +besides the missionary, who devotes himself more particularly to the +spiritual needs of his people, a storekeeper who looks after their +material welfare and assists in conducting the meetings. + +In Labrador these missions are largely, though by no means wholly, +self-supporting. Furs and blubber are taken from the Eskimos in +exchange for goods, and the proflts resulting from their sale in Europe +are applied toward the expense of maintaining the stations. They own a +small steamer, which brings the supplies from London every summer and +takes away the year's accumulation of fur and oil. Since the first +permanent establishment was erected at Nain, over one hundred and fifty +years ago, they have followed this trade. + +During the day I visited the store and blubber house, where Eskimo men +and women were engaged in cutting seal blubber into small slices and +pounding these with heavy wooden mallets. The pounded blubber is +placed in zinc vats, and, when the summer comes, exposed in the vats to +the sun's heat, which renders out a fine white oil. This oil is put +into casks and shipped to the trade. + +In the depth of winter seal hunting is impossible, and during that +season the Eskimo families gather in huts, or igloosoaks, at the +mission stations. There are sixty-nine of these people connected with +the Ramah station and I visited them all with Mr. Schmidt. Their huts +were heated with stone lamps and seal oil, for the country is bare of +wood. The fuel for the mission house is brought from the South by the +steamer. + +The Eskimos at Ramah and at the stations south are all supposed to be +Christians, but naturally they still retain many of the traditional +beliefs and superstitions of their people. They will not live in a +house where a death has occurred, believing that the spirit of the +departed will haunt the place. If the building is worth it, they take +it down and set it up again somewhere else. + +Not long ago the wife of one of the Eskimos was taken seriously ill, +and became delirious. Her husband and his neighbors, deciding that she +was possessed of an evil spirit, tied her down and left her, until +finally she died, uncared for and alone, from cold and lack of +nourishment. This occurred at a distance from the station, and the +missionaries did not learn of it until the woman was dead and beyond +their aid. They are most kind in their ministrations to the sick and +needy. + +Once Dr. Grenfell visited Ramah and exhibited to the astonished Eskimos +some stereopticon views--photographs that he had taken there in a +previous year. It so happened that one of the pictures was that of an +old woman who had died since the photograph was made, and when it +appeared upon the screen terror struck the hearts of the simple-minded +people. They believed it was her spirit returned to earth, and for a +long time afterward imagined that they saw it floating about at night, +visiting the woman's old haunts. + +The daily routine of the mission station is most methodical. At seven +o'clock in the morning a bell calls the servants to their duties; at +nine o'clock it rings again, granting a half hour's rest; at a quarter +to twelve a third ringing sends them to dinner; they return at one +o'clock to work until dark. Every night at five o'clock the bell +summons them to religious service in the chapel, where worship is +conducted in Eskimo by either the missionary or the storekeeper. The +women sit on one side, the men on the other, and are always in their +seats before the last tone of the bell dies out. I used to enjoy these +services exceedingly--watching the eager, expectant faces of the people +as they heard the lesson taught, and their hearty singing of the hymns +in Eskimo made the evening hour a most interesting one to me. + +It is a busy life the missionary leads. From morning until night he is +kept constantly at work, and in the night his rest is often broken by +calls to minister to the sick. He is the father of his flock, and his +people never hesitate to call for his help and advice; to him all their +troubles and disagreements are referred for a wise adjustment. + +I am free to say that previous to meeting them upon their field of +labor I looked upon the work of these missionaries with indifference, +if not disfavor, for I had been led to believe that they were +accomplishing little or nothing. But now I have seen, and I know of +what incalculable value the services are that they are rendering to the +poor, benighted people of this coast. + +They practically renounce the world and their home ties to spend their +lives, until they are too old for further service or their health +breaks down, in their Heaven-inspired calling, surrounded by people of +a different race and language, in the most barren, God-cursed land in +the world. + +When their children reach the age of seven years they must send them to +the church school at home to be educated. Very often parent and child +never meet again. This is, as many of them told me, the greatest +sacrifice they are called upon to make, but they realize that it is for +the best good of the child and their work, and they do not murmur. +What heroes and heroines these men and women are! One _must_ admire +and honor them. + +There were some little ones here at Ramah who used to climb upon my +knees and call me "Uncle," and kiss me good morning and good night, and +I learned to love them. My recollections of these days at Ramah are +pleasant ones. + +Philippus Inglavina and Ludwig Alasua, two Eskimos, were engaged to +hold themselves in readiness with their team of twelve dogs for a +bright and early start for Hebron on the first clear morning. On the +fourth morning after our arrival they announced that the weather was +sufficiently clear for them to find their way over the hills. Mrs. +Schmidt and Mrs. Filsehke filled an earthen jug with hot coffee and +wrapped it, with some sandwiches, in a bearskin to keep from freezing +for a few hours; sufficient wood to boil the kettle that night and the +next morning was lashed with our baggage on the komatik; the Eskimos +each received the daily ration of a plug of tobacco and a box of +matches, which they demand when traveling, and then we said good-by and +started. The komatik was loaded with Eskimos, and the rest of the +native population trailed after us on foot. It is the custom on the +coast for the people to accompany a komatik starting on a journey for +some distance from the station. + +The wind, which had died nearly out in the night, was rising again. It +was directly in our teeth and shifting the loose snow unpleasantly. We +had not gone far when one of the trailing Eskimos came running after us +and shouting to our driver to stop. We halted, and when he overtook us +he called the attention of Philippus to a high mountain known as +Attanuek (the King), whose peak was nearly hidden by drifting snow. A +consultation decided them that it would be dangerous to attempt the +passes that day, and to our chagrin the Eskimos turned the dogs back to +the station. + +The next morning Attanuek's head was clear, the wind was light, the +atmosphere bitter cold, and we were off in good season. We soon +reached "Lamson's Hill," rising three thousand feet across our path, +and shortly after daylight began the wearisome ascent, helping the dogs +haul the komatik up steep places and wallowing through deep snow banks. +Before noon one of our dogs gave out, and we had to cut him loose. An +hour later we met George Ford on his way home to Nachvak from Davis +Inlet, and some Eskimos with a team from the Hebron Mission, and from +this latter team we borrowed a dog to take the place of the one that we +had lost. Ford told us that his leader had gone mad that morning and +he had been compelled to shoot it. He also informed me that wolves had +followed him all the way from Okak to Hebron, mingling with his dogs at +night, but at Hebron had left his trail. + +At three o'clock we reached the summit of Lamson's Hill and began the +perilous descent, where only the most expert maneuvering on the part of +the Eskimos saved our komatik from being smashed. In many places we +had to let the sledge down over steep places, after first removing the +dogs, and it was a good while after dark when we reached the bottom. +Then, after working the komatik over a mile of rough bowlders from +which the wind had swept the snow, we at length came upon the sea ice +of Saglak Bay, and at eight o'clock drew up at an igloosoak on an +island several miles from the mainland. + +This igloosoak was practically an underground dwelling, and the +entrance was through a snow tunnel. From a single seal-gut window a +dim light shone, but there was no other sign of human life. I groped +my way into the tunnel, bent half double, stepping upon and stumbling +over numerous dogs that blocked the way, and at the farther end bumped +into a door. Upon pushing this open I found myself in a room perhaps +twelve by fourteen feet in size. Three stone lamps shed a gloomy half +light over the place, and revealed a low bunk, covered with sealskins, +extending along two sides of the room, upon which nine Eskimos--men, +women and children--were lying. A half inch of soft slush covered the +floor. The whole place was reeking in filth, infested with vermin, and +the stench was sickening. + +The people arose and welcomed us as Eskimos always do, most cordially. +Our two drivers, who followed me with the wood we had brought, made a +fire in a small sheet-iron tent stove kept in the shack by the +missionaries for their use when traveling, and on it we placed our +kettle full of ice for tea, and our sandwiches to thaw, for they were +frozen as hard as bullets. One of the old women was half dead with +consumption, and constantly spitting, and when we saw her turning our +sandwiches on the stove our appetite appreciably diminished. + +At Ramah I had purchased some dried caplin for dog food for the night. +The caplin is a small fish, about the size of a smelt or a little +larger, and is caught in the neighborhood of Hamilton Inlet and south. +They are brought north by the missionaries to use for dog food when +traveling in the winter, as they are more easily packed on the komatik +than seal meat. The Eskimos are exceedingly fond of these dried fish, +and they appealed to our men as too great a delicacy to waste upon the +dogs. Therefore when feeding time came, seal blubber, of which there +was an abundant supply in the igloo, fell to the lot of the animals, +while our drivers and hosts appropriated the caplin to themselves. The +bag of fish was placed in the center, with a dish of raw seal fat +alongside, with the men, women and children surrounding it, and they +were still banqueting upon the fish and fat when I, weary with +traveling, fell asleep in my bag. + +It was not yet dark the next evening when we came in sight of the +Eskimo village at the Hebron mission, and the whole population of one +hundred and eighty people and two hundred dogs, the former shouting, +the latter howling, turned out to greet us. Several of the young men, +fleeter of foot than the others, ran out on the ice, and when they had +come near enough to see who we were, turned and ran back again ahead of +our dogs, shouting "Kablunot! Kablunot!" (outlanders), and so, in the +midst of pandemonium, we drew into the station, and received from the +missionaries a most cordial welcome. + +Here I was fortunate in securing for the next eighty miles of our +journey an Eskimo with an exceptionally fine team of fourteen dogs. +This new driver--Cornelius was his name--made my heart glad by +consenting to travel without an attendant. I was pleased at this +because experience had taught me that each additional man meant just so +much slower progress. + +No time was lost at Hebron, for the weather was fine, and early morning +found us on our way. At Napartok we reached the "first wood," and the +sight of a grove of green spruce tops above the snow seemed almost like +a glimpse of home. + +It was dreary, tiresome work, this daily plodding southward over the +endless snow, sometimes upon the wide ice field, sometimes crossing +necks of land with tedious ascents and dangerous descents of hills, +making no halt while daylight lasted, save to clear the dogs' entangled +traces and snatch a piece of hard-tack for a cheerless luncheon. + +Okak, two days' travel south of Hebron, with a population of three +hundred and twenty-nine, is the largest Eskimo village in Labrador and +an important station of the Moravian missionaries. Besides the chapel, +living apartments and store of the mission a neat, well-organized +little hospital has just been opened by them and placed in charge of +Dr. S. Hutton, an English physician. Young, capable and with every +prospect of success at home, he and his charming wife have resigned all +to come to the dreary Labrador and give their lives and efforts to the +uplifting of this bit of benighted humanity. + +We were entertained by the doctor and Mrs. Hutton and found them most +delightful people. The only other member of the hospital corps was +Miss S. Francis, a young woman who has prepared herself as a trained +nurse to give her life to the service. I had an opportunity to visit +with Dr. Hutton several of the Eskimo dwellings, and was struck by +their cleanliness and the great advance toward civilization these +people have made over their northern kinsmen. We had now reached a +section where timber grows, and some of the houses were quite +pretentious for the frontier--well furnished, of two or three rooms, +and far superior to many of the homes of the outer coast breeds to the +south. This, of course, is the visible result of the century of +Moravian labors. Here I engaged, with the aid of the missionaries, +Paulus Avalar and Boas Anton with twelve dogs to go with us to Nain, +and after one day at Okak our march was resumed. + +It is a hundred miles from Okak to Nain and on the way the Kiglapait +Mountain must be crossed, as the Atlantic ice outside is liable to be +shattered at any time should an easterly gale blow, and there is no +possible retreat and no opportunity to escape should one be caught upon +it at such a time, as perpendicular cliffs rise sheer from the sea ice +here. + +We had not reached the summit of the Kiglapait when night drove us into +camp in a snow igloo. The Eskimos here are losing the art of +snow-house building, and this one was very poorly constructed, and, +with a temperature of thirty or forty degrees below zero, very cold and +uncomfortable. + +When we turned into our sleeping bags Paulus, who could talk a few +words of English, remarked to me: "Clouds say big snow maybe. Here +very bad. No dog feed. We go early," and pointing to my watch face +indicated that we should start at midnight. At eleven o'clock I heard +him and Boas get up and go out. Half an hour later they came back with +a kettle of hot tea and we had breakfast. Then the two Eskimos, by +candlelight read aloud in their language a form of worship and sang a +hymn. All along the coast between Hebron and Makkovik I found morning +and evening worship and grace before and after meals a regular +institution with the Eskimos, whose religious training is carefully +looked after by the Moravians. + +By midnight our komatik was packed. "Ooisht! ooisht!" started the dogs +forward as the first feathery flakes of the threatened storm fell +lazily down. Not a breath of wind was stirring and no sound broke the +ominous silence of the night save the crunch of our feet on the snow +and the voice of the driver urging on the dogs. + +Boas went ahead, leading the team on the trail. Presently he halted +and shouted back that he could not make out the landmarks in the now +thickening snow. Then we circled about until an old track was found +and went on again. Time and again this maneuver was repeated. The +snow now began to fall heavily and the wind rose. + +No further sign of the track could be discovered and short halts were +made while Paulus examined my compass to get his bearings. + +Finally the summit of the Kiglapait was reached, and the descent was +more rapid. At one place on a sharp down grade the dogs started on a +run and we jumped upon the komatik to ride. Moving at a rapid pace the +team, dimly visible ahead, suddenly disappeared. Paulus rolled off the +komatik to avoid going over the ledge ahead, but the rest of us had no +time to jump, and a moment later the bottom fell out of our track and +we felt ourselves dropping through space. It was a fall of only +fifteen feet, but in the night it seemed a hundred. Fortunately we +landed on soft snow and no harm was done, but we had a good shaking up. + +The storm grew in force with the coming of daylight. Forging on +through the driving snow we reached the ocean ice early in the forenoon +and at four o'clock in the afternoon the shelter of an Eskimo hut. + +The storm was so severe the next morning our Eskimos said to venture +out in it would probably mean to get lost, but before noon the wind so +far abated that we started. + +The snow fell thickly all day, the wind began to rise again, and a +little after four o'clock the real force of the gale struck us in one +continued, terrific sweep, and the snow blew so thick that we nearly +smothered. The temperature was thirty degrees below zero. We could +not see the length of the komatik. We did not dare let go of it, for +had we separated ourselves a half dozen yards we should certainly have +been lost. + +Somehow the instincts of drivers and dogs, guided by the hand of a good +Providence, led us to the mission house at Nain, which we reached at +five o'clock and were overwhelmed by the kindness of the Moravians. +This is the Moravian headquarters in Labrador, and the Bishop, Right +Reverend A. Martin, with his aids, is in charge. + +It was Saturday night when we reached Nain, and Sunday was spent here +while we secured new drivers and dogs and waited for the storm to blow +over. + +Every one was so cordial and hospitable that I almost regretted the +necessity of leaving on Monday morning. The day was excessively cold +and a head wind froze cheeks and noses and required an almost constant +application of the hand to thaw them out and prevent them from freezing +permanently. Easton even frosted his elbow through his heavy clothing +of reindeer skin. + +During the second day from Nain we met Missionary Christian Schmitt +returning from a visit to the natives farther south, and on the ice had +a half hour's chat. + +That evening we reached Davis Inlet Post of the Hudson's Bay Company, +and spent the night with Mr. Guy, the agent, and the following morning +headed southward again, passed Cape Harrigan, and in another two days +reached Hopedale Mission, where we arrived just ahead of one of the +fierce storms* so frequent here at this season of the year, which held +us prisoners from Thursday night until Monday morning. Two days later +we pulled in at Makkovik, the last station of the Moravians on our +southern trail. + +* Since writing the above I have learned that a half-breed whom I met +at Davis Inlet, his wife and a young native left that point for +Hopedale just after us, were overtaken by this storm, lost their way, +and were probably overcome by the elements. Their dogs ate the bodies +and a week later returned, well fed, to Davis Inlet. Dr. Grenfell +found the bones in the spring. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +BACK TO NORTHWEST RIVER + +We had now reached an English-speaking country; that is, a section +where every one talked understandable English, though at the same time +nearly every one was conversant with the Eskimo language. + +All down the coast we had been fortunate in securing dogs and drivers +with little trouble through the intervention of the missionaries; but +at Makkovik dogs were scarce, and it seemed for a time as though we +were stranded here, but finally, with missionary Townley's aid I +engaged an old Eskimo named Martin Tuktusini to go with us to Rigolet. +When I looked at Martin's dogs, however, I saw at once that they were +not equal to the journey, unaided. Neither had I much faith in Martin, +for he was an old man who had nearly reached the end of his usefulness. + +A day was lost in vainly looking around for additional dogs, and then +Mr. Townley generously loaned us his team and driver to help us on to +Big Bight, fifteen miles away, where he thought we might get dogs to +supplement Martin's. + +At Big Bight we found a miserable hut, where the people were +indescribably poor and dirty. A team was engaged after some delay to +carry us to Tishialuk, thirty miles farther on our journey, which place +we reached the following day at eleven o'clock. + +There is a single hovel at Tishialuk, occupied by two brothers--John +and Sam Cove--and their sister. Their only food was flour, and a +limited quantity of that. Even tea and molasses, usually found amongst +the "livyeres" (live-heres) of the coast, were lacking. Sam was only +too glad of the opportunity to earn a few dollars, and was engaged with +his team to join forces with Martin as far as Rigolet. + +There are two routes from Tishialuk to Rigolet. One is the "Big Neck" +route over the hills, and much shorter than the other, which is known +as the outside route, though it also crosses a wide neck of land inside +of Cape Harrison, ending at Pottle's Bay on Hamilton Inlet. It was my +intention to take the Big Neck trail, but Martin strenuously opposed it +on the ground that it passed over high hills, was much more difficult, +and the probabilities of getting lost should a storm occur were much +greater by that route than by the other. His objections prevailed, and +upon the afternoon of the day after our arrival Sam was ready, and in a +gale of wind we ran down on the ice to Tom Bromfield's cabin at Tilt +Cove, that we might be ready to make an early start for Pottle's Bay +the following morning, as the whole day would be needed to cross the +neck of land to Pottle's Bay and the neatest shelter beyond. + +Tom is a prosperous and ambitious hunter, and is fairly well-to-do as +it goes on the Labrador. His one-room cabin was very comfortable, and +he treated us to unwonted luxuries, such as butter, marmalade, and +sugar for our tea. + +During the evening he displayed to me the skin of a large wolf which he +had killed a few days before, and told us the story of the killing. + +"I were away, sir," related he, "wi' th' dogs, savin' one which I +leaves to home, 'tendin' my fox traps. The woman (meaning his wife) +were alone wi' the young ones. In the evenin' (afternoon) her hears a +fightin' of dogs outside, an' thinkin' one of the team was broke loose +an' run home, she starts to go out to beat the beasts an' put a stop to +the fightin'. But lookin' out first before she goes, what does she see +but the wolf that owned that skin, and right handy to the door he were, +too. He were a big divil, as you sees, sir. She were scared. Her +tries to take down the rifle--the one as is there on the pegs, sir. +The wolf and the dog be now fightin' agin' the door, and she thinks +they's handy to breakin' in, and it makes her a bit shaky in the hands, +and she makes a slip and the rifle he goes off bang! makin' that hole +there marrin' the timber above the windy. Then the wolf he goes off +too; he be scared at the shootin'. When I comes home she tells me, and +I lays fur the beast. 'Twere the next day and I were in the house when +I hears the dogs fightin' and I peers out the windy, and there I sees +the wolf fightin' wi' the dogs, quite handy by the house. Well, sir, I +just gits the rifle down and goes out, and when the dogs sees me they +runs and leaves the wolf, and I up and knocks he over wi' a bullet, and +there's his skin, worth a good four dollars, for he be an extra fine +one, sir." + +We sat up late that night listening to Tom's stories. + +The next morning was leaden gray, and promised snow. With the hope of +reaching Pottle's Bay before dark we started forward early, and at one +o'clock in the afternoon were in the soft snow of the spruce-covered +neck. Traveling was very bad and progress so slow that darkness found +us still amongst the scrubby firs. Martin and I walked ahead of the +dogs, making a path and cutting away the growth where it was too thick +to permit the passage of the teams. + +Martin was guiding us by so circuitous a path that finally I began to +suspect he had lost his way, and, calling a halt, suggested that we had +better make a shelter and stop until daylight, particularly as the snow +was now falling. When you are lost in the bush it is a good rule to +stop where you are until you make certain of your course. Martin in +this instance, however, seemed very positive that we were going in the +right direction, though off the usual trail, and he said that in +another hour or so we would certainly come out and find the salt-water +ice of Hamilton Inlet. So after an argument I agreed to proceed and +trust in his assurances. + +Easton, who was driving the rear team, was completely tired out with +the exertion of steering the komatik through the brush and untangling +the dogs, which seemed to take a delight in spreading out and getting +their traces fast around the numerous small trees, and I went to the +rear to relieve him for a time from the exhausting work. + +It was nearly two o'clock in the morning when we at length came upon +the ice of a brook which Martin admitted he had never seen before and +confessed that he was completely lost. I ordered a halt at once until +daylight. We drank some cold water, ate some hard-tack and then +stretched our sleeping bags upon the snow and, all of us weary, lay +down to let the drift cover us while we slept. + +At dawn we were up, and with a bit of jerked venison in my hand to +serve for breakfast, I left the others to lash the load on the komatiks +and follow me and started on ahead. I had walked but half a mile when +I came upon the rough hummocks of the Inlet ice. Before noon we found +shelter from the now heavily driving snowstorm in a livyere's hut and +here remained until the following morning. + +Just beyond this point, in crossing a neck of land, we came upon a +small hut and, as is usual on the Labrador, stopped for a moment. The +people of the coast always expect travelers to stop and have a cup of +tea with them, and feel that they have been slighted if this is not +done. Here I found a widow named Newell, whom I knew, and her two or +three small children. It was a miserable hut, without even the +ordinary comforts of the poorer coast cabins, only one side of the +earthen floor partially covered with rough boards, and the people +destitute of food. Mrs. Newell told me that the other livyeres were +giving her what little they had to eat, and had saved them during the +winter from actual starvation. I had some hardtack and tea in my "grub +bag," and these I left with her. + +Two days later we pulled in at Rigolet and were greeted by my friend +Fraser. It was almost like getting home again, for now I was on old, +familiar ground. A good budget of letters that had come during the +previous summer awaited us and how eagerly we read them! This was the +first communication we had received from our home folks since the +previous June and it was now February twenty-first. + +We rested with Fraser until the twenty-third, and then with Mark +Pallesser, a Groswater Bay Eskimo, turned in to Northwest River where +Stanton, upon coming from the interior, had remained to wait for our +return that he might join us for the balance of the journey out. The +going was fearful and snowshoeing in the heavy snow tiresome. It +required two days to reach Mulligan, where we spent the night with +skipper Tom Blake, one of my good old friends, and at Tom's we feasted +on the first fresh venison we had had since leaving the Ungava +district. In the whole distance from Whale River not a caribou had +been killed during the winter by any one, while in the previous winter +a single hunter at Davis Inlet shot in one day a hundred and fifty, and +only ceased then because he had no more ammunition. Tom had killed +three or four, and south of this point I learned of a hunter now and +then getting one. + +Northwest River was reached on Monday, February twenty-sixth, and we +took Cotter by complete surprise, for he had not expected us for +another month. + +The day after our arrival Stanton came to the Post from a cabin three +miles above, where he had been living alone, and he was delighted to +see us. + +The lumbermen at Muddy Lake, twenty miles away, heard of our arrival +and sent down a special messenger with a large addition to the mail +which I was carrying out and which had been growing steadily in bulk +with its accumulations at every station. + +This is the stormiest season of the year in Labrador, and weather +conditions were such that it was not until March sixth that we were +permitted to resume our journey homeward. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE END OF THE LONG TRAIL + +The storm left the ice covered with a depth of soft snow into which the +dogs sank deep and hauled the komatik with difficulty. Snowshoeing, +too, was unusually hard. The day we left Northwest River (Tuesday, +March sixth) the temperature rose above the freezing point, and when it +froze that night a thin crust formed, through which our snowshoes +broke, adding very materially to the labor of walking--and of course it +was all walking. + +As the days lengthened and the sun asserting his power, pushed higher +and higher above the horizon, the glare upon the white expanse of snow +dazzled our eyes, and we had to put on smoked glasses to protect +ourselves from snow-blindness. Even with the glasses our driver, Mark, +became partially snow-blind, and when, on the evening of the third day +after leaving Northwest River, we reached his home at Karwalla, an +Eskimo settlement a few miles west of Rigolet, it became necessary for +us to halt until he was sufficiently recovered to enable him to travel +again. + +Here we met some of the Eskimos that had been connected with the Eskimo +village at the World's Fair at Chicago, in 1893. Mary, Mark's wife, +was one of the number. She told me of having been exhibited as far +west as Portland, Oregon, and I asked: + +"Mary, aren't you discontented here, after seeing so much of the world? +Wouldn't you like to go back?" + +"No, sir," she answered. "'Tis fine here, where I has plenty of +company. 'Tis too lonesome in the States, sir." + +"But you can't get the good things to eat here--the fruits and other +things," I insisted. + +"I likes the oranges and apples fine, sir--but they has no seal meat or +deer's meat in the States." + +It was not until Tuesday, March thirteenth, three days after our +arrival at Karwalla, that Mark thought himself quite able to proceed. +The brief "mild" gave place to intense cold and blustery, snowy +weather. We pushed on toward West Bay, on the outer coast again, by +the "Backway," an arm of Hamilton Inlet that extends almost due east +from Karwalla. + +At West Bay I secured fresh dogs to carry us on to Cartwright, which I +hoped to reach in one day more. But the going was fearfully poor, soft +snow was drifted deep in the trail over Cape Porcupine, the ice in +Traymore was broken up by the gales, and this necessitated a long +detour, so it was nearly dark and snowing hard when we at last reached +the house of James Williams, at North River, just across Sandwich Bay +from Cartwright Post. The greeting I received was so kindly that I was +not altogether disappointed at having to spend the night here. + +"We've been expectin' you all winter, sir," said Mrs. Williams. "When +you stopped two years ago you said you'd come some other time, and we +knew you would. 'Tis fine to see you again, sir." + +On the afternoon of March seventeenth we reached Cartwright Post of the +Hudson's Bay Company, and my friend Mr. Ernest Swaffield, the agent, +and Mrs. Swaffield, who had been so kind to me on my former trip, gave +us a cordial welcome. Here also I met Dr. Mumford, the resident +physician at Dr. Grenfell's mission hospital at Battle Harbor, who was +on a trip along the coast visiting the sick. + +Another four days' delay was necessary at Cartwright before dogs could +be found to carry us on, but with Swaffield's aid I finally secured +teams and we resumed our journey, stopping at night at the native +cabins along the route. Much bad weather was encountered to retard us +and I had difficulty now and again in securing dogs and drivers. Many +of the men that I had on my previous trip, when I brought Hubbard's +body out to Battle Harbor, were absent hunting, but whenever I could +find them they invariably engaged with me again to help me a stage upon +the journey. + +From Long Pond, near Seal Islands, neither I nor the men I had knew the +way (when I traveled down the coast on the former occasion my drivers +took a route outside of Long Pond), and that afternoon we went astray, +and with no one to set us right wandered about upon the ice until long +after dark, looking for a hut at Whale Bight, which was finally located +by the dogs smelling smoke and going to it. + +A little beyond Whale Bight we came upon a bay that I recognized, and +from that point I knew the trail and headed directly to Williams' +Harbor, where I found John and James Russell, two of my old drivers, +ready to take us on to Battle Harbor. + +At last, on the afternoon of March twenty-sixth we reached the +hospital, and how good it seemed to be back almost within touch of +civilization. It was here that I ended that long and dreary sledge +journey with the last remains of dear old Hubbard, in the spring of +1904, and what a flood of recollections came to me as I stood in front +of the hospital and looked again across the ice of St. Lewis Inlet! How +well I remembered those weary days over there at Fox Harbor, watching +the broken, heaving ice that separated me from Battle Island; the +little boat that one day came into the ice and worked its way slowly +through it until it reached us and took us to the hospital and the +ship; and how thankful I felt that I had reached here with my precious +burden safe. + +Mrs. Mumford made us most welcome, and entertained me in the doctor's +house, and was as good and kind as she could be. + +I must again express my appreciation of the truly wonderful work that +Dr. Grenfell and his brave associates are carrying on amongst the +people of this dreary coast. Year after year, they brave the hardships +and dangers of sea and fog and winter storms that they may minister to +the lowly and needy in the Master's name. It is a saying on the coast +that "even the dogs know Dr. Grenfell," and it is literally true, for +his activities carry him everywhere and God knows what would become of +some of the people if he were not there to look after them. His +practice extends over a larger territory than that of any other +physician in the world, but the only fee he ever collects is the +pleasure that comes with the knowledge of work well done. + +At Battle Harbor I was told by a trader that it would be difficult, if +not impossible, to procure dogs to carry us up the Straits toward +Quebec, and I was strongly advised to end my snowshoe and dog journey +here and wait for a steamer that was expected to come in April to the +whaling station at Cape Charles, twelve miles away. This seemed good +advice, for if we could get a steamer here within three weeks or so +that would take us to St. Johns we should reach home probably earlier +than we possibly could by going to Quebec. + +There is a government coast telegraph line that follows the north shore +of the St. Lawrence from Quebec to Chateau Bay, but the nearest office +open at this time was at Red Bay, sixty-five miles from Battle Harbor, +and I determined to go there and get into communication with home and +at the same time telegraph to Bowring Brothers in St. Johns and +ascertain from them exactly when I might expect the whaling steamer. + +William Murphy offered to carry me over with his team, and, leaving +Stanton and Easton comfortably housed at Battle Harbor and both of them +quite content to end their dog traveling here, on the morning after my +arrival Murphy and I made an early start for Red Bay. + +Except in the more sheltered places the bay ice had broken away along +the Straits and we had to follow the rough ice barricades, sometimes +working inland up and down the rocky hills and steep grades. Before +noon we passed Henley Harbor and the Devil's Dining Table--a basaltic +rock formation--and a little later reached Chateau Bay and had dinner +in a native house. Beyond this point there are cabins built at +intervals of a few miles as shelter for the linemen when making repairs +to the wire. We passed one of these at Wreck Cove toward evening, but +as a storm was threatening, pushed on to the next one at Green Bay, +fifty-five miles from Battle Harbor. It was dark before we got there, +and to reach the Bay we had to descend a steep hill. I shall never +forget the ride down that hill. It is very well to go over places like +that when you know the way and what you are likely to bring up against, +but I did not know the way and had to pin my faith blindly on Murphy, +who had taken me over rotten ice during the day--ice that waved up and +down with our weight and sometimes broke behind us. My opinion of him +was that he was a reckless devil, and when we began to descend that +hill, five hundred feet to the bay ice, this opinion was strengthened. +I would have said uncomplimentary things to him had time permitted. I +expected anything to happen. It looked in the night as though a sheer +precipice with a bottomless pit below was in front of us. Two drags +were thrown over the komatik runners to hold us back, but in spite of +them we went like a shot out of a gun, he on one side, I on the other, +sticking our heels into the hard snow as we extended our legs ahead, +trying our best to hold back and stop our wild progress. But, much to +my surprise, when we got there, and I verily believe to Murphy's +surprise also, we landed right side up at the bottom, with no bones +broken. There were three men camped in the shack here, and we spent +the night with them. + +Early the next day we reached Red Bay and the telegraph office. There +are no words in the English language adequate to express my feelings of +gratification when I heard the instruments clicking off the messages. +It had been seventeen years since I had handled a telegraph key--when I +was a railroad telegrapher down in New England--and how I fondled that +key, and what music the click of the sounder was to my ears! + +My messages were soon sent, and then I sat down to wait for the replies. + +The office was in the house of Thomas Moors, and he was good enough to +invite me to stop with him while in Red Bay. His daughter was the +telegraph operator. + +The next day the answers to my telegrams came, and many messages from +friends, and one from Bowring & Company stating that no steamer would +be sent to Cape Charles. I had been making inquiries here, however, in +the meantime, and learned that it was quite possible to secure dogs and +continue the journey up the north shore, so I was not greatly +disappointed. I dispatched Murphy at once to Battle Harbor to bring on +the other men, waiting myself at Red Bay for their coming, and holding +teams in readiness for an immediate departure when they should arrive. + +They drove in at two o'clock on April fourth, and we left at once. On +the morning of the sixth we passed through Blanc Sablon, the boundary +line between Newfoundland and Canadian territory, and here I left the +Newfoundland letters from my mail bag. From this point the majority of +the natives are Acadians, and speak only French. + +At Brador Bay I stopped to telegraph. No operator was there, so I sent +the message myself, left the money on the desk and proceeded. + +Three days more took us to St. Augustine Post of the Hudson's Bay +Company, where we arrived in the morning and accepted the hospitality +of Burgess, the Agent. + +Our old friends the Indians whom we met on our inland trip at Northwest +River were here, and John, who had eaten supper with us at our camp on +the hill on the first portage, expressed great pleasure at meeting us, +and had many questions to ask about the country. They had failed in +their deer hunt, and had come out half starved a week or so before, +from the interior. + +We did fifty miles on the eleventh, changing dogs at Harrington at noon +and running on to Sealnet Cove that night. Here we found more Indians +who had just emerged from the interior, driven to the coast for food +like those at St. Augustine as the result of their failure to find +caribou. + +Two days later we reached the Post at Romain, and on the afternoon of +April seventeenth reached Natashquan and open water. Here I engaged +passage on a small schooner--the first afloat in the St. Lawrence--to +take us on to Eskimo Point, seventy miles farther, where the Quebec +steamer, _King Edward_, was expected to arrive in a week or so. That +night we boarded the schooner and sailed at once. Into the sea I threw +the clothes I had been wearing, and donned fresh ones. What a relief +it was to be clear of the innumerable horde "o' wee sma' beasties" that +had been my close companions all the way down from the Eskimo igloos in +the North. I have wondered many times since whether those clothes swam +ashore, and if they did what happened to them. + +It was a great pleasure to be upon the water again, and see the shore +slip past, and feel that no more snowstorms, no more bitter northern +blasts, no more hungry days and nights were to be faced. + +Since June twenty-fifth, the day we dipped our paddles into the water +of Northwest River and turned northward into the wastes of the great +unknown wilderness, eight hundred miles had been traversed in reaching +Fort Chimo, and on our return journey with dogs and komatik and +snowshoes, two thousand more. + +We reached Eskimo Point on April twentieth, and that very day a rain +began that turned the world into a sea of slush. I was glad indeed +that our komatik work was finished, for it would now have been very +difficult, if not impossible, to travel farther with dogs. + +I at once deposited in the post office the bag of letters that I had +carried all the way from far-off Ungava. This was the first mail that +any single messenger had ever carried by dog train from that distant +point, and I felt quite puffed up with the honor of it. + +The week that we waited here for the _King Edward_ was a dismal one, +and when the ship finally arrived we lost no time in getting ourselves +and our belongings aboard. It was a mighty satisfaction to feel the +pulse of the engines that with every revolution took us nearer home, +and when at last we tied up at the steamer's wharf in Quebec, I heaved +a sigh of relief. + +On April thirtieth, after an absence of just eleven months, we found +ourselves again in the whirl and racket of New York. The portages and +rapids and camp fires, the Indian wigwams and Eskimo igloos and the +great, silent white world of the North that we had so recently left +were now only memories. We had reached the end of The Long Trail. The +work of exploration begun by Hubbard was finished. + + + +APPENDIX + +LABRADOR PLANTS + +Specimens collected along the route of the expedition between Northwest +River and Lake Michikamau. Determined at the New York Botanical +Gardens: + +Ledum groonlandicum, Oeder. Comarum palustre L. Rubus arcticus L. +Solidago multiradiata. Ait. Sanguisorba Canadensis L. Linnaea +Americana, Forbes. Dasiphora fruticosa (L), Rydb. Chamnaerion +latifolium (L), Sweet. Viburnum pancifloram, Pylaim. Viscaxia alpina +(L), Roehl. Menyanthes trifoliata L. Vaznera trifolia (L), Morong. +Ledum prostratum, Rotlb. Betula glandulosa, Michx. Kalmia angustifolia. +Aronia nigra (Willd), Britt. Comus Canadensis L. Arenaria groenlandica +(Retz), Spreng. Barbarea stricta, Audry. Eriophorum russeolum, Fries. +Eriophorum polystachyon L. Phegopteris Phegopt@ (L), Fee. + +LICHENS + +Cladonia deformis (L), Hoffen. Alectoria dehrolenea (Ehrh.), Nyl. +Umbilicaria Neuhlenbergii (Ac L.), Tuck. + +GEOLOGICAL NOTES By G. M. Richards All bearings given, refer to the +true meridian. + +My sincere thanks are due Prof. J.F. Kemp and Dr. C.P. Berkey, whose +generous assistance has made this work possible. + +ROUTE FOLLOWED + +The route was by steamer to the head of Hamilton Inlet, +Labrador--thence by canoes up Grand Lake and the Nascaupee River. +Fifteen miles above Grand Lake, a portage route was followed which +makes a long detour through a series of lakes to avoid rapids in the +river. This trail again returns to the Nascaupee River at Seal Lake +and for some fifty miles above Seal Lake, follows the river. It then +leaves the Nascaupee, making a second long detour through lakes to the +north. On one of these lakes (Bibiquasin Lake) the trail was lost, and +thereafter we traveled in a westerly direction until reaching Lake +Michikamau. + +Our food supply was then in so depleted a condition the party was +obliged to separate, three of us returning to Northwest River. + +It will be understood that the circumstances would allow of but a very +limited examination of the geological features of the country. Only +typical rock specimens, or those whose character was at all doubtful +were brought back. + +PREVIOUS EXPLORATION + +Mr. A.P. Low penetrated to Lake Michikamau, by way of the Grand River. +He has thoroughly described the lake in his report to the Canadian +Geological Survey, 1895, and it is not touched upon in the following +paper. In the summer of 1903, an expedition led by Leonidas Hubbard, +Jr., attempted to reach Lake Michikamau by ascending the Nascaupee +River; they, however, missed the mouth of that stream on Grand Lake and +followed the Susan River instead, pursuing a northwesterly course for +two months without reaching the lake. On the return journey, Mr. +Hubbard died of starvation, his two companions, Mr. Wallace and a +half-breed Indian, barely escaping a similar fate. + +GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION + +The Northwest River represented on the map of the Canadian Geological +Survey (made from information obtained from the Indians) as draining +Lake Michikamau, is but three and one-half miles long, and connects +Grand Lake with Hamilton Inlet. There are six streams flowing into +Grand Lake, instead of only one. It is the Nascaupee River that flows +from Lake Michikamau to Grand Lake; and Seal Lake instead of being the +source of the Nascaupee River is merely an expansion of it. + +The source of the Crooked River was also discovered and mapped, as well +as a great number of smaller lakes. + +On the Northern Slope the George and Koroksoak Rivers and several lakes +were mapped, and some smaller rivers located. + +DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ROUTE EXPLORED + +Northwest River which flows into a small sandy bay at the head of +Hamilton Inlet is only three and one-half miles long and drains Grand +Lake. + +For one-quarter of a mile above its mouth the river maintains an +average width of one hundred and fifty yards, and a depth of two and +one-half fathoms. It then expands into a shallow sheet of water two +miles wide and three miles long, known locally as "The Little Lake." At +the head of this small expansion the river again contracts where it +flows out of Grand Lake. This point is known as "The Rapids," and +although there is a strong current, the stream may be ascended in +canoes without tracking. + +At the foot of "The Rapids" the effect of the spring tides is barely +perceptible. Between Grand Lake and the head of Hamilton Inlet, +Northwest River flows through a deposit of sand marked by several +distinct marine terraces. + +Grand Lake is a body of fresh water forty miles long and from two to +six miles in width, having a direction N. 75 degrees W. It lies in a +deep valley between rocky hills that rise to a height of about four +hundred feet above the lake, and was doubtless at one time an extension +of Hamilton Inlet. At Cape Corbeau and Berry Head the rocks rise +almost perpendicularly from the water; at the former place, to a height +of three hundred feet. Except in a few places the hills are covered to +their summits by a thick growth of small spruce and fir. + +At the head of the lake there are two bays, one extending slightly to +the southwest, the other nearly due north. Into the former flow the +Susan and Beaver Rivers, while into the latter empties the water of the +Nascaupee and Crooked Rivers. Besides these there are two small +streams, the Cape Corbeau River on the south, and Watty's Brook on the +north shore. + +At the point where the Nascaupee and Crooked Rivers enter the lake +there are two low islands of sand, and a great deal of sand is being +carried down by the two streams and deposited in the lake, which is +very shallow for some distance from the shore. + +Three miles above the mouth of the Nascaupee River it is separated from +the Crooked River by a plain of stratified sand and gravel, +three-quarters of a mile wide, with two well-defined terraces. The +first is twenty feet above the river and extends back some three +hundred yards to a second terrace, rising seventy-five feet above the +first. + +Half way between this terrace and the Crooked River is, the old bed of +the Nascaupee River, nearly parallel to its present course. A similar +abandoned channel curve was found, making a small arc to the south of +the Crooked River. + +Above Grand Lake the Nascaupee River flows through an ancient valley, +which is from a few hundred yards to a mile wide and cut deep into the +old Archaean rocks, affording an excellent example of river erosion. +The banks are of sand, and in some places clay, extending back to the +foot of the precipitous hills. Apparently the ancient river valley has +been partly filled with drift, down through which the river has cut its +way; the present bed of the stream being of post glacial formation. +The general direction of the river is N. 83 degrees W. + +Fifteen miles above Grand Lake, the Red River joins the main stream, +coming from N. 87 degrees W. Below its junction with the latter stream, +the Nascaupee River has a width varying between two and three hundred +yards, and an average depth of about ten feet. + +The Red River is two hundred feet wide, and its water, unlike that of +the main stream, has a red brown color, like that of many of the +streams of Ontario which have their source in swamp or Muskeg lands. + +The first rapids in the Red River are said to be eight miles above its +mouth. Directly opposite the junction of the two streams the portage +leaves the Nascaupee River. The direction is N. 24 degrees E. and the +distance five and one-half miles, with an elevation of 1050 feet above +the river at the end of the second mile. + +The last three and one-half miles lead across a level tableland, to a +small lake, from which the trail descends through two lakes into a +shallow valley. + +The entire country from the head of Grand Lake to this point has been +devastated by fire, only a few trees near the water having escaped +destruction, and the ground, except in a few places, is destitute even +of its usual covering of reindeer moss. + +The underlying rock is gneiss, and the country from the Nascaupee River +is thickly strewn with huge glacial bowlders. + +The majority of these bowlders have been derived from the immediate +vicinity, but many consisting of a coarse pegmatite carrying +considerable quantities of ilmenite were observed. None of this rock +was seen in place. + +The valley last mentioned is separated from the Crooked River by +Caribou Ridge, a broad, flat-topped elevation, three hundred and fifty +feet high, dotted by small lakes, which fill almost every appreciable +depression in the rock. + +The general course to the Crooked River is northeast; at the point +where the portage reaches it the stream is fifty yards wide and very +shallow; flowing over a bed of coarse drift, which obstructs the river, +forming a series of small lake expansions with rapids at the outlet of +each. Between Grand Lake and the point where we reached the river, +the Indians say it is not navigable in canoes, owing to rapids. + +The Crooked River has its source in Lake Nipishish, which is about +twenty-two miles long, with an average width of three miles, and a +course due north. Six miles above the outlet of the lake is a bay, +five miles long, extending N. 80 degrees W. + +Along the north shore of the lake and in the bay are several small +islands of drift, and many huge angular bowlders projecting above the +water. The country in the vicinity of the lake and in the valley of +the Crooked River is covered with mounds and ridges of drift and many +small moraines. + +These moraines consisting of bowlders for the most part from the +immediate vicinity, seemed to have no given direction, but were usually +found at the ends of, and in a transverse direction to the ridges. + +The trail leaves Lake Nipishish near the head of the large bay, +continuing in a direction between north and northwest, through several +insignificant lakes, all drained indirectly by the Crooked River, until +it reached Otter Lake, which is eight miles long, running nearly north +and south, and is five hundred and fifty feet below the summits of the +surrounding hills. + +From Otter Lake, the course is west through five diminutive lakes, and +across a series of sandy ridges to a small shallow lake, which is the +source of Babewendigash River. Between this lake and Seal Lake +intervene a high range of mountains--the highest seen on the journey to +Lake Michikamau--rising fully one thousand feet above the level of Seal +Lake. They are visible for miles in any direction, and were seen from +Caribou Ridge nearly a month before we reached them. + +They are glaciated to their summits, which are entirely destitute of +vegetation and in August were still, in places, covered with snow. +Babewendigash River winds to and fro between the mountains, its course +being determined to a great extent by esker ridges that follow it on +either side and which are often more than one hundred feet high. +Throughout its length of twenty-five miles there are five rapids and +three small lake expansions. + +Seal Lake, into which the river flows, is in part an expansion of the +Nascaupee River and fills a basin surrounded on every side by +mountains, rising several hundred feet above the water. The lake is +comparatively shallow, and has a perceptible current. There are +several small islands of drift, covered by a scanty growth of spruce +and willow. The main lake has direction N. 45 degrees W., and is ten +miles long and two and one-half miles wide. The northwestern arm is +fifteen miles long, with the same width, and a course N. 80 degrees W. + +The steep rocky shores have precluded the formation of terraces. Above +Seal Lake the course of the Nascaupee River varies between N. 40 +degrees W. and N. 80 degrees W. + +Five miles above the lake there is an expansion of the river, called +Wuchusk Nipi, or Muskrat Lake, which is eight miles long and a mile and +a half wide, with a course N. 40 degrees W. Except for a channel along +the western shore, the lake is very shallow, being nearly filled with +sand carried down by the river. There is a small stream flowing into +this lake expansion near its head, called Wuchusk Nipishish. + +For fifty miles above Muskrat Lake, the river flows between sandy +banks, marked on either side by two well-defined terraces. The river +valley gradually becomes more narrow and the current stronger and with +the exception of a few small expansions, progress is only possible by +means of tracking. There are, however, in this distance but two rapids +necessitating portages. + +Opposite the point where the portage leaves the Nascaupee to make a +second long detour around rapids, a small river flows in from the +southwest, having a sheer fall of almost fifty feet, just above its +junction with the main stream. + +The trail, after leaving the river, has a course N. 35 degrees W. for +two miles; it then turns N. 85 degrees W. six miles, and again N. 55 +degrees W. four miles. + +In its course are four small lakes, but there is an unbroken portage of +eight miles between the last two. Nearly the whole country has been +denuded by fire, and the prospect is desolate in the extreme. The end +of the portage is on the high rolling plateau of the interior, timbered +by a sparse and stunted second growth of spruce, covered everywhere +with white reindeer moss, and strewn with lakes innumerable. + +The trail which runs N. 50 degrees W. and has not been used for eight +years, gradually became more and more indistinct, until on Bibiquasin +Lake it disappeared entirely. Thereafter the course was N. 70 degrees +W., and finally due west, through a series of lakes which at last +brought us to Lake Michikamau. The largest of this series is +Kasheshebogamog Lake, a sheet of water twenty-three miles long, but +broken by numerous bays and countless islands of drift, with a +direction S. 75 degrees W. The lake is confined between long +bowlder-covered ridges, and is fed at its western end by a small stream. + +Although its outlet was not discovered, it doubtless drains into the +Nascaupee River. + +On the return journey an attempt was made to descend the Nascaupee +River below Seal Lake. + +The river leaves the lake at its southeastern extremity, flowing +between hills that rise almost straight from the waters edge, and is +one long continuation of heavy rapids. After following the stream for +two days we were obliged to retrace our steps to Seal Lake, thereafter +keeping to the course pursued on the inland journey. + +DETAILS OF ROCK EXPOSURE + +The numbers following the names of rocks refer to corresponding numbers +in appendix. + +Of the rocks observed, by far the greater number are foliated basic +eruptives,--schists and gneisses. There are, however, some that are of +undoubted sedimentary origin, but highly metamorphosed. + +The general direction of foliation is a few degrees south of east, +subject, of course, to many local changes. + +Along Grand Lake the rock is a compact amphibolite [3] with a strike S. +78 degrees E. cut by numerous pegmatite dikes, having a strike N. 30 +degrees W. and a dip 79 degrees W.. These dikes vary in width from +three to twenty feet. Half way to the head of the lake is a dike [1] +having a total width of eight feet, consisting of a central band of +segregated quartz, six feet wide, cut by numerous thin sheets of +biotite, which probably mark the planes of shearing. The quartz is +bordered on either side by a band of orthoclase,' one foot in width. +Between these bands of orthoclase and the neighboring amphibolite are +narrow bands of schist [2] + +One hundred feet south of the above point is a second dike having a +similar strike and dip and a width of eighteen feet. A third narrow +dike, containing small pockets of magnetite, is twenty-five feet south +of the second. Only the first is distinguished by the segregation of +the quartz. + +The next outcrop observed was on the portage from the Nascaupee River. +The rock, a biotite granite gneiss [4] having a strike N. 82 degrees E. +is much weathered and split by the action of the frost, and marked by +pockets of quartz, usually four or five inches in width. + +Between this point and Lake Nipishish the underlying rock differs only +in being more extremely crushed and foliated. The one exception is on +Caribou Ridge, which is capped by a much altered gabbro. [6] + +The first noticeable change in the character of the country rock is a +Washkagama Lake, where a fine grained epidotic schist [7] was observed, +having a dip 82 degrees W. and a strike S. 78 degrees E. + +At Otter Lake a much foliated and weathered phyllite [8] was found. +Strike N. 73 degrees E. and a dip of 16 degrees. + +On the Babewendigash River seven miles east of Seal Lake is an exposure +of highly metamorphosed ancient sedimentary rocks. The outcrop occurs +at a height of four hundred feet above the river; and there is a +well-marked stratification. + +The lowest bed of a calcarous sericitic schist [9] is four feet thick +and underlies a bed of schistose lime stone [10] six feet in thickness, +which is in turn covered by a finely laminated phyllite, [11] ten feet +thick. The whole is capped by thirty feet of quartzite, [12] which +forms the top of a long ridge. + +Owing to the strong weathering action this thickness of quartzite is +doubtless much less than it was originally. + +Forty-six miles above Seal Lake an exposure of phyllite was seen, the +same in every respect as the one east of Seal Lake, just mentioned. + +The general direction of foliation is S. 70 degrees E. and the dip 70 +degrees. The higher hills west of Seal Lake are capped by a much +altered gabbro [13] that has undergone considerable weathering. + +Between the Nascaupee River and a few miles beyond Bibiquasin Lake the +rock is quartzite, [14] considerably weathered and covered by drift. +Bowlders of this quartzite were seen along the Nascaupee River long +before the first outcrop was reached, showing the general direction of +the glacial movement to have been to the southeast. From Bibiquasin +Lake to Lake Kasheshebogamog the country is covered with much drift; +the only exposures are on the steep hillsides. The rock being a coarse +hornblende granite. + +The western end of Kasheshebogamog Lake lies within the limit of the +anorthosite [15] area, which extends from that point to Lake +Michikamau, a direct distance of twenty miles and was the only +anorthosite observed on the journey. + +GLACIAL STRIAE + +First portage opposite Red River S. 45 degrees E. On Caribou +Ridge E. At Washkagama Lake +S. 70 degrees E. Near Seal Lake N. 85 +degrees E. At Wuchusk Nipi S. 75 degrees E. +Thirty-two miles above Wuchusk Nipi S. 70 degrees E. + +MICROSCOPICAL FEATURES OF THE ROCK SPECIMENS + +By G. M. Richards, Columbia University 1--Pegmatite-Grand Lake. The +specimen was taken from a pegmatite dike at its contact with an +amphibolite. In the hand specimen it is an apparently pure orthoclase +but in the thin section small scattered quartz grains are observed; as +well as the alteration products, Kaolin and sericite. + +The minerals at contact are quartz, biotite, magnetite and hornblende. + +Both the quartz and orthoclase contain dust inclusions and +crystallites, while the evidences of shearing and crushing are abundant. + +2-Quartz Biotite Schist. + +Contact between above dike and amphibolite. A coarse black rock +carrying magnetite and pyrites in considerable quantities. + +Under the microscope some of the biotite has a green coloration from +decomposition and is surrounded by strong pleochroic halos. + +Small grains of secondary pyroxene are numerous. + +AMPHIBOLITE + +3-Grand Lake. + +A dark, compact rock, having a mottled appearance due to grains of +plagioclase, and a green color in section. + +Minerals present are hornblende, biotite, plagioclase, pyroxene, quartz +and the alteration products from the feldspar. + +The rock has been subjected to a strong crushing action, which has been +resisted by only small portions of it. The spaces between the grains, +which are intact, are filled with a confused mass of peripherally +granulated minerals, in which strain shadows are very prominent. + +The rock has been derived by dynamic metamorphism from a basic igneous +rock. + +4-Biotite Granite Gneiss. + +Eighteen miles above mouth of Nascaupee River. A fine-grained rock of +gneissic structure having a faint pink color. + +Plagioclase, microcline and quartz are the predominating minerals, +while biotite, titanite, epidote, apatite, zircon and garnet are +present in smaller quantities. + +There is also a small amount of hematite, pyroxene and sericite. + +The rock, which is of a granitic composition, contains numerous +crystallites and has been subjected to considerable strain and +crushing, which has resulted in foliation. + +5-Mica Granite Gneiss--Country Rock--near Caribou Ridge. + +In the hand specimen the rock has the same appearance as No. 4, if +anything, it is somewhat more compact. + +The principal minerals are, plagioclase, biotite and microcline, with +smaller quantities of quartz, iron oxide, pyroxene and garnet. + +The feldspar is decomposed with the resulting formation of epidote, +which is quite prominent. There are also numerous included crystals. + +The rock has been greatly crushed and sheared, and is much finer than +No. 4. + +6--Cap of Caribou Ridge. + +A hard compact rock of dark green color, having a mottled appearance, +due to the presence of a white mineral. + +Pyroxene, quartz and augite form the groundmass, as seen in section. +There are a few small grains of magnetite. + +The severe crushing to which the rock has been subjected has resulted +in the conversion of the plagioclase into scapolite and also in the +formation of zoisite by the characteristic alteration of the lime +bearing silicate of the feldspar in conjunction with other constituents +of the rock. + +The light mineral is finely granulated and the whole is marked by +uneven extinction. + +The rock has probably been derived by dynamic metamorphism, from a +coarse igneous rock like a gabbro. + +7--Epidotic Sericitic Schist. Washkagama Lake. + +A fine grained compact gray rock, of aggregate structure, consisting +chiefly of quartz, plagioclase and biotite, and the alteration products +epidote and sericite. + +Under the microscope it is a confused mass of finely granulated +minerals, with numerous included crystals. + +The rock has undergone complete metamorphism and its origin is unknown. + +8--Phyllite-Near Otter Lake. + +A soft extremely fine grained gray rock, with a well developed +schistose structure, carrying much magnetite, plagioclase, orthoclase +and their alteration products. + +The strain to which the rock has been subjected has resulted in a very +fine lamination, and it is _considerably weathered_. + +9--Calcarous Sericite Schist.--Seven Miles East of Seal Lake. + +A dark compact rock, in which calcite and sericite predominate. Quartz +is less plentiful. The results of shearing and pressure are very +prominent and bring out the foliation, even in the calcite. + +10--Schistose Limestone--Same location as No. 9. + +A white rock having a peculiar mottled appearance due to the inclusions +of decomposing biotite which project from the surrounding mass of +calcite. There is some sericite present, also magnetite, resulting +from the decomposition of the biotite. + +The bent and metamorphosed condition of the calcite shows the shearing +and crushing which the rock has undergone. + +11--Phyllite--same location as No. 9. + +A dark red, finely laminated rock consisting chiefly of decomposed +biotite and feldspar, occasional quartz grains and sericite and much +iron oxide. + +The rock has been subjected to strong shearing force, producing a good +example of schistose structure. + +12--Quartzite--Same location as No. 9. + +A compact rock of light red color, made up of uniformly rounded grains +of quartz, and the feldspar with occasional grain of magnetite. + +A fine siliceous material discolored by iron oxide, acts as a cement +between the grains. + +The quartz grains show secondary growth. 13--Altered Gabbro--Thirty-two +Miles Above Wuchusk Nipi on Nascaupee River. + +A coarse dark green rock whose principal constituents are pyroxene +plagioclase and magnetite. + +There is a slightly developed diabasic structure and the rock is much +altered by weathering; the resultant product being chlorite. + +14--Quartizite--Bibiquagin Lake. + +Hard compact rock of light red color, cut in all directions by narrow +veins of quartz, from microscope size to one-half an inch in width. + +The grains of the constituent minerals, quartz, feldspar and magnetite +have an angular brecciated appearance; showing uneven extinction and +strong crushing effects. + +The magnetite is somewhat decomposed, the resulting hematite filling +the spaces between the quartz grains. + +15--Anorthosite--Shore of Lake Michikamau. + +A coarse grained rock of dark gray color, in which labradorite is the +chief mineral. Magnetite and Kaolin are present in small quantities. + +The labradorite contains inclusions of rutile and biotite and has a +well-developed wedge structure and cross fracture due to the pressure +and shearing which it has undergone. + +It is also somewhat stained by the decomposition of the magnetite. + + + +SOURCES OF INFORMATION + +On the map of the portage route to Lake Michikamau; that lake, the +Grand River and Groswater Bay are taken from the map accompanying the +report of Mr. A. P. Low. + +The location of the Susan and Beaver Rivers with their tributaries was +obtained from Dillon Wallace's map in "The Lure of the Labrador Wild." + +The instruments used were a Brunton Pocket Transit, a small taffrail +log and an Aneroid Barometer. Distances on land were approximated by +means of a pedometer and by rough triangulation. + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Long Labrador Trail, by Dillon Wallace + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LONG LABRADOR TRAIL *** + +***** This file should be named 9857.txt or 9857.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/8/5/9857/ + +Produced by Martin Schub + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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