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28 chapters
PREFACE
PREFACE
It is customary to write a preface. Mine shall be short. Out of a full heart, I wish to thank all the splendid people of the North who, by giving me so freely information and photographs, and chapters out of their own lives, have facilitated the writing of this story. For their spontaneous kindness to me and mine no acknowledgment that I can here make is adequate. What we feel most strongly we cannot put into words. AGNES DEANS CAMERON. August, 1909. CHAPTER I: THE MENDICANTS REACH WINNIPEG The
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THE MENDICANTS REACH WINNIPEG
THE MENDICANTS REACH WINNIPEG
"We are as mendicants who wait Along the roadside in the sun. Tatters of yesterday and shreds Of morrow clothe us every one. "And some are dotards, who believe And glory in the days of old; While some are dreamers, harping still Upon an unknown age of gold. "O foolish ones, put by your care! Where wants are many, joys are few; And at the wilding springs of peace, God keeps an open house for you. "But there be others, happier few, The vagabondish sons of God, Who know the by-ways and the flowers,
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WINNIPEG TO ATHABASCA LANDING
WINNIPEG TO ATHABASCA LANDING
"To the far-flung fenceless prairie Where the quick cloud-shadows trail, To our neighbor's barn in the offing And the line of the new-cut rail; To the plough in her league-long furrow." — Rudyard Kipling . Place a pair of dividers with one leg on Winnipeg and the other leg at Key West, Florida. Then swing the lower leg to the northwest, and it will not reach the limit of good agricultural land. From Winnipeg to Edmonton, roughly speaking, is a thousand miles, and two railway lines are open to us
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ATHABASCA LANDING
ATHABASCA LANDING
"I am the land that listens, I am the land that broods; Steeped in eternal beauty, crystalline waters and woods; I wait for the men who will win me—and I will not be won in a day; And I will not be won by weaklings, subtle, suave and mild, But by men with the hearts of vikings, and the simple faith of a child." — Robert Service Athabasca Landing, a funnel through which percolates the whole trade between the wheat-belt and the Arctic, is the true gateway of the North. Seeing our baggage tucked aw
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DOWN THE ATHABASCA ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIVE MILES TO GRAND RAPIDS
DOWN THE ATHABASCA ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIVE MILES TO GRAND RAPIDS
"Set me in the urge and tide-drift Of the streaming hosts a-wing! Breast of scarlet, throat of yellow, Raucous challenge, wooings mellow— Every migrant is my fellow, Making northward with the Spring." — Bliss Carman . If you have to do with Indian or half-breed boatmen in the North you plan to begin your journey in the evening, even though you hope to run only a few miles before nightfall. This ensures a good start next morning, whereas it would be humanly impossible to tear men away from the fl
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NINETY MILES OF RAPIDS
NINETY MILES OF RAPIDS
"On wan dark night on Lac St. Pierre, De win' she blow, blow, blow, An' de crew of de wood scow ' Julie Plante ' Got scar't an' run below— For de win' she blow lak hurricane Bimeby she blow some more, An' de scow bus' up on Lac St. Pierre Wan arpent from de shore." — Dr. Drummond . This morning we are to leave the Island; it is June 12th and Friday. The daylight lengthens from day to day and last night at half past ten underneath the mosquito-bar within the tent, it was light enough to thread a
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FORT CHIPEWYAN PAST AND PRESENT
FORT CHIPEWYAN PAST AND PRESENT
"Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, Their humble joys and destiny obscure." — Gray's Elegy . At seven in the morning of Sunday, June 21st, we enter Lake Athabasca, and catch our first glimpse of Fort Chipewyan. An acceptance of the invitation, "Come, shake your leg," has kept the men busy half the night over a hot sequence of Red River jigs among "pieces" on the lower deck, and we have this superb sweep almost to ourselves. The great lake-scape is blue and green and grey and opaline as the
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LAKE ATHABASCA AND ITS FOND DU LAC
LAKE ATHABASCA AND ITS FOND DU LAC
"Afar from stir of streets, The city's dust and din, What healing silence meets And greets us gliding in! "The noisy strife And bitter carpings cease. Here is the lap of life, Here are the lips of peace." — C.G.D. Roberts . For fresh woods and pastures new this Friday, June 26th! Our little "bunch" breaks up. Mr. Brabant and Mrs. Harding, of the Hudson's Bay Company contingent, go on in the Grahame to Smith's Landing, and with them the two detachments of the R.N.W.M.P. As we shake hands with the
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FOND DU LAC TO FORT SMITH
FOND DU LAC TO FORT SMITH
"On we tramped exultantly, and no man was our master, And no man guessed what dreams were ours, as swinging heel and toe, We tramped the road to Anywhere, the magic road to anywhere, The tragic road to Anywhere but one dear year ago." — Service . Everybody is to say farewell to Fond du Lac to-day, June 29th, so there is a hurried finishing up of loose ends. A loud yowl as of a lost soul letting go of life starts the lake echoes! No hand is staining itself in brother's blood. The treaty doctor, w
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SLAVE RIVER AND GREAT SLAVE LAKE
SLAVE RIVER AND GREAT SLAVE LAKE
"Wild for the hunter's roving, and the use Of trappers in its dark and trackless vales, Wild with the trampling of the giant moose, And the weird magic of old Indian tales." — Archibald Lampman . A double cabin is assigned us on The Mackenzie River and the nightmare that haunted us on the scows of wet negatives and spoiled films vanishes. On Tuesday, July 7th, the new steamer takes the water. Although, as we have said, we are in the latitude of St. Petersburg, still twelve hundred miles in an al
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PROVIDENCE TO SIMPSON, ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILES DOWN THE MACKENZIE
PROVIDENCE TO SIMPSON, ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILES DOWN THE MACKENZIE
"Never the Spirit was born: the Spirit shall cease to be never. Never was time, it was not; end and beginning are dreams. Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth the Spirit, Death hath not touched it at all, though dead the house of it seems." We have just finished supper and are sitting reading on the upper deck about seven o'clock, when a cry comes from below, followed by the rushing back and forth of moccasined feet. In a flash Bunny Langford, one of the engineers, has grabbed a life
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FORT GOOD HOPE ON THE ARCTIC CIRCLE
FORT GOOD HOPE ON THE ARCTIC CIRCLE
"With souls grown clear In this sweet atmosphere, With influences serene, Our blood and brain washed clean, We've idled down the breast Of broadening tides." — Chas. G.D. Roberts . About ten o'clock on the evening of July loth, in broad daylight, we push out from Fort Simpson, with the whole population, white, red, and parti-coloured, on the banks to bid us good-bye. We have seen present-day Simpson and opened for a little way the volume of the past. We try to imagine what it is like in winter-t
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ARCTIC RED RIVER AND ITS ESKIMO
ARCTIC RED RIVER AND ITS ESKIMO
"Behold, I sing a pagan song of old, And out of my full heart, Hold forth my hands that so I would enfold The Infinite thou art. What matter all the creeds that come and go, The many gods of men? My blood outcasts them from its joyous flow." — A Pagan Hymn . "The Eskimo is a short, squat, dirty man who lives on blubber," said text-books we had been weaned on, and this was the man we looked for. We didn't find him. It was at Arctic Red River, one hundred and ninety miles of river-travel since we
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FORT MACPHERSON FOLK
FORT MACPHERSON FOLK
"I have drunk the Sea's good wine, Was ever step so light as mine, Was ever heart so gay? O, thanks to thee, great Mother, thanks to thee, For this old joy renewed, For tightened sinew and clear blood imbued With sunlight and with sea." — A Pagan Hymn . On July 14th, shortly after we leave Arctic Red River, an open scow passes us, floating northward with the stream. It comes in close to the steamer, and we look down and see that every one of its seven occupants is sound asleep. In traversing the
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MORALIZING UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN
MORALIZING UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN
"Into this Universe, and Why not knowing Nor Whence , like Water willy-nilly flowing, And out of it, as Wind along the Waste, I know not Whither , willy-nilly blowing." — The Rubaiyat . The Midnight Sun! The sun does not sink to the horizon, but pauses for a moment and rises again. Dawn and eventide are one. The manifestations of light ever since we left Athabasca Landing have been wonderful, uplifting. The supreme marvel of the Midnight Sun is not what we see but what we feel. Standing at this
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MAINLY CONCERNING FOOD
MAINLY CONCERNING FOOD
"Man does not live by bread alone." Exigencies of life have caused the Mackenzie Eskimo to formulate on vital matters an unwritten law to which each gives assent. Succinctly stated, this system of Northland jurisprudence runs thus:— (a) Should a man, inadvertently or by malice aforethought, kill another, the wife and children of the man so killed remain a burden on the murderer so long as he or they live. (b) A drift-log found is treasure-trove, and belongs to the finder, who indicates possessio
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THE TALE OF A WHALE
THE TALE OF A WHALE
"In the North Sea lived a whale." What is a whale? Well, although the whalers dub it so, it is not a fish, but is a true mammal, the last of the mammoth creatures that trod the earth and floundered the seas of a past age. The whale is the biggest, the meekest, and the most interesting of living animals. As we go north, we readjust all our ideas of distance and immensity. Rivers are longer, lakes more majestic, and whales bigger than we have ever dreamed. Examining a stranded whale at Herschel, w
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SOUTH FROM THE ARCTIC TO CHIPEWYAN
SOUTH FROM THE ARCTIC TO CHIPEWYAN
"The old lost stars wheel back, dear lass, That blaze in the velvet blue. They're God's own guides on the Long Trail— The trail that is always new." Kipling . A tax on tea caused the revolt of the thirteen Colonies, a taunting load of tennis-balls lost France to the Dauphin. Eighty years ago on this Arctic edge, white beads, or the lack of them, lost a lucrative fur-trade, alienated the Loucheux and caused the death of whites. "Trifles make the sum of human things." The old records tell the stor
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TO MCMURRAY AND BACK TO THE PEACE
TO MCMURRAY AND BACK TO THE PEACE
"Think o' the stories round the camp, the yarns along the track— O' Lesser Slave an' Herschel's Isle an' Flynn at Fond du Lac; Of fur an' gun, an' ranch an' run, an' moose and caribou, An' bull-dogs eatin' us to death! Good-bye—good luck to you!" Our arrival at Chipewyan is opportune. Honorine Daniels, unceremoniously known as 'Norine among her friends (and they are legion), is about to join hand and fortune with one of the Mercredi boys. 'Norine owns a cottage in her own right, and to-night und
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UP THE PEACE TO VERMILION
UP THE PEACE TO VERMILION
"What lies ahead no human mind can know, To-morrow may bring happiness or woe. We cannot carry charts, save the hope that's in our hearts As along the unknown trail we blithely go." When we leave Chipewyan August 17th, the fall hunt of waveys has already begun. We learn afterwards that the Loutit boys alone made a bag of sixteen hundred of these birds which, salted down, form a considerable part of the winter food of the old Fort. Mrs. William Johnson comes down to see us embark. She has overwhe
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VERMILION-ON-THE-PEACE
VERMILION-ON-THE-PEACE
"Lofty I stand from each sister land, patient and cheerily wise, With the weight of a world of wonder in my quiet, passionless eyes, Dreaming of men who will bless me, of women esteeming me good, Of children born in my borders, of radiant motherhood, Of cities leaping to stature, of fame like a flag unfurled, As I pour the tide of my riches in the eager lap of the world." — Service . It is on August 27th, in the evening, that the crew, all slicked up in their Sunday-go-to-meetings, draw us up on
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FORT VERMILION TO LESSER SLAVE
FORT VERMILION TO LESSER SLAVE
"'Tis a summer such as broods O'er enchanted solitudes, Where the hands of Fancy lead us through voluptuary moods, And with lavish love outpours All the wealth of out-of-doors." — James Whitcomb Riley . On September 15th we leave Vermilion, leave, too, on the beach the little Mee-wah-sin, and in the tiny tug Messenger of the H.B. Company pass on up the Peace. By night we tent on the banks, by day we puff along between painted banks of gold and crimson, while all around us the air is a pungent to
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PEACE RIVER CROSSING TO LESSER SLAVE LAKE
PEACE RIVER CROSSING TO LESSER SLAVE LAKE
"A haze on the far horizon, The infinite tender sky, The ripe, rich tint of the cornfields, And the wild geese sailing high,— And all over upland and lowland The charm of the goldenrod. Some of us call it Autumn, And others call it God." — W.H. Carruth . At Peace River Crossing we say good-bye to the Gaudets, whose home is here. While they have been making a little summer jaunt to Fort Good Hope under the Arctic Circle the garden-seeds they sowed before they left have not been idle. Mr. Gaudet s
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LESSER SLAVE LAKE TO EDMONTON
LESSER SLAVE LAKE TO EDMONTON
"I hear the tread of Nations yet to be, The first low wash of waves where soon shall roll a human sea." Taking passage on the steamer Northern Light , we leave the settlement of Lesser Slave Lake, this world-in-small, on the first day of October, and, from here to Athabasca Landing, travel in company with Mr. J.K. Cornwall, President of the Northern Transportation Company. Between the time of our journey and this writing, Mr. Cornwall has been returned as Member of the Alberta Legislature for th
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HOMES AMONG THE YELLOW WHEAT
HOMES AMONG THE YELLOW WHEAT
"The stranger that sojourneth with you shall be unto you as the homeborn among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself." — Leviticus, XIX , 34. Edmonton once more. Two Spanish sailors shipwrecked and navigating the Pacific on a log, search the shore for a sign. Into what land are they drifting? The one at the bow (does a log have a bow?) sees something through the haze—" Gracias a Dios ! Praise be to God, it is a Christian country! I see the gallows!" We too get our sign. We reach Edmonton on Co
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ROUTE FROM EDMONTON TO THE ARCTIC VIA THE ATHABASCA AND MACKENZIE RIVER SYSTEMS.
ROUTE FROM EDMONTON TO THE ARCTIC VIA THE ATHABASCA AND MACKENZIE RIVER SYSTEMS.
[1] For further particulars regarding dates and rates, application should be made to the Hudson's Bay Company, Winnipeg; J.K. Cornwall, M.P.P., of the Northern Transportation Co. at Edmonton; or to A.G. Harrison, Secretary Edmonton Board of Trade, Edmonton, Alberta....
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ROUTE FROM EDMONTON TO PEACE RIVER, VIA THE ATHABASCA RIVER (UP STREAM), LESSER SLAVE RIVER AND LESSER SLAVE LAKE.
ROUTE FROM EDMONTON TO PEACE RIVER, VIA THE ATHABASCA RIVER (UP STREAM), LESSER SLAVE RIVER AND LESSER SLAVE LAKE.
[2] For further particulars regarding dates and rates, application should be made to the Hudson's Bay Company, Winnipeg; J.K. Cornwall, M.P.P., of the Northern Transportation Co. at Edmonton; or to A. G. Harrison, Secretary Board of Trade, Edmonton, Alberta....
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PEACE RIVER ROUTES:—(1) FROM PEACE RIVER CROSSING UP TO HUDSON'S HOPE. (2) FROM PEACE RIVER CROSSING DOWN TO FORT CHIPEWYAN.
PEACE RIVER ROUTES:—(1) FROM PEACE RIVER CROSSING UP TO HUDSON'S HOPE. (2) FROM PEACE RIVER CROSSING DOWN TO FORT CHIPEWYAN.
[3] For further particulars regarding dates and rates, application should be made to the Hudson's Bay Company, Winnipeg; J.K. Cornwall, M.P.P., of the Northern Transportation Co. at Edmonton; or to A.G. Harrison, Secretary Board of Trade, Edmonton, Alberta....
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