Canada -- History -- Periodicals; Canada, Northern -- History -- Periodicals; Hudson's Bay Company -- Periodicals
Finally we got into the Lowlands just before noon, having covered fully
sixty-five miles of our journey. As it was yet early and the dogs
appeared fresh as when they started, we decided after having a light
lunch, to go on to the next stopping place seventeen miles below. The
going was excellent and we did the first twelve miles in ninety minutes;
but coming to rough and hummocky ice we had to bear in towards the shore
to get around it. The wind had swept the rocks clean of snow. Just as we
got on land some caribou appeared across our course immediately ahead.
Well, talk about dogs moving! Their former speed seemed slow in
comparison. They raced over the naked rocks like wolves. I remember
looking behind and seeing a stream of fire flying from the steel shoeing
of the sledge like a shower of sparks from a high-speed emery wheel. The
caribou moved off into the valley and we had a tough job to get the
team onto the ice again. Here we came in sight of more seals. Off we
went again from our course and past the stopping place we had planned;
so we decided to go right on to our destination. _We arrived at Rigolet
before 8 p.m._
The Post managers came out and greeted us warmly, remarking however that
we had made slow time, arriving so late in the evening. _They thought we
had left the previous day._ When I announced that we had left only that
morning they said "like ---- you did." We had lost two hours, but in the
fourteen and a half hours we had been actually travelling we had covered
a hundred and seven miles. I am not claiming this is a record, but it is
one of the fastest trips ever made by an H.B.C. dog team with full load.
_Editor's Note--Mr. James Fraser, who later became H.B.C. District
Manager in Esquimaux Bay, made the trip from Rigolet to Northwest River
in one day on a previous occasion, but as he lost a twenty-eight pound
keg of white lead on the way up much of the glory vanished. The
foregoing is the first of a series of authentic stories which The Beaver
plans to carry in a regular department which may be styled the "Dog
Column"--just plain DOG. Men of the Hudson's Bay: bestir your
"recollection equipment" and let us know if you have a better dog story
than Mr. Cotter's. Particularly are we expecting to hear from J. J. G.
Rosser, of Isle a la Crosse, and Ashton Alston, of Barriere, both famous
"dog skinners."_
LITTLE JOURNEYS TO THE HAUNTS OF CANADA'S FUR-BEARING ANIMALS
I.
THE BEAVER
(_Continued from last Issue_)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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