A REAL HOUSE-BOAT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 117, 20 May 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

A REAL HOUSE-BOAT.

ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY.

At a certain sheltered spot on the banks of tlie Mackenzie River, in Canada, an occasional traveller across the snows may unexpectedly come upon a curious little hpme. On closer inspection it might remind him of Noah's Ark. Inside it are living a farmer, liis wife and two children, and his brother, not to mention two pigs and a sheep. There they are waiting for the return of summer to make it possible for their •strange little craft to take to the water once more. Reports of the discovery of radiumbearing and other rich ores encouraged the farmer to make a 2000-mile trip to the region of Great Bear Lake. So he turned his wooden shack and his barn into a boat, with a motor lorry to operate a stern paddle,-wheel; and he set out to make the journey by water. By way of a change the adventurous family sometimes made short overland stages, and they were last seen while engaged on one of these. The strange little cavalcade was seen by a pilot of the Royal Canadian Air Force at Fort Smith. The motor lorry had been run ashore, the floating home was jacked up, the lorry backed underneath it, and after various adjustments had been made, the whole contraption set off slowly. After covering 17 miles the perambulating home once more became a paddle-boat and set off northward toward the family's destination. But progress was naturally slow, and when the adventurers were forced into winter quarters they were still some hundreds of miles away from Great Bear Lake. This hardy Canadian family is. certainly possessed of the spirit of the old pioneers. Let us hope their journey will prove worth while.