LOST IN THE NORTH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 296, 14 December 1936, Page 17

LOST IN THE NORTH.

MISSIONARY PERILS.

IN CANADA'S BARREN LANDS. R.M.S. NASCOPIE, Hudson Bay. All hope lias been abandoned of solving the mystery of the disappearance of the Rev. Father Pigeon, the Roman Catholic missionary, who was lost in the Barren Lands over a year ago. • Monseigneur Arsene Turquctil, Bishop of the Eastern Arctic, returned to Chesterfield Inlet after another fruitless ■search for - some trace of the lost missionary. He is convinced that Father Pigeon died in the desolate wastes north-west of the Inlet, but search for his remains or his baggage has been fruitless, even in these treeless wastes. Another near tragedy comes to light with the report of the disappearance for a time of the Rev. Father Didier, who went off in a snowstorm last January, and after wandering vainly and blindly in the storm, dug a hole in the snow in which to shelter from the blast and to fight off the dreadful sleep which means death. Search parties from Chesterfield Inlet, led by Father Ducharme, discovered a small Eskimo boy who had seen some tracks in the snow. These were followed until blotted out by the storm, but led the missionaries near enough to Father Didier's cache for the priest to see the lantern they carried, and so find his.way stumblingly towards his rescuers. The danger of being lost in the North was later exemplified by the narrow escape of the Rev. J. March, the Anglican missionary at Eskimo Point, who, after >i?iting the radio station at Chesterfield Inlet, started out in a storm for the Hudson's Bay Company's post half a mile away. In that short distance lie lost his way, and was stumbling blindly out into the Barrens when someone casually turned on a light in the station. The missionary saw the glimmer and made for it.