OUR CANADIAN LETTER

Otago Witness, Issue 2818, 18 March 1908, Page 11

OUR CANADIAN LETTER

(From Oca Own Correspondknt.) OTTAWA, December 31. The setting-in of winter in its full severity brings into the public eye some of those phases of life which are peculiarly associated with the frozen area of the extreme north, where white men are few in number, and the mounted police are the sole emblems of British law. There the Indian and the Eskimo live by the chase, just as they did when Hudson set up his first trading post in the great bay which still bears his name, .and there too the methods of commerce have undergone but slight changes during the intervening ■ 237 years. That great, basin on the sou*hern shore of the Arctic Ooean, with its great rivers and unnamed lakes, is still the source of half the world's supply of iurs. There the few remaining savages of North America, driven in primeval days by the ferocious and dominating Iroquois to the inhospitable wastes of the north, live their old nomadic life, killing and sometimes eating each other as they have done for centuries. i To them the newcoming mounted policeman, with his red coat and fearless tion of authority^ is an emigma. "Just, what power he represents is beyond their ken. They are much more familiar with that fierce law of retribution which exists, an eye for an eye, ere perhaps the dripping knife has been sheathed. The slow process of justice is something to which their dense minds are being schooled, and which must be the subject of many a strange debate in the ice huts which form their winter home. Tet the process is going on. Courts of justice have been erected on the far away shore of ' Hudso n*6 Bay. and the alphabet of the criminal code is being taught to the untamed denizens of the Arctic circle." Slowly they will learn that the law which now falls on them with chastening force is also tie power which will classify their rights and defend them. ' During the early, weeks of the autumn one of these nomads in the Hudson's Bay country was convicted of a" crime against j a fellow hunter, and sentenced to death j during the first week of January. The j papers came to Ottawa, and two weeks ago the commandant of police at Regina was ; notified that a reprive had been granted. To carry this mandate of the crown to the Arctic circle, in the heart of winter, meant many long and dangerous rides over frozen areas, but it may be safely assumed that the order will be delivered in time. It was figured out that a margin of two or three days only could be allowed as against i the ordinary time for covering the distance, j but the mounted policeman will get there, j They, never fail. No matter , what the i hardships may be, no matter what sacri- r fices are involved, what emergencies have f to be met in this race for a life, those . intrepid guardians of British law in the [ Northland may be relied on to do their | duty. Hundreds of miles will have to be ! covered, much of the distance on snow shoes or by dog trains, and the precious message must pass through many hands, but in the twilight of the Arctic winter that reprieve will be delivered in time. It is in this way serve the purposes of our slow-spreading, yet that heriosro and endurance are made to ! far-flung civilisation. ! In the process of carrying our commerce as . well as our laws into the regions of fhi& north, these mounted policemen are not the only heroes. Lord Stratheona himself, now living the life of a, true nobleman in London, spent more than 40 years of his life in that wild and inhospitable I country. Thither also are sent every year officers of the Government, to gather information — geographical, geological, and commercial — for the Blue Eooks of which members of Parliament may or may not ever turn a, leaf. These men go through experiences which surpass the very extremes of_ romance, and yet little is ever heard of them. Often buried for a year or two hundreds of miles beyond the most northerly trading post, they are called upon to face daily dangers from which all but the bravest would shrink. Carrying ! their lives in their hands, they make their long journeys, came back to us with their great mass of hard-won data, and the world hears perhaps nothing of tlieir story. It was cnly when the hand comera, ■vyith its frost proof films, was carried up into these lone steppes of the Arctic that we in our snug homes by the great lakes began to learn something of the wonders of our own land. I remember with what amazement Tyrell's pictures were received some 10 or 15 years ago, especially those which threw light on the Eskimo and animal life of the distant north. One of these photographs was of a single herd of reindeer, which stretched as far as the eve could reach. Thousands ar>d tens of thousands of these noble animals, with their spreading antlers, and often packed closely together, were seen by the explorer in migratory bands. In many instances five and six thousand were found together, and when these figures are applied to a country larger than Great Britain and New Zealand combined, some idea of the animal life of Northern Canada may be had. There are doubtless millions of reindeer and fur-bearing animals in that great frost-bound region which have not Tet been disturbed by ihe sound of a rifle. Even to those of us who are in daily touch with the official records as they come down during N the season of canoe navigation, the tragedies and romances of the great north never grow commonplace. No man, for example, who has the pride and instincts of British pluck in his heart can read the story of George F. Caldwell — which, by the war, was given no particular prominence in one of our daily papers recently, and wholly ignored by the others — without a thrill. It is true he simply did what was expected of him ; but that, too, could bo said of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, or the men in Ladysmith. It is also' -true that scores of others have done as much, and some more ; but there must come a day when these rugged pioneers of our race will find a better memorial than the Blue Books which now make up the annals of their splendid achievements -for science and civilisation. In 1906 Mr Caldwell was commissioned to report on the character of the land, lakes, and streams lying back from the western shore of Hudson's Bay. where he had been landed by a Government steamer. There he was in midwinter, with almost a thousand miles of frozen wilderness between him and his destination. This was his second mission in that bleak country, however, and he knetr precisely what he had to do. His first >object wa6 «o set doss; bat neither 'cnires, gun*,

ammunition, not the finery so dear to the b/vvt of the Eskimo would induce them to part with the few animals which an epidemic had left to them. Finally he hired two dogs, and, with a pup which he purchased, he decided to push on. By undertaking to carry the mail he got six dogs from the Mounted Police Station for use as far as Chesterfield— a nari\e settlement 180 miles distant. At Chesterfield the natives were found to number 40, 12 of them being men. Disease had broken out among tho dogs there, leaving only a remnant of the tean.s, which the natives regarded as more valuable than anything the white man had to effer. After negotiations which lasted for two _ days Mr Caldwell succeeded in purchasing one more dog and got the loan of another for the trip. Thus he f ound himself the possessor of five dogis when nine constitute a team. A couple of days lat«r a remarkable native arrived on The scene from the hunting ground with five clogs and a load of skins which he was taking to Fullerton to barter with the police. He had traversed practically the whole extent of Canada from rho Arctic Ocean tn the international boundary. Eia;ht s care before a traveller named Clifton had got Ahtunaha to accompany him to Churchill and then had induced him to go on to ' Winnipeg, where the native had, Mr : Caldwell says, been left, without funds. ■ The Hudson's Bay officials, who are still the guardians of the northern natives, took charge of Ahtunaha and sent him back to Norway House. The climate there was too tropical for him, for Mr Caldwell says: "While wait- i ing at Norway House Ahtunaha was so I affected by the heat that the doctor had ; to allow him the privilege of livn'g in the 1 company's ice-house until such time as the 1 boats descended the. river to Fork Fac- ' tory." The next time* Ahtunaha 'ionr- . neyed with a white man it w«b to the north. He was one of the natives who accompanied David T. Hanbury on his , trip along the Arctic coast. He was once, ; j too, the hearer of a famous message, for it I was he who brought in 1904- from the Nor- ■ wegian exploring ship Gjoa, then winter- ] ing off Kino; William Land, the letter J which stated that tht magnetic pole had j been located and surveyed, and that the chip was in fair way to accomplish tho ' ; north-west passage, which she did the following year. By promising to take a certain route, by way of the Coppermine River, Mr , Caldwell induced Ahtunaha to accompany him. It was at. this river the first expedition of Sir John Franklin came to grief, and where many of tho crew star\ed, froze, and were killed and eaten. The full journey to the Coppermine meant a • i tramp, of 2000 miles across a barren coun- ] j try, but for the take of a white man's , for 500 miles Ahtunaha was will- . 1 ing to undertake it in midwinter. His [ wives spent six daj's in making boots and j clothing, anil towards the end of Janu- > ary, 1907, they got away. There were". j three in the party, and their progress I over that trackless area was necessarily slow ; but in 45 days they covered the 500 miles which lay between them and the point for which Mr Qaldwell was aiming. For the journey they could carry very little in the way of provisions. They had to depend almost wholly on what they I could get with their rifles. Hunting took i up nearly half their time, and 15 caribou and eight deer were shot. On these men and dogs had subsisted. For seven consecutive days the dogs had nothing to eat, and in his report Mr Caldwell writes of this crisis as follows: — "What eeal oil we had left was poured into 10 little holes we j made in the enow; then we turned the dogs loose. It gave them a very light . meal. I had five fish which I had hoped to bring through in a frozen state as specimens. One fish was fed to each of our five best dogs. I wanted to feed them what bisouit we had left, but ' Ahtunaha made a vigorous protest and I yielded. In any event, it would have given them only a biscuit and a-half apiece. Tho four miles we made to-day were inland, and I told the natives we should ! keep this course until we reached the rising- erround, where caribou were almost \ sure to be found. To sum up the situation, ; we had left 12 biscuits ; our oil was gone ; from ' this time forward we could look only -to frozen deer meat, raw, until we reached the woods. The dogs have not eaten for seven days." A change of route to the higher land was justified. for Mr Caldwell writes: — " Started early ; the dogs go much better than one would expect. After travelling 10 miles we saw fresh caribou tracks. Five 1 miles further we came to hijrhor land, and shortly afterwards siphted a band of four deer. Ahtunaha started after the deer on ' the hunt, and dropped one of them. After the feast another famine, for of the next ', day Caldwell writes that it was alt travel- ; liner and no feeding-. "We made cold • headway all day," he says, " and saw several bands of deer. The dogs kept tryin.tr to break away after them." Of March 11 this is his meagre account of astrenuous day: — "Stopped to hunt; very cold; wind north; got two caribou." Of the 12th he says: — "Hard pulling, and made only 12 miles. The dogs seem to be ' played out ; passed a deserted igloo on a ' small hill." Things went better on the , 13fh. "Mad-e 17 miks; saw numerous bands of caribou, and about 2 o'clock, | while travelling on the shore, we found the j first driftwood." On the 14th it was " blowing and drifting ; stopped and went hunting and e-ot three caribou ; two dogs left us." Of the next day he writes: — ' "Still storming and very cold; the two doors returned; Patico killed two more caribou to-day. The accumulation of moat , at this time was fortunate, for the weather got so bad that it was impo««ibk> to move < from the fuow shelter which had been ' thrown up." For six days they wore there, and of that time Caldwoll writes: — "Have no thermometer, but have learned since that on the 17th. 18th. and 19th of March, when we were storm-stayed, it was 50. 52, and 50 degrees below zero at Churchill." The rest nmst have done men and dogs good, for on the 21st they made 20 miles, but the following day had to stop smd hunt, as tho meat was gone. On March 27 the long journey ended at Fort Churchill, the historic post which taw the very commencement of the fur trade in North America. After reporting a me.J. deal about the eeograohv and fauna of tho country. Mr Caldwell goes on to throw new light on the life of the Eskimo. Some of his matter may be interesting to tho people who live at the opposite end of the earth. " Tin Eskimo," he says, "i« a good-natured easy-going fellow, but in his feuds he shows the savage. Witness the

case of Ackpce. He and his brother were out hunting, leaving i.hoir wives in the igloo (ice hut). During their absence a partj of natives travelling through the country stopped at the igloo. The travellers" were well acquainted with the wife of Ackpee'-s brother, and she belonged to their tribe. They tried to persuade her to forsake hor husband, and gentler methods failing carried her off by force. Ackpce got to the ig'.oo first, and from his wife learned of the abduction of his brother's kewuk (wife). He lost no time in starting after the party. He overtook them tho n-ext. day, and entering' their snow-house, expostulated ■"' them on what they had done and •• -: " that they should give the woman r. . s'i.o of the party, so Ackpee stated, -t'u'c I for him with a knife and Ackpce •shot and killed him. He followed this up by killing the rest of tho party, five in all, and took his brother's wife back with him. Since that time Ackpee was killed in 1904-, and his brother was killed by Kchesldoth in the spring of 1905. Kche«k!oth was killed by others of Ackpeo's family in January, 1906, and t.he feud is

stil! going on. However, murders, such as mentioned above, are of rare occurrence, as tho general goou conduct of the coast guides would indicate." Turning from the e^nfs of many months ago to thr present, it may be ob'ervc! that the wii.tt--;- thus far has been unusually mild. In fa<.t, lust night a barn was struck by lightning in Western Ontario, and it is rarely that a. Thunderstorm is heard of in Canada between October and May. Ceita-'nly they never occur durine* genuine winter weather. The Christmas reason sa->v hoavy rainfalls, but not enough to des»trov the sleighing. We prefer the clear, cold days for the holidays, but despite the mild weather the festivities of tho \u!otidc were general and genuine. "Business was good everywhere, and the conditions of prosperity which have prevailed for 10 yeais without a break had their manifestation in lavish present giving and generous provisions for the poor. Old Santa C T aus found last week burdensome enough. From this great northland we gone! to }ou in the sunny south our sincere wishes for a Happy and Prosperous New Year.