Canadian Settlements.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14216, 4 June 1910, Page 2 (Supplement)

Canadian Settlements.

six ICE. •■\Ve have had some cold weather and some line sport 01 • kinds tins winter,, writes a Scotch-Canadian inend 111 tilts north of Alberta, to a London paper, liis particulars tully establish the coldness, and the stories <ll sport on the frozen lakes are enough to turn tho anglers of the old country green with

envy. "l'iie ground was frozen several leet deep in places,'' he says, "and as work on the land was almost impossible, and the teams for raiihead had stopped drawing for a bit, we put up tho tackle and went along the irozen water-ways to I'ort Resoluttion. "There we found the unfortunate Indians had been suffering severely, not so much from the cold, as from the shortness of food. Usually they can depend 011 getting plenty or deer flesh to last them until the soring, but for some unknown reason the deer have been very scarce this year, in fact have almost- vanished in places. . "I remember it was tho same with the lv.bbirs a little while ago. One year you could almost walk on them, were so plentiful, and the next there was not a bit of rabbit fur to be

seen. No one seemed able to account for it, and so far as 1 have been able to observe they have never returned. This winter the caribou have gone. Twelve months ago they were about in herds of several hundreds, and were as easy to shoot as tame pigs. This year I have seen scarcely a decent herd where [ have been, and the Indians say their -supplies gave out at- the end of .lanuasy. or the beginning of February. "We made up a party to go fishing, although they were almost sick of fish as food, hey had come down to the foi't,' which is in Athabasca, t-o trade skins and to get supplies. They looked as though their stories of privation were true, and were thin and gaunt. And they did not care much for the notion of going fishing, for the wind was blowing keen as razor edges, and the water was all frozen several feet deeo.

"'However, we showed them the tobacco .and something else that is not always permitted, but is very much in request, and that settled it.

"'lt was dead cold when we started, and we had a two-day tramp to where we were going to try our luck first. One old chap was opposed to the whole proposition, and sulked the first day. Hut when ration time came at night, and he got the smell of the tobacco, and tlie other things, he had to give in-, although, lie took his change by declaring all tlie time that we should get 110 lisli, and should probably be frozen to death.

"The fun commenced again when we got to our ground, for the ice turned out to be ever so much thicker than we had thought. First of all we tried gentle measures, hut one might as well have tried to cut through a sour of the Rookies with a cheese knife as to cut through the ice with the tools we had been trying. Happily we remembered an old hut sound double saw which had been left at the bottom of a sledge when we unloaded her, and when we got her to work we made better pro-

"Six feet or more we had to cut downwards before we got to the water, and then the fish seemed off their fo?d, or to have gone with the caribou. Hut we cut one or two more holes, and then The old grumbler of the party got a fish that would have nulled him into the water if it had not been for the ice. "When .we got back to Fort Resolution we found other Indians had come in with the same story, and some of them had been compelled to share the stale fish caught in the early autumn, and stored to feed the dogs with ever since.

'■The Hudson Bay men who bad come in-whiln wo were away had the same slorv to tell of the absence of the enrihmi; and some of them had completed throe or four hundred miles journey witliout' seeing any. The Indians everywhere were suffering, and reliefs of all kinds wore organised hy the Hudson Hay Company, as well as hy the North-West Mounted Police, who •ire splendid fellows when one needs a friend. The missionaries also. did pond work for the suffering Indians, and as soon as the need was realised there was plenty of help available. "'To malce matters more difficult the comet drove them into a condition almost of panic, and they hid themselves in any kind of shelter that could be found; and where tliev hoped they might be overlooked by the Power of whose visitation they assumed the comet to be a sign. To those of us who saw it. and did not fear, the sight was a very beautiful one, and as the

night® were often splendidly clear, we could watch its brilliant rush through the skies for a long time together. "Another visitor to Fort Resolution during the had time was Dr. Wheeler, a famous hunter, who was on Ins way to the ' Uarren Lands." north of the forest tracts, near the Arctic, and 011 the Mackenzie, where musk oxoll ami the cu-ibon nt most times are plentiful. The difficulty of obtaining supplies compelled him to remain at the Fort quite a long time, although Ik- had then already come about a thousand miles north in a three weeks' rush. The Indians, hearing that the caribou had probablv cone north, also wanted to go un with him. but were turned "back owing to scarcity of supplies."