Page:Across the sub-Arctics of Canada (1897).djvu/269

 guide from Churchill. He was a very dark Indian, younger than Jimmie, and of much less noble appearance, and was known by the name of Charlie. He was said to be well fitted for the purpose, and we felt that a brother of our guide could not be a very poor man. Our party, including Arthur Omen, the driver from Churchill, who had determined to accompany us out of the country, was now complete. Twelve days' rations, consisting of bacon, flour, sugar and tea, were served out to each man, with a warning to make them last through the trip or suffer the consequences. The flour was then baked up into the more convenient form of cakes. Dog-fish was also provided, and all being loaded upon the three sleds and two toboggans, the second stage of our sledding journey was begun on Tuesday morning, the 28th of November. The dog-sleds were not the same as those we had used in traversing the hard driven snow of the plains, but were what are known as "flat sleds" or large toboggans, they being better suited to woodland travel.

The condition of our party on leaving York was vastly different from what it had been on leaving Churchill. The two hundred mile tramp, although crippling some of us and causing all plenty of exertion, had hardened our muscles so much that, with the ten days' "lie up" on the bank of the Nelson River, and a four days' rest at York, we were now in first-class walking trim, and started up the Hays River at a brisk pace.

The first day's march was upon the river ice, and our first camp was made on the bank, in two feet of snow,