206 THE GREAT DENE RACE.

CHAPTER XIV.
Travel and Transportation.
Travelling in general.

Of the northern Dénés Hearne very appropriately wrote that they are
“the greatest travellers in the known world’’!. A journey of two or three
hundred miles, even when heavily loaded with furs, provisions and the
numberless family impedimenta, is nothing to them if they think that some
particular trinket they have in mind, or a profit of a few “skins” (trade
dollars), will compensate them for their trouble.

When travelling with their families, they will seldom cover more than
fifteen miles in a day; but if alone and without any encumbrance, the men
will easily attain a speed of fifty miles during the same space of time. So
long are many of their journeys that, on undertaking them, they provide
themselves with several changes of mocassins.

It is true that, to reach that degree of efficiency, the northlander follows
rules which he considers essential to satisfactory results. In the first place,
he curtails his sleep as much as possible, starting very early in the morning,
and preferring to rest a little in the evening. Then no tripper would attempt
any important voyage without being properly belted and having his legs
bandaged below the knees or above the ankles. A string of any material tied
around the leggings will be deemed conducive to speed and preventive of
fatigue; but if made of the tendons of a swift animal, its worth for the pur-
pose will be notably enhanced.

When starting, the foresighted traveller will take it rather easy, but
gradually accelerate his speed as he goes along, and be careful never to
drink by the wayside, however great may be the temptation to quench his thirst.

Indian trails are to a white man more or less imaginary lines that dodge
every obstacle, though in the main straight enough. They consist usually in
a broken branch here, a tree trunk blazed there, with an occasional sappling
cut down elsewhere; so that the traveller must constantly be on the look out
for the next sign of human activity to guide his steps.

In the winter time, travelling is in a sense more easy, because of a better
surface offered the foot of the wayfarer and the absence of such obstructions
as stones, windfalls, mud pits or bogs, and the like, which an abundant layer of
snow levels down to a great extent. Moreover, the prevailing cold is a powerful
incentive to exertion, and the size of the footgear then worn necessitates also
extraordinarily long strides.

* “A Voyage”, etc., p. 125.