esting to note the behavior of the
dogs. My three dogs frisked about
in the bush in high good humor, but
Jimmy’s more seasoned pack-dogs at-
tended strictly to business. They
kept up the steady, characteristic
half-trot, taking no part in the play-
ful antics of Major, Colonel or
Marten. By the time we turned off
the main Boulder Creek Trail and
swung down the Tanzilla River, the
differences between the seasoned vet-
eran and the enthusiastic amateur
were apparent. Major was doing
fairly well but we repeatedly had to
wait for Marten and Colonel. In
fact, when we arrived at Jimmy’s
trapping cabin, where we stayed the
night, Colonel did not struggle in
for a full hour and was obviously
exhausted. So much for the first
day on the trail.

The following day, Tuesday,
October 2, was dull and grey. A
fine rain was falling as we set off
at dawn. To make things easier for
Colonel. we had saddled him with
only a fifteen-pound pack: but after
the first half mile he set up such a
pitiful howling that we were forced
to take off his pack and distribute it
among the other dogs and ourselves.
This did not make either of us feel
any better. We were already carry-
ing our sleeping robes, spare clothing
and rifles. So it was a tired and
sullen party that slipped and floun-
dered over muskeg and through drip-
ping trees to arrive at Jimmy Mc-
Gregor’s second and last trapping
cabin.

At dawn the following morning
if was much colder and the weather
had cleared. We continued up the

VANDERHOOF HOTEL
“The Northland’s Finest’

K. FREDERIKSEN, Prop.
*
VANDERHOOF

NECHAKO MOTORS

J. E. JOHNSON, Manager
GENERAL MOTORS DEALERS

Automobile Repairs Brazing, Welding
Super Shell Gasoline and Body Work
Parts and Accessories

Firestone Tires
VANDERHOOF BRITISH COLUMBIA

at

SHELL GARAGE

*
Vanderhoof BAC;

Page Sixteen

Tanzilla past Gnat Creek and de-
cided to cross the summit higher up
rather than foilow Gnat, which Jim-
m:y reported to be full of underbrush
and deadfalls. We saw a tremen-
dous bull moose and cow during the
morning.

Near the head of the river, at the
foot of the pass, we were forced to
stop and make a temporary camp as
Marten and Colonel were so far be-
hind. I had to send Mike back to
bring them in.

Jimmy's dogs were standing up
well under their 35-pound packs, so,
after a cup of hot tea and a biscuit,
it was decided to leave my three sis-
sies here in charge of Mike. His in-
structions, which he did not much
relish, were to wait five days. If
we did not show up at the end of
that period, he was to take the dogs
and return to Dease Lake.. It prom-
ised to be a lonely vigil, and it was
a crestfallen Indian with whom we
left all the supplies we could not use
as Jimmy and I and the dogs headed
for the pass.

INTO THE WILD

This was rather a serious business.
Our quest for Hugh Ford was taking
us into unknown country with
skeleton rations. Up the pass we
went, scrambling over huge boulders,
through buck-brush as tall as a man.
At the summit there were blue lakes
which we skirted. We came to
vast, prairie-like openings of brush
and grass through which caribou had
worn foot-deep trails, until in the
evening we set our lean-to canvas in
a deep ravine on the Ptarmigan
Creek side. Snow was beginning to
fall. We rustled up a night’s supply
of wood and soon had a hearty meal
of bannock and beans and tea. Then
into our sleeping robes, where I
was to spend the first of many shiv-
ering nights listening to Jimmy’s
loud and maddening snores.

The following day we continued
down the pass until we arrived on
the banks of Ptarmigan Creek. Here
we saw the remnants of the old trail
of the 1870's, when they used to
herd cattle, horses, mules, and even
turkeys from Ashcroft to the meat
hungry gold camps of the Dease
River. Remember, that in those days
nO moose were in the country and
miners would pay almost anything

FRASER’S STORE

GENERAL MERCHANDISE
GAS, OIL, ETC.
Agent—SHELL OIL CO. of B.C., LTD.

FORT ST. JAMES B.C.

for a piece of beef. Now the trai!
is almost obliterated by time and for
the most part we followed moose
and caribou trails.

The balance of the morning was
spent traveling down the creek and
ix. the warm sunshine it was almost
pleasant. “The country is very park-
like with glades of poplar trees.
Lunch was had on the banks of a
large creek flowing into Ptarmigan
Creek. According to my map, it
was not in the right position for
Moose Creek which we meant to
follow up to cross over to the Mc-
Bride River, so we forded its icy
waters. Later, we found it was actu-
ally Moose Creek and, had we fol-
lowed it up, we would have saved
ourselves hours of heartbreaking
labor.

By mid-afternoon. we could see
the bluish outline of the Stikine
Valley in the distance, which told us
we had come too far. So we followed
another small creek up to a high
pass, where we spent the night in
another snow storm, drying our
clothes, massaging blistered feet, and
finally, through sheer exhaustion,
going to sleep despite my compan-
ion’s unmusical snoring. The poor
dogs had no energy but to gulp their
corn meal mush and curl up for the
night.

JOURNEY’S END

Snow had turned to rain in the
morning as we stiffly turned out to
struggle through another day, but by
the time we had fought our way
through swamps, brush and gloomy
ravines to the banks of the Stikine
River, we were too tired to care what
the weather did. This was Ford's
country, almost unpenetrated by
white men and shunned by Indians.
Whatever possesses men that they
should come to exist in such a
gloomy wilderness, and what tradi-
tion of service sends us on their trail?
We often read of the exploits of our
brother policemen, the R.C.M.P.,
and their gruelling patrols in Can-
ada’s frozen Northland, and to them
I take off my hat. But they are
not the only ones. The British Col-
umbia Police, too, have a long stand-
ing record of justice and help for all.
I thought of these things as we
clambered and slid along the banks
of the Stikine, sometimes forced by

L. R. DICKINSON

GENERAL MERCHANT
RAW FURS

OUTFITTING HEADQUARTERS FOR
MINERS, PROSPECTORS

Fort St. James and Pinchi Lake, B.C.

————S—S—
THE SHOULDER STRAP