exhaustion, we came to a second
clearing and another silent, empty

cabin. This contained not a scrap
of food, simply ammunition and
salt.

We soon had a good fire going
in the small camp stove, whilst by
candle light I examined the place for
recent habitation. [here were none.
Ford had been using bear skins for
blankets and moose and bear hocks,
skinned out to form a rough muk-
luk, for shoes.

By this time Jimmy had a grouse
fried. This, with bannock, made
our evening meal, after which we
tumbled into our robes and, in spite
of Jimmy’s snorings and the mice
that began to play tag over my face,
I slept soundly.

Sunday morning, October 7th,
found me nursing an infected left
foot which I bathed and rubbed all
morning. Jimmy went up the
Kehlechoa River for some miles, but
returned saying it was no use to
continue the search. It was obvious
that Ford was dead. After some dis-
cussion we agreed to abandon the
search, leaving a note for Ford, if
he did turn up, telling him to come
in to Telegraph Creek.

Early next morning found us
again at Ford’s main camp, where I
took a list of what equipment he
had. I made note of the fact that
he had not planted his garden, which
to my mind, proved he met his death
early the previous Spring, probably
around May. After leaving a note
on the table here also, we started our
long journey back to Dease Lake.

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QUALITY BAKERY PRODUCTS

*

PRINCE GEORGE B.C.

The Sport Shop
HARRY GIESE and BOB BAXTER, Props.

Anglers and Hunters’ Supplies - Keys
and Locks - Gunsmiths - Cycle Sales
and Service - Outboard Motor Service

P.O. Box 926 Prince George, B.C.

ASSMAN’S
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PRINCE GEORGE, B.C.

Page Eighteen

RETURN TRIP

This time we decided to follow
the McBride River to Turnagain
Lakes. Here Archie Lemay and Jim-
my LaCourse have a cabin and we
were anxious to supplement our lar-
der as we were now living on grouse,
bannock and tea with a little sugar
and grease. Up the river we went,
crossing it in swift water, pushing
through dismal swamps and spruce
forests, where the rutting moose
made the nights hideous with their
bawling. Once I was forced to
wound a moose in the leg with my
.22 rifle before he would give us the
right of way. I hated to do this,
but had no choice and certainly did
not want to kill him with a larger
rifle.

At noon of the second day we
reached the forks of the McBride on
the Pacific side of the Continental
Divide. Here the country is open
with small scrub pine and we had
no trouble shooting all the spruce
hens and Franklin grouse we needed.
Crossing the low divide, we came on
an old trail. This we followed to
Turnagain Lake where, about a mile
across the sandy, wind-blown flats,
we could see the cabin of the French-
men. We stopped while Jimmy shot
his rifle to herald our approach, and
heard a faint shout in reply.

To our surprise we found the
place deserted, but there was a fire
in the huge camp stove, so we con-
cluded the owner would be back at
any moment. Sure enough, out of
the pine forest stepped Archie Lemay
and his huge dog, both loaded down
With moose meat.

Both dog and man were so shy at
seeing us they were comical. The
dog, relieved of his pack, headed for
his kennel, and nothing I could do
could coax him out during our stay.
Archie soon regained his voice, how-
ever, keeping us up until midnight
with a torrent of questions and
stories about his younger days. His
partner, LaCourse, was away at an-
other cabin, trying to get more meat
for the winter. That night we sup-
ped on fried arctic whitefish, boiled
cabbage, tea, sugar and black bis-
cuits made out of carrot tops pound-
ed to a flour. Lemay had huge pans
of this stuff drying next to the ceil-
ing. It gave off rather a musty
odor and the biscuits were not very
appetizing, but Lemay assured us
they were very nourishing. In any
event, the meal was delicious and
our welcome hearty.

We questioned Lemay about Ford.
He and his partner had been expect-
ing him to arrive the previous Christ-
mas for a square meal but Ford had

not shown up and the Frenchmen
wondered what had happened to

him. And so to bed, in the first
comfortable cabin since _ leaving
Dease Lake.

After saying goodbye the next
morning to an almost tearful French-
man, we hiked our way up and
across Snowdrift Creek to the Boul-
der Creek Trail, camping at timber-
line in a howling blizzard at Cari-
bou Pass. Next day, I left Jimmy
behind with the dogs and about four
in the afternoon, when the pale sun
was going down behind the moun-
tains, I again rounded the bend in
the road to see the welcome sight
of my little truck. There, too, squat-
ted over a smoky fire, was Mike,
whilst back in the bush, howling
their heads off with joy at seeing me,
were my three dogs. Mike grinned
widely at my approach and said that
after waiting the five days, feeding
the dogs on porcupine meat and fir-
ing at night on prowling wolves, he
had made an uneventful trip back
to the truck.

I enjoyed a good bath and a
hearty meal that evening at the
cabin of Armel Philipon and later
saw a very good movie at the U.S.
Army Weather Station. On Sunday
afternoon, after another muddy trip
from Dease Lake to Telegraph
Creek, I again saw the welcome sight
of my Detachment. I had been
gone for fifteen days, traveled 410
miles, 215 of which were on foot
through rough country. I had lost
twelve pounds in weight, whilst my
feet did not heal for weeks.

Although we did not find Ford, it
was established beyond reasonable
doubt that he had met death, either
from going through the treacherous
Spring ice, an accident, or being at-
tacked by a bear or a moose. Phili-
pon later found the skeletons of
Ford’s dogs near his main cabin, but
to this day the question of what hap-
pened to Hugh Ford remains unan-
swered. It is one more unsolved mys-
tery, locked for ever in the vast ex-
panse of Northern British Columbia.

U.S. Policewomen Grow
in Numbers

According to the International
City Managers Association there are
now 1,064 policewomen, not count-
ing matrons and school crossing
guards, working in cities of 10,000
or more population in the United
States. The City of Pittsburgh has
the largest number, with 166 em-
ployed. New York has a force of
154, while Detroit and Los Angeles
each have 72.

THE SHOULDER STRAP