ssed--with the Esquimaux ones this was not always an
easy task--and we were ready to start.

Before starting we generally threw the evergreen brush on which we had
slept on the fire, and by its ruddy, cheerful light began our day's
journey. When some mornings we made from twenty-five to forty miles
before sunrise, the Indians began to think the stars were about right
after all, and the Missionary's watch very fast. However, they were
just as willing to get on rapidly as I was, and so did not find fault
with the way in which I endeavoured to hurry our party along. I paid
them extra whenever the record of a trip was broken, and we could lessen
the number of nights in those open-air camps in the snow.

We were six days in making our first winter trip to Nelson River. In
after years we reduced it to four days. The trail is through one of the
finest fur-producing regions of the North-West. Here the wandering
Indian hunters make their living by trapping such animals as the black
and silver foxes, as well as the more common varieties of that animal.
Here are to be found otters, minks, martens, beavers, ermines, bears,
wolves, and many other kinds of the fur-bearing animals. Here the black
bears are very numerous. On one canoe trip one summer we saw no less
than seven of them, one of which we shot and lived on for several days.

Here come the adventurous fur traders to purchase these valuable skins,
and great fortunes have been made in the business. If, merely to make
money and get rich, men are willing to come and put up with the
hardships and privations of the country, what a disgrace to us if, for
their souls' sake, we are afraid to follow in these hunters' trail, or,
if need be, show them the way, that we may go with the glad story of a
Saviour's love!

CHAPTER EIGHT.

NELSON RIVER--A DEMONSTRATIVE WELCOME--FIRST RELIGIOUS SERVICE--A FOUR
HOURS' SERMON--THE CHIEF'S ELOQUENT REPLY--THE OLD MAN WITH
GRANDCHILDREN IN HIS WIGWAM--"OUR FATHER"--"THEN WE ARE
BROTHERS"--"YES"--"THEN WHY IS THE WHITE BROTHER SO LONG TIME IN COMING
WITH THE GOSPEL TO HIS RED BROTHER?"--GLORIOUS SUCCESSES.

It was at my second visit to Nelson River that the work really
commenced. Through some unforeseen difficulty at the first visit, many
of the natives were away. Hunting is even at the best a precarious mode
of obtaining a livelihood. Then, as the movements of the herds of deer,
upon the flesh of which many of these Indians sub