any
supplies for its trippers and voyageurs?" I ventured, laughingly.

"Hardly, for in the Northland that would be rather an expensive
condiment." The old gentleman smiled as he continued: "In outfitting
our people for a voyage, we supply what is known as a full ration for a
man, a half ration for a woman or a dog, and a quarter ration for a
child. For instance, we give a man eight pounds of fresh deer meat per
day while we give a woman or a dog only four pounds and a child two
pounds. A man's ration of fish is four pounds per day, of pemmican two
pounds, of flour or meal two pounds, of rabbits or ptarmigan four of
each," said he, as he knocked the ashes from his pipe. I was afraid he
was going to turn in, so I quickly asked:

"Which is the longest of the Company's packet routes at the present
day?"

"That of the Mackenzie River packet from Edmonton to Fort Macpherson.
In winter it is hauled two thousand and twelve miles by dog-train; and
in summer it is carried by the Company's steamers on the Athabasca, the
Slave, and the Mackenzie rivers. Next comes the Peace River packet
from Edmonton to Hudson's Hope, a distance of over a thousand miles.
In summer it goes by steamer, and in winter by dog-train. There's the
York Factory packet from Winnipeg to Hudson Bay by way of Norway House,
a distance of seven hundred miles. In winter it is hauled by dogs from
Selkirk as far as Oxford House, and from there to York Factory by men
with toboggans. In summer it is carried by canoe on Hay River and by
steamboat on Lake Winnipeg. Then there's the Liard River packet and
the Reindeer Lake packet. Each travels about five hundred miles by
dogs in winter and by canoe in summer. The Moose Factory packet from
Temiscamingue to James Bay goes by canoe in summer, but by men in
winter. All mails in and out from Hudson Bay or James Bay to or from
the next post in the interior, are hauled by men. Dogs are seldom used
on those routes, on account of the depth of the snow and the scarcity
of dog feed."

[Illustration: "There's the York Factory packet from Hudson Bay to
Winnipeg, a distance of seven hundred miles. In winter it is hauled by
dogs between Selkirk and Or ford House, but between the latter post and
York Factory it is hauled by men with toboggans. All mails in and out
from Hudson Bay to or from the next post in the interior are hauled by
men. Dogs are seldom used on those routes, on account of . . ." See
Chapter V.]