Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-04-24
LORD LONSDALE.
THE RETURN OF THE ARCTIC EX.
PLORER YESTERDAY.
He Reaches .o Degrees North Lati-
Magnificent Arctic Seem
ery-A Thrilling Experience.
ESPECIAL DISPATCH TO THE REcoRD-uSIoS.I

SAN Francisco, April 2Sd.-The steamer
Bertha arrived from Kodiac at A. to-day.
Among the passengers were Lord Ions
dale, whose journey across the continent
from Winnipeg is the subject of world
| wide interest.
In an interview with a reporter to-day,
regarding this trip, he said
II was very unlucky with game: in fact.
| there is no game at all. l sent 800 speci-
mems of birds-mostly ducks and water
fowl-home. Among them were several
| new species, at least new to me, and iuds-
| ing by the late Professor Baird's books. new
to him also. From New York I went 10
Montreal and there called upon Sir Donald
Smith, one of the heads of the Hudson Bav
Company, who treated me with the greatest
kindness and gave me letters of introduc-
! ton which were exceedingly valuable to
me. | then went to Ottawa and saw Lord
| Lansdowne aud the members of the
Geographical and Geological Society.
among them DR.. Dawson and DR.. Bell,
who supplied me with the latest maps.
"All the maps found wrong-very, very
wrong, more especially those of Alaska.
| Schwatka's map is as incorrect as anv of
| them. His map of the Yukon, which is
supposed to be military one, is most
| ridiculous affair. For military purposes it
would not be particle of use. There are
passes and ravines without number and
not one of them down on his map. The
| Indians have from 200 to 800 stands of
arms and from 1000 to 5000 rounds of am
| munition.
! When l left Ottawa l started for Win
nipeg, but was detained three days. owing
| TO q severe snow storm which showed the
train in. This made me very late and il
| was the middle of March before | got to
| Winnipeg. While there they told me
could not get through; that il was too late
in the season, and that might get as far
| as Green Lake. but l could have got a great
deal further had 1t not been for starvation
| among the Indians. In radius of, saw,
go miles found go dead Indians. This
was between the Isle La Crosse and Atha-
| basca Lake
left Winnipeg on the Goth of March,
and went by train to Troy. l was deter
mined to get as far north as possible before
the ice broke. I meant 10 travel day and
night, and il l could get far enough north
thought there would be no particular
difficulties.
AT Troy hired horses and sleds and
travelled to Prince Albert, on the north
Saskatchewan. The journey occupied three
IL
was accomplished with rough teams. and
slept only two hours in the three days, at a
little hut on the road. We procured fresh
sleds, and started through the forest. Ow-
ing TO the dense growth we could use only
one sled and one horse. From Prince Al
bert to Green lake is 30 miles, and we COW
cred that distance in a week.
" From this point had TO send back nv
servant with all my luggage, only keeping
one change of clothes. l also sent back all
my sporting dogs. From that time have
native furs. AT this point the travelling
was very hard, and l could not get the In
dians to go the pace. a half-soft spell
came up and made the snow bad for tray
cling. Sometimes the glass would be 400
below zero, and in twenty-four hours il
would register 500 above This made ii
terrible hard work, aud kept Us wet from
morning till night. l kept the Indians
travelling all the time. When we couldn't
get along in the day | made them tackle il
at night. They were very good chaps and
deserve great credit tor their perseverance.
From Green lake I went to Islais La
Crosse, across Buffalo lake. During this
part of the journey tremendous storm
arose, during which three Indians had
their faces frozen. We then went across 10
Metha Portage, the place spoken of by Sir
John Franklin and Sir John Richardson.
who went in searbh of him. From there /
made my way to Clear Water river but
found il difficult to make headw as there
was no food for the dogs and none for the
men. l made my way down to the forks
of the Athabaska and Clear Water rivers
marked on the maps as Fort McMurrav-
and stayed there month hunting moose.
of which | found none worth speaking
about. | found 1t impossible to get the
Indians TO travel, as we had come across so
many dead men, and they were afraid of
their lives. I stayed to take observations
of the habits of the birds, water fowl, etc.
The ice did not begin to break until Nav
the 1th, and / then took a boat and we
made $50 miles TO Chippewayar, on Lake
Athabaska. This distance we made in five
days. We had great difficulty, as only
had two Indians with me, who did not
know the way. The ice was running hard
at the time and forming dams. Once we
nearly all went under dam which had
backed the water up, and if we had not one
of us would ever have come out alive.
" In Athahaska lake, which is 175 miles
long, we lost ourselves two days in the fog.
owing to the Indians making a mistake.
The Indians thought we were on the lake
and that the ice had broken, instead of
which when the fog lifted we were on the
low tundra land which was flooded, while
the ice was a solid, as at Christmas For
two nights we were unable to sleep or to
cook anything, as we could get no drift
wood. 1t rained and showed alternately
all the time. When the sun came ont
saw crack in the ice, and against the ad
vice of the Indians determined to follow
it. By its means we crossed the lake.
knew the lake was only TWENTY-FIVE miles
across. and if the worst came to the worst
it could only have squashed the boat We
had only arrived a quarter of an hour
when the creek closed, and remained closed
| a week.
For the next 500 miles we had Difficult.
ties like this constantly, but luckily we
were never more than four days at time
without food. We again came across In.
dians dead from starvation, but not in as
great numbers as at first
"Atter l struck the Peace river followed
| the ice down it to save time. From this
| time to Great Slave Lake the Indians ap-
peared to have plenty to eat.
II reached Great Slave Lake on June 1st,
the ice being then solid, but Peace river
having broken up, there was water around
the lake for Il space of about 100 yards
wide. 1t must be remembered that Great
Slave Lake is 800 miles wide and 400 odd
miles long. got boat from the Hudson
Bay Company and two Indians, and tried
to get around the edge of the lake, bur it
i was tprrihlQ WORK opd 49,