The Lamar register., 1891-03-28
BACK FROM THE ARCTIC CIRCLE
Terrible Suffering of an English Ex-
plorer in the North.

A special from Winnipeg, Manitoba,
says; Washberton Pike, an English ex-
plorer, has just returned from the Arctic
circle. Leaving Calgary in June, 1857,
Mr.. Pike proceeded to Athabasca Land
ing and from there TO Fort Resolution on
Slave River. Here he secured the ser
vices of two Indian guides and helpers
and started for the barren lands in search
OF musk OK, cariboo and other large game,
packing provisions aud wood on dog
trains, and altogether had very success
full hunt, killing about forty musk OK and
as many cariboo as they Were in position
to handle. On this trip Mr.. Pike went as
far north as Fish River, this being the
river on which Frauklin's first expedition
10 tho North Pole was lost He expert
enced many adventures.
The party were lost for fourteen days
last fall and endured terrible sufferings-
They started to cross the Yukon range of
mountains to the Pacific coast, when,
after lourneying for some twelve days,
they found that instead of being, as they
supposed, on Mcleod River, they were on
what afterward turned out TO be the Ma
tiou. Here the guides admitted they were
lost, and nothing remained for the party
TO do but retrace their steps, which they
did, with but enough provisions for few
days. In two days they were out OF grub,
and to make n long story short they
starved for fourteen days.
Mr., Pike absolutely refused TO say any
thing of their tortures during this time
lint rpauyr factz ,zar,. ,yla,und frnru those
who saw them on their return TO the
rapids, and who were compelled to feed
them as they would a babe.
As an example Of the terrible state Of
affairs, some hundreds OF miles were
tramped with bare feet on ice, and their
frozen condition when rescued was simply
horrible, while some of the party were so
reduced from cold and hunger as to be
totally helpless. 1t was afterward learned
that they were but a short distance from
Lake, and that had they been in position
to have understood the location their des-
tinatiou would have been reached in 4
very short while.
When asked to describe the barren
lands, Mr.. Pike said that it was an i'm
mense tract of barren rock, on which
grew a kind Of moss and shrub, on which
deer that run by thousands feed and ap-
pear to be very fond of. There are numer-
Gus lakes among rocky bluffs, water in the
cold season freezing to the depth Of from
seven to nine feet. He reports the tenn
perature as low as sixty degrees in winter
but summer months, July aud August, he
says, are very hot. Six months during
the year the sun never shines on these
barren parts. MIR. Pike reports moose
very scarce, but says there are large num-
bers Of musk OK and thousands OF cariboo
deer, the latter taking to the woods in
winter.
MIR. Pike is one of the few white men
who have succeeded in killing OK, and the
only white man who has ever trod the
path Of the Franklin sufferers on Fish
River-the travel during this trip was
almost entirely on foot, the dog trains
being used for carrying of provisions and
wood.
There are no laws in the country hut
those OF the Hudson Bay Company, and
business is carried on entirely without the
aid of money, their currency being SO
many skins, u skin being valued at fifty
cents