The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-04-15
THE FAB FROZEN NORTH.
thrilling Experience Of Hunters in
the Land of Snow
and Ice.
A Lone White Hunter In the
Arctic Circle Looking for
Musk OK.
TloetIng Life OF an Arctic Gunhsr-Lost
Thirty-two Dnys-Starved Almost
to Death.

Warbnrton Pike, whose home is on So
turnn island, and b is rs enthusiastic a
sportsman Ms one would meet in many q
day. has lust returned from a shooting
tramp which took him far into the barren
regions of the north, where winter lasts for
ten months of the year in all its friRid in
~tensity, and where he met with and secured
the game for which he went in search two
years ago-the musk OK. 1t was IN June,
1889, that Mr.. Pike started on his principal
expedition down the Athabasca and Great
Slave lake to the arctic circle. He had no
companions, his party being composed en-
tirely of Indian guides-two halfbreeds
and six full blooded Dog Ribs, with their
women. The only provisions carried from
the fort was & little tea and tobacco. the
rife being depended upon entirely to bring
in the necessary food.
The cariboo proved plentiful until the
wood line was reached, and here the wo-
men decided to wait for the return of the
male members of the company. They
were greatly missed as the others
went on, as they had been the cooks
of the party, preparing the great staple
Of life, v%enison, in the most primitive fash
ion, says the Victoria, B. G., Colonist,
by boiling and seasoning it with the
only condiment they had ever heard Of
dirt. While Mr.. Pike and his guides pressed
ON to the arctic circle and the home of the
musk OK. the women, who had remained in
the last belt Of woods, busted themselves in
preparing pemmican, the most useful food
known to northern travellers. Being the
compressed substance of whatever meat it
is made from. it is compact and therefore
easily carried and full of strength. After
leaving the timber behind and entering the
great barren waste forming the desert to
the direct north of Hudson's Bay, the white
hunter and his men found that the cold every
day became more intense, and the wood
that they had brought with them on the
sleds was hardly sufficient to keep them
from freezing.
Not a living thing was to be met with un-
til the desert was traversed, and the larder
was recruited entirely fIom the stores
it was impossible to determine how cold
it was in the land of the musk OK,
but Victorians may we'll understand
that there is every difference in
the world between the climate of the arctic
circle and that of the favored capital of
British Columbia. Having killed a number
of musk OK, one of which has been mount
ed by Curator Fannin and 0 adorns the
Provincial museum, Mr.. Pix started south
ward again, not having even caught a
glimpse of the Esquimaux, of whom his
guides we're in great fear. as wal had been
waged between the two tribes a good many
years ago. All the natives of this part of
the world are fine specimens of manhood
straight, hardy. full of bone and muscle,
but also equally full of superstition. To
enable them to endure the severity of the
climate, they wear, except during the very
brief summer, a curious costume of deer
skin, with the hair left on, which is air aud
water tight, warm and convenient.
This one northern trip occupied four
months, and on returning to the fort a
number of smaller expeditions were
planned and carried out. the young En-
except by the Indians. 10 the southwest
of Slave Lake a band of eight wood buffa
loes, differing very slightly from the old
monarchs of the plain, were met with, and
one killed for food. The entire band
could have been shot, but it would have
been a useless slaughter, and SO the rare
animals were not molested. In this far off
corner of the world the few survivors of
the old race of prairie cattle are increasing
and multiplying, secure from the intrusions
of white trophy hunters. The Indians,
too, let them alone. preferrinq to hunt the
courage the slaughter of the buffaloes,
have refused to buy the robes.
Down the Great Fish river, where Sir
John Franklin's party met an untimely
fate. the Victoria hunter had the pleasure
of enjoying an arctic summer, which,
feetine as a dream, is uncomfoltably warm
both night I'M day for about two months,
when its life is over. During its brief ex-
istence all common flowers of more south
ern attitudes bloom profusely. though they
are dwarfs generally.
In August last Mr.. Pike determined to
come home, and left Fort Resolution in a
canoe, intending to go up the Peace river
and cross by Stuart's lake to Quesnelle.
Very little Roadway had been made with
the canoe, when Il cold snap came on and
passed, leading to the supposition that there
would be clear water for the trip. 1t was
again commenced, a couple of Six-Foot
Davis white men having volunteered to act
as guides until the Rockies were crossed,
but again the ice prevented the progress of
the canoe. 1t was thereupon abandoned,
and the three white men started on foot for
McLean's lake, about 100 miles away.
Provisions were carried for eight days, in
half of which time the guides had prom
ised that the lake would DO reached.
Eight days passed, however, and still
the hungry and foot-sore travellers tramped
on. There the guides discovered that they
had assembled the wrong river-mistaking
the Nation for the Moleod-and were lost,
with no supplies and the bad weather com
ing on. In this dilemma they elected Mr..
Pike guide, and the march back through
the vast wilderness for 200 miles COM
menced. Iwenty-four DAYS later, thirty
two days from the time they left, the skele-
tons almost of the three white men again
reached the abandoned canoe. They had
saved their lives by Il thread, having en-
dured all the horrors of starvation. and
still walked on through the snow. If the
number of days when not u morsel of food
was procurable was recorded it would not
be believed, but the extremity of distress
reached may be imagined when it is known
that even their shoes were eaten by the
starving men, and had they had any dogs
they would have followed the shoes without
a doubt. 1t was during this awful tramp
that MIR. Pike threw away his collections,
journals, everything; the one thing to be
thought of being the preservation Of life.
And yet the hero of the adventure looks
none the worse for it. He arrived in this
city by the Princess Louise late on Mon
daY night and was yesterday busy shaking
hands with old friends. One of the note
worthy Incidents of his long trip was the
crossing of tho Cooper mine at its head
waters, he being the first white man to do
SO. He reports Fort Resolution, the north
ernmoBt of the Hudson's Bay forts, to bo q
thriving trading post. Even in that cold
country the people can successfully grow
potatoes, and they do, theic blowing being
almost altogether done with the ever-use-
fu! dogs.
Via Chicago and tho popular Chicago, st
paul md Kapuau lity i,,tlrv,, M. ti,,,