The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-10-05
A STORY OF HARDSHIPS
THAT TELLS THE KIND OF METAL
THERE is IN OUR GALLANT
EXPLORER.
A THRILLING LETTER.

RAMPANT House, POrcupine River, !
Eastern Boundary line of Alaska,
May 80, 1894
(Condnued From September 2I)
Rampant House was for several
years the most northwesterly post oc-
cupied by the Hudson Bay Com
pany. but was abandoned in June 1893
when the trader, Mr. Firth, took
charge Of the post of Fit. Mcpherson
on the Mckenzie, two hundred miles
to the eastward. AT the same time
Rev. G. 6. Wallis, missionary of the
Church of England who had been
here for several years, returned home
and it looked as if the Porcupine was
10 see the white man no more, but Mr..
Benz. Totty, ayoung man of about %
who had been out from England only
year, came up from Forty Mile to
take Mr.. Wallis place, and reached
here about six weeks before did. So
there were two of us to live out an
Arctic winter among the savages
with our nearest white neighbor 200
miles away, and totally cut off from
communication with the outside
world. The prospect was not par
ticularly cheering one. When the
trader left here last year, he left his
house, fairly good log building, to-
tally devoid of any unnecessary frills,
however. There were several rooms,
one of which l fitted up as well as pos
sible with the means at my command
the furniture consisting of a small
cooking stove, two tables, bunk and
an imprOvised chair, and settled down
to the enjoyment of home life and do
mestic comforts, broken only by the
trips TO Fort Mcpherson and the Are
tic ocean. The missionary's house
was distant about a hundred yards
and we occasionally visited each other
and like a couple of house wives ex-
changed receipts for such difficult
feats of cooking as making tea and
cooking moose sleak. On the day af-
ter our arrival at Rampant House
winter set in with a hea Wy fall of snow
and the river was full of ice and clos
ed to navigation. After that the days
dragged along monotonously enough.
Snow Tell for weeks until the whole
country was literally buried in the So
called beautiful, and the plateau
stretched away 10 the north in great |
rolling pillows of spotless white. Day
by day the sun sank lower on the |
southern horizon and on Nov. Is, dis |
appeared for the last time.
l had been working myself up TO a |
state Of mild frenzy to go somewhere,
no difference where, or do something,
it mattered not what, to break the
tiresome monotony of such an exist
ence, and about this time an opportu-
nifty presented itself. Mr.. Totty had
made arrangements with couple of
Indians 10 carry some articles to
Archdeacon Mcdonald, the mission
airy at FIT. Mcpherson, across the
mountains, two hundred miles to the
eastward, and couple of other In
dams were going across on some bust
ness of their own, and it was au easy
matter for me to make arrangements
to take the trip with them. So there
We're five of us, four Indians and my
self. with three sleds, each drawn by
dogs hitched one in front of the other.
The Eskimos that saw afterward out
on the coast of the Arctic ocean, have
large sleds, each with two runners,
and from y to 20 dogs on each sled,
and travel at full speed over the hard I
packed snow of the sea coast every
body riding on the sled; but in the in. 8
terror among the Indians it is differ q
ent as the snow is much deeper than J
that on the coast and is not so hard t
packed, and there are great quanti- s
ties of low willow brush which it is f
to take a broad sled i
through. Consequently the sleds US a
I'd in this region are toboggans, eight Ii
ieet long and about twenty inches e
vide, and are used only to carry food A
or men and dogs, bedding, cooking a
Utensils and whatever else there may G.
De to carry; the Indians-never ride on il
hem but walk behind on snow-shoes fl
md occasionally stir the dogs up with n
/ whip. t.
| am not in the habit OF disclosing b.
he luxuries of my wardrobe through III
he public prints, and doubt the good 10
aste of doing so. bet it may be of in a.
crest to know how fellow fits him. 90
elf out to travel and sleep out doors
u an Arctic winter, so here goes X
Over two suits of knit underwear til
nd a heavy flannel shirt. 1 wore cor co
uroy trousers and vest, and over all eli
MS complete suit of furs consisting w
caribou skin coat or "parkieu, til
18th hood attachment, and mink skin re