The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1898-03-31
THE BACK-DOOR" ROUTE.
An Interesting Letter from a
Former Dupuyerite.

I898.-We arrived here on the
tenth day of October, and found
the lake already covered with
drift ice. A storm spra1g up an
hour or so after we arrived here
and we were obliged to pull our
boats out of the water to prevent
it being broken to pieces by the
waves. That storm did not let up
until the following evening and on
the morning of the 18th the bay
was frozen over for a few miles
out from the shore.
After making three Intellectual
attempts to pull out we were
obliged to confess ourselves beaten
aud winter bound in poor
trapping country,
We stayed around here for a
week fo@Gs oGs two, then went off about
25 miles, put up a cabin and set
out some traps, After two nths
hard work, finding that we were
making but little besides our ex-
penses, we packed up and went
back to the fort.
The winter has been exception
ally mild and pleasant, the lowest
point reached by the mercury
being As below zero, and that on
only one occasion. 1t generally
/ stays about zero.
Dupuyer is not in it as regards
fish. Trout weighing as nigh as
Is pounds are often caught here
and an average white fish will
make a good meal for six or eight
persons
The. natives live almost exclu-
sively on. fish and game. Most Of
them trap during the winter and
trade their fur for tea, tobacco and
fancy clothing to the Hudson Bay
Ecompany or Neigel g. Hesiip, who
1 have their headg uarters here. The
IndIaas are great tea drinkers and
tobacco smokers, and when they
have plenty of meat, tea and
tooacco they are. perfectly happy
Owing to there being two
traders here a man can get a fairly
good price for fur. We got So fol
our IL artin, IS for fisher, $1.50 fol
} lynx, 81 for wolverines and 81 fol
mink. There are number O.
foxes, red, silver and black: in thu
/ country. some moose, cariboo
\ buffalo and bear, but it is bis
fiat country and the game is pretty
8 well scattered, and further, they
: are hunted and trapped to death
l think that l wrote and told yol
| all about this route as far as For
> McMurray, on the Athabasc;
e river. From there to Athabasc;
e lake the river is good. The onl,
trouble we had was running or t.
i sano bar once in a while. San,
D banks were great nuisance to u
e in Athabasca lake. 1t took US
L day and a half 10 cross from tn
mouth of the river to Fort Chippe
= wagan. If we had known tn
u channel we could easily have mad
it in half day.
We hired a guide to take u
s about 60 miles out of ChippewagaI
as there were a few small rapid
n to be passed in low water. w
e arrived at Graham's Landing tn
n next day after leaving Chippe
e wagan. Here begins what i
e known as Smiths Falls. Ther
S are quite number of them too
e neither are they small ones. Fo
e sixteen miles the river looks prett
rough
The Hudson Bay company hav
> oxen here, and there is an over
u land trail for sixteen miles to For
Smith. They charge Is cents pc
4 hundred for hauling freight across
) We had our choice of sending ou
stuff over the portage or taking i
down by means of number c
small portages. The owners c
u the small boat decided to tax
boats and cargo across by way {
e the portage. The Chicago part
A sent half of their stuff over tn
"a portage. We decided to take ou
d cargo down, together with about
r thousand pounds of the Chicae
It cargo by water. We got dow
@ safely in three days, after havin
to pull boat and everything out
The water and drauUinp il oyo