The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1909-08-13

We pitched our first camp on Febru'
ary Is, 1909, and from then until we
struck the Montreal river on March
is we pitched camp II times. We
started on February ID and the first
night found an old tent that had been
up all winter. Being rather tired after
our first days journey, we decided to
camp there rather than go to the
bother OF pitching our own tent. Inc
tent was rather small and we were
somewhat crowded in our close quar-
ters In turned bitter cold that night.
and we had difficulty in keeping
warm. The next morning, after break.
fast, We packed our toboggans and
moved about half mile farther
south and pitched the camp.
We mad no dogs, and as our load
was rather large and heavy, we were
forced to split it and take part ahead
and cache it and then take the re-
mainder when We broke camp. The
trails were vary bad in places and
then again there were no trails at all
and we were forced to cut our own,
This made pretty slow travelling, and
from February ii to until March Is
we travelled about rs miles, or about
mile day
During the winter it is a very COM
mon sight to see a prospector along
the trails in Canada. The packs vary
in weight from Is to 100 pounds and
the toboggans carry between so and
$50 pounds, so, between the two a
man has pretty good load. If the
trails are good, the pack can be put
on the sled, but if the trail is at all
uneven the load is very apt to tip over
and cause more inconvenience than If
the pack were carried. The packs are
usually carried we'll up on the Shout
ders and then supported by lump
line, going over the forehead ani
sometimes balanced by two shoulder
straps. In this way the man has free
use Of his arms.
On May 6 we were at Smoothwater
lake. Although that late in the sea
son, the river froze at night and left
about quarter of an inch of ice. We
were there about a week after the
spring breakup started and at this
time the ice was all out of the river;
but in the lakes the ice had not started
to go. Furthermore, it had not disap
peared until about two weeks later
Several times in May we took our ca
noe on the river and then had to use
snow-shoes in the woods in order tt
get around
The rapids in the Montreal river a
Latchford were not frozen over OF
re 1ruary 8, yet the temperature wa:
IA degrees below zero. The rapids
never freeze during the coolest wealth
er. The railroad bridge crosses thu
river at this point.
There was a bad fire in Gowgand;
on May 26 The fire was started b,
sparks from campfire used for out
SIDE cooking. First it took tent ant
all its contents and then jumped to
log cabin and in half an hour Their
was nothing left but a pile of charre,
logs. A strong north wind was blow
Ing away from the town; had it bee
In the other direction there woul
nave been no city to tell the tale.
A greater sight which we saw wa
forest fire on Lake Kawakaniks
Forest fires are started, sometimes b
carelessness and sometimes on pul
pose. This particular fire burned a
around this lake and finally burne
Itself out in swamp There were
number OF bad fires on Lake Obu
Kong, there being five in one day.
number OF men have lost all their b,
iongings in these fires. The fame
travel so quickly they are very dal
gerous.
A favorite way of travel betwee
Latchford and Elk lake during tn
summer months is by steamer. Tt