Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-11
One of the Mouuties W>ho Ranks Highest in
ROYAL Canadian Police Records Is Inspector
j, c.. d. La Nauze, Who Travelled the
1. A,ctic Wilderness for Nearly 7aoo and
I Half Years to Solve the Murder of 7avo
Missionaries and Track the Criminals

day, making slow progress, some days 10 miles.
other days little more.
At night it rained. Then came rapids. All
the supplies were taken out of the boat, were
portrayed overland for 10 miles, some of them
carried by Indians skilled in padding through
rapids.
Up lat Bear River they made their way
till the lake of that name hove in sight. At
the junction of the river and lake their Scow
was waiting for them. trading York boat
contracted to take their supplies across the
2O0-mile- wide lake to their destination at Dease
Bay.
The inspector and his party fixed their York
boat and skirted the lake to the Winter quar-
tiers which had been picked But they did not
reach them Immediately The ice had been
out of the lake few weeks trader told them.
Rain was still coming down every night. 1t
was becoming colder already, and this was only
the beginning of August. Storms were fire.
qusnt At times they had to lay to for several
days.
Once they waited eight days while their boat
rode the storm with improvised anchors. Watch
was kept day and night, every one ready to
work at moments notice should the anchor
ropes snap. Those storms on inland lakes In
the northland are worse than some on the
Atlantic. The wind up in the Barren Lands is
While it was being made habitable the in
spector and navinik, the interpreter, took q
canoe to 60 to the mission house that the
priests had built in 1911 along the DeaSe River
But the Dease River was frozen solid. They
had to 60 on foot.
They found the place, as Arden had said,
destroyed and ransacked. They went back,
shot moose and caribou and deer and on their
return hunting expeditions were organized to
kI.~k1 - - g..
ing Winter.
They also caught fish, trout that averaged
eight pounds each and some that weighed %
pounds. Then they cached their food in holes
in the ground and covered them with stones
they could hardly lift. Despite these precau-
tions, when they came back to those caches
some months later, wolverines had ransacked
them and left but one each untouched.
The Winter with its heavy SHOWS and far be-
low zero temperature well under way, the in
spector sent out his men, went himself to find
out the facts Of what had by now been ap-
parently a murder. Here and there they came
across small communities, questioned them, but
learned little.
COME natives thought the missionaries had
frozen to death while sleeping. Others
lied, as subsequent events showed But the
inspector with his constables and navinik, their
dogs tired from the trail, kept going.
They we're now nearing the Coppermine
River, which flows into Coronation Gulf. And
at one Of the villages in this region, near Cape
Lambert on the Dolphin and Union Straits,
Iavnik met some Eskimo friends.
They had heard of uavinik through Stefan
sons interpreter, and Ilavinik in turn had
heard about them through the same party.
There was joyous reunion and Inspector La
Nauze saw here chance to get some real in
formation.
He and Ilavinik called at the igloo of these