I love not the rosy
dawn; a golden dawn or a chill-blue dawn is happy, but I fear the
dawn of rose as the red headlight of a storm.
It came; by 8.30 the
rain had set in and steadily fell all day.
The following morning we had our first accident. The steamer with
the loaded canoe behind was rushing up a rapid. A swirl of water
upset the canoe, and all our large packs were afloat. All were
quickly recovered except a bag of salted skins. These sank and were
seen no more.
On October 9 we arrived at Fort Chipewyan. As we drew near that
famous place of water-fowl, the long strings and massed flocks of
various geese and ducks grew more and more plentiful; and at the
Fort itself we found their metropolis. The Hudson's Bay Company
had killed and salted about 600 Waveys or Snow Geese; each of the
Loutit families, about 500; not less than 12,000 Waveys will be
salted down this fall, besides Honkers, White-fronts and Ducks.
Each year they reckon on about 10,000 Waveys, in poor years they
take 5,000 to 6,000, in fat years 15,000. The Snow and White-fronted
Geese all had the white parts of the head more or less stained with
orange. Only one Blue Goose had been taken. This I got; it is a
westernmost record. No Swans had been secured this year; in fact,
I am told that they are never taken in the fall because they never
come this way, though they visit the east end of the lake; in the
spring they come by here and about 20 are taken each year.
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