WOMEN OF THE NORTH

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 274, 13 August 1921, Page 8

WOMEN OF THE NORTH

COURAGEOUS AND RESOURCEFUL LIFE ON CANADIAN FRONTIER THRILLING BATTLE WITH WOLVES (By Ex-Canadian.) Much has been written concerning the men of the Canadian northland, but of the women little is heard. Talk to an old-timer, however, and it is safe to say that ho will wax eloquent over tho unheralded exploits of the heroic band of women—most of them mothers—who, scattered in onas and twos, with here and (here a largo group, have their habitat "north of . 53.” They include wives of missionaries, police, trappers, traders, and Hudson Bav Company men. Some aro school teachers, a few keep stopping houses, and an odd one or so aro prospectors. Others aro Oblate Sisters of the Roman Catholic Church, doing missionary work among the Indiana.

Many of these women like the North, and enter into the special sports and pleasures it has to offer, while keeping up tho niceties of home appointments, despite handicaps in transporting furniture and all supplies. The majority of this Spartan band come from distant parts of the North American continent or the .British Isles, while a few spent their girlhood in the vast domains of the Snow King. Anglo-Saxon blood courses through the veins of the majority of the sisterhood of the North. A Wonderful Mother.

Up in the silent places one of the best-known women—certainly the most respected—is Mrs. Lamb,. of Moose Lake. Her sojourn in the wilds might well be quoted as a typical ch;*. He r husband, has a big ranching, fishing, and furtrapping business at the lake. When Mrs. Lamb was serried and went there in 1896 it was very different. Her only neighbours were pagan Indians. Until 1912 she did not "come out,” as the settlers say, any further than The Fas, the frontier settlement of Northern Manitoba.

She has a family of eleven children, and her liorn/s js a rendezvous for young people They dance to the piano and gramophone. They read tho books in Mr. Lamb’s library. They cast the net lor whitefish in the lake which ripples around a rocky point on which the Lamb home stands. They go swimming, they run the boats and the canoes in Bummer, "mush” the dogs or drive the horses in the winter. The grown-up sons assist the father in business, and the younger children attend the Anglican missionary’s school. Tho Lamb family do not pine for society's veneer and the alleged advantage of civilisation. This wonderful mother has reared all her children many miles from the railhead, and scorns .the idea of -ever "moving to town.” Women of the North are neighbours, though they may live 400 miles apart. Every traveller who comes to the door —and none is ever turned away in that hospitable country—brings news of weddings, births, and deaths. Missionaries’ wives at isolated posts often endure severe hardships; . and, at stated periods in the year they aro liable to be left for weeks at a stretch entirely to their own resources. Instances aro known whore white women have g<ne for several years without seeing another member of their sex—lndian squaws excepted 1 The wife of the mounted or provincial constable in the North is not nursed in the lap of luxury. She is ever faced with the nrospect of hsr husband being called away on business which may involve weeks of travelling, leaving her only an Indian maid for company. Mostly, however, the policeman’s wife has her children, and throughout the long winter she plies the needle to tho end” that her boys may be dressed in deerskin suits and mocassins. Trapping and “Mushing.” The average woman up North can turn her hand to fox trapping, mushing the dogs, or almost anything that offers, and the children, are not far behind her in this respect. Most northern lads learn to mush a dog or two and fish before they are six years old Also they early become skilled in woodcraft and learn to follow the trap-lino in company with their fathers. It is so difficult to haul furniture by do" team that most northern homes, except those on the railway or mam watoiways, are furnished with home-made articles. Usually some fur rugs, guns stacked by the fireplace, and a bit of Indian head work here and there give a touch of "local colour. The real northern women know how to cook Wild meat. They can cook muckrot so that it could not be distiii"uished from duck unless labelled. As°a food, muskrat calls for tactful treatment. It must be caught at the right season, and at the right ago, and if the guests have a prejudice against its name it must be- boned beyond recognition. Bear steaks and caribou roasts are among the meats that north: erners enjov, with no butcher hills to spoil tho flavour. Milk made from powder is common on most northern tables althougn some few establishments have a cow or two. In most regions the hardier vegetables may be grown and in some districts many of the more fanev varieties flourish. Wild blueberries, raspberries, and cranberries in abundance may be picked m eea ‘ i °“- There is hardly a housewife who does not put down dozens of quarts for tho winter. A Rolling Stone.

Many women of intellect find their way up to the Farthest North, and stay there Take the case of a Miss Rice, who developed the wanderlust before she was out of her teens. At the university she specialised in geology, and hei diploma was scarcely in her hand before she was off for the outlying wilderness of Northern Manitoba That was about six years ago. In the meantime she has ranched, prospected, and trapped, and to-day holds several big mining claims. She can handle either nog train or canoe, and knows the northern streams as few men do.. Of a different tvpe is a cultured Scottish woman, who, in company with her settler-husband, venturer! farther north than any white woman has ever been known tow Mrs Le Croix, who keeps the store ping-house at the youngest mining camp in the North, belongs to a still more adventurous order. Known throughout the north as “the Diamond Queen she began her career of adventure as on actress in South Africa when the diamond mines wore booming. Jewels bestowed on her in those days, some from the hands of men whose names ore prominent in the history of their times, resulted in her title. Iho life of the mining camps got into her blood then, and several years ago she found her way to the Canadian frontier. Prospectors call her a first-class cook, and she keeps her place a picture oi neatness. And she handles her customers with a. firm touch 1 A Tale Is Told. Life for women in the Far North is ever charged with danger, especially when hunger makes tho wolves more venturesome than usual. Only this year Indian trappers brought to Cochrane Ontario, a thrilling tale of how tho ’womenfolk of an Indian wicainj)ment battled with a pack of ferocious wolves, and worsted them. During the absence of practically all the men on a week’s trip over their trap lines, the camp was surrounded by a pack of between seventy and eighty timber wolves. A great circle of bonfires was lighted,

and for a while leaping flames kept the brutes at bay. Soon they appeared to fiave overcome their awe of the fires, and the ring of animals closed in. Then the battle commenced. Some of the squaws, armed witn the few rifles remaining in eamp, opened fire on tho leaders of the pack. As each wolf fell its companions tore it to pieces and devoured it. Tho squaws shifted their fire from point to point, picking off an animal here aud there, and thus the advance of the beasts, who stopped to devour their fallen mates, was checked. When lhe ammunition gave out, and the wolves began to draw in, an aged squaw offered to sacrifice ffiereelf to them, and was restrained only by force. But just as it appeared that the camp was about to be rushed, an Indian boy thought of some dynamite .sticks kept for use in lakes when fishing was bad. A bundle of these was tied together with caps and fuse, aud this was hurled into tho midst of the wolves, who were rallying for a rush. When the smoke of the explosion had cleared seventy-two wolves’ ears were gathered up, representing thirty-six animals, in addition io there shot *by the women and devoured by their ravenous companions.