FAR NORTH CANADA

Hokitika Guardian, 19 June 1933, Page 3

FAR NORTH CANADA

DEFYING PRESENT DEPRESSION STORY OF THE LEAN YEARS VANCOUVER, May 10. Defying depression in Canada’s Northland to-day are thousands of men who never would have learned how to wrest a living from nature but for tlie stock market' crash of 1029 and the lean years that followed. Apart from those intended from childhood to be hewers of wood and drttWeis of water, this new brfeed of northmch—college professois, naval officers, railroad, bujl .i ers, ranchers, farmers, salesmen, clerks —face the world with a new courage, born of the conquest of the wilds. They call no man master.

Mr Donald Petley, building super- ' intqndent in Montreal, and Mr Harold Dew,' assistant professor of modern languages 'alt McGill University, lingered a month in their old, surroundings, long enough to ensure themselves that tney were not needed there. They bought n second-hand canoe, a strip of canvas for a sail, a roll of blanket and other equipment. They put their canoe in the Red River and headed north from Winnipeg. Two weeks later they drew their craft ashore at the Hudson Bay post at" Behrens River where they met Oscar Lindoeken, former ship’s officer and son of the Norwegian poet. Oscar, despite his meagre knowledge of English, was working on contract, carrying supplies by canoe to Little Grand Rapids, 110 miles upstream, for the company,, at eight dollars a.'hundred pound?). The newcomers Were j. by, t tfye. work,. applied to the post manager, andf were given a contract, - . .

MANY PORTAGES ON THE RIVER There were 53 portages off that stretch of river. Air LiudoeJien. and his partner knew them' by heart,,, from the smallest a pack of twenty-five yards, to the gruelling, grind of Hell’s Half Aide. He told his new companions of the rapids which could be “run,’.’, of others that invited suicide. .Ope such was Moose-Painted Stone. The head of a nioose, painted on the canyon wall, many years ago- caugedffegends to- grow Up round it. Indians had placed a shrine there, to appease the. evil spirit of ; the Salteaux. No. Indian dared cross die portage without leaving a small offering, such as . a piece of tobacco, in propitiation.

With a summer’s profits, the adven- . turers .went further noi'in, the Norseman with a new partner, a "former hfeavy-weight boxer, settling in the Clearwater country. The pair are still there, having had consistent success with xu.f-bea.nng anifnals, with money -in- 1 reserve and a, modern outfit—rulers in their little domain. Messrs Dew and Petley took to the heavily-timbered country eastward. The second “freezeup” found them a. thousand miles from Winnipeg,., in. .North-Western ■ Ontario. Mr Dew, a successful hunter, earned the soubriquet, Gee-wy-oii, the hawk, from the Indians. Air Petley, master of trailcraft, was, AJty-ing-ghin, the .timber wolf. ; ' v.. :

SEPARATION OF THE PAIR Another year and the pair .separated, Mr Petley to lay traplines on the western shore of Lake Winnipeg, where he brought his bride. The Factor says he has brought in more fur than any 10 Indians. By way of reward, his wife presented him with a son. The proud rather has a pair of snowshoes and a .22 rifle ready for him. < Air Dew lives on a beautiful island, where tlie Behrens River empties into the lake, tfapping; hunting, fishing and conducting tourist parties on canoe trips, here and theie.

There are hundreds of Dews and Petleys scattered through the North. Too proud to go on the “relief,” they left the scenes of failure, behind and broke trail where no man is allowed to starve. They ■ were -'tibon iii - sfirrofindings where hospitality l - -rea dies I its 1 lilghest ''expression,'Nb cabin door’is lacked. As you pass along you will insult the owner if you do not enter, boil the kettle and fry a slab of bacon. For such is the code of the Northland.