FURS FROM FAR NORTH.

Shannon News, 13 May 1927, Page 2

FURS FROM FAR NORTH.

650 MILES TREK WITH HORSE SLEDS. The biggest single consignment of furs from the Far North ta reach Edmonton, arrived recently from Fort liesolution, in the North-West Territories' (writes the Edmonton, Alberta, correspondent of “The Times”)» It was transported on sleds drawn bv horses as far as Fort MeMurray, a distance of 650 miles, the train of sleds leaving on January 25, and taking just over three weeks to make the trip. The performance is a remarkable one when it is considered that in the winter there is not a scrap of food of any kind that the horses may secure for themselves, and consequently all the feed required must be laid down in caches at intervals of a day's journey from camp to camp. These preparations are made in the summer; the trip itself is not one of the easiest, as horses and drivers must face all the perils of winter travel in a cold land —extremely low temperatures, high winds, drifting snow, blizzards, and short hours of daylight in which to travel.

Two years ago, horse transport was unheard of, farther north than Fort Smith, on the “long portage” on the Slave River leading northward to Great Slave Lake. Indeed, the Indians at Fort Resolution had never seen a horse until the winter of 1925, when an experimental load of trade goods was taken north to that point. v/mtei transport previously had been done entirely by dog team. , The Indians called the horses “strange moose” when they first sav r them, and for some time refused to go near them. The horses, it is said, do not mind the cold, and travel well over j the frozen snow. They are protected W,ith a warm blanket or two at night, though the rough coat of natural || air which they grow tend®, to keep them warn enough, _ * . - -