nd white with the moonbeams. The Slave
plunged to his freedom, down his riven, stone-spiked bed, knowing no
patient eddy, and white-wreathed his dark shiny rocks in spume and
spray.

CHAPTER 9.

THE LAND OF THE MUSK-OX

A far cry it was from bright June at Port Chippewayan to dim October on
Great Slave Lake.

Two long, laborious months Rea and Jones threaded the crooked shores of
the great inland sea, to halt at the extreme northern end, where a
plunging rivulet formed the source of a river. Here they found a stone
chimney and fireplace standing among the darkened, decayed ruins of a
cabin.

"We mustn't lose no time," said Rea. "I feel the winter in the wind.
An' see how dark the days are gettin' on us."

"I'm for hunting musk-oxen," replied Jones.

"Man, we're facin' the northern night; we're in the land of the
midnight sun. Soon we'll be shut in for seven months. A cabin we want,
an' wood, an' meat."

A forest of stunted spruce trees edged on the lake, and soon its dreary
solitudes rang to the strokes of axes. The trees were small and uniform
in size. Black stumps protruded, here and there, from the ground,
showing work of the steel in time gone by. Jones observed that the
living trees were no larger in diameter than the stumps, and questioned
Rea in regard to the difference in age.

"Cut twenty-five, mebbe fifty years ago," said the trapper.

"But the living trees are no bigger."

"Trees an' things don't grow fast in the north land."

They erected a fifteen-foot cabin round the stone chimney, roofed it
with poles and branches of spruce and a layer of sand. In digging near
the fireplace Jones unearthed a rusty file and the head of a whisky
keg, upon which was a sunken word in unintelligible letters.

"We've found the place," said Rea. "Frank built a cabin here in 1819.
An' in 1833 Captain Back wintered here when he was in search of Captain
Ross of the vessel Fury. It was those explorin' parties thet cut the
trees. I seen Indian sign out there, made last winter, I reckon; but
Indians never cut down no trees."

The hunters completed the cabin, piled cords of firewood outside,
stowed away the kegs of dried fish and fruits, the sacks of flour,
boxes of crackers, canned meats and vegetables, sugar, salt, coffee,
tobacco--all of the cargo; then took the boat apart and carried it up
the bank, which labor took them less than a week.

Jones found sleeping in the cabin, despite the fire, uncomfortably
c