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M A M M A L S O F N O R T H E R N C A N A D A J70
Bet out to trace the coast- llne of the Arctic Ocean, and, earlier than
either, it was from Fond du Lac, at the eastern end of Lake
Athabasca, that Samuel Hearne wandered forth to reach the polar
sea. At times Fort Chipewyan has been the scene of strange
excitements. Men came from afar and pitched their tents awhile
on these granite shores ere they struck deeper into the heart of
the Great North. Mackenzie and Simpson, and Franklin, Back,
Richardson, King and Rae rested here before piercing farther into
unknown wilds, where they flew the red- cross flag o'er seas and
isles upon whose shores no human foot had pressed a sand- print.
Chipewyan is emphatically a lonely spot in winter, but when the
wanderer's eye meets the red flag, which we all know and love so
well, flying above the clustered buildings in the cold north blast,
it is on such occasions as this that he turns to it as the emblem of
a home which distance has enshrined deeper in his heart. . . . But
" Eight hundred thousand pounds sterling sunk in the Arctic Sea,''
will exclaim my calculating friend behind the national counter;
" nearly a million gone forever!" Xo, head cash- keeper, you are
wrong; that million of money will bear interest higher than all
your little speculations in times not far remote in the misty future.
In hours when life and honour He at different sides of the " to do"
or " not to do," men will go back to times when other men, battling
with nature or with man, cast their vote on the side of honour,
and by the white light thrown into the future from the great dead
past they will read their roads where many paths commingle.
To- day it is useful to recall these stray items of adventure from
the past in which they lie buried. It has been said by someone
that a nation cannot be saved by a calculation— neither can she
be made by one. If to- day we are what we arc it is because a
thousand men in bygone times did not stop to count the cost.
These, out of ninny available and interesting cxtraels,
w i l l now end with one from a former noted Winnipeg divine,
the Rev. D. M . G- ordon, D . D . , now P r i n c i p a l of Queen's
University, Kingston.
Indeed, it is difficult to discover what attractions many of the
agents of the Company find in their secluded and lonely life.
Familiar, in many instances. In earlier days with comfortable and
even luxurious homes, and able to procure positions in civilized
life where a competence, if not a fortune, was assured, they have
chosen instead a life that in many cases cuts them off for a large
portion of the year from any intercourse with the outer world, or
Object Description
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| Title | Page 303 |
| OCR | M A M M A L S O F N O R T H E R N C A N A D A J70 Bet out to trace the coast- llne of the Arctic Ocean, and, earlier than either, it was from Fond du Lac, at the eastern end of Lake Athabasca, that Samuel Hearne wandered forth to reach the polar sea. At times Fort Chipewyan has been the scene of strange excitements. Men came from afar and pitched their tents awhile on these granite shores ere they struck deeper into the heart of the Great North. Mackenzie and Simpson, and Franklin, Back, Richardson, King and Rae rested here before piercing farther into unknown wilds, where they flew the red- cross flag o'er seas and isles upon whose shores no human foot had pressed a sand- print. Chipewyan is emphatically a lonely spot in winter, but when the wanderer's eye meets the red flag, which we all know and love so well, flying above the clustered buildings in the cold north blast, it is on such occasions as this that he turns to it as the emblem of a home which distance has enshrined deeper in his heart. . . . But " Eight hundred thousand pounds sterling sunk in the Arctic Sea,'' will exclaim my calculating friend behind the national counter; " nearly a million gone forever!" Xo, head cash- keeper, you are wrong; that million of money will bear interest higher than all your little speculations in times not far remote in the misty future. In hours when life and honour He at different sides of the " to do" or " not to do," men will go back to times when other men, battling with nature or with man, cast their vote on the side of honour, and by the white light thrown into the future from the great dead past they will read their roads where many paths commingle. To- day it is useful to recall these stray items of adventure from the past in which they lie buried. It has been said by someone that a nation cannot be saved by a calculation— neither can she be made by one. If to- day we are what we arc it is because a thousand men in bygone times did not stop to count the cost. These, out of ninny available and interesting cxtraels, w i l l now end with one from a former noted Winnipeg divine, the Rev. D. M . G- ordon, D . D . , now P r i n c i p a l of Queen's University, Kingston. Indeed, it is difficult to discover what attractions many of the agents of the Company find in their secluded and lonely life. Familiar, in many instances. In earlier days with comfortable and even luxurious homes, and able to procure positions in civilized life where a competence, if not a fortune, was assured, they have chosen instead a life that in many cases cuts them off for a large portion of the year from any intercourse with the outer world, or |
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