told me, if we had been suddenly encompassed by a dense fog or a heavy
snowstorm, we could never for a moment have strayed from our true
course; as all the drifts pointed one way, south-by-southeast, and
therefore must have kept us to our proper direction.

There were many dogs and sleds, and many Indians and half-breeds, too,
about the Fort when we arrived; and as the dogs heralded our approach,
the Factor came out to greet us and wish us a Happy New Year. At the
door Mrs. Mackenzie, the half-breed wife of the Factor, was waiting
with a beaming smile and a hearty welcome for us; and after we had
removed our outer wraps, she led us over to the storehouse in which a
big room had been cleared, and heated, and decorated to answer as a
ballroom and banqueting hall. Tables were being laid for the feast,
and Indian mothers and maidens and children, too, were already sitting
on the floor around the sides of the room, and with sparkling eyes were
watching the work in happy expectation. Around the doorway, both out
and in, stood the men--Indians and half-breeds and a few French and
English Canadians. Some wore hairy caribou _capotes_, others hairless
moose-skin jackets trimmed with otter or beaver fur, others again
were-garbed in duffel _capotes_ of various colours with hoods and
turned-back cuffs of another hue; but the majority wore _capotes_ made
of Hudson's Bay blanket and trimmed with slashed fringes at the
shoulders and skirt; while their legs were encased in trousers gartered
below the knee, and their feet rested comfortably in moccasins.
Though, when snowshoeing, all the men wore hip-high leggings of duffel
or blanket, the former sometimes decorated with a broad strip of
another colour, the latter were always befringed the whole way down the
outer seam; both kinds were gartered at the knee. Such leggings are
always removed when entering a lodge or house or when resting beside a
campfire--in order to free the legs from the gathered snow and prevent