Jarvis Pass - Part 6 - Colder than Hell -53

Note: Bear River is the Bowron River, and the North Fork in this case, is the McGregor River 

Camp No. 4, Fraser River,

17th  Jan'y., 1875.

My Dear Edward,—

We got away from Fort George on the 14^th,  Jan'y  about 2 p. m. and camped 7 miles up River.  Bovil looked very sad as he won't see any white man ‘till next spring. We took with us "Quaw," an Indian who has fish on Bear River (see plan) and " Te Jon " an Indian boy. It was very cold—53° and my nose as usual got fits. We camped in the old style with boughs at our backs and under us and a good fire in front. Each man has two pairs of blankets and all his clothes on his back. This avoids loading the dogs too heavily and at any rate one needs them at night. The first night I can’t say I slept very peacefully,—53° don't allow that, but I slept a little and that's something. We were up early next day and had breakfast at once, no time being lost in washing or dressing. I found my leader (" Marquis ") with both fore feet frozen hard that morning, so I had to let him run loose and try three dogs. We killed a grouse today,  " Quaw " having a gun with him. I forgot to say that we have a rifle and cartridges, but we left the gun in Quesnelle, too heavy to pack. This morning poor old Marquis' feet wore in a dread­ful state, having frozen and thawed several times, so he had to be shot and it was done accordingly.  Jarvis did the deed and we left the good old brute at our last night's camp more comfortable than he has been since he froze his feet. We had some hard travelling today through the Giscome Rapids where open water kept us off the river. All the dogs are lame, very lame. Their feet get wet and the snow sticks to them, then of course the poor brutes pull the lumps off with their teeth and in the hurry they bite their toes fearfully, but we can't help that and they must go on sore or not. I can't imagine a quicker way to harden a man’s heart than to put him driving dogs.

This is Sunday in civilization, the only thing we have to remind us of the fact is the date in our diaries and I suppose we won't have one till we got to the east side of the mountains.  Our camp to night is 52 miles from Fort George and about 12 miles below mouth of North Fork. Still very cold indeed.

Hanington's Cache,

Camp No. 7, Jan’y., 20th, '75.

My Dear Edward,—

Here we are at last, 82 miles from Fort George, in 7 days. We came along pretty well, though as I said before the dogs were very lame indeed and the travel­ling bad in many places. We saw a ptarmigan on the 18th, the only one I over came across, a very pretty white bird, smaller than our partridge, and very fond of snow-clad mountains, where it stays in summer. We have four feet of snow, and find it hard work to shovel out room for camp, but so far we have done it always, it has been very cold and my poor nose has caught it often.  A common wind in  summer would freeze it anyhow I believe.

These dogs of ours are rather used up, bat I have shod most of my throe with doer skin shoes and they are getting over their lameness. The Chief (Jarvis) and Quaw now generally break track ahead of the trains ; about noon they are sometimes half a mile ahead, when they stop to make a fire for lunch. N. B. At the first stroke of the axe, dogs which a moment before could scarcely crawl, prick up their ears and take the load along as if it were nothing. It's no use to yell, “ulwa", they won't stop till they get to the fire.  I think it would be a good idea to keep a man ahead to chop the dogs along, instead of having one behind for the same purpose.

We got hero at 9 a.m., and I leave in an hour for Salmon Cache, taking Quaw and Te Jon with me, also two trains empty to bring up a fish supply.

While we are away, Jarvis, Alec and Johnny are going ahead to break track and we hope to hear of the Stewart's Lake trains before we meet here on my return. There is a good deal of fresh snow on the ground and the river in consequence is overflowed. This as you can understand makes it lively for the dogs, and gives us exercise in hauling dogs as well as in driving them.  But I'll close this for the- present as I must leave for Bear River.

C. F. H.