stood thoughtfully considering the floor until the door opened and sub-
factor Jaspar Hume entered. The factor looked up and said: "Hume, I've something here that's been
worrying me a bit. This letter came in the monthly batch this morning.
It is from a woman. The company sends another commending the cause of
the woman and urging us to do all that is possible to meet her wishes.
It seems that her husband is a civil engineer of considerable fame. He
had a commission to explore the Coppermine region and a portion of the
Barren Grounds. He was to be gone six months. He has been gone a year.
He left Fort Good Hope, skirted Great Bear Lake, and reached the
Coppermine River. Then he sent back all of the Indians who accompanied
him but two, they bearing the message that he would make the Great Fish
River and come down by Great Slave Lake to Fort Providence. That was
nine months ago. He has not come here, nor to any other of the forts,
so far as is known, nor has any word been received from him. His wife,
backed by the H.B.C., urges that a relief party be sent to look for him.
They and she forget that this is the arctic region, and that the task is
a well-nigh hopeless one. He ought to have been here six months ago.
Now how can we do anything? Our fort is small, and there is always
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