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surveyed him keenly through the thick lenses of his glasses.

"The past twenty years have done well by you, Jarvis;" he remarked, "when you left, you were thin, now you are robust. Though you did not mention the fact in your letter, I assume that Prof. Schlecting was unable to survive the rigors of a winter in the far north?"

A pained expression stole across the features of our visitor. "It was not the cold, Prof. Münster, it was something more horrible that overtook our poor friend. Do you insist on a report tonight?"

"A preliminary one, at least, my dear Jarvis," replied the Curator, eagerly, "you might tell us how our dear friend met his fate and why you have permitted twenty years to elapse before communicating with us."

Jarvis settled himself resignedly in the chair. "To do that," he said, "It will be necessary for me to give you an outline of the entire trip."

"Very good," said the Chief. He passed a pad and pencil to me with the admonition that I take notes and be most accurate. "They will be considered at the Director's meeting to be held here at the museum tomorrow night," he explained.

"I think," said Jarvis, "that the last you heard from us was through a letter sent you from Cochrane by Prof. Schlecting on the eve of our departure."

"Correct," agreed the Chief, "I have the letter here before me; in it is mentioned that you were obliged to abandon many scientific instruments at Cochrane, that you had hoped to take along. Prof. Schlecting had foresight enough to address the cases to the museum, which were to be returned by the Express Office at the end of October, when you were expecting to return."

"At Cochrane," said Jarvis, "we were lucky enough to get in touch with a very capable guide; he was a Norwegian half-breed and it was he who discouraged the attempt to get the heavy instruments through to the north country. When we started for our first objective, which was a point on the Moose River, eighty miles from Moose Factory, we had merely a small transit, a thermometer, a barometer, our cameras, firearms and necessary camp duffle, which included a tent of balloon silk. The first leg of our trip was made on horseback. Ninety miles on horseback, over rough country, for men unaccustomed to riding horses proved a most harrowing experience. We made it in five days, arriving at the Moose River, where we engaged Indians to pad. dle us in their canoes down to Moose Factory, at the head of James Bay, where there is a Hudson Bay Trading Station. Here the Factor, on learning the object of our expedition, endeavored to dissuade us from proceeding; he said that it would be extremely dangerous, as the country north of Lake Minto was practically unexplored and that the Indians there were hostile and that reports had repeatedly been made at Moose Factory, that many had lost their lives in attempting to penetrate the country north of Lake Minto. He also said that without the cooperation of the natives it would mean death to attempt to winter there.

"Lomen laughed at this statement. 'I have no fear of the freeze,' he said, 'I have lived out many winters and do not need Indians to show me how to hole-up.'

"When the Factor found he could not persuade us to give up the trip, he did all in his power to speed us on our way. We obtained some trust. worthy Swampy Cree Indians, who had large, sea-worthy canoes, and started up James Bay. I will not give you the details of the long voyage on James Bay and later along the coast of Hudson's Bay to Christie Island, where we left the water for Lake Minto. Here, inside of Christie Island where there was another Indian village, we got a fresh relay of Indians to paddle us up through the chain of lakes to Lake Minto. These fellows were very reluctant to go to Minto. Lomen, who spoke their dialect, found on questioning them that they were in fear of white men, dressed in skins, who ruled that district and who killed all interlopers. This was the first authentic report that we had received of the existence of this tribe of White Indians. We arrived at Lake Minto on the Seventy-fifth day of our journey. The Swampies, as they were termed up there, wanted to return to the coast at once, but Lomen would not have it so and told Prof. Schlecting to withhold their pay till we had arrived at our destination. The guide shot a deer which was skinned, cut into strips and dried into pemmican over an oak wood fire. Fish were caught in the lake and smoked, and by the end of the second day at the lake we were well provided with food for the trip into the wilderness. The fact that we had seen none of the 'white men dressed in skins' during our stay at the lake seemed to reassure the Swampy Crees, and Lomen, by offering each of them as a reward for their services, a cheap, long-barreled revolver and some ammunition, which we had brought along for just such an emergency, persuaded them to continue the trip with us.

"The morning of the third day, as we were preparing to depart, a man suddenly appeared at the edge of the grove of trees in which we were encamped. He was tall and, though sun-browned, he was unmistakably a white man. His appearance was a signal for the Swampies to take to their canoes, That they were thoroughly frightened, there was little doubt, for they remained only long enough to snatch up their bows, which lay on the bank near shore. Lomen called repeatedly for them to return, but this only caused them to paddle more quickly. The White. Indian, for such he was, stood for a moment gazing disdainfully at our retreating help, then turned towards Lomen, who, he thought, was leader of our party. He addressed the guide, speaking low and musically, accompanying his speech with gestures so eloquent that even Prof. Schlecting and myself understood that he was warning us against proceeding further north. The language he used seemed to be comprised of vowel sounds, interspersed with an occasional word, so