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Lately I have chosen books to read to fill a gap in my Canadian literature and history. I am currently reading Pierre Berton's Canada and on page 117 I found: "Some, like John Hornby, have been drunk with the mystique of the tundra. Hornby's only desire was to live on the tundra, and his only purpose seemed to be sheer subsistence, for he rarely trapped or hunted or collected scientific information. He thought of the Barrens as his kingdom and he roamed them like an animal, existing in caves or wolf dens and living off the land. His proudest boast was that he could be dropped off naked into the heart of the tundra and survive. He shunned the symbols of civilization, and even discarded his dentures on the Barrens. With his single upper incisor he tore at the caribou or wolf meat, which often enough he devoured raw and rotten
One memorable winter Hornby brought another Englishman north with him, a former calvary officer named James Critchell -Bullock. The two of them moved far out into the tundra past Artillery Lake, and here they existed for an entire winter, crouched in a cave in an esker, playing chess with hand-whittled pieces while the wolves howled above the wind across the treeless snows.
One day, so legend had it, Hornby came into Fort Resolution to the police post. "Bullock is trying to murder me", he told the constable on duty. Then he gave the policeman a sealed letter and vanished again into the Barrens. The constable read the letter. It was from Bullock. "Hornby is trying to murder me" he had written.
The policeman wearily made a patrol out to the cave, and here he came upon the two half-demented men, wild-eyed, squalid, incredibly filthy, Hornby gnawing on a raw wolf's head, Bullock chewing a caribou's intestine. The policeman shrugged,sighed, and went back to Resolution again. Obviously the chess games were not going that well.
The following spring, the two Englishmen emerged alive after walking the entire two thousand miles to Hudson Bay.
One memorable winter Hornby brought another Englishman north with him, a former calvary officer named James Critchell -Bullock. The two of them moved far out into the tundra past Artillery Lake, and here they existed for an entire winter, crouched in a cave in an esker, playing chess with hand-whittled pieces while the wolves howled above the wind across the treeless snows.
One day, so legend had it, Hornby came into Fort Resolution to the police post. "Bullock is trying to murder me", he told the constable on duty. Then he gave the policeman a sealed letter and vanished again into the Barrens. The constable read the letter. It was from Bullock. "Hornby is trying to murder me" he had written.
The policeman wearily made a patrol out to the cave, and here he came upon the two half-demented men, wild-eyed, squalid, incredibly filthy, Hornby gnawing on a raw wolf's head, Bullock chewing a caribou's intestine. The policeman shrugged,sighed, and went back to Resolution again. Obviously the chess games were not going that well.
The following spring, the two Englishmen emerged alive after walking the entire two thousand miles to Hudson Bay.