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Published: November 20th 2018
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NOVEMBER 19, 2018
Today we spent the whole day on the polar explorer traveling over the tundra looking for wildlife. The polar explorer is s large vehicle on a fire truck chassis with 6foot diameter wheels. The front wheels are on a fixed axle and the back four wheels are each independently mounted. They were very large inside and comfortably furnished. We each had our own row of seats with a window there was s washroom in the rear.
Our guide was Sam who is quite good. Our driver was Ol’ Bill. Everyone was quite congenial and they told some interesting stories.
The beginning of the Hudson Bay Company
From 1550-1850’s men’s beaver hats came into fashion. These were very expensive but highly sought after. The end result of this was that the European beaver was just about wiped out so they turned to North America to find more braver skins. At first they went up that St. Lawrence river to trap beavers but then they found that there were many more favorable trapping areas around the Hudson Bay. The Hudson Bay co was founded to take advantage of
this beaver trade. They found that the natives were willing to trap and skin beavers and trade the skins for European articles. There were two companies involved in this the HBC and the Northwestern trading Co which went directly to the tribes to trade rather then making the tribes come to them. The King of England granted the HBC a huge territory that was theirs for beaver trapping. At one time it covered about half of Canada. The two companies eventually merged and became the HBC. The merged HBC is still in business.
WINNIE THE POOH
early at the beginning of WWI a group of Canadien men from Winnipeg were heading across Canada to be shipped to Europe to fight. At White River Manitoba,the train stopped. They all got off to stretch their legs and came upon a man selling a baby black bear. He wanted 25$ for the cub. None of the men could afford that. One of the men, Lt Colburn, who was a veterinarian took a fancy to the little cub and bought her. She rode on the train with him to the port, got on the ship with
him and went across the Atlantic Ocean. They arrived in London. By now little Winnipeg was very fond of people and loved to play games with them. But then Lt Colburn was sent to the front. He couldn’t take Winnipeg with him so he asked rhe London Zoo if they would take care of her until he returned. They agreed. well in his absence Winnipeg became the star of the zoo. Children rode on Winnipeg’s back and fed her treats. When Lt Colburn returned he wanted to take Winnipeg back home with home. But the London Zoo couldn’t bear to part with the sweet bear. One little boy, Christopher Robin had fallen so in love with her that he renamed his Teddy Bear Winnie after Winnipeg. His father A.J.Milne decided to write a story about this remarkable bear but Christopher insisted that Winnie had to be a boy. So Winnie the Pooh was born. Winnie the Pooh’s adventures have thrilled many children. But what always comes through is his sweet disposition.
Those were two of the most interesting stories that we heard. We drove across the tundra that was glistening in the sunshine looking for
foxes,arctic hares, ptermigan, bears, snowy owls or just anything. There was nothing moving on the tundra. We decided that it was too cold for anything to be out and about. Everyone was very disappointed. Not to see anything was a new experience for everyone. At dinner they announced that since we had failed to see one living creature, they were going to give us all a free helicopter ride tomorrow. The helicopter pilots had seen bears today on their flights. So with new hope in our hearts we are anticipating our helicopter flights tomorrow.
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