Wyllie left the Scottish Isles when a mere lad, but they are still "Home" to him and he tells us that this autumn he is going back on a visit. It was a prototype of Wyllie's
"From the lone sheiling and the misty island, Mountains divide us and a waste of seas, But still the heart, the heart is Highland, And we in _dreams_ behold the Hebrides,"
who prayed "O, Lord, we beseech Thee, send down Thy covenanted blessin' on the Muckle Hebrides, the Lesser Hebrides, and the adjacent islands of Great Britain and Ireland." Talking with the old gentleman, you are conscious of the innate moral strength rather than the mechanical skill of the craftsman. Instinctively you feel the splendid power of his presence and come out from his forge murmuring, "Thank God I have seen a _man_ this day." Wyllie belongs to the age of the old journals, to the days that bred Joe Gargerys and old Adams in whom appeared "the constant service of the antique world."
[Illustration: Samples of Woman's Work of the Far North.
A and C--_Muski-moots_, or bags used by the duck-hunter for his game. Made by Dog-Rib women, of _babiche_, or rawhide of the moose or caribou.
B--Velvet leggings richly embroidered in violet-coloured bead-work, made by Mrs. (Archdeacon) Macdonald, a full-blooded Loucheaux woman.
D--Wall-pocket of white deerskin embroidered in silk. Made by a Rabbit-Skin woman at Fort Good Hope under the Arctic Circle.
E--Wall-pocket ornamented with porcupine-quill work, made by a Yellow-Knife Indian woman at Fort Resolution on Great Slave Lake.
F--_Fire-bag_, or tobacco-pouch, made of two claws of the black bear. The work of a Beaver Indian woman at Vermilion-on-the-Peace.
G--_Fire-bag_ of velvet ornamented with silk-work, made by Chipewyan woman at Fond du Lac, Lake Athabasca.
H--Velvet watch-bag embroidered in silk, made by Slavi Indian woman at Fort Providence, at the head of Mackenzie River.
I--Watch-pocket of smoked moose-skin, embroidered in silk-work, made by a Cree girl at Fort McMurray on the Athabasca.
J--Armlets ornamented in porcupine quills, made by a half-breed woman on the Liard River (a feeder of the Mackenzie).
K--Three hat bands--the first two ornamented with porcupine quills, and the last in silk embroidery--made by Chipewyan woman at Fond du Lac, Lake Athabasca.