THERE WERE YOUNG-PEOPLE AND OLD-PEOPLE AND BABIES DYING EVERY WEEK - THE 1918-1919 INFLUENZA PANDEMIC AT NORWAY-HOUSE

Analysis of Norway House Anglican parish registers during the 1918 inf luenza pandemic suggests that eighteen percent of the population peris hed in six weeks. Its strategic position in the fur trade and lack of substantial provisions in the subarctic winter contributed to the deat h rate. Population recovery occurred within five to ten years, owing t o a modest post-epidemic marriage boom and the maintenance of birth ra tes. Analysis of parish records and twentieth-century virgin soil epid emics may help to develop models for early contact epidemics.