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Las diagrammas suivants illustrant la mAthoda. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 6 6 Vuop LAKE-TRAVEL BY DOG-SLEDGE. 31 LAKE-TRAVEL BY DOG-SLEDGE. -H^ 91^ t^'OiTK. I. A MEMORY which refuses to associate with or- dinary remembrances, and has an odd prefer- ence for the company of sportive and incongruous dreams, is that of a certain consular gentleman, of extremely pedantic bearing, careering wildly over a frozen Northern prairie in a dog-sledge. He was the proprietor and detennined wearer of the only silk hat wuhin a radius of four hundred miles, and still ad- hered to the use of a shawl as an outer covering long years after it had ceased to be employed as an article of wear. Added to this was an irreproach- able suit of black broadcloth, the like of which was not to be encountered within the same radius, and a '5air of tight boots, that would have frozen the feet of a half-breed runner. In this civilized apparel he was essaying his first ride in a dog-sledge, and a more incongruous spectacle it has never been my lot to behold. Seated in a cariole resembling in sh .pe a heel- less shoe, the unfortunate gentleman was whirling over the drifted plain in rapid but tortuous course. Having, in the confidence of perfect ignorance, re- fused the proffered services of a driver, lest he should excite ridicule by being guarded and guided like an infant in a baby-cab, he was now reaping the fruits of his rashness in a series of the most remarkable gyrations of which the human body is capable. The dogs being unacquainted with the language of their freight, and evidently animated by the spirit of evil, wandered at their own sweet will over the snow-tov- ered plain ; their will generally prompting them to plunge headlong into every drift, or to skirt the steep sides of the long ridges. Under these depressing circumstances, it behooved the neophyte to use his utmost endeavor to retain an upright position, in order to avoid a sledgc-ride in which his own body would be used as the runners, and the cariole assume the place of passenger. Being limited by the con- struction of the sledge to the use of his hands alone, hitherto employed in holding his shawl, he was forced to drop that favorite covering in order that, by sway- ing rapidly from side to side and plunging his hands in the snow, he might right the sledge. This contin- uous seesaw, and the crowning incongruity of the silk hat, gave him at length the appearance of a junip- ing-jack, or " the gentleman in black," as he starts suddenly from the box and swings pendulous from side to sicj. His frantic shouts of " Whoa ! " availed nothing ; the dogs, having been sent out to give their passenger a ride, were evidently bent upon doing it, and wandered vaguely about on the drifting snow. At length, a more than usually vertical drift being reached, the tired arms gave out, and the cariole, left without support, poised a moment in mid-air, then turned over, leaving the recumbent ivyageurwiih his legs still fastened to the sledge, but with arms thrust deep into the snow and head calmly pillowed in the depths of his hat. From this position he was pow- erless to move, except at the will of the dogs, who had now faced about in their harness, and seated them- selves to ga/e imperturbably upon the wreck. The spectacle of this representative of a higher civiliza- tion, lying stranded upon a thin board in a limilles;: ocean of snow, proved too much for half-breed cour- tesy ; and there he lay until the owner of the cariole had sufficiently recovered from successive convul- sions of laughter to run to his assistance. A determination to avoid a like experience led the writer, some time afterward, before undertaking a winter's journey across the frozen expanse of Lake I Winnipeg, to pursue a little judicious training, sur- I reptitiously undergone upon an unfrequented by- ' road, before e^yi attempting to decide upon the mer- . its of the various teams presented for that service. 32 APPLETONS' JOURNAL. II. To begin my journey, I purcliased a board about nine feet long and sixteen inches wide, which was duly steamed and turned up at on-? end. To it wood- en bows were fastened, while over it was stretched a stout covering of raw-hide. This accomplisiied, the board resembled the front of a slipper. To com- plete the likeness, a heel-top was made by attaching an upright back about two feet from the rear end, and extending the raw-hide covering to it. Then the shoe was submitted to an Indian friend, who deco- rated its outer surface with mystical emblems in red and yellow pigments, covering the whole with a coat- ing of oil. When the motive power was furnished, the ship would be ready to sail. The selection of the propelling force was more difHcult of accomplishment. Dogs of high and low degree were brought for inspection ; for dogs in the North have but one occupation — to haul. From the Esquimaux down through all the stages of canine life to the Indian mongrel, all are alike doomed to labor before a sledge of some kind during the winter months ; all are destined to howl under the beatings of a brutal driver ; to tug wildly at the moose-skin collar ; to haul until they can haul no longer, and then to die. When I look back at the long line of seared and whip-marked heads, whose owners were put through their best paces in demonstration of their perfect fitness for the work, what a host of sadly - resigned faces rises up before me ! There were heads lacking an ear, an eye ; heads bearing the marks of blows with sticks, whips, the heels of boots ; heads that had been held down and beaten out of all semblance of life ; and heads yet all bleed- ing and torn with the brutal lashings thought neces- sary to impart an air of liveliness before a probable purchaser ! The same retrospect brings up the hy- brid drivers of those dogs, upon the majority of whose countenances a painful indifference to suffering and an inherent brutality were plainly visible — dusky, athletic fellows, whose only method of dealing with the poor dog, who gave up everything in life for him, was by blows and fierce invective. For a time all teams submitted for inspection seemed wanting in some essential quality. At length, however, my prospective driver informed me of a half-breed acquaintance who was the possessor of a team which he thought would answer the purpose. His mongrel friend resided sixty miles away ; but distance .and time go for naught in the North — in fact, are about the only possessioiis with which the in- habitants are plentifully endowed ; so we compassed the space and purchased the dogs. There were four of them— long-haired, clean-legged, fox-headed ani- mals, with more the appearance of wolves than of dogs. With them cime four sets of harness, each set having a tinkling row of bells in its back-band, which, being of different tones, rang a merry chime as their wear- ers trotted brirkly along. This completed the pas- senger accommodation ; now for the baggage-van. Another board, ten feet in lengt^f and fourteen inches wide, was purchased, steamed, and turned up at one end. But, instead of the raw-hide covering, fhoe-latchets were inserted in the outer edges of the board, which would tie down tightly to its surface the load of provision, bedding, and camp-equipage, necessary for the journey. For this sledge the mo- tive power was selected less critically ; strength was the requisite, not symmetry ; so dogs of stror g sinew and large bone were chosen, regardless of looks. For provision, we had pemmican — the pounded dried meat of the buffalo mingled with fat — and black tea ; the dogs had frozen white-fish. My driver was a heathen Cree. H« was, more- over, a linguist, speaking several aboriginal dialects and a kind of mongrel French. Five golden sov- ereigns constituted the bond of union between us. He was a lank, muscular man, the bones of whose huge frame stood out conspicuous at the foints and angles, and the muscles showed distinctly in his gaunt mea- greness. He had yellow paint on his face, and was arrayed in rather bewildering apparel. His head- gear was the luxuriant chcvclure with which Nature had endowed him. On hi; feet he wore moccasins ; on his limbs he wore leggins, which extended only a certain way above the knee, leaving that Providence which " tempers the wind to the shorn lamb " a dreary waste of yellow-mottled skin upon which to experiment ; on his body he wore a cotton shirt perennially innocent of soap. Attached to this shirt, and stretched straight and taut across the pU of his stomach, he wore a brass watch-chain. Over all, like the mantle of Charity, was strapped a green blanket. Thus attired, he resembled a settled mel- ancholy, or a god of bile from a dyspeptic's inferno. Nevertheless, he could travel from forty to sixty miles a day, running alongside the sledge. III. It was the loth of December when we left Fort Garry, bound down the Red River of the North, across the frozen length of Lake Winnipeg, to Nor- way House, at its northern extremity. There started with us the four dog-trains and two drivers which constitute the Great Northern Packet of the Hud- son's Bay Company, and which, with its connecting links, scatters news over all that vast region lying be- tween the forty-ninth and sixty-seventh parallels of latitude, in North America, and reaching east and west from Labrador to Alaska. Our route being the same, we joined company with the hybrid Mercuries, and began our journey amid much cracking of whips, howling of dogs, and profanity discreetly veiled by delivery in the heathen tongues. To the novice the spectacle presented by a num- ber of gayly-accoutred dog-trains gliding merrily by is a cheerful one. The tiny bells keeping time to the foot-falls of the shaggy train ; the cariole fantas- tically decorated in bright, warm colors ; the passen- ger cozily wrapped in furs and woolens of shades suggestive of warmth and comfort ; the active driver trotting unweariedly alongside, until the sledge with all its belongings becomes a mere spec'- of black upon the limitless expanse of snow — all conspire to commend dog-sledging to the transient spectator as I i T"^ L LAKE-TRAVEL BY DOG-SLEDGE. 33 by a num- meirily by ing time to :iole fantas- the passen- s of shades ctive driver sledge with of black conspire to spectator as the ideal of winter travel, the veritable poetry of motion. The .swan-like motion of the sledge as its tiiin bottom yields in gracefr^ jurves and undulations to adapt itself to inequalities of surface beneath it is strangely suggestive of the progress of a canoe over waters faintly rufTled by a passing breeze. To lie in such a cradle, and be gently rocked over a varying landscape hour after hour, would seem an idyllic life in which satiety could never come. But, suppose the cold to be of that intensity which it is neither possi- ble to picture nor describe ; of that degree in which, after having spoken of the whip-handle which burns the hand that touches it, the tea that freezes while it is being drunk ; in which an instant's exposure of the face leaves the cheek or the classical nose upon which one pri ',es himself white and rigid as a piece of marble ; in which the traveler, with head bowed to meet the crushing blast, goes wearily on, as silent as the river and forests through which he rides, and from whose rigid bosom no sound ever comes, no ripple ever breaks, no bird, no beast, no human face appears — a cold of which, having said all this, there is a sense of utter inability to convey any adequate idea, except that it means sure and certain death, with calm and peaceful face turned up to the sky, and form hard and unimpressible as if carved from granite, within a period whose duration would ex- pire in the few hours of a winter's daylight if there were no fire or means of making it upon the track. Suppose, loo, that the gently-undulating motion of the sledge, in accommodating itself to the ine- qualities of the frozen surface, which seemed so sug- gestive of a canoe floating cork -like upon rippling water, felt, now that one is seated in the sledge, like being dragged over a gravel-walk upon a sheet ; or that the track has been completely snowed up, and the wretched dogs are unequal to the emergency. Mistatim, the leader, is willing, but young, thin, and weak ; the middle one, Shoathinga, is aged and asth- matic ; and the shafter, Kuskitaostiquarn, lame and lethargic. From morning till night the air re- sounds with howling and the cries of the drivers anathematizing Shoathinga and Kuskitaostiquarn. The sledges constantly upset from running against a stump or slipping over a hillside ; and, when one hauls and strains to right them, the dogs lie quietly down, looking round at him, and not offering to pull an ounce to help. When the driver, aggravated be- yond endurance, rushes up, stick in hand, and bent on punishment, they make frantic exertions, which only render matters worse, resuming their quiescent attitude the moment he returns again to haul at the sleigh ; and all this time, perhaps, the unfortunate passenger lies, bound and helpless, half buried in the snow. Under these conditions the scene changes, and the envious spectator of the poetry of motion re- tires with more sympathy for those old voyagctas of the fur-trade who used to pay stipulated sums to the happy inventors of new and strange oaths. IV. The fall of snow on land being insufficient for sledding-purposes, we followed the frozen channel VOL. II. — 3 of the river as a track, the six trains gliding smooth- ly over the first stage of their journey. Harnessed in tandem fashion, one after another, the twenty- four dogs and accompanying sledges formed a io'ig line, and presented a gallant spectacle, l-'our dr)gs to each sled form a complete train as used in the Northern country, and are harnessed to the cariole by means of two long traces. Between these traces ihe dogs stand one after the other, witii a space inter- vening between them of perhaps a foot. A rou.id collar, passing over the head and ears and fitting closely to the shoulder, buckles on each side to the traces, which are supported by a back-band of leath- er. This back-band is generally covered wiih tiny bells, the collar being hung with those of larj^cr size, and decorated with party-colored ribbons or fox-tails. In no single article of property, perhaps, is greater pride taken than in a train of dogs turned out in good style ; and the undue amount of beads, bells, and ribbons, frequently employed to bedizen the poor brutes, produces the most comical elTect when placed upon some terror- *ricken dog, who, wiien first put into harness, usually looks the picture of fear. The dogs composing our teams, however; were all accustomed to the work, and bore their honors bravely. Fresh from a long rest, they trotted gayly along, aflbrding their drivers but little pretext for blows or imprecation in the breath-taking pace they attained. True, the gaunt Cree dealt ^Yhi^kcy a mer- ciless flick, from time to time, and urged upon Brandy the necessity of minding his eye ; but I fancy if was owing more to a desire to keep his hand in play, and his vocabulary of invective in memory, than from any defect in their work. Nevertheless, such casual and indifferently-bestowed abuse revealed the fact that, of the eight animals who were doing their best, individually and collectively, to haul nie and my baggage over that waste of ice, five rejoiced in the names of Brandy and Whiskey, wliile the re- maining three distributed Coffee and Chocolat be- tween them. This knowledge was a blow under which I reeled. An apostle of temperance sweep- ing past lonely dwellings, and dashing with a wild scurry through Indian camps, shrieking for strong drink, and followed by a wild retainer opposing his demand., with suggestions of coffee and chocolate, would likely convey to the startled dwellers on the plain the idea of a migratory delirium tremens, or a peripatetic advertisement of " The Bar-tender's Own Book." Upon inquiry, however, my misery was found to have abundant company ; for, of the six- teen dogs attached to the packet-trains, no fewer than eleven reveled in an alcoholic nomenclature. The reasons assigned by the drivers for so general use of spirituous appellations was, that the mere sound of these names was suggestive of warmth, comfort, and good cheer ; from which the wearied driver doubt- less derived a satisfaction equal to washing " . . . . his hands with invisible soap, In imperceptible water," Still, upon second thought, it may be held that, as certain colors are sugpestive of warmth and com- fort — a stove painted red about the base ofttimes de- 1G{398 I 34 APPLETONS' JOURNAL. ludesthe casual visitor with the idea of heat — so muy the influence of certain names be productive of a like genial cflect upon the imagination. However it may be, I know that if such nomenclature be adopted with- out well-founded reason on the part of the dog-drivep, it is the only thing in the many curious phases of his life that is so accepted. Not a thread in the web of his existence but has its use. Twenty miles below our point of departure, and perched upon the lofty and precipitous bluffs of the river, we caught sight of one of those impossible pictures of medixval fortification which so often adorn the lids of snuff-boxes, or the pages of ancient albums. There were the same peaked roofs and turrets, the same bleak view of unadorned stone- wall, with bastions, ramparts, gates, and all, as in the original. But no plumed knight or trusty squire issued from its portals, nor double-handed sword or glittering armor decked its halls. It was the abode of Dives, and Dives trades in beads and gilt, in furs and tobacco, in cattle and calico. As a company's trading-post it proved a somewhat extensive collec- tion of residences, shops, and stores. These were all inclosed within a stone-wall, pierced throughout its entire circuit with loop-holes, so arranged as to suggest the inquiry whether, in the extremely improb- able event of the place being besieged, they would present greater facilities to the defenders of the es- tablishment, or to the assailants in firing through them at th'j garrison within. The banks hereabouts were high and densely wooded. Some miles below, however, the woods disappeared, and the banks, which gradually sank to a lower level, were covered with long, reedy grass. Indian tents, surrounded even at that late season by nets hung up to dry, indicated the pursuits of their owners. The stream, after reaching the low coun- try, split into numerous channels, through several of which its waters found their way into Lake Winnipeg. At the outlet of the main channel our sledges were run ashore. The bank here was a long strip of shingle running out into the lake, the frozen wa- ters of which extended northward out of sight. We had accomplished over forty miles ; the night was closing in, and this was the last available camping- place before setting out upon the long stretches from islet to islet, or point to point, of the lake's shore. So the drivers loosed their dogs, and proceeded to gather drift-wood for the night. The twenty-four dogs, meanwhile, surveyed each other grimly, dis- , covered points of etiquette upon which they could not agree, and fell into a general fight, threatening disastrous consequences until the loaded whip-stocks of the men separated them. The snow having been cleared away by the aid of a snow-shoe used as a shovel, and our own sup- per prepared and eaten, we turned our attention to the dogs who had borne the burden if not the heat of the day ; for the slcdge-dog's day is one long tis- sue of trial. Put to a task from which his whole na- iture revolts, he is driven to the violation of every instinct by the continual la things of a driver's whip. Before Night has lifted her sable mantle to shroud the stars, the sledge-dog has his slumbers rudely broken by the summons of his master. Close by the camp, under the protecting lee of stump or fallen tree, he has lain coiled in the roundest of balls dur- ing the night. Perhaps, if his lines are cast in pleas- ant places, he has encroached unon his driver's blanket, and contributed his vital heat to the comfort of that merciless functionary. Perhaps, too, the fast-fall- ing flakes of the snow-storm have covered him in their soft folds, adding to his sense of warmth, and revealing his presence only in the shape of a round- ed hillock of snow. He may, perchanrc, dream the dreams of peace and comfort, or imagine that his soft covering will render him undistinguishabie from the surrounding mass of white ; to be awakened from his delusion by blow of whip-stock, a kick of the driver's foot, and the stem command to find his place in the gaudy gear of moose-skin and bells awaiting him — an ornamented and bedizened har- ness that mocks the pathos of his whip-marked face and trembling figure. Then comes the start. The wooded copse is left behind, and under ihe incipi- ent dawn he plods along through the snow. The sleepy driver seeks to dissipate the morning cold by rapid motion, and mercilessly urges the dog to his utmost effort. The crisp air resounds with the crack of his whip and the echoes of his dire imprecation. The dog, not yet nerved to his uncongenial labor, cunningly takes every advantage to shirk, refusing to pull when it. is most required, and showing wonder- ful speed and alacrity, rushing off with the heavy sledge when the distracted driver comes near to pun- ish. The day dawns, sun rises, morning merges into mid-day, and it is time to halt for a dinner in which the hauling-dog cannot share ; then on again in Indian file, as before. If there be no path in the snow, the driver travels before to beat one with his snow-shoes, and the " foregoer," or leading-dog, fol- lows close behind. But if there be a track, however faint, the animal follows it himself ; and, when lost to sight by wrack and diift of tempest, his sense of smell enables him to keep it straight. Thus through the short hours of the winter's day they travel on, in withered woods through which the wind howls and shrieks, or on the endless expanse of snow, the glare of whose unsullied whiteness blinds the vision of the lake-traveler ; through solitudes which, save when the occasional dog-sledge with its peals of bells in winter, or the swiftly-passing boat-brigade resonant with the songs of the summer voyageitrs, intrudes, with its momentary variation, upon the shriek of the all-penetrating wind, the ripple of the stream, the roar of the thunder-toned waterfall, or the howl of the wild beast of the woods, are abandoned to the undisturbed possession of the Indian hunter and his prey. When the winter's day draws to a close, and the twilight landscape has warned the traveler to choose his resting-place for the night, the sledge-dog finds relief from his harness, and his day's work is at an end. His battered and disfigured face loses in some f^-^nfittiiiii'^^ii'S LAKE-TRAVEL BY DOG-SLEDGE. 35 ;r's wliip. :o shroud rs rudely ise by the or fallen )alls (lur- ; in pleas- sblanket, )rt of that fast-fall- d him in rmth, and f a round- Jream the e that his labie from awakened a kick of to find his and bells zened har- larked face itart. The the incipi- now. The ng cold by dog to his h the crack mprecation. inial labor, refusing to ng wonder- the heavy lear to pun- ing merges dinner in on again path in the ne with his ig-dog, fol- :k, however when lost ■is sense of lius through •avel on, in howls and iv, the glare vision of the save when of bells in ie resonant ■, intrudes, hriek of the itream, the the howl of ned to the iter and his )se, and the r to choose ;e-dog finds rk is at an ises in some Blight degree its rueful look, to assume an air of ex- pectation. He stretches and rolls in the powdery snow, then lies down to watch the preparation of the evening meal, in faint hope that some meagre por- tion may slip frotn his master's hand, or be left a moment unguarded. Soon, however, his watch merges into unconsciousness, and he sleeps. But the termination of his master's meal, followed by the sound of the axe striking the block of pemmican, or the unloading of the frozen white-fish from the fro- vision-slcdge, at once wakens him to life and vigor. He leaps quickly up, an alert, vicious animal, witn every instinct centred in an eager craving for food. In the plain-country a daily ration of two pounds of pemmican is thrown him ; in the region of forest and stream, where fish forms the staple food, he receives two large white-fish raw. In his diet he prefers fish to meat, and betrays its superiority in his work. His one daily meal is soon dispatched : no pleasures of deglutition are his. A quick snap, followed by a moment's rapid munching, and the pemmican has disappeared ; the same short snap, a few convulsive throes, and the frozen fish is bolted almost whole, and the wistful eyes turned up for more. Not find- ing it, he indulges in a season of growling and snap- ping at his fellows, then lies down out in the snow to sleep, or, perchance, to dream of that day, which never comes for him, when the whip shall be broken and hauling shall be no more. Thus he remains till morn, unless some old shafter, grim and gray, rising at midnight on his haunches, inaugurates a chorus to the skies ; or a pack of wolves, seated like sentries in a huge circle about the camp, challenge him by quick barks to renew their hereditary feud. VI. The preparations for repose were of the simplest description. As the wind swept down the lake from the north, our heads were placed in that quarter, with feet in dangerous proximity to the fire. On the summit of the heap of snow formed in digging out our camping-ground were placed, as a protection against the fierce blasts, the inverted dog-sledges, which assumed amid that dreary landscape the like- ness of head-stones, marking our resting-place with a rude " Hie jacet." Descending into bed from the surface of the snow, and muffled in unlimited bed- ding, the sensation given by the surrounding banks and overhanging sledges was that of sleeping in a gigantic four-poster with a highly-decorated head- board. The three drivers lay close together, but for certain sanitary reasons their freight chose to form a single spoke in the wheel, and reclined at an angle of his own. Sleep comes soon to the traveler in arctic win- ters ; but a beautiful dream of a little maiden who was wont to disport upon my knees was rudely brok- en by a visible perception of peril — a consciousness of the hovering presence of evil. How to describe these feelings I know not ; but, as, if the eyes of a watcher are steadily fixed upon the countenance of a sleeper for a certain length of time, the slumberer will certainly start up, wakened by the mysterious magnetism of a recondite principle of clairvoyance, so it was that, with closed eyes and drowscd-up senses, an inward ability was conferred upon me to detect the presence of danger near me — to see, though sleep-blind, the formless shape of a mysteri- ous horror crouching beside me. And, as if the peril that was my night-m.ite was of a nature to be quick- ened into fatal activity by any motion on my part, I felt in my very stupor the critical necessity of lying quii» still; so that, when I at last awoke and felt that, si lay with my face to the sky, there was a thick, . eavy, shivering thing upon my chest, I stirred not, nor uttered a word of panic. Danger and fear may occ.nsionally dull the sense and paralyze the fac- ulties, but they more frequently sharpen both ; and when I say that the whole of my chest and even the pit of my stomach were covered with the heavy pro- portions of the thing, its considerable size will be acknowledged. A cold sweat burst from every pore. I could hear the beating of my heart, and I felt, to my increased dismay, that the palsy of terror had begun to agitate my limbs. " It will wake," thought I, " and then all is over ! " At this juncture there sounded iibove my he.id a prolonged howl, caught up and reiterated in varying chorus by a circle of hoarse voices surrounding our couch. And upon this the thing rose up on my chest with a quick start, and joined the dismal refrain with a barytone of remarkable power ; while the voice of my protecting Cree rang out in sudden anger : " Whiskey, marche ! Sacre chien, passe partout ! " and the warmth-seeking Whiskey shrank quickly from his living pedestal to join his brethren of the mystic circle on the snow above. Thus relieved fror.i the weight of the sledge-dog, who had pre- sumed upon a gentler nature to increase his own comfort, I peered cautiously up and beheld a scene the most grotesque. Seated upon the highest inverted sledge, with a look of utter dejection and overpowering anguish of soul, sat the aged leader of a packet-train, lifting up his voice in a series of heart-rending howls in deep bass. Seated in a like manner at regular intervals about him, and forming a huge circle inclosing the camp, were the remaining twenty-three dogs, taking their cue from the leader, and joining the chorus in dismal tenor and rasping soprano. The weird mel- ancholy of that howling brought a sense of utter loneliness and desolation. The echoes reverberated over the lake, and died away in mournful, wailing cadences on the night-wind. The isolation seemed to deepen, and become palpable. Above, the sky was spangled with such myriads of stars as are only seen in northern latitudes ; around lay a dreary waste of grayish white, empty, desolate, and void of life ; no sound save the dismal howling of the dogs. Soon, however, there was intermingled with it much heathen profanity and objurgation, delivered in vari- ous tongues. The chorus had awakened the drivers, who were endeavoring to quiet the dogs by impreca- tions, in order to avoid the necessity of rising and using the whip. " Brandy ! Brandy ! s.T.cre ddmon ! " " Coffee ! ye ould sinner, pren' garde ! " " Chocolat , 3« APPLETONS' JOURNAL. crapaud that ye aire, Chocolat ! " "Whiskey! ah, sal-au-prix!" "Whiskey!" "Ah, Coffee! you will catch it presently I" "Capita'ne ! Mistatim !" " Brandy ! 'ere d^mon ! " Then followed an out- burst of profanity, and a hasty, furious shout to tlie whole circle, resembling a call for mixed drinks which has had no equal since the " opening " of the first bar on the Pacific slope. All this, however, proved of no avail, and the distracted drivers were finally forced to leave their warm beds and grasp their whips, upon which the wretched animals darted off in agonies of fear. VII. Three hours before dawn we arose and prepared for departure by eating a fat breakfast and swallow- ing a great many cups of tea. Then my uncivilized driver of dogs, who joined the second-sight of a weath- er-seer to his other ac •omplishments, took an inven- tory of the weather, and predicted a storm before nightfall. However, the morning was as favorable as one could wish, and, incased in robes and blan- kets, I slid tnto the shoe-like sledge and was off. the central figure of the six sledges and a herd of howl- ing dogs and drivers. The point at which we had encamped became speedily undistinguishable among the low line of apparently exactly similar localities ranging along the low shore. On in the gray snow- light, with a fierce wind sweeping down the long reaches of the lake ; nothing spoken, for such cold weather makes men silent, morose, and savage. Lake-travel, tho'"-!! •"'nid, is exceedingly harass- ing on account of t . winds which perpetually sweep over the in' ^jlain of their frozen sur- face, intensifying even moderate cold to a p..'nful degree. The ice is always rough, coated with snow of varying thickness, or drifted into hillocks and ridges, alternating with spots of glass-like smooth- ness, which are constantly upsetting the sledges. And this same upsetting, a trifling matter enough on shore, is likely to prove a serious annoyance where the hardness of the ice nearly breaks one's bones. The same hardness, too, increases the fatigue of sledge-travel, which at its best may be likened to sitting on a thin board dragged quickly over a new- ly-macadamized road. Then, too, the pedestrian on a frozen lake labors under peculiar disadvantages, Where the snow lies deeply, the crust gives way at each step, precipitating the driver to the bottom with a sudde;n jar ; where it lies thinly on the surface, or is drifted away, thf: hardness of the ice injures even the practised voyageitrs, causing swellings of the an- kles and soles of the feet, and enlargement of the lower back sinews of the legn. Again, the winter traveler speedily discovers that very slight exercise induces copious perspiration, which, in the most momentary halt, gets cold upon the skin ; in fact, in a high wind, the exposed side will appear frozen over, while the rest of the body is comparatively warm and comfortable. Once cold in this way, it is almost impossible to get warm again without the heat of fire, or the severest exercise ; and, should the latter be adopted, it must perforce b^ continued until a camping-place is reached. Moreover, to a strong man, there is something humiliating in being hauled about in a portable bed, like some feeble in- valid, while the hardy voyageurs are maintaining their steady pace from hour to hour, day to day, or week to week ; for fatigue seems with them an un- known word. VIII. Toward noon there were indications that the prophetic skill of my heathen driver was about to be verified. The wind still kept dead against us, and at times it was impo:;siblc to face its terrible keen- ness. So great was the drift that it obscured the lit- tie light afforded by the sun — which was very low in the heavens — through a cloudy atmosphere. The dogs began to tire out ; the ice cut their feet, and the white surface was often dotted with the crimson icicles that fell from their bleeding toes. The four canines hauling the provision-sled turned back when- ever opportunity presented, or faced about and sat shivering upon thi;ir haunches. Under these cir- cumstances the anathemas of the Cree grew fearful to the ear ; for, of all the qualifications requisite to the successful driving of dogs, none is more neces- sary than an ability to imprecate freely and with considerable variety in at least three different lan- guages. But, whatever number of tongues be em- ployed, one is absolutely indispensable to perfection in the art, and that is French. Whether the con- struction of that dulcet tongue enables the speaker to deliver profanity with more bullet-like force and precision, or to attain a greater degree of intensity than by other means, I know not ; but I do know that, while curses seem useful adjuncts in any lan- guage, curses delivered in French will get a train of dogs through or over anything. For all dogr, in the North it is the simplest mode of persuasion. If the dog lies down, curse him until he gets up ; if he turns about in the harness, curse him until he reverts to his original position ; if he looks tired, curse him until he becomes animated ; and, when you grow weary of cursing him, get another man to continue the process. As the education of the Cree, so far as regarded the French language, had seemingly been conducted with an eye single to the acquirement of anathemas, which long practice enabled him to use with such effect that the dogs instinctively dodged them as if they had been the sweep of a descending lash, our speed at first was not materially affected by the at- tempted baitings of the weary animals. But, as the storm increased in violence, and the swirl of pow- dery snow swept in their faces, the dogs turned about more frequently, and seized every opportunity of shirking. Then ensued that inhuman thrashing and varied cursing, that howling of dogs and systematic brutality of drivers, which make up the romance of winter-travel, and degrade the driver lower than the brutes. The perversion of the dog from his tnie use to that of a beast of burden is productive of countless forms of deception and cunning ; but a life of bondage everywhere produces in the slave vices with which it is unfair to blame him. Dogs are often stubborn and provoking, and require flogging until I TANGLED THREADS. 37 ig in being e feeble in- naintaininir y to clay, or hem an un^ nil that the about to be linst us, and rrible keen- urcd the lit- very low in ihere. The eir feet, and the crimson i. The four I back when- lout and s.it r these cir- grew fearful requisite to more neces- ly and with lifferent lan- gues be em- perfection her the con- i the speaker ke force and of intensity ; I do know ; in any lan- ;et a trair. of 1 dogr, in the sicn. If the ts np ; if he itil he reverts d, curse him ;n you grow to continue • as regarded en conducted f anathemas, se with such them as if ling lash, our ed by the at- But, as the wirl of pow- tumed about portunity of hrashing and id systematic ; romance of lower than from his tnie iroductive of ig ; but a life le slave vices )ogs are often logging until brought into subjection ; but lashings upon the body wiiilc laboring in the trains, systematic Hoggings upon the head till their ears drop bloou, boatings with wliip-stocks until nose and Jaws are one deep wound, and poundings with clubs and stamping with boots till their howls merge into low wails of agony, arc the frequent penalties of a slight deviation from duty. Of the four dogs attached to the provision-sledge, three underwent repealed beatings at the hands of the Cree. Hy mid-afternoon the head of Whiskey was reduced to a bleeding, swollen mass from tre- mendous thrashings. Chocolat had but one eye wherewith to watch the dreaded driver, and lirandy had wasted so much strength in wild lurches and sudden springs, in order to dodge the descending whip, that he had none remaining for the legitimate task of hauling the sledge. But one train of dogs out of the six sledges fared better, and that one was composed of animals of the Hscjuimaux breed. Fox-headed, long-furred, clean-legged, whose ears, sharp-pointed and erect, sprang from a head im- bedded in thick tufts of woolly hair, hauling to them was as natural as to watch is natural to the watch-dog. And, of the whole race of dogs, the Esquimaux alone should be made a hauling-dog. He alone looks happy in his work, and is a good hauler ; and, although other dogs will surpass him in speed for a few days, only he can maintain a steady pace throughout a long journey, and come in fresh at its end. IX. At length the violence of the storm forced us to seek the shore, and camp for the night ; and no sooner had this been accomplished, and supper over, than the Cree, fearing a continuance of the storm, summoned a driver of the packet-trains to assist in performing a solemn invocation to the Manitou to stay the tempest. Rattles made of bladders, with pebbles in them, were brought out from their limited luggage; "medicine" belts of wolf- skin donned, and other " medicine " or magic articles, such as er- mine-skins, r.nd musk-rat skins, covered with beads and quills. Then the Cree and his companion drummed and rattled, and sang songs, fmishing, after some hours, by a long speech, which they re- peated together, in which they promised to give the Manitou a feast of fat meat, and to compose a new song in his praise immediately upon the cessation of the storm. Afte/ this performance they fell asleep. Long before dp/light, however, I was awakened by the conjurers, who, in high glee, were cutting off tidbits of pemmican an dcasting them into the fire as the promised offering to the Manitou, at the same time chanting monotonously, and sounding their rat- tles. Then they engaged in feasting, and banished sleep by the persistency with which they sang the new song they pretended to have composed for the occasion, which they continued to sing over and over again without cessation until morning. As they had both been fast asleep all night, it is shrewdly suspected that they attempted to impose upon their Manitou by making shift with an old hymn, for they certainly could have had no opportunity for compos- ing the new one promised. However this may be, the Manitou performed his part, for the storm was much abated. \t an early hour a start was again made in the usual manner — the harsh command " Marche I " followed by deep -toned yellii from the crouching dogs ; then, a merciless beating and thumping, and the cowering anim.ils at length set off with the heavy loads, howling as if their hearts would break. After the thrashing came the abuse and curses. Coffee would be appealed to " for the lovo of Heaven to straighten hii, traces." Chocolat would be solemnly informed that he was a migratory swindle, and pos- sessed of no character whatever. Brandy would be entreated to "just sec if he couldn't do a little bet- ter ; " that he was the offspring of very disreputable parents, and would be thrashed presently. The pas- senger's only occupation was to keep from freezing. Vain task I Though buried head and all in two robes and a blanket, the wind found its way through everything, and the master, sitting still in his wraps, suffered more from cold than his man who was run- ning against the wind, and suffered, besides, under the depressing sense of his idle helplessness, while the driver felt the cheering influence of hardy toil. Thus we journeyed on, the incidents of one day being but an iteration of that preceding. For eight days our course led from point to point of the lake's shore, upon the immense surface of which our six fleeting sledges seemed the verijst crawling insects. Nevertheless, we passed in rapid flight, at last sweep- ing up the rocky promontory and within the palisade of Norway House, like the ghostly stormers of the Rhenish castle. In this hospitable shelter we halted for a time, while the great Northern packet jour- neyed on toward the unknown land of the far North. The dogs slept quietly in their kennels ; the heathen Cree, with his hardly-earned sovereigns, arrayed him- self in more intricate apparel, and stalked a grecn- and-yellow apparition among the squalid U/i/es of a neighboring Indian camp. TANGLED THREADS. IHKARD to-day a tale of Christmas-tide, Wherein a father placed a silken clew In children's hands ; and, like a Theseus new By Ariadne led in paths untried, Each sought the end : at first the threads spread wide, Then met and tangled, but the laughing crew Untied them, went their ways, and breathless flew Up stairs and down, until with open-eyed Delight they found their father's gifts concealed ; But every child must needs to others yield The treasure on his thread, and from the hand Of brother take his own. Kind P'ate has reeled Our life-threads, love, and let them tangled stand : We have each other ; need we gifts demand ? C. M. Hewins. 38 APPLETONS' JOURXAL. THE TOWER OF PERCEMONT.' BY GEORGE SAND. IV. HENRI slept late the next morning, and I h.nd no leisure to talk with him. At nine o'clock my wife anncunccfl to ine the arrivnl of the Count- e-s laced me at the head of his house ; and Marie, who knew she would be obliged to enter a convent if I left, ]nit more restraint upon herself, and begged me to re- main. " The Count de Nives, after having been a w id- ower for a year, announced to me that he wished to marry again, and that he had chosen me for the companion of his life. I refused, on account of the child, whose aversion, I foresaw, would be always ready to burst forth ; and, when he insisted, I took light, withou* li.'iting him know where I went. I a-mained c, • several months with some of my old fri c discovered my retreat, and came to < once more to accept his pro- posal. I e ent Marie to a convent. She ac- cuses me to day of having separated her from her father. .1 the contrarv', I did my best to bring her back to i.im. The count was iidlexiblc towaril her even on his death-bed. " I5eset by a 1 ssii which in spite of myself I began to share, pri'ssed by my friends to accept the honorable offer of M. de Nives, I became his wife, and am now the mother of a daughter. Her name is L^onie ; she is seven years old, and the living por- trait of her father. " I was happy, for I always cherished the hope of reconciling my husband with his elder daughter, when he met with a fall while hunting, which he survived only a few days. He left a w ill in which he made me Marie's guardian, conferring upon me the use of his whole income during my life ; but the income is not large ; M. de Nives's fortune came from his first wile. The estate that I control, and where I live with my daughter, belongs entirely to Marie, and the time approaches when this young person will demand the account of my guardianship, con- trary to her father's intention, after which she will turn us out of the house." Here Madame Alix de Kives was silent, and looked at me to find out my opinion without giving expression to her own thoughts. " You wish to know," I said, " some means for eluding this sad necessity. There are none. By M. de Nives's will he bestowed upon you the use of rll his property, relying upon your character a'K' lo.aU ty to provide for the wants and the establish;, .ei\t of ic was an iin- nn one ci'Uld )ainrul to me ; le N'ives died, I l)C(;{;i'd llie ik beyond my e ; he cntrcal- f living would ndoned to tlie not know how c jilactd me at ivlio knew she t if I left, ]nit ;yed me to rc- ig liecn a wid- It he w isiicd to en me for the account of tlie uld he always nsisted, I took ere I went. I s with some of y retreat, and cocpt liis pro- s-ent. She ac- atod her from y l)e>t to bring icxible toward te of myself I to accept the came his wife, Ilcr name is ihe living por- ihed the hope Ider daughter, ting, which he will in which ring upon me y life ; but the une came from rol, and where irely to Marie, young person dian^hip, con- ihich she will as silent, and without giving (It > i I* 1 1 ime means for none. By M. I the use of pll iter a'i(' lo.al- ablisU,>ieiu of