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•

NO]

ROUGHING IT

IN THE

NORTH-WEST TERRITORIES
OF CANADA

TWENTY YEARS AGO.

B. p. W.

*' He sucks intelligence from every clime." — Cowper.

|f!onbon :

WORRALL AND ROBEY,
137, Fenchurch Street, K.C.

i8g6.

I I

PREFACE.

T FEEL I owe some apology for writing on a subject
already treated in so able a manner by Captain
Butler and others. Let me here say that the reasons
which have led me to publish my experiences in a
comparatively unknown country, are, that the im-
pressions of individuals differ, that what seems of the
greatest importance to one may have altogether escaped
another, and that every fresh work, however superficial
and imperfect, on this wonderful country ought to throw
a new light on those points looked for by a traveller,
a sportsman, or an emigrant. Further, unless I am
mistaken, the other books on this subject have been
written by persons provided with all the latest con-
veniences for comfort. I went with none of these, and
I trust the experience of one who has " roughed it," in
the broadest sense of the expression, may not be without
interest.

The above was written in 1876 to accompany a
manuscript I have just come across among some old
papers. Its antiquity is my excuse for publishing it,
and I hope it may prove interesting, if only to show
to those who know the country now, what it was like
then.

B. P. W.

London, 1896.

CONTENTS

Part I. How I got there

Part II. What I did there

Part III. How I got back

PAGE
5

69
109

PART I.

HOW I GOT THERE.

CHAPTER I.
A Chance Meeting.

1HAD just arrived in New York. Had anybody asked
me point blank what I had come for, I should not
for the life of me have known what to reply. It is true,
I knew there was an Exhibition somewhere to celebrate
the anniversary of something. I had seen it in the
papers, and I had an indistinct idea that I should pro-
bably go there. I had had a most agreeable passage
across in a Canard steamer, on which the American girls
were as numerous as they were amiable and **saiis
gene.'' I had parted from them all on our arrival with
sincere regret, and though still in company of one
of the passengers, a Frenchman, I felt dull and little
inclined to appreciate the beauties, the comforts, and the
grandeur of New York. It was fearfully hot, and with
true insular prejudice, I was roundly abusing everything,
comparing it unfavourably to London in bad French to
my companion, who quite agreed with me, only he
patriocically substituted Paris for London. I say I
hadn't the least idea what I had come for. I had got
tired of wandering over Europe, so I had taken a passage
and there I was. I was alone ; I always prefer travel-
ling so, for then I am not obliged to make any plans, an
awful nuisance always, and I can change my mind as
often as I like without anybody objecting. But now I
was rather regretting my misanthropy, for I didn't know
what to do with myself. ** I suppose I shall go to
Niagara, to the Exhibition, and to Saratoga," I said to
my friend, " and I expect by that time we shall both be

sick of the place and want to go home — you to your
native and beloved boulevards, and I to revel in the
exhilarating effects of the early fogs. I shall be in
Paris in January. I give you rendez-vous at Bignon's on
the ist, and while discussing one of his charmingly little
dishes we can tell each other our adventures." And so
we parted — he on a courting expedition, tempted by the
dollars of some pretty American, and I to wonder what
I should do. On arriving we had gone to the Fifth
Avenue Hotel ; everybody has heard of it, and we
thought we ought to go there. One day was enough to
convince us of the big mistake we had made. The food
was none too good, the attendance careless, the servants
impudent (or was it merely their manner ?), and there was
always a crowd of noisy people wherever you went. We
moved to the "Windsor," where we had every comfort we
could wish for. I don't propose to occupy myself with
American cities or American life, it is out of my province
just now, and I only mention my change of hotel
because it was through that change that I went to the
North-West Territories and that this book was written.
My friend and I wandered about, and knowing nobody
voted it excessively stupid. The theatres were unin-
teresting and unattractive, but we were delighted with
our dinner at '• Delmonico's," without which no visit to
the States is supposed to be complete. Broadway
disappointed us. Its vulgar and grotesque advertise-
ments, its cheap -jack -looking shops, and its bad
pavement, did not appear to be the right thing for a
street with such a reputation for " elegance" — I use the
word advisedly, it is a favourite one in America. How-
ever, my friend had gone, and I was beginning to think
in a lazy sort of way that it was time I went to
Philadelphia. But that night a young fellow sat by me
at dinner whose face I seemed to know. •' By jove 1
of course it is. Why, Barstow, who would have thought
of seeing you here ! What have you been doing with
yourself since I lost sight of you when I left Rugby ? "
He told me how he had started fur-trading in the North-
West, how he spent most of his time up there visiting his
different posts, giving me a description of the country, of
the Indians, and the sort of life he led there. All of which

I listened to with growing interest and ended by getting
quite enthusiastic about a wild, roving existence. He
finally proposed, in a laughing way, that I should go up
with him and see the country for myself, especially as,
in spite of the three years he had spent there he had
never been out after the buffalo, and he intended to do
so this time. The proposal came rather suddenly, but I
accepted it at once in the impulsive manner in which
I unfortunately do everything. The idea of buffalo-
hur ting decided me. " But," said he, ** I start
to-morrow morning by way of Montreal, where I have
busmess, and, perhaps — " " Oh, all right ! " I broke in,
*' I shall be ready, my packing won't take ten minutes."
And so it was arranged. When I went to bed I was not
without some misgivings as to what would be the upshot
of so hurried an undertaking. I was to get back in
November, but I couldn't be certain of it. What if my
friend, whom I had only known as a boy, should have
charav ^eristics antipathetic to mine, and we didn't get
on ? I should be utterly in his power, and it might be
unpleasant. What if his invitation was never really
meant, and he only consented because he couldn't help
it ? I pondered a while, but eventually visions of buffalo
and moose arose, and I determined to go and take my
chance. I had to break the news gently to my belong-
ings, and leave them in ignorance as to where I was
really going, for they would have been worried to death
had they suspected the risks I was going to run, which,
though small enough, people at home are wont to take
exaggerated views of. I went off the next morning, with
what results those who are patient enough to read on
will learn.

CHAPTER n.
I Start.

I SHALL only touch very briefly on that part of our
journey which took us through the States. As I
have already mentioned, our first step was to Montreal.

I was very pleased with the journey. The " drawing-
room cars" struck me as a singularly happy idea.
Sitting in an armchair, swinging in front of a low
broad window, is such an improvement on the hot,
stuffy little carriages which are considered first-class in
Europe, from which those occupying corner seats alone
can see anything. The Hudson River, LakeChamplain,
the St. Lawrence! Are not their beauties written about,
gloated over, and dwelt on in styles humorous, serious,
and profane in the guide books, with which the merciless
book-pedlars, who travel with the train, drive you almost
to distraction? Montreal! I never saw such a bad,
dirty hotel with such a deceptive appearance of excel-
lence, nor such a dull town with so much to make you
expect the reverse. The streets are pretentious, the
river grand, and the churches rich and handsome, yet
there is an indescribable dirtiness and stagnation over all,
and you wonder why it should be so. Perhaps it being
summer everybody was away, and the place was as
London in September : if so, I take back all I have said,
while condoling with myself for having been thtre at
the wrong time. I was glad to start for Niagara: on
my way thither I had my first experience in Pullman
Cars, and, far from looking upon them as a comfort,
I regarded them as a horror (I have learnt to appreciate
them since). The carriages are much the same as other
ones, but at the approach of evening a black imp appears
who goes through a sort of pantomime performance
with everything and everybody. He pulls boards out
and pushes others in, he produces mattresses, pillows,
and a variety of things from the most improbable places
like a conjuror, and after a time you see gradually
forming themselves, two rows of beds complete, one on
each side of the carriage and screened by curtains.
The light seems to grow dim, the atmosphere thick, and
you expect to hear the slow music of theatrical incanta-
tion. The beds have sheets, blankets, and pillow-cases.
Hollow mockery! The difficulty of undressing in a
sitting position makes the ordinary ship's bunk a bed of
roses; the atmosphere is stifling — open your window,
and you run the risk of losing your hair, even if some
irascible gentleman in the next compartment doesn't

la.

t,
fn

threaten to shoot you unless you shut '* that darned
window." Further, people are continually pass'ig and
prodding the curtains which separate you from t.ie outer
world, and American travellers, young or old, are nearly
always noisy and generally travel with a large nursery
of hea, .hy children, who, in spite of the piece of cake
they always have to their lips, manage to use their lungs
with wonderful vigour. The exertion of dressing in the
morning, the miserable wash, and the dirty feeling which
follows, are not calculated to make a man in love with
Mr. Pullman on his first introduction. Niagara! I
will not weary you with attempting to describe what I
know I cannot. So many geniuses have put forth their
whole strength to make a word-painting worthy of so
grand a sight, that it would be little short of impudence
for me to touch it. Suffice it to say that I was duly

—(why is it that a '*but" forces itself
that gives us pleasure) — not a little of
for one of Nature's most stupendous
the

impressed, but-
into everything
mv admiration

works was marred by the irritating way in which
every view is fenced in. I suppose we shall have the
Andes surrounded with an enclosure next, with admit-
tance through a turnstile on payment of a shilling.
When you see the numerous contrivances which an
ingenious people have constructed to enhance forsooth
the sight, you begin to think that perhaps the whole
thing, Falls and all, is a gigantic artificial display got up
by an enterprising Barnum for the purpose of accumu-
lating the mighty dollar. The chief charm in the
grandeur of Nature is its loneliness, where Nature and
Nature alone is the artist. Here, elevators, towers,
Prospect Point, and the Suspension Bridge catch the
eye and utterly spoil the effect. As I have escaped the
Scyila of trying to describe Niagara, let me hasten to
conclude this chapter and so avoid the Charybdis of
speaking of its migratory inhabitants whose importuni-
ties and frantic efforts to sell Indian curiosities and
feather fans are among the curiosities of the place.

CHAPTER III.
Chicago. — St. Paul.

AND now Chicago comes into the kaleidoscope.
What a wonderful place it is ! Yesterday,
destroyed by one of the largest fires ever known, and,
to-day, rising out of its ashes like a phoenix while vainly
trying to hide her gaping wounds. But how bravely
and merrily they go to work with their indomitable " go-
aheadness." How proud its people are of its broad
streets, its huge hotels, its palatial liquor-saloons, and
its gigantic stores. They adore the very mud ; and
with what vehemence do they reiterate its praise and
compel you to admire. Their earnestness, while raising
a smile on the face of one of a less demonstrative nation,
makes you wonder at their pluck and energy. Their
boastful confidence almost reaches the sublime in its
genuineness. No American city is superior, they won't
admit it for a moment, in spite of its burnt-up aspect.
They build and build, and still keep to their wooden
pavements, and, like the towns round the base of
Vesuvius, seem to enjoy the risk of destruction. The
hotel ! huge, dull, and gloomy, built round a large hall
decorated with crude and unnatural-looking frescoes, and
thronged nightly by a collection of unpleasant-looking
people, who there do their *' loafing " and " chinning " ;
the scene also, during political movements, of the
wildest confusion and uproar. You will see written
everywhere: " This hotil is entirely fireproof," and that,
think they all, is its chief merit. So fond are they of
making fun of everything that, shortly after the fire at
St. John's, there appeared a paragraph in the paper to
the effect that Chicago went to bed every night with an
uneavsy sort of presentiment that they woukl wake up
some morning to find that some town had wrested their
hardly-earned fame from them by indulging in a bigger
fire than theirs. Michigan Avenue, I had been tf)ld,
was the Park Lane of Chicago, but I found it a most
depressing place. Snobbish villa residences were grouped

at intervals into half-a-dozen houses, as if for mutual
protection against the villainous spaces of waste and dirt
between. A bare, melancholy strip of ^^[rass with a few
infirm trees in it for a foreground, and beyond, the dull
waters of the lake. The only thing like it in England
would be a few villas run up on the banks of a sluggish
provincial river, inhabited by needy gentlefolk and
individuals in the grocery line, imbued with an exagger-
ated notion of the future greatness of Slowcombe-on-the-
Sewer, and the consequent rise in the value of their
houses. Poor Chicago ! It tries so hard to be grand
and sedate like a town of established and world-wide
reputation, and it is so wildly childish, changeable, and
spasmodically successful. I was particularly struck
(pardon the digression) by the difference between our
men and theirs. There, all work, and the nobility of
toil is their guiding star ; none have time to acquire
that repose and refinement of manner which owes much
to prolonged and cultivated idleness, that graceful
indolence which sits so well on your English gentleman.
There trade, v/hether in a shop or in larger undertakings,
is worshipped. With us, all business, all toiling for
wealth, is studiously concealed, is part of life, but has
no connection with our real happiness and pleasure.
With them, it tinges every thought and action, and is
the motive power, the raison iVetre of, not only all that
is serious, but also of all that makes life worth having.
The idle traveller, the dilettante, has no existence there;
bar-keeper and mine-owner, sheep-drover and millionaire,
are all one ; there is no distinction ; work touches them
all alike, and they may change places to-morrow. The
idle man is looked upon with positive suspicion, and,
when in the south, rather than appear to have no visible
means of support, I adopted a fictitious profession. I
hope you have skipped the above. After leaving Chicago
our way turned northward and St. Paul, Minnesota, was
our next resting-place. The scenery as we advanced
grew wilder and wilder ; forest on forest, high fertile
bluffs, and vast prairies glided by, till the Mississippi,
which, in my supreme ignorance, I never knew existed
up there, was stretched before us. We were now some
3,000 miles from its mouth, yet it was as broad as the

Thames at Greenwich. St. Paul, a place I had never
heard of before, is a clean, flourishing town, peopled
by a somewhat rough but industrious race, struggling
for affluence on small or no beginnings. Being in the
vicinity of the Minnehaha Fall, whose poetical name is
so well-known, of course I went to see it. It is unfor-
tunately all name ; it is pretty, as every cascade of clear
water must be, but "here is nothing to warrant the wide
reputation it enjoys. Two days saw us on our way
again, and I invite you to accompany me in the next
chapter.

CHAPTER IV.

Red Lake River. — Red River.

''pHE scene is changed. We are gliding along down
J- the Red Lake River in a small steamer, a great
relief after so much railway joltmg. After leaving
St. Paul we had a very tedious journey of thirty hours.
A sleeping car was provided for part of the way, but as
we had to change at 4 a.m. the advantages of it were
very doubtful. The aspect of the country as we went
on grew still wilder and more uninhabited, the marks of
civilization fewer, and the meals at the stations more
and more unpalatable, but whiskey, several bottles of
which we now bought, was our great mainstay. The
country was a series of endless woods and lakes, on the
shores of which water-fowl of everv kind were visible
with tantalizing clearness. On reaching the open
prairie the view from the end of the train is accurately
described when I say "draw a semi-circle on a piece of
paper and you have the horizon and surrounding
country, add two mathematically strai^^ht lines to meet
the top of the semi-circle and you have the car tracks,
and there you are." I observed, while gazing thought-
fully into space, a herd of buffalo feeding on their native
grasses, and was quite excited in a moment. I was not

le
Is

the least disappointed to find afterwards that they were
bullocks. I chose to call them buffalo and I mean to
keep to my original impression, though nothing would
induce me to deceive the patient eader. We reached a
place late in the night called Fisher's Landing, the
terminus of the railway (it goes much further now), and
I don't envy Fisher nor can I compliment him on the
choice of his landing-place. I managed to get a
beautiful sleep, of which I was terribly in want, on the
steamer that was to take us on. I had a cabin to myself,
a boon of the greatest value when the appearance of
the bulk of the travellers was considered. We were
delayed in starting by the discovery of the body of an
Icelander who was drowned some days before. His
fiancee, poor girl, was landed and left to take the
necessary steps for having him buried. Fisher's
Landing is, I hear, celebrated for the remarkable size
and voracity of its mosquitos, and the inferior quality
of its whiskey: so that, for a man to live pleasantly in
that "city" (the smallest settlement bears that grand
name in these parts), he must be provided by nature
with a skin like that of the rhinoceros, inside as well as out.
On retiring to rest, it was not long before I heard the
sweet melodious strains of the ever-wakeful mosquitos,
and the appearance of one of my hands next morning
called for the following remarkable and unique
impromptu: —

'• For breakfast and luncheon, for dinner and tea,
That industrious insect has feasted on me.''

Our breakfast at the barbarous hour of seven was not as
good as some I have tasted, but its shortcomings were
well compensated for by the view which awaited us on
deck. The Red Lake River is a tortuous, sluggish, tawny-
coloured stream, luxuriantly wooded on both sides.
The gorgeous tints of autumn, one of America's
monopolies, were just beginning to appear. The trees
were festooned with brilliant creepers of deep crimson,
the foliage had taken every shade from the palest light
yellow to the deepest red orange, which a glorious and
inimitable Nature had blended into a poetry of colour
quite beyond description. In perfect harmony too was

t < 1

the rich hue of the water, the winding course which
brought picture after picture before our delighted gaze :
and the countless variety of birds, the bright plumaged
kingfisher, the slowly wheeling hawk, and the majestic
eagle, lent an additional charm to a scene already
magnificent. Ducks sprang up suddenly as if from our
very bows every moment, and I would have given much
to have stopped and had a pot at them, so true is it, that
an Englishman is never happy unless he is either killing
or going to kill something. We were to reach Pembina
the next day, where we crossed the boundary between
Canada and the United States, and where we expected
the usual visit of the Custom House Officers to be
made with that peculiar ruthlcssness which characterizes
those gentlemen all over the world. I wonder why a
single one of the poor half-starved creatures who hug
their misery in London ever stay there a day when this
country i, open to them, where the very air is pleasure
and health. Life costs nothing, build yourself a ranch,
clear a little land, shoot your food and live like a king,
lord of all you survey, with the forest and the prairie
instead of poverty and degradation as companions.
And now we are in Red River: it is very like the other
only it is wider and not so thickly wooded. Boat life
is always more or less stagnation. The crew were a
set of scoundrelly-looking half-breeds; the passengers
all of the rou^h, dirty-handed, try-to-make-their-fortune
species, and the solitary woman looked crushed under
the responsibility of representing the whole of her sex.
A most exciting episode occurred to me one day while
m search of cleanliness under difficulties. We were not
provided with washing materials in our cabins, but there
was a general Vvashroom where the basins were covered
with a thick coating of filth, and there was an equally
offensive common towel. I accidentally heard of the
existence of a tub (for dish-washinj; purposes I suppose),
and I resolved to possess myself of this treasure by fair
means or foul. The guardian of this, to me, Golden
Fleece (how much finer than gold is a cold tub, and an
early wash than silver), was a woman, but a woman
from Iceland of forbidding appearance, dressed in a red
and yellow bed-gown, whom it would have been idle to

■J.

attempt to woo, so, unlike Jason, I was obliged to work
single-handed. I commenced by getting into an ulster
and reconnoitring. I could see the treasure but the
gr-rd was vigilant, and refused to listen to my modest
request for the loan of it. I had recourse to a '* ruse,"
I made as if I would seek rest for my baffled spirit b)
gazing over the stern. In a short time the virago was
called away by one of her miscellaneous duties; now was
my opportunity. I felt like Wolfe before Quebec, like
Nelson at Trafalgar, all in one: I made a bold dash,
secured the tub, and like a good general retreated to my
cabin and barricaded my door. So far so good, half my
task was over. The tub was there but I had still to get
the water. I could not face the violent woman again
until I had accomplished my purpose. I made a back
movement and got on the balcony, and after much
manoeuvring, secured a bucket unobserved. I then
lowered myself twice into a barge we were towing, from
where I got sufficient water to give myself a delightful
wash. Towels, of course I had to do without, but a
shirt and a handkerchief or two proved ample, and I
appeared at breakfast clean, triumphant, and hungry.
The tub I placed carelessly on the balcony, but so
furious was she at the way in which I had outwitted her
that I never dared to brave her wrath again. I thought
the mosquitos had left us finding it rather cold, and
thinking it high time to go back and get their overcoats
and snow-shoes: but they soon returned provided with
them, and spent, I am sure, an agreeable Indian
summer with us. A tall Yankee gentleman told me
some astonishing "facts" about mosquitos; he kept
taking shots at my boots with tobacco juice during his
conversation, but otherwise he was very entertaining.
He led me to understand, that some years ago the great
amusement of the passengers was mosquito shooting.
" They used revolvers," he said, with a face as grave as a
judge, "and bet heavily on each shot : mosquitos-on-toast
used to be as reg'ler on the table as the dirty cloth, and
mighty fine eating they aire ; but they had to put a stop
to it, lor the boys got quarrelling and pluj^ged each
other, which the boss objected to, as their fares waren't
paid." I won't vouch for the truth of this account,

but the man seemed so truthful and earnest that I
had to look as if I believed it. We passed Pembina
safely enough, but not \v'ithout absorbing a fearful
amount of raw spirits, which are pressed upon you in
such a manner that refusal gives the deadliest offence:
and so on to Winnipeg, a place of such importance,
that I must give it a chapter to itself.

CHAPTER V.

Winnipeg.

I AM as glad as you are, reader, that we have at last
got clear of the United States, and that I can now
begin to give the experiences in which I am anxious you
should become interested. Winnipeg ! I confess that
my notions of it, before I came, were very vague. In
ihe days when geography was a novel and unpleasant
study to me, the name got fixed in my mind in con-
nection with some large lake ; it suggested a sort of
mixture of peg-tops and whipping-tops, both of which
were then of more importance to me than anything else,
except barley-sugar. So the name stuck, but I found the
town was no nearer the lake of the same name than it is
near anything else. Don't despise Winnipeg because
you never heard of it, perhaps, until Lord Dufferin paid
it a formal visit. It is a great place in its way. It is far
from any railway, and yet it flourishes in spite of this
drawback, as well as of the frost and grasshoppers, the
combined attacks of which threatened, for three con-
secutive years, not only to ruin the town, but the whole
province of Manitoba. It is a capital, and, though the
houses are ail what they call " frame " ones, the post-
office is of real brick, and the post-master is in keeping,
for he too is a " brick." It has a skating-rink, and is not
that enough to make a town important ? It has even an
assembly-room, where they have balls, real bond fide
dancing and music, and the youth and beauty go there

,1-

■1%

and enjoy themselves, and I know they are splendid.
For I once timidly ventured to ask who went there, and
I brought down the vials of wrath on my head for my
pains. And if you don't believe me, ask a prosperous
young wine-merchant if he did not despise me ever after,
for even suggesting that the girls could not be all duch-
esses and marchionesses. It has a broad street running
down its centre like a back-bone, and, if there are lots of
ruts in it and it is never cleaned, there is always lots of
life going on. If, when it rains, the black mud is the
most tenacious ever seen, do not its inhabitants wear
thick boots, and is it not exactly like that soil which
Virgil has said is the best ? The one street is full of
carts loading with every description of merchandise.
You will see half-breeds in very fancy attire, and even
Indians sitting in the sun, who look picturesque enough,
smoking cicxy pipes upside down, their heads covered
with superannuated and tattered top hats, and looking as
grave as if the affairs of the whole nation were occupying
their minds. But the noble savage bears no resemblance
to the one described by Fennimore Cooper, unless those
I saw were Irishmen dressed up as a speculation like the
ones who threw Mark Twain down Niagara for address-
ing them in the flowery language of their native land.
The stores are hung with the skins of wild beasts, and
there is much bead-work with which to coax the furs
from the wily Indians. Winnipeg possesses a virtue,
if I may call it such, which perhaps no other town enjoys
to such an extent ; no matter what a man sells or what
his business is, somewhere or other on his premises he
keeps a varied assortment of liquors, which is pressed on
you, forced down your throat, as it were, with an all-too-
lavish hand. In fact, it is the paradise of the inebriate.
Fort Garry was the original name given to it by the
Huuson's Bay Company, who, long ago, enjoyed an
almost unlimited sovereignty to the North Pole, and
many are the stories told of their high-handed tyranny.
Now their monopoly is broken, and free trade is uni-
versal. I was lodged in a little frame building rejoicing in
the incongruous name of the " Bungalow," built without
a staircase, a common oversight I believe with amateur
architects. But the ingenuity of the owner devised a

most mysterious-looking ladder for reaching the loft,
where there was a bed in an obscure corner on the floor,
the natural haunt of the blood- seeking mosquito. The
ladder, when not in use, clung to the ceiling and was
pulled down with a gruesome rattle of pulley and rope.
If I have hitherto said little of my travelling companion,
to whose kindness I owe the interesting expedition I
made, it is because I have been fearful of doing him an
injustice. There was much in him v/hich I was utterly
unable to understand, and if, after having been in-
cessantly with him for months, I learnt some of his less
pleasing traits, I also discovered what was good in him.
I myself am not the most amiable of people, and many
were the little unpleasantnesses we were destined to
experience. But I hope I shall escape the charge of
churlishness when I say that he was always most
anxious to secure my comfort, that I shall always look
back upon our acquaintance with pleasure, and that I
am not ungrateful for the forbearance he showed for
my not infrequent fits of ill-humour. The preparations,
which it was necessary for us to make, seemed to me to
take a fearful time to complete, and three weeks was a
long time to do so little. I provided myself with a
quantity of the thickest under-clothes I could get, so as
to be prepared for the worst, a pair of black blankets, a
buffalo robe, without which no one thinks of moving ; a
dozen pairs of moccasins, which I began to accustom
myself to wearing at once ; and my ulster was replaced
by an article called a "capote." a sort of frock-coat of
thick, hairy cloth, with a hood to it, the use of which I
afterwards learnt and appreciated. I was quite ready,
all but a " buffalo-runnei," as a horse is called with a
sufficient turn of speed to catch buffalo on. Draught
horses are of any kind, the only essential being that they
should be fat, a queer quality to possess if wanted for
work, but I found that horses were fattened up for work-
ing, on the principle that if they were well filled at
starting, it would take longer for them to waste away on
the miserable food they got on the prairies. My swift
steed took a tremenclous lot of finding, as you shall
presently hear. Barstow had the misfortune of never
being able to do anything quickly or even expeditiously ;

loft,

2 floor,

The

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)anion,

ition I

lim an

utterly

;en in-

lis less

in him.

I many

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arge of

s most

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s was a

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t, so as

ikets, a

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lat they

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r work-

illed at

way on

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u shall

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iouslv ;

he dressed, ate, smoked, and drank with the same exasper-
atin«,' slowness, so that his indolence had become quite a
standing joke against him. The amount of pushing and
hurrying which was required to get him to do anything
was always accompanied by roars of laughter, which he
always bore with unvarying good humour and resig-
nation. One man suggested that he was not lazy, but
was born tired and so could not help himself, which, no
doubt, was the truth. While the pieparations were
slowly progressing, I found myself completely out of my
ele icnt, and, but for the discovery of a rara avis, in
these parts, a man of leisure, I should have been driven
well nigh to despair. It was in vain that I spent two or
three days sitting on a counter, kicking my heels together
and trying to get interested in boots, calicoes, buffalo-
robes, moccasins, tea, gunpowder, etc. The above
mentioned gentleman who, en parentliese, always saluted
me with "Have a horn?" Manitoban for "take a drink,"
came to my rescue, and organised two shooting expe-
ditions. The tirst meant ducks in some swamps in the
neighbourhood. I stood up to my waist in water in the
broiling sun all day, and had tolerably good sport.
There were lots of mallard, teal, plover, and snipe, but
my shooting was bad, principally because I have never
discovered the secret of doing two things at once. The
perpetual war I had to carry on with the mosquitos, who
settled on me in a thick cloud, gave me little time for
anything else. If you know what it is to have about
fifty mosquitos doggedly sitting on your neck, with their
tails up, their heads down, and their probosces buried
deep into your itching flesh, with thousands waiting for
their turn, you will understand my feelings. They drove
me into a perfect fever at last and I had to give up
shoot -ig. Next morning my face looked like a plum
pudding, so thickly was it covered with the scars and
blotches which I received in the ignoble fight. The
second day I bagged a few brace of prairie chickens, but
very soon the mosquitos again made it too hot for me.
I was dragged off to church on one of the Sundays ; it
was a plain, ugly building, in which every man and
woman looked like a gossip. The officiating priest was
a ranting Boanerges, whose shouts were most appalling,

B 2

especially as he always seemed to raise his voice in quite
the wrong places. His original additions to the oft-
repeated tale of Naaman were very startling, and that
general's attendant must have been seriously alarmed, if,
when prepared for the celebrated bath, he shouted at him
in the way we were asked to believe. When deafened and
disheartened I came at last away, I could not help
thinking of the American, who, on being asked if he
were going to attend divine service, replied : " Wall, I
f;uess not, I ain't been in a church for twenty years, and
I never enjied better health." There was a display every
night of Aurora Borealis, but it is so common there that
it attracts no more attention than the setting sun. The
ones I saw appeared like a large semi-circle of light
towards the north, with brilliant scintillating streaks of
silver, stretching at irregular intervals from the circum-
ference to the diameter at the horizon. If particularly
brilliant, it threw a weak reflection to the eastward, and
the whole illumination kept '* blinking " (I can't describe
it by any other word). The question of getting a horse
was still undecided. Lots of people had the very animal,
only they didn't know where he was. They are accus-
tomed in this oddly honest country to let their horses go
where they please to find a living ; so that, if they are
suddenly wanted, they cannot be got under two or three
days. They are vaguely somewhere in the province, and
a regular search party has to be organised. At last, for
the sum of thirty-five pounds, I got an animal, a rough,
sturdy, cobby-looking brute, who was warranted to catch
buffalo, though he certainly did not look like a Derby
winner. I got an Indian saddle and thought I would try
him. The saddle, which was in the shape of the lower
portion of an old-fashioned cradle and covered with beads
and trappings, broke down before I had gone very far, so
I had to go back and buy an English one, which was
about the worst I ever saw, I ther tried to get my steed
to gallop, but even the liberal application of a heavy
cutting-whip could get no more than a moderate canter
out of him. I began to think that if he really could catch
buffalo, a cow would suit the purpose equally well, besides
having the additional advantage of supplying us with milk.
And now, hoping your patience is not quite exhausted, let

quite

oft-

that

|d,if,

him

and

help

f he

all, I

and

very

I that

The

us at last start on our formidable journey. If I have kept
you waiting all this time it was Barstow's fault, I was
ready just as soon as you were.

CHAPTER VI.
A False and a Real Start.

OUR preparations were all made early one morning.
We had a good supply of canned provisions, lots
of tea and sugar, ham and bacon, and, tell it not in
Gath, about twelve gallons of different kinds of liquor,
mostly in the brandy and whiskey line. These were all
stowed away in a cart together with some rude kitchen
utensils, tin cups and plates. Our tent, a most intract-
able concern, was in another, out of which could be
seen sticking a frying-pan, the handle of a spade, and
portion of an axe. This precious conveyance was
dragged by a lean, unhappy-looking mare, and piloted by
a New Brunswick youth, our " chef de cuisine," who
was as full of odd sayings and good humour as his
little bow-legged person would hold. We had only the
most essential materials for camping and nothing more
except a portmanteau I insisted upon taking with me
and which afterwards escaped being left in the wilderness
only by a lucky accident. I had as yet only the
vaguest idea of where we were going and how far off it
was. Let me here hasten to say that, as statistics and
such like matters are quite beyond my modest powers, I
cannot vouch for the accuracy of distances, latitudes
and longitudes, names of trees, etc., and I can only
hope that I shall be able to interest you v/ith what I
saw and did without bothering about scientific informa-
tion. From questions asked, I gleaned that a place
called Duck Lake was our destination, where Barstow
had a somewhat extensive establishment well supplied
with those things likely to command the readiest sale
among the Indians and half-breeds who lived in or were

in the habit of visiting the neighbourhood. That those
things were exchanged for skins of every description at
a fixed tariff, and that he employed men to go out in the
winter, the only time when the furs are really valuable
and worth buying, who, taking as many goods as pos-
sible on dog-sleighs, returned in th? spring with the
equivalent in furs purchased from the Indians at their
trapping-grounds. I learnt that the distance was some
six hundred miles, and that we should not take more
than a fortnight going there, though I may mention that
we did, it being nearly a month before we really reached
the Duck Lake. As I said we were all ready: our three
carts were packed and there was a waggon in which
Barstow and I were to ride. Oh ! that waggon, it was
yellow I remember, and whenever I think of it visions
of the Inquisition cross my mind. We had seven horses,
four of which were to be driven in front of us till the
breaking down of those in the shafts should oblige us
to use them. Besides ourselves and the cook, we had
two half-breeds to drive the carts and make themselves
f^nerally useful. Ten o'clock was the very latest hour
for starting, but we had counted without Barstow and
his genius for delaying — he ought to have been a lawyer.
In spite of the pushings and hurryings of his friends
and mild expostulations from me, he wouldn't move,
and the more anxious we were to get off the more
decided he was to wait a bit longer. The end of it was,
he was bundled into the waggon at the Club door late in
the evening, while he was in the middle of a most
leisurely meal, and so we got off after almost giving it
up, and started at last for the North-West. I found
before we had gone far into the exceedingly dark night,
that it was not a start at all, but the only way in which
he could be got off. We only went five miles, and
passed the night with one of his half-breed friends. My
private opinion is that my excellent companion while
in early youth was taught, like the rest of us, a few of
the most prominent proverbs, and, that having a very
vague notion of their meaning, he got them a little
mixed and that they have remained in his mind in that
mixed form ever since. Thus the one "procrastination"
ne reads "is the soul of business," instead of "the

>»

thief of time": another he has retained in this form,
''never do to-day what you can put off till to-morrow."
This unfortunate mixture is, I am convinced, responsible
for his repugnance to do anything^ briskly. We soon
did the short five miles, and our host kindly put a room
at our disposal. On an occasion like this it was only
natural that v^e should bring out one of our kegs and
consume a quantity of its contents, while much con-
versation on local topics was carried on. I soon got
very tired of local topics, and the illness of Billy
So-and-so did not interest me any more than the fact
that Johnny What's-his-name had got drunk and had
been locked up for making too much noise, so I went to
sleep. In the meanwhile I had not the least idea where
the rest of our party had gone to, nor where my valuable
horse had passed the night, though I feel sure the whole
expedition, with the exception of the ** Boss," considered
themselves very much imposed upon by our false start.
However, the next morning we got off and made our
first day's march. I rode in preference to driving, as
the road was fearfully full of ruts. The soil was black
and rich, but when baked by the sun it gets like very
uneven asphalt, and as hard as iron, into which are cut
two deep furrows, the work of many carts, and you
must keep in them. We kept up a pretty even pace all
day, and got over something like thirty miles when the
setting sun warned us it was time to camp. We picked out
a place near some woods, where a party of "freighters"
with goods for the North had already made themselves
snug, and I was then initiated into the mysteries of
sleeping in the open. Our tent, as I had all along
anticipated, gave us no end of trouble, and for a long
time obstinately refused to stand up. We had either
brought the wrong canvas or the wrong poles for they
didn't seem to fit each other whatever we did. Barstow,
with his usual indifference, suggested that the darned
old thing wasn't any good anyhow, and that we should
spread our blankets on the ground without the tent as
the other party had done. Tents are decided luxuries,
which few but surveying parties or Hudson Bay chiefs
ever indulge in. But I implored him with tears in my
eyes to temper the wind for the shorn lamb, and to

i-ir

think of my poor mother. He was softened, and by the
noble exertions of our invaluable half-breed, Napoleon,
we were at last successful, the tent stood up, but not in
a very determined manner. In fact it looked as if very
little would bring it about our ears with a rattle. We
enjoyed our supper with that relish which a thirty mile
ride is sure to give, though perhaps you would not think
fried ham and bread washed down with milkless tea
much of a feast. After spending an hour over the camp
fire with our well-earned pipes, we were all ready to turn
in, and I entered the place prepared for me with no little
uneasiness. It was the first time I had ever slept in
the open air and I felt no confidence whatever in our
rickety tent. My rest was hardly deserving of that
name, consisting principally of a succession of short
dozes and long intervals of shivering. The wind got up
in the night and shook our frail covering to its very
foundation, and as it was quite open on one side, I at
last got so miserably cold that I got up and impatiently
waited for the dawn. I found myself very stiff after my
ride and the soles of my feet were so sore from wearing
moccasins that I could hardly walk. Altogether my first
experience of camping out was not encouraging, but I
hardened b}' degrees and then was able to enjoy it.
When we started again the wind was blowing terrifically
over a bare and desolate plain, and I was soon weepmg
bitterly as I faced the blast, and well nigh frozen as well.
Things looked very bad when towards one o'clock we
reached a small place with two or three houses and a
broken down church, called High Bluffs. The wind had
made us all hungry, but it was hopeless to attempt to
make a fire in the open, and nobody appeared to take the
slightest notice of us. We took refuge in a sort of
general store, where everything could be bought, from a
pair of boots to an ox cart, but what was more
important to us, there was a stove which we were
allowed to use and on which we soon set to work
frying ham. We managed to buy some bread and
casting my hungry glance about I spied some eggs.
These I bought at a most wicked price I remember, but
they vastly improved our meal which just then was
everything to us. We remained just long enough to give

our horses a rest and to get a little of the ragged-looking
grass into them, when we started off again in the very teeth
of that cutting wind. We were to reach a large place
with an hotel in it in the afternoon, a place of such
importance that an irregular stagecoach plies between it
and Winnipeg. But as I should be wanting in respect
if I passed it over lightly, a thing its inhabitants would
never forgive, I will postpone my experiences in it to
the next chapter; more especially as it would be the last
place where I should sleep in a bed for a long time to
come.

CHAPTER VII.

Portage la Prairie.

PORT LA PRAIRIE, or the Portage as it is generally
called, was reached that afternoon. I have been
unable to discover the origin of the name, unless it be
that when you get there from the north, you may be said
to have carried, i.e., got over the Prairie, but I am afraid
the notion is too far fetched to be reliable. The country
had been growing flatter and barer as we advanced and
I began to get an idea of the boundlessness of the great
plains. On our road we met a great many Sioux Indians
whose numbers had lately been greatly increased by
fugitives from the States flying from the scene of the
massacre of General Custer and his forces. Their lodges
or wigwams (corruption of the Cree name) are made of
deer-skins, and are so like the pictures of them, with
which everybody is familiar, that I had no difficulty in
recognizing them, in fact they seemed like old friends.
Most of them were very small and twenty people at least
huddle into each. Their size is calculated by the number
of skins composing them, and they speak of a lodge of
eight, ten, or more skins, just as the value of an article
is estimated according to the number of rat-skins it is
worth. The Sioux are tall, flne looking men, but appear

prematurely old ; the women, as well as the men, paint
themselves generally round the eyes (which, by the way,
shows an instinctive knowledge of the usages of civiliza-
tion) and down the parting of their hair, green, red, and
black being their favorite colours, though red is the most
common, so much so that all paint for purposes of
personal adornment is called vermilion. Their hair is
long and unkempt, and they all wear a wisp on each side
tightly bound together by a succession of little brass
rings. Those we saw seemed friendly enough, and one
and all begged for a bit of tobacco or anything which we
might be disposed to give. After sending our horses to
graze, without so much as hobbling them, the want of
which precaution on one occasion very nearly left us to
our fate when a hundred miles at least from any habita-
tion, we adjourned to the hotel. Our property and carts
we left out in the open somewhere without taking much
care of it, so it was not surprising to find that a good
many things had been stolen. The hotel was of the
most primitive kind, but it was a real godsend to get out
of the cutting wind, though I believe if Barstow had
been alone he would have slept outside just for the fun
of it. We were here delayed a couple of days getting
the springs of the torture-box mended. It was our
peculiar misfortune to have everything done in a hap-
hazard sort of way, and most of our vehicles were
hopelessly disabled before we reached our destination.
However, I was afterwards tok that Barstow's reckless-
ness was well-known and that I ought to consider myself
fortunate in having got there at all, it being the general
impression that it was never more than two to one
against his dying on the plains every time he went this
journey. Our supper the first night consisted of those
everlasting ham and eggs, so well known and so little
appreciated at English village inns, placed before us by
a dirty half-breed girl with untidy hair and a most
unsavoury appearance. The wind blew very unpleasantly
all night and we congratulated ourselves on not being in
our draughty tent. We found our host presiding at the
bar ; he was very genial and anxious to make us com-
fortable, liis company being a motley crowd of rough
fellows, Dutch, Scotch, and half-breeds. There was a

certain Welshman too, whose presence I could not
account for. He said he was a Cambridge man, but the
country seemed to have done much to bring him down
to its level. His face and hands were innocent of vsoap,
a razor and his chin had not met for years, and his beard
had grown out of all control. His six-ft. four-in. body was
clothed in a shocking bad pair of trousers and a dirty
velveteen coat, he didn't appear to wear any linen. He
told me he practised law of all things in the world ; but
I should have thought the scanty population were more
in the habit of administering their own law as being
cheaper and more suited to their incomes. He said also
that he had been there five years, and all I can say is
that I pity him. No doubt he was one of the many
" ne'er-do-wells " who disappear from home when home
is no longer tenable, and who end their existence in some
remote corner of the world forgotten by all their friends.
As we were still in the province of Manitoba, there was
plenty of whiskey to be had, but being near the frontier
it was of most inferior quality, and I am afraid that most
of our suite drank more of it than was good for them

during our stay. When we
more it was impossible to

did get read}^ to start once
do so as our horses had

strayed away : though losing one's horses is the
commonest thing, these extraordinary people never think
of making any effort to prevent it occurring again. Our
progress now became ver}' slow as we found ourselves
more heavily weighted than we ought to be, a state of
aifairs which could not be altered until we caught up
some carts in front of us which were to take up what we
did not absolutely require. Our road still remamed flat
and uninteresting ; in fact all the first day produced
nothing to remember but a curious phenomenon like a
mirage, I suppose : it looked like a row of trees upside
down and suspended in mid air. My buffalo-robe came
in very usefully ; we used it as a table-cloth by day and
as a mattress at night. Our water got very bad, being
little better than ditch-water with a very offensive smell ;
but still I soon found out that one had to be glad to get
anything. I gradually began to get used to sleeping in
the open, and if you had seen me sitting by the tire,
with a candle stuck on a whiskey-keg, leisurely taking

ill! Ml

notes, you would have thought I had been at it all my
life. One day we got a shot at some prairie chickens, a
brace of which made a charming change to the ham
which we had hitherto been living on. We camped that
evening close to Governor Morris who was returning
from making treaties with the Indians. He had no end
of luxuries, a beautiful tent, a bedstead, camp stools,
candlesticks, etc., and looked as comfortable as possible.
When we returned from visiting the Governor we found
bread-making going on with great vigour. The weather
had got fine, the awful wind had gone down, and there
was every prospect of a good night's rest. We were
now fairly on our journey, and I shall not weary you
with a detailed account of it, confining myself to merely
mentioning the few things of interest I saw.

CHAPTER Vni.

A MISERABLE PROSPECT. ThE HOSPITABLE SCOTCHMAN.

— The SOLITARY Sioux. — Shoal Lake.

ON the fifth day we camped near a pool of water, a
quite unnecessary precaution, for everything was
water. It had been raining for two days and misery was
no word for our deplorable condition. Everything soon
got soaking wet, our tent was wet inside as well as out,
our clothes were soaking and nothing would dry them,
our provisions were damp and the bread was clammy,
and each of us sat in a pool of mire, looking the picture
of despair. Why was I persuaded not to bring any
boots ? My moccasins were reduced to a muddy pulp,
and seemed expressly designed for keeping my feet icy
cold. It was, I believe, those wretched moccasins that
were answerable for the agony of ague and fever which I
afterwards had to go through. It was no use trying to
travel while it poured so incessantly, and when we did
start the moment the rain stopped, I was so ill that for
two da)s I lay huddled up in wet clothes in the bottom
of a cart too miserable to move and wondering how it

my
, a
am
hat

nd
dIs,

would all end. However, I got better at last, and when
we reached the establishment of a Scotch emigrant,
where I got my clothes thoroughly dried, I soon got all
right. I believe that excellent man saved my life. He
and his daughter, a perfect type of a lassie with the
right coloured aub'jrn hair, did all they could to make us
comfortable. They gave us an excellent supper, some
milk for our tea, and a corner near the fire to sleep — little
enough, perhaps you think — but to us in our wretched, be-
draggled condition it was little short of a priceless boon.
The rain had stopped before we left this good Samaritan,
and that was everything. Towards noon that day, while
crossing a small creek, we had an accident which might
have seriously retarded us. The only bridge across was
made by a few logs, over which was a little brushwood
to fill up the cracks. The wh^ . of the first cart fell in
and tilted all the loose things into the water, among
which was of course our bread ; fortunately the h'< .ie was
not hurt. When I saw him floundering and straggling,
I felt sure he would kill himself, or anyhow break his leg.
Horses for prairie work must be specially gifted, for he
got himself and the cart out somehow without so much
as a scratch. At noon we stopped for our meal, near
where a Romish priest was camped, also on his way
north ; but as it was Friday he couldn't be persuaded to
join us in our meal, a fortunate thing on the whole, for
there was barely enough for us as it was. Our road,
that afternoon, took us through quite a hilly country, at
least it seemed so, after the dismal plain we had been
crossing, and an avenue of poplars with brilliant white
bark and golcien leaves came upon us as a pleasant and
unexpected surprise. We were obliged to travel on after
sunset in search of water, when we suddenly came upon
a fire, at which we saw crouching a Sioux Indian. The
fire lit up his face in such a weird way that he quite
startled me. He proved to be a perfect gentleman,
however, as I hope to show you. As soon as our cook
saw him, he began to abuse him for a thieving, skulking
Sioux, by whom it would be unsafe to camp. The old
gentleman got up, and to our surprise addressed us in
perfect English, without making so much as a sign
that he had heard what had been said. He shook us

warmly by the hand, and ordered his servant, whom we
had not seen, to collect some wood for us. He then
expressed his regret that he was compelled to push on
that night, and with a courteous farewell left us. We
were so astonished at the behaviour of this curious old
fellow that we never thought of asking him where he
learnt English until after he had gone. The weather
continued fine and comparatively warm, and, while
sitting in the genial glow of the fire smokmg a well-
earned pipe and preparing a whiskey punch, I at length
began to understand the charm of open-air life. As the
smoke curled up and the fire began to sink, I forgot
all the misery of the last few days. But next day it
got cold again, the wind was strong and icy and I was
chilled to the bone, when we stopped for our mid-day
meal on the banks of a ditch enclosed by trees and long
grass. As soon as our fire was lighted and we were
sheltered from the wind, the temperature changed with
all the suddenness of magic. We felt too hot. The
marshy land and endless pools we passed were full of
all kinds of water-fowl, and without delaying ourselves
much we secured enough birds lo keep us in food for
some time. The mallards, one of the most succulent
birds I ever ate, were particularly plentiful. Our method
of cooking them was, as may be imagined, most primi-
tive ; either we boiled them in a pot, which gave us
both soup and meat, or we roasted them on the end of a
stick before the blazing fire, our fingers supplying knives
and forks. On the evening of the next day we camped
somewhere near Shoal Lake, but it was so dark that it
was impossible to say where we were. The lake is the
boundary line between Manitoba and the North-West
Territories, and, as such, has a Government establish-
ment on its shores, with a force of mounted police to
prevent the introduction of contraband spirits. No wines
or spirits are allowed in the North-West except with a
"permit' from the Governor. Our twelve gallons had
been duly inscribed as for medicinal purposes at the rate
of two gallons per person, and I am afraid that some of
the people for whom we were supposed to be bringing it
never so much as saw the bottles, much less tasted their
contents. It has been found that nothing keeps the

'. \'

Indians docile and friendly like depriving them of all
chance of getting spirits, and it is for this excellent
reason that the whole country is put under surveillance
in this matter. One of the principal reasons why the
Indians are so troublesome in the States, is that no
restraint is put upon them in the question of spirits.
Indians get drunk with singular willingness, and when
they are drunk they will do anything. Our camp, when
we first made it, seemed quite a model, a sort of picture
camp. Our tent was pitched in a little glade surrounded
by trees and looking on to the fire, while on the opposite
side our carts were grouped in a semi-circle. It proved,
however, quite the reverse; the wind got up and whistled
through the tent in the most unpleasant manner, and
once more we discovered that appearances are sometimes
deceptive. We also here met with a sad misfortune.
There was a certain pretty little two-gallon keg of rum,
upon which much had been built in the way of comfort.
We thought we would like to see it, when to our amaze-
ment and annoyance it was nowhere to be found. It
was a matter of too much importance to be dismissed
lightly, and every cart was overhauled in our search for
the lost darling, but it was all in vain, he had vanished.
My suspicions pointed to a black savage, who only went
a little further with us, and who had shown an inordinate
affection for spirits. My impression was that he con-
cealed it on the road, and that he u'^ten d picking it
up and getting drunk at his leisure on his way back.
However, it could not be brought home to him, and we
had to bid farewell to the rum punches we had counted
on for the winter mornings. Many a time when I was
half frozen afterwards I thought bitterly of the loss of
that little keg. The lake is a good size, and when I saw
it in the morning it was covered with waves and foam.
Our " permits " were examined while we had drinks
round with the officers on duty, a thing they could
thoroughly appreciate. According to the regulation,
when a contraband cask is discovered its contents have
to be poured on the ground, and the story goes that they
always pour it away on the same spot where they have
a bucket buried and ready to receive the precious fluid,
and which they afterwards make merry with.

i r

ill

CHAPTER IX.
From Fort Ellice to Touchwood Hills.

THE next place with a name to it we stopped at was
Fort Ellice, but before I describe it I should like to
speak a little of our journey to it. We had now got far
beyond even isolated shanties and consequently began
to see more game, we also saw a fox or two, but they
were too far off to get even a shot at them. The whole
prairie is perforated with the holes of all sorts of burrowing
animals, but the little fellows who destroy the roads most
are the gophers : they are half rat and half squirrel, and
of a light yellow colour ; wherever you look you can see
a quantity of them sitting up on their hind legs and
staring at you in the most impudent manner, but they
are so quick that up go their tails and they are out of
sight before you can pull the trigger. When we were
some miles from Shoal Lake we saw a prairie fire, a
whirlwind of flames and smoke, but, fortunately, too far
off to give us any cause for alarm ; they appear to be
very common occurrences and can always be traced to
the carelessness of campers. We afterwards passed
large tracts of land in which everything was burnt black.
It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good, and, though
one would feel inclined to doubt the advantage of a
devastating fire, I am told that they are of great service
in killing and drying wood which would otherwise be too
green for use. We were fortunate in reaching a very
pleasant spot (Bird Tail Creek by name) for camping the
night before we rested at the Fort. I had shot a long
legged bird, of the bittern kind, that day, and, though
they al' said he was not worth plucking, I noticed that
when he was cooked all our party wanted a taste of it,
and pronounced it excellent. Fort Ellice was the
best place we had been in since we left Winnipeg.
Mr. Macdonald, the head of it, treated us with a
hospitality I shall never forget, he gave us two beds, and
I don't think I ever knew before what a luxury a bed is.
The Fort is beautifully situated on a hill looking over a
well-wooded valley, though the frequent frosts had
already stripped off most of the leaves. Immediately

River wound in and out among

beneath the Assiniboine

the bare trees. The bridge we used to cross was a
broken-down affair, the supports of which were twisted
and cracked, and it looked ready to fall. It has to be
rebuilt pretty often I heard, as the tremendous rush of
ice, which comes floating down in the spring, strains
and damages it however strongly built. I here tasted,
for the first time, some fresh buffalo meat, but I didn't
like it much, though before ver}- long I learnt to prefer
it to the inferior ox beef, which alone is to be obtained in
the North-West. Oxen are too useful for dragging carts
to be eaten, and when these thrifty people make up their
minds to eat an ox it is because he can no longer haul a
cart. The Fort consists of a collection of wooden
buildings enclosing a square courtyard, and supplied on
the outer side with stockades, formerly as a protection
against attacks from the Indians, but now quite un-
necessary. These Hudson Bay forts are established all
over the country, in such places as are most suitable for
trade, and form the only civilization. They always keep
a good supply of provisions and general commodities,
which they sell to anybody who happens to want anything
and can pay for it either in furs or money. While we
stayed we sent our carts on ahead of us to camp at a
place called Qu'Appelle River and joined them in the
middle of the next day. We then got rid of one of our
carts and the heavier part of our freight, and we also
sent back the individual whom I shall always suspect of
having stolen the rum. Broken Arm River was our
next camp, and the only break in the monotony of our
march was our meeting with some Sauteux Indians with
a camp of three lodges. They begged for tea, sugar,
tobacco, or anything they could get, and one old hag,
seeing me in a hooded ulster, took me for a priest, or
pretended to do so, only to assure me, through our
interpreter, that priests were always charitable, and that
I ought to give her something. Next day we didn't
start until very late as our horses got hopelessly lost,
and the only wonder is that it did not happen oftener. I
believe we should be looking for them now had not a
lonely Indian not only found them but found us also.
His name, which he gave with extreme reluctance, was

((

■ '. i

Little Mosquito." It is considc-ed highly unlucky to
mention your own name among Indians ; still he seemed
surprised we did not know it already, seeing that it had
been affixed to a petition to the Queen, of whom every
Indian and half-breed I ever met spoke with great
reverence. The only reward this queer fellow could be
persuaded to accept was his breakfast and a little tea and
tobacco. I offered him my plug, as his pipe was empty,
to cut himself a pipeful, instead of which he quietly
slipped it into his pouch. From which I learnt that it is
unwise to let an Indian get anything into his hand which
you don't want him to keep. The weather now took a
most favourable turn, and became delightfully warm, so
that we were able to journey without interruption, except
when we came across a train of carts, which, like ships
at sea, are looked upon as events. We always stopped
and exchanged news, and asked and answered the many
questions, which nothing but living in America can give
you a talent for. Of course on these occasions our
whiskey-keg was produced for drinks round, it being the
height of incivility not to offer a drink when you have got
one. The carts, drawn by oxen, travel very slowly and
in great numbers. I have seen as many as 130 of them
in one train, crawling leisurely to some distant part, the
people who look after them doing the freighting by
contract, at so much per ton, and passing all their lives
in going backwards and forwards. The Indian summer,
the pleasures of which we were enjoying, may truly be
said to be the best season of the whole year. In these
countries, where mosquitos and other insects of the kind
make summer a torture, the mere fact of having a
brisrht warm sun, without those awful plagues, is a

't-i'

delightful feeling. Unfortunately it does not last long,
and after ten days of it, towards the middle of October,
winter sets in with startling suddenness. On the fifth
day from Ellice we camped in a charming spot, full of
open meadows and woodland glades, and studded with
fairy lakes of surpassing beauty. We left our party to
get supper ready, and started for a long narrow lake
where we hoped to find some ducks. We found lots of
them, but they were so wild that we could only get a
brace, both very long shots : of course they fell

in the middle of the lake, and we had no dog. Barstow
at last volunteered to retrieve them, an honour I did not
feel the least inclination to share with him ; he got them,
though it must have been a fearfully cold bath, for there
was ice on the water. Evening was now closing and the
beautiful sunset and calm stillness of all around us
combined to make the scene one of the most beautiful
pictures I ever saw. At one point we found an echo so
distinct that it repeated a whole sentence with wonderful
clearness. Just as darkness came on, a large bird flapped
past us like an evil spirit ; we both blazed at hun and
down he came with a heavy thud, but before we could
secure him we had to knock him over the head with the
butt end of a gun. He proved to be a huge horned owl,
his wings measured five feet from tip to tip, and his eyes
blazed with magnificent light when we brought him near
the fire. I regretted very much that I had then no
knowledge of the art of stuffing, for he was a splendid
bird and well worth keeping. Another day's march
brought us to Touchwood Hills, but we were too late to
get quite up to the Fort, and had to camp in a sort of
North-Western Hampstead Heath. There were crowds
of men, children, horses, dogs, oxen, and Indians every-
where, and as soon as we arrived we were surrounded
and gazed at as if such a party had never been seen
before. We took the precaution to bring into the tent
everything we had of value, and especially the liquor :
for a man in these parts may be the soul of truth, and a
model of honesty, but nothing will prevent him from
stealing whiskey if he can. So great is the universal
craving for spirits that horses have been sold for a
tumbler of brandy, and even the Mounted Police, when
they he.rd of our loss at Shoal Lake, got into a
tremendous state of excitement and were for saddling
their horses and organizing a search expedition at once.
We bought a few necessaries at the Fort next morning,
and I was fortunate enough to find some tissue-paper
for cigarettes. I happen to be an inveterate consumer
of smoke in that form, and having come to the end of
the leaves of our cook's pictorial bible, which he nobly
offered to me, I was at my wit's end, until this lucky
find relieved me of all further anxiety.

C 2

CHAPTER X.
From Touchwood Hills to Duck Lake.

FOUR days more brought us to Duck Lake. I don't
know whether it is that the end of a tiring journey
always seems the longest part of it, or whether the last
four days were really worse than the rest, but to me they
seemed crammed full of discomfort and misery. As
soon as we left Touchwood Hills it settled down to
determined and penetrating rain. My clothes very soon
got thoroughly wet and they never got dry until we
reached our destination. The only way to restore
circulation to our frozen blood was to get out of our
waggon and run or rather shamble in the slushy mud,
which only seemed to have the effect of reducing our
moccasins to a hopeless state of pulp. We made the
acquaintance of some more Indians, but the more 1 see
of them the less I like them, though I am willing to
admit that the state of the weather had made me much
more ready to find fault than to admire. They are an
idle, good-for-nothing race, who have just enough sense
to know that the Government will never wilfully let
them starve, so they do as little as possible for them-
selves and expect all whitt people to give them food and
drink, not only as a pleasure but as a duty. They have
no excuse for poverty ; they get well paid for furs, and
any ordinarily industrious Indian of moderately provident
habits (of which one or two have been known to exist),
^an live and live well by selling furs, all of which are
taken at a uniform price quite irrespective of their
quality. I went prepared to see a good deal of unfair-
ness on the part of the traders in their dealings with the
untutored savage. But I am bound to confess that if
there is any fault it lies with the Indians. Their
immense capacity for absorbing tea is astonishing, and
only finds a parallel in what one sometimes sees takes
place when charity-children are offered an annual feast.
They are however charmingly impartial, and take every-
thing they can get with great eagerness and thrust all

into a dirty receptacle they carry in their bosoms. We
had to cross a large plain of over forty miles in length
in one day on account of the absence of both wood and
water throughout the desolate waste. Of course we
made a late start, but got well across before stopping
for a little while at what was once a lake, then a foul
ditch, the waters of which our horses would scarcely
drink. Under the circumstances there was nothing for
it but to push on, and tired and hungry as were our
horses and ourselves on we went. It began to get dark
and though there was plenty of wood not a drop of
water could we find. At last it became impossible for
us to see our way, and after having been nine hours on the
move, and without drink for fourteen, we had to give it
up and stop. It is an awful thing to be without water,
when a more than ordinary thirst has been produced by
hard travelling. We had some sherry, and after having
made a hurried camp, we tried to slake our raging thirst
with that. The look of angry disgust which we each
gave, after tasting the first mouthful, would have been
comic, had it not been so dreadfully real and painful.
Barstow who, to give him his due, bore it all with
admirable indifference, thought that, as we were
thoroughly wretched for the want of water, it would be
a grand opportunity to make ourselves more miserable
still if such a thing were possible. He therefore cheer-
fully proposed sleeping without the tent that night. I
felt too tired and ill to make anything but the most feeble
protest. We placed our damp wraps near the fire and
tried to allay our thirst by trying to sleep. Needless to
say no sleep could I get, and as soon as dawn began
to appear, I dragged my chilled body out of my blankets
and hastened to make a fire. We started off as soon as
we could without even waiting for breakfast which with-
out tea would have been a bitter mockery. In about
two hours our eyes were gladdened by the sight of a
pool of good clear water. The caravan halted, and you
may imagine that we lost no time in getting a pot
boiling. Tea never tasted so delicious to me, and if I
live to a hundred, I shall never forget the sigh of con-
tentment which escaped from me as I was lighting my
pipe and leisurely sipping my fourth cup. The next day

we got rain again, and though things got pretty bad
when we were housed under our tent, poor as was its
shelter, we managed to be fairly cheerful, as we were
no longer without water, and more, had managed to
shoot some prairie chickens with which to make a good
supper. The following night we reached the banks of
the South Saskatchewan, and camped in a hut known as
Gabriel's Ferry, the name of the gentleman who assists
travellers over that big stream. His name seems to
have been given to him with more regard to the Romish
Calendar than to any fitness for it of his. He is a hard-
drinking old half-breed whose only sorrow is the scarcity
of alcohol in his neighbourhood. His family, as
far as I could make out, consisted of some twelve
people of both sexes who managed to live in a
single-roomed hovel scarcely fit for a pig. However, he
made us as comfortable as the dirt would allow, and
filled our empty s«-omachs with buffalo meat fresh from
the prairie. In exchange for which he good-naturedly
finished the contents of our whiskey keg. The next
morning our journey was considerably delayed principally
occasioned by the uncertainty of the boat's whereabouts.
When it was found it looked like a large box, very
imperfectly constructed. Of course it was full of water,
and to me it seemed the very last thmg in which any-
body would venture to cross a broad and rapid river.
Still there was nothing else, so after baling the concern
out, we put our carts, ourselves, and our two most
valuable horses into it, and started on our perilous
journey. I was certain we would sink or that the
current would carry us out of the control of the two
wretched oars which were used for guiding us. I there-
fore placed myself in the most convenient place, if
things came to the worst, for jumping off. To my
surprise we got safely across after a good wetting, which
was nothing new. The other horses were driven in
and swam across easily enough with the exception of
one poor fiddle-headed, spindle-shanked mare who had
shown signs of flagging strength all the way. She was
very nearly drowned, but somehow by a desperate effort
she managed to get her legs and take one turn more in
the shafts before retiring to grass. And so the journey

ended, for we reached Duck Lake that night. We were
received with open arms at Barstow's establishment, a
description of which I shall reserve for another chapter.
Speaking for myself I rarely remember an occasion
when I felt such relief at the end of a journey. I slept
in a bed, after beds and I had been long, too long,
strangers, and that alone was unspeakable IdHss. I had
gone through much more than I believed I could have
endured, and though to many my trials may appear
trivial, I must beg them to remember that it was the
first time I had ever known what it was to sleep out of
a comfortable bed or to pass a day without plenty of
food and drink. My experience was worth something
to me and I learnt that hardship is a capital cure for
those who are blase and suffer from boredom.

CHAPTER XI.
Duck Lake.

AS this spot was h'^ad-quarters during my winter in
the oleak North-West, it becomes my duty not only
to reserve this chapter exclusively for its description, but
to invoke all the muses to assist me in doing justice to
so important a subject. I spent my first night in a
small room, littered with all sorts of things from
cartridges to dirty linen. I slept on the floor with a
blanket and an ulster for covering, while my coat and
waistcoat did duty for a pillow. When I say that, in
spite of this unpromising look-out, I was supremely
comfortable and that no monarch could have slept better,
you will admit that I must have made the acquaintance of
some pretty indifferent resting-places. We took care to
reward ourselves for all our early risings, and our first
breakfast, a really recherche meal, was partaken of at
the fashionable hour of ii a.m., or what we supposed to
be such, for time is not valuable at Duck Lake, and the
clock being an invalid was rarely asked to go. We had
coffee, rolls, roast snipe, and dried apples, which we

considered very elaborate eating. If the plates had not
been of iron, if the cups had had handles, had there been
such a thing as a table-cloth and a complete set of
cutlery we might have imagined ourselves in civilization.
It was indeed an enjoyable meal, and what made it all
the more delightful was that I had actually found a tub
and once more renewed my acquaintance with its uses.
No one knows the real bliss of a tub and clean linen till
he has been three weeks or so without either. I spent
my first day in a comfortable room near a warm stove ;
and it was a real luxury to have a table to write on. So
much so, that I settled down with great zest to the
furbishing jp of hasty notes jotted down by the
uncertain light of many a camp fire, while Barstow
went off and inspected generally. Duck Lake itself is a
large piece of water several miles in circumference, the
shores of which are within a few hundred yards of the
buildings. In the proper season, as the name implies,
it is a favourite resort for ducks of every description, but
when I was there, it was frozen to the bottom and could
only be distinguished from the land by the thin fringe of
reeds which surrounds it. As for the rest of the neigh-
bouring country, there is nothing very remarkable about
it — it is pretty flat, and here and there at iriegular
intervals there are clumps of trees, some of them
extensive enough to be called woods but scarcely enough
to be considered forests. The growth of timber is small
but it makes excellent firewood and is easily cut. My
host's establishment was larger than any other I saw
organized for the furtherance of private enterprise. His
main building, though of course constructed entirely of
wood, as all habitations in the wilderness must be, was
solidly put together. It consisted of a good sized
kitchen, a sort of general room combining the functions
of sitting and dining-room furnished with a long deal
table, a stove, a few chairs and some ancient and dog-
eared novels, two bed-rooms, and an office. Attached
to this was the store in which were a lot of pigeon-holes
and a high counter. The latter is a necessity, for
nothing short of a palisade is sufficient to keep the
Indians, who are the principal customers, from invading
the privacy of the shop and wandering at their own

sweet will among the heterogeneous merchandise which
always lay in untidy heaps on the floor. It is painful to
have to state that, though Indian men rarely steal, their
women just as rarely neglect an ■ pportunity to annex
whatever they can get hold of. This store was a won-
derful place, and it was to its existence that we owed the
few visitors who arrived from time to time from the
distant settlements. They were in search of some
commodity, and it would have been difficult to want
something not to be found in our collection. There
was everything from tea. coffee, and looking-glasses to
calico, cutlery and cartridges, from hams, hosiery and
horse-cloths to blankets, biscuits and boots. Opposite
was another large building used exclusively for the
storing and packing of furs. Besides these, there was
a carpenter's shop, stables, and, I was going to say
kennels ; but, though there are always plenty of dogs
around a Canadian settlement, they are not treated to
the luxury of kennels or even food. They have to live
on what they can pick up, and a pretty poor livelihood
it is. The poor brutes always have a wistful, hungry
expression in their eyes, but when they are wanted for
sleighs, then they live in clover. It is hard work, but
there is plenty of food at night. Of course in order
to keep so large a place going a large staff of employes
was required, but with the exception of the manager
(b\ the way an excellent fellow, who had the pluck
to exile himself to avoid an unwelcome marriage),
the carpenter and the cook, they were all half-breeds, of
whom I shall liave the pleasure of tellmg you more
later. Fur-trading and store-keeping are the principal
businesses, and are worked together. Both admit of
infmite leisure, but they did not think it necessary to
use it in embellishing their surroundings. There was
no attempt at even the rudiments of a garden, perhaps
because no women ornamented the spot with their
presence. Nor was any effort made at the most ele-
mentary forms of tidine.'s, and in this particular reminded
me much of the Australian sheep-farms, where all the
rubbish which accumulates round a house is allowed to
remain where it was thrown. Of course, the fair sex
being unrepresented, we indulged ourselves in a general

I I'll

'F 1 1

disregard for our personal appearance, nor was the use of
the razor encouraged. This relapse into semi-barbarism
(no joke intended) was not without its charm, and I wel-
comed it as a pleasant change after the tyranny of boots
and the rigours of stiff linen collars and top-hats.
Round Barstow's establishment a few houses had
sprung up belonging to half-breeds, who had become
sufficiently civilized to throw off the nomadic and savage
instincts of their immediate progenitors, and try trading
and farming. As far as I could see, farming was but
indifferently successful, and only practised in a desultory
fashion. I am sure, however, that now agriculture has
been found to pay, for there is no doubt of the richness
of th ar -^ , could you insure yourself against the inclem-
ency f the long winters. Barstow had a place where
he w s growing something, but only in a half-hearted
sort of way, and there were no signs of his really
meaning business. The people among whom I found
myself were mostly a French-speaking and Roman
Catholic community, and I had the privilege of often,
meeting the priest who looked after their spiritual wel-
fare. He was such a character, and sc marked a feature
in the surrounding country, that in a subsequent chapter
I must endeavour to give you a sketch of him. Fort
Carlton (fourteen miles off) was the nearest Hudson
Bay post, and it was not long before we paid its chief a
visit. It is an imposing-looking place, prettily situated
and constructed on the same principle as the other forts
I had seen. We were very hospitably and cordially
received, and invited to spend two or three days, as is
the custom wheic visitors are rare. Unfortunately there
was nothing to do but smoke and drink whiskey, and
though both excellent things in their way, they are
bound to pall in time. This chief was dreadfully im-
pressed with his own importance, which is not to be
wondered at when one remembers that it is not so long
since these gentlemen ruled this vast country in a most
despotic fashion, and, in their rough way. lived much
like the satraps of a Persian king. He once had the
misfortune to entertain an earl on his travels, as we
were not long in disccwering, and the event coloured the
whole of his life, nor was it a pleasant colour either.

it \\

As an example of what healthy competition can do even
out in the wilds, it may be mentioned that, owing to the
existence of Barstow's store, commodities were cheaper
by at least ten per cent, at Fort Carlton than they were
two hundred miles further south, where the expenses of
freight from Winnipeg were naturally much smaller ;
but, there being no rival store to undersell thern, the
Hudson Bay people could afford to keep up the prices.
As may be imagined, after a week or so of loafing about
I began to find life at the Lake rather monotonous and
to long for something to do. Barstow during this time
did little else but sleep, and talk in an indefinite and
unsatisfactory way of soon starting off after the buffalo,
which had been my only object in undertaking this
dreadful long journey. It was satisfactory to learn from
incoming hunters that les animaux, as they called the
buffalo, were plentiful, and that they were nearer our
neighbourhood than they had been for years. Every-
body who could spare the time and afford the necessary
carts, horses, rifles, and ammunition, was out on the
plains, securing fresh meat, to be brought home and
stored in ice, so as to have provisions enough to last out
the long, long wmter which was just beginning to show
her bleak face. We had already had a slight fall of
snow, and any amount more was to be expected very
soon. Still Barstow delayed, not that he feared bad
weather or the cold ; for, to do him justice, I never met
a man with such powers of endurance, or who was able
to take any kind of hardship so cheerfully. No, it was
simply a hopeless habit of procrastination, which he
could not overcome. I know he often honestly tried to
do so, just to please me, but he always failed.

I !

CHAPTER Xn.

Fur-Trading.

FUR-TRADING and its accessories is not a very
intricate business, and though the days luive gone by
when large fortunes were speedily made, there is still a

I' * -

■6 ;

fair amount to be picked up if you are astute and lucky.
The Hudson Bay Company was once a very prosperous
one: they used, no doubt, to get their furs for the
proverbial string of glass beads, but nous avons change
toiit cela. The Company no longer wields a monopoly,
and furs no longer support them, they have turned to
tht ^^.nd which remained in their hands, and, seeing the
popularity of the country for emigration purposes, in
that there is much wealth. To be a good trader you
must have the paradoxical qualities of firmness and
good nature. You must treat the Indian with considera-
tion and respect, and at the same time you must drive
hard bargains, always under the cover of an apparer.tly
natural carelessness and indifference to any money-
gaining consideration. In short, if you outwit the
Indian, you make money, and, though it is easy to out-
wit him in most things, once furs are mentioned you
will find you have met your match. As the traders pay
for furs with goods or provisions, they are able to make
a sort of double profit. They gather in about fifty per
cent, on the goods and then they have the additional
gain on the reselling of the furs. The Indians and
half-breeds trap the animals and dress the skins, which
the trader receives at a regular fixed tariff paid in goods.
The Indians do noc know the meaning or value of
money and would never consent to accept it. Money
has no value with them : all they want they can get
with furs, therefore furs is money. This reads like a
lame exposition of the opening chapters of some elemen-
tary work on political economy: but I beg your indulgence
on the plea that, though theoretically the early notions
of barter and commerce are familiar to all, a practical
illustration of them in the nineteenth century comes
upon one in the form of a novelty. These untutored
savages, like dear old Methuselah, don't understand the
use of money, and that ignorance I am sure saved them
no end of worry and bother besides narrowing for them
the avenues of crime. A musk-rat is the cheapest fur,
costing, if I remember right, sixpence, and this is the
basis of their money table. An article, be it a pound of
tea or a gown for their third wife, does not cost so much
money but so many rats. Even the value of furs is

calculated in rats: thus, a beaver let us say is worth ten
rats, an otter twelve, and so on. Although the profits
on this kind of transaction are naturally large, there is
a corresponding amount of risk. It is a recognised
custom, '^nforced I believe by Government, that every
fur that an Indian offers shall be bought at the fixed
price, quite irrespective of the condition that it may be
in. So that, often a trader has to buy a skin at the full
price of the best of its kind, when it is absolutely worth-
less. I remember on one occasion seeing Barstow, after
a long and fruitless effort to convince an Indian that a
skin was worth nothing, take it, give him his tea, sugar,
and what not, and then bef _ his very eyes thrust it
into the stove, in the hope that while he smelt the
unpleasant odour of burning hair, this argument would
appeal to him. The noble red-man merely smiled a
sort of enigmatical smile, and, by his expression, I felt
sure he went away with the feelmg that at last he had
found the true method of getting rid of old and manpy
skins. Then the trader has to send his furs wholesale
to wherever h.-c fancies he will get good prices. But the
fur market like all others varies and fluctuates, and he
may find himself compelled to sell at prices which admit
of little or no profit. He always has to pay $5 for a
buffalo robe, yet in Montreal, where most of them are
sent to, they often do not fetch more than $375.
Again, the Indians, who are naturally lazy, do not come
and offer skins in sufficient numbers at the post itself;
so the trader is put to considerable expense equipping
dog-sleigh expeditions to the various places which the
Indians have selected for their trapping grounds. Now
a journey of some hundred miles in the middle of a
Canadian winter is no light affair, as I know well, and
"t is not easy to get men willing to l .Tdertake for a small
salary a journey which must always be accompanied by
dangers of starvation or death from exposure. Dogs
falling ill, provisions running out, or abnormally bad
weather, are always possibilities, and any one of them
may mean death. The stories I heard of the wonderful
endurance which these runners, as they call them, are
capable of, sounded almost impossible; and the distances
they get over, would, if r-'ail}- true, make any European

:. f!

running celebrity appear a very poor performer. What
do you say to one hundred and seventy-eight miles in
forty-eight hours and driving two dog-sleighs as well ?
It sounds incredible, yet I had it on the best authority.
Another serious expense is the bringing up of goods and
provisions in ox-waggons a distance of some six or
seven hundred miles. So that fur-trading, as you no
doubt see, is not all plain sailing nor the easiest of roads
to fortune. It was a considerable disappointment to me,
though at the time I bore it with wonderful fortitude,
that I left the country before the snow melted, the ice
broke up, and communications were opened again. It
is at this time that the business in furs is briskest.
The runners rarely attempt to return until the spring
has declared herself. If they have done good business,
all their goods are disposed of, and in their place they
return laden with furs packed on some sort of vehicle
put together in a hurry. Of course many of these furs
are fine and rare specimens, but perhaps it was as well
I did not see them as I should have been tempted to
purchase, and I am assured that you can get better furs
and at cheaper prices in London, than you can on the
very spot where they are obtained. No, I am thankful
to say that when the frozen up North-West was slowly
thawing, I was basking in the genial sun of New
Orleans, with all the hardships of a Canadian winter
softened by being only a memory. I shall best bring
*\ns chapter to a conclusion, unsatisfactory I fear, for
want of data, by saying that the so-called fur-traders do
as much business in the general store line as they do in
purchasing and selling furs. And they are wise, for it
will not be long before civilization and a more extended
settlement will drive out fur-trapping and replace it with
agriculture and cattle-raising. They will then be in a
position to acquire wealth by being on the spot, and able
to supply such things as the new settlers cannot possibly
do without.

CHAPTER XIII.
Buffalo, Sleigh-dogs, and Pain-killer.

BUFFALO, sleigh-dogs, and pain-killer are the three
salient characteristics of the North-West ; and,
taken mixed, appeared to me to have been mainly instru-
mental in making the country what I found it. At first
this may seem a bold assertion ; but, I trust, if I am
lucid, that 1 shall be able to convince you that much
must be attributed to their influence. The interesting
natives can scarcely be said to think, but what little
thoughts they have are centered on the consideration of
these three things. Let us begin with the buffalo.
Everybody is more or less familiar with their appearance
through having seen some particularly poor specimens
in zoological gardens. Buffalo there means occupation,
food, clothing, and sport. The Indians, the half-breeds,
and even the whites are dependent in a great measure
on the results of buffalo hunting, and it thus becomes
one of the most important matters in their monotonous
lives. A party will kill and bring home about thirty
beasts after a successful expedition. At the cry of
les aniniaux, everybody abandons whatever he may be
doing to join in the hunt for provisions. On their return,
feasting, attended by gambling, is carried on with a
vigour unknown to more effete nations. The half-breeds
generally are sensible enough to reserve something for a
rainy day, and lay by a stock of buffalo meat in various
forms. The Indians, on the contrary, who are I suppose
the most improvident of northern races, simply gorge,
and gamble, and sleep. When all is gone, when every
bone has been picked and every shred consumed,
they begin philosophically to starve, varying the enter-
tainment by abusing the white man. It is curious
how the Indians are firmly convinced that all evils and
discomforts are to be attributed to the natural wickedness
of the settlers and traders ; and this is all the more odd
because the whites are always coming; forward to the
rescue of starving Indians. Every part of the buffalo is

turned into something. A robe is used as a coverin,;^ for
a bed or a sleigh, to soften the asperities of a backboard
waggon, and many Indians consider a fine robe enough
for coat, waistcoat, and trousers. The hide is turned into
moccasins, coats, sacks for pemmican, and last but not
least " shaganape." Shaganape is used for everything
which in civilization would be replaced by rope or leather.
It is also given as food to the dogs when it can be used
as nothing else. I have often thought that I have eaten
some. There is such a striking likeness between it and
dried meat, that I defy a stranger to tell one from the
other. They taste the same, they look the same, and
they are equally tough ; so that I should recommend
those who propose visiting the North-West to in no wise
neglect to have their teeth sharpened. For it is incon-
venient and unwholesome to swallow lumps of leather.
The expression, "There is nothing like leather" here
becomes " There is nothmg like shaganape " ; and there
are people found who contend that were it not for that
durable substance the country could not possibly hold
together. But this is, of course, open to doubt. Still, I
can vouch for the fact, that when the materials of which
waggons and sleighs are made have given way, shaga-
nape nobly supplies their place, so that it is impossible to
say what part is shaganape and what wood. I now come
to the world-renowned "pemmican," which is as marked
and universal an article of diet as oatmeal is in Scotland.
My first introduction to this national dish was not
encouraging. Its appearance, to begin with, is against
it, for it looks like exceedingly rotten cheese, and is of a
dirty, greenish-brown colour. Barstow anticipated my
natural prejudices, and I encountered a piece of it early
in my journey. After some hesitation I tasted it, think-
ing I had never put anything quite so nasty in my mouth
before. I am not as a rule fastidious, but I never got to
like or even tolerate pemmican. There is no doubt,
however, of its nutritious qualities, and, if you can only
get it to stay in your stomach, a very little of it will keep
you from starving for an indefinite period. Of course, I
am now speaking of the common, ordinary pemmican ;
but there is some made of carefully-selected meat, fat,
and marrow, which is reallv excellent, and which I shall

l! I

have occasion to speak of later. Buffalo have a great
deal more marrow in their bones than bullocks, and this
is melted down, and when liquid is poured into bladders
like the ones used for lard. It is then, like marmalade,
considered an excellent substitute for butter. I, however,
was not much struck with the excellence of the substi-
tute, for, whenever I ventured to try it, a naust came
over me, not unlike what one experiences after having
inadvertently swallowed a mouthful of rotten egg. When
using it for butter becomes impossible it is turned into
candles, which is perhaps the reason why even now
when the odour of an extinguished candle reaches me, I
imagine there must be buffalo meat cooking somewhere.
The buffalo were hunted on all sides v/ith a perseverance
which, in spite of close seasons being afterwards insti-
tuted, promised before long to exterminate them. When
that time comes, the Indians will starve, the half-breeds
be reduced to poverty, and agricultural pursuits and the
fur-trading interest considerably impaired. I may be
wrong ; but my notion is that, until that time comes,
and the energies of the people are concentrated on
something less ephemeral than buffalo, the country will
never be worth anything. It was to see, hunt, and kill
this all-absorbing animal that we put ourselves to
enormous inconvenience and hardship. I soon learned
the dangers to guard against in this kind of sport, and,
if you will follow me on to the end, you shall see what
sort of adventures I had. I now come to the sleigh-dog.
The first question a man asks when a dog is mentioned,
is not, " Is he well bred ? or what breed is he ? or is
he good with a gun ? " but " Can he haul ? " If a dog
comes into a man's possession — and they have a way of
turning up, you know not from where, and offering
themselves tn you in that mute though eloquent way
peculiar to dogs — he is looked over with a view to
hauling. If the examination proves satisfactory, well
and good ; but if he shows no signs of strength,
he meets with no mercy, he is coaxed within range
and then siiot. It is cruel no doubt, but under the
circumstances necessary. The settlers cannot afford to
keep any but working dogs ; if a worthless animal is
allowed to hang round a settlement, he very soon

» J

acquires a taste for harness, furs, boots, or any leather
thing he can find. The Indians, 1 believe, always keep
any kind of cur, because they always anticipate a time
when food will be scarce, and roast dog is better than
nothing. It is said, that on nearing an Indian camp,
you can always tell in what state you will find them,
l)y observing the dogs that come out to meet you. If
they are well fed and fat, food is plentiful ; if they are
ihin and poor, provisions are low ; if none at all come
to meet you, things are very bad. they are eating them.
Every house you pass is garnished with at least a
dozen dogs who, at the approach of strangers, rush out
and bark furiously ; at night these amiable quadrupeds
vary the entertainment by howling. These dogs are as
necessary in the North-West as horses ; for throughout
the length of winter when the snow lies thick every-
where, it is impossible to travel with horses. Not only
would they sink in and flounder hopelessly about, but
one could not carry food for them. A good dog will
haul at least a hundred pounds weight, and keep up a
trot for months, provided he is well fed. But even
sleigh-dogs are only fed when travelling ; at other times
they manage to subsist on bits of shaganape and scraps.
When a party leaves a settlement, a good many dogs
are sure to follow on the chance of getting something to
eat, they having long since devoured everything edible,
chez eux. When you camp near habitations, you must
hang all your leather things well out of reach if you
want to find them in the morning, and even your own
dogs will eat their harness at night if you do not hide it,
nor is it unusual to wake up and find them chewing your
bedding. The best dogs are what are called "huskies"':
they look like large Esquimaux or Spitz, and I fancy
they are crossed with wolf. We had one fine specimen
who answered to the name of " Shou-shou " (Long Ears).
He was black with white breast and legs, and looked
just like a wolf. He was well trained, and was con-
sequently used as a leader. He took a great fancy to
me soon after I arrived, and his antics used to amuse
me, they were so little like those of a dog. When a lot of
other dogs surrounded him with hostile intent, he would
put his long bushy tail between his legs and assume the

t li

lot of

appearance of an abject coward. If any dog, deceived
by this attitude, came too near him he showed his long
wolf Hke teeth in an unpleasant manner, unaccompanied
by the usual growl ; a further advance on the part of
the enemy caused him to wheel suddenly and quickly
round, and inflict a crushing defeat, after which he
would again assume a terrified attitude, We became
more intimately acf,uainted afterwards, for he was the
head dog of the twelve which drew our sleighs down to
Manitoba on our return journey. Whatever else I may
have to say on this subject will be best left until I come
to that part of our expedition during which our dogs
were, next to questions of wood and fire, by far the most
important matter in the world. On their health and
strength depended our lives.

I now come to the famous Pain-Killer. Let me
approach the subject with gravity, for in the North-West
its importance is second to not even the buffalo. Pain-
Killer is a quack medicine. I trust Mr. Perry Davis,
the happy and wealthy inventor of it, who is I believe
a shining light among a constellation of good people in
Providence, R.I., will forgive me for giving it its right
name. I believe he is not to blame for the unwholesome
use which is made of it, as he intended it for outward
application only. It is the fault of an ignorant and
barbarous people that it is considered too precious
to be ever used in that way. Its reputation extends
throughout the length and breadth of the North-West,
and there is no man, woman, or child, from Hudson's
Bay to Minnesota, from the Rocky Mountains to the
Atlantic, who has not heard of Pain-Killer. It shares
with gunpowder and water the proud position of being
the North-Western panacea. If anybody has anything
the matter, from a stomach-ache to cancer, gunpowder
and water is prescribed, followed by a dose of Pain-
Killer. Generally these two cure the patient. At least
they think so, whereas it is the pure air and healthy
climate which really does it- We had a case of a girl
who had accidentally poisoned herself by purloining and
eating dried apples prepared with phosphorus, for the
especial use of rats. We gave her copious draughts of
the only two medicines in turn, and she recovered. But

D 2

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ill

11 91
lilL

lb
i" '

(IF

whether it was the gunpowder or the Pain-Killer which
saved her was never known. I think I have mentioned
that a wise government has m.ade it illegal to take
spirits of any kind beyond the province of Manitoba,
except in small quantities, presumedly for medicinal
purposes. Necessity is the Mother of Invention: the
law is evaded, and the cravings for strong drink allayed
by a variety of ingenious methods. Brandy cherries are
imported in large quantities for the sake of the spirit;
there are no end of so-called ''bitters" manufactured
exclusively for the North-West try de, which have alcohol
for a foundation. That brand is most popular which
contains the largest percentage of spirit the most
ingeniously disguised. But these sink into insignifi-
cance in the presence of the mighty Pain-Killer, whose
strength is colossal, and whose intoxicating properties
are warranted to encourage jim-jams in th^ systems of
the most seasoned drinkers. It is a red, innocuous-
looking fluid, and under analysis exposes the presence of
alcohol, cayenne pepper, camphor, and opium. Pain-
Killer "cocktails" are as deep rooted an institution
among the hardy Scots as whiskey ones are further
south, though men are found who prefer the Worcester-
shire Sauce cocktail, but they are in a minority. I
fear those who drink them will share the fate of a
gentleman residing in New Zealand who was killing
himself, when I met him, with sarsaparilla, which he
was in the habit of drinking instead of whiskey, when
the frequent invitation to conviviality made it imperative
for him to drink something.

I once, in the innocence of ignorance tasted Pain-
Killer neat, and il burned my tongue and lips for an
hour after, and yet many of the men who have grown
old in the service of the Hudson's 13ay Company think
nothing ov drmking a pint bottle of it per day with
scarcely any dilution. The Indians are nothing if not
thorough, and having long appreciated tlie attractions
of "pank" as they call it. when they inaugurate a spree,
they mix a strong decoction of tea and tobacco with it,
in order to ensure certain and speedy intoxication. It
has been said, that when a people either from compulsion
or accident finds itself deprived of alcoholic stimulant

it lives happily and healthily without it. My experience
goes to prove the contrary, and I have found, that the
longer a rrian goes without drinking spirits, the more
certain he is of abusing it when he gets the chance.
The truth is, that the craving for strong drink is
implanted in the very nature of man, and nothing will
eradicate it. I have seen the savages of a good many
parts of the world, and amongst all of them there was
some method, of one kind or another, of obtaining for
themselves the privileges and pleasures of intoxication.
I admit that as far as the North-West is concerned,
there are many worse things than Pain-Killer with sugar
and plenty of water on a cold winter's morning : and it
was a matter of deep sorrow to me when our stock of it
ran out. In conclusion, I contend that buffalo, train-
dogs, and Pain-Killer have made the country what it
is. When the buffalo are all killed off, when trains
abolish train-dogs, and when a liquor licence does away
with the traffic in Pain-Killer, the North-West will feel
the influence which has led to the prosperity of other
countries. That time is at hand, and no doubt before
my children are grey, Duck Lake will have blossomed
into a second Chicago hastily put up, and flourishing
through fictitious credit and the inflated value of land,
and ready to " bust up " like any other well organised
American town. Absit omen.

l! ,!l

CHAPTER XIV.

Visiting.

IT will be just as well, in order to give an idea of how
the people live in the North-West, for me to l)rielly
describe a round of visits we made just before we started
on our expedition against !.he buffalo. You shall see how
full of annoyances this journey proved to be, and, if you
see no cause for irritation, you deserve to take a superior
rank to Job himself. I was looking forward, after our

long days of inaction, to meeting Captain Mann and his
partner, who enjoyed the reputation of being amusing
and clever ; and I was delighted at the prospect of
hearing my native tongue unsulhed by the perpetual
discussion of fur-trading. Shortly after we started, we
met a wretched creature shivering with cold and hunger
who, when somewhat revived by a draught of spirits,
detailed the news of the total loss of some boats Barstow
had sent down the river for the purpose of found' ig a
new trading-post. I was naturally sorry, but when the
wreck of these boats became the only topic of conver-
sation for three or four days, I felt I was justified in
looking upon those boats as an unmitigated nuisance.
My first night found me in an incongruous, not to say
ridiculous, situation. Could anythmg be more droll than
for me, the humble admirer of all that is broadest in
thought, and most tolerant in religion, to be plumped
down in a Roman Catholic priest's shanty in the wilds
of British America ? My wildest dreams never put me
in such a position. I was obliged to listen with a grave
face to the conversation of a garrulous old man, who
was the professor of all that is ignorant in superstition
and all that is tyrannical in thought. I hasten, however,
to testify with gratitude to the old fellow's hospitality
and kindness ; he was a good old soul, which did not,
all the same, prevent him from being an old bore with
his puerile stories about his village home on the coast of
Brittany. He gave us a good supper and comfortable,
warm beds, the two things whn h, if you have ever
roughed it, you will readily admit arc the most essential
to a man's well being. It is needless to say that, the
next morning, it was nearer noon than sun-rise when
Barstow consented to entertain the question of making
a start. Still the weather was so fine and Nature looked
so delightful and cheerful in her early autumn dress,
that a man must have been a churl w.io could have felt
otherwise than well disposed towards the whole world.
The folly of our dilatoriness was not long in becoming
apparent. Four o'clock came and with it hunger and
approaching night. As luck would have it, we suddenly
came r^pon a place, the existence of which Barstow had
forgotten, where he had once contemplated farmmg, but

there was nothing agricultural to be seen, though it might
be considered a grand monument of my friend's magnifi-
cent procrastination. We found a house half-built, and
under the lee of an embr3^o wall we broke our fast with
a man we discovered there to Barstow's surprise. I
thought our meal excellent, though scarcely suitable for
London dinner-parties. It consisted of very ancient
pemmican cut with a chisel, some hard bread r/hich
appeared to be made of saw-dust and barley, and tea in
a pannikin stirred with a stick. We succeeded in hang-
ing about this bleak spot, the discovery of which caused
Barstow unbounded satisfaction, until long after it was
dark, and only reached Mann's place at eight o'clock.
So far so good; we had an excellent supper, our alfresco
meal having m no way injured our appetites, and, nectar
of the gods, some hot brandy and water to warm our
shivering bodies. I found the Captain a very pleasant
fellow, but suffering from absurd notions on the question
of how one ought to live in the wilderness. He had
built a fine big saw-mill, which promised, when the place
got more populated, to pay him well, and, seeing the
difficulty of getting materials, did infinite credit to his
industry and perseverance. But he himself was content
to live in the most miserable hovel I ever saw, sur-
rounded only by the bare necessities of life. He and his
mate were both Irish, and it was not long before they
gave us capital specimens of their Celtic humour. We
slept comfortably on the floor on a heap of rugs and
blankets, while the owners of these palatial premises
took their well-earned rest in contrivances very like old-
fashioned ship's bunks. Barstow, next morning, kept
us waiting for breakfast, but his peculiarity being well
known it passed unnoticed. In spite of the snow, which
had fallen to the depth of several inches in the night, we
harnessed up and started off a party of four to look up
another Captain, quartered some few miles away. This
worthy was a queer character. Her Majesty had, for
some irregularity in connection with a bottle, dispensed
with his services. Misfortune had driven him hither
and thither, and linally landed him m the North-West,
where he lived precariously on farming on a small scale.
He was a veritable Ishmaelite, living in a tent, and

'II

theoretically at variance with the whole world, He was,
however, sufficiently civilized to recognize the advantages
of a cook, and, in order to induce her to put up with his
curious customs, he had built her a substantial house a
few yards from where he had pitched his tent. " All
these half-breeds are such dirty brutes," he explained,
" that I won't have one nearer to me than is absolutely
necessary ; none are allowed to enter my tent upon any
pretenL;e whatever." During his chequered career he
had picked up much valuable information in culinary
matters, which, after much labour, he had taught to his
cook. She prepared a dish for us with the unpromising
ingredients of pemmican, a few potatoes, and a little
chutney, which was really delicious, and so disguised
was the pemmican, that it was not until I had made a
capital lunch, that I learnt how important a feature it
had been in our meal. We brought the gentleman back
with us, and on reaching Mann's shanty we found that
the snow on the roof was melting. It was perfectly fine
outside, but raining "cats and dogs" in the best drawing
room. Every crevice, and the roof was as much fissure
as anything else, supplied a trickle of water. One drop
soon fell on the only lamp ; it gave a click, the glass
broke, and we were left to do the best we could by the
light of the fire. In spite of this cheerless prospect, we
supped merrily on roast duck, and soon finished up the
remains of a keg of brandy procured for medicinal
purposes. The difficulty that night was to find a dry
spot on which to lay one's head. The wandering Captain
was too old a campaigner to be caught resourceless.
Early in the evening he secured the one table of the
establishment, with which he formed a canopy over him-
self, and thus sheltered himself from the wet. All the
rest of us woke up the next morning more or less soaked
by the dripping which continued all night. Over-night
plans were soon altered, and we postponed our departure
till evening. Two dogs were discovered in the course
of that afternoon, which were not only no good for
hauling, but uncommonly good harness caters, and
immovably fixed to the soil. Kind words brought the
half-wild curs within range, and a couple of shots from
a duck gun stretched them lifeless in the snow. With

i-ht

rare wisdom, Barstow made up his mind to start on a
forty-mile drive just as it was getting dark, and any sort
of weather probable. After going some four miles,
we were obliged to seek quarters for the night at a half-
breed's house, who gave us the best he had and a hearty
welcome. Next morning, Barstow submitted to what
to me would have been torture, rather than lose his
reputation for procrastination, of which I believe he was
really proud. He knew it was imperative for us to make
an early start, and that I was weary of those uncom-
fortable half-breed shanties. So, when he could stay in
bed no longer, he managed to waste halfan-hour walking
about in the snow on his bare feet, when he could find
nothing else to cause us to delay. In consequence of
these perverse delays, we found evening and darkness
coming on, and our horse beginning to show unmis-
takable signs of fatigue when we were a long way off
from home. Before long, we came to an unusually steep
hill, which the horse refused to tackle. We hauled, and
thrashed, and swore at him, but he wouldn't budge ; and
at last we had to push buckboaid and horse bodily up.
After this Herculean effort, it became evident that we
should have to make another halt. We eventually
reached shelter and shaganape supper towards eight
o'clock. The gentleman who befriended us this time
rejoiced in a small hut and a large family. We found
no less than twelve people assembled, of which eight
were women, and the atmosphere of the place was
asphyxiating. They gave us a shake-down on the floor,
which v/as luxury itself to our tired bodies ; but, unfor-
tunately, there were babies too in the party, and they
howled without ceasing the greater part of the night.
We had now only a few miles to go, and I felt certain
that we should reach Duck Lake that day. But I was
doomed to be disappointed. When we got to the old
priest's establishment a halt was made. I then found
myself let in for Mass, it being a Saints' Day, and I
never endured anything so tedious in my life. At iirst
the ridiculous ceremony interested me. The old man
put on gorgeous apparel of needle-work and satin, and
two of his faithful flock crooned Latin remarks, which I
knew they did not understand. Then the priest himself

I''

put in his cracked voice, which was speedily followed by a
howl from all the children. This business took two hours
to get through, when we were conducted in a half-frozen
condition to dinner. After our meal I thought we must
start, but, as ill luck would have it, some old woman
caught sight of Barstow and suggested dominoes. He
at once consented, and went off, leaving me to the
tender mercies of the priest. Fortunately he had paro-
chial duties, and I took refuge readily enough in tobacco,
my pencil, and a piece of paper. Of course the dominoes
did not end till late, so we slept theie again. Next day
we waited until a snow storm was i'aiily under weigh
before starting, so as to make sure of a thoroughly
disagreeable drive. This time, as there was nowhere
else to stop, we really did get to Duck Lai e.

On our arrival, we were surprised to fin camped near
us a party of surveyors, who had just co .le down from
the far North, where they had been working for more
than a year. They had been doing, I imagine, the
preliminary work for the Canada Pacific Railway, then
only a half- projected scheme, now a reality. They were
right good fellows, and kept us alive as long as they
stayed in our neighbourhood. Too much alive, I think,
for on one of our visits they brewed some remarkable
stuff which they called brandy and water, but which
produced astonishing head -aches the next morning.
Their halt turned out to be to me a most providential
one. I had learned with dismay, that on our return
journey we should have to go very light, and the fate of
a portmanteau I had brought up hung in the balance.
Here was an opportunity for getting it taken down to
Winnipeg. The party had plenty of pack horses, and
one small bundle could not make any difference. I was
somewhat disconcerted, on broaching the subject, to hear
that the chief had just given orders for each man's
baggage to be reduced to forty pounds, as the horses
were not equal to carrying more through the snow, which
had already fallen pretty heavily. However, I formed a
plot, it worked admirably, and my portmanteau was
saved. The chief had not tasted brandy for months.
We invited hitn one evening to supper ; after it we
begged him to fill himself a bumper out of one of the few

; I

remaininc^ bottles of the priceiesb fluid. It was a mean
advantage to take, but, whilst he was in the midst of
enjoying the long-untasted nectar, I proffered my re-
quest. He could refuse us nothing after such a precious
offering, and found himself compelled to consent.

And so our round of visits ended, and I was heartily
glad of it. I saw and heard little of interest, and all
those stoppages were dull, dreadfully dull. I learned,
however, how utterly hopeless it would be for me to
attempt to live in such a way, the freedom and pleasures
of which have been so often extolled. It struck me that
the reason why I found it so miserable, is that I have no
capacity for doing nothing busily. These fellows really
do nothing ; they don't even talk much, and what they
say is the same thing over and over again. The power
to sit contentedly over a fire and smoke a pipe in silence
is an art, and I regret that I have never made an effort
to master even the rudiments of it.

CHAPTER XV.
The Half-breeds.

HALF-BREEDS form a marked feature in the
North-West Territories ; without whom all in-
tercourse with the Indians would be impossible, for
they are the only interpreters. As probably the reader
knows, there are both English and French half-breeds ;
but I have decided to describe Ics mcti/s Fyan(;ais, as
they call themselves, not only because I had more
opportunities of observing them, but also because they
seemed to have more distinct and salient characteristics,
and, owing to their language, to be less affected by the
influence of emigration. In all countries where the
work of civilization is inconplete, and where the
borderland between heathenism and (Christianity, be-
tween wilderness and settlement, is almost impercep-
tible, the phenomenon of the half-breed is always to be

■ J»-|Miltti'rtli.nAll,-|

• --tti"*^J^.^«>

found. The reason is simple enough. Streams of
emigration are incessantly pouring out of the over-
crowded countries of Europe into those thinly-populated
lands where a man may gain that competence which
inevitable circumstances have combined to deny him at
home. He finds himself in a spot where life is as free
as air, where Nature smiles on and rewards his labour,
and where industry and hard work are the only keys to
comfort and well-being. There he soon loses all the
habits and social restraints of home, and as soon all
desire to revisit the scenes of his poverty. His asso-
ciates are men in a similar position, and he is pretty
sure to imitate their mode of :'^e. He comes in daily,
hourly contact with the savage tribes around him, with
whom he is soon in friendly intercourse. When pros-
perity shines on him, and when he is able to compla-
cently contemplate the good things which hard work has
procured for him, what is more natural than for him ta
be charmed by the dusky graces of the Hottentot maiden
in one hemisphere, or by the bright eyes of a copper-
coloured Cree in the other ? To woo her and to wed her
is simple enough, and the half-breed is the result. My
friends are sprung from a union between the French
colonists and the Cree maidens of the North-West, and
as such have a more distinct nationality than the other
half-breeds. Their ancestors have been severed from
the mother country ever since the days wi.en France
and England fought for the possession of America, and
when the United States did not exist. Unlike their
English co-colonists, they have little or no fresh
European blood brought among them. They have thus
remained unaffected by innovations, and have preserved
almost unaltered their old customs, many of which are
precisely the same as those of the Normandy and
Brittany peasants, from whom they are undoubtedly
descended. In features, in character, in passions, they
are Indians ; in name, in customs, in religion, they are
French. They speak a French which can hardly be
distinguished from the patois of Brittany, and even
their priests are natives of that part of France. So
anxious are they, in spite of their savage proclivities,
that their origin should not be forgotten, that their

1 1

are

and

tedly

they

are
be
even
So
ities,
their

patronymics are among their most jealously guarded
treasures.

The fitful light of a camp fire shows the interior of an
Indian lodge, in which skins, blankets, guns, bowie
knives, and coarse tin plates and cups are strewn about
in picturesque disorder. Roughly-cut joints of buffalo, an
open tea-bag, and some loose sugar are heaped up in a
corner ; whilst opposite, a long-haired youth is propping
up close to the blaze a buffalo marrow-bone, with the
skin and hair still on it. Look at that tall, angular, yet
firmly-built man, who is squatting en his haunches in a
way to which no European frame would lend itself. He
is chattering a queer, yet musical language, in which
the gestures are as plentiful as they are graceful.
Observe his dark complexion, his gleaming black eye,
and his hooked, though well-cut nose ; mar', his high
cheek-bones, his large firm mouth and his low forehead.
His attitude, his surroundings, and his appearance are all
purely savage. Presently he begins humming a weird
and monotonous sing-song, to the accompaniment of a
rude drum, while his companions watch him intently.
Gradually he raises hi voice, and his song grows quicker
and quicker as his movements become more and more
rapid, much after the manner of the dervishes of Cairo.
His hair is now streaming over his face, as he twists and
turns in a frantic way ; and though his excitement is now
intense, his companions still rem.ain silent and motionless.
He is swinging his arms about, holding, or seeming to
hold, a small bit of wood in each hand, which now
and then he plunges into the blanket wrapped loosely
round his body. This is not a sacred observance, or the
worship of Manitou, as might be imagined. No ! It is
the indulgence in that passion which, go where you
will, is practised in some form or another throughout
the whole world — in a word, he is gambling. The game
is one of skill and quickness, and consists in concealing
the pieces of wood, so that the other side cannot name
the hidmg place. It appears at fi'"st to be mere guess-
work, but long practice has made them very sharp, and
coulc

they

I way!

!;■ • n

and half-breeds readily stake their horses, their furs, and
t'le very clothes off their backs, and win or lose with the

equanimity of a Sclave. They have a method of mark-
ing the game with iittle twigs stuck in the ground, and
with nominal bullets for counters, which I could not
quite understand. The game is such a passion with
them that two sides have been known to play for a week
without stoppmg night or day, each man taking a rest
when nature refused to hold out any longer. My friend
is in the thick of it now ; his whole mind is occupied in
trying to outwit his opponent. Both grow wildly excited,
and the song rises and falls from, a frantic shouting to a
low humming, the winner of the last "coup' yelling,
and the loser humming and biding his time. Look once
more at his beardless, bronzed face, his wild eyes, and
his glistening, wolfish teeth, and you see in them
cunning, recklessness, and delirious gaiety. Vanished
is all that is French in him, forgotten are the teachings
of the Church, gone is all that held him in restraint and
clothed him in a thin veneer of civilisation. His real
nature has asserted itself, and he has become a savage.

Now for the reverse of the shield. Look at this
polished gentleman in a picturesque half-Indian dress,
with its gaudy leggings and elaborately embroidered
moccasins, in which all the colours of the rainbow are
indiscriminately mixed. Look at him as he bows you
into his rude hut. with all the grace of a vieux chevalier,
begs you to be seated, and places before you a plentiful
meal, with a charming apology for its simplicity. He
spea.ks a French which, though not the pure Parisian I
like to hear, is neither harsh nor unmusical. He is
perhaps a little stiff in his manner, which is only natural
in a partially reclaimed son of the prairie. His little
vanities are very much on the surface, and his conversa-
tion is a trifle livnited, rarely extending beyond the dis-
cussion of horser in general and the excellence of his
own in particular, the price of furs and the state of the
trade in them. But with what sovereign contempt does
he speak of the Indians — les sauvages, as he calls them !
You could almost fancy him echoing Tennyson's senti-
ments in " Locksley Hall," only he never heard of him
or his poems. With what easy confidence does he assure
you of his own and his family's good qualities, and how
carefully does he try to conceal his ignorance of the

world, while endeavouring to get information which he
pretends to have known before ! The Indian has dis-
appeared, and our friend has now become a courteous
Frenchman, whose hospitality and pleasant welcome
compels you to admire him. So much for first impres-
sions. Now let us go deeper. You find the Indian
qualities so mixed up with the French ones, and yet so
distinct, that at one moment you think him a savage, at
another a Frenchman, and all the time you are sure he
is something of a hypocrite. At home he is a gentleman,
vain to puerility, generous to a fault, and lazy to a vice.
On the plains he is a keen hunter, a perfect guide,
capable of bearing any hardships, a man of energy, and,
in his calling, of ability. He possesses the art of flattery
to a degree that would have excited the envy and admira-
tion of an old courtier ; but he is almost as ignorant as
his despised progenitress, it being quite the exception to
find one who can either read or write. He is, as I say,
the soul of generosity, and parts with a favourite horse
or a valued gun as easily as with the veriest trifle ; yet
gratitude is a virtue of which he does not know the
meaning. He is cunning and sharp at a bargain, yet he
knows of nothing beyond his native prairie. He v/ill
assure you with much warmth of his independence, and,
alm.ost in the same breath, will beg something from you
with all the importunity of a Naples lazarone. He will
speak with scorn of the Indians, yet he is never so
happy as when living among them, and like them.

The reason, I imagine, why you find in half-breeds
such a constant contradiction, and why the French and
Indian characteristics lie side by side and appear in turn
on the surface, is because the Roman Catholic religion
exercises a powerful, though intermittent, influence
over ihem. They are all devout, or seemingly devout,
Catholics, and look upon a Protestant with contempt. So
long as the eye of the Priest is upon them, his influence
is paramount, they are good Catholics, and much more
respectable members of society than their fellow-country-
men of the Protestant faith ; but the moment they are
out of his sight they forget the threats of punishment
for Wiong-doing, and become wholly and utterly Indian
in their unbridled passions and wild recklessness. They

have no stability, no strength of character, no firmness
of will, and the Indian is so deeply rooted in their nature
that no method has yet been found successful enough to
crush out the savage. Nothing will induce them to
adopt any other mode of life than the precarious one of
the chase. Their attempts to trade on a small scale are
nearly always ephemeral and fruitless, and those few
who have been led to try agriculture, have in a short
time, with few exceptions, given it up as a failure. They
spend their money lavishly and foolishly as soon as they
get it, and trust to chance for the future. Their wives
are almost as much slaves as the Indian squaws, and
their huts are rarely more luxurious or cleaner than an
ordinary lodge. They live, as a rule, in a single roomed
building, where their female belongings occupy the post
of domestic servants, not only domg every kind of indoor
work, but also waiting on their lord while he eats, never
being allowed to sit at table with him, or to open their
lips unless addressed. Their customs are a mixture of
old French and Indian ones, and, though their language
is French, they are more at their ease when speaking
Cree. They keep the Church holidays and feasts, but
amuse themselves like savages. They dance like French
peasants, but keep up their dancing, as long as food and
drink will last, in the Indian fashion ; and they love
spirits with an exceeding love, and rarely neglect an
opportunity to {yulgc loquor) get " blind drunk." Weigh-
ing the two sets of qualities which are found in this
people, I am inclined to think they are more Indian than
French, and the balance falls thus because their French
attributes are more artificial, and the Indian ones more
natural. My object has been to describe an average
specimen ; so of course there are many superior, as
there are man^^ inferior, to the one I have selected as a
type. Though one is not long in discovering their
faults, I hasten to say that their pleasant welcome and
unvarying kindness was extended to me wherever I
went.

.« , I

TTnol
1 to

monotc

main

none t

silence

persons

katchev

one wh

have at

misforti

what th

to be t

sooner c

filled ca

eyes, i

him, I (

He was

sparing

heartily

He was

toleratio

within :

censure

a time J

youth; ;

with equ

strict tre

his recti

and wer

They kn

innocent

unless t

the hone

right pla

a better

CHAPTER XVI.
Le Pere Pierre.

IT now becomes my pleasant duty to Hevote a chapter
to a man who did much towards relieving the
monotony of many dull days — days which usually re-
main unchronicled in a book of travels, but which are
none the less wearisome because they are passed over in
silence. My friend le Pere Pierre was the important
personage of the Roman Catholic Mission of the Sas-
katchewan. His individuality was so marked that no
one who has visited the North-West can have failed to
have at least heard of him ; if he should have had the
misfortune to have missed meetmg him. For, no matter
what the subject of conversation, or who you happened
to be talking to, his name was sure to be mentioned
sooner or later. I can still see his well-used and well-
filled cassock, his shaggy beard, and his merry, twinkling
eyes. Should these pages ever chance to be read by
him, I can well imagine his exclamation : " I knew it.
He was an awful man, always poking fun at somebody,
sparing no one, taking notes in order to laugh the more
heartily and heartlessly at everybody aiiJ everything."
He was a jovial priest, with large views and vv'onderful
toleration. Yet (don't mistake me) every half-breed
withm reach of his influence had reason to fear his
censure when they had misconducted themselves. Many
a time have I seen him cuff an obstinate and vicious
youth ; yes, and treat a would-be wanton young woman
with equal severity. But, in spite of his unbending and
strict treatment, everybody liked him. They all admired
his rectitude, placed unbounded faith in his judgment,
and were always ready to be guided by his decisions.
They knew he was at bottom their best friend, and no
innocent festivities and amusements went off really well
unless the jolly, kind-hearted Pere Pierre was among
the honoured guests. He was the right man in the
right place, and it would have been impossible to choose
a better man to fill a post beset with many difficulties.

' I

It is much to be able to say that I never heard anything-
about him which did not redound to his credit. The
priest of a congregation such as his, composed as it was
ifor the most part of men little better than savages, had
need of no little supply of tact, firmness, patience, and
at times of courage. The tract of country over which
he exercised spiritual authority was so vast that he was
obliged to be continually on the move in order to keep
himself and his teachings fresh in the minds of his
scattered flock. To me he was a perfect godsend.
Without him I should have been without society, and it
was in talking to him that I learnt miany of the less
conspicuous features of the country, became acquainted
with the ci stoms of the people, and discovered the true
value of spirits. He used to give me grand oppor-
tunities of indulging in my favourite arguments, and
many were the friendly battles of words which we fought
on those long winter evenings. When the wind was
shrieking round the house, blowing the frozen snow into
deep drifts, we would pile up the fire, light our pipes,
and while we sipped at our steaming glasses of hot
brandy and water, we would settle the affairs of the
universe with mutual satisfaction. These discussions
were often carried on far into the small hours, and by
the time our third glasses were getting empty, we both
used to miake the most startling assertions. The breadth
of my views used often to startle him, and he always
looked upon me as by far the most wicked and reckless
free-thinker he ever y.iw. Dear, simple old man ! How
good-tempered he was, too, except when he arrived from
a long cold drive and found we were out of brandy.
Then his face would fall, and he would bitterly complain
at the hardness of his lot. I shall never forget his
righteous indignation when his consignment of sacra-
mental wine arrived from Paris and it turned out to be
" vin grave." "There is no warmth in such stuff as
that," he exclaimed, in pained accents. " Why do they
not understand that this is not France ? They ought
to know that the thermometer, when it feels in the
humour, can easily fall low enough to freeze such thin
rubbish. Is the Church properly treated, and can the
sacraments be rightly administered with ice ? " Per-

I
(

haps he was rather too fond of ardent spirits. But we
all have our little weaknesses, and I never blamed him
for it. His was a hard life with few enjoyments in it,
and although he never refused a drink, in fact refused to
leave a place until the drink was all consumed, taken in
the aggregate, it did not amount to very much. Spirits
are too rare and priceless to be other than exceptional
luxuries, so that, with the best of intentions (and I will
give him credit for them), it would have been difficult
for this excellent cure to drink too much. I hope he
will forgive me if I conclude this brief mention of him
by relating a little episode of which he was the hero, and
which is both characteristic and true. The story is such
a good one that I fear I might spoil it in the telling. So
I shall venture to give it to you in the words of a friend
of mine, who has a turn for versifying and good-natured
satire.

d by
both
eadth
ways
kless
How
from
mdv.
plain
his
Isacra-
to be
uff as

they

ught
the

thin
n the

Per-

■t

" There lived a priest in the far North-West,
His life was holy and his soul was blest,
Long was his beard and tonsured his head,
Full was his paunch, and people said
He was fond of eating the best to be found.
In the little log hi'ts of the country round ;
But most of all this pious man
Loved ' spiritual ' food in a little can,
Poured from a keg which smelt like gin.
Of course there couldn't have been any in,
For he crossed himself in an open way,
And said miny prayers in the length ot the day.
But oddly enough, if a cork were drawn
The priest would appear in the early dawn.
To preach against drink no doubt he had come.
But still — yes ! he'd take just a ' filet " of rum.
Nov.' liifire — I'm forgetting the point of my song,
And making it really a great deal loo long.
One sabbath in winter he boldly drove off,
In spite of a cold and a troublesome cough,
To perform as he could in this barbarous land
A mass that conformed to the Church's command.
He had in a bag a great number of things ;
His vestments, in which he so beautifully sings,
Some golden and purple, some green and some blue ;
Some candlesticks bright and a napkin or two ;
He'd a censer and incense, but as for the bell,
He thought that a can and a spoon did as well ;
And, last hut not least, he'd a tlask made of tin,
And the wine for the sacrament bubbled within.

E 2

iii

The damsels approached, and with dext'rous hands

Fixed everything up while he gave the commands.

They altered the table — they made it an altar

(I won't pun again, so pray do not falter) ;

They'd a card of the law and a book of the scriptures ;

A selection of cheap but bright-cr)oured pictures.

Now all things are ready. The half-breeds appear,

Their daughters and wives come up in the rear.

All voices are hushed ; 'tis a solemn occasion

For all who belong to the Romish persuasion.

But alas ; as the priest began counting his stock,

He suddenly stopped — he'd experienced a shock.

* The chalice ! I fear I have left it at home.

Without it a mass is forbidden by Rome.

I greatly regret, yet I know you'll agree

' Twould be sinful to act 'gainst the Church's decree.'

And as he thus spoke the flask cau';ht his eye.

He smothered a smile, and heaved a full sigh :

' We can't have a mass, let's drink up the wine ;

I'll preach you a sermon and then we can dine.'

We did as he said. We each look a sip,

But the liquor was scarcely yet dry on the lip.

When a messenger came, the chalice in hand.

The effect on them all I assure you was grand.

The priest only smiled, and most pleasantly said :

' We have tickled our palates, it's time that we fed.'

His speech was a short but a thund'ring oration.

Which spoke of the devil, and hell, and damnation.

The merry old man was soon in his place.

And paid for his meal with a short nnitter'd grace.

When we parted, he blessed us and begged us to come

And see him again, bringing plenty of rum."

PART II.

WHAT I DID THERE

li =tl

CHAPTER I.

We Start Again.

'"T^HE first week in November passed drearily along,
*■ and still Barstow showed no disposition to start
ofif on our buffalo-destroying expedition, which after all
had been the attractive novelty held out to me as
compensation for leaving the comforts of civilization.
He did nothing all day but eat and sleep, and I gladly
testify to the fact that he did both excellently well.
Although I am able, in their place, to take my share of
these two essentials, I found them scarcely sufficient
occupation for the entire twenty-four hours. I was there-
fore strangely delighted when a wholly unexpected
budget of letters arrived from home. I know that
colonists from time immemorial have sung about, written
about, and wept over " letters from home." Until then,
I had considered all sentiment expended on such a
subject as so much sentiment wasted, and had often
thought that it would be bliss to get to a place where
post-offices are not; where you cannot be peppered with
circulars, stabbed with dunning letters, and bombarded
with news every half-hour. Hut I retract all that now.
Crive me the ingenious advertisement, the cheery rat-tat
of the post-man, and even the annoyance of the dun
rather than the weight and monotony of knowing
nothing of what is going on in the world. During these
days of enforced idleness, winter seemed to have been

■

^r.

driven back. The sun shone brilliantly on the glistening
snow, and it was disheartening to think that had I been
under a less '* Fabian " leadership, we might have been
travelling under exceptionally favourable conditions,
instead of, as it afterwards turned out, in the teeth of an
icy cold wind. But let that pass, we did make a start at
last, and the whole settlement turned out to witness the
departure of the hunters, and to wish them good sport
and a safe return. We learnt by report that les
animaux, as the buffalo are called, were within ten or
twelve days' march of us, sheltering among the hillocks
on the prairies which lie in the elbow of the North
Saskatchewan River, so we had to prepare ourselves for
quite an expedition. I heard afterwards, that those
experienced in such matters looked upon our venturing
out so late in the year as little short of madness. How-
ever, Providence is supposed to take drunkards and fools
under its particular care, and it must be owing to this
fact that we did not die of cold or starvation. Now
when I can look back calmly, I know that, had the
buffalo elected to seek other pastures, we should certainly
have perished for want of food. Winter — and especially
such winters as those of the North-West, where I have
often seen the mercury frozen — does not seem to be the
time to pick out for buffalo-hunting, and I recommend
no one to follow our example : but we had no choice.
Besides, when one remembers that one thus escapes the
intense heat and myriads of mosquitos — that the holes,
with which the prairies are honeycombed, being filled
with snow, one runs little or no risk of getting one of
those sudden "croppers" which are the great danger in
buffalo running — and that the animals are more easily
reached in the heavy ground — perhaps it is as good a
time as any, in spits of numbed fingers, frozen cheeks,
jind such like unpleasantnesses. But to our muttons.
We started off our two half-breeds early in the morning
with our ivipcdinicnta packed on an old cart, to be
cut up and used as fire-wood as soon as the snow got
too deep to drag it easily, two " trains-a-glisse," merely
long flat boards, and a "trompcur," or rudely-made
sleigh on wooden runners; in addition to these we had
aj^cariole," a thing something like a long bath, which,

though meant for dogs to draw, came in very usefully.
We took six horses to harness to this miscellaneous
collection of vehicles, and a hard time they had of it
before they got home again with little but skin and
bones on their bodies. Buffalo-robes of course we had
lots of, and each of us had a couple of blankets sewn
into the shape of a long sack to sleep in. My costume,
which has since proved invaluable for fancy dress balls,
was sufficiently fantastic to merit a description. I wore
a cap made of an entire kit-fox, brush and all, an
elaborate moose-skin coat, "mitasses," or Indian leg-
gings with gaiters and regulation fringes, and the thickest
pair of moccasins I could get; and for particularly cold
weathe", a "capot" — a garment like a frock coat, made
of coarse thick cloth, and supplemented by a hood.
Barstow and I made a brave start later in the day,
mounted on our buffalo-runners, and very comical we
must have looked, wrapped up as we were to the very
eyes in fur and wool, for all the world like a couple of
German students prepared to do battle for the honour of
our Corp. We had hardly gone a hundred yards before
Barstow's horse came down in a hidden hole, and he
■vent bowling into the snow, where he lay helpless,
though unhurt, owing to the many wraps he was
wearing. I soon succeeded in releasing him, and in a
few hours we reached our party, just as they were
preparing to camp. It was fortunate that we did not
get more than some ten miles away from habitations,
for, as soon as we began to get our camp in order, we
found that we had forgotten some of the most essential
things for an arduous journey, the duration of which
could not possibly be computed. Flour we had, but
there was no pan to make bread in. The frying-pan
which was to be used for cooking the humble salt pork,
as well as for baking the bread, was discovered with its
handle missing. The tent, theoretically a beautiful
contrivance, proved hopelessly unmountable. These
were disheartening disclosures, but supper was none the
less a necessity. It was quite dark when the whole
magnitude of our misfortunes became apparent. How-
ever we made the best of it. Ther" was plenty of wood
around us, and we began by lighting a huge fire,

then we all stt to with a will and scraped away the
snow near it, and laid out some buffalo robes. We soon
got a pot of water boiling and prepared supper. This
is the menu of our first nl fresco meal: Canards
sauvages glaces, pain gelee, glaces aux pommes seches,
the a la Nord-Ouest, i.e., with a little "Pain-Killer" in
it: thermometer tcii degrees below zero. Our meal, you
will see, was not one to tempt an epicure, but we all
thoroughly enjoyed it. I had taken care that our supply
of tobacco should be a large one, and after carefully and
deliberately smoking a pipe of myrtle-navy we began to
consider the question of sleep, and how best to obtain it.
We had one more try at the tent, only to find it as
stubborn as ever. It simply refused to stand up, and as
soon as we let it go the props gave way like a naughty
child's legs do, when it has thrown itself on the ground
in a temper. However, we managed to .^uild up a sort
of shelter against the wind, made of boughs of trees,
and hoping no bad weather would overtake us, we
retired to rest. The novelty of the situation kept me
awake all night, but, thanks to a mountain of coverings,
I did not suffer from cold. There was plenty of cold about
all the same, for in the morning I found that my blankets
were frozen together, the moisture of the body and breath
having been caught by the sharp frost in spite of our
roaring fire and layers of buffalo robes. At sunrise vve
despatched one of our half-breeds in search of an Indian
lodge to replace the useless affair we had. It took him
all day to do this, and it became necessary to occupy
ourselves till he returned. Barstow, who is the most
philosophical of mortals, never seemed the least put out
at any of our delays, and on this occasion quietly went
out rabbit shooting, as if that was the only object he
had in view. I sincerely envy a man who has the
faculty of thus adapting himself to circumstances. The
rabbits of the North-West are somewhat different to
ours. They are only to be found in the woods, and do
not burrow at all ; they are; of a brownish-white colour,
which in winter turns to snow-white, so that in the
snow they are very difTicult to see. I had already tried
to shoot them, but finding that I invariably selected a
stump to waste my shot on, under the impression that I

was aiming at a rabbit, I declined to join Barstow's
expedition, and started off alone into the open in hopes
of finding stray prairie chicken. Our united bag was
not a large one, viz., a brace of rabbits and a chicken,
but they made us a supper. Just before dark we were
glad to welcome the arrival of our half-breed, bringing
the much-needed lodge. It may be of interest to
describe how an Indian tent is pitched. Three poles of
firwood are tied together and spread out in a triangle
like stacked arms, care being taken that two of them are
only some three feet apart, to form the doorway ; these
are the backbone of the thing, and we never travelled
without them, the other poles, which go towards forming
a conical-shaped framework, were nearly always cut
fresh every night. Round this is stretched the tent
made of deerskin, and drawn to the front, where it laces
up, leaving a hole at the top and a small one at the
bottom, which by courtesy is called the door, though
one coiild only just creep under it, The top is furnished
with two flaps, called " oreilles," which by the help of
other poles can be raised so as to prevent the wind
from blowing the smoke down the chimney — the side
view is then not unlike the mainsail of a cutter. The
fire is lighted in the middle, and there you are, as jolly
as possible, except that you may not stand up with-
out risk of suffocation from the smoke, and that, as
the bottom has to be open all round to give the fire a
good draught, you never can feel /our back quite warm
enough. Of course they differ very much in size. Ours
was but a small one, barel}' large enough for the four of
our party. The dimensions are calculated by skins, and
ours was, I think, a lodge of seven skins, but some of
the Indian chiefs have lodges of over twenty.

That night I realized what a much more serious
journey I was about to undertake than the one up 1 1
headquarters, and which I had considered such a hard-
ship. We had a tent it was true, but the weather had
grown colder and more windy, and I suffered so from the
cold that I was not able to sleep. We made a very late
start the next morning owing to a lazy fit of Barstow's,
and, after c couple of hours travelling, halted for a
mid-day meal which consisted of nothing but pemmican

and tea. We had started out with a good supply of
bread, but the delay caused by the Iryiig -pan's accident
had just been long enough to cause us to be without
any, just at a time when we could not afford to stop and
make more. When our frugal meal was ended it began
to snow, and we prepared for an unpleasant state of
affairs. We were obliged to go on, as our only chance
of refuge was in an abandoned hut, once a telegraph
station, some twenty miles off. The darker it grew the
h:.rd~r it snowed, and the more difficult we found it to
j^ut cur cart along. The abominaiion of desolation
w^uid not be inaptly described, if it weie depicted as a
prc.rie of boundless extent swept by a fierce snow storm,
and i '^'ht coming on. The rude sleighs even began to
slacken their pace before the wind, and it became a
necessity to ease the horses by runnmg. Running is
not and never was one of my accomplishments, and as I
blundered along with icicles hanging to my beard, I
bitterly regretted my folly in allowing myself to be
persuaded into undertaking such a mad expedition.
When I was pretty nearly exhausted one of our fellows
came to my rescue, put me into his "trompeur" and
covered me up with robes. It is impossible to decribe
the delight of this change. I went off into a sort of
opium dream of the most exquisite pleasures, which like
all pleasures was soon over. In ten minutes I was so
cold that I had to get out and run again. This went on
until it was pitch dark, and until I thought it would be
heavenly to lie down in the snow and rest, no matter
what happened. Just as I was beginning to fall about
from exhaustion, I heard a shout of triumph ; the half-
breed's sharp eyes had seen our goal, and I breathed
again. I made one more effort, and a few minutes after
we were all scraping for dear life at the door of the hut,
which was choked up with five or six feet of snow. A
lighted match disclosed perfectly palatial premises.
We were saved. We soon started a fire, which is
always the first thing thought of on the prairies. Once
it is blazing, everything bears another and a pleasanter
aspect, and one makes "light" of one's discomforts
(pun ruthlessly erased). By its light we found some
tables and chairs, and a quantity of old cases which

promised to supply us with plenty of fv el. We also
discovered a lovely bed made of reeds, and hung on
telegraph wires from the rafters of our mansion. We
all cast covetous glances at it, while seci ly hoping
nobody would notice it. You must sle. i on frozen
ground for three or four nights in order to :mderstand
the anxiety each of us felt to secure it, rough as it was.
The question was a serious one, and we decided it by
lot, as if it had been the last biscuit on a ship-wreck raft.
The snow never ceased falling all that evening, so we
doomed our cart to destruction. It was solemnly cut up
and burnt, in order to save the resources of the hut as
long as possible. We could not tell how long we should
be imprisoned, and werf .'>liged to be prepared for the
worst.

ill

CHAPTER II.
A FEW Leaves from my Diary.

PRINTED diaries are, as a le, dreadful nuisances
to read, and I must apolc a for introducing a few
pages of mine at this point. My only excuse for taking
this unwarrantable liberty is, that I find it quite im-
possible, short of this course, to give a true and graphic
account of what " roughing it " is. A bare record of
distances traversed conveys no idea, and it is only by
dosing you with a running, if brief, commentary of
trivialities, garnished with the reflections of the moment,
that I can hope to make you understand what you
yourself would feel, had you been placed in my position,
which, I take it, is the true way to interest a reader.

November i^th, — It is a lovely day and the sun is
shining brightly, but — and a v^ery important conjunction
it is to us — there is a strong east wind blowing, and the
*' poudre " or frozen snow is flying about in blinding
clouds. Our road takes us right in the teeth of the
blast, so that even the hardened half-breeds admit that

-(^

it is beyond human endurance, and that it would be little
short of madness to attempt to travel to-day. We
are therefore stranded for the present, but may consider
ourselves fortunate indeed to have found such comfort-
able quarters. After drawing lots for the bed, Faucon,
one of the half-breeds who won it, generously offered it
to me, and I made for myself what I thought a perfect
bed. But as the thing hangs loosely from the roof, I
find it has a tendency to slide out of the horizontal. In
the middle of the night I woke out of a heavenly sleep,
finding my feet hanging in mid-air, the bed almost perpen-
dicular, and all my wraps on the ground. We breakfasted
pretty late on pork and buffalo-tongue which had reached
an unnecessary elevation. '* Galette," a sort of cake made
of flour and buffalo fat, is to be a special luxury for our
dinner. I have been trying to think what kind of life
the two wretches must have led when this place was
used as telegraph station. I was told they never saw a
soul for six months, and eventually deserted the place
in order to avoid going mad for want of occupation, and
the sight of their fellow men. The poor fellows seem to
have passed a good deal of their time twisting telegraph
wire into useful things. They bound their hut together
with it, they used it for hooks to hold pots over the fire,
to hang their clothes on, and had even constructed an
ingenious gridiron out of this material. I am learning
by degrees the precautions one ought to take to avoid
being frost bitten. Thus — never allow snow or ce to
pass your lips ; both irritate the throat and make you
unnaturally and unwholesomely thirsty. When you
reach camp, at once scrape the snow well off your
moccasins, for unless you do this the heat of the fire will

melt the snow and
you go away from

wet your moccasms. As soon as
the fire this moisture freezes and
you run a great risk of getting your feet frozen. Even
if you do not feel cold run or walk as much as you can,
for the great thing is to keep the circulation of your
blood going freely. From time to time pass your hand
briskly over your face, as you get your cheek or your
nose frozen without being aware of it. When you do
find it out by approaching the fire, it i^' too late. You
will then suffer a great deal of pain, as well as have a

Lt*

)n, and
eem to
egraph
gether
le fire,
ted an
arning
avoid
ce to
ce you
you
your
e will
|)on as
; and
Even
u can,
your
hand
your
■ou do
You
ave a

permanent scar on the spot. We are to stay here all
day and hope for a change of wind to-morrow. It strikes
me very forcibly that, at this rate, we shall be a long
time reaching the buffalo, and that when I have done
with this spell of "roughing" it, I shall not be in a
hurry to try it again. I admit, however, that it is doing
me all the good in the world, and that my health will
benefit much by this violent rousing out of my lazy,
comfort- seeking habits. I feel a pleasure at the least
bit of comfort, such as no civilized enjoyment ever gave
me. I am learning how little a man requires in order
to live, and am realizing how many things there are
which I have looked upon as necessities, but which after
all are merely checks to the enjoyment of health.

November i6th. — I have had a good supper and a
splendid pipe, and now feel that intense happiness which
can only be experienced in camp by the fireside after a
long day's journey. Last night I fixed up my bed with
a couple of old barrels, and made it up warm, quite for-
getting that the weather had grown milder. I soon
found it out, for when I got into my sack, it was not
long before I got into a perspiration. It is my luck
either to be too warm or too cold, the juste milieu always
just escaping me. We didn't leave the hut which had
afforded us such providential shelter until 11.30. To
begin with Barstow wouldn't get up, and then our
horses had wandered so far in search of food, that it took
a long time to find them and drive them in. We had
not been going three hours before it began to snow again
in the most determined manner, so having reached the
banks of the Saskatchewan, it was thought advisable to
camp. I took the precaution to saddle my horse on
this occasion and ride. I find running very hard work,
and there is no praise or gain to be got out of it. We
soon got our lodge up, and in an hour the supper I have
spoken so highly of was steaming before us. I haven't
the least idea how much further we have to go, nor how
much longer we shall take going ; but I have now got into
that charming state when the worst is realized and
e-idured. 1 fed it does not matter, and worrying over
< :oubles to come will not remove them. V ; shall have

.e coldest time of the year to travel down to Red River

^fl

, !

!
i ■

in, and will not have even the scant covering of a lodge.
It sounds awful, but I dare say we shall manage it
somehow.

November ijth. — This morning proved snowy and
windy, so we are obliged to stay where we are. Towards
afternoon things improved ; the sun came out and the
wind went down, but it was too late to think of making
a start. Hilaire, who seems a good shot, brought us a
rabbit, which we discussed for supper with much gusto.
Though fine it still remains very cold. I find my face
scorched by the fire and my back frozen — the sensation
is not pleasant. In order to appreciate our coarse and
roughly cooked food one must have had a hard day's
journey, and to-day I found the bread unpleasantly
stale. Our half-breeds have been amusing us with
that Indian game of which I have spoken. When they
got tired of that, they told us Indian stories in which
talking buffalo and bears occur frequently, and freaks
of nature perform wonderful deeds. They also interested
us with details in their religion. Their legends are all
tinged with the supernatural, but it is curious to notice
that they have a version of Noah and the flood which
in the main is almost the same as that familiar to us all
in the scriptures. I am too cold and uncomfortable,
and the light is too uncertain for me to attempt to write
more. I suppose we shall go on in the morning.

November iHth. — We did not get off till late this
morning, as our horses had again travelled far in the
night. The horses are a constant marvel to me. They
have to work all day, and all night they eat, I suppose.
The question is, when do they rest ? Fancy subjecting
an English horse to such a life ! I should think he
would die in a couple of days, and be glad to do it.
After three hours' march we camped again. It was
awfully cold, and the " poudre" was particularly unplea-
sant. We were ankle deep in snow, and I don't think I
ever did such hard work. I was dead beat; but to get on
a horse was to freeze, so that, though I was ready to drop,
I was forced to blunder on. If this is the sort of weather
we are going to have, I fail to see how I can possibly
enjoy running the buffalo ; I shall be too cold to pull
the trijifrer, let alone hit the beast. I have discovered

't»!-)'

with pain that I shall never be able to run with the do^^s,
and they will have to make a passenj^er of mc. Barstow
is a splendid runner, so that he cannot sympathise with
my exhaustion. He now talks of going a journey of
some six or seven Jays more, to look up one ot his
traders, and we shall run a great risk of dying of hunger
or getting frozen for want of wood. To-morrow night,
if we only make an early start, and the weather treats us
well, we shall enjoy the bliss of camping in one of the
abandoned houses of an extinct settlement called the
" Prairie Ronde." I am sorry to say there is but one of
our frozen ducks left, and we shall after that have to
fall back on dry meat and salt pork and an infrequent
rabbit until we get among the buffalo, when of course
we shall have meat enough and to spare. I am amazed
at the quantity of fat one is able to absorb with relish,
and now understand why it is that the Esquimaux take
so kindly to candles as an article of food.

November igtJi. — Though to-day is Sunday, we could
not afford to rest; provisions are getting low, and it is
imperative that we should reach the buffalo as soon as
possible. We left our last camp at ii o'clock, passing
through a much pleasanter country. The bleak prairie
has given place to pleasing woods, where fuel is abund-
ant. We crossed the river as if it had been terra firma^
but at half-past three found it necessary to camp again.
The sun seems to set earlier every night, and now it
begins to get dark soon after three o'clock, which leaves
us little time for journeying. One cannot have one's
cake and eat it. We ate our last duck this morning, so
to-night our bill of fare was pork and dried meat. Still
I enjoyed it more than I have some of Bignon's choicest
dishes. Last night we were astonished by what there
was no mistaking, positively a shower of rain. I learned
that had it lasted all night every horse in the country
would have died, which is a somewhat sweeping asser-
tion and of serious import to us. It appears that it
would have drenched the grass, 'vhich would soon after
have got frozen and become uneatable. We should
have been compelled to stan back. I a ,i ashamed to
say that I almost hoped sucli a caiastrophe would over-
take us, so anxious am I to return to civilization.

However, Faucon prayed to his grandmother, which is
the only course in these cases according to the haif-
breed's theory, and she considerately interceded on our
behalf and turned the rain into snow. We saw several
chickens on the way, but could not get at them.
Barstow, too, got a shot at a grey wolf, but only
succeeded in frightening him. It is snowing now, and
those who know say we shall have six feet of it. Plea-
sant prospect ! I was wise in my generation this
morning; and kept hold of my horse, which I mounted
whenever I got tired. The poor brute is getting thin in
sjiite of his oats, and I find that his wearing shoes on
his fore feet is against him. While the other horses,
who are shoeless, scrape away the snow and get at the
grass, my unfortunate quadruped scrapes away every-
thing, grass and all. Wc are going to alter this, and
take off his shoes.

CHAPTER HI.
A Few More Stray Leaves.

I SLEPT on the fire side of our tent last night, and
of course found myself too warm. I could not
sleep, and all night long I listened to a concert of
nocturnal noises: hooting owls, barking prairie dogs,
and howling wolves succeeded each other in making
night hideous. What was worse still, I heard ** Nero,"
a mongrel brute of a dog who has elected to share our
fortunes, eating our reserve of "beignes." I managed to
turn him out of the tent, but he devoured a good number
of them in spite of me. We rose early, with the
intention of sL'Ughtering many rabbits to re-stock our
scanty supply of provisions. It was a lovely morning,
and if the supply of deadly weapons at our disposal
counted for anything, we were in lor a regular battue.
A Remington rille, two fourteen shooters, a duck gun,
and two revi)lvers fo.mcd our arsenal. I think the

rabbits must have had early information as to our
intentions, for our combined bag, after two hours
tramping, produced the ridiculous result of one rabbit,
torn to shreds by a rifle bullet. It fell to the unerring
aim of Hilaire, as for myself, I only succeeded in
plunging into a spring, and never saw a rabbit or dis-
charged my weapon. We started on again at 1.30, and
at about 4, after encountering a hail-storm, reached our
present camp. This is evidently the Ue serted Village
of which we have all heard so much, and which is
called the loveliest of the plain, I have often wo'^dered
where it was, but I scarcely expected to fin'' nere.
We have taken possession of the nearest house, and the
one least likely to tumble down about our ears. Faucon
went on in front, and when I arrived at a racing gallop
on a little Indian pony, I found a tremendous fire
blazing on the hearth. It is a small log hut stuffed up
with mud, whose floor is only partially laid with rough
planks, but to us it seems a perfect palace. We have
filled up the window and door with the lodge, and I am
looking forward with great pleasure to a really good
night's rest. Barstow managed to shoot a consumptive
prairie-chicken, and considering its painful condition
it was not bad. For an entn'd we used the tattered
rabbit, and though I have eaten better meals, I found
this smiple one more than enough. We are going to
camp in a house again to-morrow night about five miles
off, which marks the end of the settlement. After that
we go straight out on to the plains, and if our informa-
tion is correct, we may expect to see the buft'alo in a
few days. Last night being fine and clear, the sky was
illumined by the brilliance of the Aurora Horealis, but it
was a great deal too cold to stand in the open and admire
it for more than a minute or two. The " Prairie
Ronde," our present position, is some sixty-five miles
from Duck Lake. To get here we have taken no less
than nine days, so you can imagine how slow and
deliberate our progress has l)een. To-night I have
managed to rig up a lamp, made with a strip of linen
and a lump of buffalo fat, so that my hurried notes are
being written under most favorable circumstances. My
pipe is a delicious one, and I lind it so pleasant to sit

1 4

before the crackling fire, that I am ready to change my
mind about the hardships of roughing it. When we
have bad weather, when I am cold and hungry, and when
the lodge smokes, I curse my luck and dub myself a
fool for leaving the haunts of men, under the impression
that I should like a taste of wild life. Whenever we
reach a house, miserable hut though it may be, when I
am warm and comfortable, I feel perfectly happy in
knowing myself far from the allurements of les femmes,
le vin et le jeu, eating simple, in truth beastly, food, but
enjoying splendid health. And this too, with no change
of linen, no handkerchiefs, no baths, scant washing,
filthy trousers, and the dirtiest of hands. But how I
shall appreciate the luxuries of civilization when once I
get back !

November 2i5(-. — It was 10.30 before we got off this
morning, and for once I was glad of the delay. I had
the best sleep I have had since we started, I suppose
because I had plenty of room to stretch myself, without
being afraid of rolling into the fire, a thing I have done
once or twice in the lodge, and which has not improved
my blankets. We soon reached the end of the settle-
ment, and have now made ourselves quite at home in
another little hut. Barstow secured a brace of chickens
as we went along, so that we were again able to put the
pork and dried meat on one side. The rest of the day
has been a busy one. It has long been evident that our
trains are gradually coming to pieces, so to-day a general
tinkering and mending has been going on. And we can
but hope that they will be found strong enough for the
weeks of rough usage that is yet in store for them. The
work of the evening has just begun, vi/., the making of
many " beignes " and much "galette." The fire is
burning bravely and I admit that I feel more cheerful and
jolly than I ever expected to be. However I must turn
in now, for this is our last night for a Ion.? time in a
house, and I want to make the most of it, and, if
possible, lay in a stock of sleep to last me for two or
three days.

Nov:mhcr 22;/^^— For a wonder it was fine this morn-
ing, and by some niracle we got off at Icn o'clock.
We now have six vehicles, three of them are capable of

ige my
len we
d when
lyself a
session
iver we
when I

•ppy in

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>od, but
change
ashing,
how I
once I

off this

I had

mppose

without

'e done

iproved

settle-

ome in

hickens

put the

he day

lat our

general

we can

for the

The

king of

fire is

ful and

st turn

lie in a

and, if

two or

i iiio/n-
o'clock,
•able of

accommodating a passenger. The weather was a httle
warmer, so I was glad enough to take a seat nearly the
whole way in the blue bath, as we called the cariole,
and very comfortable it was, and a delightful change to
trotting in the deep snow. We got to our mid-day
stopping place and had intended going further, but
rabbit-shooting being suggested, camping followed.
The party secured a brace, I again never so much as
discharging my gun. How on earth they see them I
cannot understand. I astonished myself by going off
without my capote. We crossed the river and made
quite an extended tour round the country, but as game
was scarce we ended by having some rif.e practice at a
stone target. The banks of the Saskatchewan are here
very high and thickly wooded. At sunset the view of
the snow -clad expanse was remarkably beautiful. I feel
I am getting hardened to the cold and can now actually
walk bare-footed in the snow. The lodge, after the
luxury of houses, seems small, smoky, and uncom-
fortable; but after a good supper one can find anything
tolerable.

November 2i,nl. — Another lovely day I crinpand bright.
I started off for the first time without vviajiping up my
ears or putting on my capote. We got o\'i' early :md did
live hours' steady plodding, but we are still on the banks
of the river, and some mileS' from Lac la liiche, where
we expect to find the buffalo. We were fortunate
enough to come across a lot of chickens, and they were
so tame that they sat in the trees like domestic fowls.
It does not say much for our markmanship, when even
under such favourable conditions we only secured three of
them. Tonance fired six siiots with a ritle at one, but the
bird did not take the slightest notice of them. I l)elieve he
would be firing at it now had not the horses gone and
kicked the reckless bird up. A badger proved too cute
for us all, but they managed to get some ral)l)its just before
sun-down. After fasting for about nine liours, Barstow
propounded the absurd notion that it would be better to
keep the birds until morn'ng, because, being hungry we
could eat anything and to-morrow we should be more
fastidious. I am happy to say that cnrpe diem was
more the idea of the rest of us, and an excellent supper

I' 2

was the result. All of us wanted it badly. On our
journey we saw a number of comparatively fresh buffalo
carcases, also the "pistes" or foot-prints of them in
the snow, and we may expect to see some of them
to-morrow. It is not a moment too soon. We have
eaten all our su^^ar, we have no salt, and all our pro-
visions are getting distressingly low. We are therefore
now making for a place where a half-breed is camped
for trading purposes, who can re-provision us, and give
us a chance to rest our horses which bear only too
plainly the marks of the hard work they have had.

There! I think I will now bother you no longer with
extracts from my diary, and hope sufficient has been
written to give you an idea of how we travelled.
Monotonous beyond endurance, is it not ?

CHAPTER IV.
The Buffalo at Last.

WE left our quarters early one beautiful morning
when travelling was a real pleasure ; the air was
crisp, the sun shone bright, the snow glistened, and
every bush seemed to have a crop of diamonds. After
crossing Lac la Biche, we ascended a steep bank, which
brought us to the edge of a huge prairie, extending as
far as the eye could reach— a pathless expanse of glitter-
ing snow, without so much as a stick to break its vast
white level. Before long, one of the sharp-eyed half-
breeds reported some little black specks just visible far
away in the distance. In a moment those specKS
absorbed us all, we had no eyes but for them, and a
tremor passed through us as we mentally ejaculated,
*' The buffalo at last." The trains were stopped, and,
alter a hurried consultation, rifles were loaded, horses
were saddled, leathers looked to ; we all braced ourselves
up, and everybody tingled with suppressed excitement.

Shortly afterwards four horsemen might have been
seen stealing over the plain in the direction of those
specks, which grew larger every moment. They spoke
in whispers, and looked so serious and resolute that they
had more the appearance of a desperate assaulting party
than anything else. Two of them carried no arms ; but
you could see the rifle-barrels glistening in the hands of
two who headed the little company, and you could mark
the keen delight of the chase in the flashing dark eyes
of the Canadians. The last of them all was mounted
on a little mouse-coloured pony, backed like a razor ; he
had no stirrups, and only a blanket for a saddle. He
looked very uncomfortable — and I know he was, for I
was that last one. In short, Barstow and I, being
novices, thought it best to let the half-breeds go first —
not only to show us how the thing was done and get
our horses used to their work, but also to make a
certainty of getting some fresh meat — an article of food
which we were greatly in need of, and the very thought
of which made our moutbs water. There would be time
enough for us to shoot buffalo, for the sake of the sport
only, when all questions concerning our next meal wcie
happily answered.

Profiting as much as possible by the littlr there was
to hide us, we crept on a mile or so without disturbing
our prey Not a sound was heard but tlic measured
crack of the hoofs as they broke throug'i the crust on
the snow. Prairie chir'ens and rabV.its sprang out of
our path ; but we wen fter big game n.Hv. ai'd no one
spoke, or even appeai to notice them. On we went.
Silence ! We are w nn four hundred yards of them
now — nine huge beii > quietly grazing. They see us,
look leisurely about, then start walking slowly awa)' ;
and as soon as the ')acks are turned we (juicken our
pace. Suddenly the half-breeds draw up abreast, give
a whoo-whoop like a view holloa, and dash off at full
gallop. The buffalo start too. Hut the spurt brings the
horses right in among them, and the rifles can ahnost
touch iheni. " Crack ! crack ! " rings out sh.'irply in the
fiosty air, and the bt its scatter in all directions, and
three go off together and disappear. None seemed to
be hit, and I was beginning to think the half breeds

:|.

were not such good shots after all ; but I was mistaken.
Soon one, then another buffalo, fell with a thud, gave a
convulsive kick, and died. A third was desperately
wounded, for I walked up to him and gave him a coup
de grace with a revolver. They proved to be a small
band of matured bulls, who frequently separate from the
rest of the herd because they can no longer hold their
own against their younger brethren. As they grow
older and more feeble they isolate themselves completely,
and generally die alone.

The hunt over, I was able to examine our spoil. They
were huge beasts, with large shaggy heads, enormous
chests and fore power, maned down to the fore hoofs,
ungainly humps, somewhat mean-looking hind-quarters,
and the most ridiculous little tails imaginable, in no way
resembling the creature who serves as an advertisement
to " Boulikon Floor Cloth." whose tail is his strong
point. They seemed harmless enough— not in the least
inclined to show fight with their short thick horns ; and
shooting them appeared to be the easiest thing in the
world. Without any waste of time the "breeds"
stripped off thcu- coats, rolled up their sleeves, and in
an incredible short period had "accommode" (as cutting
up is called) the three carcases, pausing now and then,
I am disgusted to say, to eat a tit-bit raw. I noticed
during the butchering business that they took particular
care not to step in the blood, for that too would have
quickly frozen, and stiffened their moccasins just as
unpleasantly as water would do. That night we made
merry over our good fortune, and enjoyed a supper of
tongue, roast r"bs, and marrow-bones, as only those can
who have been fo'- a fortnight on a diet of salt pork.
We commemorated the occasion by cracking our oiiC
and only bottle of brandy, and slept the sleep of the just
after our tiring day. The bulk of the carcases were
made into what is called a " cache" — that is, piled up,
covered with their hides, and then buried in snow, to
serve in case of necessitv. The breeds had their mis-
givings as to its ;>afcty, for being hurried by approaching
darkness, the " cache" was only a temporar}' one. Next
morning nothing but the hides and bones remained.
The wolves, with which the prairies swarm, had scented

■»

blood, and, sneaking up, had eaten up every shred of
meat in i:he night. None of us felt inclined to get up
that morning. The richness of our surner, and the
novelty o5 a glass of spirits, made us sleep .nost soundly.
We came upon a woody spot, after a few miles travelling,
and we decided to camp there, as wood was now only
found at long intervals. Near this we also descried a
solitary and ancient bull. We knew he must be old to be
thus alone and abandoned, seeking some quiet spot in
v/hich to meet death. Barstow and I thought he would
be a first-rate animal for us to make our maiden attempt
on. I grant it was somewhat cruel, but I did not know
then what I know now about their habits. Barstow was
on the quickest and handiest horse, and, when we made
our dash, he was the first to reach him. The old gentle-
man seemed anxious to die, for he made no effort to
escape. Barstow fired at about five yards just when the
buffalo turned to face us, and this caused him to receive
the ball in his shoulder. I fired almost immediately
after, and, so su'V. ily did Barstow pull up, that it was
little short of a h ,,acle that I did not shoot my com-
panion. The poor old beast glared at us for a second,
raised his tail — the signal for attack — and the next moment
rolled heavily over, when a revolver bullet finished him.
We did not cut him up as he was too old and diseased
for food.

We now started right out into the open, and were
obliged to cart our wood, as well as economize it as much
as possible. The weather had become many degrees
wanner, so we could afford to let our fire go out as soon
as our supper was cooked. We continued to travel
slowly on towards the camps of the wmter traders,
stopping once a day to kill a buffalo or two. There were
always some in sight, so that we had never far to go. A
day or two after our exploit with the aged bull, we fell in
with the biggest herd we had yet seen, containing not
less than one hundred head. Among these we expected
to find some cows who supply both the best meat and
the most valuable robes. Barstow and I now determined
to have a proper run on our own account, that is,
mounted on the only two horses which could claim the
nanie of buflalo-runner. We selected a likeiy-lookin

1)1

if
n

■ ,»

band, and crept up to them as we had seen the breeds
do. So far, so good ; but, when it came to the final
burst, I was all at sea; I not only found it difficult to
guide my horse without reins, but also hard work to get
him near enough without spurs, which I had neglected
to provide myself with. The buffalo do not appear to go
fast, but they keep up a steady canter, which after a short
time takes them right away from such horses as we had.
I managed, however, to get pretty near one at last, but
I found shooting from the hip at full gallop was a very
different thing to shooting from the shoulder, and I only
succeeded in wounding him after firing several shots.
My horse was pumped, and so was I, and he got away
from me. I consoled myself with the thought that, with
more practice, I should eventually ibag one. The next
time I tried I thoughtlessly took off my gloves, and,
when the critical moment arrived, my hands were so
frozen I could not pull the trigger, and there was nothing
for it but to jump off and thaw them under my horse's
saddle. After repeated failures, I at last killed one, but
not without using a good deal of ammunition. Though
I ran them often after this I never could do more than
wound them ; my horse was too slow and lazy for the
work, and the buffalo got away from him too soon forme
to do any execution. Our party had now killed more
buffalo than we knew well what to do with, so we decided
to journey on without attempting to shoot any more.
Barstow kept two hends to take back with him, but none
of us thought the robes worth carrying. You see they
were no use to us in an undressed condition, besides
which they soon got frozen as stiff as a board, and in this
state were most awkward things to pack. This practically
ended our buffalo-running, but I had many dreadful
things to endure before I reached Duck Lake, and which
I hope you will find of interest.

r -^

CHAPTER V.

A Parting and an Adventure.

hough

1 'TRAVELLING had now become both tedious and
monotonous. The excitement of seeing and chas-
ing buffalo had worn itself out ; we had all the meat we
wanted — often more than we could conveniently carry,
especially as Barstow was taking two heads to have
stuffed when we got back ; and everybody v^as sick of
the name of buffalo. We often savv^ them in the distance,
but we took no more notice of them than if they had been
a lot of bullocks in an English meadow. The weather
was fine it is true, for which we were very thankful. But
when you have seen a series of glorious sunrises and
sunsets for a fortnight, and found nobody will take the
least interest in them, they fail to rouse any enthusiasm.
These beauties, to be really appreciated, must be seen
in selected company — tete-a-tete for choice. Our horses
had become mere skeletons from their incessant work
and the poor food they were able to find under the snow
on these barren prairies — our little supply of grain had
long smce been eaten. Poor brutes ! they were pitiable
objects, and it was hard work to thrash them into keep-
ing up even a three-m.iles-an-hour walk. Day after day
passed without our seeing a soul ; and with the exception
of buffalo, not a living thing did we meet, not a bird or
even an insect. This I think began to affect our spirits,
and made us morose and disinclmed to speak, just as
Arctic explorers gradually settle down to absolute silence
after a period of isolation. Our road took us through a
country entirely without trees or anything which could
be used for fuel, and we were obliged to save up the
charred remains of our fires, pack then' carefully away,
and use them again. More than once we had to burn
pieces of our sleighs in order to get enough heat to boil
the kettle. " Buffalo chips," as the dry dung of the
buffalo is called, are often used when nothing else can
be found to burn, but we were not fortunate enough to

r-!l:

1 '1

it;

find any, though we were always on the look out for it.
We were accustomed to, and did, exist on very little, but
we felt that we could not get on without tea. In such
a climate it would have been dangerous to attempt to
slake one's thirst with snow, and would no doubt have
aftected us almost as seriously as drinking salt water.
We had finished all our sugar, and we had not enough
fire to cook our flour into the unleavened and saltless
bread we had hitherto been able to make. I have heard
it said that man cannot live without salt, but that is
certainly a mistake, for we had long been without any,
and after the first two or three days we never noticed its
absence or felt the want of it. We were thus reduced to
a diet of hastily-roasted buffalo and lea. Just enough to
live on and that was all. One of our half-breeds having
collected what he wanted in the shape of fresh meat,
now proposed to return with it to his wife and family.
I have always admired that man's confidence in himself.
We wished him good luck, and off he went without the
slightest misgivings. He took nothing with him but a
few handfuls of tea, a small box of matches, and a little
tobacco. We gave him two sleighs filled with buffalo
meat, and three horses to drag them. He had a journey
of at least seven days before he could get to the " Prairie
Ronde." For two nights he would have to lie down in
the snow, wrapped in a much-worn robe, without so
much as a fire to comfort him after his long tramp, and
without a can of tea to warm his chilled body. We
could give him no wood, and there was not a bush
within thirty miles. Still, in spite of this miserable
prospect, he started off as cheerfully as if he were only
going a few miles, and, what is more, he arrived safe
and sound. These fellows are of course accustomed to
journeys of this kind all alone, for I could not persuade
him when we met again that he had done anything
extraordinary. Yet, if bad weather, always a possibility,
had delayed him, or had his horses given out, which, to
look at them, seemed not improbable, I cannot see how
he could have escaped death from cold and exposure.

I had quite an adventure shortly before we reached the
winter quarters of the traders, which very nearly proved
fatal. One day we thought it would be fine sport to try

and trap a wolf with the remains of a carcase for bait.
The wolves in northerii Canada are very large, and
though naturally of a greyish-yellow colour, they turn
almost white in winter — a dispensation of Nature, no
doubt, to prevent their being seen in the snow. They
do not move in large packs — three or four were the most
I ever saw together — and, unlike the Russian ones, are
great cowards, and never venture to attack a man, even
when driven by hunger, though they often sneak into
stables and kill horses. That they act differently when
wounded will be seen by the sequel. They are almost
invisible on the snow-covered prairies, and seem to
spring out of and vanish into space like evil spirits.
Their scent is marvellously keen and acute, and I re-
member one day strolling over to see a fallen buffalo,
just killed and still warm. Already there were three
wolves at work on him, and I was too late to save the
tongue, which had been torn out ; it is a delicate morsel
they always dispose of first. We baited and set our trap
in the afternoon, and that evening, being a moonlight
one, we sallied out to see if we had caught anything.
When we approached the spot, sure enough we found a
fine big fellow nipped fairly and squarely by the paw, and
standing there as if he were wondering what to do next.
As I was the stranger and the guest, it was proposed
that I should have the privilege of going forward to a
convenient distance and despatching him with my rifle.
Accepting the offer with pleasure, I stepped towards him
and, as I am not the very best of shots, I determined to
get near enough to make sure of killing him with my
first barrel. I got within twenty yards of him, and was
going a little nearer, when, to my amazement, he
suddenly sprang forward, broke the chain of the trap,
and, carrying it along with him, came bounding at me
with the angry growl of a wild beast at bay. It was so
little what I was expecting, and took me so by surprise,
that my first impulse, I won't deny it, was to drop my
rifle and run ; but he was almost on me in an instant.
I had dropped my rifle, but I had just sufficient presence
of mind to draw my bowie-knife and hold it out before
me with a trembling hand, in the hope that if he
sprang at me he would stab himself. My companions,

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33 WIST MAIN STRUT
WItSTIR.N.Y MSM

fortunate -y for me, had seen what had happened, and one
of the half breeds snatched up his rifle and fired. I don't
know what took place ; but when the smoke cleared oft',
I found the beast had fallen literally at my feet, with a
bullet through his body and a stab in his breast. It was
a fearful shock, and I never look at his skin, which I of
course kept, without thinking with a shudder of my
narrow escape.

CHAPTER VI.

1 '

Winter-Quarters and Growls.

AFTER spending three weeks travelling incessantly,
and never sleeping twice in the same spot, it was
much to, at last, reach a place where one cojld again
get a sight at one's fellow-creatures, and where one
could take a few days of thorough rest with no gloomy
thoughts about wood. I enjoyed it beyond measure,
and 1 am sure that if possible our poor horses enjoyed
it still more. We managed to get a shake-down on the
floor of an English half-breed's hut, though he was not
the man whom we had expected to find, and on whom
we had, all along, been trusting to re-provision us. He
was some miles further off, and we had lo make up our
minds to a little more tramping in the snow. We found
this resting-place swarming with Indians in all-coloured
blankets, all squalid and wretched-looking, and all
innocent of those qualities which the world has been
pleased to ascribe to the noble red man. The nomadic
colony in question was hard at work " robe passing *'
and skin drying, at least the female portion of it was,
for, it is one of the salient virtues of your true red Indian
that never will he do a single stroke of work which he
can get his women-folk to do for him. Whenever you
approach an Indian camp you will always see a lot of
work being done ; but you may be certain that the men
are not doing it. The two sexes among the Crees are
so alike in appearance and dress, that it is almost

impossible to tell a man from a woman. The only way
to distinguish is by their occupation. If you see a
creature sitting down smoking it is a man ; but if you
see one doing anything in the way of work, no matter
how unsuited for the strength or capacity of a woman
that work may be, you may swear that it is a woman.
The process of getting a buffalo-skin from the rough to
the condition which entitles it to be called a ** robe " is
a much longer affair than one would imagine, and the
poor women seem to be leaning over scraping at them
from early dawn until sunset, which fortunately for them
rarely exceeds the hour of 3.30 in winter. We went
round, after our first night's rest, and inspected the
lodges ; they were mostly about the same size as ours,
only older and more full of holes. There was no way
of getting away from these savages, they had nothing to
do, and were therefore able to devote the whole of their
time to us. Ten or so of them insisted on calling on us
the first thing in the morning, almost before we were up,
and they would stay with us until late at night. They
said very little, and what they did say of course we
could not underctand ; but they smoked a great deal,
spat incessantly, att and drank anything you offered
them, and objierved our every movement with all the
intensity of a cat v/atching a mouse. We also visited
the chief of the tribe. We found him a very shabby old
gentleman and the happy possessor of three dreadfully
plain, dirty old wives. His lodge was a large one, in
which there were many ingenious devices for making
yourself comfortable. It seemed particularly sumptuous
to us, after living so long in a tent in which it was
impossible to vStand upright. I soon discovered that the
greater the chief >'-he greater the beggar, and it was not
long before our friend had annexed a good many odds
and ends from among our small stock of possessions.
He honoured us to the extent of making us a set speech,
though the Indians are as fond of being verbose as a
budding politician. His oration was rich in gestures
and was no doubt as flowery as anything Mayne Keid
has put into the mouths of his red men. I am sorry I
cannot give it to you verbatim, bnt it was only huniedly
translated to us. However, the gist of it was : — That

we had no right to come and shoot his animals, that the
governor and himself had made arrangements for their
preservation, and that a law was to be enacted handing
over all the buffalo in the country to himself and his
tribe, who alone were to enjoy the privilege of killing
and eating. He was pleased, however, to be gracious to
us, because, as we afterwards heard, he was anxious to
become the possessor of a rifle. I believe he was very
indignant when we left because Barstow did not make
him a present of one. I was exceedingly hungry after
the long harangue, but I found it quite impossible to
swallow the nasty stuff the chief placed before us. The
mess was unpleasant enough in appearance, but when I
saw his squaws and their offspring plunging their filthy
fingers into the greasy dish, I really couldn't attempt to
eat any of it, but he gave us sugar with our tea which
was a luxury unknown to us for weeks. While in this
camp we purchased some dogs for our trains ; Barstow
had none at his place, and as we required at least twelve, it
became necessary to begin collecting them at once, so
as to be ready to start as soon as possible after we got
home again. Of course the half-breeds were quite in
their element among the Indians, and nothing pleases
them so much as an opportunity of showing how vastly
superior they are to them. They did everything to
delay our departure so that they might gamble with
them at that game which I described elsewhere. They
always think the Indians are easily duped, and look
upon them much as a racing sharp does a greenhorn.
They spoke confidently of winning a horse or two,
besides sundry other useful things. As often happens,
they were sold. I believe one of our fellows lost his
horse, the best of our lot, including his bridle and
saddle. It took him all one day and most of the night
to do it, so I suppose they were pretty evenly matched,
and then he gave the savage who won it five lbs. of tea,
and called it (juits. I was very glad when in a couple of
days we made a fresh start in the direction of Swift
Current River, for not only was it disagreeable living in
the midst of the unsavoury savages, but I could find
nothing to do, and our food was getting so infrequent
that I was fain to go to bed with a very empty stomach.

As a sample of my life at the time, kindly read the
following extract : —

We have come about a mile away from the Indian
quarters, but Barstow and the half-breeds could not
resist the temptation of going back to spend the evening
with them. I am therefore all alone. The lodge
threatens to fall every minute as it bends before a strong
wind, the fire gives but a fitful light, and helps to make
my surroundings look weird and uncanny. I have just
put a tongue on the boil for to-morrow's breakfast, a can
of tea is within my reach, and my old pipe is smoking
bravely. This is the first bit of solitude I have had
for a long time, and I am thoroughly enjoying it.
They say man is a gregarious animal, but I for one
couldn't live unless I had some hours now and then
when I can be perfectly alone ; I am filled with amaze-
ment when I think of the dreadful exile I have
willingly imposed upon myself. Here I am, some
six or seven hundred miles from civilization, lying
on a pile of robes in an Indian tent on a cold winter
night. When I describe myself further, I do not re-
cognise myself at all. Famished with hunger, I have
just eaten a lot of half-cooked buffalo meat with my
fingers off a greasy plate which has not seen water for
weeks. My hands are black with filth ; I have worn the
same clothes for over three weeks ; my hair is down to
my shoulders, and my face is the colour of mahogany.
I feel that I am now thoroughly cured of any desire to
wander beyond the limits of civilization, and for the
future shall endeavour to confine my restlessness to the
exploring of places within reach of that noble institution,
the main-spring of independence, the railway. What
helps to keep me irritated is that there is no way,
short of flying, for me to make an end of it. I must
drink the cup to the dregs, and I cannot call myself my
own master for at least two months, by which time I
hope, if I am lucky, to once more hear the music of
a railway whistle. As I was preparing for bed, the dog,
our new purchase, began to howl dismally. I undressed
myself as much as I dared ; the fire was almost out
when I saw the little door of our lodge cautiously lifted,
and then two black eyes peering at me through the

w. f

? !

gloom. Here was a situation. Of course it was one of
those wretched savages, and by his coming at that hour
of the nigl t (it was after i o'clock) he must have come
on an annexing expedition. He came in, and said
something I did not understand, and my only answer
was to pick up my bowie-knife in a significant manner.
I offered him a cup of tea, not knowing what else to do.
He took it, and at once became loquacious and friendly.
Our conversation was carried on by a method of his,
which would never have occurred to me. He pointed to
some object, and then gave it its name in Cree. In this
way he amused himself for an hour, while I found it
dreadfully fatiguing, and only kept myself awake by an
effort, and by the fear that he might steal something if
I went to sleep. At last even he saw that I had had
enough of it, and after shaking me warmly by the hand,
he departed much to my relief. But my slumbers that
night were light, as I never could be quite siire that
other visitors would not call before morning.

At day-light my companions returned with red eyes
and parched tongues, the result of sitting up all night
smoking and drinking pain-killer. They brought several
Indians with them, who positively refused to leave us.
Towards noon they were persuaded to go home, and we
started, but we only succeeded in travelling a few miles
when darkness came on. The road was dreadfully bad,
and our " trompeurs " had become so rotten that we had
to stop every now and then to tie them up. Two days
more of weary, monotonous travelling passed by, and at
length we reached Swift Current River. Our poor horses
were almost beyond another effort, and our sleighs were
a mass of bandages. We ourselves were reduced to our
last pair of moccasins, our last pound of tea, and our
last handful of flour. I shall never forget how thankful
I was to be able to say that we had reached our turnmg-
point, and that when we started again our faces would
be turned southward. I was very, very tired of it all,
and I expect you, reader, are also. The rest of my
journey to Duck Lake, I promise you, shall be shortly
told.

CHAPTER VII.
Back at last.

jy an

had

land,

that

IT was a fine afternoon in December. Columbia's
sun was drawing myriads of diamonds from the
snow-clad hills. A mild zephyr had for a time van-
quished rude Boreas, and had brought warmth and
brightness in its train. Six hundred miles from the
vestiges of civilization, in an obscure and nameless
valley, sat a miserable being. Nothing but the regular
beat of an axe against a tree broke the silence. Not a
living thing could be seen. That miserable being was
me ; and I was miserable because I was bored to death,
because everything around me was so hopelessly uncon-
genial, and because I was suffering from the dreadful
affliction of having nothing to do. Swift Current River
is a grand name, but its resources were painfully small.
To me it proved a case of " out of the frying-pan into
the fire." With the Indians I lived on nasty messes ; I
was forced to be cheek-by-jowl with unsavoury savages,
and I was compelled to be the unwilling spectator of an
all-night orgy of pain-killer, gambling, and drum-beating.
At the river things were no better, and everything was
so terrible that I had to go and hide myself in the woods
to get away from it all. For four days I lived in a small
log hut, surrounded by dogs with rare talents for mid-
night howling. This hut contained but one room, with
the bare earth for a floor. The proprietor of this magni-
ficent mansion was the proud father of no less than five
small girls, who wallowed in filth and quarrelled noisily
all day long. As if that were not enough, there was a
baby, who for howling held its own with the dogs. The
floor of this awful abode was littered with dirty rags,
greasy plates and spoons, scraps of meat, bones, and
every conceivable kind of filth. There were three beds
in three of the corners ; on these, three or four long-
haired, greasy-bodied, feeble-minded half-breed youths
lounged all day, taking it in turns to scrape a cracked
fiddle to the same tune, while the others danced a sort

of double shufiie. The unhappy mother of the brood,
who looked worn and ill, wandered about, and with the
same filthy hands wiped her offsprings' noses, prepared
the food, and held her tired head. Her lord and master
reclined in a broken-down arm-chair, and smoked uncon-
cernedly through all the din ; but he never did a thing
towards lightening his poor wife's burden, who seemed
to be hard at work from sun-rise until late at night. In
the midst of these very unpleasant surroundings, the
days, though they were short enough in actual time,
seemed endless. There was nothing to shoot nor a
book to read, and not a person who had an idea to speak
to. I smoked until my tongue got blistered, and I
thought till thinking drove me mad. For my thoughts
turned to cigarettes, Turkish baths, clean linen, decent
meals, and such like impossibilities. The solace of
paper and pencil, which had hitherto helped to while
away many a tedious hour, now began to fail me. There
was absolutely nothing for my mind to dwell on but the
perpetual " When I get to Red River." And that happy
event seemed so far away, and so hopelessly wrapped in
uncertainty, that I found it better not to think at all.
However, all things come to an end at last, and after
four days of torture we made a start once more. Our
provisions were not exactly abundant, but we had
enough to keep us alive. Our next halt was made at
Mosquito Lake, where Barstow had an employe trading
with the Indians. We took up our quarters in one of a
line of hovels hardly larger than sentry-boxes. It was
unspeakably filthy, but I found it a pleasanter place
than the one we had just left. It is true there were ever
with us five or six Indians sitting round the fire, smoking
and spitting in silent wisdom. At least, silence in an
Indian is supposed to indicate wisdom ; but you may
take my word for it that it is only a proof of their
empty -headedness. They don't speak, because their
minds are a blank. Still this was a heavenly rest, after
the torture of those howling children and that awful
fiddle-scraping. We stayed in this settlement some two
or three days, I forget how long it was exactly, for I had
fallen into such a melancholy state that I did not notice
the lapse of hours and days. All I can tell you is that

brood,
ith the
epared
master
uncon-
i thing
leemed
It. In
gs, the
1 time,

nor a
) speak
and I
loughts
decent
lace of
while

There
but the
t happy
pped in

at all.
id after
e. Our
we had
nade at
trading
Dne of a

It was
ler place
ere ever
smoking
e in an
rou may
of their
se their
ist, after
at awful
ome two
for I had
ot notice
a is that

we started again after a time, and that it took us from
the i8th to the 27th of December to reach Duck Lake,
during which time we saw no living thing. Our horses
were then scarcely able to stand, and how they ever got
back at all has always remained a mystery to me. I
remember on Christmas-day we had a particularly long
and tiring day's march. We had got short of victuals
again, and it was absolutely necessary for us to walk if
we hoped to save our horses' lives. I3ut as soon as we
began to get within measurable distance of Duck Lake
my spirits began to revive, and the prospect of real rest
gave me fresh courage. In fact, I was inspired on
Christmas-night to the extent of writing some lines on
the occasion, which are very much at your service.

I've spent Christmas in country and Christmas in town,

When dullness and boredom were weighing me down.

I've spent it at home, and I've spent it abroad.

The pleasures of which I consider a fraud.

I've spent it on railway, I've spent it at sea.

When the day was as long as a day well can be.

I've spent it surrounded by friends and relations.

When all will confess 'tis a day of probations.

I've spent it in reading all day in my bed,

When I ought to have done something wiser instead.

I've spent it with her — ah ! then the time flies

In a dream of warm kisses, sweet smiles, and soft sighs.

I've spent it in trying to quite understand

Why the day is so dull in our fog-girdled land.

I've spent it, in fact, in as many odd ways

As anyone can who but impulse obeys.

But the queerest of all that my wandering knows

Is the one which I spent in the region of snows.

When, tired of Europe, I started in quest

Of buffalo and wolves in the land of the West ;

Far from the turkeys, plum-puddings, mince-pies,

Light laughter and music, glad greetings, bright eyes.

I travelled all day, it was bitterly cold,

Ate nothing but " pemmican," nasty and old.

Which I moistened with milkless and sugarless tea ;

And that's all that Christmas that year was to me.

Let me conclude this painful chapter by giving you a
specimen of the toughness and endurance of Barstow.
No wonder he felt little sympathy with me when I got
tired and dead beat. One of his half-breed employes
had come with us from Mosquito Lake with a dog-
sleigh, meaning to take it back again with goods to

G 2

lOO

trade with. When we got within about forty miles of
Duck Lake, Barstow started off with this fellow, who
was a professional runner. They left us at eight o'clock
one morning, at a sharp trot, and actually ran the whole
distance, and got comfortably in before night. We
who remained with the tired horses had to make a two-
days' journey of it, and then it was night when we
arrived. I shall never forget the exquisite bliss of
getting into bed that night, nor the joy of knowing that
next morning I should not have to get up at sun-rise
and drive horses all day.

This brings me almost to the end of the second part
of my experiences. They began well, but ended very
tamely. I fear I have given you but dull reading, and
I can only say that it is a truthful record of what
happened. Roughing it is dull work.

:! J

CHAPTER VIII.

Resting and Preparing.

THE six weeks spent on the plains had seemed
intolerably long and wearisome to me, but, when
once they were over, I could not deny that I was glad I
had undertaken the expedition. There is always a
feeling of satisfaction in looking back at hardships
endured, more especially when you have accomplished
something which most people have not done. I had
seen and hunted the buffalo, I had learnt the meaning of
roughing it, and I had come back with the priceless
possession of perfect health. I could scarcely recognise
in the bronzed and bearded face, in the .':lear eye, in the
long flowing hair, in the broad chest, and in the well
filled limbs, the miserable sallow creature with dull eyes,
pale face, and wasted appearance of four months before.
The pure air, the simple, and in truth, filthy food, and
the constant exercise, had made me bodily a changed
man. I had filled out so much that my clothes, that is

les of
', who
'clock
whole
We
a two-
en we
liss of
g that
Lin-rise

d part
d very
g, and
■ what

seemed
It, when
1 glad I
ways a
irdships
nplished
I had
aning of
priceless
ecognise
e, in the
the well
lull eyes,
IS before,
ood, and

changed
3, that is

lOI

my civilized clothes, seemed too tight everywhere, my
digestion was capable of any feat, and I felt that I had
lengthened my life by ten years, if that can be considered
an advantage. Shortly after our return, the knowledge
that Duck Lake had become possessed of a keg of
brandy soon spread over the country, and almost as
soon as the fluid was unearthed, the Pere Pierre arrived
as if by instinct, and took up his abode with us. The
jovial priest was in his element when spirits were visible.
I found him excellent ':ompany after my many weeks of
almost perfect silence, and I venture to say that we had
a friendly discussion on every subject under the sun, on
all of which we differed in the most delightful way.
He found me alarmingly broad, I declared him shock-
ingly narrow. However, as soon as the keg was dry,
and it dried very rapidly, he felt it was his duty to
return to his parish. He was anxious to take me with
him, but I told him it could not be. I protested that his
example of godly life al^iost persuaded me to become a
Roman Catholic, and that I considered it was my duty
to my relatives to keep away from so powerful an
influence. While we had been away, the Duck Lake
mansion had undergone a complete renovation. The
ingenious New Brunswicker who came up with us
as cook, and whose Mark Tapley nature had made
me cheerful on many depressing occasions, had done
wonders with the few materials at his disposal. The
spare room looked simply magnificent, and seemed a
marvel of cleanliness and comfort when compared to
the filthy holes I had been accustomed to.

It now became my duty to inform my relatives that I
was still alive. As luck would have it, a single sleigh
passed our quarters on the way down from the most
Northern Hudson Bay Forts, and we easily persuaded
the solitary occupant to spend a few days with us, while
we got our letters ready. It is only after living in the
open air for weeks that one really appreciates being
indoors, and I looked upon the prospect of writing all
day as little short of luxury. I have a mother, which is
usual, and my first thoughts were for her. I knew the
dear old creature, in spite of my warnings concerning
the uncertainty of posts, would be worried and anxious

*iii

102

I I

1:1;

at my long silence. I could see her fretting herself to
death in the far away home, imagining all sorts of unlikely
accidents must have overtaken her worthless darling,
and trembling every time the wind blew at night, as if
she knew I must be cowering from it on the frozen
prairies. We gave the half-breed a whole sheaf of
letters, and wished him God-speed on his long, lonely
journey. Hardly had we wiped off the fatigue (it would
be absurd to say dust when snow had covered all) of
our journey, when to my amazement. Barstow, contrary
to all precedent, began bestirring himself with a view to
starting as soon as possible for Winnipeg, which now
seemed to me to be the very centre of civilization. The
country was scoured for dogs, the weight of our
impedimenta was calculated, men were engaged to
accompany us, and in less than a fortnight we were
almost ready to start out on our last and most perilous
journey. The first thing to be got ready were the
sleighs, or " trains " as they are called, and the vague-
ness of the latter word certainly better describes the
nondescript afi'airs they proved to be. We were to be a
party of four, so it was arranged that we should have a
train a-piece, each drawn by four dogs. Our old and
valued friend, the "cariole," was patched up, and with
but slight alterations was made suitable for a team of
dogs. The other vehicles were sublimely simple in
their construction, and merit a brief description if only
to prove how difficult it was to attempt to travel as a
passenger. The principal part of the structure was a
thin strip of oak, about eight or ten feet long and a
foot and a half broad. The end nearest the dogs was
turned up so as to slide easily in the snow. About three
feet from the back end was fixed a board, against which
you leant in a sitting position, on those rare occasions
when the road was good enough and the thermometer
high enough for you to indulge in a rest. Our luggage
and provisions were simply tied on anywhere where they
would stick with shaganape strings. As the sleighs
have to be made narrow in order to offer as little resist-
ance as possible, you may imagine it did not take much
to make them top-heavy. It became therefore a feat
rather than otherwise to prevent yourself from filling

103

off, and the least inequality in the ground invariably
capsized the concern, and sent you rolling into the
snow. Dogs did not seem so plentiful as we could
have wished, at least dogs such as we required, and I
soon saw that, if nothing ilse stopped us, we should be
delayed some time for want of sufficient hauling power.
Our sixteen dogs, when we got them, would have to be
regularly and liberally fed, and, allowing them no more
than two pounds of pemmican each per diem, it was not
considered too much to start off with five hundred
pounds of food for them. We were obliged to make
some allowance for unforeseen accidents and delays, so
you will see that we had not much room for luxuries.
In fact we could afford to take nothing but the bare
necessaries of life. I know my entire wardrobe could
have been easily packed away in a bandbox. The first
thing to be left out of our list was the tent. It only
seemed natural to the others to travel without so heavy
and bulky an encumbrance, so I said nothing. But in
my inmost thoughts, the prospect of sleeping out in the
open prairies with nothing but blankets and buffalo-robes
between us and the bitter cold, seemed little short of
suicide. Especially as, when the subject was discussed,
it was all we could do to keep from freezing in the house
with no less than three stoves burning night and day.
Still, I had got fairly hardened, and I tried to console
myself with the reflection that what they could bear I
ought to be able to bear, and that probably it sounded a
good deal worse than it really was. Another thing
which filled me with dismay was the knowledge that on
all expeditions with dogs, the party has always to do a
great deal of runnmg, as it is impossible, except when
going very light and for a short distance, for them to
drag you along as horses would do. All they can be
expected to do in heavy snow is to carry your luggage
and provisions for you. I may be conceited, but I have
always had the most modest opinion of my running
capacity, and I can safely say that before this I had
never run a mile in my life. I explained to Barstow
that with all the will in the world, I was sure I was
physically incapable of running more than a mile at a
stretch, if that. He admitted the statement, and good-

104

naturedly promised that the cariole should be packed
very light, so that whenever it was possible I should
travel as a passenger. This re-assured me, and it
seemed that so long as the snow was not too deep, and
provided we had good weather, we had not much to fear,
and might expect to reach our destination in about three
weeks.

Most of the snow falls in December. January is
generally a fine clear month, and so intensely cold that
not a breath of air stirs, and the very atmosphere seems
to be frozen. Siill anything like snow- storms, *' poudre,"
or invalided dogs, all possibilities, was bound to be a
very serious matter to us. Now, when I can comfort-
ably look back at that time, I feel glad that I scarcely
realized the many chances there were of our coming to
grief. And when all is said and done, there is no doubt
we were singularly lucky throughout that whole affair.
I think I have now given you a fair idea of what we had
to accomplish, and the materials we expected to have for
the purpose. If you will persevere and read on you will
see how we got on, and how much of what we expected
we had to do without.

!», I

■ti

CHAPTER IX.
An Egotistical Digression.

I MUST apologize for wearying the ^latient reader with
the present chapter. Let me beg of him to bear
with me while I halt in my narrative in order to show
him to what a condition an apparently sane man may be
brought under certain circumstances. I found myself,
after weeks of almost perpetual shivering, semi-starva-
tion, and continual travelling, suddenly surrounded by
warmth, plentiful meals, and absolutely no occupation.
I had to do something. There were plenty of pens and
paper, and there was some indifferent ink. So I wrote :
January ist. — For the first time since my return, a
week ago, I have been out of the house. After being in

packed
should
and it
3ep, and
1 to fear,
fut three

luary is
old that
e seems
poudre,"
to be a
comfort-
scarcely
•ming to
lo doubt
lie affair.
it we had
I have for
I you will
expected

jader with
n to bear
:r to show
m may be
id myself,
ni-starva-
lunded by
:cupation.

pens and
3 I wrote :

return, a
sr being in

105

the open air so long, I was determined to give myself a
good spell of stopping in doors. But to-day was so fine
and bright that I actually went off for a solitary tramp
in quest of exercise and the medicine of this wonderful
air. I took my gun with me, but I might have saved
myself the trouble as I never saw a living thing. The
cobwebs were beginning to gather over my not too lucid
brains, and I thought it necessary to give them a good
sweeping previous to beginning the retrospect which
the commencement of the year suggests. On reviewing
the past twelve months, I fail, and I fear it is not the
first time, to see that I have done anything meritorious,
that I have advanced many steps towards any object in
life, or shown any signs ot being anything but a very
common-place individual easily lost in the crowd of
mediocrity. On the other hand there are many follies
distasteful to me to think of, and many mean actions re-
pugnant to my pride which I see distinctly across the film
which a year throws over my memory. I see no progress
in the development of that intellect for which I often
dream a glorious future. I see no advance towards that
goal, which, in spite of my declared indifference, I fain
would reach. I am no nearer that happy mental state,
when I shall have ceased to turn blindly hither and
thither in search of that indefinite something, which is
to smooth all rough places, and make life a peaceful
gliding down a pleasant stream of happy, careless
indolence.

The old enigmas remain unsolved, and the ephemeral
pleasures of the p?st year have onl}' brought out into
bolder relief the dulness which hangs over all. The
incessant question : *' Why this thusness " (to use
Artemus Ward's quaint expression) still remains un-
answered, the secret of happiness is still undiscovered,
and I feci that I have drifted on through one more year,
a can^less and idle man, who has known but few
moments when everything within him has sprung up in
arms against his aimless mode of living. Perhaps I am
seeking far and wide for what is close to me and within
my grasp. Perhaps Happiness, with a large H, consists
in having succeeded in heating into indifference all
longings and cravings for something better — Quen sale ?

io6

t.i'i

But enough ! How can I expect to amuse my lessen-
ing audience if I drag them with me into melancholy
speculations, which I cannot carry to a satisfactory
conclusion, and which they, happy things, have never
thought of, and into which they would much rather
not enter. Let me leave so unpleasant a subject, and
cry with the rest of my fellow crt 'ures : ** Vive la
gal ere ! Au diahle les soucis / " I suppose it is natural
for men, thinking men I mean, no matter their creed, no
matter their character, to make a sort of mental review
of the year when it is past and gone for ever. The
Christian looks to his growth in grace, to the service he
has done his Maker, the temptations he has resisted or
succumbed to, and the sins he has committed or omitted.
He draws the balance. Then he stifles a sigh of des-
pondency or represses a feeling of satisfaction when the
world begins to roll on again for him. The student looks
to his advance in learning, to the solutions he has made
of life's problems, and to the progress he has made
intellectually. And both, whether satisfied or not, feel
that the new year brings regrets for opportunities
neglected ; and it also gives them courage to make
resolves to do great thmgs in the future. I do neither.
I follow neither Christian nor student. I cling with all
the fervour of a lover to my mistress oblivion. Let me
be steeped in forgetfulness, and let me idly gather such
pleasures as come in my way. Wealth cannot tempt me
to toil, ambition cannot goad me to study, pride cannot
wake me out of my lethargy. Let me dream and think,
and let the world's distinctions be given to those who,
with outstretched arms and straining eyes, fight and
strive so eagerly for them.

Bah ! Is there no way of pulling me out of the mud
of idle speculations where I invariably find myself
floundering when I get hold of pen and paper ? Let's
try a pipe.

I have only been in Barbaria four months, yet in that
short time what a change has come over me. The use
of the linen collar has become a forgotten art ; I look
upon it as both unnecessary and unhealthy. I have long
since abandoned sheets, and much prefer blankets to
sleep between, aiiu I consider a bed is an uncomfortable

107

perch, which places human beings on a level with fowls.
Moccasins are the only things which rationally protect
the feet. Boots are barbarous and little short c ' a
torture imposed upon an unthinking world by the tyrant
fashion. Away with trousers of modish cut and material.
Give me a nice, dirty, old pair of ** bags," on which you
can strike a sulphur match with no misgivings, and in
which you can sit down as carelessly as you please. A
four-coursed dinner is a barbarism copied from Rome in
her decline; the origin of indigestion, and destined to
blunt the human intellect. In a word, I have returned
as nearly as I can to a primitive state, and have thus
discovered the countless errors which civilization has
forced us to share with her. When I return again to her
influence, I know that my first impulse, on entering a
house, will be to sit on the floor, pull out my pipe and
plug of tobacco, and, while leisurely preparing a smoke,
enter into a discussion with my astonished host on the
merits of three-point blankets and black tea as a safe-
guard against cold, or commence an argument to prove
that the French half-breed is the most intelligent being
in existence. In extenuation of all the rubbish I have
written, I must state that before I took refuge in pens
and paper I read every scrap of printed matter to be
found in the whole establishment. Although the library
is small, it embraces a very wide field, and I trust that a
brief epitome of the result will prove that the mixture
was fairly ludicrous. When the mysteries of the " Phil-
osopher's Pendulum" and Benthanism have been poured
into "Natural Religion" and the "Unseen Universe,"
and when the result has been seasoned with much
tobacco and spiced with an American democratic paper,
the effect is curious. First, I would try intellectual
experiments with my son from his birth, which should
lead to the explanation of what is torturing all the
" savants" of Europe. Next, I would become a demo-
crat, have a pipe made on utilitarian principles, build a
house in the unseen universe, and found a society for
the cultivation of natural religion and the economical
manufacturing of vortex rings. Lastly, I would make
myself into a philosopher's pendulum, and keep myself
swinging from ambition and mania of greatness to

io8

madness and despair, just to see how long I could stand
it. Seriously, the impression left on my mind by all the
metaphysical reading which I have just concluded is
this : The authors of half the novel theories, peculiar
views, and atheistical pamphlets have no serious
conviction of what they say. Most of their work is the
result of a logical mind when acted on by an unquench-
able thirst to shine distinctly, and have an existence
apart from the great crowd who are born, live, die,
and leave no mark. Having said my nothing, kindly
imagine the curtain falling amid the hooting, hissing,
and groaning of a disappointed audience.

109

PART III.

HOW I GOT BA CK.

CHAPTER I.
Southward Bound.

AFTER four false starts we managed to get off one
fine afternoon the first week in January. I knew
we were now beginning the toughest job of all, but
anything was better than hanging about Duck Lake
doing nothing, and I was delighted to be on the move
again. In a former chapter I gave a sort of rough
inventory of the materials with which we hoped to travel
the 500 odd miles which lay between us and Winnipeg.
Our actual outfit was even smaller than that, and if ever
there was a case where ignorance is an advantage it
certainly was one heir. Had I known what we were to
go through, and what we might have gone through,
nothing would have induced me to set out on such a
suicidal expedition. It was found impossible to get
together more than twelve dogs, only one of which had
ever been trained or used as a sleigh dog before. It is
usual to use three dogs to each sleigh, that is three big
thoroughly trained strong ones : but even Barstow,
whose rashness is unapproachable, was obliged to admit
that with such sorry cattle as ours (all the useless curs
of the neighbourhood) it would be madness to have less
than four in a team. This meant leaving one of our
sleighs behind, so that three small sleighs had to be
divided among four of us, which at first seems a difficult
thing to do, but we did it. We were all more or less on

»l

Mil

nil

our legs all day, it was absolutely necessary in order to
keep warm, and there was generally a vacant sleigh when
anybody was warm enough to sit in it. The one dog
who was supposed to know his business rejoiced in the
name of Chou-Chou (Longears) and occupied the post
of honour in the van of our expedition. He was leader
in the leading sleigh, and happiness was reached when
we could get all the other dogs to follow him. We only
went four miles the first day, just across the Saskatch-
ewan, all of which was fairly good going, which was
fortunate, otherwise, seeing the erratic way in which our
scratch teams worked, it would have taken us a week to
do it. The poor brutes really did not know how to do
their work, and our first task was to teach them. Of
course I knew nothing of the business so that the half-
breeds had to take a turn at each train to keep the
caravan together. Dog-driving is a science I discovered,
and it is really hard work breaking them in. When you
have four dogs tandem they make a longish line, and
the first thing an untrained team does, when you attempt
to get them to move, is that the whole lot jump in and
out among themselves and get tied into a knot. The
whip is of course freely used, not to mention blasphemy
and other modes of persuasion. One of our dogs, after
the first day's experience of the business, deserted us in
the night, taking his collar and traces with him, preferring
probable starvation to our tender mercies. As luck
would have it a large retriever had followed us, no doubt
in a spirit of adventure without a suspicion of his fate.
We secured him next day, rigged up a collar for him,
and soon had him working for his living. I trust his
owner never missed him. It took us fully ten days to
get our dogs to work evenly, during which time our
progress was dishearteningly slow. At first ten miles
was considered a big day's journey, and, as during that
time the whip was ever in use, our poor dogs must have
found it long enough. In three days most of the dogs
had their ears torn to ribbons and their noses grotesquely
swollen under the severe thrashings it was found
necessary to administer. It seemed awfully brutal to
me, but I suppose it had to be done. The half breeds
arranged little rattles, rudely made of bits of tin, on to

•, »

Ill

ler to
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e dog
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; post
eader
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the handles of the whips, and, after a time, the sound of
the rattle was sufficient to start the dogs at a gallop, so
often had that rattle been the prelude to the lash. In
that v .y we gradually taught them until the use of the
whip became quite unnecessary. My suiferings were so
great, and our discomforts so numerous, that it was fully
ten days before I had the power to do more than mark
the lapse of time on some dog-eared sheets of paper I
carried loosely among my tobacco and pipe. Each day
was so exactly like the last, and so little of interest took
place, that all will have been said when I say that we
just lived and lived only by perpetually moving our
camps, and the selection of a suitable spot for that
purpose was our one absorbing theme. Whether we
found wood or not at the right moment was really a
matter of life and death to us, so we may be excused for
confining our thoughts to one idea. '* Un Campement '*
is a good deal more picturesque than comfortable ; it
makes a good picture, but affords scant comfort. I was
pleased, however, to find that sleeping out in the open
in winter is not so awful as it would appear. The
simplicity of camping reaches the altitude of the sublime.
Towards sundown, and we found the sun set before four
o'clock, a spot was selected where there was an abundance
of dry wood. Each of us armed ourselves with a snow
shoe, and as rapidly as possible we scooped out a circular
spot, banking the snow up to windward when there was
any wind. There too we arranged our sleighs with a
view to sheltering ourselves with the materials at our
disposal. We then built a long horizontal fire at the
opposite edge of our circle so that the smoke should drift
away from us. We spread our robes and blankets, and
while snow was being melted into water for tea, we
watched the dogs feeding and quarrelling over the crumbs.
When the kettle boiled we had supper and tried to be as
happy as circumstances would permit. We sat down in
a row as near the fire as we could bear, but the sensation
produced by a scorching face and a frozen back is not
one which any man in his senses would hanker after.
Pleasure, however, is only a matter of comparisons, and
I found that even when undergoing what may fairly be
called hardships, there was a great deal of solid comfort

•I

1' 1 -n

112

after a meal of tinned meat, camp-made bread, and three
or four pannikins of tea, in a good pipe, and an assurance
that if a tired body meant a sound sleep, I was going to
be as dead. Our day's routine was scarcely ever altered.
We got up at about five o'clock by the light of the most
gorgeous auroras ; but neither Barstow nor I ever dared
to leave our blankets until the fire was fairly going. I
have always admired the courage of our half-breeds, who
calmly set to work to light the fire on those terribly cold
mornings, when exposing your uncovered hand for a
moment gave you acute pain. We then tore open our
blanket sacks, for we were always frozen stiff to the
waist, and hurriedly swallowed a few mouthfuls of boiling
tea in order to store up a little warmth with which to meet
the icy air. In about an hour everything, and everything
was not much, was packed on the sleighs, the dogs
harnessed, and we were off. I very soon found that my
running powers were scarcely up to what was required
of them, and, as Barstow always remained a bad
starter, I used to start off half-an-hour before the rest
and trot on to gain time. It did not take me long to tell
by the touch when I got off the road, so I ran little risk
of getting lost. I found when they caught me up that
there was always a sleigh very much at my disposal, on
which I could rest a while and get my breath. As a rule
it was of little use to me, for after five minutes or less
my feet got so cold that there was nothing for it but get
out and trot again to restore the circulation. At noon,
or what we thought was noon, we stopped, drank more
tea, made a hurried meal, and then off again. It was
hard work and frightfully monotonous ; and it was
doubly hard to me as I had never done anything of the
kind before. Often when we camped at sundown I was
too tired to eat or even sleep. In fact I slept little in the
earlier stages of our journey ; for, in addition to finding
it almost impossible to keep warm, I suffered acutely
from rheumatism contracted in the autumn wet weather.
Meeting people in this dreary waste was of course an
event to be talked of for days, and even to use as a date.
After being ten days out we came across one solitary
mail-carrier, who was if anything more miserable than
oursehes. He was beyond measure overjoyed at a

three
:ance
ngto
:ered.
most
dared

g- I

, who
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oiling
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it was

of the

I was
e in the
finding
acutely
weather,
urse an

a date,
solitary
)le than
,d at a

113

present of a few lumps of sugar and a piece of bread.
He was travelling on a diet of " straight pemmican,"
and, though he fared no better than his dogs, he seemed
to be quite unconscious of the fact that he was living
truly as well as figuratively like a dog. It is curious
how very easily a man's mind loses its use and power.
I don't profess to be a bigger or profounder thinker than
nine men out of ten ; but in a week's time I took no sort
of interest in anything but the approximate distance we
had travelled, what sort of camping-place we should
have, and how much ' ^nger my tobacco would last. We
never knew what time it was, and very soon lost count
of the day of the week and month. All we did was to
go on and on without intermission, and oh ! how fervently
I prayed that it would soon be all over. A journey like
this is only pleasant when you are able to talk about it
afterwards surrounded by all the comforts of civilization.

CHAPTER II.
Still Southward.

THE rest of my journey is best described by quoting
from the rough diary I managed to keep in spite
of all the privations I went through.

Lac la Plume, yanuary lyth. — Barstow's sinister
design of going on this afternoon has I am happy to
say been frustrated — wood within reach is a doubtful
matter, so we are to camp here. I have taken the
opportunity of this brief lest to brush and comb my
long and tangled locks, a luxury which the decent
Englishman can never understand, and which the long-
haired fraternity would not appreciate, there being no
merit in long hair unless it is dirty and uncombed.
The prospect of sleeping under cover is delightful, and
though the shanty is only half roofed and half planked,
it seems a palace to me. Everything is a question of
comparison. The regular and monotonous questions

114

with us are, ** How far have we gone ? Where shall we
get wood ? What will the road be like ? " The answers
to them take up all our attention and thoughts and admit
of no other conversation. The weather though intensely
cold has been brilliantly bright, and we have only had
one day of snow. But that one day's snow has ruined
the road. " La racquette " in front of the dogs is an
absolute necessity. People have an idea that snow-
shoeing is a delightful exercise, something like skating.
So it may be in the neighbourhood of civilization, but
let them try it in the North-West and then tell us what
they think of it. After a day's walk (running on snow-
shoes is a myth), your feet become a mass of blisters ;
the long awkward things get heavier and heavier, and
you think bitterly where does the fun come in ? I have
not had a wash since we started, it is considered a
dangerous experiment to wash in weather like this —
and, no doubt there is warmth in dirt — I must admit I
don't hanker after water in the form of ablution. We
rise by the light of the most magnificent auroras at 5.0,
or thereabouts — it is much too cold to be accurate — and
we go to bed readily *;nough at 8.0, i.e., with the help of
our half-breeds we get shaken into our blanket-sacks.
The surprising part of it is that, though our fire sends a
flame twelve feet at least up into the frozen air we often
find a thick coating of hoar frost on our backs. And I
remember on one occasion noticing some white stuff on
the inside of my faithful " capote," and wondering where
the chalk came from, until I rubbed it with my gloved
hand and found it was frost right through my coat. Once
in the sack with a buffalo-robe under and over (it is
most important to keep every vestige of air out, for a
hole as big as a pin-point has all the effect of an
aether-spray), we sleep comfortably enough, but in the
morning we find we have to tear ourselves out of our
sacks, which open with a crisp, crackling sound, as we
are glued up together to the waist by the frost. My i.air
is long enough to satisfy the most fanatical aesthete, and
my beard, which has run riot since my chin and the razor
of civilization have become strangers, has grown just
long enough to get frozen on to the hood of my capote,
and causes me agonies of suffering when I turn my

head until the genial warmth of the camp-fire severs
those who never should have been joined, except for the
torture of the human race. We expect to get to Fort
Pelly in five days and then we shall not have gone half-
way. Still the roads will be better and we may meet
somebody, which is a thing to look forward to.

Thursday, January i8th. — This morning proved too
awful for words. Even the hardy half-breeds declared
it was too bad to attempt to go on ; and if they won't
travel you may depend upon it it is because death is
inevitable. How thankful we ought to feel that fortune
threw a little tumbled-down hut in our way at such a
critical time. I know that we should all have died of
cold if we had not found this shelter in that dreary waste
of snow. I am most anxious to get to Red River, and
to get there as soon as possible, but I am more anxious
still to reach it with fingers, nose, and toes complete, and
had we started out the chances are we should have left
some of the necessary appendages behind.

The sun rose on a clear and cloudless sky and one
might have thought pleasantly of a comparatively warm
day. One had only to put one's nose out of doors in
order to hasten to alter one's opinion.

A strong wind is driving, sweeping, and hurrying the
frozen snow in blinding clouds as dry as salt over a
bleak and apparently boundless prairie, obliterating every
vestige of road. The atmosphere is cutting enough to
freeze an Indian dog, and I was not surprised to hear
afterwards when we got to Fort Pelly, that on that day
they registered 49" below zero. Campirg out in such
a temperature would have been pretty nearly death to
me. Bad weather has caught us at last, and misery
has marked me for her special favours. We can't stay
here for ever, and if things do not mend soon, we shall
have to push on in search of food. If we don't all get
frozen to death before we reach Pelly we shall have
much to be thankful for. There is nothing for it but to
button up your coverings and run till you run your heart
out. Dying of cold is, I am given to understand, less
unpleasant in a sweat than in cold blood. I can believe
it, for I remember one evening when I was so exhausted
that I let the party get well ahead of me, and feeling

H 2

1 1

.,1

ii6

worn out sat down to rest. I realized in time the danger
I ran by doing such a thing. It was a delightful
sensation : a pleasing drowsiness crept over me and I
could have gone peacefully off to sleep, never to wake
again. I had just sufficient will left to drag myself out
of the insidious lethargy and stumble on to the camp
and so save my life. After that I never allowed myself
to lag behind, not so much as a dozen yards. Another
time I might not be so strong.

January igth. — We are still here. I am rapidly
sinking into confirmed melancholy — a book of American
oddities and anecdotes has failed to rouse me, and a
novel thick with blood and murder awakens no interest,
and my condition is clearly desperate. We rose early
this morning and a start seemed a certainty, but my
friend was suddenly taken with violent pains in his
abdomen and other queer things. A delay was proposed
till the afternoon, and it has by common consent been
extended until to-morrow. Again I feel no wrath. The
wind which had craftily fallen in the morning as if to
tempt the traveller out, the more surely to destroy him,
has now risen into a respectable hurricane, and the
familiar but unpleasant spectacle of a '* poudre " swept
plain meets our anxious gaze. The fat I so meritoriously
acquired while after the buffalo, and of which I was so
justly proud, is being slowly but surely worn off my
bones by that dreadful instrument of torture the fiddle.
There are two of them with us and they generally
go both at once, intervals being allowed only for meals.
All these half-breeds possess a fiddle even if they can
afford to own nothing else. They tune them a good
deal, but I believe fiddles require and insist on this.
Still it has been a matter of the greatest wonder to me
how it is they always learn the same tune and never
really know it. They scrape the same discords cheer-
fully a hundred times an hour and always make the
same mistakes — like a parrot. I purposely call this
obnoxious instrument a fiddle and not a violin. A violin
is a beautiful and perfect thing only played by a
musician, but anybody can irritate with a fiddle. They
get sounds which a violin would be ashamed of; but
which no doubt a bag-pipe or a hurdy-gurdy might

• t

I. 'Hi

I'*.

good

never
cheer-
ke the
11 this

violin
by a

They
)f; but

might

117

father. If you can imagine a highland fling played on an
asthmatic bag-pipe you may have some faint notion of
what I have to endure from sunrise until sunset,
fortunately not more than seven or eight hours in these
latitudes at this time of the year. I would give a
" fiver " to be able to smash the two beastly things at
work now. If ever some brilliant prospect of successful
commercial enterprize tempted me to come and live in
this country, I would refuse to embark in it unless I
could get the Canadian Government to pass an Act
making it a penal offence to possess a fiddle. It's no use.
I cannot write — all my attention is required to prevent
me from going mad.

CHAPTER III.

Better Quarters,

J^ORT PELLY, Wednesday, January 7.\th^ 1877. —
•*- We have arrived here at last, and I thanked my
lucky stars for it with a fervour I did not consider myself
capable of. After leaving Quill Lake, I found the
travelling dreadfully hard, more especially as our
provisions were all but exhausted. There was not a
living thing to be seen in that dreary waste of snow.
And, even if there had been, we could only have looked
and longed. Anything in the shape of fur or feathers
was quite safe with us. We had not a gun or a cartridge
amongst us. During the three days before reaching
this, we were reduced to eating the dogs' food (the
coarsest kind of pemmican), and we still had a little
sugar and tea. It was impossible to make a satisfactory
meal on such a limited menu. And, I shall never forget
the solemn way in which we prepared our last cooked
meal. There were three strips of salt pork, about the
size of three fingers, and a handful of crumbs from the
bottom of the now empty bread sack. These we
mingled, and made, with the help of a tin plate and the

ii8

camp fire, into a sort of au gratin. We divided the
mess into four equal parts and ate it as if it were a last
supper. After that, it was a case of positive starvation.
We had to travel hard; it was bitterly cold, and of course
we felt the pangs of hunger all the more on that
account. Still we had to push on ; it was our only
chance of saving our lives. Fortunately i^^ was not
until long after, that I realized what a single bad day,
either in the form of high wind or snow-storm, would
have meant to us. It would have been death, pure and
simple. Here let me say that, as far as my experience
goes, tobacco as a relief from the pangs of hunger is
all nonsense. I am not exaggerating when I say I have
smoked, almost without cessation, for thirty years. But
the only time when I really did not care for my pipe,
was when I was starving on tea and sugar. Our poor
dogs fared worse than ourselves. We had reached such
straits, that we dared not give them any of the little
pemmican we had left, wolfish and murderous as they
looked at times from starvation.

There was always the fear that, if the worst came to
the worst, we should have to kill and eat them. So, we
found that at night it was necessary to give them all a
severe flogging to prevent them from turning on us while
we slept. Poor brutes! there was desperation in their
eyes. They had tasted of no food for nearly a week, and
it was pitiable to see them follow each of us out to the
woods, and more so to be unable to prevent them from
greedily devouring our rapidly decreasing offerings to
nature.

Yesterday we did over forty miles, by far the biggest
run of the journey. We were favoured by finding a
fairly good road, eight miles of which was through a
huge pine forest. The dogs, as if they knew food was
near, simply flew along. They went at full gallop, and
the moon being up, we determined to push on, and even
if we travelled all night, get to the settlement without
another camp in the open.

At about nine o'clock, we came in sight of the first
hut, and man and beast being thoroughly exhausted, we
halted there by unanimous though unexpressed consent.

I may as well say that I went straight into that hut,

119

and seeing on the way in a crust of bread on a rough
table, I promptly picked it up and devoured it silently.
All trace of it had disappeared when I stood paying my
respects to the owner of the magnificent premises we
had thus unceremoniously entered.

The good man saw at a glance our condition, and at
once set to work to cook us a steak and give us as good
a meal as he was able. To this, I need hardly say, we
did ample justice. And having as it were saved our-
selves from dying of starvation, we felt bound to hurry
on and pay our respects to the head of the Hudson's
Bay Territories Company. The place was imposing
enough, and, to folks who had not seen a building of
any kind for months, it was simply magnificent!

Mr. Macbeth was the reigning monarch in this region.
(He said he was no relative of the Shakesperian
gentleman of the same name, and I believed him.) He
also appeared very glad to see us, and, after expressing
surprise at what we had done with such indifferent
materials, offered us yet another supper. To this we
again did ample justice, asking, as a favour, that our
dogs might also be fed.

It was a treat to see them enjoy the scraps thrown
to them. Their grateful faces, after they had eaten
every bone and were settling down to a well-deserved
sleep, can only be described as " seraphic."

Mr. Macbeth was all friendliness. He did not, it is
true, offer us rooms in his " palace," but he gave us the
use of an outhouse where we made ourselves very
comfortable. The dogs had a nice corner and were too
full of food to quarrel, we got a thorough clean up, and
slept as only half-starved travellers can after a really
satisfying meal. We arranged next morning, after what
appeared to me to be an ideal breakfast, to make a call
at the Government establishment about nine miles off.
And on our return to start South once more ; but now,
without any fear of starvation before us.

Sii'dii River Barracks, Thursday, jfaniiary 25///, 1877.
— This is like a bright oasis in the desert of our journey,
like sugar in pemmican, like a bath in summer, like
anything you please, in fact, which expresses the
diilerence between abject misery and semi-starvation,

120

and real pleasure and a full stomach. It is lo o'clock,
and luxury of luxuries, divested of my clammy garments,
I am sitting on a real bed, a bed, alas ! shared by my
old man of the sea, but still a bed. Think of it ! Hot
Water ! Looking Glass ! and all the other indefinite
little nothings which go to make life pleasant, are around
me. I feel my soul expanding under these genial
influences, and prepared to think well of all men. We
left Fort Pelly yesterday afternoon under a bright sky
and warm air. The road was in perfect order, and
having left all our baggage until we returned, we came
along faster than any horses could have brought us.
The dogs, like giants refreshed, seemed to exult in the
unaccustomed hardness of the track and the lightness
of their burden, and simply flew. Barstow rode in
solemn state in our only " cariole" as befitting his rank.
I followed on a plain flat sledge. I took my trip
standing, and when I got tossed off into the snow by a
sudden jerk, it was nothing to scramble up again and
catch my racing team. The ups and downs of the road
gave me lots of tumbles, but it was rare fun all the
same.

There are quite a large number of buildings here, and,
as we approached the place, it looked almost like a
town ; and, to me, it appeared fully to represent the
temporary seat of the Government of the North-West
Territories.

Accustomed as we are to look upon the discovery of
one "shanty" as a matter for congratulation, on arriving
in front of this long row of buildings we were quite at a
looS to know where to turn. However, we soon made
our arrival known ; and, from the Honourable David
Laird, the Governor, downwards, everybody has been
particularly kind to us.

I cannot express my joy at seeing and talking to
English gentlemen, or at meeting once more the plea-
sant Canadians. It was like returning to Europe again.
The mounted police were there, and their captain — one
Herkmer — is a charming fellow. The sight of English
papers lying about, of comfortable rooms, combined with
the most gushing hospitality, were calculated to quite
intoxicate the worn-out and " roughing it " traveller. It

121

to
plea-

nin.

one

iglish

with

quite

r. It

was well for him that he could intoxicate himself in this
harmless fashion ; for the drink was nothing but pure
water. All the same, the police fellows complain that
they are worse off than the half-breeds, as they cannot
even get a '* permit," as it is called, to have spirits.
Herkmer told me a good story about a fellow-officer, who
having had, according to regulations, to throw away
twenty barrels of contraband beer, writes, after detailing
the painful incident, "and may God forgive me for
committing so awful a sin."

The Governor is a strict temperance man, and is
going to lay down even more stringent ilws than
already exist against the importation of alcohol in any
form. He is about seven feet high, a Scotchman, and
also a Methodist. He speaks with a succession of jerks
most trying to listen to, and is constantly delivered of
specimens of that old grim humour which was such a
salient characteristic among the early Scotch reformers.
He invited us to dinner, however, and to us it was a
magnificent banquet. The presence of napkins, a table-
cloth, and even a table, was very refreshing. Soup, roast
beef, and tart made up what I then thought a princely
feast ; although six months ago I should probably have
turned my nose up at it. The Christinas number of the
Graf hie was there, and after having seen no newspaper
for so long, it struck me as something quite beautiful.
In the evening we played a slightly dull game of whist,
and did not get to bed until after midnight, full of good
food and good spirits — I mean animal ones. I don't
suppose we shall get away for another day, but I am
rather pleased at the prospect, anxious as I am to get
back to civilization again. The seat of Government is
only temporarily established here, and moves up to
Battleford in the summer.

Fort Pelly, Friday ^ Jannary 26th, 1877. — We had
a good deal of trouble in getting off yesterday, but
Barstow, oddly enough, was inexorable. He does not
find himself looked upon with so much importance here
as amongst the half-breeds, and did not shine in the
society of the Government folk ; so he was anxious to
be off. We purchased a lot of canned provisions from
the Government sutler, and tore ourselves away from

122

the place, which was as anxious to keep us as we were
to stay. We started at about g o'clock in the evening,
after having lunched with the Governor on moose-meat
and dined with the police. It was a lovely moon-light
night, and we did the nine miles to Pelly in a little over
an hour. We all rose late this morning, and I fear I
shall do little more than make a start. This is unfor-
tunate, as it is a lovely day and we should have been
able to make a splendid run. The sun is getting very
bright as we get south, and we are beginning to feel its
effect on the snow ; all of us finding our eye-sight
weakened, but, curiously enough, this is not noticeable
except in the evening.

CHAPTER IV.

i:j

I f
Ulll t;

Easy Going.

5 HELL RIVER, Sunday, yanuary 2Sth, 1877.— As
I anticipated, we didn't leave Fort Felly until very
late ; in fact it was 4.30 before we were fairly off, and
the sun far on its way towards setting. However, the
road was good and the moon promised to be bright. By
keeping up a good pace until 8.30 we did something
over fifteen miles, a good half-day. Yesterday was
lovely and spring-like, and we got over a great deal of
ground with much comfort to ourselves.

This morning proved even brighter and finer, in fact
too warm for the dogs to work really well ; although, if
you come to think of it, it would have been considered
a cold day in England. We managed to get here at
1.30, accomplishing seventy miles in less than two
days.

This morning was really the first since we started
when I am able to say that I was thoroughly comfort-
able on the march. The men have rigged up another
" cariole," and Baratow hi\s tr-.ken the one I used to
have with his favourite dogs, all of them lazy and ill-

123

trained in the opinion of the half-breeds. Napoleon
looks after me and I have no trouble. It was actually
basking weather, and I lay back and sunned myself in
a. manner to bring back memories of far-away Serk.
The smooth, easy motion of a " cariole " reminds one of
a sailing-boat. As it swishes up against the snow piled
up on the sides of the road, one has only to shut one's
eyes to imagine one can hear the water running. This
is a tumbled-down little shanty, I believe once a police-
station, but now abandoned. V. e are to stay here until
8 o'clock as it is too hot for the dogs, and are to travel
all night by moon-light to make up for it. Shoal Lake
is about sixty miles off, but, if all goes well, we shall
probably get there to-morrow night. I hn^e availed
myself of this opportunity to have a good sh. The
comfort of such a thing does not seem to appeal to my
companions, since I alone have thought the thing either
necessary or desirable. Barstow, after eating inordin-
ately, has been asleep all the afternoon. It seems a
long time ago since I became convinced I had had more
than enough of roughing it ; and, if enough is as good
as a feast, I am beginning to think that I have had really
more feasts than a person so unimportant as myself
is entitled to. How glad I shall be to get to Red River,
no one can tell. The mere thinking of the time when I
shall be able to get up in the mornings without seeing
Barstow, is positive bliss. I suppose I must try and
sleep a little to make up for having none to-night,
though I am afraid I have not eaten enough to do it
properly. If all goes well ($ ee how I count the days),
we ought to get to Winnipeg in another ten days ; but
once we get near the houses, I am afraid Barstow will
want to spend a day with each of his dull and stupid
acquaintances all along the route. I remember what it
was on the way up ; it will probably be worse on the
way down.

Monday, jfatiuary 2gtli, 1877. — The weather has now
entirely changed. Instead of cold, snow, and misery,
we have balmy air, the sun is positively hot, and things
look as pleasant as they so lately looked the reverse.
I have just had a splendid dinner, consisting of sardines,
beef and vegetables (also out of a tin), and coffee. Our

l»l

M" ;

124

bread, worse luck, has very nearly run out again, so we
are obliged to be sparing with that. Only those who
have found themselves without it, know what an im-
portant part bread plays in the list of our daily comforts.
Our hours of march, owing to this unexpected turn in
the weather, have been quite reversed. Last night we
got up and put our things together at about 1 1 o'clock
p.m. We had a meal, which I am quite at a loss to
give a name to, for it answers to none of the ordinary
ones of civilization. We started off at 1.30 a.m. under
one of the loveliest of moons I think I ever saw. It was
as clear as day, and from every branch and twig glistened
a thousand diamonds. I started off in front, in order to
enjoy the sight alone. I got across the river, up a steep
bank, and half-way across a prairie, when it suddenly
occurred to me, " I wonder whether I am on the road ?"
I looked round ; I could see nothing but snow, bounded
by a circular horizon, such as one is familiar with on the
ocean. It was as clear as day in that wonderful moon-
light, but I could see no living thing nor hear any sound
but the beating of my own heart and the crisp crackle of
the snow when I shifted my position. I stopped and
listened again. Before long, I was made aware that
I had not strayed very far from the road by hearing
Barstow's well-known cries : *' Marche, Weepatim, mon
diable ! 'ere tonnerre ! Come on, will you, Beaver ! "
and the yelping of dogs who were being flogged. When
they caught me up, I got into my own cariole and was
able to finish a book given to me by one of my friends of
the police. We marched on until the moon began to
make for the horizon and pale her ineffectual fires. Then
Lucifer rose in all his beauty, only to be eclipsed by the
effulgence of Venus. And, last of all, came the first
flush of Aurora, rosy-fingered dawn. Then, just as we
stopped for a mouthful of breakfast, proud Phoebus
arrived with his fiery chariot to drive over a cloudless
sky. It was a glorious procession, and never have I
seen so magnificent a display of the heavenly bodies.

In an hour we were off again, and managed to do
eight or nine miles before the heat of the sun drove us
into taking shelter here. Here is nowhere in particular^
but there is a ready-made camp, plenty of food, and

we
who

1 im-
forts.
rn in
it we
clock
)SS to
inary
under
t was
tened
ler to

steep
Idenly
)ad?"
unded
Dn the
moon-
sound
pkle of
^d and
that
earing"
mon
ver ! "
When
was
nds of
an to
Then
by the
; first
as we
cebus
udless
ave I
es.

to do
love us
icular,
and

125

therefore, Jl we want. On our way we met a Captain
Brisbore, whom the police fellows told ur was on the
way to the seat of Government. The brute was comfort-
ably stretched in his cariole, and covered with robes and
wraps. He was drawn by three splendid dogs and had
two half-breed attendants running on either side of him.
He was a thin little rat of a Canadian, spoke with a
fearful twang, gave himself no end of airs, and treated
us as if we were dirt beneath his feet. He had a little
barrel in f'-ont of his cariole, which must have contained
whiskey or some equally delightful drink. He must have
known that we had not even smelt such a thing for
months, yet he never so much as offered us a " horn "
(anglici, sip). For that want of politeness, which the
meanest man in the country could scarcely have been
guilty of, may every sort of misfortune overtake the
miserable little wretch.

The scene is an unusual one ; but I alone see it. The
sun is shining brightly through the leafless trees dulling
the light of a huge fire. On one side of it snores a
half-breed, on the other, stretched full length on a buffalo
robe, Baratow is sleeping off the effects of an appalling
meal, he having, to my knowledge, eaten as if there
were no hereafter. Tin pots, plates, knives and forks,
lie about in all directions. The trees are festooned with
moccasins, mitasses and socks, in the process of drying.
The dogs are dozing all round us in a happy ana
contented way, having finished quarrelling over their
meal. There is not a soul to be seen, nor a sound to be
heard, except when a funny little bird, harbinger of fine
weather, comes hopping on to a twig with a queer little
chirp. And, last of all, to complete the picture, seated
on a bag of dirty linen is your humble servant. He is
bare-footed, with his pipe in his mouth and his pencil and
paper in his hand. However, I must put a stop to this.
We are going to start this evening at six o'clock and
travel all night. So I must imitate the rest and do a
sleep before then.

'•• rnt

t i

1 l!

■f
'If

1 J i

126

CHAPTER V.
Nearing the End.

TJ/EDNESDAY, January 315/, 1877. — ^J"st as I am

'^^''^ beginning to enjoy this kind of travelling, and

the weather is becoming spring - like and altogether

delightful, we are rapidly coming to the end of our

journey.

After sleeping till sundown as sweetly as a child, I
was roused by an arrival and, hearing the sonorous oath
of a thorough Englishman, I jumped up. He proved to
be a fellow with a train of dogs bound north from Shoal
Lake. A very tall member of the police, but jovial and
pleasant withal. We all supped together and then
started on our journeys under a brilliant moon at about
eight o'clock. At one a.m. we stopped and had some
food, then off again at a gallop, and without a check
reached Shoal Lake at 3.30, the dogs going splendidly.
You see they are now thoroughly trained, and the
warmth of the noon day sun just thaws the snow enough
to make it turn into ice at night, thus making a most
perfect road. At Shoal Lake Captain French popped his
head out of his hut, told us to make ourselves comfort-
able in the men's quarters and come to breakfast in the
morning. Considering I had hardly slept it all for
forty-eight hours I was soon oblivious to everything. In
the morning we breakfasted with the Captain and Mrs.
French, both very merry and very Irish. Mrs. French
made us quite at home and we spent a very pleasant day
with them. Her little daughter, aged two, was soon my
fast friend. Mrs. French is the first lady I have spoken
to since I left New York, and I thoroughly appreciated
her society. She is rather a slangy little woman, not at
all pretty, very free and easy, but no vice. I have no
end of commissions for her at Winnipeg. We very
reluctantly left our charming host and hostess at about
nine in the evening. The moon was somewhat clouded,
so we only did about seven miles and then took a sleep
and then did fourteen more. I believe we have slept

127

I am
;, and
jether
F our

lild, I

3 oath

vedto

Shoal

al and
then

about

I some

check

ididly.

id the

nough

most

edhis

mfort-
in the

lall for
g. In
Mrs.
rench
nt day
on my
poken
ciated
not at
ve no
very
about
loaded,
sleep
slept

our last sleep in the open, thank God, and shall arrive
on Monday or Tuesday next.

Palestine, February 2nd, 1877. — Surely our arrival is
heralded by the Spring ! We are having the most
charming weather, just warm enough to be comfortable,
and no mosquitos or other beastly insects to plague one.
I am sitting in the " cariole " and can actually do so
without wearing gloves. We have just left the Holy
Land, or rather a miserable little collection of nondescript
huts to which the inhabitants have given the ludicrous
name of '* Palestine." This spot is within the province
of Manitoba, and the " fruit defendu " of the North-
West Territories, i.e., spirits are allowed to be sold and
consumed. Like all liquor on the borders of civilization
the quality is excessively bad and the price exceedingly
high. We had a good dinner, that is to say, good when
compared to what we have been accustomed to ; and
were waited on by a buxom Canadian maiden. The
place, by courtesy called an hotel, was full of loafers of
all sorts, hungry, spirituous, out-at-elbow sort of ne'er-do-
weels, many of whom, as I soon found out, had seen
better, much better, days. Most of them were attired in
what the Americans call "store clothes." You can call
the awful shapes and materials of these wonderful
garments by no name which would be so comprehensively
and exhaustively descriptive. We reached the spot
where we were to camp, a certain half-breed's establish-
ment, an hour before we expected to. We were,
however, made welcome and generously entertained by
the gentleman's wife and daughter. The latter is a frisky
young damsel, of some seventeen summers, the height
of whose ambition, poor girl, is to be married to Barstow.
From there we went on to the Police Depot at Riding
Mountain, where we fed well. You may be astonished
at the emphasis I undoubtedly give to all meals, but if
you knew what semi-starvation meant you would under-
stand and forgive. The police fellows, minus officers,
treated us most hospitably. There was a curious fellow
amongst them, half Dutch and half Belgian, who has led
a queer kind of existence. After working at one thing
and another in Chalons and Paris, for some years, he
made for America without a penny. He managed to get

i-; u-

! !

I' ' '

128

tick for his lodgings in New York, then settled the score
by enlisting at the outbreak of the American war. He
assured me with calm effrontery that he deserted no less
than seven times by jumping out of the train as he was
being taken to the front. It paid pretty well as he got a
bounty each time of something like $800. Still it was
risky work, for if he had been caught at it, he would
have been shot there and then without even the formality
of a court-martial. He must have had plenty of nerve ;
for, though he escaped being shot himself, a fate he
richly deserved, he told us he had oftei* been ordered to
shoot deserters. We left them all this morning and
when we got well away we discovered that we were in a
land flowing with bad spirits and worse credit. How-
ever, we committed a felony, and opened a letter en-
trusted to us, which we knew contained $3. With this
we not only dined but each had our first drink after
months of abstinence.

Portage la Prairie, February ^th, 1877. — This place has
already been the scene of some of my adventures and
here we are again. Astonishing as it may seem, it is
warmer now than it was when we went past it in the
autumn f last year. We arrived at Westbourne vulge
White Mud River in the evening, and the place proved
so attractive that we found it difficult to get away. It
is a little colony of English fellows, and it was interesting
to come across men who had all been to an English public
school, and who knew so many of my Oxford friends.

The rest of our journey to Winnipeg was quite un-
eventful, but much slower than it need have been owing
to Barstow. He would stop the day at every place
where there was a semblance of an acquaintance, in
that way wasted quite a week.

However, we got to Winnipeg at last, and a fine show
we made as we galloped into the town. Our arrival
created quite a little excitement. Dog sleighs in
Winnipeg itself were unusual, and everybody turned
out to see us.

There! that's the end of that wonderful journey with
dogs, the experiences of which people in England would

scarcelv believe.

B. P. W.

129

he score
ar. He
i no less

I he was
he got a

II it vvtis
e would
ormality
f nerve;

fate he
rdered to
ling and
vere in a
. How-
etter en-
Vith this
nk after

place has
ures and
;em, it is
it in the
rne vulge
e proved
Lway. It
iteresting
ish public
iends.
quite un-
en owing
ery place
tance, in

fine show
ur arrival
eighs in
dy turned

rney with
and would

\ W.

Farewell to thee, Western Country,
Farewell to thine ices and snows,

^^/ewell to thy barren prairies.
Where never a zephyr blows.

Farewell to the endless trading
Farewell to the odour of furs '

Farewell to the hideous howling
Of half a hundred curs.

Farewell to the stupid half-breed,
And his mother the dusky squaw ;

She s the ugliest thing in wonien
I think I ever saw.

Farewell to the noble Redmen •
They are strangely full of fleas—

liig fleas— that must bite sharply
Those philosophic Crees.

Farewell to the iron platters.
And the coarse food they contain ;

Farewell to that Western sweetmeat.
They call it " taureau a graines/'

Farewell to dinners of buffalo ;

Farewell, O harmless tea !
How often have I wished you

At the bottom of the sea !

Farewell to the dirty digits.
And trousers greasy-bright ;

Farewell to the convenience
Of a place to strike a light.

Farewell to my pipe of briar.
With muzzle as black as jet ;—

But no !— I cannot leave thee,
I cannot leave thee yet.

Farewell to the Indian wigwam,
And the stories of the hunt ;

It used to smoke well-d ly'

When the wind came from the front.

Farewell to the winter-quarters

With the fiddle every day ;
Perhaps in course of centuries

They'll learn in time to play.

f: 'M

t- S

130

Farewell to scant ablutions,

And that little bit of soap ;
The time is coming quickly

When I'll be clean, I hope.

Farewell to moccasins, mittens,

Mitasses, and jarratiere ;
No doubt I'll find some costume

More suitable to wear.

Farewell to the bed without sheeting,
And its blanket of blackest hue.

When out on the frost-girdled prairie.
How often I then thought of you !

Farewell to the empty rum barrels.

How hollow, alas ! do they sound I
Yet still how oft have I sniffed them.

And very much comfort thus found !

Farewell to the days of forced temp'rance.

With never a drop to cheer ;
I will think of you oft in the future.

And drink your good health in good beer.

Farewell to the priest d, la Balzac ;

His stories were not sacerdotal.
And mixed with a passion for liquor,

He made up a comical total.

Farewell to my stolid companion,
He meant well enough, I dare say ;

But still, I think I can manage
If I see him no more from to-day.

Farewell to thee, dullest Barbari .,
How I long once more to be fr^c i

And if e'er I return to thy dweliings,
May I live to be wedded to thee !

B. P. W.

1 4

p. w.

.! "^

OATD^r'

If TU

LUDING THE

MAP OF PAHT €

INCLUDING THE

PROTI.XCE OF M

JF OF PART OF THE

'«// Ji 5 'J' 1' -^ 'li R 1 J liT ,

INCLUDING THE

riNCE OF MANITOBA.

/a^u/ary ZOf ^^75.

Scale i'f Sutiifr ¥,/f.^ .
» J f « JC *J f« w « w « IW