IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // ^ .^\ 1.0 I.I Ul 125 ■so ■a lii 12.2 l^^s IJ5 1.4 1^ ^ 6" ► V] Ta % v^ % v: /A '^ 7 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WifST MAIN STREET WEB«T<:^,N.Y. 14SS0 (716) S72-4503 is. %° CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHIVI/ICIVIH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques °4ndltlon and laglbility of tha original copy and in kaaping with tha filming contract spacifications. Original copias in printad papar covars ara filmad baginning with tha front covar and arding on tha last paga with a printad or illustratad impras- sion. or tha back covar whan appropriata. All othar original copies ara filmed beginning on the first paga with a printad or illustrated impres- sion, add ending on the last page with a printed or illustratad impression. 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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre filmAs A des taux de rAduction diff Arents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul clichA, il est filmA A partir de I'angle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 / ' \ ^t\-\ K' "' W-.v. , ( ( ( i 1, 1 > ', •* i ' H ' ( I i ( -' t (T va {• • V J ) N %ii * , <, E' s' ( M- i ^ ■■ ! vt u , ^ i 1 t n > 1 \ * ' «^ ' f \ t , V? i. V. CI 1 ^. ■^y»f jf?i iV^ x 1 t ^» 1 > 'y * , < ?,'f^ ', . ' t t. n^' I "<; ^ A t < - <,' ' '5' >( ^V >,' . t >¥ -p' -v/i <, I. 1 \ f,.' 'V' .V , U^'? ^^' . f>: i ^^-A. ,"1 r ' a^^ *" u ' ., I KA'iSt'v ^.Mt0^.-ir'j.i»f, ■i;?i?*"tf:« /.>.;>{* 'rt. A i>h\ ./V j,;/(Wi'' i,^\, '( ■« ' m'fV' SI' T I ,- I r| ( >- ,. I r ;7 i* * *! 1,t \r .' *,< '^f^^Vij ^tli x;\-'> f^' r> to ,*??.'> «, > >ij V tm "i ' 'ip^. >. >%> \k-v* '^^: f^^llt'J^M itV K if V \: 't-' V «*:■ .-rr^ 4u«>p <:/ ■ SI ITLKMB.NT. ENCRAVEO Br R. C. COLLINS, waters of the rivers near the mountains, are found some considerable forests of spruce ; but the .reesare not large or tall, and the lumber they are capable of affording is of no great value or amount. The oak is not found above lati- tude 50O, or, say, one hundred miles north of the southern boundary-line, and even further south than that hne it is mostly of the variety known as the bur-oak, and it is dwarfed and valueless. Along the streams the box-elder {Negumio aceroides) is sometimes seen, but it rarely exceeds a thickness of six inches and a height of thirty feet. With the exception of a few specimens of the ash, it is practically the only hard wood known. The characteristic wood of the country is the aspen [Fopuliis treinii- /oides), the most widely dispersed deciduous tree of the northern parts of the continent of which I have any knowledge. From below the latitude of Washington as far north as I have ever been, where other varieties of deciduous trees diminish and disappear, the aspen poplar maintains its existence, and I have found it growing in sheltered depressions along the hills far up toward latitude \to°, hundreds of miles north of any other deciduous forest-tree. Prob- ably the aspen and the willow are the two forms of deciduous forest vegetation which endure successfully the widest variety of climatic con- ditions. Were it not for the p irie fires which sweep over the plains in autumn and spring, it is probable that in a few years vast tracts new covered onl; with grass would become aspen forests, and the present conditions of the coun- try would be considerably changed as to arid- ity, exposure to extreme cold, and vegetable products. Considerable forests of this wood have been ravaged by the fires, and the trees yet stand branchless, dry, and rotting in ihe wind. In other parts the woodland is still j^rcen and vigorous, and is liable to flourish for many years longer, unless it too encounters the usual fate. As a proof of the tendency toward forest development seen in these regions, it is enough to say that the traveler finds now and then con- siderable plantations of aspens o*" one, two, or three years' growth, which have already been swept by the fires, like their more mature com- panions; while again a forest of seedlings has just set out upon a precarious existence. When dry, the wood of this tree is light, stiff, and sufficiently hard for most uses, although not very tough. Of it the half-breed and the Hud- son's Bay hunter or trapper build their rude cabins, the logs rarely exceeding eight or ten inches in diameter. These houses are generally small, perhaps sixteen or eighteen feet square, and rarely more than six feet high at the cor- ners. Each consists of a single room, which serves for all the purposes of family life, hav- ing one low, battened door turning on wooden hinges. It is roofed with alternate layers of prairie-grass and mud to the thickness of half a foot or more, resting on a layer of the poplar poles placed close together. A single small window, generally unglazed, serves the usual purposes of such an opening. The floor is of puncheons of the same wood as the rest of the 574 THE GREAT PLAINS OE CANADA. ' IRON COLLAR, BLACKI-OOT. house, or is simply the clay tramped hard and smooth. 'I'he chimney and fireplace are made of mud molded upon a rude structure of sticks to give it form and stability. The fireplace, un- like the openings in the chimneys of our own backwoods, are not low and wide, but nar- row and tall, perhaps one foot and a half by four feet in dimensions : and in them the half-breed sets u]) the billets of fuel on end, having cut them in the half-breed fashion. His ax is of light weight, and is always used in one hand as an American uses a hatchet, the other hand being employed ir sup- porting the slender log he is chopping. Instead of notching the logs which make the walls of his abode upon one another at the corners, as is customary in the new parts of this country, the dweller in the Northwest squares large posts for the corners and for the sides of the door, and in these makes longitudinal channels two or three inches wide and deep to receive corresponding Hat tenons wrought on the ends of the logs. The cracks and openings between the logs are stopped with clay, and thus after a few days' work, with an ax as his only implement, he constructs a 'house which makes up for all its deficiencies, from an architectural point of view, by its inexpensiveness and its comfort in a hy- ])erborean climate. Like other primitive struc- tures of man, it seems to have been suggested to the builder by the abodes of birds and ani- mals in nature, like the dugout of Dakota ; and I could never come upon a cluster of these cabins without observing their resem- blance to the nests of the mud-wasps. The so-called forts of the Hudson's Bay Company are in reality nothing more than trading-posts, and little reliance could ever have been placed on the strength anil solidity of their construction against determined hos- tile attacks, even from Indians. A palisade of split logs of i)oj)lar twelve or fifteen feet high, sometimes with blockhouses at the corners somewhat higher than the palisade itself, some- times without, incloses an area in which are placed the log structures used as storehouses, blacksmith-shops, and other necessary ofifices, together with tne residence of the factor,or chief trader. Naturally these are of better construc- tion and more commodious than the single houses of the few settlers outside the stockade, and they are generally two low stories in height ; but all are made of logs of the poplar. The blockhouses are pierced for rifles, and com- mand the approaches to the stout gates by which on trading days — never Sundays — the motley crowd of Indians, half-breeds, and rene- gade white trappers and hunters are allowed to enter with their packs of furs. At Edmonton, through openings in the blockhouses, there peer down in grim silence what appear to be mounted cannon of small caliber and ancient construction, but their moral eftect alone is relied upon, for they too, like the rest of the structures, are of wood only. By preference, and from lack of other tim- ber, of this same poplar the half-breed of the northwestern j^lains constructs his cart — the characteristic vehicle for all purposes in sum- mer, and his sledge or jumper for winter use. With his ax, an auger, and his buffalo-knife for tools, in a short time he builds a light, stout cart singularly well adapted to his circum- stances. As ordinarily constructed, it contains, like the harness with which it is attached to the draft-animal, not a particle of iron. The wheels are well framed together, and are about five feet in diameter. The spokes are well driven into the nave, the pieces of the felly are dow- eled together, and the structure dishes after the most approved fashion. The pony or the bul- lock which is to supply the motive power is harnessed between two large, light shafts, and upon the axle of the cart a light framework is built ♦^o contain the packages which are to form the load. It is lined and floored with thin boards wrought out of trees with the ax, or, more recently, the whip-saw. On such a cart a load of eight hundred pounds can be carried with safety, and its strength is such that repairs are rarely necessary. When a break does oc- cur a ready resource is found in the bundle of "shaganappy," or strips of tanned buffalo- hide, which the native traveler always carries with him. Api)lied wet and flexible by wrap- ping arountl the broken shaft, felly, or axle, it soon dries in the wind of the plains and hardens like bone, and no second fracture can occur at the mended place. 'l"he harness also, made of the same tanned hide, can easily be mended with the same material. It is an amus- ing sight to observe the method of effecting such repairs. By some suilden wrenching oc- casioned by a deep rut, a long-used shaft is s])lintered, antl must be mended. The stri]) of hide is softened in water, and two men wrap it closely about the broken part. Bracing their feet, they draw the bandage with all the strength of their hands and the muscles of their backs until you would say it could be drawn no more ; but the process is not yet completed to the satisfaction of the dusky workmen. They now take the free ends in their teeth, and, using their hands as additional braces, they pull back- ward with such a strain as only iron jaws and steel teeth can withstand. 'I'he ends are now •* -». b.«.rf«..4 THE GREA T PLAINS OF CANADA. S7S ilays — the i.andrene- re allowed l^dmonton, uses, there pear to be dd ancient t alone is ■est of the other tim- sed of the cart — the es in sum- vinter use. ftalo-knife ight, stout is circum- t contains, hed to the 'he wheels ibout five ell driven are dow- ;s after the ir the bul- power is hafts, and me work is re to form with thin le ax, or, ch a cart )e carried at repairs does oc- le bundle d buffalo- ys carries by wra])- or axle, ains and cture can ness also, easily be an amus- efifecting :hing oc- l shaft is e strip of n wrajj it ing their : strength eir backs no more ; :d to the hey now id, using ull back- jaws and are now *fifJ\-^:5ili^,i, ENQRAVED Br E. HEINEMANN. A BLACKFOOT INDIAN. secured by intricate knots, and the repairs are completed. When the half-breed comes to a river to be crossed, however swollen and wide, he finds it scarcely an obstruction. A buffalo-hide, or, in recf^nt times, since the buffalo has disap- peared, a canvas cart-cover, placed beneath one of tiie wheels, its edges brought up over the rim, furnishes him a " bull-boat," seated upon the center of which he paddles himself across and guides his swimming pony. In succeeding journeys he ferries over his load and tows his remaining cart-frame. The wagon of the white man, however skeleton-like and light it may be, is incomparably less well adapted to the necessities of plains travel than this primitive construction, which practically can neither break nor sink, and which re- quires no blacksmith or skilled wheelwright for its repairing. It is at the same time wagon and boat, and in case of necessity it serves as excellent fuel. Commonly, the hunters' and the traders' trains are made up of from twenty to seventy, or even more, of these vehicles moving in a single varying line over the rolling plain, each animal, except the first, attached to the cart in front. Covered usually with can- vas covers, more or less white, they constitute a picturesque feature in the landscape when seen at a distance against the green of the grass, or against the sky as they creep over the summit of some slope — the only moving ob- jects, except the clouds, within the reach of vision, arousing in the lonely spectator sug- gestions of human life and commerce and far- off" civihzation. No grease oi other lubricant 576 THE GREAT PLAINS OF CANADA. ^ is ever applied to the axles, since the Indian considers such a use of fatty substances a sheer waste of food, and the lugubrious creaking and wailing of the thirsty wood locates such an outfit even before it can be seen and after it disappears. A specimen of the Red River cart can be seen in the National Museum at Washington, but it has been repaired by the civilized device of iron nails, and so is not quite typical. A characteristic feature of the great plains of Canada are the trails which connect the widely separated trading-posts and settlements, along which supplies are brought in and the peltries, which constituted in former times the chief products of the country, were carried to the great fur-depots on their way to Montreal, whence they were shipped to England. For- merly, before the construction of the St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba Railroad, access to these remote northern districts was by means of traders' carts from St. Paul over the unset- tled prairies of Minnesota, and by small steam- ers on the Red River to Fort Garry, the site of the present city of Winnipeg, a journey of several weeks' duration. Earlier still the dog- trains, now a mode of conveyance known only to the past, except in the extreme arctic regions of this continent, brought down in the winter season sledge-loads of valuable furs, and only half-breeds and Indians made the journey. As late as i869,the present president of the railroad named above, then a poor soldier of fortune living in St. Paul, was met one stormy day in winter alone with a dog-sledge pushing his way far north in Minnesota toward Fort Garry. Ru- mors had reached him of that movement of the half-breeds near the fort which took place upon the adoption of the articles of Canadian con- federation in the year named, and which be- came known as Riel's rebellion, and he was on his way to see what openings for his adventurous and enterprising spirit might arise in a time of political disturbance. Earlier yet in the history of the country, before St. Paul had become a distributing center for the great areas north and west of it, before the Mississippi River had been approached by railroads, the principal high- way by which the Northwest Territories were penetrated was a water-route now altogether abandoned, although many men still live who traversed it from time to time in the old days. Some of the Hudson's Bay trading-posts were established two hundred years ago at favorable points on the streams and lakes of the country, and supplies were brought to them annually, and furs were carried from them, by ships sent from England to Hudson's Bay. Arriving at 1 The York boat is made at Fort York in the Hudson's Bay Territory. Constructed of whip-sawed boards, it is large, strong, and of great carrying capacity. the bay after tedious and dangerous passages through the ice of Hudson's Straits, not far from the southern end of Greenland, they navigated the stormy, shallow waters and arrived in June or July at Fort Churchill or Port Nelson, where, lightering their cargos, they received their re- turn freight and hastily set sail for home, fear- ful lest the ice of winter should make them prisoners for an entire season before they could reach the open Atlantic. At the ports of de- barkation, crews of men who had brought down the furs in York ^ boats from the distant posts were waiting to load the precious supplies and the annual mails for the return trip to the wilds. They rowed and pushed their heavy crafts up the broad, rushing streams and across the lakes, day after day through the uninhabited wilder- ness, until, after months in some cases, they reached Lower Fort Garry and Upper Fort Garry on the Red River ; Fort EUice and Fort Qu'Appelle on the Assiniboin ; Fort a la Corne, Carlton House, Fort Pitt, and Fort Edmonton on the North Saskatchewan ; and other posts on the English, or Churchill, River, and on the countless lakes for whose accumulated waters it furnishes a channel. By other routes from the bay, and by combined water and land jour- neys, they carried such necessary supplies as would bear transportation to posts on Great Slave Lake, on the Peace River, on the Atha- basca, even to the far trading forts on the Mac- kenzie River, up to and beyond the arctic circle. The freighters' passage left no traces in the fleeting waters,but on land there still exist many of the old trails winding mile after mile over the grassy plains. Some of them are now aban- doned, the primitive commerce having taken new directions, yet in this arid climate decade after decade they remain just as the last wheel pressed them. The passage of si .h a train of carts as I have described leaves three tracks in the dry soil, which, deepened by following trains, become more and more distinct. One is made by the pony or the bullock which draws the load, the others by the wheels. At length hollows or chuck-holes are formed, and, to avoid them, a new series of tracks is made a few inches apart from the old one. This in turn is aban- doned for another, and the process goes on un- til as many as a score of such sets of tracks are worn in the brown soil, each track a foot in width and nearly a foot in depth. They every- where maintain their paralleHsm, never running into one another, and the appearance they pres- ent is that of brown bands of color winding through the green expanse. Often not another sign of human life or occupancy can be seen for hundreds of miles, and an infrequent pas- senger with his outfit hails the advance of an- other with all the interest with which, on long ..i*-*,— »*.'., «■-**#»»-•' « < » « » .i-«a.«-»*.t'r->*.jA->*.i^ t «y- * *i » ^MjM__i)-;._i i i. i t ! mis the lakes, ted wilder- cases, they Jpper Fort :e and Fort a la Corne, Edmonton ather posts and on the ted waters 3utes from 1 land jour- iupplies as on Great the Atha- ti the Mac- the arctic ices in the exist many mile over now aban- I'ing taken ite decade last wheel a train of tree tracks following inct. One lich draws At length d, to avoid few inches n is aban- Des on un- tracks are a foot in ley every- ;r running they pres- r winding )t another n be seen [uent pas- ice of an- 1, on long THE GREAT PLAINS OF CANADA. 577 voyages in unaccustomed waters, one ship hails another on the homeward course. The travelers halt when they meet, cordial greetings are ex- changed, the news of the distant points of de- parture is asked for, each party waits while the other prepares such letters as he may wish to send back to far-away friends, and with good of mosquitos in the Northwest is a myth. It is a question of definitions, of course, but the learned writer could not have used the word " myth " in an ordinary signification. At least I used to think at times when the mosquitos were so abundant that we could not eat our soup at supper-time, even with the defense ENGRAVED BY C. A. POWELL. FONIES HERDING AKOUNU SMUDGE KIKES. wishes they go on their separate journeys, and solitude unbroken reigns again. The great plains are now comparatively de- void of animal life, and at certain seasons, even in summer, one may travel for several days at a time without seeing insect, bird, or beast of any kind. This surprising statement is literally true : but at other times insect life abounds be- yond all comprehension or experience else- where ; and now and then herds of antelope, or deer of several varieties, or a few elk, or a bear, or a band of wolves, or a badger may be seen ; while the air is full of the winnowing of the wings and the cries of wild fowl. On every hand are seen lakes white with swans, plover, herons, cranes, curlew; and the active and enter- prising cow-bird, which, alighting on the backs of domestic animals where there are any, pro- motes their comfort and satisfies its own hunger by the onslaught it makes on the myriads of mosquitos which torment them. Principal Grant at one time made a hurried journey through a part of this country, and upon his return wrote a book in which he averred that the existence Vol. X LI v. — 76 of a most powerful smudge of grass and leaves placed to windward, without finding every spoonful plentifully peppered with the culex, and a single sweep of the hand would capture a score of the winged pests, while the bitter tears ran from our eyes, that Principal Grant's powers of observation might have been consid- erably improved by exposure without protection for a time to such an atmosphere. Alas ! during July and August mosquitos do abound, and they are attended by coadjutors of no mean powers — sand-flies, black-flies, deer-flies, bull- dog-flies (the bot-fly), and I know not bowmany others, who conspire to make life for man and the animals on warm, damp days and at night nothing less than a burden. So numerous and virulent are they that animals grow thin in flesh during the period of their existence, and on the Athabasca River horses and cattle perish out- right from their attacks. At night the traveler's animals are often stampeded by them, and the usual precaution taken is to make a dense, dank smudge of green boughs and sods, in the acrid smoke of which a passable degree of comfort 578 THE GREAT PLAINS OF CANADA. can be had. From such a smoke it would be impossible to stampede a band of horses, and for the choicest positions in it they will fight with teeth and hoofs. But the most impressive signs of the abun- dance of nobler animal life in recent times are the countless buffalo-trails found almost every- where. Like the cart-trails they are worn deep into the soil, and they remain unchanged for years. While feeding or resting, the bufifalo are scattered about, and they make no permanent impression cf their presence; but when they are going to water or are traveling to new pastures, they move in single file behind the leader of the herd, and a trail is speedily formed by their sharp hoofs. On their now deserted pasturing- grounds these trails cut the surface in every direction, now and then marked by the wal- lowing-places worn deep in the ground, where each animal followed the leader not only in marching, but in taking a dry wash for health and comfort. Up-hill and down-hill these paths wind and wind. Even on the thin edges of the hogbacks in the valley of the Red Deer River, and on their almost vertical faces, where no horse can find a footing, and a man would find difficulty in going, the buffalo found an easy road for his sure-footed majesty. It is not long since this noble animal was the monarch of these lonely regions. Not only are the hill-slopes in many places terraced by their deep-worn paths, running parallel to one another at the distance of perhaps a yard, but in favorite localities, where they once fed in countless droves, their bones and horns lie scattered on every hand, bleaching and slowly decomposing in the drying wind. Sometimes every square rod of the surface presents the sad memorials of a noble animal gone to his death in a pile of shoulder-blades, rib-bones, leg-bones, horns still covered with the black, shining corneous substance which made them so striking during life, and in a broad skull with empty eye-sockets, still tufted with brown hair, and still maintaining a lordly port. At one time in my wanderings I came, near the Eyebrow Hills, to a tract some hundreds of miles in extent, already — early in the autumn as it was — scathed by the prairie fires and left black and charred, the only spots excepted be- ing a few small round marshes in which the moisture had checked the sweeping flames, where we found the only available pasturage for our animals at night. The coal-black sur- face was thickly dotted with the white bones of the buffalo, which, in some merciless onslaught of the hunters, had fallen there by the thou- sand for the paltry booty of their hides. Just where they fell, they lay scattered over miles of country, their bones the only mementos of once happy, crowding, noble animal life. As the skeletons gleamed white in the darkness and silence of night, the impression made on the thoughtful observer was depressing enough. ^ Desiring one day to look over the country at large, with my half-breed ^.uide I crossed some clay canons on horseback, and climbed the slopes of one of the hills spoken of, whence in all directions the undulating plain lay spread out below me. A locating engineer with his party was following on my trail at a distance of some weeds' travel, and with him I wished to com- muiucate concerning the best direction in which to carry his line. As my party consisted of only two men besides myself, I could not detach a messenger, and my only resource was to erect some monument on the summit of the hill, which, seen against the sky, would attract his attention. For such a construction the numer- ous bufifalo-bones lying about offered ample, materials. Inscribing a message to Douglass, the engineer, on a broad, white shoulder-blade, I put it at the base of the monument, and col- lecting a score of great skulls with the horns still attached to them, I piled them together to the height of eight or ten feet. At the top I placed another blade-bone directing attention to the message deposited below. As we rode away in the slanting light of the setting sun, which threw the shadow of the hill and its melancholy cairn of bones for miles and miles across the plain to- ward the east, whence we had come, I thought of the appropriate nature of such a monument — the monarch of the lonely plains, crowded to his death by the ruthless, fiery edge of advancing civilization, sullenly looking with sightless eyes afar to catch the first gleaming light and the thunderous rush of that highest embodiment of nineteenth-century progress and power, the railway locomotive. Until the farmer came to look upon these broad areas as furnishing land for cultivation in f 1 Some notion of the former abundance of the buffalo \\\ the Canadian Northwest may be obtained from the following memoranda of outfit for a single bufialo-hunt in 1840, the authenticity of which cannot lie doubted. There were required : 200 carts and harness, 655 cart- horses, 586 draft-oxen, 403 horses for running buf- falo with saddles and bridles, 1240 scalping-knives for cutting up meat, 740 guns (flintlock), 150 gallons of powder, noo pounds of balls, 6240 gun-flints, and the number ofpersons was 1630. Ihe expedition relu. ned to Fort Garry in August, and the Hudson's Bay Com- pany paid ;^I200, or $6000, for the booty brought in. How many a imals were slain we can only conjecture. Less than twenty years ago, my intelligent half-breed guide told me, he had seen, more than once, piles more than six feet in height of buffalo tongues which had been thrown together just as they were cut out after a single successful hunt by a party of Indians. These tongues were the perquisite of the medicine-man, who, during the progress of thehunt, sat inhis tepee beatinghisdrum and uttering incantations for its successful outcome, instead of participating more actively in the slaughter.