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IIARPEirS 
 
 NH:W MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
 
 Vol.. LXXXIV. 
 
 MAKCII, 1802. 
 
 No. 1)1 1. 
 
 "T.\LKIXG MrSQrASII." 
 
 ItV .IlIJAN UAI.PH. 
 
 y 
 
 
 ii 
 
 rpiIE most sensational bit of " nmsfiuasli 
 X talk "' in more tlian a quartei" of a cen- 
 tui'.v ain(»n<,f tlio Hiulson Bay Company's 
 emplovL's was started the other day, wiien 
 Sir Donald A. Hmitii, the president of tlie 
 oldest of Enjifland's great trading,'' eoni- 
 ))aiiies, sent a type-written letl<M' to Wiinii- 
 pej"'. If a Ci'ee squaw had <;'oiie to llie 
 tradiii<r-sliop at Moose Factory and asked 
 foi' a, bustle and a bo.v of faee-powder in 
 exeiianj^e for a beaver-skin, tiie sujiyestion 
 of chanjjinj;- conditions in tlio fur trade 
 would have been trilling' compared with 
 the sense of instability to v hich this ap- 
 ])earance of macliine- writing gave rise. 
 Tlie reader may inuigine for himself what 
 a wrench civilization would have gotten 
 if the world had laid down its goose-quills 
 and taken up the type-writer all in one 
 day. And that is precisely what Sir Don- 
 ald Smith had done. The quill that had 
 served to convey the orders ot Alexander 
 Macken: '8 had satislied Sir George Sim))- 
 .son ; and, in our own time, while men like 
 Lord Iddesleigli,Lord Kimberley, and Mi'. 
 Goschen sat around the candle - lighted 
 table in the boardroom of the company 
 in London, quill i)ens were the only ones 
 at hand. But Sir Donald's letter was not 
 only the product of a machine; it con- 
 tained instructions for the use of the 
 type-writer in the oflices at Winnipeg, and 
 tliere was in the letter a protest against 
 illegible manual cliirography such as had 
 been received from many factories in the 
 wilderness. Talking business in the fur 
 trade has always been called " talking 
 musquash" (musk-rat), and after tliat let- 
 ter came the turn taken by that form of 
 talk suggested a general fear that from 
 the Arctic to our border and from Labra- 
 dor to Queen Charlotte's Islands the can- 
 vassers for competing machines will be 
 CopyriRht, 1892, by Harper and 
 Vol.. LXXXIV.— No. .•««.— 48 
 
 "racing" in all the posts, each to prove 
 that his instrument can pound out more 
 words in a minute than any other — in 
 those jiosts where life hi.s hitiierto been 
 taken so gently that when one day a 
 factor heard that the battle of "Waterloo 
 had been fought and won l)y the English, 
 he deliberately loaded tin; best trade gun 
 in the storehouse and weiu out and fired 
 it into the pul.sele.s.j woods, although it was 
 two years after the l)attle. and tlie dis- 
 (piieted Old World had long known the 
 greater news that Na})oleoii was caged in 
 St. Helena. The only reassui-ing note in 
 the "musciuash talk" to-da^' is sounded 
 when the subject of candles is reached. 
 The governor and committee in Ijondon 
 still i)ursue their deliberations by candle- 
 light. 
 
 J?ut rebellion against their fate is idle, 
 and it is of no avail for the old factors to 
 make the jioinl that Sir Donald found no 
 greater trouble in reading their writing 
 than they encountered when one of his 
 niissives had to be deciphered by them. 
 The truth is that the tide of immigration 
 which their ancient monojioly tirst shunt- 
 ed into the United St 'I s is now sweeping 
 over their vast territory, and altering more 
 than its face. Not only are the factors 
 aware that the new rule confining them 
 to share in the prolits of the fur trade 
 leaves to the mere stockholders far greater 
 returns from land sales and storekeejiing, 
 but a great many of them now find vil- 
 lage life around their old forts, and rail- 
 roads clo.se at liand, and Law setting up 
 its otiicers at their doors, so that in a great 
 jiart of the territory the romance of the 
 old life, and their author't}' as well, has 
 lied. 
 
 Less than four years ago I had passed 
 bj' Qu'Appelle without visiting it, but last 
 Bfothers. All rUjhts reserved. 
 
492 
 
 IIARPKRS NKW MONTIIJ.Y MAGAZINE. 
 
 siiiimicr I ri'solvcd not to make tin' mis- 
 tiiko iiyiiiii. for it was llio last slocUaded 
 foi't that coiihl be sliidiod without u tire- 
 soiiM' and costly joiinicy into the fai- 
 north. It is '.n tin! Kishiny- Lakes, Just 
 beyond Manilol)a. liut on my way a 
 Hud.son I5ay ollieer told me that they had 
 just taken down lh(^ slockaiUi in the 
 sorinff, and that he did not know of a 
 remainin<if " paii.sadoo "' in all the eompa- 
 ny's system except one, whi<'h, curiously 
 enou{;'ii, had just hecMi ordered to he put 
 up around Fort Ila/ielon, on the Skeena 
 liiver, in northern British Columhia, 
 whore some tm'hulent Indians have Ijoen 
 vei-y troublesome, and wiiero whatever 
 civilization there uiay bo in Saturn seems 
 nearer than our own. This one exami)lo 
 of the survival of orij^inal conditions is 
 far more eloquent of their endurance! 
 than tlio thouylitless rcadoi' would ima- 
 jcine. It is true that tliore has come a tre- 
 mendous cliange in the stutu.s and spirit 
 of the company. It is true that its olli- 
 cers are but lu'wly bendin<jf to external 
 authority, and that settlers have poured 
 into the south with such demands for 
 food, clothes, tools, and weajKnis as to 
 create within the old corjjoration one of 
 the larj^ost of shoplceeping companies. 
 Yet to-da\', as two contui'ies ago, the 
 Hudson Bay Com[)any remains tiio great- 
 est fur-tradinj^' association that exists. 
 
 The zone in which Fort Ilazleton is 
 sitiuited reaches from ocean to ocean witli- 
 out sutrerinj^' invasion l)y settlers, and far 
 above it to the Arctic Sea is a snu'd belt 
 wherein time has made no impress since 
 the lirst factory was put up there. Tiiere 
 and around it is a re<>ion, neai'ly two- 
 thirds the size of the United States, which 
 is as if our country were meaj^rely dotted 
 with tiny villages at an average distance 
 of live days apart, with no other means of 
 comnnnucalion than canoe t)r dog ti'ain, 
 and with not above a thousand white 
 men in it, and not as many pure-blooded 
 white women as you will lind registered 
 at a tirst-class New York hotel on an oi'di- 
 nary day. The company employs be- 
 tween 15U0 and 2000 white men, and I am 
 assuming that half of them are in the fur 
 country. 
 
 We know that for nearly a century the 
 company clung to the shores of Hudson 
 Bay. It will be interesting to peep into 
 one of its fcrts as they were at that time; 
 it will be amazing to see what a country 
 that bay - shore territory was and is. 
 
 There and over a vast territory three sea- 
 sons come in four nuniths — sjiring in 
 June, summer in duly and xVugust, and 
 autumn in September. During the l(»ng 
 winte»' the earth is l)iankeled deep in 
 snow, and tiie water is locked beneath 
 ice. (Jeese, ducks, jind smaller lairds 
 abound as probalry they are not seen 
 elsewhere in America, but they either 
 give |)iace to or shart; the summer with 
 mos<[uitoes, l)lack-llies, and "bull-dogs" 
 (fdlxiiuis) without nund)er, i-est, or mercy. 
 J'or th(! land around Hudson Bay is a 
 vast level mrrsh, so wet that York Fort 
 was built on piles, with elevated jtlat- 
 forms around the buildings for the men 
 to walk upon. Infrequent bunches of 
 small |)iues and a litter of stunted swamp- 
 willows dot the level waste, the only con- 
 siderable timber being found u))on the 
 banks of the I'ivers. There is a wide belt 
 called the Arctic Barrens all along the 
 north, but below that, at some distaiico 
 west of the l)ay, the great forests of Cana- 
 da bridge across the region north of the 
 l)rairie and the plains, and cross the 
 Rocky Mountains to reach the Pacific. 
 In the far north the musk-ox descends 
 almost to meet the moose and deer, and 
 on the near slope of the Rockies the wood- 
 buH'alo— larger, darker, and fiercer than 
 the bison of the plains, but very like him 
 — still roams as far south as where the 
 butt'alo ran highest in the days when he 
 existed. 
 
 Through all this norlhei-n country the 
 cold in winter registers 40°, and even 50°, 
 below zero, and the travel is by dogs and 
 sleds. There men in camp may bo said 
 to dress to go to bed. They leave their 
 winter's store of dried meat and frozen 
 lish out ()f-d()ors on racks all winter land 
 so they do down close to Lake Superior) ; 
 they hoar from civilization only twice a 
 year at the utmost: and when sui)plies 
 have run out at the posts, we have heard 
 of their boiling the parchment sheets 
 they use instead of glass in their windows, 
 and of their cooking the fat out of beaver- 
 skins to keep from starving, though bea- 
 ver is so precious ihat such recour.se could 
 only be had when the horses and dogs 
 had been eaten. As to the value of the 
 beaver, the reader who ncer has pur- 
 chased any for his wife may judge Avhat 
 it must be by knowing that the company 
 has long imported buckskin from Labra- 
 dor to sell to the Chippeways around 
 Lake Nipigou in order that they may 
 
 i 
 
 
"TAI.K'INO MTSQUASH.' 
 
 not bo t<'in|)(('d, its of old. to niaki' llionys :iihI iiioccii.siiis of tli;; beuver; for tlicir 
 aro poor, willi sluiis full of woi-iii liolcs. wlu'rt'as Ijcavrr icatlicr is very loiij^'li and 
 l>ut ill spite of tlie severe cold winters, tliat are, in faet, ••onnnon to all tin 
 territory, winter is llie delijL^litful season for tlie Iradei's; around tlio 
 bay it is llie only enduraljle season. Tiie winjjed pests of wliieli 
 I Inivo spoken are l)y no means confined to the tide-.soaked 
 reu'ion close to liie <;reat inland sea. The wliole country is 
 us wet as that oranye of w hich yeoj^'rapliers spi 
 tliey tell us that the water on tlie earlli's 
 proportionecl as if we wert; to rub a roujj:;h 
 with a wet cloth. Uf) in what we use(: 
 call British America tlu^ illustration is 
 itself illustrated in the countless lakes 
 of all sizes, tlu; iniuinierable 
 small streams, and the many 
 great rivers that make 
 waterways tlie roads, 
 as canoes are the 
 wajfons.of the 
 rej^ion. It 
 is a vast 
 
 l!);j 
 
 deer 
 
 line. 
 
 fur 
 
 INDIAN HUXTEItS MOVING CAMP. 
 
 paradise for nios(iui- 
 toes, and I have 
 l)een bunted out of 
 ishini? and liuntinj^ 
 <?rounds by them as far south as th'j bor- 
 der. Tlie ■' bull-do<»-" is a terror reserved 
 for especial districts. lie is the Sioux of 
 the insect world, as p'-etty as a warrior in 
 buckskin and beads. i)ut carry in<? a red- 
 hot sword blade, which, when sheathed in 
 human tiesb, will make the victim jump 
 
 r^t>113 
 
494 
 
 HAUrER'S NEW MONTIIIA' MAGAZINE. 
 
 a foot from (lie pfroiiiid, llioiiyii (Ih-i''' is 
 no afl(M'-i)aiii or iU-liin;,'' oi* suclliny from 
 Iho Uiriist. 
 
 Ilaviii;,'' seen tlic comitry, l<'t tis turn to 
 tlic forts. Some of tliciii rt!ally were forts, 
 ill so far as palisades and sentry towers 
 and doiil)l(> doors and (^fiins can make a 
 fort, anci one twenty miles lielow \Vi;ini 
 ])eir was a stone fort. It is still standinjf. 
 Wlien the company ruled tlie territory as 
 its landlord, the defended i)osts were on 
 the i)lains amony th(> bad Indians, and on 
 the lIud.son Bay KJiore, where vessels of 
 foreijfii nations mi<jht be expeeted. In 
 the for(\sts, on th(> lakes and rivers, th«i 
 cliaraeter and behavior of the fish eatin^j 
 Indians did not warrant armament. The 
 stockaded forts were nearly all alike. The 
 stockade was of timber, of about such a 
 heij^Iit that a man mijijht look over it on 
 tiptoe. It had towers at the corners, and 
 York Fort had a {jreat "lookout" tower 
 within the enclosure. Within the barri- 
 cade were the company's buildinj]fs, mak- 
 ini>' alto^i'ether such a jjicture as New York 
 ',)resented when tiie Dutch founded it 
 and called it New Amsterdam, except that 
 we had a church and a stadt house in our 
 encIos\u"e. The Hudson Bny buildinf,''s 
 were sometimes arran^ftd in a hollow 
 square, and sometimes in the sha])e of a 
 letter II, with tlu^ factor's house connect- 
 ing the two other ])arts of the character. 
 The factor's hou,se was the best dwelling, 
 hut there were many smaller ones for the 
 laborers, n\echanics, hunters, and other 
 non-connnissioned men. A long, low, 
 whitewashed log hou.se was apt to be the 
 clerks' house, and otlier large buildings 
 were the stores where merchandise Avas 
 kept, the fur-houses where the fur.s, skins, 
 and pelts were stored, and the Indian 
 trading-house, in which all the bartering 
 was done. A jiowder house, ice-house, 
 oil-house, and either a stable or a hoat- 
 house for canoes completed the post. 
 All the houses had double doors and win- 
 dows, and wherever the men lived there 
 was a tremendous stove set up to battle 
 with the cold. 
 
 The abode of jollity was the clerks' 
 house, or bachelors' quarters. Each man 
 had a little bedroom c(nitaiuing his chest, 
 a chair, and a hed, with the walls cover- 
 ed with pictures cut from illustrated pa- 
 pers or not, according to each man's 
 taste. The big room or hall, where all 
 met in the long nights and on orl' days, 
 was as have as a baldpate so far as its 
 
 whitewashed or timl)er"d walls went, hut 
 the (al)le in the niiddh; wiis littered with 
 ])ipes, tobacco, i)ai)er,s, books, and ))ens 
 and ink, and all around stood (or i-csted 
 on hooks overiiead) guns, foils, and lish- 
 ing-i'ods. On Wednesdays and Satur- 
 days there was no work in at least one 
 big factory. Breakfast was served at 
 nine o'clock, dinner at one o'clock, and 
 te.i at six o'clock. The food varied in 
 dill'erent places. All over the prairie 
 and plains great stores of ])('mmican wen; 
 kei)t, and men grew to like it very nnich, 
 though it was nothing but dried Ijutl'alo 
 beef i)oundcd and mixed with melted fat. 
 But where they had i)emmican they also 
 enjoyed bulFalo hunch in the sea.son, 
 and that was the greatest delicacy, except 
 moose mulUe (the no.s«! of the moose), 
 in all the territory. In the woods and 
 lake country there were venison and 
 moose as well as beaver— w'lich is very 
 good eating— and many sorts of birds, 
 but in that region dried iish (salmon in 
 the west, and lake trout or white-lish 
 nearer the bay) was the staple. The 
 young fellows hunted and iished and 
 smoked and drank and listened to the 
 songs of the vcyagenrs and the yarns of 
 the "breeds" and Indians. For the rest 
 there was ])lenty of woi-k to do. 
 
 They had a costume of their own, and, 
 indeed, in that res])ect there has been a 
 sad change, for all the people, white, red, 
 and crossed, dressed i)icturesquely. You 
 could always disiinguish a Hud.son Bay 
 man by his capote of light blue cloth 
 with brass buttons. In winter they wore 
 as much as a Quebec carter. They wore 
 leather coats lined with flannel, edged 
 with fur, and double-breasted. A scarlet 
 worsted belt went around their waists, 
 their breeches were of smoked buckskin, 
 reaching down to three pairs of blanket 
 socks and moose moccasins, with blue 
 cloth leggins up to the knee. Their 
 buckskin mittens were hung from their 
 necks by a cord, and usually they 
 wrapped a shawl of Scotch i)laid around 
 their necks and shouldo'-s while on each 
 one's head was a fur cap with earpieces. 
 
 The French Canadians and "breeds," 
 who were the voyageurs and hunters, 
 made a gay appearance. Tliey used to 
 wear the coaipany's regulation light blue 
 capotes, or coats, in winter, with flannel 
 shirts, either red or blue, and corduroy 
 trousers gartered at the knee with head- 
 work. They all wore gaudj' worsted 
 
 I 
 
^ 
 
 J 
 
 ""■■x. 
 
 V' 
 
 
 
 
 ,•■ ..*" 
 
 
 
 TALKING MUSQUASH. 
 
4'J(5 
 
 IIALM'KRS NKW MONTHLY MAOAZINK. 
 
 8ETTIN(i A MINK TRAP. 
 
 belts, loii": lieavy woollen stockiiifjs— 
 covored wiLli fjayly frinjjccl loyyins— fiiii- 
 <'V iiioccasiiis, !iii(l tiMjiu's. or fciitlicr-dcfiv- 
 cd liats or caps l)oiiiul with tinsel hands. 
 In mild woatlior their costume was form- 
 ed of a hln(^ striped cotton shirt, coi'du- 
 roys, blue cloth leffffins hound with or- 
 ange rihhons, the inevitahlesash or worst- 
 ed belt, and moccasins. Every liunter 
 carried a ])o\vder-horn slunjr from liis 
 neck, and in his belt a tomahawk, which 
 often served also as a i)ipe. As late as 
 18G2. Viscount Milton and W. B. Cheadle 
 describe tliem in a book. The NortJnivst 
 Passfificbi/ Laud, in the fv)]lowino: graph- 
 ic language: 
 
 "'J'lio nx'ii iippeiucd in gaudy array, with 
 beadt'tl lire-ltag, gay Kasli, blue or scarlet Icg- 
 giiigH.girt liclow tlio kiH'c with beaded garters, 
 and iiioeeasiiis elal>()rately embroidered. 'J'lie 
 (liall'-lireed) women were in .sliort, liriglit-rol- 
 ored .sliirts, sliowing rielily cmliroidered leg- 
 gings and wliite, nioceasins of earilioo-skin 
 lieanlifnily worlied with tlowory i)atterns in 
 lieads, silk, and inoosc hair." 
 
 The trading-room at an o])en post was 
 -»-and is now — like a cross-roads store, 
 having its shelves laden with every ima- 
 ginable article that Indians like and hunt- 
 ers need— clothes, blankets, files, scalp- 
 
 knives, gun screws, ithitfl 
 twine, lire - sleel.s, awls, 
 l)eads, needh's, scissors, 
 knives, pins, kitclien ware, 
 guns, powder, and sliot. .\n 
 , Iridiiin who came in wilii 
 
 fuis threw them down, and 
 when they were counted 
 received tlu' riglit niunher 
 of castors litth' piec-es of 
 wood wiiicli served as mon- 
 ey— wit ii wiiieli. after tiie 
 hours of rellection an Ind- 
 ian s|)cnds at such a time, 
 he bought what he wanted, 
 liut tiier(> was a wide 
 ditference between such a 
 trading-room and one in the 
 ])lains country, or wliere 
 tliere were tlangerous Ind- 
 ians— su(di as some of the 
 Crees. and the (.'iiii)peways, 
 ^' Bla<d<feet. Jiloods, Sarcis, 
 Sioux, Sicanies, Stonies, 
 and others. In such places 
 the Indians were let in only 
 one or tw » at a timi', the 
 goods were hidden so as not 
 to e.xcite tiieir cui»idity, and 
 through a square hole grated with a cross 
 of iron, whose spaces were only large 
 enough to jiass a blanket, what they 
 wanted was given to tliem. Tliat is all 
 done away with now, except it be in 
 northern British Columbia, where the 
 Indians have l)een turbulent. 
 
 Farther on we shall i)erhaps see a band 
 of Indians on their way to trade at a 
 post. Their custom i.s to wait until the 
 lir.st signs of spring, and then to ))ack up 
 their winter's store of furs, and take ad- 
 vantage of the last of the snow^ and ice 
 for the journey. Tiiey hunt from No- 
 vember to May; but the trapping and 
 shooting of bears go on until the 15th 
 of June, for those animals do not come 
 from their winter dens until May be- 
 gins. They come to the posts in their 
 best attire, aiul in the old days that 
 formed as strong a contrast to their ])re- 
 sent dress as their leather tepees of old 
 did to the cotton ones of to day. Ballan- 
 tyne, who wrote a book about his .service 
 with the great fur conii>anj', says merely 
 that they were painted, .and with scalp 
 locks fringing their clothes, but in Lewis 
 aiul Clarke's journal we read desci-iption 
 after description of the brave costuming 
 of these color-and vornament-loviiig peo- 
 
 h 
 
» \ 
 
 "TAI,KINU MUS(^UASH." 
 
 4117 
 
 j)lo. Tiiko tin' Siniix, for iiisliiin'r. Tlioir 
 Ih'iiUs wore .slui vrd of jill l)iil :i liifl of 
 liiiir, and fciitlici-s Imii^' from Hint. In 
 stciul of lli(> iiuivcrsal blanket of (odav. 
 tlicii' main ^'armrnt was a rolx- of Itnll'alo 
 skin with tiii> fur Icfi. on. and lli<> inner 
 Ktirface di'essed wliitc. painted ^faudily 
 witli lijriires of IwiihIs iind qneor desi^'iis, 
 and friny'ed with |ioi'cn|iine (iniiis. Tliey 
 wore tin- fnr side out only in wet wea- 
 tiior. ]5eneatli tli« rolw they woruuHhirt 
 of dressed skin, and under that a h'ather 
 belt, under wliicli liie ends of a hreeeii 
 clout of cloth, blanket stuff, or skin were 
 
 trivon out. eaeli Indian liad to .surrender 
 his knife before he yot his tin <mii». 
 
 The company made e;reat use of the 
 li'o(|uois. and consi(h'red them the best 
 lioalmen in Canada. Sir Alexander 
 .Mackenzie, of tin- Northwest ('onipany, 
 employed ci;r|it of them to paddle him to 
 thu Pacific Ocean by way of the Peace 
 and l""raser rivi'rs, ami when the {greatest 
 of Hudson Hay executives. Sir (ieorffo 
 Simpson, travelled, Iroquois uhvays pro- 
 pelled him. The company had a uni- 
 form for all its Indian employes a blue, 
 ^;ray, or blanket capote, very loose, and 
 
 r 
 
 WOOD INDIANS COME TO TRADE. 
 
 1 
 
 tucked. They wore lefjcnrins of dressed 
 antelope hide with scali> locks frluffinff 
 the seams, and i)retti]y headed moccasins 
 for their feet. They had lU'cklaces of 
 the teeth oi' claws of wild beasts, and 
 each carried a fire-baj"'. a quiver, and a 
 brij^htly i)aiiited shield, oiviuff up the 
 quiver and shield when g'uns came into 
 use. 
 
 The Indians who came to trade were 
 admitted to the store precisely as A'oters 
 are to the polls under the Au.stralian sys- 
 tem—one bj' one. They had to leave 
 their guns outside. "When rum was 
 
 reachiii}'' below the knee, with a red 
 worsted belt around the waist, a cotton 
 shirt, no trousers, but artfully beaded 
 Icfroins with wide flaps at the seams, 
 and inocciisins over blanket .socks. In 
 Aviuter tliey v.'ore buckskin coats lined 
 with flannel, and mittens were yiven to 
 them. We have .seen how the half- 
 breeds were di-essed. They were lonj? 
 employed at Avomen's work in the forts, 
 at makin<r clothinjr and at mending'. All 
 the mittens, moccasins, fur ca])s, deer skin 
 coats, etc., were made by them. They 
 were also the washer-women. 
 
49H 
 
 IIAlil'KUS NKW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
 
 ^'■k 
 
 I'crlnipM tlif fiictrir IkkI a iruod litiic in 
 lliit 1)1(1 (hi.vs. Id' llioii^jlil Id- <li(l. He liiid 
 IV wift'iiml scrviiiils imd luiMfs, .iikI wlim 
 a visitor ciimf, wliioii wus not, as nl'ini as 
 8ii(»w (Iril'ls lilcw ovt'i" tilt' sluclvatlf, lie 
 eiilfi'taiiH'd lil<<' 'i loi'd. Al, lir.sl tiif far 
 tors used to snid lo I^oiidoii, to tin; licad 
 ollici', for II wif«!. to l)o 11(1(1(^(1 to tl'c aii- 
 iiiial coiisiiiiiiiM'iit of ji'oods, and tiicic 
 niiisl liavc liccii a few wiio sciil. to (lie 
 OrkiK.ys for tlio NW('('(li('arlH tliey left 
 tlicrc. \\\\\, ill liiiH' lln^ rule caiiH! lo Iks 
 tliat tlicy married Indian siiuaws. In 
 doiiijr this, not cvt'ii llio (Irst iiinoii;!f tlicin 
 acted hiiiidly. for their old rivals and 
 Hul>sei|Ment conipanioiis of tlie N;)rtli\vest 
 and X. Y. ('ompanies liey'an lli(> ciistoin, 
 and III!' Freiicli rojfdf/cKis and <utnrrifrx 
 (In hois liad mated with Indian women 
 before tlier(> was a Hudson Bay (.'ompaiiy. 
 Tlieso roii}fli and Iiaidy woodsmen, and 
 a lai'tfcr niimlier of iialf-liriM'ds born of 
 just sncli alliances, l)ei,''aii at an early 
 day to settle near the tradiiifjc - posts. 
 Sometimes they estal)lish(>(l what iniK'lit 
 lie called villages, hut were really close 
 imitations of Indian camps, composed of 
 II cluster of skin tepce.s, nicks of (Isli or 
 iiKvit, and a swarm of doj^s, women, and 
 children. In each tepeo was tli(! lire- 
 place, beneath the Hue formed by the 
 open to]) of the habitation, and around it 
 wer(^ th(^ beds of brush, covered with soft 
 liides, th(^ inevitable copper kettle, the 
 babies swaddled in i)lankets or mossbafys, 
 the women and do<,''s, the j^un and pad- 
 dle, and the junks and strips of raw meat 
 lian<,nn<;' overhead in the smoke. This 
 lias not ehaiijjed to-day; indeed, very lit- 
 tle that I shall speak of has altered in 
 the true or far fur country. The camps 
 exist yet. They are not so clean (or, 
 ratber, the}" are more dirty), and the 
 clothes and food are poorer and harder 
 to get; that is all. 
 
 The Euro])eans saw that these women 
 were docile, or were keiit in order easily 
 by flogi^ings with the tent poles; that 
 tliey were faithful and industrious, as a 
 rule, and that they were not all unpre- 
 pos.ses.siii<j— from their yioint of view, of 
 course. Therefore it came to pass that 
 these were the most frequent alliances in 
 and out of the posts in all that country. 
 The consequences of this custom were so 
 peculiar and important that I must ask 
 leave to pause and consider them. In 
 Canada we see that the white man thus 
 made his bow to the redskin as a brother 
 
 in the truest sense The old CDiirn'i'rH 
 of Norman and Hreton stock, loving a 
 wild, (vrf life, and in complete sympathy 
 with the Inditin, bought or to(d< th(> 
 .sipiawN lo wife, learned the Indian dia- 
 lects, and sliai'cd their food and adven 
 tui-es with the tribes. As moi-e and more 
 entered the wilderness, and at last ciiiik^ 
 to be supported, in cainps and at post» 
 and as m/ja^frnrs. \)y l\n' competing fur 
 companieH, there jjrev; up a class of half- 
 breeds who spoke K lolish and French, 
 married lixlians, and were as much at 
 home wilh the savajf(!s as with th(! whites. 
 From this stock the Hudson Hay men 
 have had a better choice of wives for 
 more than a century. Hut when these 
 " breeds" were turbulent and mniderous 
 — first in the attacks on Selkirk's colony, 
 and next duriny the Itiel rebellion— the 
 Indians remained quiet. They deliiied 
 their position when, in 181!), the}' were 
 tempted with •.'•reat bribes to massacre the 
 Ked River colonists. "No," said they; 
 "the colonists are our friends." The 
 men who souf^ht lo excite them to mur- 
 der were the ollicers of the Northwest 
 Company, who bougjit furs of them, to 
 be sure, but the colonists bad shared wilh 
 the Indians in poverty and plenty, K'ivinj? 
 now and takinj,'' then. All were alike to 
 the red men— friends, white men, and of 
 the race that had taken so many of their 
 women to wife. Therefore they went to 
 the colonists lo tell them what was being 
 jilanned against them, and not from that 
 day lo this has an Indian band taken the 
 war-path against the Canadians. I have 
 read General Custer's theory that the 
 United States had to do with meat-eating 
 Indians, whereas the Canadian tribes are 
 largely fish -eaters, and I have seen ten 
 thousand references lo the better Indian 
 policy of Canada; but I can see no dill'er- 
 ence in the two policies, and between 
 the Rockies and the Great Lakes I liiid 
 that Canada bad the Slonie.s, Hlackfeet, 
 and many other fierce tribes of butl'alo- 
 liunlers. It is in the .slow, close growing 
 acquaintance between the two j-accs, and 
 in the just policy of the Hnls. n Bay 
 men toward the Indians, tl)8' ' see the 
 reason for Canada's enviable) c:v; •ience 
 with her red men. 
 
 But even the Hudson F,i\y ntc <- have 
 had trouble with the Indiais ;ii recent 
 years, and one serious affair }.i "w out of 
 the relations between the company's sei*- 
 vants and the squaws. There is etiquette 
 
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 IIAKI'ERS NKW MONTHLY ^lAOAZINK. 
 
 vV 
 
 
 A VOYAOEUH OH CAXOE MAX OF GREAT 
 SLAVE L/ KE. 
 
 even ainoiifj- savages, and this was io'iiored 
 up at old Fort St. Johns, on the Peace 
 River, vitli tlio result that the Indians 
 slaughtered tlie people there and burned 
 the fort. They were Sicanie Indians of 
 that region, and after they liad massacred 
 the men in eliarge, tliey met a boat-load 
 of white men coming up the river with 
 goods. To them they turned their guns 
 also, and only four esca])ed. It was up 
 in that country likewise — just this side 
 of the Rocky Mountains, where the jjlains 
 l)egin to bo forested— that a silly clerk in 
 a post ([uarrelled with an Indian, and 
 said to him. "Before you come l)ack to 
 this post again, your wife and child will 
 be dead." He spoke hastily, and meant 
 nothing, but squaw and i)ai)poose hap- 
 
 jH-Mcd to di<> that winter, and the Indian 
 walked inlo tlie fort the next si)ring and 
 shot the clerk without a word. 
 
 Today llie posts are little village-like 
 collections of buildings, usually showing 
 white against a green background in tlie 
 prettiest way imaginable; for, as a rule, 
 they cluster on tlie lower bank of a river, 
 or the lower near shore of a lake. There 
 are not clerks enough in most of them to 
 ren(U'r a clerks' house necessary, for at 
 the little ])osts half-breeds are seen to do 
 as good service as Europeans. As a rule, 
 there is now a store or trading-house and 
 a fur-house and the factor's house, the 
 canoe -liouse and the stable, with a barn 
 wliere gardening is done, as is often the 
 case when soil and clinuite i)ermit. Often 
 the fur-house and store are combined, the 
 furs being laid in the upper story over 
 the shop. There is always a llag-stall', of 
 course. This and the flag, with tlie let- 
 ters '• H. B. C." on its field. l(>d to the old 
 hunters' saying that the initials stood for 
 " Here before Clu'ist," because, no matter 
 liow far away from the frontier a man 
 might go. in regions he fancied no white 
 man had been, that flag and those letters 
 stared liim in the face. You will often 
 find that the factor, rid of all the ancient 
 timidity that called for "j)alisadoes and 
 swivels," lives on the high vii)per bank 
 above the store. Tlie usual half-breed or 
 Indian village is .seldom farther than a 
 couple of miles away, on the same water. 
 The factor is still, as he always has been, 
 responsible only to himself for the disci- 
 pline and management of his post, and 
 therefore among the factories we will 
 find all sorts of homes — homes Avhere a 
 piano and the magazines are ]n'ized. and 
 daughters educated abroad shed the lustre 
 of rennement upon their surroundings, 
 homes where no woman rules, and homes 
 of the French half-breed type, which we 
 shall .see is a very difTereiit mould from 
 tliat of the two sorts of British half-breed 
 that are numerous. Tiiere never Avas 
 a rule by which to gauge a post. In one 
 you found religion valued and missiona- 
 ries welcomed, while in others there never 
 was sei-moii or hymn. In .some, Ilud.son 
 Bay rum met the ruin of the free-traders, 
 and in others no rum was bartered away. 
 To day, in this latter respect, the Domin- 
 ion law ])revail.s, and rinii may not be 
 given or sold to the red man. 
 
 "When one thinks of the lives of these 
 factors, hidden away in forest, mountain 
 
 'r 
 
 \ 
 
 ■■<•. 
 
 i 
 
TALKING MUSQUASH." 
 
 501 
 
 'I 
 
 cliain, or plain, or arctic l)arr('ii. sccins' 'Jx^" 
 saiiif very lew faces year in and year 
 out, witli breaches of the monotonous 
 routine onc«} a year wiien the wintei's 
 fnrs are hrouji'iit in, and once a ..'ear w lien 
 tiie mail-packet arrives — when one thinks 
 of tlh-ir isolation, and lacU of most of 
 those inllnences which we in our walks 
 ])rize the hijihest. the i-eason for tjieir 
 choosin'f tliat company's service .seems 
 almost mysterious. Yet the}- will tell 
 you there is a fascination in ii. This 
 could be understood so far as the half- 
 breeds and French Canadians were con- 
 cerned, for they inherited the likiuK': and. 
 after all. thoujj^h most of thein are only 
 laborers, no other laborers are so free, and 
 none spice life with so nnich of adven- 
 ture. But the factors are mainly men of 
 ability and jrood origin, well fitted to oc- 
 cupy responsible positions, and at better 
 salaries. However, from tlie outset the 
 rule has been that they have become as 
 enamored of the trader's life as soldiers 
 and sailors always have of theirs. They 
 have usually retired from it reluctantly, 
 and some, bavin i^ jjone home to Europe, 
 have befifg'ed leave to return. 
 
 The company has always been man- 
 ajred upon scmietiiinnf like a military basis. 
 Perhajjs the original necessity for forts and 
 inen trained to the use of arms sujrs'ested 
 this. The uniforms were in keepinii' with 
 the rest. The lowest rank in the service 
 is that of the laborer, who may happen to 
 iisb or hunt at times, but is employed — 
 or enlisted, as uhe fact is, for a term of 
 years — to cut wood, shovel snow, act as a 
 l)orter or gardener, and labor geiuM-ally 
 about the post. Tiie interpreter was usu- 
 ally a promoted laborer, but long ago the 
 men in the trade. Indians and whites 
 alike, met eacli otiier half-way in tlie 
 matter of language. The highest non- 
 conunissioned rank in early days was 
 that of the ))ostniaster at large posts. Men 
 of that rank often got charge of small 
 outposts, and we read that they w(>re 
 "on terms of equality with gentlemen." 
 To-day the service has lost these line 
 points, and the laborers and conuiiissioned 
 ollicers are sharply separated. The so- 
 called "gentleman " begins as a "prentice 
 clerk, aiul after a few years becomes a 
 clerk. His next elevation is to the rank 
 of a junior chief trader, and soon through 
 the grades of chief trader, faclor.and cliief 
 factor, to the oflice of chief commissioner, 
 or resident American manager, chosen by 
 
 the London board, and having fidl jjowers 
 delegated to him. A clerk— or "dark," 
 as llie i-ank is called— may never touch a 
 pen. He may be a trader. Then again he 
 mav be ti'uly an accountant. "With the 
 rank he gels a commission, and that en- 
 titles him to a minimum giuirantee. with 
 a conditional extra income bascMl on the 
 prolitsof the fui' trade. !Men get, promo- 
 lions through the chief commissioner, 
 and he has always made fitne.sf,. rather 
 than senioi'ity. the criterion. Retiring 
 ollicers are salaried for a term of years, 
 the original pension fund and system 
 having btien broken up. 
 
 Sir Donald A. Smith, the i)resent gov- 
 ernoi" of the company, made his way to 
 the highest post from the jilace of a 'pren- 
 tice clerk. He canu> fi-om Scotland as a 
 youth, and aftei- a time was so unfortu- 
 nate as to be sent to the coast of Labra- 
 dor, where a man is as nmch out of both 
 the world and contact with the heart of 
 the company as it is j)o.ssible to be. The 
 military system was felt in that instance; 
 but every man who accejjts a commission 
 engages to hold himself in readiness to go 
 cheerfully to the north pole, or anywhere 
 
 :-'4'>^" 
 
 VOYAGEUR WITH TIMPU.N'E. 
 
 >^b'i /,, 
 
602 
 
 HARPERS NKW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
 
 between Liibi-iuloi' and tlio Qium'm Char- 
 lotte Islands. However, to a man of Sir 
 Donalds parts no obstacle is more tlian 
 a temnorary impedimriit. Tliouj^h he 
 staid something liUe m venteen years in 
 Labrador, he worked t'ailhfiilly when 
 there was work to do, and in his own 
 time lie read and studied voraciously. 
 Wlien the Riel rebellion — tlie first one — 
 disturbed the country's peace, beapl)eared 
 on the .scene as commissioner for thej^ov- 
 ernment. Ne.xt he became chief conunis- 
 sioner for the Hudson Bay Company. Af- 
 ter a time he resifj^ned that otiice to ofo 
 on tiie board in London, and thence lie 
 stepped easily to the governorship. His 
 parents, whose bome was in Moraysbire, 
 Scotland, j^ave him at liis birth, in 1821, 
 not only a constitution of iron, but that 
 shrewdness which is only Scotch, and ho 
 afterward developed remarkable foresi<;ht, 
 and such a gra.sp of affairs and of comple.K 
 situations as to amaze his associates. 
 
 Of course his career is almost as singu- 
 lar as his gifts, and the governorship can 
 scarcely be said 'o be the goal of the gen- 
 eral ambition, for it has been most a])t to 
 go to a London man. Esen ordinary 
 promotion in the company is very slow, 
 and it follows that most men live out 
 their existence between the rank of cleric 
 and that of chief factor. There are two 
 hundred central posts, and innumerable 
 dci)endent posts, and the ollicers are con- 
 tinually travelling from one to another, 
 some in their districts, and the chief or 
 supervising ones over vast reaches of 
 country'. In winter, when dogr: ""d sleds 
 are used, the men walk, as a rule, and it 
 has been nothing for a man to trudge 
 a thou.sand miles in that way on a win- 
 ters journey. Roderick Macfarlane, who 
 was cut oft" from the world u]) in the 
 Mackenzie district, became an indefatiga- 
 ble explorer, and made most of his jour- 
 neys on snow-shoes. He exploited the 
 Peel, the Liard, and the Mackenzie, and 
 their surrounding regions, and went far 
 within tlie Arctic Circle, wliere he found- 
 ed the most northerly post of the com- 
 pany. By the regular packet from Cal- 
 gary, near our border, to the northernmost 
 post is a three-thou.sand-mile journey. 
 Macfarlane was fond of the study of or- 
 nithology, and classified and catalogued 
 all the birds that reach the frozen re- 
 gions. 
 
 I beard of a factor far up on the east 
 side of Hudson Bay who reads his daily 
 
 newspaper every morning with liis cof- 
 fee—but of course such an instance is a 
 I'ai-e one. .He manages it by having a 
 comi)lete set of the Loudon Times .sent to 
 liiu' by each winter's packet, and each 
 morning the i)aper of that date in the 
 preceding year is taken from the bundl(> 
 by his servant and dampened, as it had 
 been when it left the jiress, and spread by 
 the factor's plate. Thus he gets for half 
 an hour each day a taste of his old habit 
 and life at home. 
 
 There was aiu)ther factor who devel- 
 oped artistic capacity, and spent his lei- 
 siM'e at drawing and paijiting. He did 
 so Avell that he ventured tnany sketches 
 for the illustrated pai)ers of London, 
 some of which were published. 
 
 The half breed lias developed with the 
 age and growth of Camida. There are 
 now half-breeds and lialf -breeds, and 
 some of them are titled, and others 
 hold high official places. It occurred 
 to an English lord not long ago, wliile 
 lie was being entertained in a govern- 
 ment house in one of the ])arts of newer 
 Canada, to inquire of his liost, "What 
 are these half-breeds I hear about? I 
 should like to see what one looks like." 
 His host took the nobleman's breath 
 away by his reply. "I am o..e," .said 
 he. There is no one who has travelled 
 much in western Canada who has not 
 now and then been entertained in homes 
 where either the man or woman of the 
 liousehold was of mixed blood, and in 
 such homes I have found a high degree 
 of refinement and the most polished 
 manners. Usually one needs tlie infor- 
 mation that such persons pos.sess such 
 blood. After that the peculiar black 
 hair and certain facial features in the 
 subject of such gossip attest the truthful- 
 ness of the assertion. There is no rule 
 for measuring the character and quality 
 of this plastic, receptive, and often very 
 ambitious element in Canadian society, 
 yet one may say broadly that the social 
 position and attainments of these people 
 have been greatly influenced by tlie na- 
 tionality of their fathers. For instance, 
 the French habitants and woodsmen far, 
 far too often sank to the level of their 
 wives when they married Indian women. 
 Light-hearted, careless, unambitious, and 
 drifting to the wilderness because of the 
 absence of restraint there; illiterate, of 
 coar.s'3 origin, fond of whiskey and gam- 
 bling — they threw oft' superiority to the 
 
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504 
 
 HARPER'S NEW MONTilLY MAGAZINE. 
 
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 Indiiin, and cviulcd rcsponsihility iiiid 
 coiicci'ii ill lioiiic iiiaii!i;^«MiH'iit. Of coiirso 
 tliis is not i; rule, l)iil a tendency. On 
 the otiier iiaiid, the Hcoteh and Eii<;lisii 
 forced their wives np to tiieir own stand- 
 ards. Tlieir own iionie trainiii},'', res|)ect 
 for more tlnin tiie forms of reh^iion, their 
 love of iionie and of ii perniaiient patcii 
 of ji^round of tiieir own— ail the.se had 
 tlieir etlVct. and that has ■,oen to rear 
 half-lireed children in jiroud and com- 
 forlahle homes, to .send them to mix with 
 tli(! children of cnitivated persons in old 
 comnninities, and to lit them with pride 
 and amhition and cultivation for an 
 e(pial start in the journey of life. Pos- 
 sessiii','' sucli foundation for it, the equal- 
 ity has liappily never heen denied to 
 them in Canada. 
 
 To-day the service is very little more 
 invitinj;' than in the olden time. The 
 loneliness and removal from the touch of 
 civilization rem lin throuf^hout a vast re- 
 gion ; the arduous journeys hy sled and 
 canoe remain; the daii<^ers of Hood and 
 frost are niidiminislied. Unfortunately, 
 anion}.' the chan<;es made l)y time, one is 
 that wiiicli rohs the present factor's sur- 
 roundiii<>'s of a great part of that which 
 was mo; t ])icturesque. Of all the pretti- 
 nesses of tiie Indian costuming one sees 
 now oi'.iy a trace liere and there in a 
 few trihes, while in many tlie moccasin 
 and tepee, and in .some only the moccasin, 
 remain. The birch -bark canoe and the 
 snow-shoe are the main reliance of both 
 races, but the steamboat has been im- 
 pressed into parts of the service, and most 
 of the descendants of the old-time coi/a- 
 yeiir preserve only his worsted belt, his 
 knife, and his cap and moccasins at the 
 utmost. In places the oigage hm become 
 a mere deck hand. His scarlet paddle 
 has rotted away; he no longer aw. 'lens 
 the echoes of forest or cafiou with chan- 
 sons that (Tied iu the throats of a genera- 
 tion that has gone. In return, the hor- 
 rors of intertribal war aiul of a precari- 
 ous foothold among fierce and turbulent 
 bands have nearly vanished; but there 
 was a spice in tliem that added to tlie fas- 
 cination of the service. 
 
 The dogs and sleds form a very interest- 
 ing part of the Hud.son Bay outfit. One 
 does not need to go very deep into west- 
 ern Canada to meet with them. As close 
 to our centre of population as Nipigon, 
 on Lake Superior, tiie only roads into the 
 north are the rivers and lakes, traversed 
 
 l)y canoes in sumiiK'r and sleds in winter. 
 The doj^s ar<^ of a peculiar breed, and are 
 called huskies"' — uiuloubtediy a corrup- 
 tion of the word Esquimaux. They pre- 
 serve a closer resemldance to the wolf 
 than any of our domesticated dogs, and 
 exhibit their kinship with that scavenger 
 of the wilderness in their nature as well 
 as their looks. To-day their females, if 
 tied and left in the forest, will often at- 
 test companionship with its denizens by 
 bringing forth litters of wollish progeny, 
 ^loreover. it will not be necessary to feed 
 all with whom the experiment is tried, 
 for the wolves will be apt to bring food 
 to them as long as they are thus neglected 
 by man. They are often as large as the 
 ordinary Newfoundland dog, but their 
 legs are shorter, and even more hairy, 
 and the hair along their necks, from their 
 shoulders to their skulls, stands erect in a 
 thick bristling ma.ss. They liave the long 
 .'•nouts, sharp-pointed ear.s, and the tails 
 of wolves, and their cry is a yelp rather 
 than a bark. Like wolves they are a])t 
 to yelj) in chorus at sunrise and at sun- 
 set. They delight in worrying peace- 
 ful animals, setting their own numbers 
 against one, and they will kill cows, or 
 even children, if they get the chance. 
 They are disciplined only when at work, 
 and are then so surprisingly ob(>dient, 
 tractable, and industrious as to i)lainly 
 show that though their nature is savage 
 and woHish, they could be reclaimed by 
 domestication. In isolated cases i)lenty of 
 them are. As it is, in their packs, their 
 battles among themselves are terrible, and 
 they are dangerous when loose. In some 
 districts it is the custom to tui-n them loose 
 in summer (Hi little islands in the lakes, 
 leaving them to hunger or feast accord- 
 ing as the supply of dead fish thrown 
 u])on the shore is small or iiientiful. 
 When they are kept in dog qua/ters they 
 are simply penned up and fed during the 
 summer, so that the savage sid^ of their 
 nature gets full play during long periods. 
 Fish is their principisl diet, and stores of 
 dried fish are kept for their winter food. 
 Corn meal is often fed to them also. Like 
 a wolf or an Indian, a "husky" gets 
 along without food when there is not any, 
 and will eat his own weight of it when it 
 is plenty. 
 
 A typical dog-sled is very like a tobog- 
 gan. It is formed of two thin pieces of 
 oak or birch lashed together with buck- 
 skin thongs and turned up high in front. 
 
 f 
 
 ^ 
 
 J 
 
«,' 
 
 i t\ 
 
 b 
 
 'TALKING MUSQUASH." 
 
 THE FACTOR S FANCY TOBOGGAN. 
 
 It is usually about nine foot in louutli by 
 sixteen iuclies \vi(l(>. A leallier cord is 
 run alono; the outer edges for fasteniuj.;' 
 wluitever may l)e jjut ui)()n tlie sled. Vary- 
 in<? numbers of do<^s are liaruessed to 
 such sleds, but the usual nuuiber is four. 
 Traces, collars, and backhands form the 
 harness, and the dog's are hitched one be- 
 fore the other. Very often the collars are 
 completed with sets of sleigh-bells, and 
 sometimes the harness is otherwi.se oriui- 
 mented with beads, tassels, fringes, or rib- 
 bons. The leader, or foregoer. is always 
 the best in the team. The dog next to 
 him is called the steady dog, and the last 
 is named the steer dog. As a rule, these 
 faithful animals are treated liarshly, if 
 not brutally. It is a Hudson Bay a.xiom 
 that i.o man who cannot cni'se in three 
 languages is lit to drive them. The three 
 profanities are.of course, Englisli, French, 
 and Indian, though whoever has heard 
 the Northwest French knows that it ought 
 to serve by itself, as it is lialf-soled with 
 Anglo-Saxon oaths and heeled with Ind- 
 ian obscenity. The rule with whoever 
 goes on St dog -sled journey is that the 
 
 driver, or mock - passenger, runs behind 
 the dogs. Tlie main function of the sled 
 is to carry the dead weight the burdens 
 of tent covers, blankets, food, and the like. 
 The men run along with or behind tin; 
 dogs, on snow-slioes, and wiien the dogs 
 make better time than liorses are able 
 to. and will carry between 200 and liOO 
 pounils over daily distances of from 
 twenty to thirty-five miles, according to 
 the condition of the ice or .snow, aiid 
 that many a journey of lOUO miles has 
 been performed in this way. and some of 
 2000 mih^s, the test of human endurance 
 is as great as that of canine grit. 
 
 ]Men travelling " light," witli extra sleds 
 for the freight, and men on short journeys 
 often ride in the sleds, which in such cases 
 are titted up as '"caiuojes" for the i)ur- 
 pose. I have heai'd an unauthenticated 
 accovuit, by a Hudson Bay man, of men 
 who drove them.selves, disciplining re- 
 fractory or lazy dogs by simply ))ulling 
 them in beside or over the dash-board, and 
 holding them down by the neck while 
 they thraslied them. A story is told of a 
 worthy bishop who complained of tlie 
 
506 
 
 llAUPERS NKW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
 
 slow ])i'orjr(>ss Ills sled was making, and fornianccs of (he drivers are tlic more 
 
 WHS told that it was useless to coiiiplaiii, woiideil'ul. It was a white youth, son of 
 
 as tlie doffs would not work unless tlioy u factor, who ran behind the hislutp's do^s 
 
 were roundly and inccNsantly <Mirsed. in the spurt of 4(t miles by daylij;ht that 
 
 HALT OF A YORK BOAT BKIGADE FOR THE NIGHT. 
 
 After a time the bislioj) jjave his driver 
 absolution for the ])rofanity needed for 
 the remainder of the Journey, and thence- 
 forth si)ed ovei- the snow at a gallop, every 
 stroke of the half-breed's long and cruel 
 whip being sent home Avith a volley of 
 wicked words, emphasized at times with 
 peltings with sharp -edged bits of ice. 
 Kane, the exi)l'>rer, made an average of 
 57 miles a day behind these shaggy little 
 brutes. Milton and Cheadle, in tlieir book, 
 mention instances where the dogs made 
 140 miles in less than 48 hours, and the 
 Bishop of Rupert's Land tokl me he had 
 covered 20 miles in a forenoon and zO in 
 the afternoon of the same day, without 
 causing his dogs to exhibit evidence of 
 fatigue. The best time is made on hard 
 snow and ice, of c(mrse, and when the 
 conditions suit, the drivers whip off their 
 snow-shoes to trot behind the dogs more 
 easily. In view of wliat they do, it is no 
 wonder that many of the Northern Ind- 
 ians, upon first seeing horses, named them 
 simply "big dog." But to me the per- 
 
 I mention. The men who do such work 
 ex))lain tliat the " ]o\)e " of the dogs is pe- 
 culiarly suited to the dog-trot of a human 
 being. 
 
 A ])icture of a factor on a round of his 
 outposts,or of a chief factor racing through 
 a great district, will now be intelligible. 
 If he is riding, he fancies that princes 
 and lords would envy him could they see 
 his luxurious comfort. Fancy him in a 
 dog-cai'iole of the best pattern — a little 
 suggestive of a burial casket, to be sui'e, 
 in its .sliape, but gaudily painted, and so 
 full of .soft warm furs that the man with- 
 in is enveloped like a chry.salis in a co- 
 coon. Perluips there are Russian bells 
 on the collars of the dogs, and their har- 
 ness is "Frenchified " witli bead-work and 
 tassels. The air, which fans only his face, 
 is crisj) and invigorating, and before 1 im 
 the lake or stream over which he rides is 
 a sheet of virgin snow — not nature's wind- 
 ing-si eet, as those who cannot love na- 
 ture have said, but rather a robe of beau- 
 tiful ermine fringed and embroidered with 
 
 V 
 
 \ 
 
WV' 
 
 "TALKING MUSQUASH." 
 
 S07 
 
 
 (lark evorffi'oon, and that in turn fleckocl 
 at every point with snow, as if bojowolled 
 witli pearls. If tho factor chats with his 
 driver, wlio falls betiind at rougli places 
 to keep tlie sled from tipping over, tlieir 
 conversation is carried on at so hiffh a 
 ., tone as to startle the birds into flif^ht, if 
 
 -^v^ there are any, and to sliock the scene as 
 
 by the (greatest rndeness possi})le in tliat 
 then vast silent land. If silence is kept, 
 the factor reads the prints of game in 
 the snow, of foxes' pads and deer hoofs, 
 of wolf s))lotches, and tlie queer hiero- 
 glyphics of birds, or the dots and trong^hs 
 of rabbit-trailing. To him these are as 
 legible as the Morse alpliabet to telegra- 
 phers, and as important as stock quotations 
 to the pallid men of Wall Street. 
 
 Suddenly in the distance he sees a liu- 
 man figure. Time was that his prede- 
 cessors would have stopped to discuss the 
 situation and its dangers, for the sight 
 of one Indian suggested the presence of 
 moi'c, and the question came, were these 
 friendly or fierce ? But now the sled hur- 
 ries on. It is only an Indian or half- 
 • breed hunter minding his traps, of which 
 he may have a suflicient number to give 
 him a circuit of ten or more miles away 
 from and back to his lodge or village. He 
 is approached and hailed by the driver, 
 and with some pretty name very often — 
 one that may mean in English "hawk 
 flying across the sky when the sun is 
 setting," or "blazing sun," or whatever. 
 ' On goes the sled, and perhaps a village 
 is the next object of interest; not a vil- 
 lage in our sense of the word, but now 
 and then a te[)ee or a hut peeping above 
 tho brush beside the water, the eye being 
 ^ led to them by the signs of slothful dis- 
 , order close by — the rotting canoe frame, 
 the bones, the dirty tattered blankets, the 
 twig- formed skeleton of a steam bath, such 
 as Indians resort to when tired or sick or 
 uncommonly dirty, the worn-out snow- 
 shoes hung on a trQe, and tlie racks of 
 frozen flsh or di-icd meat here and there. 
 A dog rushes down to the water-side, 
 barking furiously — an Indian dog of the 
 currish type of paupers' dogs the world 
 around— and this stire the village pack, 
 and brings out the squaws, who are ad- 
 dressed, as the trapper up the stream was, 
 by some poetic names, albeit poetic license 
 is sometimes strained to form names not 
 at all pretty to polite senses, "All Stom- 
 ach" being that of one dusky princess, 
 and serving to indicate the lengths to 
 Vol. LXXXIV.— No. 502.-49 
 
 whicli poesy may lead tho untrammelled 
 mind. 
 
 The sun sinks early, and if our trav- 
 eller be journeying in the West and be 
 a lover of nature, heaven send that his 
 face be turned towar'l the sunset! Then, 
 be the sky anytliing but completely storm- 
 draped, he will see a sight so glorious 
 that eloquence becomes a naked suppli- 
 ant for alms beyond the gift of language 
 when set to describe it. A few clouds 
 are necessary to its i)erfection, ajul tlien 
 they take on celestial dyes, and one sees, 
 above the vanished sun, a blaze of golden 
 yellow thinned into a tone that is lumi- 
 nous crystal. This is flanked by belts and 
 breasts of salmon and ruby red, and all 
 melt toward the zenith into a rose tone 
 that l>as body at the base, but pales at 
 top into a mere blush. This I have seen 
 night after night on the lakes and the 
 plains and on the mountains. But as 
 the glory of it beckp^i** the traveller ever 
 toward itself, so the farther he follows, 
 the more brilliant and gaudy will be his 
 reward. Beyond the mountains the val- 
 leys and waters are more and more en- 
 riched, until, at the Pacific, even San 
 Francisco's shabby sand hills stir poetry 
 and reverence in the soul by their bor- 
 rowed magnificence. 
 
 The travellers soon stop to camp for 
 the night, and while the "breed" falls 
 to at the laborious but quick and simple 
 work, the factor either helps or smokes 
 his pipe. A sight-seer or sportsman would 
 have set his man to bobbing for jack- 
 fish or lake trout, or would have stopped 
 awhile to bag a partridge, or might have 
 bought whatever of this sort the trapper 
 or Indian village boasted, but, ten to one, 
 this meal would be of bacon and bread 
 or dried meat, and perhaps some flap- 
 jacks, such as would bring coin to a doc- 
 tor in the city, but which seem ethereal 
 and delicious in the wilderness, partic- 
 ularly if made half an inch thick, sat- 
 urated with grease, well browned, and 
 eaten while at the temperature and con- 
 sistency of molten lava. 
 
 The sled is pulled up by the bank, the 
 ground is cleared for a fire, wood and 
 brush are cut, and the deft laborer stai-ts 
 the flame in a tent-like pyramid of kin- 
 dlings no higher or broader than a tea- 
 cup. This tiny fire he spreads by adding 
 fuel until he has constructed and led up 
 to a conflagration of logs as thick as his 
 thighs, cleverly planned with a backlog 
 
608 
 
 HART'KR'S NEW MONTHLY MA(iA/INK. 
 
 and plowing fire-bed, and a sapliiij,' l)ent 
 OVJT the liottost part to lioid a pt-iidont 
 kettle on its tip. The doj^rs will have 
 needed disciplitiiiip lonp before this, and 
 if tiie driver be like iimny of bis kind, 
 and works himself into a fury, he will 
 not liesitate to s(!ize one and send his 
 teetli togetlier throufifb its bide after he 
 has beaten it until he is tired. The point 
 of order liaving thus been raised and 
 carried, the sliajiffjfy, often liandsorne, ani- 
 mals will be minded to forget their ])ri- 
 vate grudges and quarrels, and, seated 
 on tlieir haunches, with their intelligent 
 faces toward the fire, will watch the 
 cooking intently. The pocket knives or 
 sheath knives of the men will be apt to 
 be the only table implement in use at the 
 meal. Canada had reached the possesrsion 
 of seigniorial mansions of great character 
 before any other knife was brought to 
 table, tliough the ladies used costly blades 
 set in precious .ind beautiful liandles. 
 To-day the axe ranks the knife in the 
 wilderness, but he who has a knife can 
 make and furnish his own table — and his 
 liouse also, for that matter. 
 
 Supper over, and a glass of grog having 
 been put down, with water from the hole 
 in the ice whence the liquid for the inev- 
 itable tea was gotten, the night's rest is 
 begun. The method for this varies. As 
 good men as ever walked have asked 
 nothing more cozy than a snug warm 
 trough in the snow and a blanket or a 
 robe; but perhaps this traveller will call 
 for a shake-down of balsam boughs, with 
 all the furs out of the sled for his cover- 
 ing. If nicer yet, he may order a low 
 hollow chamber of three sides of banked 
 snow, and a superstructure of crotched 
 sticks and cross-poles, with canvas thrown 
 over it. Every man to his quality, of 
 course, and that of the servant calls for 
 simply a blanket. With that lie sleeps 
 as soundly as if he were Santa Claus and 
 only stirred once a year. Then will fall 
 upon what seems the whole world the 
 mighty hush of the wilderness, broken 
 only occasionally by the hoot of an owl, 
 the cry of a wolf, the deep thug of the 
 straining ice on the lake, or the snoring 
 of the men and dogs. But if the earth 
 seems asleep, not so the sky. The magic 
 sliuttle of the aurora borealis is ofttimes 
 at work up over that North country, send- 
 ing its shifting lights weaving across the 
 firmament with a tremulous brilliancy 
 and energy we in this country get but 
 
 pale bints of when we see the phenome- 
 non at all. Flashing an 1 palpitating in- 
 cessantly, the rose-tinted waves and lu- 
 minous whit(> bars leap across the sky or 
 dart up and down it in manner so fan- 
 t^istic and so f<»r<'eful, even despit*! their 
 shadowy thinne.ss, that travellers have 
 fancied themselves deaf to some seraphic 
 sound that they believed such commotion 
 must produce. 
 
 An incident of this typical journey I 
 am describing would, at more than one 
 season, be a meeting willi some band of 
 Indians going to a post with furs for bar- 
 ter. Though the bulk of these hunters 
 fetch their quarry in the spring and 
 early summer, some may come at any 
 time. The procession may be f>nly that 
 of a family or of the two or more fam- 
 ilies that live together or as neighbors. 
 The man, if there is but one group, is cer- 
 tain to be stalking ahead, carrying no- 
 thing but his gun. Then come the wo- 
 men, laden like ])ack-horses. They may 
 have a sled packed with the furs and 
 drawn by a dog or two, and an extra dog 
 may bear a balanced load on his back, 
 but the squaw is certain to have a spine- 
 warping burden of meat and ;i battered 
 kettle and a pappoose, and whatever per- 
 sonal propert}' of any and every sort she 
 and her liege lord own. Children who 
 can walk have to do so, but it sometimes 
 happens that a baby a year and n half 
 or two years old is on her back, while a 
 new - born infant, swaddled in blanket 
 stuff, and bagged and tied like a Bologna 
 sausage, surmounts the load on the sled. 
 A more tatterdemalion outfit than a band 
 of these pauperized savages form it would 
 be difficult to imagine. On the plains 
 they will have horses dragging travoises, 
 dogs with travoises, women and children 
 loaded with impedimenta, a colt or two 
 running loose, the lordly mei' riding free, 
 straggling curs a plenty, babies in arms, 
 babies swaddled, an(J toddlers afoot, and 
 the whole battalion presenting at its ex- 
 posed points exhibits of torn blankets, raw 
 meat, distorted pots and pans, tent, poles, 
 and rusty traps, in all eloquently sugges- 
 tive of an eviction in the slums of a great 
 city. 
 
 I speak thus of these people not will- 
 ingly, but out of the necessity of truth- 
 telling. The Indian east of the Rocky 
 Mountains is to me the subject of an ad- 
 miration which is the stronger the more 
 nearly I find him as lie was in his prime. 
 
 . f 
 
 P' 
 
 \ 
 
"TALKING MUSQUASH." 
 
 609 
 
 ■ 
 
 \. 
 
 It is not Ills fuult that most of his mco 
 Iiave def^eiierated. It is nut uur fault tliat 
 wo have better UHes for tlie continent than 
 those to wliich he put it. But it i.s our 
 fault that ho i.s, as I have seen liiin, shiv- 
 ering in a cotton tepee full of lioles, and 
 turning around and around before a tire 
 of wet wood to keep from freezing to 
 death ; furnished meat if ho lias been lierce 
 enough to make us fear him, left to starve 
 if l»e has been docile; taught, ay, forced 
 to beg, mocked at by a religion he can- 
 not understand, from the mouths of men 
 who apparently will not understand him; 
 debauched with rum, de.spoilcd by the lust 
 of white men in every form that lust can 
 take. All, it is a sickening story. Not 
 in Canada, do you say? Why, in the 
 northern wilds of Canada are districts 
 peopled by beggars who have been in 
 such pitiful stress for food and covering 
 that tlie Hudson Bay Company has kept 
 them alive with advances of provisions 
 and blankets winter after winter. They 
 are Iiidiutis who in their strength never 
 gave the government the concern it now 
 fails to show for their weakness. The 
 great fur company has thus added gen- 
 erosity to its long career of just dealing 
 with these poor adult children; for it is a 
 fact tliat though the company has made 
 what profit it might, it has not, in a cen- 
 tury at least, cheated the Indians, or made 
 false representations to them, or lost their 
 good-will and respect by any feature of 
 its policy toward them. Its relation to 
 them lias been paternal, and they owe 
 none of their degradation to it. 
 
 I have spoken of the visits of the na- 
 tives to the posts. There are two other 
 arrivals of great consequence — the coming 
 of the supplies, and of the winter mail or 
 packet. I have seen the provisions and 
 trade goods being put up in bales in the 
 great mercantile storehouse of the com- 
 pany in Winnipeg — a .store like a combi- 
 nation of a Sixth Avenue ladies' bazar 
 and one of our wholesale grocer's shops — 
 and I liave seen such weights of canned 
 vegetables and canned plum-pudding and 
 bottled ale and other luxuries that I am 
 sure tliat in some posts there is good liv- 
 ing on high days and holidays if not al- 
 ways. The stores are packed in parcels 
 averaging sixty pounds (and sometimes 
 one hundred), to make them convenient 
 for handling on the portages—" for pack- 
 ing them over the carries," as our traders 
 used to say. It is in following these sup- 
 
 plies that we become most keenly sensible 
 of the changes time has wrought in the 
 metluxls of the company. Tlie day was, 
 away back in the era of the Northwest 
 Company, tliat the goods for the posts 
 w >nt up the Ottawa from Montreal in 
 great canoes manned by hardy voyageura 
 in picturesque costumes, wielding scarlet 
 paddles, and stirring the forests with their 
 hap|)y songs. The scene shifted, the com- 
 panies blended, and the centre of tlie 
 trade moved fnmi old Fort William, close 
 to where Port Arthur now is on Lake 
 Superior, up to Winnipeg, on the Red 
 River of the North. Then the Canadians 
 and their cousins, the half-breeds, more 
 picturesque than ever, and manning the 
 great York boats of the Hudson Bay 
 Company, swept in a long train through 
 Lake Winnipeg to Norway House, and 
 tlience by a marvellous water route all 
 the way to i.he Rockies and the Arctic, 
 sending off freight for side districts at 
 fixed points along the course. The main 
 factories on this line, maintained as such 
 for more than a century, bear names 
 whose very mention stirs the blood of 
 one who knows the romantic, picturesque, 
 and poetic history and atmosphere of the 
 old company when it was the landlord 
 (in part, and in part monopolist) of a ter- 
 ritory that cut into our Northwest and 
 Alaska, and swept from Labrador to Van- 
 couver Island. Northward and westward, 
 by waters emptying into Hudson Bay, 
 the brigade of great boats worked through 
 a region embroidered with sheets and 
 ways of water. The system that was 
 next entered, and which bore more nearly 
 due west, bends and bulges with lakes 
 and straits like a ribbon all curved and 
 knotted. Thus, at a great portage, the 
 divide was reached and crossed; and so 
 the waters flowing to the Arctic, and 
 one — the Peace River — rising beyond the 
 Rockies, wei'e met and travelled. This 
 was the way and the method until after 
 the Canadian Pacific Railway was built, 
 but now the Winnipeg route is of subor- 
 dinate importance, and feeds only the 
 region near the west side of Hudson Bay. 
 The Northern supplies now go by rail 
 from Calgai'y, in Alberta, over the plains 
 by the new Edmonton railroad. From 
 Edmonton the goods go by cart to Atha- 
 basca Landing, there to be laden on a 
 steamboat, which takes them nortliward 
 until some rapids are met, and avoided by 
 the u"e of a singular combination of ba- 
 
BIO 
 
 HAU1»KR'S NKW MONTHLY MA(JAZ1NK. 
 
 toaiix and tramway ruils. AftiM- i^ hIow 
 projrn'SH of llftwii milt's anotiM>i- hU'ium 
 l)()!il JH in»'t, and thonct* lli«'y follWw tlic 
 Allial»Ui(*a, tlirou^li AthabuHca l^iko, and 
 8(> on up to a second rapidH, on the (jlr(>at 
 Hluve liivcr this time, wlienj oxiMi and 
 cart« carry thcin acroHS a sixtticn mile 
 portajfc to li Bcn'W HU-anicr, wliicli liniHh«iH 
 tli« tlinM'-tliou»and-rnile journey to the 
 North. Of course the shorter brancli 
 route's, diHtributint; the }jfoo<lH on either 
 side of tiie main track, are still traversed 
 by can<Hi8 and liardy fellows in th(^ old 
 way, but with shabby accessoritis of cos- 
 tume and spirit. These boatmen, when 
 they come it) a porUijfe, produce their 
 tomplines, and "pack" the floods to the 
 next waterway. By means of these 
 " lines" tliey carry great weiglits, resting 
 on tlieir backs, but supported from their 
 skulls, over whic)i the strong straps are 
 passed. 
 
 The winter mail-packet, startiiifj from 
 Winnipeg in the depth of tlie season, jjoes 
 to nil the posts by dofj train. The letters 
 and pHi)ers are packed in great boxes and 
 strapped to the sleds, beside or behind 
 
 which the drivers trot along, cra<'king 
 their lashes and pelting and cursing tl>e 
 dogs. A more direct (bourse tluin the old 
 Lake Winnipeg wuy has usually been 
 followed by this packet; but it is thought 
 that the route riVt Edmonton and Ath- 
 abasca Ijanding will serve belter yet, so 
 that another chang( may btt nuide. This 
 °'t a snuill exhibition as compared with 
 liie brigade that Uikes the snp))lies, or 
 those others that come plashing down 
 the streams and across the country with 
 the furs every year. But only fancy 
 how eagerly tliis solitary semianntnil mail 
 is waited fori It is a little speck on the 
 snow;wrai)ped upper end of all North 
 Amcirica. It cut« a tiny trail, and liere 
 and there lesser black dots move oH' from 
 it to cut still slenderer threads, zigzagging 
 to the side factories and les.ser ))osts; but 
 we may be sure that if human eyes could 
 see so far, all those of the white men in 
 all that vast tangled system of trading 
 centres would be watching the little ciir- 
 avan, until at last each pair fell upon the 
 expected missives from the throbbing 
 world this side of the border. 
 
 \ 
 
 i\ 
 
 
 PERjiO^AL RECOLLECTIONS OF NATHANIEL llAWTliOKNE. 
 
 BY HORATIO HUIDGK. 
 
 CtjUi) l&aptt. 
 
 nio liore, though thoy are not above a <iuniter 
 part what soiiio ])Ooplc Hiip])oso tliotn. 
 
 It HJckciiH nio to look back to Anurica. I 
 am Hick to deatli of the continual fuss and 
 tunuiU and oxciteniont and bad blood wliicli 
 we keep up about political topics. If it were 
 not for my childrei\ I should probably never 
 return, but — after quitting oflBco — sliouUl go 
 taly, and live and (lie tiicre. If Mrs. bridge 
 and\ou would go too, wc might iurm a little 
 colour amongst ourselves, and see our cliildren 
 grow/up together-, liut it will never do to de- 
 priva tliem of their native land, which I hope 
 willLe a more comfortable and hai»i)y residence 
 in tJieir day than it has been in ours. In my 
 opiiiion, we are the most nnseraltle people on 
 earth. 
 
 wish you would send me the most mintite 
 
 tii- 
 
 JMMEpIATEL^^fter Gen era]/ Pierce's 
 e\Gci^nnJ/»^e Presidency, in 1852, he 
 offered Hawthorne the Liverp/ol consul- 
 ate, an office then considerafl the most 
 lucrative of all the foreign dp])ointments 
 in the Presidential gift, andysoon after his 
 inauguration he gave liimAliat place. 
 
 In July, 1853, Hawthori/e and his 
 ly sailed for England. 
 
 A few of his letters dtc&^'ttere given, 
 which speak of some of his annoyances 
 at the prospect of his official emoluments 
 being decreased by legislation, and of 
 some other matters of public and private 
 concern. 
 
 LivKiiPOOL, March 30, 1854. 
 
 My dkar Bridgk, — You are welcome home, 
 and I heartily wish I could see Mrs. Bridge 
 and yourself and little Marian by our English 
 fireside. 
 
 I like my office well enough, but any official 
 duties and obligations are irksome to me be- 
 yond expression. Nevertheless, the emolu- 
 ments will be a sufficient inducement to keep 
 
 particulars 
 
 b^iavcH whe, 
 
 anH^sjur 
 
 really tin 
 
 terly unable to get at 
 
 Give him my best reg; 
 
 er he finds his post an 
 
 I prophesied it wonldjbe 
 
 I have a great dea^^mo; 
 it to future letters. MfsT 
 
 CO — how he looks and 
 t him, how his litalMi 
 ve all what the public 
 point which I am ut- 
 irough the newsjiapers. 
 ds, and ask him wheth- 
 more comfortable than 
 
 to f ay, but defer 
 awthi irne sends her 
 
 /*"