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; . HARPER'S

lEW M ONTHLY MA GAZINE.

No. CXXIII -AUGUST, 1860.-VOL XXI.

[i^ftst 3Papet.]

OUB expedition, on the afternoon of the 10th
of Jnne, left the hill back of the apostolic
capital of Minnesota, where the tents had been
pitched and the messos made up the night before.

The scene had bean one of great confusion pre-
vious to loading the carts and packini^ i mules
—these the last sad offices before burying our-
selves in the prairies of the. Northwest out of
sight of civilization. Crowds of citizens from
St. Paul and vicinity were present during the
ceremony. All about the camp-ground were
scattered our provisions, sacks of flour and sugar

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the yew 1860, hj Harper and Brothers, la the Clerk's Office of the Dis-
trict Court for the Southern District of Mew York.
Vol. XXI.— No. 123.— T

97462

Pacific N. V^;. History Dont.

PROVINCIAL LIBPIARV '
VICTORIA, B. C.

290

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

OASOASB NSAB ST. PAUL.

and beans, barrels of pork and bags of dried beef,
bags of dried apples and sacks of coffee, canis-
ters of tea and kegs of powder, bags of shot and
chunks of lead, rifles, shot-guns, and pistols,
blankets — blue, red, white, and green ; fishing-
rods, pack-saddles, cart-harness, tents and tent-
poles, tin kettles, iron saucepans, tin plates, car-
pet-bags, valises, soap-boxes, axes, and buffalo-
robes, butcher-knives and spy-glasses, and a hun-
dred things besides — some useful and some use-
less — relics of civilization which now lie scattered
along the valley of the Red River of the North
and the prairies of the Saskatchewan, one by one
thrown away as their owners drew the line be-
tween luxuries and necessities, in passing from
citizens to nomads.

At length the carts were loaded, horses har-
nessed, mules packed, and horsemen mounted.
' • The Colonel" led the train, driving a light sulky
carrying the odometer and other scientific in-
struments. Balky horses were spurred up, re-
fractory mules flogged, and amidst hundreds of
"Good-byes," "Write me from Frazer River,"
"My compliments to the Saskatchewan," "Send
back the biggest nuggets you find," "Let me
give yon a pass over the Rocky Mountains," one
after another wheeled into line, and the expedi-

tion was fairly started on its
long journey.

Three-fourths of onr twenty
were bound to Frazer River to
dig for gold ; the rest were in
search of treasures uf anoth-
er sort — health, knowledge, a
summer's recreation, science,
personal inspection of the
Northwestern areas and the
great rivers by which they are
linked to our own Northwest-
ern States.

We outfitted at St. Paul,
and spent a fortnight of fine
summer weather, when we
ought to have been traveling,
in miiiung our purchases, be-
ginning with horses. [Ealo-
py of Western borse-jockeys is
liere omitted for want of room.
The sentiments of the writer
will be intelligibly conveyed by
the picture on the next page,
containing portraits of animals
offered for our purchase by
members of that virtuous and
enlightened profession.]

My friend Joseph bought a
mare whom he conceived to be
profoundly penetrated with a
grave consciousness of the part
she was performing in opening
an international highway across
the continent. " Observe,"
said he, "the pensile head,
the meditative, lacklustre eye,
the impressive solemnity of her
slowly measured tread. See
how she restrains the natural levity of her dis-
position, and represses that exuberance of an-
imal spirits which one might expect from a horse
in the very blush and dew of equine aiolescence
— for the man I bought her of swore sne was only
six years old. Let her be called Lady Mary."
For my own part, I bought a horse of Indian
origin and aboriginal habits — lazy, tough, balky,
jocose, sagacious, and of n couEcrvative habit —
afterward called "Dan Rice." Together we
bought a mule to draw our kit and cargo in a
cart of the Red River pattern. Each of us had
an India-rubber blanket, two pair of heavy woolen
blankets, arms and ammunition, fishing-tackle, be-
sides the cooking utensils, compass, hammer and
nails, pail, water-keg, axe, scythe, shovel, rope,
string, and jack-knife, which we owned in com-
mon . For wearing apparel the best average was :
a soft felt hat, three or four blue fiannel shirts,
with three or four pockets in each. A full suit
of Canada blue or stout doeskin, with an extra
pair of trowsers. One pair of duck cloth over-
alls. Boots or high shoes, with projecting soles
to keep the prairie-grass from cutting through
the uppers.

Whoever goes to Frazer River hereafter by the
northern overland n)ute will please listen to two

TO RED RIVER AND BETOND.

201

UOBSE-JOOKBTttia.

items of advice, or skip to the next paragraph.
Item first — the same which Punch gave to a
young conple about marrying — " Don't I" But
if he insists upon going — item second — let him
not travel five hundred mi?es north with loaded
carts before beginning on his half-continent of
westing. Messrs. Burbank and Blakely, of St.
Paul, have hod a line of stages this summer from
that city to the head of navigation on the Red
River of the North ; and the steamboat Ans^n
Northup, owned by them in shares with the Hud-
son's Bay Company, now connects that terminus
with the Selkirk Settlement. Let the emigrant
outfit at St. Paul, send his provisions to Fort Gar-
ry by the route named, and there buy carts and
fresh horses and make an early start.

It was a motley crowd. There was the man
of monstrous egotism, who passed his life in the
contemplation and exposition of his own achieve-
ments and virtues, and men of no virtue at all ;
the enthusiast, and the man who ridiculed all
enthusiasm ; the man who believed every thing,
and the man who believed nothing ; men of good
principle, men of bad principle, and men of no
principle; scholars and ignoramuses; industri-
ous men and lazy men ; sick men, who could be
floored with a msh, and well men that a bull
would hesitate before trying to butt over ; water
drinkers and whisky drinkers; men that were
boys, and boys that were men ; Nova Scotians
and Indian luiIf-breedB, Scotchmen and Canadi-
ans, English, American, and Irish; and bnt
three tents-fnl in all.

There were with us tyro doctors, to look after
onr healths, and an accomplished scientific gen-
tleman, a geologist and botanist, who afterward

descended tha Assiniboine River from Fort Ellice,
in a canoe, with only a single Indian guide, as-
certaining the navigability of the stream in the
spring of the year to small boats, and in nearly
aJl seasons to batteaux — one of the few results
accomplished by the expedition.

Our first day's journey was a very short one.
Horses and mules had to be weaned from the
quotidian oats of civilization, and taught to rec-
oncile themselves to grass and water. The fa-
tigues of the journey had to be begun adagio,
and then crescendo, A gforzando movement at
the start would have knocked them up in a week.

We, too, had to be weaned. We found this
out at the first camping-ground. Instead of
ringing for coals and ordering a chop, we had to
chop our wood and build our fires and fry our
o>vn pork. The streams, which are the Crotons
and Cochituates of the prairies, had to make con-
nection with our temporary houses by wooden
pails instead of iron pipes, and we to learn how
much easier it is to reach a bell-rcpe and turn a
faucet than to be hev/ers of wood and drawers of
water.

Riding in the sun and the labor and excite-
ment of starting had given us the appetites of
Brobdignagians. Visions of savory messes,
clouds of fragrant steam, in which Soyer the
immortal seemed enjoying peipetnal apotheosis,
floated through our<nrinds as we pitched the
tents «aA drove their stakes, stacked the gnns
and spread onr blankets for the night, and then
waited and listened for the call to snpper. Pres-
ently it came, and in the one woid " Grub /"
and grub it was. The tea, virgin as when gath-
ered in the gardens of the celestials, had impart-

2S)2

HAKPERS NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

BED BIVEB GUIDE.

cd none of its virtue to the ravishing hot water,
and the decoction which we poured into our tin
cups from the new tin tea-pot deserved no better
name than hot slops. We asked for bread and
received a stone, or at least something so com-
pact, solid, and yet springy, that if it could be
produced in sufficient quantities it might super-
sede the pavements of New York, with danger
to horses, profit to the contractor, and .addition
to the general filth — the three essentials. Fried
salt pork was the piece de resistance.

These were our bad beginnings, however. We
had not then got into the region of game. Sub-
sequently we had bread as light and good as
could be desi/ed, and banqueted on flesh, fish,
and fowl of an infinite variety. Even ^elmon-
ico denies you the pleasure which we had — of

shooting your own l>ird, picking, dressing, and
salting it, and impaling the cadaver upon a sharp
stick, there to broil over the coals of the camp-
fire into exquisite yellows and browns. And a
venison steak with the costliest accompaniments,
in a four-wallod restaurant, is not to be preferred
to a buffiilo steak at supper, bought by a four-
mile chase. Nor did bread and pork and tea
comprise all our bill of fare. Some of the no-
mads whom civilization was sloughing off still
clung to the fare to which they had been accus-
tomed; and visitors came, bringing in secret
pockets mysterious black bottles, containing, if
all we have heard is true, chalk, marble dust,
opium, tobacco, henbane, oil of vitriol, copperas,
alum, strychnine, and other exhilarating bever-
ages.

TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND.

208

TUB TRAVELKIt H lloXE.

Stngcs and teams continnnlly passed us, and
our camp-lifc as yet lacked the seclusion which
l!i\iis it its charm. Some of us were even weak
i'n(ju{,'h to prefer the wliito sheets and linen pil-

V
P-
a

A
)-
II
i-
!t

rEBBT OVEB BtTM BIVEB.

low-cases of civilization to the blankets of barba-
rians, and generally found our way at sundown
to some inn.

Still, along this crowded thoroughfare, and
with these dilutions
of camp-life, we met
with some shni-p con-
trasts. My sketch-
book contains, upon
consecutive pages, a
picture of the Astor-
like "Fuller House,"
at St. Paul, where
I slept one night,
nnd the "Traveler's
Home," where I ask-
ed for " something to
cut" on the next day.
Our road passed
over two tributaries
of the Mississippi —
Elk River and Rum
River. Spring fresh-
ets had carried away
their bridges, and we
crossed by moans of
temporary rope fer-
ries. Over Rum Riv-
er ferrj", near Anoka,
we were earned free.
Enterprising citizens
reasoned with the
owner of the boat,
whether patriotically
or namismatically I
know not, and brought
him to a sense of his
condition as one of
the pioneers of the
great Northwest Ex-
ploring Expedition.
That body, when it
had crossed, organ-

[f!

S94

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

--^i

ONE OF OUB DOOl'OttS.

ized itself into a convention and passed the fol-
lowing • ' ns:

" Wherti 1 kindness of the citizens of Anoka we

have bee. jver Rum River free,

"iJMoIjed, A hat we tender them our heartfelt thanlts!

"iJ««oli'cd, That we are deeply ecnnible of the able and
skillful manner in which the ferryman managed his pole,
and his assistant the rudder, in the trying transit of Rum
River;

"7J««oiBed, That we are devoutly grateful that the rope
did not break and leave us to the mercy of winds and
waves ;

" Resolved, That we cordially unite in recommending
to Charon, the proprietor of the Styx ferry-boat, to re-
frain from demanding the usual two oboli from the citi-
zens, of Anoka and the ferryman of Rum River."

These resolutions were adopted nem. con. The
chairman was about to put the motion to adjourn
to a quarter where the rum was not so liberally
diluted as in the stream just crossed, when the
gentleman who had offered the resolutions stepped
on top of a pile of flour-sacks in his cart and ex-
claimed,

" Mr. Chairman, before we adjourn allow me
to make a few brief remarks on a subject in which
we are all deeply interested. Need I say that I
allude to the great Northwest Exploring Expe-
dition?" [Hear! hear! Goon! goon! Three
cheers for the Saskatchewan !]

The exigencies of space compel the omission
of the speaker's apology for a want of prepara-
tion for the occasion and his brilliant exordium.
The following extracts are taken from the mau-

UMcript which ho drew from his p(X'k-
ct n few moments later. I have en-
deavored to relievo the dryness of
Ms discourse by interpolating a few
skctclu'S of the members of our jjar-
ty, as they appeared at various point-x
of the journey.

"The discovery of gold in Frazer
River and its tributaries dciiopulutcd
many of the small towns of Califor-
nia in a few short weeks. Tracts of
land, once thickly settled and well
tilled, were emptied of inhabitants
and left as free of the plow as they
were before gold was discovered in
thai El Dorado. Emigrants came
from the East too, but passed on by
the Golden Gate and entered the
Straits of Junn de Fuca on their
way to the newer and more northern
El Dorado. Shall we wonder, then,
that the Californians have said Fra-
:;cr llivcr is a humbug? Nay, rath-
er let us rejoice. Shall any croaker
say we count our eggs before they
are hatched ? Perha])? we do ; but
it is because the eggs are golden ones,

and we are sure of our goose

"But the emigration is already
sufficient to make the question of
routes nil important. Some may
•I like to go around the Horn, but not

a Western man ; that is not his way
of treating horns. Who wants to
be huddled like cattle between the
decks of a rickety old steamer for weeks and
months? Who wants to go from London to
Paris by the way of Jericho? The best gold
fields are in the head waters of Frazer River,
close to the Rocky Mountains, just over the way.

We take the short cut

" To use the words of a distinguished writer :
' Various causes have been n))proaching their
crisis of consequence with a remarkably synchro-
nous movement.' The license of the Iludson
Bay Company has just expired. The land which
they have shut out the world from is open to
capital and labor. British Columbia has been
organized. People are hearing of the northward
deflection of the isothermals west of the great
lakes. Bulwer's prophecy, of a cordon of free
States all along our northern boundary, may yet
be realized. Ten years ago who knew that
northwest of Chicago lies an inhabitable area
bigger than the whole United States east of the
Mississippi, included between the same lines of
latitude which box the great grain-growing dis-
tricts of Central Europe ? Japan is opening, and
the Amoor gapes to receive her coming thousands.
Oregon and Washington Territories are swelling
into magnificence, and the eyes of wide-awake
philosophers already see in the Northern Pacific

the Mediterranean of the future

" And what a magnificent river system is that
of the Northwestern areas — a system by itself!
Think me not stupid because I am statistical.

TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND.

2»r<

Tlic Ucd l{iver of tlie Nortli liooks its licad wn-
tci'H in iinioiiK the liciid waters of the MissisHi|i]>i.
Then it sends its waters hundreds of miles north
to Lalto Winnipeg, the centre of the system.
That lake is two hundred miles long, navigublo
fur any class of vessels. Its main tributary is
tlie Suskatchewnn [cheers], navigable to the very
iiliadows of the Rocky Mountains. Of this coun-
try, big enough to make half a dozen flrst-class
States, Red River is the syjjhon, and Minnesota
is the reservoir that its wealth will always flow
into. Minnesota, too, gentlemen, as my friend
Lieutenant Maury says, is the centre of the
Northern thermal band — the temperate zonjc, the
zone of commorce, manufactures, industrial ac-
tivity, and the wealth and power of the globe.
England, Franco, Russia, Germany, the New
England, Middle, and North westei-n States lie
in it ; the whole valley of the St. Lawrence and
the great basin of the Saskatchewan lie in it.
The climatic associations of this belt, upon the
eastern side of the basin of the great lakes, have
formed the elements of the popular delusions re-
garding the climate of the region to the west and
northwest of us. But how absurd is the deduc-
tion I The same argument proves that the vine-
clad hills of France are no better than the banks
cf Newfoundland, and Central Europe as bleak
and cold as our stormy Labrador. Science and
observation tell us that the western coasts of
continents are warmer than the eastern in the
same latitude, and the northwestern areas of onr
coiitinent will yet be settled with a population
such as it desen-es."

The orator, dismounting from his throne, was
saluted with three cheers. The wit of the party

called for "Hail Columbia" from the thermal
band, and the twenty mounted their horses and
carts and drove on.

The day's programme soon settled down into
this routine : The morning watch culled the
cooks of the three messes at sunrise, and the
cooks called their messes half an hour later.
After ablutions, which were performed in proxi-
mate tin basins or distant brooks, breakfast wa!>
laid upon the ground and eaten. The interval,
till seven or eight o'clock, was generally given to
miscellaneous matters, hftrses needing to !« shod,
harness to be mended, tents to be struck, jour-
nals to be written up, etc. At half past seven
the animals which had been nnpickctcd at sun-
rise by the momi'iig watch were brought up,
harnessed and sadilled, and at about eight tlio
expedition started on its day's journey. Wo
rested an hour or half-hour at noon, and went
into camp at four. The variations upon this
plan became numerous as we journeyed on.
Sometimes a deep stream was to bo crossed,
which occupied half the day, during which the
horses rested, and could, therefore, travel later.
Sometimes the greater part of a day's journey
was through marshes, or the road was bad and
full of slcfughs, which wearied the horses : in this
case we went into camp earlier. But the prin-
cipal cause of variation came to be the nearness
of wood and water. These words gradually
changed their original sign.:'cation into a much
broader one, in our minds. Wood once meant
the stuff floors and doors and desks are made
of, and water was merely one of a great variety
of fluids. Now wood and water became essen-
tials to us. We must have them or go supjier-

DUB S.'TUBALIBT BTITDTINa OBASSEe

296

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

jci^-r^-x

MY FIBBT WATCU.

less to bed, and start breakfiistless in the morn-
ing. They stood instead of a hundred things,
and were, to use the phrase of a philosopher,
the fundamental data of life. By them wo lived,
and moved, and had our being.

On coming to the camp-ground the horses
were at once unsaddled and the mules unhar-
nessed, all watered and turned out to graze till
twilight, when they were picketed for the night.
The tents were pitched, wood cut, and water
brought for the cooks, who set forth their tins,
built the fires, and proceeded to business. After
supper, the watch, who was on duty from sunset
till midnight, built smudges for the animals, saw
4hey were properly picketed, and began his rounds.

The blankets were spread in the tents, the tents
smudged or mosquito nets hung, and at dark
nearly all were asleep. A few lingered around
the camp-fire telling stories of home, singing
songs and choruses, and smoking their pipes;
but soon they, too, joined the sleepers.

My first watch happened to fall while we were
camped on the east bank of the Mississippi. It
was the morning watch, from midnight to sun-
rise. A cool wind, inexpressibly refreshing after
the heat of the day, blew tha blanket from my
shoulders as I stepped out of the tent at the call of
the first watch. Over the whole sky clouds were
flying to the south, in thick billows, through the
upper air, and in whiter flecks of foam below.

TO RED RIVKR AND BEYOND.

207

tents
dark
round
nging
)ipes;

were
It
8un>
after
my
all of
were
1 the
ilow.

In the wi'st tlu? full nuxm was K"inK down, now
t'onipletnly hidden from the siglit, and now burst-
ing thruugli tlic riftH with a sudden light. In
these moments the wliito tents gleamed, and the
thick darki.wss which hung ocr the river, the
forests 01 trees upon its western bank, and ufKjn
the islands between, suddenly passed away, re-
vealing their sharp outline against the sky, the
rounded graceful masses of foliage, broken by
hero and there a giant trunk leafless, the memo-
rial uf some storm and its swift lightning stroke.
Long, deep shadows stretched acri hs the river al-
most to the hither shore, and where the moon-
light shone fair and clear, the rapid current of
the river, whose waters the north wind seemed
hurrying on to their southern gulf, was trans-
formed to bridges of liglit, and the illusion hard-
ly passed away until a raft came floating down
tlio stream out of the darkness, a single form
visible ujion its wrinkled surface, his hand upon
the huge paddic guiding its course through the
windings of the channel as it swayed from shore
to shore.

St. Cloud, seven ty-flv(f miles north of St. Paul,
the northern limit of the second stretch of con-
tinuous navigation on the Mississippi, was our
first station. Six or seven years ago there was
nothing there but the forest primeval and a
cabin or two. Now there is a capital hotel, tlje
Ptearns House, two or three churches, a hospital
of ihe Sisters of Mercy, and houses for a thou-
sand people. The > 'est l)luff of the river, where
St. Cloud stands, is high and steep, the prairie
stretching back of it level. From various points
on this bluff the river views are beautiful, esi)e-
cially the one looking north to Sauk Ilapids, two
or three miles above.

Tlie greatest institution, the peculiar one of
St. Cloud, I have failed to mention — the St.
Cloud newspaper. Joseph and I called uuon its
editor, the well-known Mrs. Swisshelm, and were
permitted to see the most northwestern printing
oflice of the cis-montane States. We found the re-
puted ogre a large-eyed, lively little woman, with
a masculine and unhandsome breadth and height
of forehead, wearing a plain brown Quakerish
dress, and occupied in sewing together a carpet
for the principal room in her new house, just
finishing and adjoining the old one. She was
very busy, and therefore kept her position on the
floor and went on with her work, telling us, how-
ever, that she was glad we came, begging us to
go on and talk, but launching her bark in the
current of conversation before we had knocked
away the shores of our own. She was absorbent
and capacious of information, uniting the pro-
fessional inquisitiveness of the reporter with the
friendly curiosity of her sex. Her comments
were shrewd and her talk often witty. Present-
ly she left her work and took us into the print-
ing-''fflce and sanctnm. The latter was a small
apartment partitioned off from the main room,
long and narrow. In one comer stood the edi-
torial desk, with a pile of exchanges surmounted
by the professional scissors and paste-pot. She
had been compelled to use the sauctum as a liv-

ing room also. At tlie right strxjd a table with
the dishes laid for tea, and close at the left a
c(M>king stove loaded with tea-pot, frying-pan,
and kettles. Every thing ap])oarcd in c-oiifusion
in this sanctum ; for it was not largo enough tn
swing a cat ronifortably in, and yet was crowded
with the miscellaneous contents of an editorial
oflice, a kitchen, and dining-room, and scrv'cd.
besides, as tiie j)asHage-way to tlie larger room
beyond. In this room were the hand-press and
stands of typo, one or two half-niado-tip funus
and half a dozen galleys rested on the tabic,
while the walls were adorned with jKJstcrs an-
nouncing horse sales, houses to rent, etc. A
window was broken, and the floor littered. Lean-
ing against the form-table in this dingy room,
the brave woman told us how she had learned to
sot typo herself, and then taught boys to ; how she
made uj) the forms ; how she had got along with
a stitt'-neckcd and rebellious jieople ; how she had
enjoyed her persecutions and mild martyrdom ;
how she had endured the ren uni/usUe ilomi, and,
like nil the rest of us workies, had nearly died in
gcti ..»; a living.

\N i.ul a sujipcr that night — not but what, in
the o'dinaiy conditions of the exchequer, most
of us were sure of three meals a day ; but this
was a p.irticular aiid public sapper. For my
part, I remember nothing of it except that the
presitling oflicer was C. C. Andrews, immor-
talized in " The Red River Trail," a lawyer
who is making his mark in the northwest, and
that, after his sensible brief speech, somebody got
up and told who built the first wagon in Minne-
sota, and somebody else cxitressed the opinion
that tho head of navigation on the Mississippi
was not St. Paul, nor S'n'anthony, nor St.
Cloud, but Fort P^dmonton on the Saskatche-
wan.

On Monday, June 20, the train struck its tents
and left St. Cloud : here beginning its experiences
of camp-life with a back-ground. So far we had
been treading the warp and woof of civilization —
now we began to slip off the fringes of its outer-
most skirts. Our direction was northwest, by the
valley of Sauk River, through the lake district of
Middle Minnesota to the head of navigation on
Red River. Such articles as were needed had
been added to our outfit, including a boat to cross
streams in, which served for a wagon box on dry
land. The second day out all our horses and
mules ran away before brcakfust. Half the camp
scoured the country in every direction in search for
the runaways. They were caught four miles away,
making steady tracks for St. Cloud and its pos-
sible oats, led on in their desertion by two of the
handsomest, smallest, and meekest-looking mules
in the train. The road rewarded them with re-
tributive justice that day. The sloughs were in-
numerable, and indeed innumerable they con-
tinued to be for weeks and weeks, only approach-
ing the limits of mathematical calculation as we
neared Pembina. This may seem strange when
it is considered that we crossed the divide be-
tween the tributaries of the Minnesota and Mis-
sissippi; but, as Joseph said, '*with a general

298

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

l'.

OETTINU OCT OF A BLOUOU.

convexity of outline there was great conca%'ity
of detail." The convex " divide," like a rounded
cheek, had a small-pox of lakes, bogs, ponds,
sloughs, and morasses.

To give in detail the particulars of this part
of our experience would be cruel to writer and
reader, though it might gain the former a seat
in the Chinese Paradise of Fuh, where the purg-
atorial price of admission is to wade for seven
years in mud up to the chin. So let me give
the spirit of it all, in a lump.

The only external indication of some kinds
of sloughs is a ranker growth of grass, perhaps
of a different color, in tlie low ground between
two hills of a rolling prairie. Again, on a level
prairie, where the road seems the same as that
you have been traveling drj- shod, your horse's
hoofs splash in wet grass. Tliis goes on, worse
and worse, till you get nervous and begin to draw
up your heels out of the water ; and so, perhaps,
for a mile, whether in the water or out of it you
can not tell, horses up to their hollies trudging
through the water and grass, carts sinking deep-
er than the hubs, you travel at the rate of one
mile in 2.40. Verj' often, however, sloughs
put on no such plausible appearance, but confess
themselves at once unmistakably bad and ruin-
ous to horses and carts.

It is the wagon-master's business to ride ahead
: f the train a few hundred yards, and, on coming
to a slough, to force his horse carefully back and
forth through it till ho finds the best place for
crossing. I have fished for trout in Berkshire
streams so small that, to an observev a hundred
yards distant, I must have seemed to 'je bobbing
for grasshoppers in a green meadow ; but the ap-
pearance is not more novel than to see a strong
horse plunging and pitching in a sea of green

gi*ass that seems to have as solid a foundation as
that your own horse's hoofs are printing. Some
sloughs have no better or worse spot. It is mud
from one side to tlie other— mud bottomless and
infinite, and backing up in some infernal Symmes's
hole. The foremost cart approaches, and, at the
first step, the mule sinks to his knees. Some
mules lie down at this point ; but moct of ours
were sufficiently well broken to make one more
spasmodic leap, and, though the water or mud
went no higher than their fetlocks, then and
there ^hey laid them down. This is the moment
for human intervention, and, on the part of pro-
fane mule-drivers, for an imprecation of divine
intervention. The men get off' their horses and
carts, and hurry to the shafts and wheels, tugging
and straining, while one or two yell at and bela-
bor the discouraged and mulish mule.

The census man would have no difllculty at
this juncture in ascertaining the persuasion to
which profuno mule-drivers belong, or, at least,
in Avhicli they have been reared. Some of their
oatlis derive their flavor from camp-meeting rem-
iniscences. Another man excels as a close-com-
munion swearer, and, after damning his mule,
superfluously damns the man who would not
damn him. Other oaths have a tropical luxu-
riance of irreverent verbiage that shows them to
have been drawn from the grand and reverent
phrases of the Prayer-book, and still others are
of that sort which proves their users godless
wTetches, with whom, for very ignorance, oaths
stand in the stead of adjectives.

Belabored by oaths, kicks, whip-lashes, and
ropes-ends, the mule may rise and plunge and
lie down, and rise again and plunge, until the
cart is on solid ground ; but it was generally the
quicker way to unload the can or wagon at once,

TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND.

299

or to lighten it until the multj could get through
easily. If this was inconvenient for any reason,
a rope was fastened to the axle, and twenty men
pulling one way would geneially succeed in beat-
ing the planet pulling the other. Our Indian
])onies got through mud splendidly. Joseph
was heard to recommend a stud of them for the
hither side of Bunvan's Slough of Despond.

They were too lazy to bo other than deliberate
in getting out of a hole. They put their feet
down carefully, and, like oxen, waddled along,
one step or one jump at a time. So they never
strained themselves as a high-spirited horse would,
and yet were not so mulish as to be willing to
stay stuck in the mud for centuries, until the
branches of future trees should lift them up for
fruit like Sir John Mandeville's sheep.

Three times we crossed the tortuous Sauk,
iirst by a ferry like the one at Rum River. The
next time, four days afterward, we had to make
our own ferry. One stout fellow swam across
with a rope in his teeth, which was tied firmly
to stout trees opposite each other. Then the
wagon box was taken off the Wi.cols, two or three
hours spent in calking it, launched, and a man
in the bow, holding on to the rope which sagged
down to within a yard of the water, by bending
his body and keeping stiff legs, could head the
bow up stream against the swift current, and pull
himself and the load across. A Cree half-breed
did this canoeing as dexterously from the first as
if he had spent his life on the river. Horses,
mules, and oxen were then pushed into the
stream, one by one, their lariats tied around
their noses, and held by another person in the
boat, so as to guide them at once to the only
place where they could get ashore. Finally, the
empty carts and wagons were floated across, and
pulled up the bank by a rope around the axle.

Crossing other streams where the current was
not swift enough to overturn the carts, and the
water only deep enough to flow over the boxes,
we cut saplings, made a floor on top of the frames,
lifted the goods top of that, and crossed without
unharnessing a mule.

<"-■

OL AIM-STAKE.

0LAtH4BAireT.

The conclusion
of all which is, that
people on railroad
cars don't realize
what they have to
be thankful for.

This valley of the
Sauk up which we
were traveling is
one of the garden
spots of Minnesota.
The new settlers of
the last two or three
years have many of
them taken that
direction. Claim-
stakes and claim-
shantios speck the
road Irom one end
of the river to the
other. Some of the
claim -shanties were built in good faith, had
been lived in, and land was tilled around them.
Not a few, however, were of the other sort, built
to keep the letter of the law ; four walls merely,
no windows, door, or roof. We often found it
convenient to camp near these edifices, and sated
ourselves the trouble of going half a mile for
wood when we found it cut so near at hand.

A terrific thunder-storm came on one after-
noon in this Sauk valley to which the average
thunder-storms of lat. 40° 42' long. 74° 41' are
two-penny and theatrical. We were drenched,
of course, with the lowest cloudful, in a moment ;
but the thunder vas so near, prolonged, and
hurtling, that it was enough to jnake a brave
man shiver to remember that his irowscrs had a
steel buckle. All day and all night the tempest
continued, rain pouring, lightning flashing round
the whole circuit of the heavens, and the thun-
der uaintermitted. But the next morning rose
as clear-skied as if the preceding had been a
June day of old tradition, and not written down
in the calendar of the battle-month as the anni-
versary of Montebello.

Our last day's travel in syl-
van Sauk Valley took us to Osak-
J: , is Lake. Here we camped for

Sunday, in an opening in a fine
forest which surrounded the lake.
Sunday was a perfect day. With
patient sight one might trace here
and there tlie graceful scarf-like
shadowy ivhiie of the highest and
rarest clouds against the pure
blue. No lower or coarser forms
were visible any ^vhere from hori-
zon to horizon, and even these
would sweep into such evanes-
cent folds, and ripple away into
such ethereal faintness, that the
eye passed them and looked
through the blue ether itself. To
breathe the pure air was indeed
an inspiration. The wind came
fresh and clear over the lake.

I'i

300

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

There it lies, siirrounded by forests on every
side, with only here and there vistas of open
prairie. From the level of the roots of the
nearest trees, and from the shadows that rest
among their huge trunks, the shining beach
slopes down, its white sand the floor where the
waves endlessly run up, visible far out and then
fused with the surface blue. I gave myself a
baptism in this beautiful cold lake, and then
finding an old gnarled oak whose spreading
limbs made a comfortable couch overlooking
the water, whiled the still hours away till the
shadows of the distant trees lengthened over the
lake and touched the hither shore.

Osakis Lake is twelve miles long and two or
three wide ; its waters are quite cold, and abound
with the largest and finest kind of fresh-water
fish — wall-e.yed pike, bass, perch, and other. The
Doctor, our one skillful fisherman, brought in a
boat-load, caught in an hour or two's drifting.
The rest of the camp spent the day in reading,
writing, sewing, fishing, washing, cooking, and
mending wagons.

Ten or twelve miles over the very worst road
yet, brought us to a place which, when it gets
to be a place, is to be called Alexandria. Half

of the distance and more was through woods.
Look up, and there was gorgeous sunlight flood-
ing the fresh young leaves, lighting up old oak
trunks, and glorifying the brilliant birch and ma-
ple, pigeons flying or alit, robins and thrushes,
and what other mellow-throated songsters I know
not, making the vistas and aisles of shadow alive
with sound ; but look down, and your horse was
balking at a labyrinth of stumps, where there
was no place to put his foot : this extending for
ten rods, and there terminating in a slough ag-
gravated by the floating debris of a corduroy
bridge, and this ending in a mud-hole, theblac!:
ness of darkness, with one stump upright tu
prevent your wading comfortably through it, to
transfix your horse or upset the cart.

The carts and their drivers could not get
through by daylight, but were compelled to stay
in the woods and fight mosquitoes all night,
reaching Alexandria about noon the next day.
Joseph and I, on our ponies, ' ' thridded the som-
bre boskage of the wood," and got to Alexandria
before dark. It was slow traveling, but, on sure-
footed Indian ponies, not very disagreeable. Thi'
mosquitoes were our worst torment ; we avoided
their terebrations by " taking the vail."

;;! '•

TAKinO Tm VAIL.

TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND.

801

MAJOB PATTEN'S OBOSBING.

About the middle of the afternoon we caught
glimpses through the leaves of a lake at the right
of us, and soon came to the short branch road
which led to it. Leading our horses down to
the water's edge, we observed a blazed tree just
at the margin, and an inscription neatly writ-
ten on the white wood, with date and name of
the company by whom it had been cut.

Coming out on the beautiful prairie which is
the site of Alexandria, wo were surprised to see
the wagons and tents of Messrs. Burbank and
Blakely's first two stage loads, showing that their
road-makers were not far enough ahead for them
to follow on. Is it possible that I have forgot-
ten to tell the romance of that stage load ? Two
Scotch girls, sisters, journeying \vithout any pro-
tector save their good looks and good sense,
from Scotland to Lake Athabasca, where one of
them was to redeem her plighted faith and marry
a Hudson Bay Company's officer. Ocean voyage
alone, two or three thousand miles' travel through
a strange country to St. Paul alone, then this
journey by stage to Fort Abercrombie, camping
out and cooking their own food, and voyaging
down Red River in a batteau, near a thousand
miles more, and fired at by Red Lake Indians
on the way, then journeying with a Comimny's

brigade to Athabasca, going north all the while
and winter coming on too, and the mercury
traveling down to the bulb; but her courage
sinking never a bit. Hold her fast when you
get her, Athabascan! She is a heroine, and
should be the mother oc' heroes.

And the brave bridesmaid sister I Where are
" the chivalry?" Letters take about a year to,
get to Athabasca, gentlemen.

Three English sportsmen and their guns, tents,
and dogs filled another stage, They had hunted
in Canada and Florida, shnt crocodiles in the
valley of the Nile, fished for salmon in Norway,
and were now on their way to the buflalo-plains
of the Saskatchewan to enjoy the finest sport of
all. Purdy rifles, Lancaster rifles, Wesley Rich-
ards's shot-guns, and Manton's shot-guns, sin-
gle-barreled and double-barreled: these were
their odds against brute strength and cunning.
One of them was a baronet, the others Oxford
men, and all might have passed a life of ease in
London with society, libraries, establishments ;
but this wild life, with all its discomforts and
privations and actual hardships and hard work,
had more attractions for them in its freedom,
its romance, its adventuna. Their stories were
of beleaguered proctors and bear fights, Hyde

Pacific N* W. History Dept,

PROVINCIAL L.lBflAI*V
VICTORIA^ U<k

302

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

10.

Park and deer-stalking, Rotten Row rides ond
moose hunts. Next year we may hear of them
up the Orinoco or in South Africa. Letter there
than wasting away manliness in "society," or
the " hells," or in bribing electors ; but is there
not something else in all England worth living
and working for ?

One of the three was a splendid rifle-shot.
With my Maynard rifle, breach-loading and
weighing only six pounds, unlike any thing he
had ever handled, he plumped a sardine-box at
distances of 100, 150, 200, and 300 yards, and
hit the small tree, in a cleft of which it was
fastened, almost every time in twenty.

Our tented field was a fair beginning for a
town. In fact, we far outnumbered the actual
population of Alexandria. Joseph and I were
glad enough to be permitted to enjoy more than
municipal privileges under the roof of Judge

G . If pioneers were all of the kind that

have founded Alexandria, civilization and re-
finement would travel west as fast as settlements,
instead of being about a decade behind. The
house was built of hewn logs, of course ; but in-
side grace and beauty struggled .with the rough-
ness of such raw materials and came off victori-
ous, and yet nothing was out of place. There
was an air about the main room that made you
remember that the grandest queen walked on
rush-strewn floors not half so fine as these spot-
less planks — and what wall-paper had such deli-
cate hues as the pealed bark revealed on the
timber beneath? — and there was a woman's trick
in the fall of the window-curtains and the hang-
ing of the net over the spotless counterpane in
the comer, and the disposition of things on the
bureau, crowned by its vaseful of beautiful
prairie flowers. Here we enjoyed such dinner-
table chat and such long evening talks, W. and

I, with Judge G and his wife, as made us

wish we had known them in London Terrace ten
years ago, though we could regret the absence
of none of the luxuries which they were daily
proving a well-ordered life could be lived without.

Alexandria is environed by beautiful lakes —
lakes which I obstinately refuse to rhapsodize
over, simply because they are so many and all
deserve it. To a promontory jutting out into
one of these I took a seven-mile walk early one
drizzly morning, with one of our party, accom-
panied by abound, for which ho had returned, to
follow up the scent of a deer which he said he
had shot and wounded badly two hours before.
We found the place — the leaves were splashed
with blood — gave the dog the scent, and followed
his wild running for two or three miles, but saw
no deer, and walked home in the rain. Now
there ire three hypotheses, together exhaustive,
which may explain this unfortunate occurrence.
Either the deer was not badly wounded, and went
further on, "making no sign," or the dog was
not a good dog, or, if a good dog, had had his
nose spoiled in killing skunks, which is possible.
I never will believe that a chipmonk has as much
blood in his veins as was scattered over those
leaves, or that any sane man could mistake a
squirrel for a deer.

First day's travel from Alexandria train made
2i miles. Best four-wheel wagon had all its
spokes crushed out falling into some rut in a
wood-road. Next day we got on a dozen miles
farther to Chippewa crossing. A party of fifty
Chippewas were hunting and fishing in the
vicinity. Two dusky boys watched us crossing
from their canoe and laughed, I fancy, at white
paddling. A shower came up, but before the
shallow lake had put on its goose-flesh to meet
the rain-drops, their paddles were out, and they

"now I LAY ME—"

TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND.

808

gkimming the water, straight as a crow flies,
through the rushes to the shelter of trees which

, accom-

overhung the water, and there the canoo rested
motionless again, and they watched us in silence.
They had speared half a dozen bufralo>fish (of a
rather coarse meat), and a plug of tobacco bought
all we wanted for supper.

I beg to bo excused from mentioning the fact
that, at this crossing, my pony in four-feet water,
and with only two rods to dry land, disgracefully
icighed a

"Now I lay me—"

and squatted, yes ! squatted down in the water,
positively refusing to obey whip or spur till I
had got oif his back and walked to dry land,
leading him. It is also needless to mention that
my saddle, saddle-bags, Shakspeare, and sketch-
book, together with all of me that is fishy in
mermen, became, to use a mild term, damp.

The prairie from ^'exandria to Otter Tail
River was a very beautiful one, the hills moder-
ately high but of gentle slopes, their green grassy
sides flecked with wild flowers of a thousand brill-
iant or quiet hues, and then every mile or two
a high swell of land from which we could look
over these smaller undulations to the great green
wave rising to its height again. As we passed
over these successive heights, about noon we
caught sight in the distance of a beautiful lake,
which, on approaching nearer, appeared to hare
a line of " white caps" running through it. Little
wind was blowing, but the illusion was perfect.
As we approached nearer, however, and saw
that the white wave remained in the same place,
it occurred to us thijt we were looking at an isl-
and of pelican ; and this became evident when
we saw small portions of it disintegrating about
the edges, and drifting away in white clouds, re-
lieved againc-^ *'\c blue sky or the deeper blue of
the lake, or as they floated past the tree-covered
islands and promontories which pushed their
gray sandy beaches out into the water from
either shore.

I have never seen a loke which, for ariety
and grace of outline, appeared to me so beauti-
ful as this, though, to be sure, its beauty was
far from being of a striking sort. As Joseph
and I mounted to ride on after the train we
observed a large flock of the same birds circling
high in air overhead. The sight was worth go-
ing far to see. There were hundreds of them
sweeping around in slow and stately flight — the
distance transforming all their ungainliness into
grace, and the bright sunlight clothing them in
white splendor.

To the right and left of us, from Osakis Lake,
the head of the Sauk Valley, to Otter Tail or
Upper Red River, lakes of every variety of out-
line were visible as we journeyed on. Some
were near at hand— our trail at times leading
over their sandy or pebbled beaches, or upon
others we looked down from the summit of a hill
of rolling prairie, and again from the loftier
ridges of the undulating land sea, the eye, sweep-
ing the horizon, could trace the outlines of a
dozen within the limits of its vision, near or re-
mote — bluer than the stainless heavens, or blend-
ing in the hazy distance with the long waving

fsaammu

804

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

it
f

Sy^'-m

f IBST VIEW OF THE BED BIVEB OF THE KORTO.

grass which sloped to the water's edge, or the
black and brown rushes which, like timorous
swimmers, did not venture far from shore, or
with the deeper green of wooded capes and isl-
ands, which caught the fierce sunlight and shaded
its fall upon the gentle waters, casting themselves
away upon the beaches, Joseph rhapsodized
and I applauded.

"These little lakes are my private passion —
deep-set, dark-shadowed lakes, cozy nooks of
sunshine that one may own within the compass
of a farm — pocket-editions of poetry in velvet and
gold — little lakes that, from under their wooded
fringes, gleam with an under-sonl, and flash back
the introverted glances of the stars from depths
as pure as the heights of the down-gazing heav-
ens, such a lake as you can take into your con-
fidence, and talk to in qniet hours as a lover talks
to the image in a golden locket, and sees the cold
crystal all aglow and shadowy tvith passion like
a woman's eye."

It was our habit to ride ahead of the train a

mile or two, or behind it, if we staid to hunt or
sketch or for sight-seeing. So riding the next
morning, our eyes were the first to get sight of
the waters which run to the frozen seas of the
north. For four or five miles, at every elevation,
we had seen ahead of us a line of timber, and be-
yond level prairie, which we knew must be the
trees skirting the Otter Tail or Upper Red River,
where, a young and wayward stream, it flows to
the south and west, hither and thither, before
gaining breadth and volume and gathering trib-
utary waters, it turns to its final direction, and
thenceforward flows with steady currents toward
the northern star. The prairie within this bend,
and toward which we were traveling, moreover,
we knew to be level instead of rolling like that
to the east ; so on we spurred, and, surmounting
a summit, on the hither side of which it seemed
that the nearest curve of the river must still be
miles away, there the river ran at our very feet,
bursting suddenly upon us in its full loveliness
like a goddess disrobing.

TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND.

805

The (lay was the fourth of the month July,
and this was our unexpected celebration of the
Nation's gala-day. Taking the saddles from our
horses, and leaving thcra to their independence,
we sat down upon the brow of a high hill over-
looking the rivor for miLs of its wayward wind-
ings. Pen and pencil are both inadequate ; but
the pencil is better than the pen. And as I
i^ketched, Joseph made the oration.

We remained here for the rest of the day.
The place is called Dayton, after a gentleman
who, like millions of his fellow-freemen, was
not elected Vice-President. The present popu-
lation numbers one. They live alone by him-
self in a breezy log-house, with a little off-shoot
containing bunks and a cooking-stove, and whose
walls are hung with dried sturgeons and cat-
fishes, caught in the river.

Breckiu. idge is about twenty miles below Day-
ton, in a southwest direction, and is situated pre-
cisely at the point where the river begins its gen-
eral northwardly course, at the junction of the
Bois de Sioux. Fort Abercrombie is about the
same distance northwest of Breckinridge ; so that
our trail toward the fort from Dayton was the
liypothenuse of the river's angle.

When the gulfs of wood that marked the
course of Red River had faded into dimness,
and sunk below the horizon behind us, nothing
was visible but the sky and this level grass stretch-
ing away in every direction. There were lines
of lighter and deeper shade in the green and yel-
low herbage, flecks of brilliant flowers, cool blue
^kies, and a clearly defined horizon at the east ;
und under the setting sun a yellower hue in the
sky, and hazier lines upon the distant and waver-
ing bands of shade and light where earth and
sky met. At night we camped beside a marsh ;
and when the last red streak had faded out of the
sky, the full sublimity of the scene burst upon
the mind. A night upon tlie prairie is worth a
day at Niagara. As far as the eye can reach on
every side sweep the level lines, slowly darken-
ing as they approach the horizon. Nothing ob-
structs or limits the view of the sky. A whole

hemisphere of stars looks down upon you, arid
all the earth occupying the least possible angle
of vision.

Just as we were camping for the night a com-
pany of Red River carts appeared upon the hori-
zon. At first we could hardly imagine what
thej were — for a moment widening out into bat-
talions, and then shrinking to the width of a sin-
gle company, as the trail came directly toword
or was at right angles to us, so that it seemed
as if we were gazing at the evolutions of a grand
army. As they came nearer the illusion was
dispelled, and the train began to look like what
it was — a huge land caravan. Presently we saw
galloping ahead of the train a young man, well
mounted, who in a few moments drew rein under
the Stors and Stripes, which we had patriotical-
ly hoisted when we first saw their white flag of
march fluttering in the distance. The rider, a
young M'Kay, who was captain of the train, was
well mounted, and sat his horse finely. His
clear, bronzed face was set off by a jaunty cap.
IIo wore a checked flannel shirt, and each shoul-
der bore its fancy wampum bead belt, that sus-
pended the powder-horn and shot-pouch. He
had u])on his feet moccasins worked with beads
and quills, and carried in his hand a short-han-
dled riding-whip, with a long thick lash of buf-
falo hide. Meanwhile, as we exchanged the
news and friendly questionings, the train had
approached, one cart after another wheeling by
inlongprocession — scores upon scores, each wheel
in c ry cart having its own individual creak or
shriek, and each cart drawn by an ox harness-
ed in rawhide, one driver to three carts. The
drivers were all half-breeds, dressed in every va-
riety of costume, but nearly all showing soj- .
flash of gaudy color in tl'3 invariable belt or
sash, or in the moccasins, and politely touching
the cap with a * ' Bon jour ! " to such of us as stoou
near enough to return the salutation.^

The next morning, as wo were eating break-
fast, a new party appeared, which soon turned
out to be Sir George Simpson, the Governor of
the Hudson's Bay Company in America, and

Vor. XXT.— No. 123.— U

FOJtT ADBBOBOMOIX,

WIMMi

306

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

\i\

CAMTONMENTB, FORT AUEBCBOMUIG.

his attendants. He was just retuniing from his
annual visit to Norway House, and was only
seven days from Fort Garry. He was accom-
panied by relays of hoi-ses, and himself rode in
an old buggy at a spanking gait. The voice,
which is said to make chief factors and chief
traders and chief clerks tremble, and which
makes and mars fortunes in Rupert's Land, was
to us stru igers very pleasant in its tones. Our
eyes followed the white round-topped liat and
white capote, as long as they were visible, with
great interest, until wo learned, too late, that
one of the men in his party was Dr. Rae, the
Arctic explorer.

A few hours' ride the next morning brought
us to the Red River of the North again, where it
flowed northwardly six miles above («'. e., south
of) Fort Abercrombie. We crossed at a con-
venient fording-place, where the water was little
higher than the horses' flanks, and galloped on
to the fort.

North of Graham's Point, as we rounded a turn
of the river, whose wooded margin had conceal-
ed it from us hitherto, we came in sight of Fort
Abercrombie — that is, of the one building erect-
ed for the commander's quarters, and the canvas
store-houses, which are built upon the prairie
near the river bank. The log-houses, which of-
flcers and privates at present occupy, are all built
in a quadrangle upon a pear-shaped promontory,
surrounded by water, and a trifle lower than the
level of the prairie. The view on the preceding
page is taken from the neck of this pear-shaped
promontory, looking west toward the prairie.
The view above is taken from the same spot,
back to back, looking east toward the interior of
the cantonment.

Here were our old stage-coach friends, the

Englishmen, quartered in their tents, and the
Scotch lasses, by the kindness of Captain Davis,
quartered in one of the completed rooms of the
building shown in the first sketch, where they
were awaiting the constraction of their batteau.

Josei)h found an old friend in the sutler of
the fort, and by him we were introduced to the
commander and principal officers. We enjoyed
their hearty hospitality for the remainder of the
day and night. As we sat in the Captain's quar-
ters at the close of the afternoon, smoking out
the mosquitoes with Manilla cheroots, and listen-
ing to his entertaining accounts of life on the
border, an orderly brought news of another train
wshing to cross the river at this point. Pres-
ently they came along, the cattle bearing new
armies of mosquitoes over the neck, and through
the cantonment to the place where the Anson
Northup was moored.

Wheeling their loaded carts on the boat, they
swung it back and forth, from shore to shore, till
all were ferried over, then drove their oxen into
the water, swimming them across, and camped
in the woods on tlie opposite side of the river.

The Captain gave Joseph and myself a whole
house to ourselves that night, with straw beds,
which were a luxury after the cold ground ; and
the delicious coolness of the room, with not a
mosquito to sting or sing, soon sent us to sleep,
the last sounds that fell upon our ears being the
songs of the half-breeds over the river — songs
of their own nation, and of Sioux and Chippe-
wa braves — rising and falling in monotonous
cadences till all were alike unheard.

The steamboat Anson Northip deserves an
epic. Here is the argument, to which I hope
some one will yet gird himself to write a
poem.

TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND.

807

Sgi>E;

Lato in the winter of 18r>8-'9, Mr. Anson
Northiip, having run his boat up the Crow
Wing River, a tributary of the Mississippi,
the previous fall, took it to pieces, packed the
cabin, machinery, and timber for building the
iiull, on sleighs, which, with great difficulty,
wore drawn by horses and oxen across to Otter
Tail Lake, and thenco westward to the mouth
of the Cheyenne on the Red River. Assisted
l)y the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce, but
mainly depending on his own private resources,
iind by hard work and perseverance, the boat
was rebuilt on the banks of Red River, and
launched successfully on the 19th of May, and,
as the breaking bottle drenched the planks, was
christened the Anson Northup. In the high-
water of early spring she made her trial-trip
down to Fort Garry and back. She had to lie
by every night, of course, and must have been
greatly delayed by the necessity of stopping to
cut timber for the fire. In spite of these delays,
she made the return trip in eight days; and what
must the quiet Selkirkers have thought of the
American steamboat ? The Albany burgomas-
ters were not more amazed by the sound of the
Chancellor Livingston's paddles.

And now about the navigation of Red River.
Such navigation is undoubtedly feasible. The
boat's two trips to Fort Garry have demonstrated
it. In the latter part of the fall, and in the win-
ter of course, it is impracticable. After the ice
breaks up, which usually happens about the 1st
of May, the water is very high, and the river is
navigable to as large steamboats as can make all
the turns in the winding river, from Fort Aber-
crombie to the mouth at Lake Winnipeg — near-
ly five hundred miles. After the 1st of August
the water has fallen suflSciently to reveal serious
obstructions in the channel from the fort to the

mouth of the Ciieycnno River, its largest tribu-
tary but one, entering Red River fifty or sixty
miles below the fort. But from this point to its
mouth it is easily navigable in the lowest stages
of water, until the ice forms in early November.
The success of the boat wwks a revolution in
the Company's business. Hereafter the annual
outfit and returns will pass through the United
St'^.tes, instead of by the difficult and circuitous
passage of Hudson's Bay, to York and Moose
Factories.

The train did not cross the river above the
fort as we did, but continued on for about fifty
miles down the east side of the river to the
Cheyenne Crossing, near the mouth of the Chey-
enne River. Joseph and I, who had remained
behind, crossed the river on the Anson Northup,
swimming our horses. We therefore had to
ride thirty-four miles on the trail of the train,
doing their two days' travel in one day, and that
the hottest of the season. The air was really
furnace-like, reminding one of the accounts from
India of the scorching heats of mid-day in that
more tropicl climate.

But when we got to camp, two hor i after
sunset, there was still no rest for us. Mosqui-
toes abounded, biting our hands, and necks, and
faces, as we cooked our suppers, and fiying into
our eyes and mouths whenever we dared to open
either. At this season of the year mosquitoes
are the intolerable curse of travelers, the little
black fly the tolerable curse, and wood-ticks the
curse. As for the rest of the entomological cre-
ation, they bear no comparison with these in
their power of inflicting annoyance and petty
misery up( i the human race ; and one soon gets
the habit, 1 found, of brushing a spider from his
face, an ant from his neck, or taking any creep-
ing, crawling thing from the inside of Lis near-

rves an
I hope
ivrite a

TUB " AHSON KOBTinn>.'

808

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE

TUE SMUUaB.

est piece of clothing, with tho samo inJifforencc
with which he brushes away a house-fly in
Christian lands. But inasmuch as wood-ticks
burrow into and under the skin, and stick fust
and swell, and whereas these buftalo-gnats swann
in millions, and of a hot, sultry afternoon, when
little wind is stirring, will fly into tho eyes, ears,
and nostrils by scores ; and whereas mosquitoes
buzz, and pierce, and suck, and sing by tho thou-
sand and tens of thousands, biting the hands,
and face, and ears, and neck, when we ride
through timber, and stinging us into wakeful-
ness before sunrise, cheating us of the delicious
" last nap," and stinging us into a passion long
after sunset, barricading with their fllmy wings
our way to the water, and, when both hands are
occupied, perforating our tenderest cuticles, and
making of our level skin a rolling prairie of
blotches and pimples for disturbing their ancient
and solitary reign, it becomes necessary to sleep,
comfort, and happiness that traveling mankind
should resort to the smudge.

A few brands of rotten wood from the camp-
fire, covered with dried grass and green grass,
make a smudge about equally unendurable,
whether inhaled by men or mosquitoes ; though
of the two evils, mosquito or smudge, men pre-
fer to endure that which is not quite intermina-

ble, though it may be almost intolerable. Horses
and mules, when the smoke begins to roll up in
good volume, will stand over it, and in it, till
the tears run down their long noses in streams,
rather than endure the torments of mosquito-
bites outside its protection. Every night we
closed tho tent soon after dark, and smudged it
out thoroughly, before going to blanket ; so that
when we crawled in under the tent-flap, we felt
rather than saw our way, and had to keep our
mouths close to the ground to get enough fresh
air to live on. During the night the smoke set-
tles, fresh air filtrates through the canvas, and
wo slept as comfortably as on Howe's spring
mattresses.

Wo crossed tho Red River into Dakotah Ter-
ritory near the mouth of the Cheyenne River.
At its mouth it is about one hundred and
twenty feet wide — a deep stream, of nearly two-
thirds the volume of Red River. From here to
Pembina our route was through a dangerous In-
dian country, inhabited by hostile Sioux.

The watch was doubled, and added precau-
tions taken against surprise or attack. It was a
novel sensation to a peaceable man who had
known no greater danger at night than the re-
mote chance of being garroted on Broadway, or
of being struck by lightning while sitting at liia

TO UKI) IIIVKU AND HEYOND.

SO'J

window in Ninth Street, to bethinic liimBclf,
at every sunset, of tlio proKjHict of on attack
from hostile Indiiina, or ft stivinjiedc of tlie horses
nnd mules gotten uj) by thievish ones, and to pre-
pare for such probabilities by keeping his rido
and pistols in jjcrfect order — loaded and capped,
and at half-cock, and to take his turn at the
watch.

Joseph hod a theory, however, that the Sioux
were off in somo remote portion of tiieir terri-
tory, miikinfJ! treaties, and when hisVatch came
around generally kicked the brands of the camj).
Are, which his predecessor had carefully put out,
into n blaze again, and sat down, with his pijie,
in the light of it — the best possible mark for
prowling Indians. He lives to tell the talc
and show the hat with a bullct-holo through the
crown.

On Saturday, the second day after crossing at
Dakotah City, as the one log-house at the cross-
ing of Red River is called, wo had a long day's
travel over prairie where there was no wood or
water, and with the exception of an hour's rest
at noon by the side of a slough where the horses
could manage to drink a little, the train was
kept in motion from eight in the morning till
seven at night.

About five o'clock the sharpest-sighted of ns
horsemen, riding ahead of the train, on ascend-
ing a riJgo of the pruirie which overlooked the

valley of the Elm River, saw, clear away on the
edge of the horizon, where tlie heat of the sun
made the level lines of the prairie tremulous,
and seemed to fuse earth and sky, two black
sjwts, motionless, and looking like iiotliing thot
we had been accustomed to see. Tliey were
buffaloes, of course, wo all agreed ; or, as Jo-
seph frantically exclaimed, " Viands for a regi-
ment of hungry gods, brought to us in the pock-
ets of Jujiitcr's old coat!" A bull's hide, you
remember, with a bull inside of it. For half an
hour wc all trotted along in their direction, keep-
ing together, and still wondering whether they
were in reality a couple of stray buffalo bulls, or
somo huge boulders outraging geological ortho-
doxy. The space between the rpots grew wider
— they were buffalo, browsing along on the
prairie, and still unconscious of our approach.
Two of our horsemen tightened their reins for a
brisk canter, and led off at a rate of speed which
would have been ruinous to Joseph's pony, or to
mine, so early in the chase. Wc kept on at a
steady jog. The wind was in our faces, and the
two riders ahead got within a quarter of a mile
of the game before they were <liscovered. Then
wo saw their dark frames turned broadside for
an instant, and the next moment the chase had
begun. We, too, joined with a wild hurrah,
spurring our horses to their best gallop ; ahead
of us the two monsters, flouting their shagg}'

DAKOTAB OITT.

310

BABPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

inanoH, and thundering along at a wonderful
rate, and the two ridcn uftcr ihcni nt full »\>cva\,
with KTCut good Hcnito heading them and turning
thoir flight toward um, who were coming up as
fast as our Hcuund-rato horitc-ficNh would permit.
[ was riding Dun Hiec, now as ever, tough
and lazy ; but by plying whip and opur, nnd
ithrieking to him like any wild Indian, I got him
into speed, and soon neared the boyn, who were
now nlongsido the first of the fhaggy monsters,
tiring and wheeling nwny as tlie stately old fel-
lows plunged on, heedless of the galling b diets.
Tho thrilling excitement of that chase ! The
buffaloes galloping in their heavy, headlong
way, as if they knew their lives were in the

chase ; C , with one or two shots more in

his revolver, and determined they should be fa-
tal, close alongside tho flanks of the one into
which they had emptied their barrels ; and
L , wild with excitement, begging for an-
other pistol or a rifle. My iwny could barely

get alongside, but at last he did. C • drew

back ; and I saw for an instant tho red spots on
las great side bleeding; then leveled my light
rifle like a pistol, with one hand, and flred, the
muzzle almost against his shoulder. Ho stag-
gered into a quicker flight, and in another direc-
tion, nwny from tho lai^r bull, still untouched,
who was thundering on ahead. lie, too, turn-
od. I saw my chance ; left tho first one to those
who had earned the right to dispatch him, and
rode in such a way as to separate tho pair, mark-
ing the foremost one for a chase. I reloaded as
■lOon as possible, all the while at full gallop,
hut not gaining an inch on the buffalo, thougli
dose upon his heels, not half a dozen rods awny,
and he every moment turning that black, shaggy
liead to the one side or the other to see his pur-
suer. A stern chase is a long one. Every pore
was streaming, and I threw off my coat, tied it
behind me, threw awy the stirrups, clapped
heels to pony, and yelled him into a faster gait.

I never knew what physical excitement was
before, and thought the oddest things while in
that exciting race. The tones of my own voice
amazed my mind. I .vondered if I should ever
ask any woman to love me, in tho voice with
which I besought Dan to fly faster. All pas-
sion and pathos were in tho tone ; and yet, some-
how, though the blood was boiling, nnd I was so
light that it seemed as if the wind blew through
me, my mind sat apart and wondered how it
could be that its highest functions were for an
instant usurped, and my heart trembled at such
living semblance of its noblest moods.

A mile or two of those tremendous strides be-
gan to tell upon the heavy creature, and his gait
grew sensibly slacker. Dan gradually gained
upon him, and as I got alongside I pulled trig-
ger. For the only time in all my use of the
nfle the cap snapped, but the cartridge failed to
catch the fire. Buffalo-bull turned with a terri-
ble snort, head and horns down, and made for
pony and me. He was not the bull to be in-
sulted by snapping caps. Pony wouldn't fight,
shame upon him! but gathered up his heels

quicker than lightning, nnd leaped a great lca)>
ahead of him, and around to the other side. If
ho had turned, two horns would have disembow-
eled him. Luckily for mo my feet were out of the
stirrujm and my scat was firm, or I might have
been sent kiting into the uir and down by bull's
feet, instead of enjoying that spinal thrill from
Dun's tightening h)ins. Buffalo-bull did not fol-
low us fur, but turned and mado off at a small
angle, using his IwHt legs — four of them. I
brought lK)ny to a stand, toes down, drew a bead
for the vital spot just behind the fore-shoulder,
nnd fired. Buflido-bull, that had galloped on
four legs, hobbled on three. I had fired a little
too far forward, and broken the shoulder-blade.
I had no more cartridges, but. walked my horse
along as fast as the bull could hobble, till an-
other came and dispatched him later in the day.

One of our party, tho son of a rich Boston
merchant — n clever scape-grace, who had trav-
eled the world over, and, among other things,
had bought np and killed beef for California
miners in '49— superintended tho cutting-up of
tho buflulo. Axes nnd butcher- knives soon
dissected tlie huge carcass, nnd two carts were
loaded with the meot from the two bulls, nnd
wheeled into camp late that evening. Housing
fires had been built, and " Bony," the scientific
cook of the Agony Hall mess, gave us all steaks
and fries and "bouillons" that night, nnd as long
as the fresh meat lasted. The next day (Sun-
day) was spent in jerking tho meat — i.e., cut-
ting it in thin slices, and drying it in the sun or
over a slow fire, the smoke kee])ing oft' flies and
gnats.

My only coat — a cordiuoy, with the pockets
full of j)apcr8 — had tumbled off in the buft'ulo
chase. Monday morning, an hour before sun-
rise, Joseph nnd I went to search for i*. We
took along a half-breed bred to i)rairic life, with
keen eyes, and the promise of reward as an eye-
opener. We hud for a base of operations an
imaginary line drawn from the head of the first
bnff'alo killed, directly west half a mile. I knew
that my cont was within a hundred yards of that
line. We searched for miles nnd miles around ;
it was less than five miles from the camp to where
the carcass lay, but not a hair of it could we see.
The wolves could not have eaten it, and it cer-
tainly stood up two feet from tho ground, a
black, hairy mass, the most conspicuous kind of
a wiy-mark. But we might as well have looked
for the track of Columbus's ship, left, m the fall
of 1402, east of San Salvador, in the middle of
the Atlantic Ocean. The sea is not more path-
less than a level prairie.

Tho next Monday afternoon we reached Pem-
bina. During that week one day's travel was
very much like another. Joseph compared our
daily topography to successive pancakes which
we seemed to be turning off the immense grid-
dle of the horizon, smcking hot from the fierj'
oven of the sun. On the right of us, with our
glasses we could see the distant lino of timber
marking the northward course of Bed River ;
about every day we crossed some one of its west-

JOHN BULL IN JAl'AN.

811

orn tribiifariod — flrnt a linu of bluo on tho north-
ern horizon, rndolvintr itnelf into trees wiiieh wo
gradiiiiliy noareil, phinj^ed into, fording tho
Htreain wiiich run throiiKli thoin, and emerg-
ing on the other Hide to another stretch of open
pruirio, terminated ot tho diHtance of twenty or
thirty miles by another timbered stream. Some-
times we had no water but 8wamp water, and no
wood but tho 601.1 de. varhfi, or " bullalo chips,"
which gave an uni)leasant flavoring to our cook's
savory jjancaiics ; and onco wo got stuck, late in
tlic afternoon, in tho middle of a huge marsh,
wliere with great difficulty we found a bit of dry
ground big enough to spread our blankets on,
going suppcrless to bed, and waiting for daylight
to extricate ourselves from tho wilderness of
Hloughs and marshes that environed us. Elm
River, fJooso Kiver, Turtle Uiver, Little Salt
River, Turk River, and their numberless tributa-
ries, wore those which wo crossed. On the banks
of Park Kiver wc found a little orchard of blue-
berries, and in less than ten minutes from tho
rtrst alarm every body was on his hands and
knees oniong tho bushes, renewin;^ tho joys of
youth. Strawberries, too, grew thicker as wc
idvanced. They were near bringing one of our
party to grief— one whom wo all liked. He had
a habit of walking ahead of tho train for a milo
or two, picking strawberries and wool-gathering,
4nd besides, was very near-sighted. The train
stopped to send after fresh meat — a young and

fat bull, killed by L after a four-mile chase

—and the philosopher trudged on. When wo
were in motion again somebody asked, " Where's
T ?" He was nowhere to bo seen. Some-
thing must be done. One oflicious personage,
who at that time commanded tho commander
of the train, said, " Of course he is ahead," and
objected to delaying the train till search was
made.

Joseph had no idea of leaving his friend alone
on the ijrairio, and rebuked this volunteered in-
humanity with tho information that he (brute)
might go on as soon as ho chose, and as far as he
chose ; but as for him (Joseph), tho train might
travel till sundown before ho would stir another
step till the missing man was found. So he took
the sharp-eyed Cree half breed along with him,
mounted on my horse, and started oflF in tho di-
rection where, during the afternoon, a spot had
been seen, which the man with the spy-glass had
pronounced an Indian, and the man with a
field-glass had pronounced an elk, and we with-
out glasses had pronounced buffalo ; and which

it was thought might be T . The train

kept on slowly till it came to the first wood and
water, and there camped. About sundown Jo-
seph and tho Cree half-breed came into camp
with the philosopher between them. The rest
of the story Joseph shall tell in his own words :

"Tho last authentic recollection of the phi-
losopher was during the buffalo-hunting news,
when he was seen, like

" ' areat Orion, aloping slowly to the Weat,"
hunting for strawberries in labjn^nths of reflec-
tion. The savant, it was known, had lost his

spectacles ; and now it began to bo feared that
he had lost himself in the bewildering mazes of
his strawberry search. Wo had not galloped
a mile before tho half-breed's quick eye caught
the figure — which had lieen buflUlo, elk, Indian,
and wiiut not, an hour before — standing, ap-
parently motioulcss, on the summit of a distant
ridge, some five miles oflP, visible to me through
a glass only as a vague black line against
the sky. A very anxious interval of doubt was
passed at tho swiftest pace of our horses before
we wore at all sure that the dim object was my
best friend. Speculation gradually dawned into
recognition; and as we approached him, tho
geographer of tho Northwest descended from his
eminence, and saluted us with a bland and quiet
courtesy, as if he felt quite at home, and was
going to ask us to take something. I'he geog-
rai>her was utterly lost on his own ground, and
had not the least idea where he was. Picking
strawlwrrics he wandered outside of tho trail,
forgot on which side of it ho was, ond took, of
course, tho exactly wrong direction in trying to
find his way back ; and so, after wandering for
a while among blueberries and eagles' nests and
buffalo tracks, he concluded that he was lost, and
deliberately made up his mind to camp there, in
sight for miles around, till he was sent for."

qJ(m

TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND.

581

liUFrAlO i;UABE.

TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND.

IT was the middle of a hot July nftcrnoon
when we came to camp on the south side of
Pembina River — Pembina and the Pembinese
over the ^vay. Joseph and I put on clean
shirts, crossed the river in a canoe, and went to
ask lor our letters and papers. The mail-car-
rier, coming by a different route, had arrived be-
fore us. To Magenta had been addea Monte-
bello, and the thirty thousand slain; and then
followed silence and newslessness for three
months.

Who that reads the papers has not heard of
Minnesota and the man that figured in our New
York Punch as a runaway with the Capitol on
his shoulders ? Town lot speculators striving to
have the Capitol elsewhere than at Kt. Paul (all

but Minnesotians have forgotten the name of the
town now — such its obscurity) ; carrying the bill
making the chonge through a Legislature too
virtuous for cakes and ale, and then getting a
double checkmate from the Chairman of the
Committee on Enrolled Bills, wht ran off with
the Removal Bill in his pocket — ran off, on
snow-shoes and with a dog-train, to Pembina, it
was said — ran off to Room No. 27 Fuller Houi-e.
St. Paul, for a fact ; and there hibernated, eat-
ing surreptitious turkeys and bass by day, and
drinking smuggled whisky by night, till the time
of legal adjournment, disappointing the couriers
sent out to overtake him, and so by bad means
achieving a good end, and determining the loca-
tion of tlie Capitol at its proper place, St. Paul.

}82

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

The runaway Chaiiinan was Joe Rolette ; and
lierc, at Pembina, lie reigns King of the Border.
Short, muscular, a bullety head, the neck and
chest of a young buffalo bull, small hands and
feet, but with tough and knotty flexors and ex-
tensors farther uj) ; full bearded, caji, shirt, nat-
ty neckerchief, belt, trowsers, and dandy little
moccasins — so he looks to the eye. Inside of
.ill this there is a man of character, educated in
Xew York ; but with a score of wild, adventur-
(jus years on the frontier behind him — a man of
character who asijcrts himself always, whatever
the right or wrong of the assertion. Of unfail-
ing good spirits, brimful of humor, blue tliree
days in the year — no more and no less — sticking
to his belief in a breezy, healthy way, and be-
lieving first and always in Joe Rolette ; hosjnta-
ble and generous beyond reckoning, and reckon-
ing on equal unselfishness in return ; giving you
his best horse if you ask for it, and taking your
two mules if he needs them ; living for years
where he might have made a fortune, and never
saving a i)cnny ; ii good Catholic, believing es-
pecially in absolution ; a Douglas Democrat to
the spinal column, and always to be counted on
for good majorities from Pembina — threatening
iiorse-ponds and nine duckings to any "Black
Republican" who dares settle in the vicinity, and
opening his house, and larder, and stables to the
blackest Re])ublican of all ; always working for
a party better than for himself, and in his zeal
for public ends debiting the aggregate resjjonsi-
bility with the morality of the private means ;
lending a passing traveler his best buffalo run-
ners for a hard journey, and then running races
with them at the end of the second day's travel ;
affectionate to his half-breed wife, and ])roud of
Ids boys — miniature Joes, of different sizes ;
swearing by Louis Napoleon, and ])road of the
French blood ; too generous to his debtors to be
just to his creditors ; fond of his whisky, but
undergoing months of total abstinence for the

JOB BOLETTK.

sake of his wife ; his best friend, the man who
is not ham]3ered by the laws uf trade ; his worst
enemy, himself.

There he stauds, just off the 8Uj)erb horse,
which he sits as close as a Centaur, lighting a
pipe, a score of wolfish irain-dogs yelping about
him ; and as he walks across the inclosure roll-
ing out a sturdy welcome to ma Jille, who sits by
the oj)en window waiting for him, with love and
patience in \cr eyes; and lifting up the your.j^-
ster who has run out for a kiss — biting off the
kiss with a Crci sentence to the half-breed re-
tainer standing at the horse's head waiting for
orders, or a Chipjiewa salute to some Red Lake
Indian waiting to beg for powder and tobacco
for the winter's hunt ; and rounding all with an
English damn to the yellow dog whose enthusi-
asm has entangled him and his yoke between his
master's legs.

Joe gave us our letters, brought some tobac-
co and fresh pipes, inquired the news, showed
us a room, and told us to be at home in it till
we left Pembina ; spoke an aside to ma Jille, in
Nistoneaux, to lay a table full of plates for all
his guests ; fed us with buffalo tongues and
New England dough-nuts, and strawberries ;
and then, with fresh \n\)Q&, we tired the night
out discussing politics, the sjn-ing hunt, dogs,
Joe's exjjloit with the Capitol bill, the best road
to the Rocky Mountains, Governor Gorman and
his "I too am a soldier," Dakotah and the
Sioux Treaty, Minnesota and the Overland
Route, dog-trains and train-dogs, and, first and
last, Louis Najjoleon and the great battles.

It was three days before the exj)edition's boil
came to a head and expelled its rotten core — a
tent full of scajie-graces, who, from this point,
took their own way to Fraser River. The ex-
pedition itself convalesced rapidly ; and, outfit-
ting with fresh pemmican, was ready to start
upon its travels again within the week. The
interval was spent in sight-seeing, while the
horses and mules rested.

One day we called uj)on old Peter Haydcn. a
settler since "eighteen hundred and ever so
few ;" one of the first, jierhaps the very first, to
lead trade through tiie valley of Red River into
r-.u territories ; wJio packed liis goods back and
to'th from Prairie du Chicn, then an old French
trading-post, when all the tr.ide of tlie valleys
of the Ohio and Mississipj)i was carried on pack-
horses from Fort Pitt to Philadelphia across the
Alleghanics. The old man, an Irisliman, looks
weiiiiier-bcaten now, and leads a quiet life on a
farm whose barley may be boasted of; at lea"*,
there was a story " camp that one of our s«-
vai's, holding \\\i i, talk, saw two heads of bar-
ley where less fnictuous eyes could see but one.

The next day Mr. Kennedy, the clerk in
charge of Pembina Fort (two miles north of the
mouth of Pembina River, on the banks of Red
River), a Hudson Bay Company's station, call-
ed, and invitetl us to visit the fort. Four of Uh
filled Joe's wagon, drawn by a couple of spank-
ing bays; Mr. M'Fetridgc, then the Collector
at Pembina (Mr. Buchanan's best appointment

the man who
de ; his worst

superb horse,
iir, lighting a
V'elping about
nclosure roll-
e, who sits by
■vith love and
p the yovr.g^.
iiting off the
lalf-breed re-
1 waiting for
le Red Lake
and tobacco
? all with an
lose enthusi-
between lil.s

some tobac-
2WS, showed
nie in it till
"la Jii'ie, in
lates for all
ungues and
rawberries ;
1 the niglit
hunt, dogs,
le best roHil
!ormun and
ih and the

Overland
d, first and
ittles.
ition's boil
en core — «
this point.

The ex-
nd, outfit-
to Stan
!ek. The
while the

Jayden. a
ever so
y first, to
tiver into
back and
d French
e valleys
on ])rtck.
cross the
in, looks
life on a
at lea"t,

our so-
s of bnr-
lut one.

lerk .in
h of the

of lied
)n, call-
n of us

spank-
ollectoi
ntment

TO HED RIVER AND BEYOND.

5815

IKTEBKATIOMAL UOUNSABY I-Usr.

and worst removal), with a friend on the seat,
drove a swift black pacer ; and four horsemen
galloped along beside the two wagons ; Joe I
mounted on a superb stallion of English blood
— " Fireaway" of name and stock. A dozen

dogs followed our rattling wheels in full cry,
barking and fightint;.

Three cheers as we passed the international
boundary post. Its inscription, whatever it may
have been, had been quite effaced by the hatch-

PEMIIINA FOBT.

584

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZIJSE.

^A s^^s-fx.'r.

'^i^

I'liJiIiilNA, ANU MOUTU OF I'KMlllNA IHVEE.

ets and arrows of Irdians, who used it instead
of a colored lioy and board for their target.
Tlic post was ])hinted by Nicollet, we were told.
Later observations have proved that it is 370
yards sonth of the parallel of 4td°, the true
boundary line.

It seemed less than that number of yards
from it north to Pembina Fort.

The lodges around the fort arc those of In-
dians, come in from tlieir hunts to spend their
l)roceeds or outfit anew; some, perhaps, em-
jiloyed by the Company. Half-breeds, however,
are the ordinary " Company's servants." The
long dwelling, where several families of them
lived, was on our left as we passed under the
high gateway of the fort. The store-houses and
store were o])posite. Facing the gate was the
dwelling of the officers in charge — whitewashed
without, scrupulously neat within.

The Scotch servants and half-breed interpret-
ers of the Company were standing by the store-
liouse ; the half-breed women and children were
here and there about the area; half a dozen
Chippcwas stood, with arms folded, seeing every
motion of our party, and hearing everj' sound ;
hundreds of furs were hanging against the
fences ; and through the smudge-smoke issuing
from the half-breeds' quarters we could catch
glimpses of dark eyes and babies' hammocks
n-8 winging.

The river, as may be seen in the cut, runs
very near the fort, and is eighty yards wide, and
twelve feet deep. In 1856 it r --e thirty-five feet
higher, whereby the Red River 3ettlement and
Pembina were disastrously flooded, as twice in
Lord Selkirk's time. These inundationg are
periodical, but occur at long intenrals, and,

! probably, are much less serious now tliim foi*-

: merly, for old settlers say they can note, of latt'

years, a very considerable enlargomcnt of the

channel, both of Red River and the Assini-

boine.

St. Vincent is the name of the town-site op-
posite Pembina, in the northwestern corner of
Minnesota exactly. It receives large nnniuil
accessions to its poll-list, just before election
times, from over the river; but ordinarily its
l)opulation consists of a dozen half-breeds, >vith
dogs and mosquitoes, ad lib.

One of the last evenings of our stay in Pem-
bina wo were invited to a half-breed dunce over
the river. Wo crossed in a crazy dug-out, of
precarious equilibrium, and heard the jiggish
tiddle before we reached the house. The half-
breed who had rowed us over stopped at a lodge
beside the path to wake up two dark-skinned
maidens and invite them to the dance. We
caught a glimpse of them rising from their bed
of robes, their faces lit up by pleasure at the
news, as much as by the burning shred of cotton
which floated on a basin of tallow on the ground
in the middle of the lodge. Opening the door,
and entering the log-house where the dance was
briskly going on, we were greeted by a chorus
of Ho ! ho ! ho ! — the universal salutation of the
aboriginal (total and semi). The fiddle did not
cease its scraping, nor the heels of the dancers
for a moment intermit their vibrant thnraps on
the plank floor. The scene was a wild one,
though within four walls. A huge mud chim-
ney, with an open fire-place at the right, a four-
posted bed, with blankets only, in the further
left-hand comer ; one or two chairs, which were
politely hand^ to the strangers ; and all around

TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND.

685

BALL AT l>£MiJINA.

the room, sitting iipon the floor as Indians and
tailors sit, were half-breed men and women, boys
and girls — twenty or thirty in all ; one mother,
with bare breast, suckling her babe ; another
busy in keeping her little one's toddling feet out
of the pan of melted grease low on tiie mud
hearth, with a cotton rag hanging over the edge,
alight, which made such dark shadows in among
the groups in strange places, shadow and light
alternating against the rafters and the roof as
the figures of the dance changed.

Jigs, reels, and quadrilles were danced in rap-
id succession to the sound of that " dem'J hor-
rid grind," fresh dancers taking the place of
those on the floor every two or three moments.
The men were stripped to shirt, trowsers, belt,
and moccasins ; and the women wore gowns
which had no hoops. A vigorous shuffle from
some thick-lipped young dancer, with his legs
in flour-sacks, or a lively movement of some
wrinkled hag, trying to renew the pleasures and
activity of her youth, would call out a loud
chorus of admiring "Ho! ho! ho!" and, fired
by contagious enthusiasm, a black-eyed beauty
in blue calico, and a strapping bois brule, would
jump up from the floor and outdo their prede-
cessors in vigor and velocity — the lights and
shadows chasing each other faster and faster
over the rafters ; the flame, too, swaying wildly
hither and thither ; and above the thumps uf the
dancers' heels, and the frequent he's 1 and the
loud laughter of the ring of squatter sovereigns,
rose the monomaniac fiddle-shrieks, forced out

of the trembling strings as if a devil was at thi
bow.

Perhaps it is clear that here we saw the com-
monalty. The next night Joe Ilole*te gave i\
dance in his house, and here we saw the aris-
tocracy of Pembina. There was the same en-
thusiasm, but less license ; a better fiddle and
the fiddler better ; and more decorous dancing.
Joe's little boy of eleven, home from his school
at the Settlement, and his father-in-law, of near
seventy, were the best of the dancers. . The lat-
ter was as tireless as if his aged limbs had lost
no strength by exposure to all weathers and la-
bor, as a hunter and voyageur, for a long life-
time ; and little Joe had extra double-shuffles,
and intricate steps, and miraculously lively
movements, which made his mother and little
cousins very proud of him.

In the intervals of the dance Madame Gan-
grais, one of Joe's lady cousins, sang some wild
French ballads and a Catholic hymn. Those
of our boys who were singers responded with a
few choruses — negro melodies, of course.

Monday week after our arrival in Pembina
we left for St. Joseph — a place seven miles
south of latitude 49°, about thirty miles west
of Pembina, and likewise on Pembina River,
which stream, west of St. Joseph (or St. Jo, as
it is universally called) runs (according to Cap-
tain Palisser) almost entirely in British terri-
tory. Along the stream from its mouth to the
lakes we afterward saw, in which it takes its
rise, a belt of prairie on either side, varying in

686

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

6TBAW11EBIUEB.

width, and covered with trees — onk, elm, poplar,
and birch the princi})al varieties. Our road
was over the oi)en prairie, two or three miles
north of the belt of timber, touching it here and
there at the larger bends.

The wonder of this day's travel was the acres
and acres of strawberries through which the
trail passed. Beds of them, so tliick that kneel-
ing any where you could fill a hat full without
more than turning around ; large, ri])e, luscious
strawberries, tarter than those in our gardens,
whose size has been increased at the exjiensc of
a riclmess of flavor. The wheels crushed clumps
of them, and were reddened like the wheels of
Juggernaut. Again and again we were tempt-
ed out of our saddles by some bed of thicker and
finer berries than that we had just left tlie ]irint
of our knees on — gluttonous strawberry-bibbers
every one of us ! Wiien we could eat no more
from the vines, we filled our hats full, which wie
devoured in the saddle as soon as a few lo-
ments' square trotting had made a jilace for
new draughts of their red, ripe, pulj)y delicious-
ness.

Some aiC in silence, and some in thankful-
ness, and some in wonder; and Jose])h mur-
mured between every hatful the i)raise — of An-
drew Fuller, was it r — "Doubtless God might
have made a better berry than the strawberry,
but doubtless God never did."

Half a dozen of us stopped, about noon, at
the farm of Charles Bottineau, which is on a
bend of the river, nineteen or twenty miles from
Tembina. Caret need not have been ashamed
of the table d'hote.

In the last half of the afternoon we drove on
to St. Joseph, galloping down one of its grassy
streets as the sun was sinking behind Pembina
Mountain, which fills the western horizon.

The city was deserted ; its one hundred houses
were nearly all shut and barred, their accustomed
inmates gone to the summer bufliilo-hunt. A
score or so of half-breeds, veiy young, or very
old, or lame, most of them, gathered around our
camp-fire ; but of the hundreds whom we saw

on our return journey there were now no signs.
Many that were unable to accompany the bri-
gade to the ]ilains had moved away from their
liomes in St. Joscj)!!, and lived in lodges near
Forts Gany and Pembina, for fear of the hostile
Sioux.

Tlic houses were nearly all of hewn logs, mud-
ded in the chinks, generally one but sometimes
two stories in height, with a single chimney.
Mr. N. W. Kittson has his large trading-house
inclosed within a high stockade; the nunnery
and church are larger buildings than the aver-
age; and one or two are frame-lmnscs, whose
boards came from tlie saw-mill, which adjoins
the church, and was built by its thrifty jiriest ;
but, with these exceptions, the houses are verj-
much alike.

St. Jo is a place of considerable present and
greater prospective imjiortnnce. It is on our
frontier, the best of all sites for a much-needed
frontier fort, in the midst of a rich agricultural
countiy, adjoining the great settlement of North-
western Jiritish America, and is near the water-
course which leads into our own territory, and
insures to our benefit somewhat of the ricL^;S
of the great Nortiiwestern areas, both now and
when the advancing tide of settlements shall
have swept over the great valleys and left them
iwpulous.

Since 1850 the Sioux have stolen from the
pcoi)le of St. Jo more than foi.r hundred horses,
many of them buflalo-runners, comman Mng from
one to three hundred dollars each, and often the
only property and sole means of support which
their owners had. In the same time a still larg-
er number of horned cattle have been stolen.
Worse than all, every year has seen some deaths
at the hands of the Sioux. In the absence of
the hunters the Indian lurks about the place,
shooting and scalping, sometimes in open day-
light, those who stray away from the ])rincipal
streets, and at night firing into windows heed-
lessly left unshuttered, or falling upon some
helpless man or woman who has ventured to
cross the field to a neighbor's house.

TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND.

687

At times the half-breeds have taken their
wrongs into tlieir own bands, and have done
their best tu right them. In tiie occasional bat-
tles which have occurred they have exhibited a
superior bravery and skill, one of their number
being reckoned the equal of about half a dozen
of any Indian tribe. They arc the best of horse-
men. Tlic Sioux must dismount to fire wiMi
accuracy. A half-breed, from long practit^e in
the buffalo hunts, will fire from liorseback at full
gallop without even taking a sight along the bar-
rel, and tluit, too, with great rapidity and dead-
ly effect, delivering half a dozen shots, before,
behind, and on either side of him. while his
horse is making a flying circuit within gun-shot
distance of a Sioux war-party.

When St. Jo was laid out by the original set-
tlers, each man was allotted not merely a jior-
tion of land sufficient for house and garden witii-
in the limits of the city, but also a farm fronting
on the Pembina River, and tlierefore combining
plenty of timber with tlie rich jirairie land. Few
of these farms, however, are cultivated. The
peo]>le of St. Jo, like the French half-breeds of
Rod River, are buffalo-hunters by profession.

In tlie early spring their work begins. Before
the snow is oft' the ground those who are intend-
ing to go out in tiic first summer hunts begin to
look about after tlieir horses and carts and cart-
oxen. If they have no horses, t)' y buy or hire
them. If they have no arts, they set to work
to make them — quisqiie sum carl<t fahcr est.
There are no mechanics among them. Such
things as they can not buy of the English or
American traders they make for tliemselves or
go without ; so that nearly every able-liodied man
is a chair-maker, house-builder, blacksmith, or

wagon-maker, as occasion demands. These
carts thus made arc, nevertheless, all of one pat-
tern, and enough alike to have been machine-
work. "Pembina buggy" is the honorary title
which they receive from those who despair of
otherwise making their jolts endurable — as one
might call the stink-weed, rose. A wooden cart
on two wheels is the simjilest description of them.
Wooden they are to the remotest parts. Leath-
er linch-])ins are not orthodox; and if the heresy
of iron boxes has to any extent prevailed, it is
only because imported from St. Paul. The fel-
loes are wide and never tired. The hub is huge,
and sometimes indulged with a girdle of raw
buffalo hide, nailed on when wet and shrinking
tight. There is n neat fence high as the wheel
on each side of the cart body, and the wheels
! themselves are large and enormously dished.
For from five to ten dollars njiiecc you may buy
any number of these carts, so cheap is labor.
; Twelve hundred jiounds can be jiiled into them
I on good roads ; and even where there is a slough
I at eveiy half-mile, and a corduroy road the rest
of tlie way, they carry seven hundred ])ounds
I without often breaking. The draught animals
' are oxen almost exclusively, and these have har-
j nesses of raw hides, of a i)riinitive cut and of an
infinite endurance. With ns many carts as he
can offbrd, and at least one fast buffalo-horse,
with a gun of the Northwest pattern (price $8
: wholesale), and a full powder-horn and shot-
pouch, the hunter is j)repared to go to the j)lains.
But he never goes alone, lie and his friends
and neighbors make up a brigade — large. or small,
it is called a brigade ; and the brigade is a trav-
eling town sometimes — men and women, horses,
oxen, dogs, and carts, tents, lodges, frying-pans,

^iS5^>-^jj^

BT. JOSSni, FBOM PBHlllNA HOCDTAIM.

588

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

and all other housekeeping utensils that are port-
able, traveling together.

In last siMunier's hunt, for example, there
were, in one brigade ulonc, 400 men carrying
arms, 800 women and children, 800 horses, TiOO
oxen, 1000 carts, about 200 tiiitn-dogs, and as
many more mongrel curs. The wants of tliesc
p(tople are simple and few, and al)out as easily
supplied on the prairie as in tlie settlements.
As for the animals, Uuioivorous, they live on
grass and water ; carnivorous, they live on meat
and water. Tiic brigade deserves the name of a
traveling community for another reason. They
sul)jcct themselves to a coilo of laws on the i)rai-
rie even more rigid tlian tliose in force at iionie.
The latter end of June is the time of starting for
the summer hunt, of August for tlie fall hunt.

A large camj) of half-breeds on theii' way to
the plains is a sight to be seen. Their dress is
picturesque. Men and women both wear nioc-
casius worked with gaudy beads. The men's
trowsers are generally of cordiu'ov (u* Cauada
blue, and their coats of tlie Canadian jiattcrn,
with large brass buttons, and a hood hanging
between tlie shoulders. A jaunty cap surnu)unts
the head, often of blue cloth, out sometimes of
an otter or badger skin ; and, wliether with tlie
coat or without it, a gay sasli is always worn
around the waist, tiie bright tassels hanging down
the left Iiip. Into tliis arc thrust the liuflalo-
knife behind, and the flre-bag at the riglit side.

Although it was not until the writer's return,
with two friends and a couple of half-breed guides
and servants, by Turtle Mount and Devil's Lake,
that lie passed through the great buftalo ranges
where the brigades always hunt, it is better to
give the particulars of one of their chases, the
pemmican making, etc., in this connection than
to defer it to its proper chronological place.

Women, boys, and the supernumeraries of the
brigade drive the carts, each one taking charge
of two or three, and jiassing his or her time in
belaboring the forward ox, and yelling to the
hinder ones as they lag in the march. The
hunters arc mounted on fine horses, and relieve
the tedium of the slow, wearisome travel with
an occasional scamper after a badger seen scram-
bling to his hole ; or a shot at a gray wolf, dis-
turbed in his lurking-place in the long rushes of
some deep marsh through which the train passes.
Some of the hunters keep at a considerable dis-
tance from the train, on the look-out for buffalo
and signs of hostile Indians. If the latter are
near, the train divides into three sections, and
travel in parallel lines.

The lowering and raising of the flag on the
foremost cart is the sign to halt or start. At
night thcj gather in a circle called a corral,
where the carts are ranged side by side, with the
shafts turned toward the centre of the circle,
where the lodges and tents are raised, and the
camp-fires made. The drudgery of the camp is
performed by the half-breed women. When the
train is in motion every separate wheel on every
cart has its peculiar shriek. In camp these are

silent; but Babel is continued by all voices, each
with its i)cculiar shrillness or vehemence of lan-
guix'e, by the barkings of all the dogs, compass-
ing every chromatic of the canine gamut, by the
lowing of the oxen and the wiiiunying of horses,
roiling and kicking up their heels in the grass.
But in the midst of it all matters are going on,
fires ligiitcd, water boiling, ])otatoes cooking,
l)eminican frying, and bread baking ; and before
sunset sii]i])cr is ready in most of the messes.
After supjier the \>\pc.

As the twilight deepens into dark, all the an-
iniiils arc brought into tlie indosure made liy the
carts, and picketed there, the bulfalo-runners re-
ceiving cs])ocial care ; and the watch liegins to
coutnrt' the cam]). Numbers linger about the
camp-fires, smoking and telling stories of buffalo-
hunts, or listening to some older man as he re-
counts tlic early distresses of the colonists, the
wars of the Northwest and Hudson's Bay Com-
l>any, the long journey to I'rairio du Chien for
foot! and seeds, or some attack of the Sioux upon
tlie hunters in a ])ivvi(uis year. But before the
light 1ms entirely died out in tlio western sky all
are wrapi)ed in their bliiukets or robes — the sweet
odor of kinnie-kinnic lingering in the air — and
the low voices of tlie watchnicn are interrupted
only by the long bowlings of distant wolves —
long and exultant, sometimes, as if consciotis
that tlioy are alxuit to l)egin their annual feast
u\mn the carcasses of butt'alo.

Early in the morning, liefore sunrise, in the
cold gray dawn, dew dabbling every spear of
grass, the flags are raised, and at the sign, and
sound of the horn sleejiers rouse, the tents and
lodges are struck by the women, the oxen har-
nessed into the carts and horses saddled bj' the
men. Tlui horn again sounds and the carts fall
into line, and the liunters mount and the train
is in motion. After about two hours of brisk
travel tlie train halts an hour and a half for
breakfast, and then jiushes on again till the or-
der is given to halt for dinner.

During the early part of the day which is to
be described, no large herds had been seen ; but
all were in anxious expectation of falling in with
one before the day ended, so frequent were the
signs of their presence in the numerous trails —
the fresh dung and the trampled grass in all the
marshes looking like innumerable heaps of green
jackstraws.

Just as the leader was sounding the horn
which was the order to " catch up the horses," a
rider was seen galloping at full speed down the
hither side of a hill by which he had been hid
from sight on the rolling prairie. All knew the
message he had to bring before hearing it from
his lips. He had seen a herd of hundreds stead-
ily pushing their way over the prairie toward the
northeast, just beyond a high ridge which was the
limit of sight in the direction the brigade was then
traveling — nearly due south. The oxen that had
been harnessed were again loosed, all the bufl'alo-
runners saddled, and every hunter eagerly ex-
amined his gun and ammunition. The horses
too knew what was in the wind ; and the more

W
I'

TO RED KIVEP AND BEYOND.

R80

11 voices, each
nenco of 'an-
)gs, compnss-
;ainut, by the
ng of horses,
in tlie grass,
ire going on,
ues cooking,
; and before
the messes.

{, nil the nn-
iniulo by tlic
)-runners re-
ch begins tu
■r about the
es of buffiilo-
an ns he re-
olonists, the
s Bay Coni-
II Ciiien fur
Sioux upon
It before ilie
itcni ,sl<y all
■i — the sweet
he air — and
iutemipteii
lit wolves —
if conscious
innuul feast

irise, in th;-
ly spear of
e sign, and
3 tents and
i oxen har-
lled by the
e carts fall
the train
rs of brisk
a half for
till the or-

vhich is to
seen; but

ng in with
were the

IS trails —
in all the

)8 of green

the horn
horses," a
down the
been hid
knew the
g it from
cds stead-
)ward the
:h was the
I was then
that had
e bufFalo-
?erly ex-
ie horses
the more

iii!;h-si)irited ones among them, which hud been
trained to the hunt, stood shivering with excite-
ment, snuffing the air, and pawing the ground
with tlieir hoofs, needing a num's sti'ength to
liold tiiem in. All the able-bodied men were
sjieedily aimed and accoutred, their BuiKjrfluous
clothing thrown oft", sashes tied tighter, and
girths buckled a hole or two higher, and, in
less than five mintites from the time the rider
had got to cam]), tlie leader had ; \ en the order
to advance, and more than three liundred horse-
men were steadily trotting southward in the di-
rection of the herd. In a few mon\ents they hud
reached a j)oint where the ground begun to rise
gently to the height of the low ridge on the top
of which they would be visible to the herd. Here
all drew rein, while tlio leader, with one or two
of the older hunters, dismounted and crept j'.long
u]) the slope to reconnoitre, observe the progress
of tlie herd and the lay of the land, in order to de-
termine from whicii direction the charge had bet-
ter be made. There was little time to be lost ;
the buffalo were already opposite the hunters,
and the old bulls ahead might, at any moment,
take a trail leading over the ridge and in full
sight of the train. A moment's glance told ex-
perienced eyes, peering through the tops of the
long green grass, that the ground toward whicli
they were moving was a rolling prairie with nl>-
rupt ascents and descents, and therefore full of
l)adger-holes, dangerous alike to the horse and
his rider, while the ground which they had just
passed over was very nearly level, with here and
there a marsh, and fenced in, so to speak, by the
stream which ran hither and thither, and wound
around by the dinner camp-ground. Hastening
down the slope and remounting their horses, a
few quick, low words from the leader explained
the order of the charge. A dozen or more of
the fleetest runners were sent to the westward
around the ridge to head the herd and start
them back. The rest of the hunters gathered
nnder its edge arrectis auribus. The ruse was
successful. The dozen hunters coming boldly
into sight directly in their path, and spreading
out slowly to the right and left without chasing
them, and the favorable nature of the ground,
making it harder for them to go to the one side
or the other than backward, turned them almost
in their tracks. The herd was not so large but
that veiy many of the buffiiloes could see the
hunters. The sage and long-bearded veterans
who had led them stopped, were crowded ahead
a few yards by the pressure of those behind, and
then all were huddling together, cows and calves
in the centre, and the bulls crowding around,
until the leaders broke through and led off at a
steady gallop on the back track. This was the
critical mc .ent. The dozen hunters shouted at
the tops of their lungs, and settled into a steady
gallop on their trail. The three hundred and
fifty horsemen came flying over the ridge and
down its slope in full pursuit, and in front of
them all, not a quarter of a mile away, a herd
of near a thousand buffaloes in headlong flight,
tails out, heads down, and nostrils red and flar>

ing. For the first few hundred yards the chase was
" nip and tuck." The l)uffaloe8 were doing their
best possible, as they always can at the beginning
of a chase, and the horses had not so good ground,
and were hardly settled down to their work. But
soon the tremendous strides of the bufi'ulo-run-
ners liegan to tell in the chase, and the heavy
headlong and forehanded leaji of the buffalo to
grow just jierceptibly slacker. One after an-
other the swiftest of the runners caught uj) to
the herd, and soon hunters and hunted were one
indistinguisliablo mass thundering over the plain.
Tlie green sward is torn up, cloiuls of dust arise,
swift fhots like volleys of musketry buffet the
air, the hunters fly along with loosened rein,
trusting to their horses to clear the badger holes
that here and there break the ground, and to
keep their own flanks and the rider's legs from
the horns of the buftuloes by whom they must
pass to get alongside the fat and swifter cow
singled out for prey. And still they keep
up this tremendous gait, flying buffalo and pur-
suing horsemen. As fust as one fires he draws
the jiliig of Ills powder-horn with his teeth,
pours in a hasty charge, takes one from his
mouthful of wet bullets and drops it without
wadding or rammer uinm the powder, settles it
with a blow against the saddle, keeps the muzzle
lifted till he is close to his game, then lowers
and fires in the same instant without on aim,
the muzzle of the gun often grazing the shaggy
monster's side ; then leaning off, his horse wheels
away, and loading as he flies, he spurs on in
chase of another, and another, and another ; and
in like manner the three hundred of them. One
after one the buffaloes lagged behind, staggered,
and fell, at first singly and then by scores, till in
a few moments the whole herd was slain save
only a few old bulls not worth the killing, which
were suffered to gallop safely away. One after
one the hunters drew rein, and dismounting from
their drenched horses, walked back through the
heaps of dead buft'alo and the puddles of blood,
singlin:; out of the hundreds dead with unerring
certainty the ones they had shot. Not a dispute
arose among the hunters as to the ownership of
any buffalo killed. To a novice in the hunt
they all looked alike, differenced only by size
and sex, and the plain on which all were lying
was in each square rod the fac-simile of evcrj-
other square. The novices had thrown on their
killed a sash or coat or knife-sheath ; but the best
huntere had no need of this. To their keen
eyes no two rods were alike, and they could trace
their course as easily as if only four and not
thousands of hoofs had torn the plain.

The carts driven by the women come up,
knives are drawn, and with marvelous dexterity
the shaggy skins are stripped off, the great,
bloody frame divided, huge bones and quivering
flesh, all cut into pieces of portable size, the
carts loaded, and by sunset all are on their way
to camp.

At St. Jo all onr plans underwent a change.
It became clear that the leader of the expedition

590

IlAUl'KUS NKW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

could never juHtify the "lofty nnd hifjli Hoiiiulin;;
])hrnsi'a of \\in mnnifi'sto," ami tlmt it wuh evon
(louhtfiil if we i^hmild be iiblc to >i;et throti>;h the
inountaiiiB before snow fall, to Hny notliin>?(if re-
turning overland. One of the seientitic gentle-
men returned to St. I'aul from St. Jo by i)rivatc
conveyance. Another left the cxix-dition at tlie
same place, preferring to go to the Selkirk Settle-
ment. There remained only our one geologist
and botanist to rei)rcsent science, the through
passengers for Friiser Uiver, the leader, and Jo-
seph nnd I. Our horses were growing lean, ex-
cepting only tough, lazy, impcrturliablc Dan
Rice. Josejih parted with tears from Lady
Mary, exchanging her for a light Indian jiony, j
to whoso education ho henceforth devoted nil his
leisure. Wo obtained at St. Jo n half-breed at-
tendant, determining to bo tho masters of our
own movements, and jdnuning to go as far as
possible with the expedition, and return through
the bulla lo-rnngcs and liy Devil's Lake, and the
Sioux country to I'cmbina, by tho first of Sep-
tember, ending our tour with a, visit to tho Sel-
kirk Settlement, and an overland journey thence,
southwest, to Crow Wing antl home. This wo
did.

" Joe" was the patronymic of our French half-
breed attendant ; by no means Saint Joe. Tall,
muscidar, with long black hair and the mandibles
of nn nllij^ator. ho yot walked in a lame, clumsy
Wfiy, nnd wore shoes instead of moccasins. Both
his feet had been frozen, and of one all tho toes,
and of tho other half the metacarpal tones also,
had been amputated. IIo was hunting bnttalo
with a dog-train, tho dogs ran away and left him
alone in the snow, where for ten days ho lived,
and nights he slept, without food by day or
blankets by night : on tho last day rescued by
Indians, who found him insensible and nearly
frozen to death. His work was only to take
care of our horses and mules, fetch wood nnd
water, help tho cook, and drive tho carts. A
sinister look in tho eye was the index to tho
rascally part of him. For three or four days ho
was tho best of new brooms ; from that time forth
he began to shirk his work, finally even sham-
ming crazy and playing the deuce with our time
and attention, till we had driven him out of his
lunacy into a genuine but ignominious stupidity
equally fatal to our interests. It was more than
the fellow was worth to cart his one hundred and
seventy pounds along with us. But of all this
we could suspect nothing when we hired him — so
polite was the rascal, so handy at mending an
old cart which had nonplused our metrojiolitan
fingers, so guileless in his speech. \Vc hired
him for, I forget how much, a month, and the
next morning after the bargain was struck be-
gan to pay for tho whistle. IIo must have pem-
mican, and flour, and tea to leave with his wife,
who was soon to be confined, and then some
cloth for his shirts, and then a pair of shoes, and
then would '*my master" please to give Joe a
sovereign to buy wine for his poor wife, and
*'my master" wouldn't think that Joe could
leave no money with his wife ; and so it came to

pass that, with his ncccsniticn and his wheedling,
he obtained more than his wages before he began
his work. This sort of credit system, however,
is usual among tlx; half-brccds. Liko the In-
dians tlu^y pass their lives in paying their dcl>ts,
and iiave to be Irustcd with tho means of enabling
them to do it.

M ichcile Klein, our faithfid guide nnd cook, was
a better than average specimen of the half-breed.
More than fifty years old, ho was yet as active nf
a boy, and light-hearted as a girl. By virtue of
those ijualities which arc always rare in any
])arty of men, early in the morning, during rain-
storms or when cattle have strayed, he bocnmc n
kind of privileged chnraeter, was permitted to
joke with nil, nnd tho one to whom nil jokes
were nddrcsscd, not worth an English coat but
])Ut in tattered French. lie had lived his pres-
ent life of voyngeur, hunter, guide, etc., for thirty
or forty yenrs, nnd was accomplished in it. lie
had been a guide in tho ]msscs of the Rocky
Jloiintains, north of the Kootonnis I'ass, for
twelve 3'car8, nnd his knowledge of that region,
nnd of tho vnlley of Frnser River, nnd of the
Saskatchewan, and Assiniboine was Ids cajiital.
I'oplar groves, low sand-hills, and marshes, which
the ordinary observer seems to see the du])licntcs
of a iho.isand times in one month's travel, were
to him as se])arate and distinct as if the whole
coimtry had been mapped with minute topog-
raphy, lie never failed to notice the tracks
over barren places that we crossed, buflPalo, elk,
antelope, or human footprints; and the breath
of smf)ko beyond the farthest purple hills, light
and evanoBcent na any summer cloud, ho would
at once distinguish, camp-fire, or prairie-fire. A
good shot, as it was well for one to be who hatl
gone many a month with only a rifle nnd blanket
between him nnd every fntnl possibility, he didn't
mind a ducking for a small bird on the coldest
day. Ho knew the times and seasons for all
the game in the valleys or on tho prairie. In
nothing more than his views of astronomy diil
he show how comiiletely the people of Red River
have been shut out from the rest of the world.
Indeed he represented not only the manners and
customs of more than half a century ago, but for
his theoiy of the lieavens nnd enrth he went be-
hind Kepler. IIo believed thnt the sun revolves
nround the earth ns it apjicars to do ; conceived
tho earth as one great plain, this side the only
one buttered with a population, and merrily
laughed at tho idea of going westward till the
west is east and returning so to the place of be-
ginning. His arguments were those of the Pojie
and the pc socutors of Galileo. The water would
drop out of the rivers and lakes nnd sea if they
were turned the upside down, nnd as for tho im-
mense plain on which wo live, why, it rests on
an elephant, nnd tho elephant stands on the back
of a tortoise, and the tortoise on a snake, and
the snake has a kink in his convolutions which
gives him a purchase whereby he holds up all.

From St. Jo our course was northwest, a di-
rection which led us along over the prairie at the
foot of Pembina Alountain for two days and then

TO RED mVF.n AND BEYOND.

fiOl

liis wlicedlinj;,
L'fore he began
torn, however.
Like the In-
g their dehts,
ns of enabling

nnd eook, wnc
lie hulf-brcetl.
3t ns nctivens

By virtue of

riiro in nny
, during rnin-

lie beenme n
lierinitted to
om all jokes
;lish coat but
vcd his pres-
to., for thirty
d in it. He
f the Rocky
is I'ass, for
that region,

and of the
1 his cajiital.
irslies, which
le dujilicates
travel, were
if the whole
inute topog.
3 the tracks
buflFnlo, elk.
1 the breath

hills, light
he would
■ie-fire. A
be who had
and blanket
he didn't
the coldest
ons for all
rairie. In
onomy did

Red River
the world,
inners and

go, but for
went be-

n revolves

conceived
the only
merrilv
till the

ICC of be-

the Pope

tcr would

:a if they

ir the im-
rests on

the back

ake, and

IS which

up all.

;st, a di>

ie at the

knd then

iicro.»s it. rcuiliiniv Mountain in L'lO feet high
[n fact it i^ no mountain at all, nor yet a hill,
hut only a terraco of table-laud, tlio ancient
«horc of a great body of water which onco filled
the whole of the Red River Valley. The sum-
mit in quite level, and extends so for five miles
westward, to another terrace level with the buffalo
plains wiiich stretch on to the Missouri. The
same terraco may be traced northward, and south
to tlio hifh laud near the head of the Shcycnno

River and Devil's Lake. Of the prairie countrj-
beyond, and of the Red River generally, our ol>-
scrvations confirmed the truth of Owen's state-
ment, that the limestones of the Reil River form
the basis of n largo portion of it. They are
highly magnesiun, having 17 to 4(» jjcr cent, of
alkaline earth.

Another of theso Nature's steps from a lower
to n higher level i..ay l)c traced from Turtl''
Mount on the 40th ])arallel to the bunks of
Swan River, in 02^ 30', atid even around to
Bascjiui Hill, says Sir George Simjison, on the
waters of the lower Saskatchewan. Like J'em-
bina Mountain, this ridge, whoso sand-hills we
afterward crossed, was oiice tho shore of a vast
inland sea. When its height determined the
boundary of the great body of waters, not only
the Red River Valley, but also Lakes Winnipeg,
Miuiitoba, and Winnijiegoos, with many of their
feeilers, were themselves ingulfed. The largest
of the three great fragments of the jirinieval sheet
of waters, viz., Lake Winnipeg, still continues
to retire from its western side and to encroach
on its eastern l)ank.

Our first cami>ing-placo was in a cluster of
Iwautifid oak groves, from which, at four or five
miles' distance, wo had this view of the I'erabina
Mountain plateau.

Here wo began a more careful watch. At
night the man on guard put out the camp-fires
aa soon as all had retired, allowed the smudges
to smoko but not blaze, lit his pijic behind his
hat, and, in short, "kept shady." But even
danger in time became commonplace.

Crossing the Tembina Mountain, the views of dis-
tant prairies, lakes, streams, woods, the glimpses
which we caught of the nearer valleys, and the
brooks which ran down them through sunny and
shady places, an abrupt wild cliff, with here and
there granite and limestone boulders tumbled
about on clayey shale, tinged with iron like the
redness of the autumn leaves, the richness of the
green grass, the strength and youth of tho green
leaves, filled the day with beauty.

Of every day tho beginning was a sunrise and
the ending a sunset, with the whole round arch
of heaven for tho great display. Shut up in
cities we never see all their I)eauty, the wonder
of every new day, and the miracle of the closing
night. Looking out of a window, or down a
street, we catch at the end of tho vista a framed
glimpse of brilliant coloring, but the whole large
effect in the wide circle of the heavens we utterly
miss; tho more delicate but not less beautiful
change of colors behind, on either ."ide and over-
head ; the grand tidal flow of light descending or
of shade arising in the horizon opposite the sun ;
the infinitely various tinting of its clouds, which
no succeeding second leaves the same ; its tender
neutral tints, the cool grays, and the deeper blue :
and over all, perhaps, as the sun goes down, a
flaming dome of red.

The next day, at high noon, we scared up onr
first elk. He saw us when we were half a mile
away, and rushed from the poplar grove which
we were heading for to a more distant one at a

r.92

IIARl'EU'K NKW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

rate MJttiiin our woary horse-flesh iit (Icllanco.
But tlio ]ii'()8|MTt (if killing nil i-lk wiih no nioro
to bo resisted thiiii tlio glimpse of otlieo flushed
uiwn n liopvlesH nominee ; und ho hiilf a (lo/.en of
us eapped our rifli'S und eantered ulong in the
trark of IiIh threat h-a|)H, faintly hoping to Hur>
round him in some of tl>" iiojilar elumps, till wo
Huw him shako his '.intlers ])rouu1y and ]ilunKe
into an ahljr swamp two or three miles away,
after whieh we can ^ered hack ngain. That night
our mosipiito an J gnat miseries rulminutud.
Alkaline water in the 8wnnij)s hy ivhi<'h we had
cami)od ruined tlio flavor of our tin, and gave all
our horses and mules what Joseph culled "an
olcmentary canai cnlnrf^cmcnt."

iSlHiaking of mislcs reminus mo of n scurvy
trick my mule played luc in return for consid-
ornto kindness. One day I noticed that hlulos
shoulder was getting sore, and therefoto put Dan
Rice in the cart and saddled his suecrssor. Out
of resjieet to a fraternal ufl'ection, rare nmoiig
human brutes, I refrnia from mentioning hi*' in-
disposition to go before or remain far behnid the
train. Sixty musical clefs would not hold in
their bars tho notes of liis bellowing. But pres-
ently strawberries, red and ripe, tempted mc off"
his back. Essaying to remount Midc, into
whom must have transmigrated tho crazy soul
of some defunct geometer, ho suddenly seemed
to behold in me his centre, conceived himself a
radius, and proposed to pass the rest of his lifo in
describing a complimentary circumference, his
tail doing tho tangents. Whirling away a half
hour thus, my patience became Karey-fied, and I
made a desperate leap for his back, caught one toe

in tlu. oiirrup, and so l)ogan a half-mile gnllo]i,
(Mitdoing circus Mazeppas, In time, this breame
tedious, and I juni)K><l ofl', lighting on all-foiir.->,
anil hap]iily ])reserving the integrity of my meer-
schaum, mother Earth receiving mo 'n her green
lap.

No one saw my mishap; but i trudged along
quietly after the vanishing fl<s, and in an hour
or two overt(K)k tho train ana him. Experience
had made me wiser. Reviving forgotten high-
bar gymnastics, I got him where he could not
turn, and leajied scpiare into ihe saddle. Then,
for six or eight miles, sjiurs, Iiit, and I fought
Mule, his heels and his vices, and li"lped him
cfmipier them. Toor brute! on our ret irn he
fell sick. Wo dragged him along behii.d the
cart for a day or two, and since ho got no b stter,
l)i!t, only worsO; nnd could hardly walk, vn left
him on the lijkju prairie, cutting a heap of green
grass for his biid and board, clipjang hi" car for
u iiroperty-mark, and praying that the wolves
might spare him. Good old mule! yon served
us well, and I couldn't help choking at the throat
as I caught the last glimpse of your long neck
stretched out as you lay there, loth to believe
tiiat we would desert you. If the " stern readev"
derides my grief, O dead ass, you shell not
meet npoin ! Oh for tho Mustang IIcsc Lini-
ment that might have spared us oU !

I forgot to say that we used to rest in camp
one day in seven, Sunday tho day, as often as was
possible. Then our trowsers and morals wore
mended, or, at least, patched up to apjiear a lit-
tle better, the emigrants greased afresh their cart-
wheels and their good resolutions, and washed

FRAlBtE FtBE.

TO RED UIVEK AND BEYOND.

SOS

m^'^zstss^

MOUBB UITEB,

ftway their sweat in the nearest river ,">v like.
Tlie man of science divided his time between
Paul's Epistles and the compound microscoix;,
and gave us lectures from the latter, which heli)cd
our exegesis of the former, giving us wiser eyes
to see the wonderful works of God. Anotlicr
polished the hand mirror in which ho was accus-
tomed to view, in his opinion, the hest specimen
of the "noblest work." Joseph and I indulged
in a theological disputation, and all of us ended
the day generally by gathering about the camp-
fire after sujjpcr and singing Old Hundred, Ba-
Icrma, Dundee, Ward, and other tunes of that
sort.

On the first of Augn t we crossed a valley
called by Michelle, our guide, La Belle Vallee.
Its apjjcarance was like the deserted channel of
a beautiful river, such as the Upper Mississippi
would be if its waters had passed away and seas
of long green grass tilled their place.

Mound Prairie, a plain dotted here and there
with mounds too few to make a rolling prairie of
it, and with one regular cone-shaped and higher
mound in the centre, giving it its name, was just
beyond La Belle Vallee, The next day, from
the last of a range of high hills, to which Joseph
and I gallo])ed, away from the train, we caught
Vol. XXL— No. 125.— Pp

sight, for the first time, of the faint blue line in
tlie northern horizon which marked the course
of the Assiniboine. At the west were the range
of low hills beyond which, said Minhellc, was
the Mouse River. Between were innumerable
lakes — some salt and some fresh — shallow ones
fringed with green or black rushes, and deep
ones wooded to the banks, with dark shadows
underneath, or surrounded by green Blojjes, and
reflecting the whole blue of heaven. Away to
the right was a column of smoke, where the care-
less dropping of a match had set the pmirie on
fire. Mouse River ran along wiilun a mile of
our camping-ground that night ; and the next
morning, as soon as breakfast was over, Joseph
and I hurried on to its banks.

There was every variety of color in the beau-
tiful landscape which met our eyes; brilliant
prairie flowers in the foreground, or growing in
thede'bris tumbled down from the bluff on which
we sat. The trees, down upon whose tops we
looked — as flying birds see forests — the rushes
and ranker grass near the river's ra*. 'pn, the
exquisite cool grays of the sandy betch defined
in such graceful curves by the brillia.?t blue re-
flected from the water, the thick verdurous under-
brush, here and there sentineled by stately trees,

r>04

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

wliioli covered the jihiin beyond the river ; tlio
li<;liter green upon tlic long level meudow seen
fit the right of the river in the sketch, with troops
of shadows chasing each other over its surface ;
and far beyond — miles away — the dark brown
of the opposite cliffs, and the faint, hazy blue of
hills in the cxtrcmest distance.

As I sat, trying to put on paper the briefest
outline memoranda to recall this splendid land-
scape, a large gray eagic came sailing along the
nir, and hovered high above us. I fired witli my
rifle and hit him, knocking out a few tail-feathers ;
but not fatally, for he only tumbled, fluttering
three or four times his own wing-spread, and
then, 08 if more scared than hurt, recovered him-
self and flew off into upper air. Afterward we
saw him hanging over the river ; a strong breeze
was blowing, but, without an a])parcnt stroke of
his pinions, he kept himself steadily poised and
balanced in the same sjwt, head bent looking
downward, and body level.

Here, too, after a long chase and considerable
"circumvention," we shot at the first antelopes
seen by ns. Their quick, long jumps took them
out of rifle-range too soon to give us a second
chance.

These were our most delightful diiys. The
nights were pleasantly cool, and wOjAlept well
despite the mos(iuitoes. The days \<'Sre full of
enjoyment, each one rewarding our labor of
travel with some new beauty of landscajie or of
sky, some liitMrn beauty under our feet. The
horses jogged lomfortably along, their hoofs now
and then crusliing heap' of cacti, which remind-
ed us of Southern de?jrts and torrid heats, tho
comparison cooling 'is; or the cart-wheels, as
wo drove through .^nd among the clumps of white
poplar and spotted alder, sinking into the elastic
caqxjt of running cedar and trailing arbutus.
In such i)laces Joseph and I dismounted as quick-
ly as if the odorous carjMjt was from the loom
wiiich wove the caqiet of the Arabian Prince ;
and there — happy as princes ought to be, but nev-
er are — wc whiled away the summer afternoons
till long shadows warned us to hurry on after
the train, Josei)h reading Tennyson and Biyant,
wliom he carried in blue and gold ; the tones of
his voice or tiie scratch of my pencil never fright-
ening the trustful brown-birds tiiat hojipcd about
us, not afraid sometimes to skip on an extended
foot or arm, where they stood and chirped and
cocked their tiny heads this way and that, but

nmi' Ki.i.ii:ii

ill diiys. The
WQjAlcpt well
ys \mc full of
our liibor of
nndscape or of
•ur feet. The
heir lioofs now
wliich remind-
rrid heats, tho
•art-wheels, as
lumps of white
into the elastic
iling arbutus,
inted as quick-
rom the loom
iibian Prince ;
to be, but ncv-
fier afternoons
lurry on after
n and Biynnt.
; tlie tones of
I never fright-
hojiped about
1 an extended
I cliirped and
and that, but

TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND.

595

never whispered tho wise things and the secrets
which they might liave told. Sand-hill cranes —
liuge birds, delicious to eat, and wortli creeping
a iiundred rods to siioot — would start from many
hollows as we came up over the nearest hill, and
we could see their ungainly majesties putting on
airs and stalking about on the top of distant
sand-hills, taking care to fly before we were
within rifle-shot, and mocking us witii their
clanging cry till their white, van-like wings were
taint white s])ecks in the distant air.

^Monday, tlie 8th of August, we camped near
a knoll whence the Assiniboine and the tribu-
taries of Qii'Apiwlle River were both visible.
Fort EUicc, to wiiicli we were journeying, was
two or three miles this side of the junction of
these two rivers. Our leader b.ad persisted that
we were going too fur north to strike the fort ;
and a few days before had become so convinced
that his o\i . practiced ignorance was sujierior
to the guide's uneducated knowledge (for Mi-
chelle had been so stui)id as to travel all over the
country wiiliout any com])ass save the sun in
bright days, and tiie compass-weed in cloudy
ones), tluit he had ordered our line of directi(m
to be cluinged more to tiie west. As a conse-
(juence, the next day we had to return to the
northeast — losing one or two days' travel — to
strike the fort; and found, when there, that the
scape-graces heretofore mentioned, who had trav-
eled over the two sides of the right-angled trian-
gle whose hypothenusc we described, had passed
two or three days before — tiiough, to be sure, we
had had science and a fearful amoimt of expe-
rience in our aid ; and they had stupidly fol-
lowed their noses and the advice of those who,
like Michelle, had been over the road.

Early the next morning we struck the hunt-
ers' trail from Fort Ellice (S.W.) to Moosehead
.Mountain, and galloped our horses in its ruts for
miles in a frenzy of delight. It was the road
which led to London and Paris and New York,
and all the centres of civilization and wealth and
knowledge in the world. For days and days we
had gone path' .ss ; but here was a trail, a;ul all
along its triple tracks — miles awaj', to be sure —
were lying the beauties and tho wonders of the
world, and home and friends.

On we galloped, homeward, for a dozen miles
or so, Josepii and I, and got to Fort Ellice in ;
hour or two before the train, and just in time to
escajie a thorough wetting in a hea^■y thuiuler-
storm. All about the stockades were Indiiin
lodges, and crowds of the eopper-eolored Ilia-
wathas came out to see us. Villainous Vermil-
lion, lamp-black, and yellow-ochro disfigured
their earthly habitations with hideous symbols,
among which appeared some rejnilsi^e represent-
ations of the Deity; and vcrmillicm, Limp-black,
and yellow-ochre disfigured also the tenements in
wiiieh their iuilf-starved sotds were housed. The
rain fell faster, and we hurried into the inclos-
uro of tho fort, gave our horses to one of the
half-breed attendants standing about, and c.*\r-
ried our saddle-bags into the main room of the
houso occupied by the trader in charge, Mr.

William M'Kay. Ho soon came in, drip-
ping with rain, and welcomed his unexpected
guests in the friendliest way. Disapjiearing for
a few moments in one of the family rooms
which opened into this main hall on either side,
he presently came out in dry clothes, with pipes
and tobacco — kinnie-kinnic and dried winter-
green leaves for our smoking — and we drew
our chairs up for an exchange of news and in-
formation. Presently dinner was served, and
we sat down to fresh buffalo-steaks, hot bread,
rice-pudding, strawberry-pie, "nd hyson tea well
decocted. The table was of jilain wood, painted
a greenish-brown, and the chairs — heavy oak,
higii-backed, and substantial — were made by
half-breeds, and the Belgian giant might have
sat u))on them with impunity. The hospitality
with which we were entertained here was one of
the pleasantest incidents of our journey ; and it
is to the Hudson's Bay Company's credit that
they so carefully select men who jxjssess both tho
siittvitci- in modo to the passing traveler, and tho
Zotiaviler in modo to scajie-grace Indians. While
we were at dinner one of Mr. M'Kay's Indian
retainers .sat on the floor in the adjoining apart-
ment, and devoured his 'juflalo-steak as happily
as if ha])py to sit below the salt; and his h:\\i-
breed wife waited ui)on her lord's guests at table.
yir. M'Kay was born in tlie country, he wever,
and had never been nearer civilization than Red
River, his father having served the Company
before him.

The Qu'Appelle, or Calling River, is the
principal tributary of the Assiniboine River;
which, in its turn, is the principal tributary
of Red River. It enters from the west, a few
miles above the great south bend of the Assini-
boine, and just at Fort Ellice. It is the river
whose head-waters are linked to the head-waters
of a considerable tributary of the great Saskat-
chewan ; and an English engineer has proposed to
dig a canal connecting the two, in order to turn
the waters of the south branch of the Saskat-
chewan into the Qu'Appelle and Assiniboine,
so enlarging those streams as to make them nav-
igable at all seasons of the year ; and thus, by
avoiding the great rapids at the njouth of the
Saskatchewan, to create n shorter, straighter,
and unobstructed channel from Red River Settle-
ment to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. The
cut would certainly not be so expensive as. the
Erie Caiwl ; and when the inducements are as
great as those which aided that ])roject, doubt-
less another De Witt Clinton will be born.

We staid for several days at the fort ; and
one of our day's tramps in the vicinity was to
the junction of the Qu'Appelle and the Assini-
boine — a view worth all the work it cost us.

For three or four milen we followed the wind-
ing trail through beautiful groves, here and there
broken up by lakes and ponds covered with duel s,
and at last came to a long descent 'hrough a
magnificent forest of poplars. Tho dn ight was
sifted through the dense foliage overiiead into
cool shadows, and on every side the beautiful
gray trunks environed us, shutting out all glimps-

k 1

1 1

59G

IIARPEUS NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

JUNCTION OF THE AB8I.NIH0INE ANI> 4JU Ari'ELI.K RIVERS.

es of the outer world. At every few rods wo
scared away a flock of pij^toons tliat went whir-
ring through tlio loaves and branchnvi. At the
foot of the blutt" way the Qu'A]ii)elle, which we
struck a mile or two from its mouth. Tying the
horses, we jjaddled over on a few jilaiiks loosely
tinkered together, and pushing through the for-
est, which nearly covered the bottom land, came
at last in full view of a sjjlendid bluft", liigher than
Bunker Hi'l Monument, and looking like a huge
fortification which Milton's angels might have
built after the great combat. There is nothing
at the East like the grand view from this high
bluff. We could trace the windings of cither
river by the giant embankments which confined
their waters. Hero and there we beheld broad
stretches of water where it widened out, swecp-
ing broadly and indolently around some project-
ing point, or caught brilliant glimpses of its nar-
rower char lels through the thick green tree-tops
wliich we overlooked. Far off to either horizon
the gorge winds hither and thither, the near blufi's
flanked successively by the more distant ones, a
deeper color or a din>mer haze indicating the
junction of some tributary stream, the vast ex-
panse of green tree-tops checkered by the shad-

ows of passing clouds. An eagle drifted down the
air miles away, and flocks of ])igeons were wing-
ing tlioir short swift flights from the summit of
one po})lar grove to another, in tlicir flight over-
looking uli this wide ex])an,se, and then sudden-
ly sinking through the leaves out of the warm
air and bright heaven of sunlight into the cool
^■hadows of the forest.

The point where the rivers met was in tht
h)w bottom land between the bluffs, three miles
away from where we stood, and after wandering
about the blufls for miles up and down to get
the finest views, we laid our course for that.
Through sand jilains, wherean Indian had trudged
along before us, digging witli his tipsini-stick,
and leaving the track of his moccasins with toes
turned in, one foot straight before the other, we
laboriously plodded. Little spires of grass, two
or three spears in each, came up through the
sand, and around every one circles were trtcc I
where the wind, sweeping through the hoUir..
had bent their tips to the ground — circles as poi
feet as the Italian drew and tliought it proved In
could build n cathedral. Hetween the clumps
of poplar, further on, our path was j)avcd with
a more bcautil'al AIosuiA; i-h .n any ii; cathedral

TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND.

697

aisles. Tlie lines were drawn in the decjiest j
green, vines of running cedar, and the inter-
spaces filled with an elastic carpet of grayish red ]
sand or ■ pale gray moss of the loveliest tint, j
Wading tiien through six or eight hundred yards
of marsh-rushes high as our shoulders, and then
plunging into and through a half mile of the
thickest underhrush, stumbling over fallen trees,
and tearing our corduroys among the dense and
tangled thorn-brakes where was scarcely a square
foot of em]3ty air, suddenly we came ujion the
point of land which marked the junction of the
rivers. Indians in tlieir canoes and traders in
their hatteaux have passed it many times ; but
not this centuiy has it been seen f m\ that point,
surely, by any other eyes than ours.

The bank where we stood was nearly perpen-
dicular, the tree roots projecting its top ten feet
above the water. Ojjposite, the bank was of shelv-
ing sand. There was as much water in the As-
siniboine above the junction as in the Jlinnesota
at the same season of the year. The sand-lianks
and bars, strewn with broken fragments of trees
and other debris, and the concavities in the low
banks, proved the recurrence of s])ring overflows.
Both the Assiniboine and the Qu'Appelle were

pahtinq witu the doctor.

turbid, but not so much so as Rod River. The
Assiniboine had the lightest and swiftest current,
the Qu'Ap]>elle the largest and deepest.

Returning to camp by the cool j)urple light of
a sunset sky, we heard as we neared the tents,
whicii were pitched half a mile from the fort,
tiic Indians who were camped about tlie stock-
ades, singing, beating their drums, and dancing
the war-dance. They were a small war.p(\rty
just returned from an expedition against the
8'oux, and brought back as their trophies a scalp
dried and stretched upon a hoop and a human
baud. Their monotonous thumps upon the drums
divided and measured the silence, and presently
the hideous chanting of the men, alternating with
the softer antiphone of the women and children,
broke upon the air. As we approached the fort
the scene was more plainly visible. The red
camp-fire lighted up their skin lodges and the
tall stockades, and made more impenetrable the
tliick darkii-^ss of the ravine through which
Beaver Creek ran, nearly two hundred feet be-
low. This seal]) dance they keep up for the vic-
tory with faces jr;, f.dly black, every night and
morning till thj snow falls, the women joining
the dance, and the little children, naked coppers
that can barely tod-
dle, taught to whet
their puny passions
into the fierceness of
adult hate and re-
venge as faitlifully
as we teach the lit-
tle ones we lom to
fjld their hands, close
tlieir eyes, and pray
night and morning
to "Our Father in
heaven." A woman
danced and beat with
her hands this fresh
scalp, and a little
child mocked its eld-
ers with the bloody
white hand dangling
from its neck.

The Indians pass-
ed their days in gam-
bling mninly, the
squaws in making
moccasins. At the
risk of adding to our
traveling po])ulation
we jiassed an after-
noon in their lodges,
introducing ourselves
to their good graces
with tobacco. In one
tent a dozen of the
dirty tribe were ])lay-
ing jjoker with greasy
cards ; bullets the
stakes. A wrinkled
old hag joined them,
as loud-mouthed cer-
tainly, and as filthy

598

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

of manner and speech — so our interpreter siiid
— as any of tliem. In another lodge two of the
women were sewing moccasins und playing with
their babies triced up in their standing cradles.
The men dawdled or played cards, and raced
horses, or set their dogs on a young bufl'ulo-
heifer owned at the fort, or hung around our
tents watching all our motions, and trying to
get a chance to steal even an old nail ; the wo-
men only worked. And whoever undertakes
the civilization of these savages must begin with
I he women, if he would ever see any fruit of
ills labors.

Dr. C. L. Anderson, our geologist and botan-
ist, left us here to descend the Assiniboiiie to Fort
Garry in a birch canoe, with a single Indian
guide, who could not speak a word of English.
Two of us carried his canoe and traps in a wagon
down to the river where he was to begin his
Journey, and saw him safely loaded and em-
i)arked. The Doctor had been our consulting
scientific dictionary ; and we regretted only the
loss of his society more than the privation of
looking upon nature, bays and breezes, rocks,
strata, alluvial dejjosits, temperatures, isother-
nials and plants, ■ litotrapious and otlier, alone,
und with very unsi j es. Besides, he took

his microscope away lim, and so shut up

the door to one of our ^ . Infinites, though, to
be sure, it didn't require a microscope to unvail
the infinite littleness of some things which he
left behind him. Lacking a shoe to throw after
the Doctor for luck, Joseph took the biggest of
two fighting dogs that had followed our wagon
:ind pitched him into the middle of the river as
the Indian paddled away down the stream, his
I'hargi; hardly daring to look over his shoulder
tor fear of upsetting the canoe.

The same day our party broke up. The Fra-
ser River boys had quite completod their outfits,
and supplied the place of the leader of the ex-
pedition, who declined to go any further with
them, with a guide familiar with the country, and
who promised to put them well on their way for
the Kootonais Pass before leaving them.

Joseph, whom they all loved, went on a few
miles with them, and we who were now on our
return journey, had to cut sticks and leave them
in the trail slanting .' 2 way we had gone — an
aid to the pilgrim's progress, which he stoutly
resented when ho caught up with us at night-
tiiU. There is no report extant of those parting
moments ; but it has been conjectured that Jo-
seph made them an affecting speech, in which
it is to be hoped he dilated upon the superiority
i)f instinct over the mariner's compass for the
purposes of northwest exjjlorers, and the great
advantage to be gained in the long-run by mak-
ing mules and horses travel in the summcrmonths
oight hours continuously, through the heat of the
lay, instead of in the cool of the morning and
evening. If he did not, then the " frightful ex-
ample" which wo carried with us all Bummer
tailed to teach its proper lesson. One thing is
certain, the little blue and gold copy of Bryant's
I'oems which had consoled us so far he gave to

one of the emigrants, and if he keeps up his old
habits of spouting, it is quite likely to prove un-
true that the " Oregon hears no sound save his
own dashings."

Our leader here traded off the tent, which sev-
eral of the party had helped him to buy, for a
young Buffalo cow, henceforth the companion of
our journeyings. Our share in the cow was the
amusement her antics uftbrded us, and the pleas-
ure we enjoyed in having our daily rate of travel
slackened for her benefit, about twenty per cent.
" Jessie" — for that was her name — had an indis-
j)osition to keep her nose at a fixed distance from
the ground, and also objected to having the chain,
which held her to tlie tail-l)oard of the Colonel's
wagon, in contact with her bare skull. So on the
first Sunday after leaving Fort Ellice we halted
all day, and the great buffalo tamer constructed
a pair of tongs and a ring, which, with infinite
lai)or, be at last succeeded in getting into the
cow's nuse. She could not stand as much pull-
ing on her Schnciderian membrane as ujjon her
horns, and so was more tractable ; but now and
then she would butt the heavy loaded wagon out
of the ruts with tremendous vigor, or, getting
down on her knees, tojijjle it over, or lie down
herself and be pulled along by horns and nose in
a shocking way. A little colt, that was under
the protection of Joe and his mare, soon lost its
first aAve of the strange monster, and came to a
realizing sense of the fact that the cow could not
chase him very far. whatever her pretensions; and
it was his especial delight to come galloping u])
at full speed behind the low, and, wheeling with-
in safe limits, kick up his heels at poor " Jessie,''
who, whether frightened or tormented, generally
made the Colonel's seat an uneasy one for a few
moments after.

The first day out we met a small party of plain
hunters who reported twenty Sioux at Turtle
Mountain, and one brigade of hunters returneil
to White Horse Plains. Of course we kept a
closer watch, though the event proved it need-
less.

The blue, timber-skirted line of the Assini-
boine was visible on our left for a day or two, and
we crossed two of its small tributary streams in
the first and second days' journey. The coun-
try had the same general character as that be-
fore described — a little more marshy, perhai)s,
but the same slightly rolling ])rairie land, with
here and there ))oijlar groves. Three or four days
after leaving Fort Ellice, we noticed several jjrai-
rie-fires on the horizon, and jiresently came upon
the fresh tracks of Indians. They could hardly
have been two hours l)efore us, but fortunately
our paths coincided only a little way.

On Wednesday, tiie 1 7th of August, about noon,
we came upon our own old trail, by which ,ve
had gone needlessly so much to the west of Fort
Ellice; then we were twenty, now but five.
Following it backward, wc nooncd at a beautiful
spot, between the range of sand-hills of which
I have before spoken and a lake, where we had
had a strawberry feast twelve days before. Not
a berry remained. Leaving here the Moosehead

■I

.1>

TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND.

699

VOBDINO AT THE BAM>-UILLS.

Monntain and Fort Garry trail for the open coun-
f^^' try, we traveled on, and before nightfall struck

'.: the Turtle Mountain trail, ciioosin^ a camp-

ground just beyond Calumet or I'ipo River (a,
tributary of the Assiniboine), which at this point
was forty feet wide and about four feet deep.

Eight or ten miles from this camping-ground
was Mouse River. On the north side of it were
high sand-hills, some of them wooded to the top,
and from their summits we had a magnificeut
view of the counti-y in every direction.

These hills are a favorite camping-ground of
the plain hunters. Deep, well-worn trails con-
verge here from every direction, and the prairie,
at the foot of the hills, is covered with the debris
of old encampments, broken buHalo-bones, tufts
of hair, frames for drying the meat preparatory
to powdering it for pemmican, old moccasins,
strips of calico, broken lodge poles, fragments
of blue crockery of tiie Hudson's Bay Company
j)attern, and fire holes were dug in the earth at
convenient intervals.

Fording the river in some rapids, where the
water was about one hundred feet wide and from
four to six feet deep, and ])ressing through the
thick willow clum])8 and the oak groves which
skirt the banks of the rim of the stream, we
camped in a little hollow near the river where
the ground was relieved against the sky within
gunshot on every side except that toward the
liver.

While Joo was curing his lunacy by rigging
"his masters" a mosquito net, Michelle and I
rigged a cou])le of polos, and went for a string of
tish. We caught a fine mess of white-fish, and,

for aught I know, might have continued adding
to the string till now. They bit very freely, and
played splendidly. The meat was not unlike
that of Connecticut River shad, though, if possi-
ble, more delicate, with fewer bones. The eagles
and fish-hawks envied us our sport ; for several
of them circled in the air over our heads, and
when we landed our prey, they often swooped low
enough for us to have struck them with our lance-
wood tips.

From this time till we reached Pembina Mount-
ain, Michelle and Joe lived in constant fear of
an attack of the Sioux, and the former always
chose n camping-ground protected like the pres-
ent one. For ourselves we had little fear, though
we kcj)t a careful watch ; for we knew that all
the warriors of that tribe had gone furtbT south
to a great treaty-making with our India i agents,
and for a few weeks our line of travel however
dangerous at any other time, was quite safe to a
well-armed party like ours.

We had now entered upon the great buffalo
ranges, and had not traveled ten miles before we
saw a few bulls, six or eight miles to the east. I
mounted Dan Rice and trotted slowly off in their
direction, hoping to turn them toward the train,
which kept steadily on its way. But while mak-
ing my way through a piece of low marshy ground
they got out of sight. Returning to the trail I
met Joseph, who had remained behind to write
up his journal. As we drew nearer to the train
we saw the Colonel mount Fireaway, and canter
off Bt a lively rate to the east, beckoning us to
follow him. We put spurs to our horses and
galloped on. He had seen a bull and en It' de-

600

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE,

scendinc; jnto a denf coulee for water, and follow-
ing his directions, we beat it np for a few rods,
until we met him returning from the opposite
direction. While we stood there wondering what
had become of the creatures, they broke cover far
beyond us, and started over the prairie at a steady
gallop, the ciilf taking the lead. We all joined
the chase, though the prairie was full of badgcr-
holcs and the game small. Tlii' excitement
and the hope of a good supper were too mucii
to resist. Fireaway's tremendous leaps soon
took him outside the animals and turned them
toward us. By skillful riding the Colonel sepa-
rated the calf, which ran like a young antelope,
from the old bull, and, with one well-directed
shot, which broke his back-bone just behind the
skull, tumbled him to the ground, dead.

The old bull galloped away ; but in the course
of the afternoon the train came up to where he
had halted, and Joseph, mounted on his light
pony. Lady Jane, made a beautiful chase, and
shot the fellow not ten rods from the trail. It
was a barren triumph for Joseph, however ; for
the monster, though he had run so well and died
game, had a hind-leg stiff with spavin, and be-
sides had been badly gored, so that nothing of
him was fit to eat save the tongue, which he
would have spared to have kept Michelle's un-
ruly member from wagging — Michelle, who knew
a lame buffalo from a well one a thousand miles
away.

Michelle dissected the calf with a dexterity
which, if employed upon a human subject, would
have insured him a Wood prize at the Bellevue
Hospital, and for two days our larder was full.

Traveling as we were without a trail, the
mariner's comjjaas and the primitive intuitions
of our leader again came in conflict. As it hap-
pened the latter conquered for a time, and so
we were secured a visit to the great south bend
of Mouse Kiver and the Hare mountains, wliich,
if wo had followed Michelle's instructions and
taken a bee-lino from Fort Ellice to Turtle
Mountain, we should never have seen. On the
afternoon of the 19th, as we were journeying
slowly along, Jessie, the buffulo-cow, trotting
comfortably behind the Colonel's wagon, Joe
bringing up the carts, Joseph and I jogging
along on our horses ; and Michelle far ahead on
foot with his rifle, keeping to his direction of
"south 60° east" around and over hills, down
valleys and through marshes, as steadily as if
electric currents had polarized him into perpetual
fealty to that point of the compass, we began to
discern from the high points of land high ridges
at the east which seemed gradually rising higher
and higher in a line about parallel with our
course. These grew to mountains (or what are
called such, in the absence of larger sjjecimens)
the next day. Joe, who had sworn to us that
ho had wintered at Turtle Moimtain, thought it
was that veritable peak which we now saw, al-
though so much f:irther to the east than we had
expected. Michelle preserved a discreet non-
commitalism, asserting that from one point of
view it did look like Turtle Mountain, and then
again it didn't. His defense of his o^vn remem-
brances had succeeded so poorly against primi-
tive instincts in another case that he was not
disposed to say too much. The Colonel con-

^■^Sf^^^~'l

:i#^g^E^iM

SOUTn BEND OF MOCBB BIVBB,

tit a trnil, the
litivo intuitions
ct. As it haj)-
a time, and so
•eat south bend
untnins, which,
istructions and
lice to Turtle
seen. On the
ere journeying
3-cow, trotting
's wagon, Joe
ind I jogging
e far ahead on
s direction of
er hills, down
steadily as if
into perpetual
i, we began to
id high ridges
r rising higher
illel with our
i (or what are
er s])ecimen8)
)rn to us that
in, thought it
now saw, al-

than we had
discreet non-
one point of
ain, and then
1 own remem-
gainst primi-

he was not
Colonel con-

TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND,

fiOl

f-.^~-*f^E^

I; eluded tliat it was Turtle Mountain, and that

:l he had all along been in the right in urging

it- Michelle to kec]) a course further to the east.

W So the train was turned to the north of east, and

we jnishod straight for the highest peak. By
the middle of the afternoon wc were near enough
to see that a river nnd wide bottom lands inter-
vened, and a half hour's steady canter brought
us to the great South Bend of Mouse River.

We camped at the summit of one of the
bluffs overlooking the bend, protected on the
south also by a steep ravine, down which a little
stream, tiiat was almost a torrent, tore its way to
the more secret places in the valley, where we
could sit and watch the deer and antelopes as
they came to drink.

On Sunday two or three of us crossed the great
plateau, ascended Hare Mountain, and from its
cold, windy top saw, away to the south, the long
blue line of Turtle Mountain, made known to
us, beyond a doubt, by the two blue and rounded
arches rising out of it. Pembina Mountain, the
course of Mouse River, our first fording-placc
by the sloping plateau, our second crossing-
place near the sand-hills, Moosehead Moimtain,
Prospect Hill, and the fainter blue of the Assini-
boine hills were all visil)le within the circle of
the horizon ; while far to the south, but full in
sight, arose the clear blue line of the long-desired
' Turtle Mountain, crowned with its double ])eaks.

The day ended in rain. Joseph and the
Colonel had returned to camp, leaving me with
my sketch-book, Dan Rice, and rifle. A huge
drop on the paper-pad was the first warning
tiiat the storm threatened all day had really
come. Galloping to a grove of oaks, I kept dry
under the trees and waited some hours for the
rain to hold up ; but the end was not yet. It
was obviously inconvenient to remain there all
night, and so a couple of hours before sunset I
mounted Dnn and set off for the camp.

We had to cross two small streams, and Dan
desired to be excused from jumping from bank
to bank, and so we spent a drenching hour search-
ing up and down the banks for a place where
he could descend gradually to the water. This
fairly accomplished, we soon came to the foot of
the great bluff on the top of which the train was
encamped. Along its foot ran another stream,
wooded for a quarter of a mile on either bank,
and fordable in but one or two places.

In spite of the flapping leaves, the bedraggling
boughs, the stumps in the way, the swamps in
which Dan twenty times was bogged and lost
two shoes, and the discouraging process of break-
ing a way to three different but alike unfordable
places in the stream, at last I made my own
way on foot through the underbrush to the
stream, first tying Dan outside the wood, and
then, by wading down stream, at last found a
place where the bank shelved sufficiently, and
the trees were few enough, to permit a horse's
approach and crossing ; and from this spot final-
ly found a road to Dan, trusting to Providence
to bo able to get from the stream through the
woods on the other side and so to camp.

There the Colonel was aslee)> insiile liis covered
wagon, with which he had sui)plii'd the jiluce of
our tent — the only dry place within five hun-
dred miles — and the two half-breeds were hud-
dling under the carts. Self-saeri firing Joscjih
was rolled up in a heaj) of blankets, over which
he had pathetically stretched our mosquito-net,
and there he sat smoking a pipe, watching the
streams running through the top and down its
sides, and discoursing to himself upon the muta-
bility of all I'-.iman affairs — especially tents.
Joseph gave me the half of his btankets, only
stipulating thi ' I should strip till I came to a
dry surface. We divided our last morsel, a cold
buffalo-tongue, and then submitted to the rain
for the rest of the day, all night, and the next
morning till nearly noon, by which time we were
cuddling up together under the jwrtion of the
blanket yet preserved from the rain, which was
a piece in its centre about tlie size of a half-
dollar.

When the sun came out overhead at noon,
and the rain censed enough for us to light a fire
and fry pancakes, happier mortals were never
seen, the storm having demonstrated in British
America the same truth as the pain in Socrates's
shin, in old Greece, just before he drank hem-
lock and began his immortality.

The next day we crossed another half-breed's
trnil from Fort Garry to White Horse Plains,
and numberless buffalo trails besides. These
are wide and deep single tracks worn by the
hoofs of buffalo, which, when migrating in small
herds, if undisturbed, and if not feeding, always
travel in single file. The marsh grass, into
wliich they had gone for water, was trodden
down, the dung was fresh, the tracks recent,
and the places numerous where they had torn
away the grass with their hoofs and rolled in
the dirt to dislodge the flies. The reddish pur-
ple arch of Turtle Mountain was visible to us
through the summer haze all the afternoon,
rising higher and higher, the trees upon its
sides hourly becoming more distinct, resolving
themselves first into clumps and groves, then
into single trees. The next day we reached it.

Turtle Mountain is only a high range of
hills, heavily timbered, with beautiful prairies
here and there dotted with groves stretching
away from it on every side. It takes its jiaine,
of course, from its peculiar outline as it rises up
out of the prairie. Its general direction is north
and south, with a deflection of the lower end,
eastward, from 25° to 30°, After passing this
lower end we had a better though distant view
of its highest butte, the one whose blue crown
we had seen from the top of Hare Mountain,
overtopping all the surrounding range. This,
our half-breeds told us, rises more perpendicu-
larly from the prairie, and is dilBcult of ascent.

Riding along with Michelle the next morning,
half a mile ahead of the train, we caught sight
of two buffalo bulls quietly feeding on a green
slope near a marsh a mile or two to the south-
east. Our horses were tired with months of
continuo""* travel, unfit to run, and, to tell the

002

IIAUPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

1 i

truth, I iilwiivH despaired of seeing Dan Rice
equal his first ex]>loit.

But our supply of meat was entirely exhaust-
ed, and of tallow too, which is to the imiirie trav-
eler butter, lard, and whatever else tluit is nec-
essary in cooking and unctuous in nature. So
as wc came nearer tlie two buffalo I spurred
ahead of old Michelle, taking the left-hand val-
leys, where my horse and I were hid from sight.
Michelle waited the result just back of the brow
of a hill.

Galloping^n half a mile, I thought the valley
between us not too wide for a long rifle shot, and
dismounting, went to the summit of the hill.
One of the bulls had lain down, his back turned
toward me, and so no good shot was jjossible ;
and the other was just over the farther slope of
the hill, kicking up his heels in the air, and
crushing to pulp the flies that tormented him.
There was no alternative but to ride to the next
hill, a quarter of a mile beyond. For two or
three minutes horse and rider were in full siglit,
if they had turned their heads to see ; but they
did not, and in an instant more wc were hidden
by the hill. Here I dismounted again, untied
the lariat from the saddle-bow, leaving it to trail
under the horse's feet that it might keep him in
the valley, and then hastened to the top of the
hill. The bulls were still there, the further one
(juietly feeding. A long marsh lay between us,
empty of water except in the spring, but at all
seasons full of long tliick grass, breast high, and
the whole oval fringed with a golden rim of
helianthus — the flowers growing rarer as on
the slope of the hills the color of the grass was
(■hanged to a lighter green ; and here and there,
in the circle, stood clumps of shrubbery like
sentinels guarding the tombs of departed water-
nymphs.

My weapon was the same Maynard rifle
spoken of before, which a man may load and
tire a dozen times in a minute if he be quick at
taking aim, and not likely to be made nervous by
excitement or danger. I put a half-dozen car-
tridges in my hand, and set the primer, which pays
out tape caps as fast as the rifle is cocked, and be-
gan the approach. I might have fired at once
upon the recumbent bull — the distance was not
more than a hundred and fifty yards — but, except
<!on(jealed, I could not hope to get the other bull,
who would come to the top of the hill to recon-
noitre, and, seeing me, perliaps get away without
presenting a mark for a fatal shot. So crouch-
ing below the level of the tips of the grass, where
it was high enough, or running stealthily from
clump to clump of shrubbery large enough to
keep head and shoulders out of sight, in a quar-
ter of an hour I had got within twenty yords of
the nearest bull — the one lying down — and was
barely concealed behind a clump of decayed pop-
lar shrubs. The other bull was hid behind the
swell of the hill. The wind, I ought to have
said, was blowing in a course at right angles to
my approach, or one had never got so near ; and
Imd their strong odor come between the wind
and my nostrils, I might have taken a longer

range. One instant devoted to a steady hand
and to a 8yno])si8 of the cluiiiccs of jiursuit and
the means of cscajic, and tiicn I fired, aiming
at his heart just back of the fore shoulder. Swift
u))on the crack of the rifle, hardly distinguisha-
ble from it save by a quick ear, came the spat
whicli told that the bullet had hit the mark, and
then, before the bull could rise to his feet, the red
blood showed that it had hit a fatal spot. 1
dro])])ed in the grass behind the bush instantly.
Tiie shot bull rose to his feet slowly and pain-
fully, and looked in every direction but the right
one to see where the blow had come from.
Michelle the Imlf-breed mounted, and now stand-
ing on the summit of the distant hill, drew his
gaze for a moment, and then he turned to
csi'ape by way of the marsh I had crossed,
and turning, saw me. Too weak to attack,
he turned still again to escape from the near-
est danger — slowly, deliberately, and with evi-
dent pain — too much hurt to run. As he
turned I took a quiiK aim, fired, and hit
him just over the kidneys, in the hope of break-
ing his back. Tiie monster stopped, shook his
shaggy mane, that hung, black and curling, from
his jaw to his knees, walked on a few steps, and
could go no further. His vast bulk heaved with
the tremors of approaching death ; but I could
wntcli him no longer while uncertain what the
bull just over the hill might be doing. Hasten-
ing uj) the slope, I caught sight of him standing
and, apparently, gazing at the distress of his
companion. He had not taken to flight ; for it
is ii peculiarity of this sagacious animal that,
till they know from what quarter danger comes,
they will not run, but only huddle together,
when in herds, perlmjjs the bulls circling about
the cows and calves, and two or three of the
older and larger bulls going to some elevated
point to discover the direction of danger. When
only two or three are together, or when a single
bull is fired upon from a concealed j)osition, they
will hardly move a dozen yards till they know in
which direction it is safest to run. As this bull
stood there, partly turned from me, hump, horns,
and part of the shoulders visible, and ears and
head erect, I fired, aiming as low on his side
as possible, yet clearing the top of 'h? hill.
Spat!-M;ame back the sound of the bullet as it
hit the creatwre's side, quicker than the echo of
the rifle from the nearest hills, and '.hen the
huge "ugh" as it tore its way through his mus-
cles and lungs. I loaded instantly, and, doing
so, caught a second's glimpse of the first bull
down on his knees and just turning over. As
if to revenge the fall of his companion, or by
some quick instinct, the second one galloped to-
ward the top of the hill — not thirty yards from
me — swept his lion-like head around to the spot
where I stood — for concealment was no longer
possible — gazed an instant with his large, dark,
ox-like eyes, flashing fire now, and then rushed
headlong down the slope, horns low, full upon
me. The quick rifle saved my life. Before he
had made a dozen leaps, or was within a dozen
yards of me, it sent a bullet straight between his

TO hED RIVER AND BEYOND.

=^'.^^v^

^-.

.^■-'^l

OOMOTIIA.

oycs into the huge mat of l)lnck nnd curling hair '
tiiat covered his skull. The bullet would have
leaped a thousand yards of empty air quicker
than a leaf fulls ; but as for killing him, it might
as well have struck a rock. It staggered him
though, and, as I say, saved my life; for I
could not have loaded again before he would
have had mc on his liorns, do the best I might.
He turned in liis course, as if a little dizzy, and
not certain of his sight; rushed by with leaps
that sliook the ground — not a yard from my
side — but soon stopped, breathing hard. The
lirst shot was beginning to take eftect. He walk-
ed slowly away as I loaded, sometimes gallop-
ing a few j'ards, and then staggering into a walk.
Olieying the law of parsimony, I would not fire
another shot, expecting every monicnt to see
him drop, but followed on slowly behind. As
I reached the top of a hill that had hid him a
moment from my sight, I saw that he was re-
newing his speed, and was already two hundred
yards away, and miglit travel a mile or two yet
away from the trail of the train, for such huge
creatures as these take a great deal of killing.
He turned to look for his pursuer, and thus gave
me a good mark. I fired. Bang! spat! — that
same peculiar sound ; and for the first time the
great frame tottered nearly to its fall. A few
steps on, and then he could walk no further —
barely stand. As I approached he wheeled in
his tracks, and turned his great shaggy head
and its glaring eyes upon mc, widening his feet
to keep his stand. Then his hinder legs gave
way, almost letting him full ; but with convul-
sive struggles, which seemed to wrinkle the
thick skin over his back and loins as easily as
if it had been silk, he rose erect again, still with
his head up, gazing. Almost suddenly then he
gathered his legs under him and lay down quiet-
ly, breathing hard ana loud, in short, heavy
[>ants. Once more he rose to his feet, stagger-
ed a few slow steps toward me, then shuddered
with his vast bulk from head to tail, dropped on

his knees, nnd failing to balance himself there,
fell heavily over upon his side, breathed a few
more great gasps, pawed the air, and then was
still. Last of all, he stretched out his throat
on the long jiraii-ie grass, dyed with his blood,
and gently gave away his final breath.

Before I reached the spot where the first bull
fell, the train had come up, and Michelle, with
a dexterity acquired by more than thirty years'
practice, had taken off the skin, and was cut-
ting out the bos or hump, which, next to the
tongue, is the choicest bit for eating. In less
than an hour both were caiTcd — rib pieces and
humps and shoulder-pieces, we supplied with
fresh meat for a week and jerked meat for a
fortnight — and the train was moving on.

That night, after supper, as we gathered
around the camp-fires, and while the red light
was fading out of the clouds high in the sky,
and the purjile passing down beyond the level
horizon, old Michelle entertained us with such
stories of his adventurous life — of his buffalo
hunts on snow-shoes — of his chases after herds
of thousands — the goring and tossing and tramp-
ling, bursting guns and broken limbs — such
stories as, if put on paper, would make all the
exploits of amateurs seem as tame and safe as
crossing the main street of a countrj' village.

The next day we crossed the great trails from
Fort Garry to Turtle Mountain, and passed a
large encampment ground near a running stream,
which had the same general appearance as the
one by the sand-hills on Mouse River. The buffa-
lo trails were very numerous, and crossed our path
in every direction, converging to and diverging
from the ravines, coulees, and marshes, where
they had sought water. The place for miles and
miles, in every direction, was one huge Golgotha.
The bleaching bones and skulls of buffaloes, slain
in former years by the hunters, whitened the
green giuss on every acre, almost on every rood
of ground ; and the fresher carcasses of those
killed during the year's hunt were scattered over

fl04

IIAUPER'S NKW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

thu jjroiind, and tiiiiifcd the air in every direc-
tion. We cDiild ainiost follow the trai'k of the
hunters in their cliase, where the fight hud hcen
thickest, and hundreds covered a siiijjle aero or
two ; and where some sturdier hull had kej)! up
a longer Higlit, and linally, in an agony of thirst,
had fallen and died in the middle of a marsh.
The grass was of a greener green, and the flow- j
ers had a livelier hue which had heen watered
with their hlood. The rank verdure made a
striking frame for the great black-haired skulls,
or the heavy arching rib-bones, now bleached to
whiteness, or perchance covered with shreds of
flesh which the crows and hiiwks and foxes and
wolves had not (juitc devoured. As the train
passed on through this sickening ])laco the crows '
and hawks rose from their carrion feast, and
iiovered in the air, shrieking and cawing, till wo
had passed ; and the gaunt gray wolves, scared
away by our a]iproach, ran off over the ])rairie
in long, lithe flexile lea))s, now and then jiaus-
ing in the tiiiikest grass, and turning to watch
tis, licking their chops until we again came near-
er, and then leaping away to liido in the long
rushes of some distant marsh. All night we
coidd hear their long, melancholy bowlings,
and, as if not satisfied with their filthy feast by
day, they lurked abont the camj), frightening
the horses into a stampede, and not nnfrequcnt-
ly chewing up their hide lariats within a dozen
feet of their heads. I

Our journey from Turtle Mountain to Devil's
Lake Avas accomplished within a few days. Buf-
falo chases were an everyday occurrence with
us, and game of every feathered kind was equally
abundant. One Saturday afternoon we brought
up in a "pocket" near the Lac de Gros Butte, \
where we were protected on two sides by water, !
and on one side by an imjjassable marsh, in '
which, at every few moments, we could hear the
whirr of ducks alighting or rising. A narrow
neck of land was the only ])oint at wliich the In- '

diuns could have got at us. The sIkmvs of the
lake, which takes its name from a high bill near
by, were strewn with the carcasses of dead l)uf-
fulo, with bilge wolf-tracks on the sand all about
them, who had either been severely wounded by
the half-breeds, and bad escaped to the water to
drink, or, having been juirsued, had attcm])ted
to swim acrcjss the lake and perished. Here we
had wood to build our fires for the first time
since leaving Turtle Mountain. Instead of t, wc
had bad to sjilit u]) the least necessary parts of
our carts for kindling wood, and cook our jian-
cakcs over red-hot Imis de vavlie.

The next day was a rainy one ; but the rain
did not i)rcvent us from taking a horseback ride
to Devil's Lake. It was through much tribula-
tion that we succeeded even in getting to so ill-
named a place as Miniwakan. Wc had to ford
half a dozen streams, swimming two or three of
them, wade through iiuirshes, and in crossing
one stream whoso banks were difficult of ascent
or descent, we went around into the lake where
it emjitied, outside of its mouth, and bad to trav-
el by compass (having laid our direction) for
nearly half a mile through water acep as the
horse's shoulders, and where the tall rank rushes
rose from six to ten feet higher still, shutting
out tlie view of every thing but the sky, which
looked in oar environment as if we were behold-
ing it from a well. Truth nor our i)rimitive in-
tuitions could have hardly served us as well as
the com]iass did ; for we .struck the narrow prom-
ontory, for which we had been steering so blind-
ly, nt its only accessible point. At every stej)
we started up crowds of blue herons, cranes,
gulls, snipe, clucks, geese, and sheitpokes.

The rain fell continuously all the afternoon,
and we could not see the opposite shores of Dev-
il's Lake, which are doubtless visible at some
points in clear weather. We could, however,
now and then get a faint glimpse of the timber
on a point of land, shaped like a spoon, it is

OEVIL'a L&KB.

TO llKl) UIVEU AND HKYONI).

cori

u (sliorrs of I lie
I IiIkIi liill lu'iir
;'S of (lend huf-

Hiind all al)(>iit
ly woiiiuU.'d In-
to the wiitor to
liiul iittenii)ted
hed. Ilorp wc

the first tiinc
iiBteadof t, we
2S8iiry parts of
cook our jmu-

; but the rnin
horsebnck ride
much tribula-
itting to so ill.
Vc lind to ford
wo or three of
id in crossing
icult of ascent
he lake where
id had to trav-
direction) for
r deep as the
ill rank rushes
still, shutting
he sky, which
3 were behold-
r ])rimitive in-
us as well as
narrow prom-
iring so blind-
At every step
irons, cranes,

said, with the bowl end pointing out into the
lake, where the half-breeds and Indians slaugh- '
ter hundreds yearly. They surround them in :
large companies, just as the elephants are trapped
in Ceylon, or as the buffaloes themselves are .
caught in timber-trajis in some parts of the Sas-
katchewan district ; and by careful and not too
rapid chasing large herds are at last forced to
enter over this neck of land, where the water
shuts them in on every side, and mounted horse-
men are behind them who may then shoot them
down at their leisure.

The Devil's Lake region is a favorite camp-

ing-ground of the Sioux, and therefore is moFt
shunned by the half-breeds, except when tiuy
go in large and powerful companies. The great
brigades of course hunt them with impunity;
and we came upon their tracks, their camping-
grounds, miles of burned prairie or of Golgothas,
their trails, and the lieaps of bones, broken, and
the marrow dug out, which told where they had
been making pemmican, every day almost from
Turtle Mountain to Devil's Lake and Pembina.
Beyond this point, therefore, across, southwest,
to the mouth of the Sheyenne on Red River, or
further into the Sioux country, Michelle, thought-

— »^%

G06

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

ful of tho husband of his wife, and tho tittlicr of
hiH babies waiting for him at St. Jo, rcfu«cd to go.

Ho tlio f'plorcr wuh ti:>iiblo to learn if tho
hypotlicnuHO of tho triangle from Upper Red
Uivcr to tho south bend of tho Saskatchewan
was as niu(;h iiettor and briefer for travelers as
it is for mathematicians.

From tho Lac do Gros Butte, therefore, we,
all together, took tho straight Devil's Lake and
.St. .Fo trail. My journal of the date says :
"Wo have ended now our travel without trails,
ard soon trails will l>o roads, and roads railroads,
to carry us Eastward llo !"

The last day of August, late in tho afternoon,
wo came to tho brow of Pembina Mount or ]>la-
tcjiu, from which wo could overlook St. Jo,
livo miles away. Wo were still 500 miles from
the outposts of American civilization ; but wo
greeted the log-houses of tho half-breeds with as
much enthusiasm as we could jmssibly have done
the dorno of liio Now York City Hall with tho
Hgaro of Justice surmounting it. Tho trail was
worn deep ; tho trees on the plateau, and down
its side, were large and thickly leafed, and no-
thing could have added to the beauty of sunset,
which cast such long shadows down the side of
tho hill and over tho prairie, except, perhaps, tho
sight of a tmin of half-breeds returning from the
summer hunts, with loaded carts creaking heav-
ily along tho winding road, down the mountain
side, tho men in their bright colors, and their
horses gayly caparisoned — homo in sight, tho
last camping-ground passed.'

Some such sight as tiiis we saw a little after
sunrise tho next day. While at breakfast wc
iicard, near by in a ravino of the thick woods

which surrounded us on every side, Sioux war-
songs. Michelle and Joe, fearful that a wur-
party of tho rascals was on our track, hurried to
the horses, unpickctcd and harnossed them, load-
ed tho carts, and all of us were in the saddle
and ])ushing on briskly to St. Jo in less than
five minutes. It was a false alarm, however.
We heard nothing farther from them as wi'
galloped on through the mi\jcstic woods which
covered the slo|)0 of the mount and skirted the
I'embina Uivcr on cither side. Wo slackened
our pace after putting tho river between us, and
entering St. Jo, drove to Kittson's Post. Wi-
hod hardly (^t, inside of tho stockades, shaken
hands with every man in the town, onswered in-
terrogatories propounded in French, ChipiHJwa.
Cree, and Nistoneaux, before we heard a volley
of musketry in tho woods, rapidly succeeded by
another and another, and mingled with shouts
and halloos that could come from none but semi-
civilized throats.

Tho party soon emerged from the woods ; the
very carts dragged along at a lively trot, swift
riders galloping ahead, some of them with huge
white buti'alo skins trailing from their shoulders,
like tho vestments of a priest at high mass, and
painted with savage devices and in gaudy col-
ors ; others in the blanket and Icggins of Sioux
braves, tricked out with painted quills or brill-
iant wampum ; others still in the half-breed
dress, woolens, with handsome bead decoration?,
skin caps — a motley crowd, headed by Battisto
Wilkie, tho President of tho Councilors *■ St.
Jo. It was a dcjaitation of half-breed '•n-

ing from a grand treaty-making with t \

at Devil's Lake.

(title, Wioux war-
rful timt a wiir-
»rufk, hurried fo
p«s«l them, load-
TO in the »n<ldlf
Jo ill Ic»g than
nlnnii, however,
m them as we
ic woods which
«nd skirted th<>
Wo slackened
etween us, and
n's l»o8t. We
ckndcs, shaken
n, answered in-
icli, Chipjiewn.
heard a volley
r succeeded by
<i with shouts
lono but semi-

le woods; the
fly trot, swift
=m with hujic
eir shoulders,
gh mass, and
n gaudy col-
;ins of Sioiix
Hills or brill-
e half-breed
decoration?,
by Battistf
cilors •• St.
oed m-

h( ^

306

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

TO RED EIVER AND BEYOND.

[CilfrTi 33apet.]

ONE Tuesday morn-
ing we began our
journey from Pembina
(o the Selkirk settle-
ment.

Joe Rolette, our host,
with his two little boys
whom he was taking to
the Catholic school at the
settlement after tlie sum-
mer vacation ; Mr. Bot-
tineau, a French half-
breed, whose excellent
farm between St. Joseph
and Pembina I have men-
tioned in another place ;
Joseph, and myself were
of the party. Joe Ro-
lette rode in a miniature
Red River cart with his
youngest boy — a minia-
ture of himself — behind
a diminutive mule re-
joicing in the title of
Thomas Jefferson, and
with a genuine patriot-
ism resjionding by an
accelera'ed gait to the
exclanation of his ab-
bre . iaied Christian name
— "Tom!" Tom was a
mule in miniature, sav-
ing only his ears, and
held together in his lit-
tle and tight fitting skin
all the \irtues and none
of the vices of the race
of which he was the min-
imum. The cart which
he drew was loaded with

all the blankets of the party, the cooking uten-
sils, pemmican, bread, and other provisions, mil
the i)assengers mentioned ; but he drew it along
at a lively trot from sunrise to sunset, forty-four
miles a day, with the vigor and continuity of
the balance-wheel of a chronometer, and tired
out even the first-rate horses which the rest of
us rode.

A few words will describe the appearance of
the coutiMy between Pembina and Fort Garry.
In all 'external aspects, to one who travels by
the river road, it is the same from Fort Aber-
crombie to within a few miles of Lake Winni-
peg. Tin direction of the road is verj- nearly
north. It is the continuous chord to which the
river, in its winding course, supplies a hundred
greater or lesser arcs. Tlie banks of the river
are thickly wooded with elm, oak, and poplar,
and this wall of trees is at the traveler's right
throughout the journey, always bounding the
eastern 1 orizon. This general prospect is varied

JEAN BATTI8TE WlLKtE.
President of tlio Councilom of St. Joaoph, in Sloui warrior's dreu.— "Soe ilagiuint, October, I8t0.

' by linos of timber stretching away to the west,
I .■'nd marking the course of the tributaries of Rec
i River.

1 About the middle of the forenoon, near one
I of these tributary streams, we came in view of a
I shanty, inhabited by an old Scotchman and his
wife — she the first white woman in the Selkirk
settlement. We were treated to howls of fresh
milk, with the cream standing thick upon it.
and making a man blush to remember thut he
came from a city where stump-tailed abomina-
tions and watery-blue dilutions had long since
led him to forget the appearance of the geuuint;
lacteal fluid.

The shanty was not neat nur well furnished.
The bed, which stood in one comer, was small
and naiTow, the walls had never l)een white-
washed, nor the mud floor boarded over, though
the cooking-stove and table, which also occupied
this their only apartment, left little of the floor
to be seen \n ♦rodden upon.

'1^'

TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND.

307

I October, 16«0.

the west,
laries of Rec

In, near ont'
jn view of a
lan and his
[the Selkirk
Ivls of fresh
[k upon it,
Iher that he
Id aboniina-
long since
|Iio genuine

furnished.

was small
een white-
\er, though
\o occupied
If the floor

An hour after sunset wc came to the spot
where we Avere to jiass the night. It was one
always used by the i)lain hunters, and marked
by heaps of ashes, charred stumps, and well-
worn paths leading down to the water's edge.
An old man and his wife had come to the camp-
ground before us, and were camping half-way
down the bank, to be sheltered from the cold
wind which was blowing over the prairie. As
we led our horses down to the water, we could
see their faces by the camp-fire, both wrinkled
and seamed with old age, and his white hairs
and stooping figure indicating that he had passed
the threescore and ten, beyond which all is la-
bor and trouble. He was sitting on the groimd
in 'ae ic^ of a large log, smoking a short pipe,
while the woman was blowing the embers of
their firj to get a coal to put in her own. They
had evidently had ''heir scanty supper of tea and
pemmican, and had spread their single pair of
blankets in preparation for the night. Our host
knew them, and when we had made our own
huge fire on the prairie — of logs too large for
tliem to lift — and were eating supper by its cheer-
ful blaze, he told us their stoiy.

It was the pitiful story of another Lear. The
old man had lieen strong and vigorous, and well
to do in his prime, famous as a break'»r of hoi-sos,
and had gathered together a little property,
enough, if well husbanded, to keep him and his
wife from poverty. All this, when he began to
feel the infirmities of age, he had given to an
adopted son, asking in return only the food arid
shelter necessary for his few remaining years.
For a short time he was well cared for; but
wiien this faithless wretch had :t all securely in
his hands, and he became accusf^omed to its pos-
session, he set the old pair adrift, and now is
laying up ill-gotten wealth, and cou;its his cattle
on Sun lays, and thanks God he is not poor as
other men are, and goes to sleep comfortably
housed, while tlic cold wind and rain drench the
white hairs of the old man and woman who had
' \lled him son.

We were up and off long before sunrise (hut
the old man and his wife had started before us),
and rode fifteen miles briskly before breakfast,
meeting several Red River trains, which had
made an early start on .'aeir way to St. Paul r.r
the plains. We stopped for breakfast at the
house of Mr. John Dace, which marks the be-
ginning of the more thickly inhabited part of the
Red River settlement — from this point stretch-
ing down to the vicinity of Lake Winnipeg,
clustering most thickly in the vicinUy of Fort
Garry, sixteen miles below.

At Mr. Dace's house every thing was in strong
contrast wiih the house at which we had lunched
on the previous morning. Neatness and thrift
were obvious at a glance. The men were out in
the fields gathering in the harvest, and the warm
sunshine of an autumn morning was lying on the
clean plank fioor, as '*; loves to lie where there is
stillness, and it can make cool shadows. The
morning's work had long been completed, the
floor scrubbed, every thing set to rights, and the

baby sent to sleep in a swinging hammock, made
of long cord and a shawl, by the time we came.
In the adjoining apaitment we could hear the
low talk of Atfomen. The wife of Mr. Dace, a
half-breed woman inclined to coi-pulency, soon
came in, and learned our wishes; and while
breakfast was preparing for us in the next room
we had time to look round us. The room was
a spacious ouo for a block-house, and one of the
heavy beams whicii ran under the ceiling wa.'
supported by a stout post, against which the
baby's hammock swung, giving him a slight
jerk, which, to a metropolitan baby, for in-
stance, would have Leen any thing but sleep-
provoking. A double bed, on which I could
see plenty of good blankets, but no white sheets,
stood in one corner, and two or three old oak
trunks served for seats on one side of the room.
The chairs were of the simo substantial home-
made manufacture, and one or two had bottoms
of hide, like those of suuvv-shoes. The table
was an old-fashioned one, the leaves supported
by swinging legs. The walls were neatly white-
washed, and where the jilastering had been
rubbed the invariable neatness of the apart-
ment was preserved, though at the expense of
mortar. The windows were small, and the door
lo'-- — the doors be'.ng accommodated to the size
of ine windows, perhaps, and the sashes to the
size and costliness of the little six by eight panes
which, when the house was built, were worth
Is. Gd. sterling. Through the ojicn door we
could catch a glimpse of the waters of the river,
red where the sim shone upon them through the
trees, from behind us. Pigeons and v,\\d geese,
with potatoes and turnips unsurpassable any
where ; bread and butter, cheese and tea, white
sugar and cream were set before us. Mr. Dace
was too far back in the fields on the prairie to
be called ; bur. as we drove on we noted the
luxuriant growth of the vegetables in his gar-
den, and the thickness of the sheaves in his
wlicat field.

Delayed by .Toe's horse-racing and a drunk
en ferryman, above t! j settlement, we did not
come in sigiit of the spires of the Cnth'cdmle de
Saint Boniface till near sunset. At last they
appeared — two bright lines rising above the last
grove of ]Kplar trees through which we had tf)
pass, standing out clear and glistening against
the d^op blue of the sky, and surmounted by the
cross. A little farther on we left the woods he-
hit ■ us, and came in full view of the heart of
tl: Red River settlement — the verj' spot where,
half a centurr ".go, the Earl of Selkirk planted
his colony. Close at our left Avas another field
of wheat, half of it harvested, and each ])ile of
yellow sheaves sending its long eastward shadow
over the closely shaven plain. Near at hand
two half-breeds were loading a cart, and where
the standing wheat began, a group of reapers
were busy at work with sickle and scythe, wo-
men following behind, raking and binding, uvA
adding to the golden tents upon the field at one
end as fast as they were taken away at the other.
The red sasihes which most of the men wore sup-

308

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

OATUEb'iAL OK HI". UClNlFArS.

[)lieJ the only lafkin;:; color in the landscape.
Beyond thoni, to the west, flowed the winding
Idue line of the river, to])i)ed by the dark brown
of its farther bank, left in shade by the setting
sun. A mile beyond, on its western bank, just
where the shaded blue waters of the Red River
were augmented by the gleaming silver of the
Assiuiboine, on which as it Howed from the west
the sun still shone brightly, stood tiio massive
quadrangle of Fort Garry, with its four cone-
topjjed bastions ; and directly ahead of us, on
one side of the river and close to its banks, a few
rods further on, whither all the waters of the
two rivers seemed vo sway and flow, arose the
high walls of the Cathedral of Saint Boniface,
surmounted by the two glistening spires which
had greeted ns at a distance.

Fort Garry is ti very fine strncturc. The ex-
terior wall is of limes'une, quarried on the river
bank near by. At the four corners are four im-
jjosing bastions. Of the thickly-crowded houses
within, one or two may be of the same material,
limestone, but most are of wood, including the
Coni]iany's officers' quarters, and those of the
iitRcers of the Royal Canadian Ri'ics, .v cc:n)>nny
of which is stationed here, wh'.se rations are :u\>-
plied by tiie Hudson's Bay Company. As you
enter the spacious ijuad' angle ly the nrchtd
gate-way, which opens to the sou h close to the
bank of the Assinil)oinc, the ir.iprcssion is the
usual one at sight of soltliers' barracks ; but pass-
ing to the building at the northern end of the
square, and by the soldiers and servants who arc
straggling about, this imjircssion vanislies ns you
come in view of the spacious edifice in which
Ciiief Factor M'Tavish, who is also Governor
M''I avish, of the colony of Assiniboia, resides.

We were treated witli };reat courtesy by the
' lovernor during our stay in the settlement, and
the innumerable (piestions which the current of
conversation nnd recent events led us to ask,
were responded to with an unfniling freedom and

sincerity. In some of the Canadian commis-
sioners' reports the reticence nnd the misrepre-
sentations of the Company's officers are dwelt
ui)on, but in this quarter, at least — and it is the
highest in the settlement — we found neither.
Governor M'Tavish is a gentleman of Scotch
birth or descent, as his name nnd apjicarance in-
dicate. His figure is tall, and his head finely
sha])ed, with a broad, high brow, which, without
))articularly jutting eycbrow.s, gives you the im-
pression of mental calibre. The wrinkles upon
his forehead and fjice are such as care, not age,
accf)unts for, and are set-ofi" by the Palmerston
style of whisker and a heavy mustache, together
with long sandy hair, in which the streaks of
gray are only beginning to njipcar. His man-
ners had the quiet, well-bred tone cftcncr found
among Englishmen than others, and his voice is
low from the same cause or from some bronchial
affection. Energy, determination, nnd execu-
tive ability were the obvious characteristics of
the num. What wc had lieforc learned of his
culture nnd tastes was confirmed by the books
which wc saw lying on the table and book-cases.

At many of the posts of the Company the
year's business is done up in a few weeks, nnd
till the same sea,son rolls around again there is
an absence of nil employment, and a closing out
of all nc'vs, such ns affords the conimon food of
thought to most persoriS linked by daily or week-
ly news]iapers to the rest of the worlil. Some
of the Com])any's of.iccrs are wise enough to im-
prove these long intervals of leisure, taking c.nic
to supply themselves with books, which do not
fpcrish with the single using. The Governor was
long stationed at York Factory, where nil the
business of the year is crowded into the brief two
months in which the shijjs of sujiply from En-
gland, and the boats from the interior posts with
furs, arrived nnd departed, and there or elsewhere
made himself a learned man.

In regard to the settlement of the northwestern

TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND.

800

»»i

FOBT OAIIBY.

areas, it "lay bo well here to observe that, inas-
much as timbor occurs mainly on the hanks of
rivers, their population will he greatly retarded
or increased by the knowledge of the existence
of other kinds of fuel at accessible points. We
had bp-T 'cpeatedly informed by half-breeds of
the existence of coal or lignite in strata in the
banks of Mouse River and the Saskatchewan.
Governor M'Tavish showed us pieces of lignite
from that river — the first that we had seen — and
confirmed the fact of its existence on the upper
waters of Mouse River. He added, that it was
used habitually during the winter at Fort Pitt ;
and a retired chief factor, whom we afterward
visited, told us that at his former station, at the
Carlton House, it had supplied their blacksmith's
forge. The important bearing of this fact upon
the futiu'e population of tlie northwestern coun-
try is apparent. There is considcmble pine tim-
ber upon the great streams of this northern riv-
er system ; and if trees were planted with i)ains
by all new settlers, a sufficient supply for or-
dinary purposes might be kept up. But it is to
be taken into the account, that in these high
latitudes the winter season is of longer duration
than in the equally fertile and likewise tiraber-

itvnirie districts of our own Northwestern
\s the II' 111 shall arise these i iiu of
c():ii will, ihercfiirc, bo worked, and wW' >n; ply
the fuel of iiiillMUS for a thousand yeas; . Such
difficulties as arc now had in burning it will not
be experienced wh a coal stoves Mipply thepjace
of the oi)en hearth.

I sujipose that Norman W. Kittson i he man
who has done as much as ny one to break up
their happy solitude. As lung ago as 184-i he
was guilty of forging the rst link which con-
nected the Mi«sissip))i and the Red River of the
North. As always, trade wn^ tlio occasion of
the enterprise. Ilis store, wliioli 's formerly
at Pembina, on our side of t!ic i .ational line,
tapped the rich fur trade, in i, norch of the

line, the Hudson's Bay Company had a monoj).
oly, and perhaps he now and then purchased
from hunters i irth of the line skins to balance
those which the Company's men gathered south
of it. Now the license of exclusive trade has
ex|)ired, and Mr. Kittson is allowed an open ri-
valry in the settlement itself. His store stands
en tlie east bank of the Red Ri\ er, ojiposite the
mouth of the Assiniboino. He and other enter-
prising traders, during the year 1857, sent through

»10

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

St. Paul liouses, for exjiortation below, more thnn
•■? 120,000 worth of furs. Moreover, traders and
private parties arc sending money as well as furs
to St. Paul, for sujiplies. Formerly they had to
rely on tho favor of the Hudson's Bay Company,
and undergo the delay, and share the expense of
the long trij) of the ships from York Factory to
England and back. Now the round trip can be
made, by way of St. Paul and New York, in
thirty to forty days, and in the year mentioned
as much money's woi-th of money as of furs was
left by these people in St. Paul— 8120,000.

A day or two after our visit to Fort Garry, Jo-
seph and I hired two saddle-horses, for a trip to
the lower stone fort, properly called Lower Fort
Garry. Wo had crossed the river at this point
before in a canoe, but the difficulty experienced
in getting our horses over the two rivers — Red
River and the Assinibuine — gave us a realizing
sense of the nature of the ferry and ferryman,
and new facts for generalization as to the char-
acter of the Red River half-breeds. I believe
the person who leases the ferry-boat pays £20 a
year for the privilege, and charges three-pence
for a passage; but the ferry-boy, according to
our observation, spends a portion of his time
dodging the demands on his paddles and his pa-
tience. The bank of the river is of stratified
clay, which in rainy weather is exceedingly slip-
pery, and accumulates in tremendous quantities
about the feet ; and there is nothing to prevent
horse, cart, or man from slipping from the top
of the bank into the river, except a log or two
where the boat lands. It has never entered into
the mind of the owner of the ferry, I presume,
to save liimself the delay of carts in getting down
the bank carefully, by building a ])lank walk
with elects from its top down to low- water murk.
The ferry-boat is a flat boat twice as long as
broad, and tackled to a cable which is stretched
from shore to shore, The rope which connects
the forward end of tlic boat with the cable being
shortened, the side of the boat is swung arountl
so that the current helps to shove it over. The
same steep and muddy bank is at the west side
of the river ; also on tlie south side of the Assin-
iboiac — the same lazy ferry over it, and the same
unplanked bank on its nortli side. Moi-cover,
there is no boat rnnning straight across the Rod
River below the Assiniboinc. To cross trom Uic
east side of the Red River to the side below tlio
Assiniboinc. where Fort Garry stands, one must
needs cross both rivers in this tedious way, sul)-
ject *<j the mercy of the mud if it rains, of the
ferryman if lie is lazy, and of the two rivers in
any case. We were an hour and a half in get-
ting to the fort with our horses, in spite of work-
ing our passage by hauling at the ropes. If
things work as they will work, my opinion is
that that ferryman will go to his grave haunted
by visions of a jilankcd bank down to the Styx,
and Charon as a driving Yankee running a two-
horse ferry-boat across the damned river ; and it
is not impossible that, on stormy nights, the good
Doctor, who resides at tlie fort near at hand, may
be waked from his virtuous slumbers bv the shout

of some future bold captain culling en his men,
through the wind and rjiin, to take a reef in the
stove-pipe, or to whip up the nigh horse.

But we wen) over at last, and spurring our
horses, galloped on down the river. A few
sketches nrnde on our return journey will give
the reader an idea of the apjiearunce of the views
at two or three of the principal points between
the two forts. But it must be left to liis imag-
ination to picture the immense fields of wheat
which we found, some on the right of us going
to the houses, which continuously skirt the river,
and others to the left of us oxtrn ,cd over the
prairie almost as far as the eye could reach. As
along the bank on the other side of the river,
above Fort Garry, so on this side of the bank
below it, the straight road led us through ])oplar
forests and shrubbery, through which, at every
bend of the river, we could catch glimpses of the
fields of wheat, or barley, or potatoes, or oats —
the neat white homes of the settlers rising at fre-
quent intervals, surrounded by their well-ihatch-
ed outbuildings, and hay or wheat stacks — these
daily growing more numerous, for our journey
was made in the very middle of harvest time,
and part of it in the light of the harvest moon.

Often the dwelling of some retired Hudson's
Buy Company ofiicer might be seen on a com-
manding point, distinguished by its superior size
and height from the buildings around it. Here
numbers of the old factors or traders of the Com-
pany are contented to return and sjicnd the rest
of their days, among the scenes and under a ju-
risdiction familiar and agreeable to them, relying
for news of the entire world upon their monthly
files of the English newspapers • for bupplies of
the necessaries of life upon the half-breed farm-
ers and hunters around them, and of its luxuries
upon their annual importations from England,
; or, in latter years, the States.
I Spires of churches, and the long arms of wind-
millij, broke the level lines of the pictures that
greeted our eyes as the road led us on from open
jilace to ojien ])lace, through the poplars that
surrounded it for a jjortion of the way. Wind-
mills grind the wheat for all the settlers. There
is one steam-mill, with two run of stones and a
set of saws. It was not grinding or sawing when
we ]i;issed; but in its shadow two men were la-
boriuiisly dragging at cither end of a heavy rip
j saw, iliuugh the circular was in perfect order.
' Whoso fault this is I can not guess, but it is
; clear that in an Aiiierican settlement the settlers
I would not suffer it to be any one's fault.

In like manner the road, which had been be-
gun to be mended in several places, was left half
finished, its last state worse than its first. In
dry weather, however, it is as level as a floor.
There is a bridle-path close on the banks of the
river, but no road.

Our own horses w had left at Pembina, to get
fat for the home joui uoy, and the horses which wc
hired for this trip i i;;ht have been buffalo run-
ners in their day, 1. : their dnys must have been
in Lord Selkirk '> time. It was dark before we
had got Imlf-Wiiy to the lower fort, Wc drew

TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND,

BESIUENCE OF J. U, UABKlO'rT, ESQ.

bridle, therefore, at the residence of Mr. J. H.
Harriott, a retired chief factor of the Hudson's
Bay Company, to wliom we had letters, and
whose residence was a mile nearer than the low-
er fort, where we had at first intended to pass
the night.

A true gentleman of the old school — that we
were within the walls of his house was sufficient
reason why he should treat us like princes.
Though, to tell the truth, we did not even have
the honor of resembling princes hicoipiito. One
summer's journey on the jirairies had reduced us
almost to extremities in tlie matter of clothing.
We wore borrowed " bilcd shirts," mine covered
with a borrowed coat once and a half too large,
and Joseph's covered with a coat, his own, so
ragged that that had to be conce.iled by an over-
coat just a little better. As for our trowscrs,
" the least said the soonest mended ;" and they
would have stood but little mending more. With
hair uncut and beards untrimmed, sun-burned,
and looking more like foot-pads than gentlemen,
we had ventured upon this journey with a degree
of confidence in the natural agreeableness of our
countenances and amenity of our manners — that
they would interpret us aright — such as, under
better clothes, wo should never have dared to
indulge. As we rode along in the twilight, we
had amused ourselves by assuming to bo what
we must have seemed — Dick Tur))ins, Jack
She|)herds, patent-safe men — but before riding
into Mr. Harriott's gate recovered our dignity
as possible princes.

None of our suspicions seemed to have entered
the minds of our host and hostess. While we
remained under their roof — a period protracted
at their own request — we were the recipients of
a bountiful hospitality.

From numerous long and interesting conver-
sations with our host, we obtained many i)artic-

ulars regarding the management and practical
working of the Company's operations, and es-
pecially regarding the geography of the Sas-
katchewan district and the district lying be-
tween its waters and those of the Missouri and
of the Rocky Mountains, from the Kootonais
pass northward. In the various capacities of
clerk, chief trader, and cliief factor, Mr. Harriott
had traveled over or resided in many jjlaces in
tliis vast territory. Now esta))lishing a trading-
post at ihe foot of the Rocky Jlountains ; now in
charge of tlie Carlton House or of Fort Pitt, on
the head-waters of the Saskatchewan ; and, again,
leading parties, with a rich freight of furs,
through a dangerous Indian country ; and there,
or elsewhere, having such liair-!)rendth escapes,
and such exciting adventures, undergoing such
risks, and hardsliips, and exposure, as would
make one thrill to hear, though never to be
heard from his lijjs except by solicitation, which
added the charm of unconscious modesty to
what was alreadv sufficientlv brave and admira-
ble.

A view of Mr. Harriott's residence is given
above, and may be taken as a type of the better
class of dwellings in the Selkirk settlement. It
is built of limestone, quarried from the native
rock, and within and without was planned by
its owner. One fact reveals some of the causes
of the stagnation of things at Red River. Mr.
H., when building his house, left in the spacious
dining-room an arcliing alcove for a side-board,
at the same time giving a cabinet-maker at the
settlement an order to fill it. Several years
have elapsed, but what with the cabinet-maker
hunting, and farming, and doing nothing, Mr.
H. has not yet seen even the wootl of which
his side-board is to be made.

A few well-selected b(K)ks, house-plants in the
windows, choice engraviiij^'s on the wall, ridin<;

312

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

LOWER FOKT (lAIUtV.

■i

whips and pfims in the hall, tobacco jar anrl pipes
on the side-table, a melodeon and accordeon
and music-box in the room which New England-
■•rs call a jiarlor, tell the story of how the pleas-
ant summer days and long winter nights are
whiled away, and how a life of exposure and ad-
venture and toil is rounded with rest and calm
and domestic peace.

One jileasant afternoon our host ordered liis
carriage to the door and drove us to the " Stone
Fort." The horses were a gay pair, and whirled
their load down the graveled walk and over the
bridge and along the road at a pace that needed
a strong hand on the reins. The carryall was
i)f a soberer sort, im])orted from Enjdand by way
of Hudson's Bay and York Factory, and of a j)at-
tern not nc v in fashion here or there — low,
heavy wheels, thick, sulistantial whiffle-trees,
high dash-board, and a body like that of the car-
riages of well-to-do English squires half a cen-
tury ago. We were soon at the fort. The
view here given was taken from the south — the
direction in which we came. The fort is built
of solid limestone, as are many of the buildings
inclosed, and is, perhaps, the most imposing of
the CoffiJ.my's structures. It was erected at the
advice of Sir George Simpson, but has never
been of the use which was anticipated for it. Its
capacious buildings serve mainly for the storage
of furs and provisions, and the large crops which
are gathered from the farm. A distillery near
by, where the Company once undertook to manu-
facture their licjuor, is no longer used for that
purpose. When Assiniboia is ma<1>" •• colony,
the fort may be bought for government offices.

One Sunday morning I had the i)leasure of
accompanying my host and his wife to the church
of St. Andrews, of which Archdeacon Hunter is
in charge. The church was well filled: the
congregation a well-dressed one — not ditfering

greatly, I think, from one which might be seen
in any country village in England, since it
consisted, in the bulk, neither of French half-
breeds, who are almost always Catholics, nor
of Scotch, who worship at the kirk, but mainly
of the English and their descendants : together
with a few half-breeds here and there, Com-
pany's servants and officers, a retired chief trad-
er and factor or two, and on the walls the tablet
of one who had lately died.

The sketch below of the church edifice, in
which Archdeacon Hunter officiates, may give .".
faint idea of its appearance and situation. If
is, perhaps, the neatest building in Red River.
Constructed of limestone, from the quarries
near at hand, the stone has been dressed and
piled with more regard to arcliitectural rules
j than any other. A wall of the same kind of
I stone surrounds the chiu'ch and the prave-j-ard
in its rear. Its position upon the banks of the
rivir is a very fine one. Standing npon its
pori.h one may look up or down the river and
see the neat homes and farms of the settlers,
while its tasty outlines form a jirominent object
in the landscape to those gazing upon it from
either direction.

Dining with Thomas Sinclair, a gentleman
long resident at Red River, I learned that the
Anson Northtip was not the first boat, though
doubtless the first steamboat on the Red River
of the North. In the back-ground of the sketch
of Bishop Anderson's church, there is tc be seen
the roof of a steam mill — the only one on Red
River, The machinery of this mill, which
giinds wheat and saws logs indiscriminately.
Mr. Sinclair was commissioned to transport
from St. Paul to Fort Garry. The perils of the
land transit may be faintly appreciated by one
who has read of what we suffered in our less dif-
\ ficult undertaking. Probably it would have

TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND.

been still more diifi-
cult to carry such
heavy loads by the
plains. This he did
not attempt to do, but
camped at Graham's
I'oint, two miles above
Fort Abercrombie,
and there made a
rude boat or batteau.
Noah's ark could not
have served its ma-
ker's purpose better.
Mr. Sinclair's boat
was ■'».'> feet long, and
13 feet wide. Unlike
Noah, Mr. Sinclair
had no oakum, pitch,
or tar wherewith to
calk the seams. This
seemed to balk his
hopes, but the diffi-
culty was overcome
by usirtg basswood and
grooving the planks.
They were so green
and damp that water
ran ahead of the
planer. But not a
drop ran into the boat
when they were put to-
gctlier, and the cargo
— all the machinery
of an engine twenty-
horse power, was land-
ed at the settlement
in safety. Unless the
name of the Indian
who fii-st dipped a

paddle there can be ascertained let this pass as
the first navigation of Red River.

James Sinclair, the brother of the gentleman
just mentioned, has been likely to lose something

TUE KIBU.

ST. ANDKBW'S CIirRCU.

of his proper fame. It is claimed, apparently
on good authority, that he first discovered the
pass through the Rocky Moiintains, now named
after Captain Talissier, and went through it

three several times ;
first, in 1 84 1 with two
familiesof emigrants:
.^_ second, in 1848 with

-.:^S seven men going to

California ; and in
]8,"i4 with his own
family, and a num-
ber of cattle, his in-
tention being to start
a stock farm in Ore-
gon. In one of his
journeys, perhaps the
last, tlio ])arty which
he led were compelled
to leave their carts by
the roadside on this
side of the mountains,
and pack their stuff
through. These carts
were seen by some
of Captain Palissier's
men, and indeed used

314

IIATlPEll'S NEW MONTHLY RLVGAZINE.

to boil their tea with, and must have siynificcl
to one who saw them that the pass had been dis-
covered and used.

Returning toward Fort Gariy wo passed the
kirk, whicli is the place of worship of the old
Scotch settlers. It was our good fortune to spend
the night at the house of one of tiie most intelli-
gent of these, Mr. Donald Murray, of Frog Plain,
lie had been personally familiar with the progress
of the settlement from Lord Selkirk's time till
now, and entertained us till long past midnight
with his reminiscences. The Scotch settlers,
who occupy with the English the portion of tlie
settlement around Fort Garry, are mostly farm-
ers. They may send lmntei"s to the plains or
pay for their outfit, but themselves rarely go, ex-
cept for pleasure. Tiiey are by far the most so-
ber and industrious class of the community, and
luive been the salt which has saved it till now.
Tliey abide in the old ways. The majority of
the English residents at the settlement, together
with many of the more intelligent half-breeds,
worship in the church of which a sketch has been
given above (Archdeacon Hunter's), or in that
under the care of Bishop Anderson, given below.
The bishop was absent from the settlement dur-
ing our visit, and we did not have the pleasure
of seeing or hearing him. Tiie half-breeds and
natives are for the most part Catholics, and their
religious services are held in the large cathedral
of St. Boniface, opposite Fort Garry. The Right
Reverend the Bishopof St. Boniface, in the colony
of Assiniboia, gave us extremely interesting ac-
counts of the religious and educational establish-
ments in his diocese. Bishop Tache has him-
self been in the country for fifteen years, and no
unprejudiced observer can fail to see tlie fruits of
his industry and pious zeal. His diocese is im-
mense, and the care of tlie missions in the in-
terior country where it extends, which are alto-
gether heathen missions, is no small part of his
self-denying and laborious work. Besides this,
tliere is under his charge, and constituting the
more engrossing division of his labor, the min-
istration and aid afforded to tlie Catholic popu-
lation of Red River and neigliborhood. A Cana-
dian like themselves, their brother, tiierefore, and
their friend, no outward circumstances restrict
the influence which his character and high office
enable him to exercise.

There are four parishes in Red River — St.
Boniface, St. Norbert, St. Francis Xavier, St.
Charles. St. Boniface includes within its limits
the central and most populous part of tlie settle-
ment. Mgr. J. N. Provencher was its first bishop,
having landed at Fort Douglas about the middle
of July, 1818. In two years was laid the foun-
dation of the first religious edifice — a wpoden
chapel. The Church of St. Boniface, Bishop
Tache's cathedral, now replaces it.

It is, perhaps, the finest, certainly the most
imposing building in the settlement. It is 100
feet in length, 45 in breadth, and 40 in height,
not reckoning the spire. In its two tinned and
airy towers is a fine and well-matched peal of
three bells, weighing upward of ICOO pounds.

In tl)e rear of the cathedral, witii a lower roof, is
the dwelling of the bishop. He escorted us, by
a rear entrance, through his house into the cathe-
dral, on the occasion of our first visit to him, and
a more striking surprise could not have been pre-
pared for us. We came out by n door at the
side of the altar, and there suddenly beheld pil-
lared aisles, frescoed roof, and all the gorgeous
paraphernalia with which the Mother Church
solicits and attracts her communicants. To a
nice taste the effect might have seemed a little
gaudy, but when we learned that the Sisters of
Charity and some of the Brothers had accom-
j)lishcd these decorations without aid or pattern,
the offense passed ; for piety takes rank above
taste, or else what excuse have we for the bare
walls, the stingy paint, to say nothing of the beg-
garly pinched ceremonial in some abodes of our
enlightened Protestant worshi]) ? Indeed, of a Sun-
day or a fete day, when the church is thronged ;
when, after a successful hunt and safe return, the
half-breeds gather to the cathedral in all their
fanciful variety of dress, their brilliaJit sashes,
and blue or white capotes ; the dress of the wo-
men, too, not less brilliantly catching the eye,
there is a sense of harmony gratified by this like-
ness and general prevalence of striking colors,
which would never be elicited by the same throngs
in a country meeting-house in New England. A
tablet in the wall commemorates the piety and
labors of the earliest bishop.

Bishop Tache's house is large, and he shared
it, as well as his private residence, with his clergy,
the Brothers of his schools, and some orphans.
Formerly the boys' school of the Brothers of the
Christian doctrine was kej)! in the bishop's house,
but for a year or two now they have had posses-
sion of the building erected for them a few hun-
dred feet north of the cathedral — seen in t'-*
sketch above. It was here that little Joe Role .<i
was schooled, and as the tuition is very low, and
in some cases a gift, the school is well filled.
The scholars are examined semi-annually, and
we heard the most creditable reports of their pro-
ficiency in reading, writing, arithmetic, geogra-
phy, grammar, history, sacred and secular, alge-
bra, etc. The sleeping rooms of the little fel-
lows were bedsteadless, but bedsteads were a lux-
ury their parents were used to go without, and
they enjoy their neat piles of blankets on the floor
quite as well.

The convent belonging to the Sisters of Char-
ity, known in Canada as the Gray Nuns, is in the
foreground of the sketch of the Cathedral of S*.
Boniface. It is to the south of the cathedral,
separated from it by a well-cultivated garden,
through which, when we passed, some of the Sis-
ters were at work, assisting and directing the la-
bors of half a score of boys.

We were indebted to Bishop Tache for an in-
troduction to the lady superior of the convent,
and to her kindness for the opportunity of exam-
ining all parts of it. From garret to cellar it
was full of interest. The building itself is a
very spacious one, though still too small for all
its uses. A large chapel was being erected dur-

TO KEI) KivER AND BEYOND.

ing the siiimuer of our visit, uiul u.s the settle-
ment grows other additions will be neecHsiiry.
The amount of work done and of good uccom-
jdished by Sister Valade and the Gray Nuns un-
der her direction is something remarkable. The
current exjxinses of the convent are defruyed en-
tirely by the proceeds of the labors of the nuns.
In the garret of the convent we were shown the
sjiinning-wheels with which they spin the mate-
rial for their plain gray gowns, woven also by
their own hand. Their fine garden, too, they
till. The more accomplished among them give
their leisure to fine embroideries and rich needle-
work, sold to visitors, or sent to Canada for sale.
They boord twenty or thirty girls, and, for com-
pensation, give them an education beyond that of
most district schools in the United States. The
languages used are English and French, and the
subjects principally taught are reading, siielling,
the catechism, grammar, sacred history, arith-
metic, geography, English history, Canadian his-
t(jry, ancient mythology, vocal music, and the
piano-forte, as well aa the doctrines and prac-
tices of the Catholic religion. Besides keeping
a day-school for all the little girls of the parish
desirous of instruction, they nuiintain and edu-
cate in a separate apartment fifteen or twenty
poor orphan girls, without charge to any one ex-
cept themselves. Nor is this the sum of their
labors ; they minister to the sick or afflicted of
th*? parish imweariedly, and by tlieir example of
charity, industrj-, and economy, have wrought a
perceptible change in the character of that class
of the population over whom their care extends.

The neatness and order of the convent was
apparent in every part. The uncnrpetcd floors
were not waxed, but not an atom of dust lin-
gered upon them. The kitchen was as neat as
a New England housewife's after the mornin(,''s
work is done, and when tlie sun lies on the
floor and lights up the polished tins. Even the
garret, where every thing was stowed, wa'j in an
orderly litter.

The lady superior conversed with us only in
French, undefiled by the Canadian palo!s ; but
one of the nuns, whom no visitor several years
ago to the Montreal convent has forgotten, t»nd
whose beauty nor the attraction of the worM
has turned aside from her life of self-denial and
hidden labor, conversed with us in English, and
left us without information on no point that we
desired to know. After a general conversation
in the large reception-room of the convent, hung
with portraits of the bishops and of saints, and
decorated with specimens of the handiwork of
the nuns, and having also in one of its corners
a sewing-machine of Wheeler and Wilson's pat-
ent, this beautiful nun conducted us to the mu-
sic-room, and there entertained us with polkas,
redowas, and marches, played by the more ac-
complished of the pupils. Strange sounds these ;
to us, flashes of the world, forsakuu for months
in the midst of its hurry and gayety, its life of
cities and operas and art and trade and parades,
its pomp and wealth and show; — to these Gray
Nuns, dull gleams, perhaps, of an outer world,

resigned and forsaken for all the years of their
lives.

In other rooms we listened to recitations,
singing of the older and younger ones, heard
the quick, bright answers of little half-breeds,
recognizing the painted block letters which hold
the knowledge and wisdom of the world ; saw
them march about the room in lock stej), hymn-
ing nursery rhymes ; listened to the story of one
poor Indian girl loft by her savage parents on
the prairie to starve and die, a rope tied about
her, cutting into her tender flesh and wearing
away her life, but saved in her last hours for u
longer and better life here; saw and heard
other things of like tenor and character, too
numerous to mention in these crowded pages,
and left the convent with the benediction of the
nuns. We, Christians of another name, were
thankful that, although on another continent,
he whom they called father we called Anti-
christ, here, at least, charity and Uic good
works of a Christianity inspired elsewhere than
at Home, and at sources long forsaken by the
successoM of St. Feter, were making their se-
cure and naiseless way.

In the parishes of St. Norbert, St. Francis
Xavier, and St. Charles, there are also schools
for boys and \^\\U, under the charge of the pas-
tor and the Sisters of Charity; in the first 31
boys and 29 girls, and In the second 1 3 boys and
L'ti girls. The population ministered to in St.
Boniface j)arish is 1400; in the other three, the
first two having each a chapel, a little more than
2000. At the extremity of Lake Manitoba there
is still another chapel, for the convenience of
thirty or forty families.

Let it be remembered that here there is no
liiw and no general provision for education ; that
the houses for the most part are sparse, that the
l)arents are careless and indift'erent, and that,
though the charge for education is but ten shil-
lir.fts a year, scarcely one child in ten pays for
his schooling, while to insist on payment would
drive two-thirds away.

There are seventeen schools in the settlement,
genernlly under the supervision of the ministers
of the denomination to which they belong. Tlie
])arochial school of Archdeacon Hunter, under
the charge of a gentleman from Dublin ; Mr.
Gunn's commercial boarding-school, whose schol-
ars are, the most of them, the children of Fres-
byterians ; the Rev. Messrs. Black, Taylor, and
Chapman's schools ; and three minor schools,
under the supervision of the Episcopal ministers
in different parishes besides those above mention-
ed, are the most important of them.

The Indian church, at the lower end of the
settlement, is one of the peculiar features of Red
River. It is mostly attended by Ojibbeway In-
dians, whose behavior is attentive and decorous.
The singing, in which the soft, low voices of the
Indian women join, led by a melodeon played by
the wife of the minister, is very sweet. The
prayers were read in English, the lessons in Ojib-
bcway, and the sermon in Cree.

Mr. Cowley, the minister, is not only a mis-

816

IIAIU'KU'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

IIIBUOI' AMUUiaU.S'b C'UtUOU,

sionniT, but also physicinn, judge, nrbitrntor,
nil J adviser of the Indians. When the Indians
require his services as doetor during the night,
tliey quietly enter tlic ])arsonagc door, which is
never locked, make their way in the darkest night
to tlie well-known stove-pipe leading from the sit-
ting-room into his bedroom above, give two or
tliree low Indian taps, and (juietly await the result.

No one would doubt the value of these mis-
sions among the Indians who could see the
contrast between those who have become Chris-
tianized and others who have not. Mr. Daw-
sen tolls of disgusting dog feasts and medicine
dances held by prairie tribes on a Sunday, while
he was there, within a mile and a half of their
Christian altars. The next Sunday after leav-
ing the settlement we spent at Pembina, and
there witnessed a begging dance, and heard a
begging oration from an Indian orator. Not so
disgusting, to be sure, as a dog feast, but still
sufficiently in contrast with the Sabbath rest
which we had enjoyed the week before.

The population in Mr. Cowley's mission con-
sists of about 500 baptized Indians and 203
heathen.

The relative proportion of these several classes

is fairly shown in the census list of 18.5(5, where

the families are numbered as follows, according

to their origin :

Rupert's Lund, hnlf-brceds ond native? 816

Scotland 116

Ciiniidn 93

Kngliind 40

Irclnnd 13

Switzerland 2

■ ■ Norway 1

The total population of the settlements on thr
Red Kiver and the Assiniboine, in that year. '
amounted to G523. Including those of Pem-
bina, St. Josc])h, and vicinity, and making al-
lowance for the natural increase since the cen-
sus was taken, it is probable that the number
now reaches nearly 8000. There is a veiy dis-
tinct and well-preserved diflerence in faith be-
tween the population of the different parishes
into which the settlements are divided. Sonic
arc almost exclusively Protestant ; others equal-
ly Roman Catholic. In the last ten years there
has been a considerable emigration of young men
to the States and Canada; so that while in 1849
there were 137 more males than females in the
settlement, there were in 185G seventy -three more
females than males.

The census roll of Ret! River has one curious
blank in its pages. It has no enumeration of
trades and occu])ations. Almost every man is
his own carijonter, house-builder, whecl-wright,
blacksmith, and all are either small farmers or
hunters. Rock, suitable for grindstones, lies
almost under their feet, but they for years have
used those imported by the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany. Their pottery, too, is imported. There
are about sixteen wind-mills, and half as many
water-mills. The only steam (saw and grist)
mill in the valley, which, as before said, stood
idle while a rip-saw was dragged through heavy
timbers under its very eaves, was burned down
last June, the loss amounting to £1600 ; so end-
ing another enterprise, with a fatality which
seems to have been common wherever the pec-

TO Ulil) KIVEll AND BEYOND.

9ff

OLD MII.I. (ONri; IN FOBT POUOLAh).

plo of the settlement hnvo attempted to over-
I'ome the general stngiiiition. A model fanri
was onco attempted tlicre to show the native
farmers what science applied to ngricuiture
could accomplish. Mismanagement produced
a miserable failure. The ex])loits of a Uuttalo
Wool Company arc only remembered to be ])it-
ied ; the sheep and tallow schemes, and the ag-
ricultural associations attempted, have likewise
fallen through ; and a fulling-mill com])letes the
cast of abortive cnteqirises. Another steam-
mill, however, will soon replace the old one.

The supplies of the lied Kiver peojilo were
formerly imported for them through Hudson's
Bay, at high charges, by the Company; but
with tho growth of our Western settlements,
wliich are extended almost to nortiiernmost
Minnesota, they have been able to obtain them
directly from the United States, which they vis-
ited in huge caravans, or through the traders
who themselves visit St. Paul. The principal
American traders are Norman W. Kittson, wiio
has done more than any one else to open the
trade, and J. W. Burbank and Co., now the
proprietors in part of the Anson Northup.

These facts, and the immense extent of front-
ier not easily governed by c'i«tom-hoHse regu-
lations, will account fur the largo uumber of

merchant shops (fiftj'-six) enumerated in the last
census.

Mr. Kittson's store, which has a fine position
near the cathctlral, and oj)i)osite Fort Garry, is
very like other Yankee country stores; but in
those of the minor or native traders the object
seems to be to conceal rather than display their
goods.

Besides tho merchants, there is another class,
called freighters, who row the heavy Mackinaw-
boats, and haul thorn and their loads over the
portages between York Factory and Bed Kivcr.
There were fifty-five of these boats enumerated
in the last census ; on the next they will have
become much diminished, from the change iu
tho route of importation, although in the sup-
plying of the northwestern districts some will be
as indispensable as ever. The employment of
Indians by the freighters was a matter of special
prohibition only a few years ago, as introducing
a kind of industry not compatible with hunting,
and likely to direct attention from the fur trade.
Tho shrewd reader may here see some clew to
many mysterious facts in the condition of the
Red River settlement, and of tho Indian mis-
sions here and elsewhere in Rupert's Land.

The tenure of land in Assiniboia is singular.
It is sometimes sold to purchasers at 7«. Crf. ster-

;n8

lIAIil'KIl'S NKVV MONTHLY MAGAZINK.

linn per lu'io, tlie title \w\nff convcycil under the
form of II lease fur ItDl) years. Then! nro half ii
(lo/.en ('oiiilitiiiiiH in tlic Icaso saving tiiu inter-
ests, anil |iroiltn, iiid ''ontnil of the C<)m]iaiiy,
which has heeii Kt'ncrally cnforecd. The con-
dition that onu-tentli of the land should he
hrought under cultiviition in five years is oh-
oerved or not, ns niny hnjipen. In very nuiuy
instances among the half-hreeil settlers, they did
not Icnow the niimhcr of their lots, the ground
of their tenure, nnd had no document from the
Company or nny other authority. Some Jui'.
paid, some had received land for services, some
hivd squatted and were never disturhed, others
had received it as a present from Sir George
(Simpson ; and now, beyond tho limits of the
settlement on tho river, no new squatter has
any thing to pay.

Tlio northward deflection of isothermals as
you pass west of tho great lakes, and toward
the west coast of tho continent, is a fact well
known. Red lliver nobody supposes to bo ns
cold tts Labrador. It finds its parallel in tho
climates of tho interior districts of Northern
I'iuropo and Asia. The summer tomperaturo is
high ; tho winter cold nnd severe. There is a
])lenty of rain in tho summer months, a general
absence of late spring and early autumn frosts.
Professor Hind found, in ISi'S-'flC, the summer
of Ited River four degrees warmer than that of
Toronto, with 21 •74 inches of rain in favor of
Rod River,

The natural division of tho seasons for the
climate of Red River is as follows :

Siimmi'r. — June, July, ami August.

Antuinu, — SeptcinbiT and October.
Wi'iitir, — November, December, Jumuiry.
February, and March.

S/nim/. — April and May.

Tiio summer temperature nnd tho absence
of frosts determine its fitness for agricultural
])urposcs, nnd tho splendid crops are the proof
thereof.

The clear, dry ntmosjjhere renders innocuous
the very cold weather of winter. I'lio half-
iireeds camp ont on the jjjains, with only a few
blankets and robes. Indian com is a sure crop
on the dry ])oints of tho Assiniboine and Red
River, tho horse-teeth nnd Mandan corn being
tho kinds most cultivated.

Whcnt is tho stajdo crop in tho settlement.
Forty bushels to tho aero is a common return on
new land, nnd in some cases tho yield has been
between fifty and sixty bushels. The grnsshoj)-
IKsrs, which have Bcveral times eaten up every
green thing, are its only enemies.

Of hay tho quantity is unlimited, nnd the
quality excellent. Hops grow every whore wild,
and with tho greatest luxurianre. Pease grow
wild, and the yield is large. Potatoes arc sur-
l)assed in size and quality by none that wo arc
accustomed to find in Washington Market.

All kinds of root-crops grow well, and attain
large dimensions ; nnd all tho garden vegetables
which grow well in Canada and Northern New
York flourish better in Assinilioine,

Flax, hemp, and tobacco nro cultivated to
some extent, the want of a market alono pre-

VI8W NKAB rOBT OABRT.

TO UKT) UIVKU AND BKYONI).

n«

nury

sonce
I til nil
|)roof

lied

leing

OTTKB TAIL TO OllOW WINO.

>CTiting the first two from becoming most valu-
able ex])ort9.

Melons are cultivated in some of the gardens
of the settlement with wonderful success ; iind
the kitcJien gardens of the Royal Canadian Hi-
fles at Fort Garry, and of the Sisters of Charity
over the river, would deserve prizes at an Illi-
nois State Fair.

The limitless prairies environing the settle-
ment are fragrant with the perfume of a thou-
sand flowers ; and in the thicitets and long grass
are strawberries, raspberries, sakatome berries,
gooseberries, and prunes.

After remaining a week or more in the settle-
ment, the changing of the weather, which was
now beginning to have something of the chilli-
ness of autumn, and the departure of the last
trains of the half-breeds, made us think more in-
tently of returning. One mild September after-
noon, therefore, having first crossed the Stygian
ferry, whereof the Charon is no Yankee, and
bade adieu to friends at the fort, and to the
bishop, and to Kittson and Cavalier, border-set-
tlers who have begun to save the province from
itself, and have also rescued Joo Bolctte from
his enemies, we remanded ourselves to the life

which we had left, and them all to tb ' nu-
al hibernation. We reached John Dace's by
nightfall, and, the house being full, spread our
blankets on the floor of his keejiing-room, and
i^lept till morning. The next day Joseph and I
bestrode our horses, turned their heads south-
ward, and with a smart gallop soon left the
last house of the settlement hidden behind the
billowy prairie grass, as the rounding waves
hide the ships at sea. Before its cliininey-pof
had gone down, however, Josejih turned on the
river bank, rose in his stirrujw, and apostro-
phized the settlement in a manner which, as I
stood and listened, brought tears to my eyes and
a handkerchief to my nose. If the thermometer
had been farther from 32° Fahrenheit not even
the orator would have suspected the sincerity of
my emotion. That day we traveled fifty-four
miles, reaching Pembina after dark, exhausted,
and feeling as if bifurcation had attained its
maximum. The next day Joe Rolette came;
he, too, certain, for twenty-four hours after dis"
mounting, that the earth had ceased to rotate,
but performed its journey around the sun with
hard trotting on a macadamized orbit.

At Pembina wo made our final preparations

a-.'o

IIAlll'EH'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINK.

for II soli' y jotinicy iiiTosa thu r"'uiitry to Crow
Wiiiji, oil (,iif of tin; iiipcr tributaries of tlit- Mis-
sissijipi, beariii}; the siiiiic iiamo. The Pemliiniv
postmaster — for ev( a here the Aineriean IJri-
iireu.s extends one of his fitifjer tips, am! sorts
the mails — eoneliuled to iieeoinpaiiy «s, and !>y
waiting; foi hini benevolently a day, we were re-
warded by a month s later mails, whieh tame
just in tiin« not to be too late, with letters froi.i
home and friends, and news of the world with-
out, wliose attraetivo foree, in s])ic of Kepler
ami Faraday, was in th', r .tio of the square uf
the distanee.

One busy Monday morninK, on the lOtli of
September, al'ter a rainy f<iim'i;\v, wo ferried our-
selves over the lied Hiver of tie North, swim-
ming the horses, dragged our cart up its steci)
and muddy bank, and soon left tho waters
gleaming red in every wave under the bright
siinshiuc, as it swept on to the frozen seas, far
behind us.

Tlie eart was light, tho horses prctt\- well
rested, and tne law of the inverse ratio began to
o])erate, so that a dog-trot beeamo even l\in
Kiee's habitual gait. Twenty-live miles were
put behind us the first day, and we came to
eamp tiy twilight on the wooded hanks of a beau-
tiful river. Jlonnding its curve we came in sight
of a ('anii)-fire, around whieh were huddled three
Kiid Lake Indians — a lather and his two sons.
We fraternized directly, amazing them wiil: n
prodigal gift of tea, and .saved the trouble of
cooking our supper by being invited to share
their huge kettle of boiled ducks. As far as we
eoulil learn they had supi)ed twice already, but
this did not ))reveut them from eating a third
liiiie. Tlie old man. in the abundance of his
lios]atality, even tore strips from the sheet of
white bark, which was all their .shelter from the
wind, to make torches for us, tv. ir.;ing tho stvip
into a roll, impaling it diagonally on iv stick
thrust in the ground, and lighting its ujiper end.
The engorgement of the red-skins convinced us
i>f their honesty for tho night, and we ail slept
with both eyes shut ; and when we waked in the
mornii' ' ".nd found two of our four horses gone,
we accused only tho (piadrn|)eds of theft. Wc
scoured tho woods and the prairies in vain, and
ttnally set tho Indians on tho hunt, our. ves
watching by the cam]). The red leaves of nu-
tiimr, like Hakes of blood, drifted down from the
bran "s of tho trees, and floated away on the
surface of tho stream. The soft whirr of the
wings of ducks alighting or flying was a foil to
the solemn stillness in which the ungr'liered
harvests fell before tho silent sickle of tlio wind,
and the jwinp and summer glory of the year
made ready for its winter shroud.

Before night one of the horses had been found,
and tho next afternoon an Indian messenger re-
turned with anoth r from Pembina in lieu of tho
one lost. We loaded our carts and traveled on
for a few miles, camping beside a huge marsh.
Two or three hours before daylight the post-
nmster nwoko by chance, and aroused us with
the cry of ' ' I'rairio on tiro I " At tho west of ns

tho whole sky was lit u|) with lurid fire. (Jrcat
surging billows of smi 'e swelled up against the
black, starless sky, their undersides reddened all
over wi'h the rellccfioii from the llames below.
The wind was blowing almost directly ui>on us,
and wo could feel the gusts of hot wind every
moment alternating with the coid night breeze.
It was easy to see that tho fire was gaining njion
ii I rapidly. While we stood gazing tlie swift
flames had come so fast and far that we could
already sec their fiery tips flickering al)ove the
grei^n grass, a long advancing line stretching far
away to the northward. Every moment the de-
vouring lips came nearer, and lifted themselves
higher, and the lingo molten billows swei)t on
toward ns in vast volume and solid ]ihalanx, as
if to ingulf ns and plunge ns in the conllagra-
tion below. There was no time to be lost. AVc
found the -horses, that were all s. ending fas-
cinated by the glare, and beginning to tremble
with exc'tement and fright, liarnessed and sad-
dled them, turned their heads to tho south,
obliipiely away from the direction of the wind,
and at tho end of an hour's fast riding were T^ast
the liniit of its southernmo;.t lino.

Ked Lake Kiver is the largest of the tributaries
of lied Uiver, excepting only tlie Assiniboine.
Indeed it bears the same relation to the lied River
a! ivcits mouth ns the MisHuii'i to the Upper Mis-
sissip])!. It is iiself the main stri^am. We came
to it.^ i)anks one at'tcrnoon, r.t the spot figured in
the sketch below, dined, and then al.'ein]itea the
passage. The water was high, and the river
wide. By wading it on horseback we soi;n found
the easiest sjxit to cn.ss. it was necessary to
enter the stream from n projecting s])it of land,
niakv. head against its current for a few rods,
then turn where the dee|) channel was narrow-
est, wade through it, and keep on a long, shal-
low bar to the opposite .shore. The force of the
current .n the deejiest jiart was more than any
bill a strong man could stand against, and even
over ti!o shallow bar, to vt-ade, was like forcing
one's legs through dry sand.

Wc emjitied the cart, laid ba.'s on the top,
piled our gooils and chattels ujion them, weight-
ing the ujiper side so that the current Viiight not
ti;; Ihv: caii OUT, and, f)iu> of us standing ujion
the .same si.le, with Dan liice harnessed between
the shafts, we entered the water. With coax-
ing and thrashing and shoving, r'an was iiuhiccd
to jtull the cart up stream as far as the turning
point, where wo were to cross tho deep channel.
Feeling the force of tho water ag.inst hi.-, legs,
sideways, here, and anxion.-* jTobably for his
ctpiine efjuililirium. not another step \,-i)uld he
budge, (hongh we besought, and pulled, and so-
licited, and sho\ed, and thrashed, ami dragged
liim, ns we three best eoi.ld, on Itorscback or up
to arm[)it in the cold water. It w.is of no use ;
Dan could not or would not gc> oii : there was
nothing left, therefore, but to drive ii.m back,
and try one of the other horses. But return wos
ns bad as to go o'er. Tho obstinate brute would
move in no direction, and for aught wo could
see seemed willing to stand in liis tracks till the

TO «1:D KlVEll AND WEYOND.

821

-^ '-•.''■**%aS

FtiiiiiiNd i;ki> i.akk itirmt.

waters hud wsished him, pioconipal, from off ilio
fiu-e of thi' earth. We all tlx'ti jiiiiipcd into tiio
water, uiiharni'sscd tlie halky wretch, hacked
the cart down tli.; stream to the slmrc, atid led
Jlan out. The other liorses failed frotu sliecr
weakness. Kach did liis hest, but Rot no fiirtlicr
than Dan had trii.-d to go. ImU'ed a little lilack
horse came nearer drowninj* than swimmin>{. The
current knocked o'lt his legs from under him, and
had not Joseph lifted his nose above water by
jumpinf; on the hintler end of the cart, v.-c should
have had four legs the less to get homo with.

The afternoon was already more than half

gone ; the horses ton tired to be ridden back and

forth through the wiiter any longer with safety ;

and Jc>'e])h, not in i^ood health, had already cx-

Vot.. XXII.— No. 12S).— X

cecded i)riidcnpp ; so it only remained for the
]H>stiiiaster and myself to shoulder our bags and
boxes and ferry them over bijiedally. JSiilwrflu-
iiies had no chance of trans]iortation — that ter-
ritde strain ujion the niiiscles roiild be endured
only for what was necessary to take us to civiliz-
ation again, so that it was only for guns, jiem-
mican, blankets, and frying-j)aiis, and not at nil
for drcssing-easos, steei-|><'ii coats, und French
mirrors that we terebrnted the stony iwttom of
the river with our great toes and blistered the
soles of our feet. Last of all we took the curt to
pieces, and with a long rojie, of which we Iwth
liad hold, floated over successively the box and
wheels. One feathcr's-weiijht more must have
swept us down the river.

322

HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

OTTEB TAIL OllY.

In two or throe days more of rapid travel,
crossing Sand Hill, Uico, and Buffalo rivers, we
reached the Leaf Mountains, seen at tlic nortli
of us when we were near Osaliis Lake, left two
more of our horses exhausted on the way ; and
at the end of another day's journey came to De-
troit Lake, a fine sheet of water, skirted by a
nol)le forest. Tiie trail led us for tweh-o miles
through its delightful shade. AVo loaded our
cart with jngcons and i)artridges, shot rn fiass'iut,
discarding here the last of our ])eniniican, and the
next noon dined at Otter Tail City, the wliolc of
which is seen in the cut atiove. Six miles fur-
ther on we eanic to Leaf City (houses one, popu-
hition one), sle])t within four walls, rested a day
while the rain poured, and on the 1st day of Oc-
tober, through sloughs innnmerahle and fathom-
less, came to the Crow V/iiig crossing — a rope
ferry over the river of the name — from which
there was continuous water, not to Arctic, but
to Tropic seas and the Atlantic.

One more day's journey brought us to the
"Agency," where two or three thoiisaiul Cliij)-
jxiwa Indians were assembled to receive their
annual payment ; and to Crov,- Wing, a thriving
village on ttu^ Mis^issijipi, just below the junc-
tion of the Crow Wing River, whence stages,
steamboats, and railway cars, soon eanied us to
our res])cctive homes.

I have just si)acc to ajiiicnd ft few statistical
items : Four years ago the Red liiver Settlement
contained

Hoiii"Pi< !)2? f Iinrr1i0!< 9

Stnhles Vi'.H Sluiiw, Htorcs etc M

Batns .t'.K' SrliDiils 17

— making 2():55 buil lings in all.

The live stock is as follows :

lIorsoK MM (oh-) iSiwa

Marea I'J'.Mi ( 'Mvex 2644

Oxen 'lim I'ip^ 4<i74

BuUf '.''.m Sliof,! 24*.i

Of these there were lost, during the winter of
1 8r>i'>-'.">(>, 1(1 horses, .T mares, 21 oxen, 16 cows,
4;' °heep, 57 calves, 2H pi^ru.

The implements of the settlors curiously indi-
cate their habits :

Plow? fis,"! Cinoi't" 622

lliirri)«t< 1^(1 lioiita B5

Cart:' 20T.5

There are nearly 10,000 acres of land under
cultivation.

The machinery in use in the settlement is
veiy little, and mostly turned by natural forces.

Wind-mill." 10 Cardiiip-niills 1

AVatcr-iiiilN It TlunHliin(:-mills S

Winiiutting-iuacliiiic.-* ... Koni)inB-ninr'inL'.-« 2

The average value of dwellings, linstock, im-
plements, and machinery, is reckoned as fol-
lows :

PwelllnRa £4!t,'?60

LitiHtock 62,4(11

IniplcmcntK 6'.i!i8

Miicliiuery 3871

Total illl,036

The grand total value of all that is above the
soil of Red River then remaining at a little over
half a million dollars, exclusive of the Com-
pany's forts and provisions.

.J V, % .

•'^..f:.M. ..,.

'Wry

jtev"

1 i-»Wftfi