Fort Carlton to Fort Edmonton.

July 26th. - This morning Mr. Hardisty and I, accompanied by McKay and Tait, rode over to the "horse guard," about three miles away on the farther side of the river, our object being to leave Morgan, Vermont, Paul, and Anthony, who were to be kept there till my return, and to choose other horses from the Company's lot, to be hired by us to supply their place. All my horses, except the Bichon, whose worn-down hoofs required a set of shoes, having first been swum over to the better pasture on the other side, we crossed in the skiff, and then proceeded on our way through a fine grazing country of undulating character, diversified with many small lakes and poplar groves, and covered with grass of the richest description abounding in different kinds of vetches.

Looking back - towards the Fort, the opposite banks of the river seemed like an English park, rising after the first steep ascent in gradual slopes luxuriantly clothed with wood, disposed of by nature in groups and gladed masses, as if some skillful hand had been cutting the forest into forms of symmetry. When we reached the horse-guard we beheld a drove of about twenty pony mares, all more or less prettily shaped, and some of them very handsome, who were roaming in the fertile pastures with a good-looking brown stallion, over fourteen hands high, as their companion. There were also about fifty horses for carting and general purposes, and from among these, we selected two stout bays to draw the wagon to Edmonton. We also picked out a small light-coloured "bichon," which I afterwards rode back to the Fort - a fat, comfortable, lazy little beast, branded on one hind quarter with the capital letter 0.

Tait mounted himself on a fine young bay horse belonging to Mr. Hardisty, but being scarcely broke, it was so violent that he passed it on, after a struggle, to my Indian friend Wapesskes, who had just joined us, and under his handling, it went quietly enough for the rest of the way. On coming to the river again we descried my poor old Bichon running up and down the opposite banks in anxious search for his comrades; no sooner did he make us out than he plunged into the water and swam so quickly to meet us that he reached the skiff before we were half-way across.

I then went to the Fort to make a settlement with numme "the old gentleman," as my men always called him. I gave him the wonderful gun with some ammunition, also some tea and sugar, besides his wages, for he continued to say that he had been misled as to his engagement, and, much as I doubted this, I wished to leave no room to anyone for complaint of my dealings. "The old gentleman," as we heard next morning, immediately went and bought a horse from a Cree, - who sold it to him a tremendous bargain, having stolen it from a man of his own tribe, whom he knew to be in hot pursuit; Mr. Numme then made a midnight flitting with his purchase. He certainly had the keenest eye for Number One.

This business settled, I amused myself by looking through the store, that comprehensive place where everything required for the Indians or the Company's employees is procurable in greater or less abundance, - clothing, ammunition, blankets, groceries, pots and pans, crockery, knives, tobacco, and hundreds of miscellaneous unexpected things, all stowed away in an inviting orderly disorder, in regions redolent of the wild beasts' skins and furs collected in the course of trade. I bought some beads and a few useful common articles, and then Mr. Hardisty helped me in arrangements for the storage of my skulls and skins and other heavy goods which he had kindly offered to take care of till my return. He showed me a grizzly bear skin of immense size, larger than I could have thought possible; it belonged to Captain Palliser, who had bought it from an Indian during the previous winter.

'I also left every drop of rum that I had, that I might be able, with a clear conscience, to tell the Indians that there was none in the camp. I find I can do without stimulants, and do not like to be drinking wine or spirits when my men have nothing stronger than tea. Wine they would consider altogether out of their line, but spirits they might be more or less tempted by. I have no wine, however, nor do I want any.

'After this, I went to pay a visit to Mrs. Tait, who lived with her husband at the Fort, the mother of the pretty little girl who came to my tent at Cherry Bush, as might easily be guessed by their likeness to one another. Mrs. Tait had been doing some sewing for me and was now engaged in making me a few pairs of moccasins to take home on my return. Thanks to Mr. Hardisty's kindness, I was well supplied with moccasins for use; for on hearing that I had none that fitted, he insisted on giving me three beautifully finished sets, besides which he presented me with a leather hunting shirt for wear in the Rocky Mountains, where the dead and rugged branches in the thick fir woods make terrible havoc of all woollen clothes.

Fort Carlton was a large palisaded enclosure, with square bastions at each of the four corners; most of the houses were tolerably good, but some were not quite finished. It stood about a quarter of a mile from the river, at the foot of a bank, which had been cleared of wood immediately behind the buildings. The clearance was made entirely by Indian women under Mr. Hardisty's direction, for the men counted it disgraceful to do anything in the shape of labour. I noticed a party of these women washing clothes near the river in the morning, the wives and daughters of the drunkards who were so intrusive just after our arrival. One girl might almost be called pretty, but all, without exception, were flat-backed and masculine in contour.

The dogs were very numerous. Their chief use is in winter, those at the forts being generally idle at other seasons; we put one of them to work, however, making him draw things backwards and forwards in a small cart which Tait's children were in the habit of playing with. One of the little ones cried to see her cart going away, so we put her into it and made her happy again. This afternoon we passed all our baggage across the river and camped on the other side, in readiness for an early start on the following morning.

July 27th. - I was dreaming about certain well-known scenes, which seemed the same and yet not the same, for they were changed by dream magic and exaggerated into glory, each stone transfigured into a rock, each hill into a wild and beautiful mountain. The scene was beginning to open more clearly, when, at the most interesting moment, that wretched animal Pointer, devoured by mosquitoes, made a noisy entrance into my tent bringing with him legions of the enemy, and I awoke. Alas for him! his stay was neither long nor pleasant. Formerly I had sometimes pitied his sufferings and allowed him shelter under my roof, but his restlessness had always forced me to banish him; besides, there was something mean about his nature which had turned my liking into dislike, and I could not bear him near me.

I had by this time pretty well learned how to keep out the flies, and they never troubled me at night. Before lying down I used to shake the tent and fasten the door - flaps very carefully, then search with a candle it was easy to discover and massacre any insects that remained.

Something is generally wanted at the last moment when leaving a Fort - more pemmican had now to be sent for, such reports being abroad about the scarcity of food at Pitt and Edmonton, that we dared not trust to getting any supplies at either. This delayed us a little but did not prevent a tolerably early start, thanks to being camped on the right side of the river.

After climbing the steep high bank, we passed through the same country as on the previous day, and then came to more level plains, though of equally fertile nature. Similar as they are in some respects, these rich pastures look quite unlike anything in England. The difference chiefly arises from the prevalence of poplars, which stamp a peculiar character on the landscape, for even when young and no larger than weeds, they grow so thickly through the herbage as to give it a strange unhomelike tinge. . . I hate the very sight of these poplar prairies because they swarm with mosquitoes, which always abound in long grass. My joy is in a vast sandy plain, broken with bluffs, and carpeted with short, crisp, yellow-brown turf. There game abounds, and the abominable fly scarcely dares to how his proboscis. Well may the Evil One be called Baalzebub - the god of flies!

'Black, deprived of his friends Morgan and Vermont, has begun to scrape acquaintance with old Bichon, whom he never used to deign to notice.'

'At dinner time, looking at my meerschaum with a magnifying glass, I found, as I suspected, that there was a small crack where the bowl joins the stem so that the oil bubbles through and makes a black patch, while the rest of the pipe takes on hardly any colour. This is a nuisance, but there is some amusement in watching how tobacco affects a pipe, just as doctors studied the process of digestion through a hole that remained open via a wounded man's stomach.' . .

'Towards afternoon we came to a decidedly hilly country, with numerous small pools and lakes, and a good deal of poplar wood. Since crossing the North Branch, the whole country may be described as trying to break out into a wood, and half succeeding. In the evening we travelled along the shores of Bear Lake, a very pretty piece of water of some size, with stony promontories, deep bays, and wooded islands; then, continuing for a few miles farther, we reached a small artificial-looking lake, near which we camped.

'A funny black sleigh dog, as fat as a pig, and possessed of only four inches of tail, has come with us, following the old man who guides us till we meet La Grace* (a hunter then on his way from Edmonton, who soon after joined my party). "Whiskey" was rather timid at first, but I threw him some bits of meat, and we became very friendly, to the great disgust of Pointer, who is given to jealousy.'

The foxes kept constantly barking around our tents, uttering strange sounds, a mixture of the noises of the dog and the wolf It was not a melodious note; but never have I known the cry of any wild animal that had not something pleasing in its cadences, when heard in a solitary desert place, where the din of man's life is far away, where nothing a reveals itself to the eye or ear but is touched with the adorable melancholy of loneliness.

July 28th. - Our march took us over very hilly ground today. Eight upon the track we discovered the remains of the broken wagon, belonging probably to some of the Canadians or Americans who had lately passed on their way to the gold diggings. I was just thinking how fortunate we had been in escaping such disasters when a loud crash burst upon my ears, and I beheld McBeath bounding from his cart, just clearing it as it upset and rolled over and over in its progress to the bottom of a hill. The axle had broken, nothing else was wrong, and nothing got damaged. A little wooded lake happened to be close at hand, so we took the opportunity for our mid-day halt; and while my men repaired the axle, I waited on a sunshiny slope covered with profusion of wild strawberries, and finished my first reading of "The Winter's Tale." •

May 29th. - "We had great trouble in catching Lane, who had now wonderfully freshened up and become a very handsome old horse. He belonged to a breed that ranges wild on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. Though they had taken him when quite young, no one could ride him till he had once been tired nearly to death by drawing a sled loaded with two buffalo cows as far as the Little Devil's Lake and back, with the heavy labour all the while of going first to make the track through the snow. He gave in as he reached his starting point at Carlton, upon which they immediately got on his back and rode him when he was too weak for resistance. Though pretty well tamed by this discipline, he was subject to its wildness, and would never bear that anything should touch his flanks.

[Klyne was the only person who could catch him in his difficult moods. It was a study to watch this man's tactics - how he walked round and round the wary old animal, bent half double and making the most extraordinary movements, till at length Lane grew so puzzled that he forgot to run away, while the active Frenchman slipped nearer and nearer, then suddenly threw a line over the horse's head, and secured him in an instant.] Our road today ran pleasantly over crisp brown turf, and took us through an interesting country, hilly and picturesque, though rather bare of wood. As we passed by a place called "The Springs," Kline's cart stuck fast in a creek, and some of the things got a little wet, but the damage was not worth speaking of. We were preparing to halt for our night encampment, when McKay shot a skunk which the dogs had chased out of some bushes near the cart- track, whereupon there arose such an awful smell that we had to go on a good piece farther than we had intended.' *

July 31st. - While we were dining on the shore of a large and beautiful piece of water called Jackfish Lake, one of the Thick-wood Crees came paddling over in a canoe from the opposite side: my men and he held a long talk together, and I meanwhile read " Hamlet." *

Proceeding on our way, the country still bore a picturesque appearance, all wood, hill, and lake, but much of it had been devastated by fire. The lakes were swarming with ducks and geese, the former easily to be picked up in any quantity. A large white wolf showed himself within fair range; I knocked him over with a shot through the haunches, but despite a shattered leg, he escaped me in the thickly wooded glen of a neighbouring creek, which same deep though insignificant rivulet presently cost us the trouble of raising all the baggage in the carts before we could attempt a crossing. Soon afterwards, arriving at the White Mud Lake, we made an early halt there, intending to remain during the approaching Sunday, and formed our camp on the top of an elevated clay bluff, whose precipitous broken face encountered the wash of the water some twenty yards beneath our feet. The lake is triangular, and about six miles in circumference; its water is of good quality for use.

Sunday, July 31st. - La Grace arrived, bringing horses for Fort Carlton, which the old man, who had now to leave us, took under his charge, while the former remained as our guide. ' The queer fat dog Whisky has chosen to stop with us. He has rather attached himself to me; being very quiet he gives no trouble, and his ways amuse me.'

August 1st. - We started about 6 o'clock and breakfasted at Turtle Creek. Our track led us through a prairie country, hilly in parts, and almost entirely blackened by recent fires. This made pleasant travelling, for there were no flies, there being no vegetation to harbour them, and the soil was so soft that the horses did not slip as they had been doing of late on the harder ground, through the almost glassy polish given to their unshod feet by contact with the short dry turf.

I had an accident today, owing doubtless to this very cause. The men were halting for dinner at English Creek, and as I cantered down a gentle grassy slope to join them, Wawpoose slipped and fell, throwing me on the point of my right shoulder. It hurt a little at the moment, and I felt it now and then afterwards, but years passed before I discovered that my collarbone had been slightly dislocated. the course of the morning we came to a place called Horse Hill, so named on account of a battle between the Crees and Blackfeet, in which forty horses were slain. A little farther on, the track brought us to within a mile of the Saskatchewan and continued nearly in that line. ' We rode through an uninteresting country as far as Red Deer Hill. I believe we have made about forty miles today.'

August 2nd. - 'Reached Fort Pitt at 4 p.m. The Fort stands within a hundred paces of the river, which is here deep and rapid, free from sandbanks, and about three hundred yards wide. These last two days I have noticed a few spruce firs amidst the eternal poplar, but none of any size. In the whole British territory, I have not yet seen one tree that would be called large in Scotland, not to speak of England. A tree thirty feet high and four feet round seems a giant here and is rarely to be met with. I only attribute this dearth of good timber to the fires that are constantly devastating the land. In one glen near the Qu'Appelle (where we found a raven's nest on the 6th of July) there were oaks of a larger size, but they were of no height, for the winds that sweep the prairie had cut them down to the level of the shelter afforded by the protecting banks.

'The Fort, enclosed by high palisades with bastioned corners, forms a square rather more than half the size of Carlton. Viewed from above it is like a camp of immense tents, owing to the shape and colour of the roofs. Mr. Macaulay and Mr. Sinclair received me with the greatest kindness and cordiality. I supped with them at the Fort, and we afterwards smoked together at my camp.

'There are several Indians here, six tents of Wood Crees, and also some half-breed "free" hunters [hunters, that is, who are not in the Company's employ]; and as all of them keep several dogs, besides the large lot belonging to the Fort, it may be imagined what a nuisance it is. The whole evening and the whole night my men were pelting the beasts with sticks and stones; it was all we could do to save our meat and harness from their famished maws, though some of them must have been nearly killed by our missiles.'

August 3rd. - 'Mr. Macaulay and Mr. Sinclair breakfasted with me, and we afterwards rode to the horse-guard, about eight miles off. McKay came with us on Black, - whom I wished to exchange if possible. Near the place we met two boys some fourteen years of age, both of them riding. One was on a quiet old pony, but the other rode a beautiful bay yearling, full of spirit, and so large and well-made that it might easily have been thought two years older. This colt belonged to Mr. Rowand, an Orkney man of forty years' service with the Company, and celebrated for breeding fine horses; its rider was his son, who was considered about the best light-weight rider in the district.

'The horse guard was kept by an old French half-breed named Charlevoix, in whose tent we waited for the arrival of Mr. Rowand, to whom a message had been sent requesting him to meet us. A nice little girl came and seated herself on her father's feet as he squatted cross-legged on the ground in the Indian fashion; she was his particular pet. Outside there was a large drove of mares and horses, perhaps a hundred and fifty; among them, I observed a fine stallion. They were grazing in very rich plains, well watered but not wet, the best possible country for horses. All around was hilly, wood growing more or less abundantly over both hill and dale.

'Mr. Rowand, a pleasant-looking old man, was not long in coming. He saw Black gallop and then rode him himself. Both he and Mr. Sinclair wanted to get the horse, on account of his appearance and great speed, and various exchanges were proposed on all sides. Finally, I parted with him to Mr. Sinclair for a well-known buffalo runner, ten years old, a red roan with black points, called " Cendre," on account of his colour, and a very neat bichon pony, six years old, said to be a good runner also, which was bought on the spot at a large price from Charlevoix the horse-keeper.

'Considering further that I must soon leave my old Bichon, as he had got very thin, I thought it would be better both for myself and the poor beast to part with him now, so I negotiated an exchange with Mr. Rowand, who gave me a fine strong three-year-old "Cendre" in his stead, receiving also a few pounds besides. Bichon is at a discount here. They say he is older than I was led to believe, and that though once a very good runner, he has much fallen off. I daresay this is true, for he did not seem to me at all fast, although very lasting.

'Mr. Rowand at first wanted more on the exchange than I was inclined to offer, and we ended by dividing the difference. Hearing afterwards on good authority that he had got rather the worst of the bargain, I made out the order for the sum he originally mentioned, being unwilling to gain a profit at his expense. I rode the young horse home and liked him enough to assign that as a reason for valuing him at the larger sum. 'Mr. Rowand has several very good horses; unfortunately, he has a fancy for docking their tails, - spoiling their beauty and giving the flies a cruel advantage. In this country, they always work their horses at two years old, which seems a mistake.

'We got the carts and everything across the river and made a start in the afternoon. There was a steep bank to ascend, much higher than that on the northern side; having climbed it, however, we found a good hard road on the top, along which we drove for four or five miles and then camped.

I was riding Cendre (the Sinclair cendre, - the other one called "Rowand"), a handsome well-bred horse with a beautiful head peculiarly fine in the muzzle, large, intelligent, gentle eyes. Mr. Sinclair took an affectionate leave of his favourite. "Poor Cendre," he said, " I shall never see you again," I promised to bring the good horse back if care would do it, but I spent my words in vain. Mr. Sinclair firmly believed that the Rocky Mountains would finish Cendre, even if some of the others escaped, as he was older and more delicately bred than the rest of the band.

Not far from the Fort, we met a Cree riding alone, bearing with him a curious red-deer fawn-skin quiver filled with arrows. I asked Mr. Macaulay to buy it for me if possible, thinking the Indian would be willing to part with it, being so near his tents; but I afterwards heard that he did not succeed in getting it.

August 5th. - This morning we worked at turning large horseshoes into small ones for some of the ponies whose hoofs were much worn. M'Kay did an excellent job by heating the shoes in our campfire and bending and shortening them on the edge of an old axe.

At dinner, two men came to express with letters from Fort Pitt, of little consequence as it happened. These messengers had travelled fifty or sixty miles since sunrise. We got quantities of ducks in a small lake, which was perfectly alive with them. I shot some, and Short shot some, and Pointer caught numbers of young ones as they swam about the edges and tried to hide in the overhanging bushes, amidst which he ferreted them out most perseveringly.

Later in the day, as McKay and I rode together behind the carts, we observed a large white female wolf stealing after us some little distance in the rear. Wishing to shoot her, M'Kay dismounted as soon as we got out of sight, and hid himself in a bush close by the road, waiting till she came up; meanwhile, I went quietly on so as not to excite her suspicions.

Presently the wolf appeared again, still following right on our track. McKay let her almost touch the bush that concealed him, then gave her the whole of his first barrel; she staggered, but instantly recovering herself, leapt at his throat, with a tremendous spring; he was ready, however, and his second barrel hurled her backwards and rolled her into a lifeless heap. The gun was only loaded with small shot, intended for ducks, so that very close quarters were necessary in killing such an animal as a wolf, and this one was of the largest kind.

August 6th. - The country, which had been hilly since we left Fort Pitt, now became more and more wooded, with swamps in the hollows that lay between the hills. The mosquitoes were absolutely swarming; their bites, however, had ceased to swell up and fever me as formerly, so it was easier to bear with their horrible annoyance. The horses seemed to suffer more than we did. Little Bichon was quite lame in the near hind foot from stepping into the smoke fire one night; Cendre also had slightly burnt one of his hind feet in the same manner. The poor things used to crowd around the fire to avoid the tormenting flies, and in struggling to keep their position in the smoke, they pushed one another into the midst of the red-hot embers. "We made a smoke fire for them every night by heaping turf over burning, logs, leaving openings in the mound for the escape of the smoke, which would then continue to issue in dense clouds for hours together.

During the morning we passed by Black Mud Hill, named after a place near a swamp where the Indians have dug holes to get a certain substance found there [using it, I believe, for painting purposes]. It was of the colour and look of tar but with no perceptible smell.

Soon afterwards the sky began to threaten, and my tent was scarcely pitched, when the rain poured forth in torrents, drifting hard before a strong north-westerly gale.

While dinner went on a small dark-coloured bird came and perched itself on my table. It was so tame that it would not leave us, but kept hopping about among the men, and I had difficulty in saving its life from the thoughtless cruelty of one of them, whose Indian blood, I suppose, got the better of him. I was just in time to save our little visitor from having his neck wrung; strange to say, the man, a good-natured fellow at heart, seemed surprised I should care about such a trifle, though ready to oblige me by setting his prisoner free.

August 8th. - 'The rain lasted all Saturday night, the storm driving the water through my tent canvas in a constant fine drizzle of spray; by noon on Sunday it had partly cleared, but continued cloudy and showery. This morning it was very wet again; after dinner, however, we determined to start, as it seemed a little clearer, but it rained so heavily when we set out that M'Kay and La Grace wanted to halt in about an hour. This I objected to, so we went on and made a march of about sixteen miles, camping at last on a pleasant dry prairie instead of lingering among the long, wet, mosquito-stuffed grass in which we had spent our Sabbath - as my Scotsmen called it in true Presbyterian fashion.

'There was rain more or less all afternoon, but we were crossing an open plain, which looks less dismal than the woods under such circumstances.' We observed the track of a bear in a sandy place near some patches of bush, but the animal himself was not forthcoming.

August 9th. - 'A mild misty morning, which changed into a cloudy showery day. Met an American, Mr. Hind, with a Saskatchewan man driving pack-horses, on his road from Edmonton to Carlton. He tells me that the neighbourhood of Jasper's House, a Fort in the mountains, is a good country for game.

'While we were halting after dinner, the horses happened to move towards the camp, and foolish young Rowand must need come jumping along with his fore-feet close together as if in hobbles, which, from late experience, he fancied he had on him, though perfectly free. The men were as much amused as I was, declaring they had never seen such a thing before.

'Sometimes a horse will give two or three leaps just after the hobbles are taken off as if still feeling constrained, but that is not surprising. No one had been near Rowand since he was unsaddled, so there was nothing to remind him of his fetters. He is raw and awkward and lazily inclined, but I rather like him to ride. The Carlton Bichon is very smart.

'Halted in an open near a swampy lake. Mosquitoes are very bad, worse I think this afternoon than I ever knew them while actually on the march. At dinner time I lighted a small fire in my tent, and found it answered well in keeping them out.'

August I0th. - 'Had the little prairie fowls for breakfast, the size of blackbirds and perfectly delicious.

'Our track still through a flat country all wood and swamp; one can seldom see more than a hundred yards on either side, seldom as much, indeed. Fine hot weather again.

'Camped for the night on a knoll a few hours from Edmonton, from which there was a beautiful view over a circle of wooded plain, perfectly level except where the steep north bank of the river was discernible.

My tent was just pitched when a heavy thunderstorm began and lasted about an hour. After this, it cleared, and there was a lovely effect caused by the setting sun; on one side all was orange and gold, beneath a black cloud which melted into misty gray as it met the bright tints of the sunlight, and on the opposite side moved the dark departing thunder-cloud with a perfect rainbow enameled on its face.

'Sat up late reading "Much Ado about Nothing." The wolves howled, the night was very cold.'