Fort Pitt to Fort Carlton.

November 8th. - About midday, we took leave of the warmth and shelter of Port Pitt and resumed our cheerless journey. We were now much better equipped for enduring the cold, having provided ourselves with a considerable stock of winter clothing.

My men were all in their new attire - white flannel leggings were drawn over their trousers and gartered below the knee; moccasins of enormous size, stuffed with wraps of blanketing; thick white or blue capots over their leather shirts. There were fur caps, too, in great variety: McKay had chosen a round one of otter skin, McBeath a muff-shaped bearskin; Kline, Matheson, and Toma wore the entire skins of foxes, coiled round their broad-brimmed felt hats. My cap was of marten, with mink under the ear-pieces but I am anticipating, this was made for me at Carlton a few days afterwards. Duncan appeared in a white capot with a hood - so transfigured that I hardly knew him. We were all furnished with leather mittens, of course; - roomy, flannel-lined, fingerless gloves, which we carried slung around our necks, that our hands might be slipped in and out as circumstances required. For my benefit, I had invented a special luxury, consisting of a pair of immense buffalo-robe boots, with the hair inside, very wide and long, to draw easily over everything and come a good way above the knee. While new I thought them masterpieces, for they were exceedingly warm and comfortable, but perpetual scorching from our huge campfires burnt and shrivelled them by degrees into much less convenient proportions.

The horses all looked vastly the better for their long rest; and so did old Lagrace, who, when he arrived at the Fort, was rather suffering from the effects of the journey, which had come hard on a man of his age. Instead of pack saddles, we were now provided with horse sleds, as these conveyances were generally called. Their construction is of the simplest nature, nothing more than three thin elastic boards, turned up in front with a strong curve, and firmly fastened together, to form a platform about ten feet long, by one and a half wide. A single horse works each of them in shafts and draws a considerable load without difficulty. Carts cannot travel in the snow, for the wheels clog up with ice at every turn, and keep sliding about instead of revolving in the usual manner.

The river being entirely frozen over, we availed ourselves of the winter road, which by crossing and recrossing cuts off a large bend, and offers the advantage of saving about half a dozen miles. In most places, the snow was at least a foot in depth, but the day was so fine that we made excellent progress all the same, not stopping till we arrived at the red-deer Hills, where we halted and camped for the night.

Mr. Isbister joined us at supper and stayed with us till the following morning. He had travelled from the Fort in a dog-sleigh of his own, drawn by four very handsome dogs, - for whom he had been offered a pair of good horses, but he knew the value of his team too well to part with it. Some distance on the way he had overtaken an old Indian woman in great distress and perplexity. She was making a journey with two dogs drawing their "travaux," * and had halted for the night, when to her alarm she found herself unable to kindle a fire, through the failure of all her matches. Nothing remained for her but to sleep in the snow, without fire, and almost without clothing - a pitiable situation indeed, as the cold was extreme and a snowstorm beginning to come on. Strange to say, Mr. Isbister had no matches with him, but to make up for the disappointment he very kindly lent her his buffalo robe. Indians can always light a fire with flint and touchwood, matches, however, are apt to puzzle them; probably the old woman had made some ignorant mistake and thus destroyed the store on which her life depended.

November 9th. - 'We set out in the teeth of a snowstorm drifting furiously before a high north wind - the cold intense. My beard and moustaches were frozen harder than ever before; my left eye had an icicle hanging from the eyelashes: I expected to be frost-bitten, and kept rubbing my nose and ears continually - it was positive suffering. It is melancholy to think that more than a month of this hardship lies before us, between this and Fort Garry. Then a fortnight more of it to St. Paul - frail nature shrinks - all work and sorrow, small hope of sport, nothing new or curious to be seen - mere labour, labour, labour.

'It was rather less cold after breakfast, but the wind and snow lasted all day. Camped early at English River, where Waupoose fell in with me on the 1st of August.'

November 10th. - 'Snowing, and very cold in the morning, and misty all day; the snow, however, ceased about noon. Saw three buffalo bulls near Horse Hill, - where we dined, - and afterwards a band of about twenty. I tried an approach on foot, while two of the men went round on horseback. They were in so bad a place no one could have stalked them; the men had a shot, but killed nothing.

'Halted at Turtle River, after a very short march. In the wood which sheltered our camp, we found a platform on which a quantity of buffalo meat had been stored by Indians or half-breed hunters, and from this, we took enough for supper, - according to the rule of the country, which is the same as that of the old Scotch gooseberry-garden - "Eat what ye can, but pouch nane."'

November 11th. - 'A fine day, clear and sunny in the afternoon. Dined a few miles beyond White Mud Lake, which we crossed on the ice. Little did I think, during the pleasant Sunday passed by us on the banks of this lake last August, that we should come homewards riding our horses upon the surface of those waters, which I then beheld gleaming under the powerful rays of the summer sun, and never expected to look upon again.

'It is astonishing how winter transforms an uncultivated country. There are no houses and fences to serve as landmarks, and divide the snowy waste; all that lovely colouring of trees, grass, and water, which in the genial months of the year lends charm and variety to the scene, is hidden and obliterated under a garment of weary whiteness. The plains are mere heaps of snow, dotted with brown spots where naked clumps of poplar brush uplift their heads and the lakes are only distinguishable by the absence of bushes and by the greater smoothness of their surface.

'In the evening we reached Jackfish Lake, and marched on the ice, keeping always close to the shore. This lake is bordered by hills on the northern side so that even now it is picturesque; in summer it is very beautiful.

'We camped about sundown, - the sun setting in a clear sky, and the moon rising full-orbed, out of a purple and orange cloud, over the low mountains of the lake.

'Yesterday we found a little Indian dog beside a deserted camp, - very nearly starved. It followed us, and we fed it and treated it kindly. Poor wretch, she can hardly keep up, and now and then howls dolefully. Pointer is half killed by the cold, he whines and trembles all day long.' [We made him a blanket coat to cover his thin and delicate skin, but he constantly twisted it and entangled his legs, so we were obliged to take it away. He got safely, however, to the I journey's end, and was left at Carlton or Pelly, forget which, to pass the rest of the winter, before returning to Mr. McKay at Fort Ellice.]

November l2th. - 'Marched more than an hour before sunrise; cold intense; my men supposed it to be 30° below zero. It is sometimes 50° below zero, in this part of the country.

'Dined at the lake where we camped on the 29th of July, and crossed it on the ice, - soon after which we saw four buffalo bulls. Met a party from Carlton bringing the mail, and likewise the "green hands" - as the newly engaged men are called - for the upper Forts. The verdant ones consisted of five or six young Scotch lads, who did not look half strong enough for the work in store for them. It was useful to have their track to go on, as it relieved us from the necessity of sending two men forward on snowshoes to make a path for the sleds.

Weather was sunny and bright; our road passed through a picturesque hilly country. In the evening we camped by a clump of poplars, about twelve miles from "The Springs". There was an aurora during the night. For part of the time the light swept in an upward curve from Aldebaran to Capella, and thence ran in several horizontal bands through Ursa Major, all of them ending on a line with the level of Arcturus.'

[I think it was on this day that the setting sun shed wild and wonderful hues over a snow-covered range of hills directly in front of us. They seemed to be all aglow with fire; not in soft roseate or golden tints, but with a super-natural, lurid glare of cold combustion, a hellish light, hateful though beautiful to behold. One other day, about the same time, I was more than commonly struck with the exquisite beauty of the contrast, where the glittering white intensity of the snowy, boundless plains, cut sharp against the clear azure intensity of the boundless sky, unsullied by the slightest speck of cloud. It was the very type of "light without sweetness," - of a pure passionless angel of judgment, to whom error and mercy were alike unknown.]

Sunday, November 13th. - 'Off before sunrise: weather clear and comparatively mild After dinner the wind blew hard from the east, and a snowstorm began. The cold was very great, as the snow came violently against our faces. We rode on till some while after dark, and by the time we halted my eyes were nearly frozen up, - my mouth had been all but closed long before, beard and moustaches being glued together in a solid mass of ice. [For part of the way our road was hardly discoverable, so heavy was the storm; McKay, however, with the assistance of Short, who seemed almost to work by instinct, unfailingly managed to preserve the right direction.]

'At length, we arrived at a lake called "Le Lac de I'Ours qui nage," - about five miles from where we had halted on our second night from Carlton, - and there encamped. Two or three hours afterwards the snow ceased to fall, and a single streak of aurora, resembling the tail of a comet, appeared in the western sky.'

November 14th. - 'A little snow in the morning, but afterwards it was a fine sunny day - what we called warm, though every breath of wind dispelled that illusion. 'Camped early near Salt Lake, because wood is scarce farther on; a few buffaloes were moving about on the other side. 'The country has been very pretty today, wooded and hilly, with innumerable lakes, of all sizes, wherever there is a hollow. Many of them are fantastically shaped. They stand at all levels, some near the tops of the hills, some halfway down, others - generally much larger - in the valleys below.'

November 15th. - Reached Fort Carlton early in the afternoon.

November 16th - l8th. - Chiefly occupied us buying and exchanging horses, as some of my band were unfit to go farther, and those left here in summer were still weak from an attack of the epidemic, which had seized them soon after they came. Vermont was looking pretty well, but poor little Morgan was the mere shadow of his former self. I had intended to take them home with me, but this being now out of the question, I was glad to place them in good hands, by an arrangement with Mr. Hardisty, who wished to become their owner. 'little Pitt-Bichon, Blond alias McGillis, "Waupoose the second, and the McLeod River skewbald stallion.

Among those newly added to my lot was a very pretty long-tailed bay pony, named "Ned," which Mr. Hardisty transferred to me in part exchange for Morgan and Vermont. Ned - who was said to be a first-rate buffalo runner, and had all the appearance of it - had originally belonged to the Blackfeet, from whom he had been stolen by the Cree. When brought in by his captors, he was found to be painted over with curious devices and scented with aromatic herbs, which showed how much he had been valued by his former possessor. The Blackfeet are said to be very fond of their horses and very careful of them, differing in that respect from the Cree's and Assiniboine's, who are rough and unmerciful masters. I was also to receive, as part of another bargain, the fine young bay horse that Napesskes rode back from the horse guard after we visited that place in July; being now fairly broke in, it had become a handy, quiet, and very useful animal.

[By Mr. Hardisty's orders, a great drove of horses had been gathered together in an enclosure, to choose out those to be allotted to me on hire or exchange. As each animal, was selected, a noose was thrown over his head, and he at once yielded himself an unresisting captive. One cast, however, unluckily missed its mark, and the noose, dropping among the feet of the hurrying crowd of horses, fixed and tightened itself around the hind fetlock of a very handsome white mare, - unbroke and unhandled, and as wild as any prairie buffalo. Her efforts to escape were frantic; though several men went to help with the line they could barely hold her, far less overpower her.

Strong measures now became necessary, for at any cost her foot had to be disentangled; another line was brought the noose was cast around her neck, and then all hands pulled together till she was choked into insensibility. Never did I witness such struggles. She writhed and strained against the rope, her veins swelling, her eyes starting from their sockets; she reared, she pawed the air with a sublime fury; - but her efforts were vain, the line pressed tighter and tighter, drawn yet more closely by her violence, and in a few moments she lay helpless on the ground. The nooses were taken off: ere long she recovered and galloped away, apparently none the worse for her adventure.]

The weather had again become much colder than during the last few days. No thermometer could be found at the Fort, but reference to a register formerly kept, gave 54° below zero as the extremist cold of the previous winter season. This was the temperature one day in February [1858].

November 19th. - We left the Fort after dinner, and made a short march of three miles, to place ourselves in readiness for the journey on the following day. Mr. Hardisty rode with me till we camped, and stayed for a few hours afterwards: and then we parted, to my very sincere regret, for it grieved me to bid farewell to a companion so agreeable, and a friend so obliging, as he had constantly proved himself during my two visits to Fort Carlton.*

There were now fifteen horses in our band. We had added another sled to the former number, making five in all, - by no means too many for the bulk and weight of our baggage and provision stores.