Cherry Bush, the Bad Hill, Fort Carlton.

July 19th. - We busied ourselves, this excessively hot morning, in making preparations for a hunt on the range of hills where grissly bears were reported to be so numerous. I determined to take only some of my men, as there was full employment for the rest of the party, during the short time we were likely to be absent, in killing buffalo to increase our miserably scanty store of dried provisions.

It was about 1 o'clock when we set out. The Bichon carried me as usual, Numme rode Nez-blanc, and Duncan was mounted on the Gris. Napesskes, that clever good-looking Indian, accompanied us in the capacity of guide. By birth, he was really of French half-breed origin, but having always lived with the Indians he completely resembled them in his looks and habits, and nobody much remembered about his European blood. To honour the occasion he had arrayed himself in a new coat, - no less than a superfine blue cloth surtout, with gilt buttons, and a high velvet collar of an anciently fashionable cut; but instead of trousers he wore leather leggings of the Indian pattern, which reached but a certain way up his limbs, and when the wind blew back his coat skirts there was a strange exhibition of rich mahogany-coloured skin. His long, straight, black hair was twisted into a quantity of tails bound round with coils of brass wire. It was he that the day before he had borrowed Black for a run with the buffalo, but for this journey, he was mounted on quiet little Spot, as different a sort of steed as one could well imagine. Kline completed the party, driving a lightly laden cart drawn by the horse we brought from the White Horse Plains - Blond, alias McGillis, the handsome and still fat chestnut with the silky flowing mane and tail.

For three miles our road ran due west over the country I had crossed in my latest run; after that, we partly altered our course and tended more in a southerly direction.

A cabree appeared on the rise of a little hill, and came forward to stare at us; I dismounted, and gave him a couple of shots, killing him with the second at 120 yards. He was a three-year-old male with but a poor head, not having yet attained his full growth.

Before we had gone much farther the 'country entirely changed in its aspect instead of half-dry salt swamps, with here and there a sandy knoll, we now came to a wide arid prairie, level in character but rising occasionally into hills of trifling elevation. Far as the eye could reach these plains were covered with troops of buffalo, thousands and thousands were constantly in sight. I might have shot plenty of old bulls, but it would have been mere cruel butchery; and the cows, as usual, were very hard to approach. I did not wish to over-tire Bichon by running him, and when one attempts an open to advance on foot - concealment on such ground being impossible the buffalo always keep sheering off as soon as you get within 200 yards of the nearest. If you follow, they merely repeat the move and always manage to preserve the same distance. I dismounted and tried one or two long shots at cows but without any perceptible result. no After perhaps twenty miles' travelling under the excessive heat of the sun, we at length beheld, at no great distance before this, our destined camping place, the Bad Hill.

This ominous name relates to some great misfortune that there befell the Cree or Assiniboine, but the tradition is lost, or at any rate, was unknown to my people. It is a range of hills, or rather one continuous hill, extending about ten miles in length; in height, it does not exceed a few hundred feet, and its outline is plain and rounded; it is scored by many deep ravines, for the most part, overgrown with poplars and thick brushwood, which form a favourite haunt of the grizzly bear.

A fatal accident happened at this place about a year before my visit. Two Indians, while gathering berries on the hill, were attacked by a grizzly who was lying concealed among the bushes. One man he instantly knocked down, then seized the other and killed him: meanwhile, the first succeeded in making his escape. The Indians are afraid to stop in one particular glen, which is very much frequented by these savage bears; we, however, had no hesitation about camping there, as it had the advantage of a remarkably fine spring of water.

Besides the risk of lurking grizzlies, which did not much trouble us, there was the far more serious risk of Blackfoot war parties, for this hill lay right in their accustomed path. If they had come 'Napesskes's neat, boat-shaped skull would have been shorn of its covering, the Cree and Blackfeet being now at war; our horses, too, would have been taken - if nothing worse.'

Between us and the Bad Hill, as it first appeared in view, stretched a flat valley of fine level prairie land, to which we descended along a gentle slope, and after two or three miles' Ill travelling arrived at the stream which flows beneath the hill - the Eagle Creek again, at that point not far from where it takes its rise. The water was brackish, just as it was in the lower part of its course. We crossed it easily and camped at about 8 P.M. in the woody ravine which has been already mentioned.

July 20th. - Rising before daybreak I set out with Numme and Napesskes to look for bears. We rode in an easterly direction and passed through several glens without seeing any living creature, until, in one deep narrow dell, we came suddenly upon a small female deer, - a "roe" my people called it. She slowly approached us, eyeing us with the prettiest timidly inquisitive glances, till on getting very close her keen nostrils told her a truer tale than her eyes had, skill for, and away she bounded and hid herself in the leafy shades.

We had nearly reached the farthest ravine towards the hill's north-eastern extremity, when we at last beheld some of the objects of our search: a large female grizzly bear and her cub walking about in the open, on high bare ground, not far from the upper part of a dense-growing thicket of brushwood.

We immediately gave chase to cut them off from the covert: they were too quick for us and made good their retreat into its deep recesses long before our arrival within the rifle. On this Numme and I dismounted, and crossing the little stream that ran along the bottom of the glen, now immediately beneath us, we began to ascend the opposite bank near the thicket where the bears were sheltering. Suddenly Numme called out - Shoot! and on looking round I saw the large bear sitting up on its haunches, full in view, but it was not less than 150 yards from the place where we stood. The light was indifferent, and the large rifle in my hand was quite unfamiliar to me, having only once been tried all, and never at long range, - I would not attempt the shot at such a distance; meanwhile the grizzly turned back into the bush and began to cross the ravine.

We returned to the side we had come from and rejoined Napesskes, who had posted himself at the edge of a bank that commanded a clear view for some way down the descent. Presently a buffalo bull came rushing out from below, and Napesskes said that he saw the bear strike it as it passed. A minute or two afterwards appeared the bear itself it stopped on a little knoll right below us and about 100 yards off, reared itself on its hind legs, and swayed slowly from side to side, staring at us and trying to get our wind. Quickly putting aside the heavy rifle, I took my favourite Purdey and fired. The first shot missed; the bear turned itself half round; before it got its forefeet to the earth I struck it hard and fair with the second shot. It nearly fell over, then partly recovered: we expected it to charge, but with no attempt to do so, it rushed away into the thickest of the bushes.

At that moment Numme (who had gone to the opposite side) saw a bear running rapidly past, and fired both barrels of my No. 12 at it, hitting it, as he rather thought, with one ball.

'We rode across and joined him. were now on a steep bank, with thick underwood beneath us, and could see the bushes moving to and fro as the wounded bear writhed and raged in his pain; we could also hear its heavy panting, but the beast itself was quite concealed. Presently we heard it splashing in the water just below; then it lay still, and neither shots nor stones could move it.

'We went down close to the thicket where it was and watched for a long time. Numme said that it was lying hid, crouching in readiness to clutch anyone who came within reach, and if (as he supposed) it was a female with a cub, it would be doubly savage and dangerous. He assured me it would not do to go into the bush, which, besides being twice as high as a man, was as dense as a common thorn hedge. I confess I should have been sorry to go in, but had the hunters advised doing so, of course, I should have gone. Napesskes afterwards said that he would have been willing, but that Numme objected. As the former speaks nothing but Cree and made no signs, I could not say what might have been the extent of his readiness. To go in appeared to me sheer madness.

We at length determined to leave the place, and return in the evening, or next morning, by which time the bear would be to dead, or at any rate stiff from its wound; so we rode back camp and breakfasted.

'Afterwards, we rode along the whole length of the hill, exploring all the valleys, but saw nothing except the small deer which somewhat answered to our "roe." They are called "Black-tailed Cabrees" by the Indians, but improperly, for the cabree is an antelope, and does not shed its horns as this deer does.*

'There was an extensive view from the top of the hill, though the day, was not very clear. The Bad Hill faces to the north-west running south-west is the long-range called the Roasting Hill, near which Tait was camped. Between the western extremities of these ranges there lies a small lake, out of which flows the Eagle Creek. A long way to the southeast is a larger piece of water called the Little Devil's Lake. This Bad Hill is the farthest point to which the Crees and Stonies [Assiniboines] ever come, as there is no wood for an immense distance beyond it when journeying in the Blackfoot direction. Captain Blakiston hunted over the neighbouring plains, but it is believed that no European (not a resident in the country) has been on the hill but myself. Arrowsmith's map [1859] is utterly wrong hereabouts. It places Eagle Hill Creek about forty miles north-west from its real position.' *

Returning in the evening we perceived a few buffalo feeding on a strip of rugged broken ground that stretched along the foot of the hill and formed an intermediate belt between the higher and lower levels. I went towards them alone, and had no difficulty in making my stalk, crawling under cover of a little rocky knoll till I got within range of the cows that seemed to be in fairest order. I fired at a rather good one, and hit her low on the flank; at that instant another shot struck her from the opposite side, the two reports almost mingling in one. It was Napesskes, who having gone forward in search of buffalo some while before, had, by a strange coincidence, stalked and shot at the same cow that I was stalking, neither of us having the least idea as to his fellow-hunter's proceedings.

The wounded cow staggered almost to falling; she had the strength, however, to move heavily on. Napesskes went in pursuit and I was just in time to get a shot at another cow while she was in the act of disappearing over the knoll, and my bullet raked her from stern to stem. She stopped, crawled on few yards, and then Numme finished her.

Napesskes meanwhile was following the wounded cow down into the plain, and as soon as she arrived there a bull came forward to protect her, keeping constantly at her side, and putting himself always between her and danger's way. For a good while he would not be driven off, and Napesskes, with laudable humanity, refrained from killing him; at length, however, the skilful hunter managed to scare him away, and then very easily secured his companion. We found her to be tolerably fat, - a fortunate circumstance for us, for our provisions were nearly all expended.

'It is very cool at night at our elevated camp, though the days are so hot; and this is a comfort, as the cold keeps the mosquitoes down, - indeed I am almost beginning to forget the existence of the plagues. This respite, and the good spring water, have made me feel much better than in some time past. There is a great scarcity of pure water in the central country. From Crow-wing to Fort Ellice we did not see a single spring. There is a fine, though small, running stream flowing into the Qu'Appelle near where we crossed, from that place to this we have found nothing at all resembling it. Our drink has been either swamp water, bad-tasting and full of insects, or else muddy river water. Wild raspberries, strawberries, and gooseberries grow abundantly on the Bad Hill.'

July 21st. - Again I rose at daybreak and set out in search of the wounded bear. All the party went with me except Kline, who was to follow us with the cart when he had finished packing up the tent and the rest of the baggage. On reaching the ravine where we expected to find the grizzly, Numme Duncan, and I, crossed over to the place where it had last been moving among the bushes, while Napesskes stopped on the bank I had shot from, to report if anything broke out that way. Leaving Duncan with the horses, lest they should take alarm through some glimpse of the lurking enemy, Numme and I then entered the thicket on our knees, creeping along side by side, our weapons on full cock, - I carrying the large Dickson rifle, he bringing forward one of my twelve-bore Purdey guns.

'The bushes seemed almost impenetrably thick, but after crawling through the outer brush we found a sort of path about two yards wide. It led to a small pool of water over-arched with thick brushwood, and beside it, we saw the grizzly bear lying dead on its back, with its legs outstretched and its bowels protruding from a hole in the side of its belly.

'Numme, who, as yet, had supposed it to be a female, now held up his hands in surprise. "C'est un taureau!" he exclaimed; and sure enough it was, being a male not quite full grown, - about three years old. The tracks of a cub were stamped in the mud all around, most singularly like a child's footmarks. This brought such thoughts to my mind that I felt almost glad the little bear and its mother had escaped. She had probably slipped away in the bush, while the male, already there, showed himself and got shot.

'At first, on seeing the large wound in the bear's side, I thought Numme must have hit it with the twelve-bore, but we soon discovered the small round hole where my conical ball had entered, on the right side above the hip, spreading in its passage through the animal's body to tear a great ragged hole on the opposite side. Numme kept all along assuring me that the shot could not have been his, but I thought he might be saying this from mere politeness. Now, however, there could be no mistake, for though a small bullet may make a large hole, a large bullet cannot make a small one. We skinned the bear and took his skull.

* No object could be more appallingly hideous than a fresh-skinned bear. It is like a monstrous misshapen man, of giant strength and devilish ferocity, - a true Hans of Iceland. His head especially, all raw and grinning, is "a thing to dream of, not to tell."

'Close by the carcass grew a profusion of wild mint, the very scent of which seemed to draw ugliness from its disgusting neighbourhood. I often used to put mint leaves into my tea to correct the taste of the foul swamp water; I never did so again. " From the eater came forth meat, from the strong came sweetness," was no true proverb for me.

The skinning operations were well over, and we breakfasted. Then, having been joined by Kline, with his cart, we set out on our return to Cherry Bush. As we were travelling along, we came upon a newborn buffalo calf: we merely looked at it and went our way, leaving it quietly crouching in the grass. The mother cow, however, seeing us so near its resting place, came running from the herd, and full of the notion that her little one was being carried off, the poor foolish creature never went to see if it were still where she had hidden it, but kept following on and on, watching all our movements with an air of most pitiable anxiety. In vain we tried to drive her back, she would not be driven, and she seemed incapable of fear; but after a long time, she quit us on her own accord, and slowly retraced her steps: we hoped that she found the little calf alive and safe and well, but most probably the wolves had devoured it while she was far away.

The buffalo were trooping all over the plains, not in dense enormous herds, but broken into innumerable small straggling bands. I was more than ever struck with the likeness of the old bulls to lions, as we saw them standing apart on the low ridges and sandy knolls, eyeing us from afar with an air of savage watchfulness, - each neck crested with a luxuriant mane, swelled into greater largeness by the hump beneath it, each short, tufted tail held straight out from the body in bold and lion-like defiance. In one scattered herd, I noticed an animal towering far above the rest; it was one of those glossy, flat-sided, long-legged oxen already spoken of. They fall into this condition in calf-hood, either from the attacks of wolves or from measures taken by the Indians. As these cattle are rare, besides being the best for meat, I began to run him, wishing to secure a fine specimen; however, I soon gave him up, for he had so long a start and went so well that I could not hope to overtake him without the risk of losing my people, and perhaps falling among hostile war-parties. When nearer home I ran a cow and shot her very easily; she was poor and lean, which accounted for her bad running, so we only took her tongue.

About 2 o'clock we reached Cherry Bush. Just as dinner was over, a few bulls rushed past close by the tents, and some being wanted at the time, we all turned out to shoot them I fired at a young bull galloping hard, about 200 yards off, and broke his foreleg with the Purdey rifle; I then chased him Dickson in hand, blazing at him as I ran in dreadfully out of breath, and by chance hitting him in the ribs. It was a mere graze, and he would have escaped, for I had no ammunition with me, but McKay and Kline coming up at the moment followed on in pursuit, and the former stopped him with a well-planted bullet.

It was lucky that the bear was dead when Numme and I crawled up to him, for, on shooting off the Dickson rifle, both barrels hung fire badly, having been too long loaded, and much shaken on the saddle. The check would have thrown out my aim at the critical moment, and we should have been at the mercy of the grizzly, who, in such a thicket, and at such close quarters, would have killed us both, unless the old hunter had shot a good deal better than he had lately made a habit of doing.

I was vexed to find that my absence had lost me the chance of a larger bear than the one I had just brought home. It came prowling about the hunter's camp the very day we started for the Bad Hill, and Tait, while riding alone, discovered it in a swamp, and ran it to bay in a small piece of water, where he shot it without difficulty. It was a full-grown male, and very thin.

McKay, by my permission, had been giving Morgan a trial with the buffalo. He found my gallant pony both fast and fearless, and as good as any trained runner and succeeded in shooting five cows off his back in a single race. McBeath shot two off Waupoose (who was now himself again), and shot the same number off La Framboise, - an animal who went well while he lasted, but very soon shut up. "We were thus plentifully supplied with meat, which the Carlton women were engaged in drying for us.

[During our stay my people made a set of cart harnesses in a very singular manner. They carved it out in its proper shape on the very body of a bull as he lay back upwards, and then lifted it up completely in a single piece. The sun quickly dried the rawhide, and it turned into the toughest of leather. They also made some of the long lines that are used for so many purposes. These they carved out in the same fashion from the hind quarters of a hull, by forming a series of spirally enlarging circular cuts, passing the knife under them, and lifting off the hide exactly like the skin of a well-peeled apple or orange. The ends were then attached to two stakes, between which the strip was tightly stretched, it soon became a straight and perfect line.

When running buffalo, the hunter generally carries a line of this sort coiled up and tucked under his belt, one end being fastened to the horse's head. Should a fall take place, as it frequently does when badger-holes are numerous, the line uncoils itself from the rider's belt as he is quitting the saddle, and trails upon the ground, making it easier for him to recover his horse.]

July 22d. - The hunters were starting to run buffalo: so I had Morgan saddled and went with them. The brave little horse dashed to the front, perfectly obedient, full of life and spirit. I singled out the leading band of cows and tried hard to close for a shot, but it was long ere I could approach them, though the pony was straining every nerve and going quite magnificently. After two miles of it, they showed signs of failing, and the poorer ones stopped. I cheered on little Morgan and urged him to his utmost; he made new efforts, dashed forward, and brought me near one of the finest, one of a sleek pair that kept well before the rest of the band. My wrist was tired from holding a heavy five-chambered carbine, - I missed the first shot, but, closing with the cow again, I gave her a second; it told hard on her and she nearly stopped.

Looking at her as safe, I followed her companion, and ran her for some distance; but finding the chase likely to be too long, I returned to the wounded one I had left behind. She had partly recovered and galloped off in a way that surprised me, however, I soon overtook her; she turned short round and came to bay beside a pool of water among the sand hills. I stopped my pony. The cow instantly made a slow but vicious charge, then resumed her former position; and this maneuver she repeated whenever I drew up in hopes of getting a steady shot - there she stood, her head incessantly towards me, her eyes glowing with rage.

* Again and again, I tried to pass around her, but she always baffled me by quickly revolving in her place, sometimes trotting forward a few steps as if intending to charge; meanwhile, my beautiful pony, brave as a lion, seemed ready to rush against her very horns, pressing towards her even, so that I was obliged to restrain his ardour.

But the end came at last. Taking a moment when the buffalo lowered her head, I gave her a shot somewhere in the neck or chest. The sudden stroke confused her, she half-turned, and offered me a fairer chance; then I shot her through the heart, and the gallant cow fell dead, with her face still to the foe.

Tying my neck handkerchief to her horns to scare the wolves away, I returned for a cart, and McKay and Short getting into it, we went off together to fetch her home. Morgan had done enough, so I took Vermont instead. He was 'as idiotically as usual,' going out reluctantly but pulling back, hurting my hands most cruelly by this perverse conduct, for they were blistered from buffalo-running without gloves under a scorching summer sun. After some search, we found the cow. She was surrounded by wolves, but none of them had dared to brave the terrors of my black and white handkerchief. While the cutting-up proceeded, I hid myself in a sand hollow close by, and fired at several of these greedy sneaking thieves, killing one - a large female; and on the way home, I struck another. 'The wolves are detestable wretches, but do more good than harm to man, seldom attacking horses or human beings, and devouring carcasses and left to rot.'

* offal that would breed a pestilence if It is their habit to hang around the buffalo herds, preying on any young or sickly animals that fall into their clutches, but carefully shunning the horns of the strong old bulls. A young calf separated from its mother stands but a poor chance. That very day we saw a tolerably large one pursued by a band of wolves in a string of a quarter of a mile, each following at a few yards' intervals behind the other. The foremost, considerably in advance, was close upon the calf, which was bleeding at the nose and throat; - another minute would have settled its destiny, but McKay galloped up and overtook the wolf, too busy to notice him, and shot it in the haunch, saving the poor calf at any rate for a time. If it failed to find its mother the reprieve must have been short enough.

'Last night the wolves and the innumerable dogs at Tait's camp made noise enough to wake the dead. The dogs were disgusting with their horrible yelp and yowl, but I confess to a liking for the wild, melancholy, and almost musical notes of the wolf. Buffalo bulls, roaming about unscared by our tents, were bellowing around us all the while. [The sound is rather deep than loud]; I have heard louder roaring from stags in many a Scottish deer forest. The Bulls were beginning their rutting season. Pairs might everywhere be seen outside the herds, consisting of a cow and an attendant bull who had taken her away from the rest; but this I believe was rather exceptional, the sexes generally remaining together in large bands as usual.

'I find buffalo meat tolerably good, but not nearly equal to fine beef. It is better in autumn they say, so I suspend my judgment.' Thus runs my journal, but I believe I was mistaken in that depreciatory opinion. In fact, we never kept the meat long enough, being obliged by the heat and the "flies to use it the day it was killed, or soon after, which prevented it from having a fair chance to become tender.

One of the women brought in the bearskin, very nicely prepared. It looked remarkably well, but I confidently expected to get much larger specimens of the grizzly before my journey was completed.

These Indian women had been most serviceable to us in dressing skins and heads, drying meat, and mending or making clothes; so, when adding a small present to the mere payment for their work, I was glad to find among my stores a parcel of beads exactly to their taste. It amused me to see that fashion reigned here as imperiously as in more civilized lands; some fine, richly-coloured, oval beads, the size of pigeon's eggs, which I considered my best, and which a year or two before would have been generally admired, were despised and out of date, while the little trashy white ones, no bigger than a pin's head, were highly appreciated. Perhaps the small beads were valued as useful for embroidery, in which the Indian and half-breed women excel; while the larger ones, only serving for necklaces and ornaments, had come to be thought too barbaric by those who lived at the Forts.

'In the course of the afternoon, the men employed themselves feats of strength and skill. McKay seemed strongest in the arm. Kline showed himself both strong and active. Among other performances, he rolled, a stick from under him, from breast to feet, while raising himself off his chest on his arms alone.'

I did not like the five-shot revolver carbine. It was very heavy, so short as to cause difficulty in clearing the horse's head when shooting forward, and there was such an escape at the breech as to scorch one's wrists and burn one's shirt sleeves - for in the hottest weather we often left our coats at home. The first shot made Morgan shake his ears a while, the muzzle being so close to them, and when I afterwards fired from the shoulder several grains of powder struck pretty sharply upon my left cheek.

The twelve-bore guns answered best for buffalo-running, being quickly loaded; - though too precious to be loaded in the quickest way, as the half-breeds manage the affair. These hunters go into action with their mouths full of bullets and a large horn of powder around their neck, and after each discharge pour a chance handful of powder down the barrel, spit a bullet in on the top, and strike the stock against their heel to send all home; the lock being of the old flint-and-steel pattern, with a very large touch-hole, arranges itself if the chamber is closed. Of course, the gun, thus loosely loaded, is held upright till the moment of firing, when the muzzle is so sharply tilted downwards that the ball has not time to drop out before the powder acts, though now and then a burst does happen. The half-breeds never fire off the shoulder from horseback, but hold the gun out with both hands, in which manner some of them shoot accurately to a good long distance.

July 23d. - While we were at the Bad Hill, Indians came from a great camp of Crees, a day's march from Tait's, and reported that Blackfoot war parties were spread all over the country, and had been trying to entrap them into ambuscades, unsuccessfully, however, 'as they had been too often caught to be easily caught again.' This news determined me to go to Fort Carlton instead of Fort Pitt, for thus I might hope not only to escape the Blackfeet, who would steal my horses, but also to avoid the Crees, who would certainly be troublesome, even if they did not plunder to the same extent; besides which we should gain the advantage of travelling with Tait's people, who were now preparing for their return. As I had hunted enough for the present, there was no longer any object in continuing the direct march to Fort Pitt, except the possible saving of a few days on the journey to Edmonton. That course, however, involved several risks of loss and delay, and it was clearly worthwhile to sacrifice a little time by way of insurance.

I was well pleased with our sport among the buffalo, which to my mind could scarcely have been improved. Had slaughter been the chief object, we might have slain hundreds of bulls and lean cows - nothing could have been more easily done; but such cruelty would have weighed heavy on my conscience, and, to give my men justice, they showed no inclination for mere wanton massacre. Not counting two or three bulls shot after a fine run and allowed every chance for their lives, or slain under some sudden excitement, I could safely say that no buffalo had been killed by myself or my men except for good, or at all events definite and sufficient, reasons.

My own success I considered very satisfactory. I had picked out from an immense herd a bull with a head that everybody admired; and, besides shooting several good cows, I had killed one - the fine barren cow that Morgan had out-raced so gallantly which was acknowledged to surpass any animal shot by the hunters at either encampment. It was time to leave off. We had all had enough of it, and the lean and fagged condition of our horses told the same tale; for buffalo running under a July sun comes hard upon grass-fed animals already wearied by a long and toilsome journey.

That morning, accordingly, tents were struck in both the camps, and we all set out after breakfast, journeying nearly due north as we made our way together in the direction of Fort Carlton. From the time we passed the Roasting Hills, the country became uninteresting, chiefly consisting of damp prairies, covered with long grass and varied with swamps and bush, or poplar islands scattered here and there on the verdant sea of the plain. We soon came to a regular beaten cart track; no game was anywhere to be seen, for the buffalo were all on the other side of the hills, so, for most of the time, I made myself comfortable in the wagon, travelling smoothly enough upon that level road, by no means sorry to rest myself after the last week's toil, and glad to spare my riding horses as much as possible.

The absurd Bichon, delighted to find himself again in richer pasture, beguiled the time by feasting on flowers in his old peculiar way. Poor little Morgan! I looked at him with a sorrowful heart. It grieved me that we were so soon to be parted. But he was far too thin and worn to go on to the mountains; there was no choice but to leave him at Carlton to recruit for the homeward journey.

On the 24th we camped at a wooded creek, a few miles beyond the Elbow of the North Saskatchewan. The river at this place has hardly half the breadth of water that the South Branch possesses where it makes its great Elbow; the banks of the former are more wooded than those of the southern stream, but neither so wild nor so roughly and picturesquely broken into heights. In the neighbourhood of our camp rose a fine spring, but it was too strongly flavoured with iron ore to be useful for ordinary purposes.

The next day we made an early start, travelling for some miles before breakfast, and by the afternoon we had arrived at Carlton and encamped ourselves near the river a few hundred yards from the Fort.

Mr. Hardisty, the officer in charge, at once came to welcome us, offering every assistance in the most kind and obliging manner. He stayed a while at my tent, and we had tea together, after which he returned to the Fort, where, by his hospitable invitation, I might have had a room, but as our stay was to be but a short one, I preferred remaining under my own canvas.

As things turned out, it was a bad arrangement; for, presently, a set of drunken Indians pushed into the camp, prying everywhere, and making themselves quite at home, and between this intrusion and the savage attacks of the mosquitoes it was long before we could settle ourselves comfortably for the night.