I start from Edmonton with Dogs--Dog-travelling--The Cabri Sack--A Cold
Day--Victoria--"Sent to Rome"--Reach Fort Pitt--The blind Cree--A Feast or
a Famine--Death of Pe-na-koam the Blackfoot.
I was now making my way back to Edmonton, with the intention of there
exchanging my horses for dogs, and then endeavouring to make the return
journey to Red River upon the ice of the River Saskatchewan. Dog
travelling was a novelty. The cold had more than reached the limit at
which the saddle is a safe mode of travel, and the horses suffered so
much in pawing away the snow to get within reach of the grass lying
underneath, that I longed to exchange them for the train of dogs, the
painted cariole, and little baggage-sled. It took me four days to
complete the arrangements necessary for my new journey; and, on the
afternoon of the 20th December, I set out upon a long journey, with dogs,
down the valley of the Saskatchewan. I little thought then of the
distance before me; of the intense cold through which I was destined to
travel during two entire months of most rigorous winter; how day by day
the frost was to harden, the snow to deepen, all nature to sink more
completely under the breath of the ice-king. And it was well that all
this was hidden from me at the time, or perhaps I should have been
tempted to remain during the winter at Edmonton, until the spring had set
free once more the rushing waters of the Saskatchewan.
Behold me then on the 20th of December starting from Edmonton with three
trains of dogs--one to carry myself, the other two to drag provisions,
baggage, and blankets and all the usual paraphernalia of winter travel.
The cold which, with the exception of a few nights severe frost, had
been so long-delayed now seemed determined to atone for lost time by
becoming suddenly intense. On the night of the 21st December we reached,
just at dusk, a magnificent clump of large pine-trees on the right bank
of the river. During the afternoon the temperature had fallen below zero;
a keen wind blew along-the frozen river, and the dogs and men were glad
to clamber up the steep clayey bank into the thick shelter of the pine
bluff', amidst whose dark-green recesses a huge fire was quickly alight.
While here we sit in the ruddy blaze: of immense dry pine logs it will be
well to say a few words on dogs and dog driving.
Dogs in the territories of the North-west have but one function--to haul.
Pointer, setter, lurcher, foxhound, greyhound, Indian mongrel, miserable
cur or beautiful Esquimaux, all alike are destined to pull a sled of some
kind or other during, the months of snow and ice: all are destined to
howl under the driver's lash; to tug wildly at the moose-skin collar; to
drag until they can drag no more, and then to die. At what age a dog is
put to haul I could never satisfactorily ascertain, but I have seen dogs
doing some kind of hauling long be fore the peculiar expression of the
puppy had left their countenances. Speaking now with the experience of
nearly fifty days of dog travelling, and the knowledge of some twenty
different trains of dogs of all sizes, ages, and degrees, watching them
closely on the track and in the camp during 1300 miles of travel, I may
claim, I think, some right to assert that I possess no inconsiderable
insight into the habits, customs, and thoughts (for a dog thinks far
better than many of his masters) of the hauling dog. When I look back
again upon the long list of "Whiskies," "Brandies," "Chocolats,"
"Corbeaus," "Tigres," "Tete Noirs," "Cerf Volants," "Pilots,"
"Capitaines," "Cariboos," "muskymotes," "Coffees," and "Nichinassis" who
individually and collectively did their best to haul me and my baggage
over that immense waste of snow and ice, what a host of sadly resigned
faces rises up in the dusky light of the fire! faces seared by whip-mark
and blow of stick, faces mutely conscious that that master for whom the
dog gives up every thing in this life was treating him in a most brutal
manner. I do not for an instant mean to assert that these dogs were not,
many of them, great rascals and rank imposters; but Just as slavery
produces certain vices in the slave which it would be unfair to hold him
accountable for, so does this perversion of the dog from his true use to
that of a beast of burthen produce in endless variety traits of cunning
and deception in the hauling-dog. To be a thorough expert in dog-training
a man must be able to imprecate freely and with considerable variety in
at least three different languages. But whatever number of tongues the
driver may speak, one is indispensable to perfection in the art, and that
is French: curses seem useful adjuncts in any language, but curses
delivered in French will get a train of dogs through or over any thing.
There is a good story told which illustrates this peculiar feature in
dog-training. It is said that a high dignitary of the Church was once
making a winter tour through his missions in the North-west. The driver,
out of deference for his freight's profession, abstained from the use of
forcible language to his dogs, and the hauling was very indifferently
performed. Soon the train came to the foot of a hill, and notwithstanding
all the efforts of the driver with whip and stick the dogs were unable to
draw the cariole to the summit.
"Oh," said the Church dignitary, "this is not at all as good a train of
dogs as the one you drove last year; why, they are unable to pull me up
this hill!"
"No, monseigneur," replied the owner of the dogs, "but I am driving them
differently; if you will only permit me to drive them in the old way you
will see how easily they will pull the cariole to the top of this hill;
they do not understand my new method."
"By all means," said the bishop; "drive them then in the usual manner."
Instantly there rang out a long string of "sacré chien," "sacré diable,"
and still more unmentionable phrases. The effect-upon the dogs was
magical; the cariole flew to the summit; the progress of the episcopal
tour was undeniably expedited, and a-practical exposition was given of
the poet's thought, "From seeming evil still aducing good."
Dogs in the Hudson Bay territories haul in various ways. The Esquimaux in
the far North run their dogs abreast. The natives of Labrador and along
the shores of Hudson Bay harness their dogs by many separate lines in a
kind of band or pack, while in the Saskatchewan, and Mackenzie River
territories the dogs are put one after the other, in tandem fashion. The
usual number allowed to a complete train is four, but three, and
sometimes even two are used. The train of four dogs is harnessed to the
'cariole, or sled, by means of two long traces; between these traces the
dogs stand one after the other, the head of one dog being about a foot
behind the tail of the dog in front of him. They are attached to the
traces by a round collar which slips on over the head and ears and then
lies close on the swell of the neck; this collar buckles on each side to
the traces, which are kept from touching the ground by a back-band of
leather buttoned under the dog's ribs or stomach. This back band is
generally covered with little brass bells; the collar is also hung with
larger bells, and tufts of gay-coloured ribbons or fox-tails are put upon
it. Great pride is taken in turning out a train of dogs in good style.
Beads, bells, and embroidery are freely used to bedizen the poor brutes,
and a most comical effect is produced by the appearance of so much finery
upon the woefully frightened dog, who, when he is first put into his
harness, usually looks the picture of fear. The fact is patent that in
hauling the dog is put to a work from which his whole nature revolts,
that is to say the ordinary dog; with the beautiful dog of the Esquimaux
breed the case is very different. To haul is as natural to him as to
point is natural to the pointer. He alone looks jolly over the work and
takes to it kindly, and consequently he alone of all dogs is the best and
most lasting hauler; longer than any other dog will his clean firm feet
hold tough over the trying ice, and although other dogs will surpass him
in the speed which they will maintain for a few days, he alone can travel
his many hundreds of miles and finish fresh and hearty after all. It is a
pleasure to sit behind such a train of dogs; it is a pain to watch the
other poor brutes toiling at their traces. But, after all it is the same
with dog-driving as with every other thing; there are dogs and there
-are dogs, and the distance from one to the other is as, great as that
between a Thames barge and a Cowes schooner.
The hauling-dogs day is a long tissue of trial. While yet the night is
in its small hours, and the aurora is beginning to think of hiding its
trembling lustre in the earliest dawn, the hauling-dog has his slumber
rudely broken by the summons of his driver. Poor beast! All night long he
has lain curled up in the roundest of round balls hard by the camp;
there, in the lea of tree-stumps or snow-drift, he has dreamt the dreams
of peace and comfort. If the night has been one of storm, the
fast-falling flakes have added to his sense of warmth by covering him
completely beneath them. Perhaps, too, he will remain unseen by the
driver when the fatal moment comes for harnessing-up. Not a bit of it. He
lies ever so quiet under the snow, but the rounded hillock betrays his
hiding place; and he is dragged forth to the gaudy gear of bells and
moose-skin lying ready to receive him. Then comes the start. The pine or
aspen bluff is left behind, and under the grey starlight we plod along
through the snow. Day dawns, sun rises, morning wears into midday, and it
is time to halt for dinner; then on again in Indian file, as before. If
there is no track in the snow a man goes in front on snow-shoes, and the
leading dog, or "foregoer," as he is called, trots close behind him. If
there should be a track, however faint, the dog-will follow it himself;
and when sight fails to show it, or storm has hidden it beneath drifts,
his sense of smell will enable him to keep straight. Thus through the
long waste we journey on, by frozen lakelet, by willow copse, through
pine forest, or over treeless prairie, until the winter's day draws to
its close and the darkening landscape bids us seek some resting-place
for the night. Then the hauling-dog is taken out of the harness, and his
day's work is at an end; his whip-marked face begins to look less rueful,
he stretches and rolls in the dry powdery snow, and finally twists
himself a bed and goes fast asleep. But the real moment of pleasure is
still in store for him When our supper is over the chopping of the axe,
on the block of pemmican, or the unloading of the frozen white-fish from
the provision-sled, tells him that his is about to begin. He springs
lightly up and watches eagerly these preparations for his supper. On
the plains he receives a daily ration of 2 lbs. of pemmican. In the
forest and lake country, where fish is the staple food, he gets two large
white-fish raw. He prefers fish to meat, and will work better on it too.
His supper is soon over; there is a short after-piece of growling and
snapping at hungry comrade, and then he lies down out in the snow to
dream that whips have been abolished and hauling is discarded for ever,
sleeping peacefully until morning, unless indeed some band of wolves
should prowl around and, scenting campfire, howl their long chorus to the
midnight skies.
And now, with this introductory digression on dogs, let us return to our
camp in the thick pine-bluff on the river bank.
The night fell very cold. Between supper and bed there is not much time
when present cold and perspective early-rising are the chief features of
the night and morning. I laid down my buffalo robe with more care than
usual, and got into my sack of deer-skins with a notion that the night
was going to be one of unusual severity. My sack of deer-skins--so far it
has been scarcely mentioned in this journal, and yet it played no
insignificant part in the nightly programme. Its origin and construction
were simply these. Before leaving Red River I had received from a
gentleman, well known in the Hudson Bay Company, some most useful
suggestions as to winter travel. His residence of many years in the
coldest parts of Labrador, and his long journey into the interior of that
most wild and sterile land, had made him acquainted with all the
vicissitudes of northern travel. Under his direction I had procured a
number of the skins of the common cabri, or small deer, had them made
into a large sack of some seven feet in length and three in diameter. The
skin of this deer is very light, but possesses, for some reason with
which I am unacquainted, a power of giving great warmth to the person it
covers. The sack was made with the hair turned inside, and was covered on
the outside with canvass. To make my bed, therefore, became a very simple
operation: lay down a buffalo robe, unroll the sack, and the thing was
done. To get into bed was simply to get into the sack, pull the hood over
one's head, and go to sleep. Remember, there was no tent, no outer
covering of any kind, nothing but the trees--sometimes not many of
them--the clouds, or the stars.
During the journey with horses I had generally found the bag too warm,
and had for the most part slept on it, not in it; but now its time was
about to begin, and this night in the pine-bluff was to record a signal
triumph for the sack principle applied to shake-downs.
About three o'clock in the morning the men got up, unable to sleep on
account of the cold, and set the fire going. The noise soon awoke me, but
I lay quiet inside the bag, knowing what was going on outside. Now,
amongst its other advantages, the sack possessed one of no small value.
It enabled me to tell at once on awaking what the cold was doing outside;
if it was cold in the sack, or if the hood was fastened down by frozen
breath to the opening, then it must be a howler outside; then it was time
to get ready the greasiest breakfast and put on the thickest duffel-socks
and mittens. On the morning of the 22nd all these symptoms were
manifest; the bag was not warm, the hood was frozen fast against the
opening, and one or two smooth-haired dogs were shivering close beside my
feet and on top of the bag. Tearing under the frozen mouth of the sack, I
got out into the open. Beyond a doubt it was cold; I don't mean cold in
the ordinary manner, cold such as you can localize to your feet, or your
fingers, or your nose, but cold all over, crushing cold. Putting on coat
and moccassins as close to the fire as possible, I ran to the tree on
which I had hung the thermometer on the previous evening; it stood at 37
below zero at 3:30 in the morning. I had slept well; the cabri sack was a
very Ajax among roosts; it defied the elements. Having eaten a tolerably
fat breakfast and swallowed a good many cups of hot tea, we packed the
sleds, harnessed the dogs, and got away from the pine bluff two hours
before daybreak. Oh, how biting cold it was! On in the grey snow light
with a terrible wind sweeping up the long reaches of the river; nothing
spoken, for such cold makes men silent, morose, and savage. After four
hours travelling, we stopped to dine. It was only 9:30, but we had
breakfasted six hours before. We were some time before we could make
fire, but at length it was set going, and we piled the dry driftwood fast
upon the flames. Then I set up my thermometer again; it registered 39
below zero, 71 degrees of frost. What it must have been at day break I
cannot say; but it was sensibly colder than at ten o'clock, and I do not
doubt must have been 45 below zero. I had never been exposed to any thing
like this cold before. Set full in the sun at eleven o'clock, the
thermometer rose only to 26 below zero, the sun seemed to have lost all
power of warmth; it was very low in the heavens, the day being the
shortest in the year; in fact, in the centre of the river the sun did not
show above the steep south bank, while the wind had full sweep from the
north-east. This portion of the Saskatchewan is the farthest north
reached by the river in its entire course. It here runs for some distance
a little north of the 51th parallel of north latitude, and its elevation
above the sea is about 1801 feet. During the whole day we journeyed on,
the wind still kept dead against us, and at times it was impossible to
face its terrible keenness. The dogs began to tire out; the ice cut
their feet, and the white surface was often speckled with the crimson
icicles that fell from their wounded toes. Out of the twelve dogs
composing my cavalcade, it would have been impossible to select four good
ones. Coffee, Tête Noir, Michinass, and another whose name I forget,
underwent repeated whalings at the hands of my driver, a half-breed from
Edmonnton named Frazer. Early in the afternoon the head of Tête Noir was
reduced to shapeless pulp from tremendous thrashings. Michinass, or the
"Spotted One," had one eye wherewith to watch the dreaded driver, and
coffee had devoted so much strength to wild lurches and sudden springs in
order to dodge the descending whip, that he had none whatever to bestow
upon his legitimate toil of hauling me. At length, so useless did he
become, that he had to be taken out altogether from the harness and left
to his fate on the river. "And this," I said to myself, "is dog-driving;
this inhuman thrashing and varied cursing, this frantic howling of dogs,
this bitter, terrible cold is the long-talked of mode of winter travel!"
To say that I was disgusted and stunned by the prospect of such work for
hundreds of Miles would be-only to speak a portion of what I felt. Was
the cold always to be so crushing? were the dogs always to be the same
wretched creatures? Fortunately, no; but it was only when I reached
Victoria that night, long after dark, that I learned that the day had
been very exceptionally severe, and that my dogs were unusually miserable
ones.
As at Edmonton so in the fort at Victoria the small-pox had again broken
out; in spite of cold and frost the infection still lurked in many
places, and in none more fatally than in this little settlement where,
during the autumn, it had wrought so much havoc among the scanty
community. In this distant settlement I spent the few days of Christmas;
the weather had become suddenly milder, although the thermometer still
stood below zero.
Small-pox had not been the only evil from which Victoria had suffered
during the year which was about to close; the Sircies had made many raids
upon it during the summer, stealing-down the sheltering banks of a small
creek which entered the Saskatchewan at the opposite side, and then
swimming the broad river during the night and lying hidden at day in the
high corn-fields of the mission. Incredible though it may appear, they
continued this practice at a time when they were being; swept away by the
small-pox; their bodies were found in one instance dead upon the bank of
the river they had crossed by swimming when the fever of the disease had
been at its height. Those who live their lives quietly at home, who sleep
in beds, and lay up when sickness comes upon them, know but little of
what the human frame is capable of enduring if put to the test. With us,
to be ill is to lie down; not so with the Indian; he is never ill with
the casual illnesses of our civilization: when he lies down it is to
sleep for a few hours, or-for ever. Thus these Sircies had literally kept
the war-trail till they died. When the corn-fields were being cut around
the mission, the reapers found unmistakable traces of how these wild men
had kept the field undaunted by disease. Long black hair was found where
it had fallen from the head of some brave in the lairs from which he had
watched the horses of his enemies; the ruling passion had been strong in
death. In the end, the much-coveted horses were carried off by the few
survivors, and the mission had to bewail the loss of some of its best
steeds. One, a mare belonging to the missionary himself, had returned to
her home after an absence of a few days, but she carried in her flank a
couple of Sircie arrows. She had broken away from the band, and the
braves had sent their arrows after her in an attempt to kill what they
could not keep. To add to the-misfortunes of the settlement, the buffalo
were far out in the great plains; so between disease, war, and famine,
Victoria had had a hard time of it.
In the farmyard of the mission-house there lay-a curious block of metal
of immense weight'; it was ringed,-deeply indented, and polished on the
outer edges of the indentations by the wear and friction of many years.
Its history was a curious one. Longer than any man could say, it had lain
on the summit of a hill far out in the southern prairies. It had been a
medicine-stone of surpassing virtue among the Indians over a vast
territory. No tribe or portion of a tribe would pass in the vicinity
without paying a visit to this great-medicine: it was said to be
increasing yearly in weight. Old men remembered having heard old men say
that they had once lifted it easily from the ground. Now no single man
could carry it. And it was no wonder that this metallic stone should be a
Manito-stone and an object of intense veneration to the Indian; it had
come down from heaven; it did not belong to the earth, but had descended
out of the sky; it was, in fact an aerolite. Not very long before my,
visit this curious stone had been removed from the hill upon which it had
so long rested and brought to the Mission of Victoria by some person from
that place: When the Indians found that it had been taken away, they
were loud in the expression of their regret. The old medicine men
declared that its removal would lead to great misfortunes and that war,
disease, and dearth of buffalo would afflict the tribes of the
Saskatchewan. This was not a prophecy made after the occurrence of the
plague of small-pox, for in a magazine published by the Wesleyan Society
in Canada there appears a letter from the missionary, setting forth the
predictions of the medicine-men a year prior to my visit. The letter
concludes with an expression of thanks that their evil prognostications
had not been attended with success. But a few months later brought all
the three evils upon the Indians; and never, probably, since the first
trader had reached the country had so many afflictions of war, famine,
and plague fallen upon the _Crees and the Blackfeet as during the year
which succeeded the useless removal of their Manito-stone from the lone
hill-top upon which the skies had cast it.
I spent the evening of Christmas Day in the house of the missionary. Two
of his daughters sang very sweetly to the music of a small melodian. Both
song and strain were sad--sadder, perhaps, than the words or music could
make them; for the recollection of the two absent ones, whose
newly-made graves, covered with their first snow, lay close outside,
mingled with the hymn and deepened the melancholy of the music.
On the day after Christmas Day I left Victoria, with three trains of
dogs, bound for Fort Pitt. This time the drivers were all English
half-breeds, and that tongue was chiefly used to accelerate the dogs. The
temperature had risen considerably, and the snow was soft and clammy,
making the "hauling" heavy upon the dogs. For my own use I had a very
excellent train, but the other two were of the useless class.` As
before, the beatings were incessant, and I witnessed the first example
of a very common occurrence in dog-driving--I beheld the operation known
as "sending a dog to Rome." This consists simply of striking him over the
head with a large stick until he falls perfectly senseless to the
ground; after a little he revives, and, with memory of the awful blows
that took his consciousness away full upon him, he pulls franticly at his
load. Oftentimes a dog is "sent to Rome" because he will not allow the
driver to arrange some hitch in the harness; then, while he is
insensible, the necessary alteration is carried out, and when the dog
recovers he receives a terrible lash of the whip to set him going again.
The half-breeds are a race easily offended, prone to sulk if reproved;
but at the risk of causing delay and inconvenience I had to interfere'
with a peremptory order that "sending to Rome" should be at once
discontinued in my trains. The wretched "Whisky," after his voyage to the
Eternal City, appeared quite overcome with what he had there seen, and
continued to stagger along the trail, making feeble efforts to keep
straight. This tendency to wobble caused the half-breeds to indulge in
funny remarks, one of them calling the track a "drunken trail."
Eventually, "Whisky" was abandoned to his fate. I had never been a
believer in the pluck and courage of the men who are the descendants of
mixed European and Indian parents. Admirable as guides, unequalled as
voyageurs, trappers, and hunters, they nevertheless are wanting in those
qualities which give courage or true manhood. "Tell me your friends and I
will tell you what you are ": is a sound proverb, and in no sense more
true than when the bounds of man's friendships are stretched Wide.
enough to admit those dumb companions, the horse and the dog. I never
knew a man yet, or for that matter a woman, worth much who did not like
dogs and horses, and I would always feel inclined to suspect a man who
was shunned by a dog. The cruelty so systematically practised upon dogs
by their half-breed drivers is utterly unwarrantable. In winter the poor
brutes become more than ever the benefactors of man, uniting in
themselves all the services of horse and dog--by day they work, by night
they watch, and the man must be a very cur in nature who would inflict,
at such a time, needless cruelty upon the animal that renders him so much
assistance. On this day, the 29th December, we made a night march in the
hope of reaching Fort Pitt. For four hours we walked on through the dark
until the trail led us suddenly into the midst of an immense band of
animals, which commenced to dash around us in a high state of alarm. At
first we fancied in the indistinct moonlight that they were buffalo, but
another instant sufficed to prove them horses. We had, in fact, struck
into the middle of the Fort Pitt band of horses, numbering some ninety or
a hundred head. We were, however, still a long way from the fort, and as
the trail was utterly lost in the confused medley of tracks all round us,
we were compelled to halt for the night near midnight. In a small clump
of willows we made a hasty camp and lay down to sleep. Daylight next
morning showed that conspicuous landmark called the Frenchman's Knoll
rising north-east; and lying in the snow close beside us was poor
"Whisky." He had followed on during the night from the place where he had
been abandoned on the previous day, and had come up again with his
persecutors while they lay asleep; for, after all, there was one fate
worse than being "sent to Rome," and that was being left to starve. After
a few hours run we reached Fort Pitt, having travelled about 150 miles
in three days and a half.
Fort Pitt was destitute of fresh dogs or drivers, and consequently a
delay of some days became necessary before my onward journey could be
resumed. In the absence of dogs and drivers Fort Pitt, however, offered
small-pox to its visitors. A case had broken out a few days previous to
my arrival impossible to trace in any way, but probably the result of
some infection conveyed into the fort during the terrible visitation of
the autumn. I have already spoken of the power which the Indian possesses
of continuing the ordinary avocations of his life in the presence of
disease. This power he also possesses under that most terrible
affliction-the loss of sight. Blindness is by no means an uncommon
occurrence among the tribes of the Saskatchewan. The blinding glare of
the snow-covered plains, the sand in summer, and, above all, the dense
smoke of the tents, where the fire of wood, lighted in the centre, fills
the whole lodge with a smoke which is peculiarly trying to the sight-all
these causes render ophthalmic affections among the Indians a common
misfortune. Here is the story of a blind Cree who arrived at Fort Pitt
one day weak with starvation: From a distant camp he had started five
days before, in company with his wife. They had some skins to trade, so
they loaded their dog and set out on the march--the woman led the way,
the blind man followed next, and the dog brought up the rear. Soon they
approached a plain upon which buffalo were feeding. The dog, seeing the
buffalo, left the trail, and, carrying the furs with him, gave chase.
Away out of sight he went, until there was nothing for it but to set out
in pursuit of him. Telling her husband to wait in this spot until she
returned, the woman now started after the dog. Time passed,--it was
growing late, and the wind swept coldly over the snow. The blind man began
to grow uneasy; "She has lost her way," he said to himself; "I will go
on, and we may meet." He walked on--he called aloud, but there was no
answer; go back he could not; he knew by the coldness of the air that
night had fallen on the plain, but day and night were alike to him. He
was alone--he was lost. Suddenly he felt against his feet the rustle of
long sedgy grass--he stooped down and found that he had reached the
margin of a frozen lake. He was tired, and it was time to rest; so with
his knife he cut a quantity of long dry grass, and, making a bed for
himself on the margin of the lake, lay down and slept. Let us go back to
the woman. The dog had led her a long chase, and it was very late when
she got back to the spot where she had left her husband-he was gone, but
his tracks in the snow were visible, and she hurried after him. Suddenly
the wind arose, the light powdery snow began to drift in clouds over the
surface of the plain, the track was speedily obliterated and night was
coming on. Still she followed the general direction of the footprints,
and at last came to the border of the same lake by which her husband was
lying asleep, but it was at some distance from the spot. She too was
tired, and, making a fire in a thicket, she lay down to sleep. About the
middle of the night the man awoke and set out again on his solitary way.
It snowed all night: the morning came, the day passed, the night closed
again--again the morning dawned, and still he wandered on. For three days
he travelled thus over an immense plain, without food, and having only
the snow wherewith to quench his thirst. On the third day he walked into
a thicket; he felt around, and found that the timber was dry; with his
axe he cut down some wood, then struck a light and made a fire. When the
fire was alight he laid his gun down beside it, and went to gather more
wood; but fate was heavy against him, he was unable to find the fire
which he had lighted, and by which he had left his gun. He made another
fire, and again the same result. A third time he set to work; and now, to
make certain of his getting back, again, he tied a line to a tree close
beside his fire, and then set on to gather wood. Again the fates smote
him-his line broke, and he had to grope his way in weary search. But
chance, tired of ill-treating him so long, now stood his friend--he found
the first fire, and with it his gun and blanket. Again he travelled on,
but now his strength began to fail, and for the first time his heart sank
within him--blind, starving, and utterly lost, there seemed no hope on
earth for him. "Then," he said, "I thought of the Great Spirit of whom
the white men speak, and I called aloud to him, 'O Great Spirit! have
pity on me, and show me the path! and as I said it I heard close by the
calling of a crow, and I knew that the road was not far off. I followed
the call; soon I felt the crusted snow of a path under my feet, and the
next day reached the fort." He had been five days without food.
No man can starve better than the Indian--no man can feast better either.
For long days and nights, he will go without sustenance of any kind; but
see him when the buffalo are near, when the cows are fat; see him then if
you want to know what quantity of food it is possible for a man to
consume at a sitting. Here is one bill of fare:--Seven men in thirteen
days consumed two buffalo bulls, seven cabri, 40 lbs. of pemmican, and a
great many ducks and geese, and on the last day there was nothing to eat.
I am perfectly aware that this enormous quantity could not have
weighed less than 1600 lbs. at the very lowest estimate, which would
give a daily ration to each man of 18 lbs.; but, incredible as this may
appear, it is by no means impossible. During the entire time I remained
at Fort Pitt the daily ration issued to each man was 10 lbs. of beef.
Beef is so much richer and coarser food than buffalo meat, that 10 lbs.
of the former would be equivalent-to 15lbs. or 16 lbs. of the latter, and
yet every scrap of that 10 lbs. was eaten by the man who received it. The
women got 5 lbs., and the children, no matter how small, 3 lbs. each.
Fancy a child in arms getting 3 lbs. of beef for its daily sustenance!
The old Orkney men of the Hudson Bay Company servants must have seen in
such a ration the realization of the poet's lines, "O Caledonia, stern
and wild! Meet nurse for a poetic child," etc. All these people at Fort
Pitt were idle, and therefore were not capable of eating as much as if
they had been on the plains. The wild hills that surround Fort Pitt are
frequently the scenes of Indian ambush and attack, and on more than one
occasion the fort itself has been captured by the Blackfeet. The region
in which Fort Pitt stands is a favourite camping-ground of the Crees,
and the Blackfeet cannot be persuaded that the people of the fort are not
the active friends and allies of their enemies in fact, Fort Pitt and
Carlton are looked upon by them as places belonging to another company
altogether from the one which rules at the Mountain House and at
Edmonton. "If it was the same company," they-say, "how could they give
our enemies, the Crees, guns and powder; for do they not give us guns
and powder too?" This mode of argument, which refuses to recognize that
species of neutrality so dear to the English heart, is eminently
calculated to lay Fort Pitt open to Blackfeet raid. It is only a few
years since the place was plundered by a large band, but the general
forbearance displayed by the Indians on that occasion is nevertheless
remarkable. Here is the story:
One morning the people in the fort beheld a small party of Blackfeet on a
high hill at the opposite side of the Saskatchewan. The usual flag
carried by the chief was waved to denote a wish to trade, and accordingly
the officer in charge pushed off in his boat to meet and hold converse
with the party. When he reached the other side he found the chief and a
few men drawn up to receive him.
"Are there Crees around the fort?" asked the chief.
"No," replied the trader; "there are none with us."
"You speak with a forked tongue," answered the Blackfoot--dividing his
fingers as he spoke to indicate that the-other was speaking falsely.
Just at that moment something caught the traders eye in the bushes along
the river bank; he looked again and saw, close alongside, the willows
swarming with naked Blackfeet. He made one spring back into his boat, and
called to his men to shove off; but it was too late. In an instant two
hundred braves rose out of the grass and willows and rushed into the
water; they caught the boat and brought her back to the shore; then,
filling her as full as she would hold with men, they pushed off for the
other side. To put as good a face upon matters as possible, the trader
commenced a trade, and at first the batch that had crossed, about forty
in number, kept quiet enough, but some-of their number took the boat back
again to the south shore and brought over the entire band; then the wild
work commenced, bolts and bars were broken open, the trading-shop was
quickly cleared out, and in the highest spirits, laughing loudly at the
glorious fun they were having, the braves commenced to enter the houses,
ripping up the feather beds to look for guns and tearing down calico
curtains for finery. The men of the fort were nearly all away in the
plains, and the women and children were in a high state of alarm.
Sometimes the Indians would point their guns at the women, then drag them
off the beds on which they were sitting and rip open bedding and
mattress, looking for concealed weapons; but no further violence was
attempted, and the whole thing was accompanied by such peals of laughter
that it was evident the braves had not enjoyed such a "high old time" for
a very long period. At last the chief, thinking, perhaps, that things had
gone quite far enough, called out, in a loud voice, "Crees! Crees!" and,
dashing out of the fort, was quickly followed by the whole band.
Still in high good humour, the braves recrossed the river, and, turning
round on the farther shore, fired a volley to Wards the fort; but as the
distance was at least 500 yards, this parting salute was simply as a
bravado. This band was evidently bent on mischief. As they retreated
south to their own country they met the carts belonging to the fort on
their way from the plains; the men in charge ran off with the fleetest
horses, but the carts were all captured and ransacked, and an old
Scotchman, a servant of the Company, who stood his ground, was reduced to
a state bordering upon nudity by the frequent demands of his captors.
The Blackfeet chiefs exercise great authority over their braves; some of
them are men of considerable natural abilities, and all-must be brave and
celebrated in battle. To disobey the mandate of a chief is at times to
court instant death at his hands. At the present time the two most
formidable chiefs of the Blackfeet nations are Sapoo-max-sikes, or "The
Great Crow's Claw;" and Oma-ka-pee-mulkee-yeu, or "The Great Swan."
These men are widely different in their characters; the Crow's Claw being
a man whose word once given can be relied on to the death, but the
other is represented as a man of colossal size and savage disposition,
crafty and treacherous.
During the year just past death had struck heavily among the Blackfeet
chiefs. The death of one of their greatest men, Pe-na-koam, or "The
Far-off Dawn," was worthy of a great brave. When he felt that his last
night had come, he ordered his best horse to be brought to the door of
the tent, and mounting him he rode slowly around the camp; at each
corner he halted and called out, in a loud voice to his people, "The last
hour of Pe-na-koam has come; but to his people he says, Be brave;
separate into small parties, so that this disease will have less power
to kill you; be strong to fight our enemies the Crees, and be able to
destroy them. It is no matter now that this disease has come upon us, for
our enemies have got it too, and they will also die of it. Pe-na-koam
tells his people before he dies to live so that they may fight their
enemies, and be strong." It is said that, having spoken thus, he died
quietly. Upon the top of a lonely hill they laid the body of their chief
beneath a tent hung round with scarlet cloth; beside him they put six
revolvers and two American repeating rifles, an at the door of his tent
twelve horses were slain, so that their spirits would carry him in the
green prairies of the happy hunting-grounds; four hundred blankets were
piled around as offerings to his memory, and then the tribe moved away
from the spot, leaving the tomb of their dead king to the winds and to
the wolves.