Prepared by Arthur Wendover and Andrew Sly.
Through the Mackenzie Basin
A Narrative of the Athabasca and Peace River Treaty Expedition of 1899
By Charles Mair
To the Hon. David Laird
Leader of the Treaty Expedition of 1899
This Record is Cordially Inscribed
By His Old Friend the Author
CONTENTS
Introduction
Important events of the year 1857--The _Nor'-Wester_ newspaper--The
Duke of Newcastle and the Hudson's Bay Co.'s Charter--The
"Anglo-International Financial Association"--The New Hudson's Bay
Company--Offers of American capitalists to purchase the Company's
interests--Bill providing for purchase of the same introduced into
the United States Congress--Senator Sumner's memorandum to Secretary
Fish--Various efforts to arouse public interest in the Hudson's Bay
Territories--Former Treaties with the Indians--Motives for treating
with the Indians of Athabasca--Rush of miners and prospectors into
the district--The Indian Treaty and Half-breed Commission--The Royal
North-West Mounted Police Contingent--Special stipulations with the
Indians provided for.
Chapter I
From Edmonton To Lesser Slave Lake
Arrival of Treaty and Half-breed Commissions at Edmonton--Departure
for Athabasca Landing--Tawutináow peat beds, etc.--Arrival at the
Landing--The gas well there--Boats and trackers--Mr. d'Eschambault
and Pierre Cyr--Non-arrival of trackers--Police contingent volunteers
to track a boat to Lesser Slave Lake--Nature of country, burnt
forests, muskegs, etc.--Tracking; its difficulties--The old Indian
tracker Peokus--Forest and river scenery--Placer mining--Absence of
life along the river--Fertile soil.
Chapter II
Lesser Slave River And Lesser Slave Lake
Lesser Slave River--Its proper name--Migration of the great Algic
race--Bishop Grouard's service in the wilderness--Returning
Klondikers--The rapids; poling--Accident to Peokus--Celebration of
Père Lacombe's fiftieth year of missionary labors--Arrival of
half-breed trackers from Lesser Slave Lake--Great hay meadows on the
Lesser Slave River--The island in Lesser Slave Lake--Trackers'
gambling games--Swan River--A dangerous squall--Chief Factor Shaw--A
free-traders' village.
Chapter III
Treaty At Lesser Slave Lake
The Treaty point at last--Our camp at Lesser Slave Lake--The Treaty
ground and assembly--"Civilized" Indians--Keenooshayo and Moostoos--The
Treaty proceedings--The Treaty Commissioners separate--Vermilion and
Fort Chipewyan treaties--Indian chief asks for a railway--Wahpoośkow
Treaty--McKenna and Ross set out for Home--Commission issued to J. A.
Macrae--Numbers of Indians treated with.
Chapter IV
The Half-Breed Scrip Commission
The half-breeds collect at Lesser Slave Lake--They decide upon cash,
scrip or nothing--Honesty of the half-breeds and Indians--Ease
of parturition amongst their women--Cree family names and their
significance--Catherine Bisson--Native traits--The mongrel dog--Gambling
and dancing--The "Red River jig".
Chapter V
Resources Of Lesser Slave Lake Region
Indian lunatics: The Weeghteko--Treatment of lunatics in old Upper
Canada--Lesser Slave Lake fisheries--Stock-raising at the lake--Prairies
of the region--The region once a buffalo country--Quality of the
soil--Wheat and roots and vegetables--Unwise to settle in large numbers
in the country at present--The "blind pig"--A native row.
Chapter VI
On The Trail To Peace River
On the trail to Peace River--The South Heart River--Good farming
lands--The Little Prairie--Peace River Crossing--The vast banks of
the Peace a country in themselves--Wild fruits--Prospectors from
the Selwyn Mountains--The Poker Flat Mining Camp--Buffalo paths and
wallows--Magnificent prairies between Peace River Landing and Fort
Dunvegan--Fort Dunvegan--Sir George Simpson and Colin Fraser--Some
townships blocked here--The Roman Catholic Mission--Baffled miners
returning--The natives of Dunvegan--Relics of the old régime--Large
families the rule--The Church missions--Back to Peace River
Crossing--Tepees, tents and trading stores--Mr. Alexander Mackenzie--The
sites of old fur posts--Indian names of the Peace River--Description
of the agricultural and other resources of the Upper Peace River--The
Chinook winds--Grand Prairie--Rainfall scanty on prairies throughout the
River--Lack of waggon roads and trail facilities.
Chapter VII
Down The Peace River
The descent of the Peace River--Wolverine Point--A good farming
country--Paddle River and Keg of Rum River prairies--Heavy spruce
forests here--Vermilion settlement--The Lawrence family and
farm--Extensive wheat fields--Cattle and hog raising--Locusts--Symptoms
of volcanic action--Old Lizotte and old King Beaulieu--The Chutes of
Peace River--The Red River; its rich soil and prairies--Peace Point--A
wild goose chase--The Gargantuan feasts of Peace River--The Quatre
Fourches--Athabasca Lake.
Chapter VIII
Fort Chipewyan To Fort McMurray
Fort Chipewyan and Athabasca Lake--Colin Fraser's trading-post--The
Barren Ground reindeer--Feathered land game--The Indians of Fond du
Lac--Mineral resources--First companies formed to prospect the Great
Slave Lake minerals--The Helpman party--The Yukon Valley Prospecting
and Mining Company--Assays of copper ore--A great mineral country--A
railway required from Chesterfield Inlet to develop it--Moss of
the Banner Lands--Lake Athabasca the rallying place of the Déné
race--Meaning of Indian generic names--"Mackenzie's country"--Its
first traders--The North-West Company--The original Indians--The
mastodon believed by the natives to exist--Return of Klondikers from
Mackenzie River--Their bad conduct--By steamer _Grahame_ to Fort
McMurray--Killing a moose--Fort McMurray.
Chapter IX
The Athabasca River Region
The tar-banks--Characteristic features of the river--The rapids of
the Athabasca--The cut-banks--A freshet--A fine camp--The "Indian
lop-stick"--The natural gas springs--Grand Rapids--Coal abundant--Good
farming country--The Point at House River--The Joli Fou Rapid--Bad
tracking--Pelican Portage--Spouting gas well--Matcheese, the Indian
runner.
Chapter X
The Trip To Wahpoośkow
The Pelican River--Poling and paddling--Character of the river
and country--Great hay meadows--An Indian runner--The Pelican
Mountains--Muskegs and rich soil--Pelican Lake the height of
land--Abundance of fish--The first Wahpoośkow Lake--The second
lake--Mission of Rev. C.R. Weaver--Other missions of the C.M.S.--Mission
of the Rev. Father Giroux--Other Roman Catholic missions--Indians and
half-breeds--The crows and the fish--A ball at Wahpoośkow--Farming land
and muskeg in the district--Superstitions of the Indians--Polygamy and
polyandry--The changing woods--The _fœx populi_--A little
beauty--Calling River--Another ancient woman and her memories--Our
return to Athabasca Landing.
Conclusion
Introduction
The important events of A.D. 1857, and the negotiations which led
to the Transfer of the Hudson's Bay Territories--Former Treaties
and the Treaty Commission of 1899.
The terms upon which Canada obtained her great possessions in the
West are generally known, and much has been written regarding the
tentative steps by which, after long years of waiting, she acquired
them. The distinctively prairie, or southern, portion of the
country and its outliers, constituting "Prince Rupert's Land,"
had been claimed by the Hudson's Bay Company since May, 1670, as
an absolute freehold. This and the North-West Territories, in
which, under terminable lease from the Crown, the Company exercised,
as in British Columbia, exclusive rights to trade only, were, as
the reader knows, transferred to Canada by Imperial sanction at
the same time. It is not the author's intention, therefore, to
cumber his pages with trite or irrelevant matter; yet certain
transactions which preceded this primordial and greatest treaty
of all not unfittingly may be set forth, though in the briefest
way, as a pardonable introduction to the following record.
The year 1857 was an eventful one in the annals of "The North-West,"
the name by which the Territories were generally known in Canada.
[An important event in Red River was begot of the stirring
incidents of this year, namely, the starting at Fort Garry, in
December, 1859, by two gentlemen from Canada, Messrs. Buckingham
and Caldwell, of the first newspaper printed in British territory
east of British Columbia and west of Lake Superior. It was called
the _Nor'-Wester_, but, having few advertisements, and only a limited
circulation, the originators sold out to Dr. (afterwards Sir John)
Schultz, who, at his own expense, published the paper, almost down
to the Transfer, as an advocate of Canadian annexation, immigration
and development.] In that year two expeditions were set afoot to
explore the country; one in charge of Captain Palliser, [Strange
to say, Captain Palliser reported that he considered a line of
communication entirely through British territory, connecting the
Eastern Provinces and British Columbia, out of the question, as
the Astronomical Boundary adopted isolated the prairie country
from Canada. Professor Hind, on the other hand, in the same year,
standing on an eminence on the Qu'Appelle, beheld in imagination
the smoke of the locomotive ascending from the train speeding
over the prairies on its way through Canada from the Atlantic to
the Pacific.] equipped by the Imperial Government, and the other,
under Professor Hind, at the expense of the Government of Canada.
An influential body of Red River settlers, too, at this time
petitioned the Canadian Parliament to extend to the North-West
its government and protection; and in the same year the late Chief
Justice Draper was sent to England to challenge the validity of the
Hudson's Bay Company's charter; and to urge the opening up of the
country for settlement. But, above all, a committee of the British
House of Commons took evidence that year upon all sorts of questions
concerning the North-West, and particularly its suitability for
settlement, much of which was valueless owing to its untruth.
Nevertheless, the Imperial Committee, after weighing all the evidence,
reported that the Territories were fit for settlement, and that it
was desirable that Canada should annex them, and hoped that the
Government would be enabled to bring in a bill to that end at the
next session of Parliament. Five years later, the Duke of Newcastle,
who became Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1859, and
accompanied the Prince of Wales to Canada as official adviser
in 1860, having in his possession the petition of the Red River
settlers, as printed by order of the Canadian Legislature, brought
the matter up in a vigorous speech in the House of Lords, in which
he expressed his belief that the Hudson's Bay Company's charter
was invalid, though, he added, "it would be a serious blow to the
rights of property to meddle with a charter two hundred years old.
But it might happen," he continued, "in the inevitable course of
events, that Parliament would be asked to annul even such a charter
as this, in order, as set forth in the Queen's Speech, that all
obstacles to an unbroken chain of loyal settlements, stretching
from ocean to ocean, should be removed." British Columbia, which
had become a Province in 1858, has now urging the Imperial Government
with might and main to furnish a waggon-road and telegraph line
to connect her, not only with the Territories and Canada, but
with the United Empire. She was met by the stiffest of opposition,
the opposition of a very old corporation strongly entrenched in
the governing circles of both parties. But the clamour of British
Columbia was in the air, and her suggestions, hotly opposed by
the Company, had been brought before the House of Lords by
another peer. In the discussion which followed, the Duke of
Newcastle declared that "it seemed monstrous that any body of
gentlemen should exercise fee-simple rights which precluded
the future colonization of that territory, as well as the
opening of lines of communication through it." The Minister's
idea at the time seemed to be to cancel the charter, and to
concede proprietary rights around fur posts only, together
with a certain money payment, considerably less, it appears,
than what was ultimately agreed upon.
The Hudson's Bay Company, alarmed at the outlook and the attitude
of the Colonial Secretary, offered their entire interests and
belongings, trade and territorial, to the Imperial Government
for a million and a half pounds sterling, an offer which the
Duke was disposed to accept, but which was unfortunately declined
by Mr. Gladstone, then Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Duke,
who had resigned his office in 1864, died in October following,
and in the meantime a change of a startling character had come
over the time-honoured company, which sold out to a new company
in 1863, being merged into, or rather merging into itself,
an organization known as "The Anglo-International Financial
Association," which included several prominent American capitalists.
The old name was retained, but everything else was to be changed.
The policy of exclusion was to cease, immigration was to be
encouraged, and a telegraph line built through the Territories
to the Pacific coast. The wire for this was actually shipped,
and lay in Rupert's Land for years, until made use of by the
Mackenzie Administration in the building of the Government
telegraph line, which followed the railway route defined by
Sir Sandford Fleming. The old Hudson's Bay Company's shares,
of a par value of half a million pounds sterling, were increased
to a million and a half under the new adjustment, and were thrown
upon the market in shares of twenty pounds sterling each. Sir
Edmund Head, an old ex-Governor of Canada, was made Governor
of the new company. The Stock Exchange was not altogether
favourable, and the remaining shares were only sold in the
Winnipeg land boom of 1881.
The alien element in the new company seemed to inspire the
politicians of the United States with surpassing hopes and
ideas. An offer to purchase its territorial interests was made
in January, 1866, by American capitalists, which was not
unfavourably glanced at by the directorate. It was capped later
on. The corollary of the proposal was a bill, actually introduced
into the United States Congress in July following, and read twice,
"providing for the admission of the States of Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick, Canada East and Canada West, and for the organization
of the Territories of Selkirk, Saskatchewan and Columbia." The
bill provided that "The United States would pay ten millions of
dollars to the Hudson's Bay Company in full of all claims to
territory or jurisdiction in North America, whether founded on
the Charter of the Company, or any treaty, law, or usage." The
grandiosity, to use a mild phrase, of such a measure needs no
comment. But though it seems amusing to the Canadian of to-day,
it was by no means a joke forty years ago. As a matter of fact,
the then most uninhabited Territories, cut off from the centres
of Canadian activity by a wilderness of over a thousand miles,
would have been invaded by Fenians and filibusters but for the
fact that they were a part of the British Empire. An attempt
at this was indeed made at a later date. This possibility was
afterwards formulated, evidently as a threat, by Senator Charles
Sumner during the "Alabama Claims" discussion, in his astonishing
memorandum to Secretary Fish. "The greatest trouble, if not
peril," he said, "is from Fenianism, which is excited by the
British flag in Canada. Therefore, the withdrawal of the British
flag cannot be abandoned as a preliminary of such a settlement
as is now proposed. To make the settlement complete the withdrawal
should be from this hemisphere, including provinces and islands."
A refreshing proposition, truly!
It was the Imperial Government, of course, which figured most
prominently throughout the "North-West" question. But, it may
be reasonably asked, what was Canada doing, with her deeper
interests still, to further them in those long years of
discussion and delay. With the exception of the Hind Expedition,
the Draper mission, the printing and discussion of the Red
River settlers' petition and consequent Commission of Inquiry,
certainly not much was done by Parliament. More was done
outside than in the House to arouse public interest; for
example, the two admirable lectures delivered in Montreal
in 1858 by the late Lieutenant-Governor Morris, followed by
the powerful advocacy of the Hon. William Macdougall and
others, aided by the Toronto _Globe_, a small portion of the
Canadian press, and the circulation, limited as it was, of
the Red River newspaper, the _Nor'-Wester_, in Ontario.
An unseen, but adverse, parliamentary influence had all along
hampered the Cabinet; an influence adverse not only to the
acquisition of the Territories, but even to closer connection
by railway with the Maritime Provinces. [_Vide_ a series of articles
contributed to the Toronto Week, in July, 1896, by Mr. Malcolm
McLeod, Q.C., of Ottawa, Ont.] This sinister influence was only
overcome by the great Conferences which resulted in the passage
of the British North America Act in 1867, which contained a clause
(Article 11, Sec. 146), inserted at the instance of Mr. Macdougall,
providing for the inclusion of Rupert's Land and the North-West
Territories upon terms to be defined in an address to the Queen,
and subject to her approval. In pursuance of this clause, Mr.
Macdougall in 1867 introduced into the first Parliament of the
Dominion a series of eight resolutions, which, after much opposition,
were at length passed, and were followed by the embodying address,
drafted by a Special Committee of the House, and which was duly
transmitted to the Imperial Government. This was followed by
the mission of Messrs. Cartier and Macdougall to London, to
treat for the transfer of the Territories, which, through the
mediation of Lord Granville, was finally effected. The date
fixed upon for the transfer was the first of December, 1869.
Unfortunately for Lieutenant-Governor Macdougall, owing to the
outbreak of armed rebellion at Red River, it was postponed
without his knowledge, and it was not until the 15th of July,
1870, that the whole country finally became a part of the
Dominion of Canada. With the latter date the annals of Prince
Rupert's Land and the North-West Territory end, and the history
of Western Canada begins.
But whilst the Hudson's Bay Company's territorial rights and
those of Great Britain had been at last transferred to the
Dominion, there remained inextinguished the most intrinsic
of all, viz., the rights of the Indians and their collaterals
to their native and traditional soil. The adjustment of these
rights was assumed by the Canadian Parliament in the last but
one of the resolutions introduced by Mr. Macdougall, and no
time was lost after the transfer in carrying out its terms,
"in conformity with the equitable principles which have uniformly
governed the Crown in its dealings with the aborigines."
[In the foregoing brief sketch, the author, for lack of space, omits
all reference to the Red River troubles, which preceded the actual
transfer, as also to the military expedition under Col. Wolseley, the
threatened recall of which from Prince Arthur's Landing, in July,
1870, was blocked by the bold and vigorous action of the Canada
First Party in Toronto.]
Former Treaties.
Before passing on to my theme, a glance at the treaties made
in Manitoba and the organized Territories may be of interest
to the unfamiliar reader.
The first treaty, in what is now a part of Manitoba, was made in
pursuance of a purchase of the old District of Assiniboia from the
Hudson's Bay Company in 1811 by Lord Selkirk, who in that year sent
out the first batch of colonists from the north of Scotland to Red
River. The Indian title to the land, however, was not conveyed by
the Crees and Saulteaux until 1817, when Peguis and others of their
chiefs ceded a portion of their territory for a yearly payment of
a quantity of tobacco. The ceded tract extended from the mouth
of the Red River southward to Grand Forks, and, westward, along
the Assiniboine River to Rat Creek, the depth of the reserve being
the distance at which a white horse could be seen on the plains,
though this matter is not very clear. The British boundary at that
time ran south of Red Lake, and would still so run but for the
indifference of bygone Commissioners. This purchase became the
theatre of Lord Selkirk's far-seeing scheme of British settlement
in the North-West, with whose varying fortunes and romantic history
the average reader is familiar.
The first Canadian treaties were those effected by Mr. Weemys Simpson
in 1871, first at Stone Fort, Man., covering the old purchase from
Peguis and others, and a large extent of territory in addition,
the stipulated terms of payment being afterwards greatly enlarged.
These treaties are known as Nos. 1 and 2, and were followed by the
North-West Angle Treaty, effected by Lieutenant-Governor Morris, in
1873, with the Ojibway Saulteaux. In 1874 the Qu'Appelle Treaty,
after prolonged discussion and inter-tribal jealousy and disturbance,
was concluded by Lieutenant-Governor Morris, the Hon. David Laird,
then Minister of the Interior, and Mr. W. J. Christie, of the
Hudson's Bay Company. Treaty No. 5 followed, with the cession of
100,000 square miles of territory, covering the Lake Winnipeg region,
etc., after which the Great Treaty (No.6), at Forts Carlton and
Pitt, in 1876, covering almost all the country drained by the two
Saskatchewans, was partly effected by Mr. Morris and his associates,
the recalcitrants being afterwards induced by Mr. Laird to adhere
to the treaty, with the exception of the notorious Big Bear, the
insurgent chief who figured so prominently in the Rebellion of 1885.
The final treaty, or No. 7, made with the Assiniboines and Blackfeet,
the most powerful and predatory of all our Plain Indians, was
concluded by Mr. Laird and the late Lieut.-Colonel McLeod in 1877.
By this last treaty had now been ceded the whole country from Lake
Winnipeg to the Rocky Mountains, and from the international boundary
to the District of Athabasca. But there remained in native hands
still that vast northern anticlinal, which differs almost entirely in
its superficial features from the prairies and plains to the south;
and it was this region, enormous in extent and rich in economic
resources, which, it was decided by Government, should now be placed
by treaty at the disposal of the Canadian people. To this end it was
determined that at Lesser Slave Lake the first conference should be
held, and the initial steps taken towards the cession of the whole
western portion of the unceded territory up to the 60th parallel of
north latitude.
The more immediate motive for treating with the Indians of Athabasca
has been already referred to, viz., the discovery of gold in the
Klondike, and the astonishing rush of miners and prospectors, in
consequence, to the Yukon, not only from the Pacific side, but,
east of the mountains, by way of the Peace and Mackenzie rivers. Up
to that date, excepting to the fur-traders and a few missionaries,
settlers, explorers, geologists and sportsmen, the Peace River
region was practically unknown; certainly as little known to the
people of Ontario, for example, as was the Red River country thirty
years before. It was thought to be a most difficult country to
reach--a _terra incognita_--rude and dangerous, having no allurements
for the average Canadian, whose notions about it, if he had any, were
limited, as usual, to the awe-inspiring legend of "barbarous Indians
and perpetual frost."
There is a lust, however, the unquenchable lust for gold, which
seems to arouse the dullest from their apathy. This is the _primum
mobile_; from earliest days the sensational mover of civilized man,
and not unlikely to remain so until our old planet capsizes again,
and the poles become the equator with troglodites for inhabitants.
No barriers seem insurmountable to this rampant spirit; and,
urged by it, the gold-seekers, chiefly aliens from the United
States, plunged into the wilderness of Athabasca without
hesitation, and without as much as "by your leave" to the
native. Some of these marauders, as was to be expected,
exhibited on the way a congenital contempt for the Indian's
rights. At various places his horses were killed, his dogs shot,
his bear-traps broken up. An outcry arose in consequence, which
inevitably would have led to reprisals and bloodshed had not the
Government stepped in and forestalled further trouble by a prompt
recognition of the native's title. Hitherto he had been content
with his lot in these remote wildernesses, and well might he be!
One of the vast river systems of the Continent, perhaps the
greatest of them all, considering the area drained, teeming
with fish, and alive with fur and antler, was his home--a
region which furnished him in abundance with the means of life,
not to speak of such surplus of luxuries as was brought to his
doors by his old and paternal friend, "John Company." His wants
were simple, his life healthy, though full of toil, his appetite
great--an appetite which throve upon what it fed, and gave rise
to fabulous feats of eating, recalling the exploits of the
beloved and big-bellied Ben of nursery lore.
But the spirit of change was brooding even here. The moose, the
beaver and the bear had for years been decreasing, and other
fur-bearing animals were slowly but surely lessening with them.
The natives, aware of this, were now alive, as well, to concurrent
changes foreign to their experience. Recent events had awakened
them to a sense of the value the white man was beginning to
place upon their country as a great storehouse of mineral and
other wealth, enlivened otherwise by the sensible decrease of
their once unfailing resources. These events were, of course,
the Government borings for petroleum, the formation of parties
to prospect, with a view to developing, the minerals of Great Slave
Lake, but, above all, the inroad of gold-seekers by way of Edmonton.
The latter was viewed with great mistrust by the Indians, the
outrages referred to showing, like straws in the wind, the
inevitable drift of things had the treaties been delayed. For,
as a matter of fact, those now peaceable tribes, soured by
lawless aggression, and sheltered by their vast forests, might
easily have taken an Indian revenge, and hampered, if not
hindered, the safe settlement of the country for years to come.
The Government, therefore, decided to treat with them at once
on equitable terms, and to satisfy their congeners, the half-breeds,
as well, by an issue of scrip certificates such as their fellows
had already received in Manitoba and the organized Territories.
To this end adjustments were made by the Hon. Clifford Sifton,
then Minister of the Interior and Superintendent-General of
Indian Affairs, during the winter of 1898-9, and a plan of
procedure and basis of treatment adopted, the carrying out
of which was placed in the hands of a double Commission, one
to frame and effect the Treaty, and secure the adhesion of
the various tribes, and the other to investigate and extinguish
the half-breed title. At the head of the former was placed the
Hon. David Laird, a gentleman of wide experience in the early
days in the North-West Territories, whose successful treaty
with the refractory Blackfeet and their allies is but one of many
evidences of his tact and sagacity. [The Hon. David Laird is a native
of Prince Edward Island. His father emigrated from Scotland to that
Province early in the last century, and ultimately became a member of
its Executive Council. After leaving college his son David began life
as a journalist, but later on took to politics, and being called,
like his father, to the Executive Council, was selected as one of
the delegates to Ottawa to arrange for the entrance of the Island
into the Canadian Confederation. He was subsequently elected to the
Dominion House of Commons, and became Minister of the Interior in
the Mackenzie Administration. After three years' occupancy of this
department he was made Lieut.-Governor of the North-West Territories,
an office which he filled without bias and to the satisfaction of
both the foes and friends of his own party. He returned to the Island
at the close of his official term, but was called thence by the
Laurier Administration to take charge of Indian affairs in the West,
with residence in Winnipeg, which is now his permanent home.] A
nature in which fairness and firmness met was, of all dispositions,
the most suited to handle such important negotiations with the
Indians as parting with their blood-right. Fortunately these
qualities were pre-eminent in Mr. Laird, who had administered the
government of the organized Territories, at a primitive stage in
their history, in the wisest manner, and, at the close of his
official career, returned to his home in Prince Edward Island
leaving not an enemy behind him.
The other Treaty Commissioners were the Hon. James Ross, Minister
of Public Works in the Territorial Government, and Mr. J. A.
McKenna, then private secretary to the Superintendent-General
of Indian Affairs, and who had been for some years a valued
officer of the Indian Department. With them was associated, in
an advisory capacity, the Rev. Father Lacombe, O.M.I., Vicar-General
of St. Albert, Alta., whose history had been identified for fifty
years with the Canadian North-West, and whose career had touched
the currents of primitive life at all points.
[Father Lacombe is by birth a French Canadian, his native parish
being St. Sulpice, in the Island of Montreal, where he was born in
the year 1827. On the mother's side he is said to draw his descent
from the daughter of a habitant on the St. Lawrence River called
Duhamel, who was stolen in girlhood by the Ojibway Indians, and
subsequently taken to wife by their chief, to whom she bore two
sons. By mere accident, her uncle, who was one of a North-West
Company trading party on Lake Huron, met her at an Indian camp on
one of the Manitoulin islands, and having identified her as his
niece, restored her and her children to her family. Father Lacombe
was ordained a priest by Bishop Bourget, of Montreal, and in 1849
set out for Red River, where he became intimately associated with
the French half-breeds, accompanying them on their great buffalo
hunts, and ministering not only to the spiritual but to the temporal
welfare of them and their descendants down to the present day. In
1851 he took charge of the Lake Ste. Anne Mission, and subsequently
of St. Albert, the first house in which he helped to build; and from
these Missions he visited numbers of outlying regions, including
Lesser Slave Lake. His principal missionary work, however, for
twenty years was pursued amongst the Blackfeet Indians on the Great
Plains, during which he witnessed many a perilous onslaught in the
constant warfare between them and their traditional enemies, the
Crees. Being now over eighty years of age, he has retired from
active duty, and is spending the remainder of his days at Pincher
Creek, Alta., where, it is understood, he is preparing his memoirs
for publication at an early date.]
Not associated with the Commission, but travelling with it as a
guest, was the Right Rev. E. Grouard, O.M.I., the Roman Catholic
Bishop of Athabasca and Mackenzie rivers, who was returning, after
a visit to the East, to his headquarters at Fort Chipewyan, where
his influence and knowledge of the language, it was believed,
would be of great service when the treaty came under consideration
there. The secretaries of the Commission were Mr. Harrison Young, a
son-in-law of the Rev. George McDougall, the distinguished missionary
who perished so unaccountably on the plains in the winter of 1876,
and Mr. I. W. Martin, an agreeable young gentleman from Goderich,
Ont. Connected with the party in an advisory capacity, like Father
Lacombe, and as interpreter, was Mr. Pierre d'Eschambault, who
had been for over thirty years an officer in the Hudson's Pay
Company's service. The camp-manager was Mr. Henry McKay, of an
old and highly esteemed North-West family. Such was the personnel,
official and informal, of the Treaty Commission, to which was also
attached Mr. H. A. Conroy, as accountant, robust and genial, and
well fitted for the work.
The Half-breed Scrip Commission, whose duties began where the
treaty work ended, was composed of Major Walker, a retired
officer of the Royal North-West Mounted Police, who had seen
much service in the Territories and was in command of the force
present at the making of the Fort Carlton Treaty in 1876; and
Mr. J. A. Coté, an experienced officer of the Land Department at
Ottawa. The secretaries were Mr. J. F. Prudhomme, of St. Boniface,
Man., and the writer.
Our transport arrangements, from start to finish, had been placed
entirely in the hands of a competent officer of the Hudson's Bay
Company, Mr. H. B. Round, an old resident of Athabasca; and to
the Commission was also annexed a young medical man, Dr. West,
a native of Devonshire, England, whose services were appreciated
in a region where doctors were almost unknown. But not the least
important and effective constituent of the party was the detachment
of the Royal North-West Mounted Police, which joined us at Edmonton,
minus their horses, of course; picked men from a picked force;
sterling fellows, whose tenacity and hard work in the tracking-harness
did yeoman service in many a serious emergency. This detachment
consisted of Inspector Snyder, Sergeant Anderson, Corporals
Fitzgerald and McClelland, and Constables McLaren, Lett, Burman,
Lelonde, Burke, Vernon and Kerr. The conduct of these men, it
is needless to say, was the admiration of all, and assisted
materially, as will be seen hereafter, in the successful progress
of the expedition.
Whilst it had been decided that the proposed adjustments should
be effected, if possible, upon the same terms as the previous
treaties, it was known that certain changes will be necessary
owing to the peculiar topographic features of the country itself.
For example, in much of it arable reserves, such as many of the
tribes retained in the south, were unavailable, and special
stipulations were necessary, in such case, so that there should
be no inequality of treatment. But where good land could be had,
a novel choice was offered, by which individual Indians, if they
wished, could take their inalienable shares in severalty, rather
than be subject to the "band," whereby many industrious Indians
elsewhere had been greatly hampered in their efforts to improve
their condition. But, barring such departures as these, the proposed
treaties were to be effected, as I have said, according to precedent.
The Commission, then, resting its arguments on the good faith and
honour of the Government and people of Canada in the past, looked
forward with confidence to a successful treaty in Athabasca, the
record of travel and intercourse, to that end, beginning with
the following narrative.
Through the Mackenzie Basin
Chapter I
From Edmonton To Lesser Slave Lake.
Mr. Laird, with his staff, left Winnipeg for Edmonton by the
Canadian Pacific express on the 22nd of May, two of the
Commissioners having preceded him to that point. The train
was crowded, as usual, with immigrants, tourists, globe-trotters
and way-passengers. Parties for the Klondike, for California
or Japan--once the far East, but now the far West to us--for
anywhere and everywhere, a C.P.R. express train carrying the
same variety of fortunates and unfortunates as the ocean-cleaving
hull. Calgary was reached at one a.m. on the Queen's birthday,
and the same morning we left for Edmonton by the C. & E.
Railway. Every one was impressed favourably by the fine country
lying between these two cities, its intermediate towns and
villages, and fast-growing industries. But one thing especially
was not overlooked, viz., the honour due to our venerable Queen,
alas, so soon to be taken from us.
In the evening we arrived at Strathcona, and found it thronged with
people celebrating the day. Crossing the river to Edmonton, we
got rooms with some difficulty in one of its crowded hotels, but
happily awoke next morning refreshed and ready to view the town.
It is needless to describe what has been so often described.
Enough to say Edmonton is one of the doors to the great North,
an outfitter of its traders, an emporium of its furs. And
there is something more to be said. It has an old fort, or,
rather, portions of one, for the vandalism which has let disappear
another, and still more historic, stronghold, is manifest here as
well. And truly, what savage scenes have been enacted on this
very spot! What strife in the days of the rival companies!
Edmonton is a city still marked by the fine savour of the
"Old-Timers," who meet once a year to renew associations, and
for some fleeting but glorious hours recall the past on the
great river. Age is thinning them out, and by and by the
remainder man will shake his "few, sad, last gray hairs,"
and slip out, too. But the tradition of him, it is to be hoped,
will live, and bind his memory forever to the soil he trod,
when all this Western world was a wilderness, each primitive
settlement a happy family, each unit an unsophisticated,
hospitable soul.
To our mortification we found that our supplies, seasonably shipped
at Winnipeg, would not arrive for several days; a delay, to begin
with, which seemed to prefigure all our subsequent hindrances.
Then rain set in, and it was the afternoon of the 29th before Mr.
Round could get us off. Once under way, however, with our thirteen
waggons, there was no trouble save from their heavy loads, which
could not be moved faster than a walk. Our first camp was at
Sturgeon River--the Namáo Sepe of the Crees--a fine stream in a
defile of hills clothed with poplar and spruce, the former not
quite in leaf, for the spring was backward, though seeding and
growth in the Edmonton District was much ahead of Manitoba. The
river flat was dotted with clumps of russet-leaved willows, to
the north of which our waggons were ranged, and soon the quickly
pitched tents, fires and sizzling fry-pans filled even the
tenderfoot with a sense of comfort.
Next morning our route lay through a line of low, broken hills,
with scattered woods, largely burnt and blown down by the wind; a
desolate tract, which enclosed, to our left, the Lily Lake--Ascútamo
Sakaigon--a somewhat marshy-looking sheet of water. Some miles
farther on we crossed Whiskey Creek, a white man's name, of course,
given by an illicit distiller, who throve for a time, in the old
"Permit days," in this secluded spot. Beyond this the long line of
the Vermilion Hills hove in sight, and presently we reached the
Vermilion River, the Wyamun of the Crees, and, before nightfall,
the Nasookamow, or Twin Lake, making our camp in an open besmirched
pinery, a cattle shelter, with bleak and bare surroundings,
neighboured by the shack of a solitary settler. He had, no doubt,
good reasons for his choice; but it seemed a very much less inviting
locality than Stony Creek, which we came to next morning, approaching
it through rich and massive spruce woods, the ground strewn with
anemones, harebells and violets, and interspersed with almost
startlingly snow-white poplars, whose delicate buds had just opened
into leaf.
Stony Creek is a tributary of a larger stream, called the
Tawutináow, which means "a passage between hills." This is
an interesting spot, for here is the height of land, the
"divide" between the Saskatchewan and the Athabasca, between
Arctic and Hudson Bay waters, the stream before us flowing
north, and carrying the yellowish-red tinge common to the
waters on this slope. A great valley to the left of the trail
runs parallel with it from the Sturgeon to the Tawutináow,
evidently the channel of an ancient river, whose course it would
now be difficult to determine without close examination. At all
events, it stretches almost from the Saskatchewan to the Athabasca,
and indicates some great watershed in times past. Hay was
abundant here, and much stock, it was evident, might be raised
in the district.
Towards evening we reached the Tawutináow bridge, some eighteen
miles from the Landing, our finest camp, dry and pleasant, with
sward and copse and a fine stream close by. Here is an extensive
peat bed, which was once on fire and burnt for years--a great
peril to freighters' ponies, which sometimes grazed into its
unseen but smouldering depths. The seat of the fire was now an
immense grassy circle, with a low wall of blackened peat all
around it.
In the morning an endless succession of small creeks was passed,
screened by deep valleys which fell in from hills and muskegs
to the south, and at noon, jaded with slow travel, we reached
Athabasca Landing. A long hill leads down to the flat, and from
its brow we had a striking view of the village below and of the
noble river, which much resembles the Saskatchewan, minus its
prairies. We were now fairly within the bewildering forest of
the north, which spreads, with some intervals of plain, to the
69th parallel of north latitude; an endless jungle of shaggy
spruce, black and white poplar, birch, tamarack and Banksian pine.
At the Landing we pitched our tents in front of the Hudson's Bay
Company's post, where had stood, the previous year, a big canvas
town of "Klondikers." Here they made preparation for their
melancholy journey, setting out on the great stream in every
species of craft, from rafts and coracles to steam barges.
Here was begun an episode of that world-wide craze, which has
run through all time, and almost every country, in which were
enacted deeds of daring and suffering which add a new chapter
to the history of human fearlessness and folly.
The Landing was a considerable hamlet for such a wilderness,
being the shipping point to Mackenzie River, and, via the Lesser
Slave Lake, to the Upper Peace. It consisted of the Hudson's Bay
Company's establishment, with large storehouses, a sawmill, the
residence and church of a Church of England bishop, and a Roman
Catholic station, with a variety of shelters in the shape of
boarding-houses, shacks and tepees all around. From the number
of scows and barges in all stages of construction, and the high
timber canting-tackles, it had quite a shipyard-like look, the
population being mainly mechanics, who constructed scows, small
barges, called "sturgeons," and the old "York," or inland boat,
carrying from four to five tons. Here, hauled up on the bank, was
the Hudson's Bay Company's steamer, the _Athabasca_, a well-built
vessel about 160 feet long by 28 feet beam. This vessel, it was
found, drew too much water for the channel; so there she lay,
rotting upon her skids. It was a tantalizing sight to ourselves,
who would have been spared many a heart-break had she been fit
for service. A more interesting feature of the Landing, however,
was the well sunk by the Government borer, Mr. Fraser, for oil,
but which sent up gas instead. The latter was struck at a
considerable depth, and, when we were there, was led from the
shaft under the river bank by a pipe, from which it issued
aflame, burning constantly, we were told, summer and winter.
Standing at the gateway of the unknown North, and looking
at this interesting feature, doubly so from its place and
promise, one could not but forecast an industrial future,
and "dream on things to come."
Shortly after our arrival at the Landing, news, true or false,
reached us that the ice was still fast on Lesser Slave Lake. At
any rate, the boat's crew expected from there did not turn up,
and a couple of days were spent in anxious waiting. Some freight
was delayed as well, and a thunderstorm and a night of rain set
the camp in a swim. The non-arrival of our trackers was serious,
as we had two scows and a York boat, with a party all told of some
fifty souls, and only thirteen available trackers to start with.
It seemed more than doubtful whether we could reach Lesser Slave
Lake on treaty-schedule time, and the anxiety to push on was great.
It was decided to set out as we were and trust to the chapter of
accidents. We did not foresee the trials before us, the struggle
up a great and swift river, with contrary winds, rainy weather,
weak tracking lines and a weaker crew. The chapter of accidents
opened, but not in the expected manner.
The York boat and one of the scows were fitted up amidships with
an awning, which could be run down on all sides when required,
but were otherwise open to the weather, and much encumbered with
lading; but all things being in readiness, on the 3rd of June we
took to the water, and, a photograph of the scene having been
taken, shoved off from the Landing. The boats were furnished
with long, cumbrous sweeps, yet not a whit too heavy, since numbers
of them snapped with the vigorous strokes of the rowers during
the trip. A small sweep, passed through a ring at the stern,
served as a rudder, by far the best steering gear for the
"sturgeons," but not for a York boat, which is built with a
keel and can sail pretty close to the wind. Ordinarily the
only sail in use is a lug, which has a great spread, and moves
a boat quickly in a fair wind. In a calm, of course, sweeps have
to be used, and our first step in departure was to cross the
river with them, the boatmen rising with the oars and falling
back simultaneously to their seats with perfect precision, and
handling the great blades with practised ease. When the opposite
shore was reached, the four trackers of each boat leaped into
the water, and, splashing up the bank, got into harness at
once, and began, with changes to the oars, the unflagging pull
which lasted for two weeks. This harness is called by the
trackers "otapanápi"--a Cree word--and it must be borne in mind
that scarcely any language was spoken throughout this region other
than Cree. A little English or French was occasionally heard; but
the tongue, domestic, diplomatic, universal, was Cree, into which
every half-breed in common talk lapsed, sooner or later, with
undisguised delight. It was his mother tongue, copious enough
to express his every thought and emotion, and its soft accents,
particularly in the mouth of woman, are certainly very musical.
Emerson's phrase, "fossil poetry," might be applied to our Indian
languages, in which a single stretched-out word does duty for
a sentence.
But to the harness. This is simply an adjustment of leather
breast-straps for each man, tied to a very long tracking line,
which, in turn, is tied to the bow of the boat. The trackers,
once in it, walk off smartly along the bank, the men on board
keeping the boats clear of it, and, on a fair path, with good
water, make very good time. Indeed, the pull seems to give an
impetus to the trackers as well as to the boat, so that a loose
man has to lope to keep up with them. But on bad paths and
bad water the speed is sadly pulled down, and, if rapids occur,
sinks to the zero of a few miles a day. The "spells" vary
according to these circumstances, but half an hour is the
ordinary pull between "pipes," and there being no shifts in
our case, the stoppages for rest and tobacco were frequent.
At this rate we calculated that it would take eight or ten
days to reach the mouth of Lesser Slave River. Mr. d'Eschambault
and myself, having experienced the crowded state of the first
and second boats, and foregathered during the trip, decided to
take up our quarters on the scow, which had no awning, but
which offered some elbow room and a tolerably cozy nook amongst
the cases, bales and baggage with which it was encumbered.
We had a study on board, as well, in our steersman, Pierre Cyr,
which partly attracted me--a bronzed man, with long, thin, yet
fine weather-beaten features, frosty moustache and keenly-gazing,
dry, gray eyes--a tall, slim and sinewy man, over seventy
years of age, yet agile and firm of step as a man of thirty.
Add the semi-silent, inward laugh which Cooper ascribes to
his Leather-Stocking, and you have Pierre Cyr, who might
have stood for that immortal's portrait. That he had a history
I felt sure when I first saw him seated amongst his boatmen at
the Landing, and, on seeking his acquaintance, was not surprised
to learn that he had accompanied Sir John Richardson on his
last journey in Prince Rupert's Land, and Dr. Rae on his eventful
expedition to Repulse Bay, in 1853, in search of Franklin. He
looked as if he could do it again--a vigorous, alert man, ready
and able to track or pole with the best--a survivor, in fact,
of the old race of Red River voyageurs, whose record is one
of the romances of history.
Another attraction was my companion, Mr. d'E. himself--a man
stout in person, quiet by disposition, and of few words; a man,
too, with a lineage which connected him with many of the oldest
pioneer families of French Canada. His ancestor, Jacques Alexis
d'Eschambault, originally of St. Jean de Montaign, in Poictou,
came to New France in the 17th century, where, in 1667, he married
Marguerite Rene Denys, a relative of the devoted Madame de la
Peltrie, and thus became brother-in-law to M. de Ramezay, the
owner of the famous old mansion in Montreal, now a museum. Jacques
d'Eschambault's son married a daughter of Louis Joliet, the
discoverer of the Mississippi, and became a prominent merchant
in Quebec, distinguishing himself, it is said, by having the
largest family ever known in Canada, viz., thirty-two children.
Under the new _régime_ my companion's grandfather, like many another
French Canadian gentleman, entered the British army, but died
in Canada, leaving as heir to his seigneurie a young man whose
friendship for Lord Selkirk led him to Red River as a companion,
where he subsequently entered the Hudson's Bay Company's service,
and died, a chief-factor, at St. Boniface, Man. His son, my
companion, also entered the service, in 1857, at his father's
post of Isle a la Crosse, served seven years at Cumberland, nine
at other distant points, and, finally, fifteen years as trader
at Reindeer Lake, a far northern post bordering on the Barren Lands,
and famous for its breed of dogs. My friend had some strange
virtues, or defects, as the ungodly might call them; he had never
used tobacco or intoxicants in his life, a marvellous thing
considering his environment. He possessed, besides, a fine
simplicity which pleased one. Doubled up in the Edmonton hotel
with a waggish companion, he was seen, so the latter affirmed,
to attempt to blow out the electric light, a thing which, greatly
to his discomfiture, was done by his bed-fellow with apparent
ease. Being a man of scant speech, I enjoyed with him betimes
the luxury of it. But we had much discourse for all that, and
I learnt many interesting things from this old trader, who seemed
taciturn in our little crowd, but was, in reality, a tower of
intelligent silence beat about by a flood of good-humoured chaff
and loquacity.
At our first night's camp we were still in sight of the Landing,
which looked absurdly near, considering the men's hard pull; and
from there messengers were sent to Baptiste Lake, the source of
Baptiste Creek, which joins the Athabasca a few miles up, and
where there was a settlement of half-breed fishermen and hunters,
to procure additional trackers if possible. On their unsuccessful
return, at eleven a.m., we started again--newo pishawuk, as they
call it, "four trackers to the line," as before and early in the
afternoon were opposite Baptiste Creek, and, weather compelling,
rowed across, and camped there that evening. It rained dismally
all night, and morning opened with a strong head wind and every
symptom of bad weather. A survey party from the Rocky Mountains,
in a York boat, tarried at our camp, bringing word that the
ice-jam was clear in Lesser Slave Lake, which was cheering, but
that we need scarcely look for the expected assistance. They
also gave a vague account of the murder of a squaw by her
husband for cannibalism, which afterwards proved to be groundless,
and, with this comforting information, sped on.
It is ridiculously easy to go down the Athabasca compared with
ascending it. The previous evening a Baptiste Lake hunter, bound
for the Landing, set on from our camp at a great rate astride
of a couple of logs, which he held together with his legs, and
disappeared round the bend below in a twinkling. A priest, too,
with a companion, arrived about dusk in a canoe, and set off
again, intending to beach at the Landing before dark.
Of course, several surmises were current regarding the non-arrival
of our trackers, the most likely being Bishop Grouard's, that,
as the R. C. Mission boats and men had not come down either,
the Indians and half-breeds were too intent upon discussing
the forthcoming treaty to stir.
So far it had been the rain and consequent bad tracking which
had delayed us; but still we were too weak-handed to make headway
without help, and it was at this juncture that the Police
contingent stepped manfully into the breach, and volunteered
to track one of the boats to the lake. This was no light matter
for men unaccustomed to such beastly toil and in such abominable
weather; but, having once put their hands to the rope, they
were not the men to back down. With unfaltering "go" they
pulled on day after day, landing their boat at its destination
at last, having worked in the harness and at the sweeps,
without relief, from the start almost to the finish.
Meanwhile all enjoyed good health and spirits in spite of the
weather. There were fair grounds for the belief that Mr. Ross,
who had set out by trail from Edmonton, would reach the lake in
time to distribute to the congregated Indians and half-breeds
the Government rations stored there for that purpose, and,
therefore, our anxiety was not so great as it would otherwise
have been.
Our trackers being thus reinforced, the outlook was more
satisfactory, not so much in increased speed as in the certainty
of progress. The rain had ceased, and though the sky was still
lowering, the temperature was higher. Tents were struck, and
the boats got under way at once, taking chances on the weather,
which, instead of breaking up in another deluge, improved.
Eight men were now put to each line, Peokus, a remarkable old
Blackfoot Indian, captured and adopted in boyhood by the Crees,
and who afterwards attracted the attention of us all, being
detailed to lead the Police gang, who, raw and unused to the
work, required an experienced tracker at their head.
The country passed through hitherto was rolling, hilly, and
densely forested, but, alas, with prostrate trunks and fire-blasted
"rampikes," which ranged in all directions in desolate profusion.
The timber was Banksian pine, spruce, poplar and birch, much of
it merchantable, but not of large size. It was pitiful to see
so much wealth destroyed by recent fires, and that, too, at the
possible opening of an era of real value in the near future.
The greatest destruction was evidently on the north side of the
river, but the south had not escaped.
As regards the soil in these parts, it was, so far, impossible
to speak favourably. The hunters described the inland country
as a wilderness of sand-hills, surrounded by quaking-bogs,
muskegs and soft meadows. Judging by exposures on the river
bank, there are, here and there, fertile areas which may yet
be utilized; but probably the best thing that could happen to
that part of the country would be a great clearing fire to
complete the destruction of its dead timber and convert its
best parts into prairie and a summer range for cattle.
We were now approaching a portion of the river where the difficulties
of getting on were great. The men had to cope with the swift current,
bordered by a series of steep gumbo slides, where the tracking was
hazardous; where great trees slanted over the water, tottering to
their fall, or deep pits and fissures gaped in the festering clay,
into which the men often plunged to their arm-pits. It was horrible
to look upon. The chain-gang, the galley-slaves, how often the idea
of them was recalled by that horrid pull! Yet onward they went,
with teeth set and hands bruised by the rope, surmounting difficulty
after difficulty with the pith of lions.
At last a better region was reached, with occasionally a better
path. Here the destruction by fire had been stayed, the country
improved, and the forest outlines became bold and noble. Hour by
hour we crept along a like succession of majestic bends of the
river, not yet flushed by the summer freshet, but flowing with
superb volume and force. Fully ten miles were made that day,
the men tracking like Trojans through water and over difficult
ground, but fortunately free from mosquitoes, the constant head
winds keeping these effectually down. The cool weather in like
manner kept the water down, for it is in this month that the
freshet from the Rocky Mountains generally begins, filling the
channel bank-high, submerging the tracking paths, and bearing
upon its foaming surface such a mass of uprooted trees and river
trash that it is almost impossible to make head against it.
The next morning opened dry and pleasant, but with a milky and
foreboding sky. Again the boats were in motion, passing the
Pusquatenáo, or Naked Hill, beyond which is the Echo Lake--Katoó
Sakaígon--where a good many Indians lived, having a pack-trail
thereto from the river.
The afternoon proved to be hot, the clouds cumulose against a
clear, blue sky, with occasional sun-showers. The tracking became
better for a time, the lofty benches decreasing in height as we
ascended. Innumerable ice-cold creeks poured in from the forest,
all of a reddish-yellow cast, and the frequent marks on trees,
informing passing hunters of the success of their friends, and
the number of stages along the shore for drying meat, indicated
a fine moose country.
The next day was treaty day, and we were still a long way from
the treaty post. The Police, not yet hardened to the work, felt
fagged, but would not own up, a nephew of Sir William Vernon
Harcourt bringing up the rear, and all slithering, but hanging
to it with dogged perseverance. Nothing, indeed, can be imagined
more arduous than this tracking up a swift river, against constant
head winds in bad weather. Much of it is in the water, wading up
"snies," or tortuous shallow channels, plunging into numberless
creeks, clambering up slimy banks, creeping under or passing the
line over fallen trees, wading out in the stream to round long
spits of sand or boulders, floundering in gumbo slides, tripping,
crawling, plunging, and, finally, tottering to the camping-place
sweating like horses, and mud to the eyes--but never grumbling.
After a whole day of this slavish work, no sooner was the bath
taken, supper stowed, and pipes filled, than laughter began,
and jokes and merriment ran round the camp-fires as if such
things as mud and toil had never existed.
The old Indian, Peokus, heading the Police line, was a study.
His garb was a pair of pants toned down to the colour of the
grime they daily sank in, a shirt and corduroy vest to match,
a faded kerchief tied around his head, an Assomption sash, and
a begrimed body inside of all--a short, squarely built frame,
clad with rounded muscles--nothing angular about _him!_--but the
nerves within tireless as the stream he pulled against. On the
lead, in harness, his long arms swung like pendulums, his whole
body leant forward at an acute angle, the gait steady, and the
step solid as the tramp of a gorilla. Some coarse black hairs
clung here and there to his upper lip; his fine brown eyes were
embedded in wrinkles, and his swarthy features, though clumsy,
were kindly--a good-humoured face, which, at a cheerful word
or glance, lit up at once with the grotesque grin of an animated
gargoyle. This was the typical old-time tracker of the North; the
toiler who brought in the products of man's art in the East, and
took out Nature's returns--the Indian's output--ever since the
trade first penetrated these endless solitudes.
The forest scenery now became very striking; primeval masses of
poplar and birch foliage, which spread away and upward in smoothest
slopes, like vast lawns, studded with the sombre green of the pine
tops which towered above them. Here and there the bends of the
river crossed at such angles as to enclose a lake-like expanse
of water. The river also took a fine colouring from its tributaries,
a sort of greenish-yellow tinge, and now became flecked with
bubbles and thin foam, so that we feared the freshet, which would
have been disastrous.
At mid-day we reached Shoal Island--Pakwáo Ministic--and here the
poles were got out and the trackers took the middle of the river
for nearly a mile, until deep water was reached. Placer miners
had evidently been at work here, but with poor results, we
were told. Below Baptiste Creek, however, the yield had been
satisfactory, and several miners had made from $2.00 to $2.50 a
day over their living expenses. Above the Baptiste there was
nothing doing; indeed, we did not pass a single miner at work
on the whole route, and it was the best time for their work.
The gold is flocculent, its source as mysterious as that of the
Saskatchewan, if the theory that the latter was washed out of
the Selkirks before the upheaval of the Rockies is astray.
A fresh moose head, seen lying on the bank, indicated a hunting
party, but no human life was seen aside from our own people.
Indeed, the absence of life of any kind along the river, excepting
the song-birds, which were in some places numerous, was surprising.
No deer, no bears, not even a fox or a timber wolf made one's
fingers itch for the trigger. A few brent, which took wing afar
off, and a high-flying duck or two, were the sole wildings observed,
save a big humble-bee which droned around our boat for an instant,
then darted off again. Even fish seemed to be anything but plentiful.
That night's camp was hurriedly made in a hummocky fastness of
pine and birch, where we found few comfortable bedding-places.
In the morning we passed several ice-ledges along shore, the
survivals of the severe winter, and, presently, met a canoe
with two men from Peace River, crestfallen "Klondikers," who
had "struck it rich," they said, with a laugh, and who reported
good water. Next morning a very early start was made, and after
some long, strong pulls, and a vigorous spurt, the mouth of the
Lesser Slave River opened at last on our sight.
We had latterly passed along what appeared to be fertile soil,
a sandy clay country, which improved to the west and south-west
at every turn. It had an inviting look, and the "lie," as well,
of a region foreordained for settlement. It was irritating not
to be able to explore the inner land, but our urgency was too
great for that. From what we saw, however, it was easy to
predict that thither would flow, in time, the stream of pioneer
life and the bustle of attending enterprise and trade.