=Source.=--_Narrative of a Journey round the World_, by Sir George
Simpson, Governor-in-Chief of the Hudson Bay Company's Territories
in North America. London, 1847.
Next morning, being the 22nd of July, we had a sharp frost before
sunrise, and afterwards a heavy dew. The whole country was so
parched up, that no water could be found for breakfast till eleven
o'clock; and again in the afternoon we passed over a perfectly
arid plain of about twenty-five miles in length, encamping for
the night at the commencement of the Chaine des Lacs, a succession
of small lakes stretching over a distance of twenty or thirty
miles. During the afternoon we saw our first raspberries; they
proved to be of large size and fine flavour. Two days previously we
had feasted on the service-berry ... a sort of cross between the
cranberry and the black currant; and, before leaving Red River, we
had found wild strawberries ripe....
Next afternoon we passed over a space of about four miles in
length, where the grass was thoroughly beaten down, apparently
the work of hail. Such storms, which are almost always partial in
their operation, are often remarkably furious in this country.
While travelling from Red River to Canada in the fall of 1837,
I was overtaken near Lac la Pluie by a violent tempest of the
kind, which, if we had not gained the fort in time, might have
proved fatal. As the angular masses of ice rattled on the roof, we
entertained fears for the safety of the building; and, in point of
fact, the lodges of the Indians were thrown down and their canoes
shattered; while their luckless dogs, tumbling about like drunken
men, scrambled away howling in quest of shelter. Some of the pieces
... we found to be fully five inches and a half in circumference.
Throughout this country everything is in extremes--unparalleled
cold and excessive heat; long droughts, balanced by drenching rain
and destructive hail. But it is not in climate only that these
contrarieties prevail; at some seasons both whites and natives are
living, in wasteful abundance, on venison, buffalo, fish, and game
of all kinds; while at other times they are reduced to the last
degree of hunger, often passing several days without food.
In the year 1820, when wintering at Athabasca Lake, our provisions
fell short at the establishment, and on two or three occasions I
went for three whole days and nights without having a single morsel
to swallow; but then again I was one of a party of eleven men and
one woman, which discussed three ducks and twenty-two geese at a
sitting....
The nights were getting chilly; and, whenever the sky was clear,
a heavy dew fell from sunset to sunrise on particular spots, so as
to look, when morning dawned, like large lakes in the distance.
As the power of the sun increased, these mists gradually resolved
themselves into streaks of various shapes and sizes, which, rising
from the ground in the form of clouds, finally disappeared....
The whole plain was covered with a luxuriant crop of the vetch or
wild pea, almost as nutritious a food for cattle and horses as
oats. As we drew near to the Saskatchewan, we had to cross as many
as five creeks with steep and lofty banks, the last in particular
being a stream scarcely twenty feet in span between rugged
declivities about two hundred feet in height....
On arriving in front of Edmonton, which was on the opposite bank of
the Saskatchewan, we notified our approach by a volley of musketry,
which was returned by the cannon of the fort....
Edmonton is a well-built place, something of a hexagon in form.
It is surrounded by high pickets and bastions, which, with the
battlemented gateways, the flagstaffs, etc., give it a good deal
of a martial appearance; and it occupies a commanding situation,
crowning an almost perpendicular part of the bank, about two
hundred feet in height. The river is nearly as wide as at Carlton,
while the immediate banks are well wooded, and the country behind
consists of rolling prairies.
This fort, both inside and outside, is decorated with paintings and
devices to suit the tastes of the savages that frequent it. Over
the gateways are a most fanciful variety of vanes; but the hall, of
which both the ceiling and the walls present the gaudiest colours
and the most fantastic sculptures, absolutely rivets the astonished
natives to the spot with wonder and admiration. The buildings are
smeared with a red earth found in the neighbourhood, which, when
mixed with oil, produces a durable brown.
The vicinity is rich in mineral productions. A seam of coal, about
ten feet in depth, can be traced for a very considerable distance
along both sides of the river....