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OUR exijedition, on the afternoon of the 10th of June, left the hill back of the apostolic capital of Minnesota, wliere the tents had been pitched and the messes made up the night before. ^^y»^tC^ The scene had been one of great confusion iire- vious to loading the carts and jmcking the mules —these the last sad offices before burying our- selves in the prairies of the Northwest out of sight of civilization. Crowds of citizens from St. Paul and vicinity were present during the ceremony. All about the camp-ground were scattereiLdur provisions, sacks of iiour and sugar c//// V VW»Va^ . V%/' % / f u CASCADE NEAR BT. PACIi. and beans, ban-els of pork and bags of dried beef, bags of dried apples and sacks of coffee, canis- ters of tea and kegs of powder, bags of shot and I'hunks of lead, rifles, shot-guns, and pistols, Iilankets — blue, red, white, and green ; fishing- rods, pack-saddles, cart-harness, tents and tent- poles, tin kettles, iron saucepans, tin plates, car- |)et-bags, Talises, soap-boxes, axes, and buffiilo- robes, butcher-knives and spy-glasses, and a liun- dred things besides — some useful and some use- less — relics of ciyilization which now lie scattered along the valley of the Red River of the North and the prairies of the Saskatchewan, one by one thrown away as their owners drew the line be- tween luxuries and necessities, in passing from citizens to nomads. At length the carts were loaded, horses har- nessed, mules packed, and horsemen mounted. "The Colonel" led the train, driving a light sulky (■arrying the odometer and other scientific in- struments. Balky horses were spurred up, re- fractory mules flogged, and amidst hundreds of •'Good-byes," "Write me from Frazer River," "My compliments to the Saskatchewan," "Send back the biggest nuggets you find," "Let me give you a pass over the Rocky Mountains," one after another wheeled into line, and the expedi- tion was fairly started on its' long journey. Three-fourths of our twenty were bound to Frazer River to dig for gold ; the rest were in search of treasures of anoth- er sort — health, knowledge, a summer's recreation, science, personal inspection of the Northwestern areas and the . reat rivers by which they are linked to our own Northwest- ern States. We outfitted at St. Paul, and spent a fortnight of fine unimcr weatlier, when we ought to have been traveling, in making our purchases, be- c,inning witli horses. [Eulo- gy of Western horse-jockeys is Iiere omitted for want of room, riie sentiments of the writer ^\ ill be intelligibly conveyed by the picture on the next page, containing portraits of animals tftered for our purchase by members of that virtuous and enlightened profession.] My friend Joseph bought a mare whom he conceived to be profoundly penetrated with a grave consciousness of the part she was performing in opening an international higliway across the continent. " Observe," said he, " the pensile head, the meditative, lacklustre eye, the impressive solemnity of her slowly measured tread. See how she restrains the natural levity of her dis- position, and represses that exuberance of an- imal spirits which one might expect from a horse in the very blush and dew of equine adolescence — for the man I liought her of s^\'ore she was only six years old. Let her be called Lady Mary." For my own part, I bought a horse of Indian origin and aboriginal habits*-lazy, tough, balky, jocose, sagacious, and of a conservative habit — afterward called "Dan Rice." Together we bought a mule to draw our kit and cargo in a cart of the Red River pattern. Each of us had an India-rubber blanket, two pair of heavy woolen blankets, arms and ammunition, fishing-tackle, be- sides the cooking utensils, compass, hammer and nails, pail, water-keg, axe, scj-the, shovel, rope, string, and jack-knife, which we owned in com- mon. For wearing apparel the best average was : a soft felt hat, three or four blue flannel shirts, with three or four pockets in each. A full snit of Canada blue or stout doeskin, with an extra pair of trowsers. One pair of duck cloth over- alls. Boots or higli shoes, with projecting soles to keep the prairie-grass from cutting through the uppers. Whoever goes to Frazer River hereafter by the northern overland route will please listen to two 7-2- * "^^f^ %f UORBE-JOCKETTNG. items of advice, or skip to the nest paragraph. Item first — -the same which Punch gave to a young couple about marrying — " Don't !" But if he insists upon going — item second — let him not travel five hundred miles north with loaded carts before beginning on his half-continent of westing. Messrs. Buvbank and Blakely, of St. Paul, have had a line of stages this summer from that city to the head of narigation on the Red River of the North; and the steamboat Anson Northiip, owned by them in shares with the Hud- son's Bay Company, now connects that terminus with the Selkirk Settlement. Let the emigrant outfit at St. Paul, send his provisions to Fort Gar- ry by the route named, and there buy carts and fresh horses and make an early start. It was a motley crowd. There was the man of monstrous egotism, who passed his life in the contemplation and exposition of bis own achieve- ments and Wrtues, and men of no virtue at all ; the enthusiast, and the man who ridicided all anthusiasm ; the man who believed every thing, »nd the man who believed notliing ; men of good principle, 'men of b.ad principle, and men of no principle; scholars and ignoramuses; industri- ous men and lazy men ; sick men, who could be floored with a rush, and well men that a bull would hesitate before trying to butt over ; water drinkers and whisky drinkers; men that were boys, and boys that were men ; Nova Scotians and Indian half-breeds, Scotchmen and Canadi- ans, English, American, and Irish ; and but three tents-fnl in all. There were with us two doctors, to look after our healths, and an accomplished scientific gen- tleman, a geologist and botanist, who afterward descended the Assiuiboine River from Fort EUice, in a canoe, with only a single Indian guide, as- certaining the n.avigability of the stream in the spring of the year to small boats, and in neai'ly all seasons to batteaux— one of the few result's accomplished by the expedition. Oiu- first day's journey was a very short one. Horses and mules had to be weaned from the quotidian oats of civilization, and taught to rec- oncile themselves to grass and water. The fa- tigues of the journey had to be begun adaf/!o, and then crescendo. A s/or:an(!o movement at the start wonld have knocked them up in a week. We, too, had to be weaned. We found this out at the first camping-ground. Instead of ringing for coals and ordering a chop, we had to cliop our wood and build our fires and fry our own pork. The streams, which are the Crotons and Cochitnates of the prairies, had to make con- nection with our temporary bouses by wooden pails instead of iron pipes, and we to "leant how much easier it is to reach a bell-rope and ttrni a foucet than to be hewers of wood and drawers of water. Riding in the sun and the labor and excite- ment of starting had given us the appetites of Brobdignagians. Visions of savory messes, clouds of fragrant steam, in which Soyer tlie immortal seemed enjoying perpetual apotheosis, floated through our minds as we pitched the tents and drove their stakes, stacked the gims and spread our blankets for the night, and then waiteil and listened for the call to sup])er. Pres- ently it came, and in the one word "Gruh!" and grub it was. Tlie tea, virgin as when gath- ered in the gardens of the celestials, had impart- *aE~ BED BIVEB OUIDE. ed none of its virtue to the ravishing hot water, and the decoction which we poured into our tiii cups from the new tin tea-pot desen-ed no better name than hot slops. We asked for bread and received a stone, or at least something so com- pact, solid, and yet springy, that if it could be produced in sufficient quantities it might super- sede the pavements of New York, with danger to horses, profit to the contractor, and .additfon to the general filth— the three essentials. Fried salt pork was the piece dc resistance. These were our bad beginnings, however. We had not then got into the region of game. Sub- sequently we had bread as light and good as could be desired, and banqueted on flcsb, fish, and fowl of an infinite variety. Even Delmon- ico denies you the pleasure which we had— of shooting your own bird, picking, dressing, and salting it, and impaling the cadaver upon a sharp stick, there to broil over the coals of the camp- fire into exquisite yellows and browns. And a venison steak with the costliest accompaniments, in a fciur-walled restaurant, is not to be ]ireferred to a buftalo steak at supper, bought by a four- mile chase. Nor did bread and pork" and tea comprise all our bill of fare. Some of the no- mads whom civilization was sloughing ofli' still clung to the fare to which they had been accus- tomed; and visitors came, bringing in secret pockets mysterious black bottles, containing, if all we have heard is true, chalk, marble dust, opium, tobacco, henbane, oil of vitriol, copperas, alum, strychnine, and other exhilarating bever- ages. THK nLATELES-S a^UL£. isjiges and leuns conrinoaUr pa^ed ns, and «n- campJife as Tet lacked the"seclnsion which gives it iC5 charm. Some of ns irere eT«i ireai loir-cascs of ciTiltxation to the blankets of bartm- nans, and ggioall^ fonnd oor irar at smtdovn . ^- --^ lo some inn. -T«er*ewh„esbe«s and linen pa- 1 StiH. Jong this m«*d tbo,.:ngh&Te. anO wiih these dilotion? of campJife, »© ice: ■iriih some sharp con- feasts. 3It sietch- hook contains, vjal cause of variation came to be the nearness of wood and water. These words gi-adnally changed their original signification into a much broader one, in our minds. Wood once meant the stuft' floors and doors and desks are made of, and water was merely one of a great variety of fluids. Now wood and water became essen- tials to us. We must have them or go supper- OrK MATTEALIST BTUDTING GBAS8E8 MY FIEST WATcn. less to bed, and start breakfastless in the morn- ing. They stood instead of a hundred thing, and were, to use the phrase of a philosopher; the fundamental data of life. By them we lired and moved, and had our being. On coming to the camp-ground the horses were at once unsaddled and the mules unhar- nessed all watered and turned out to graze till twLbght, when they were picketed for the night I he tents were pitched, wood cut, and water brought for the cooks, who set forth their tins built the fires, and proceeded to business. After supper the watch, who was on duty from sunset tiU midnight, built smudges for the animals, saw they were properly picketed, and began his round. The blankets were spread in the tents, the tents smudged or mosquito nets hung, and at dark nearly all were asleep. A few lingered around the camp-fire telling stories of home, singing songs and choruses, and smoking their pipes ■ but soon they, too, joined the sleepers. My first watch happened to fall while we were camped on the east bank of the Mssissippi. It was the morning watch, from midnight to sun- rise. A cool wind, inexpressibly refreshing after the heat of the day, blew the blanket from mv shoulders as I stepped out of the tent at the call of the first watch. Over the whole sky clouds v,ere flying to the south, in thick billows; through the upper air, and in whiter flecks of foam below In the west tlie full moon was going down, now completely liiddcn from the sight, and now burst- ing through the rifts wiih a sudden light. In these moments the white tents gleamed, and the thick darkness which hung over the river, the forests of trees upon its western bank, and upon the islands between, suddenly passed awav, re- vealing their sharp outline against the sky, the rounded grnccful masses of foliage, broken by here and there a giant trunk leafless, the memo- rial of some storm and its swift lightning stroke. Long, deep shadows stretched across the river al- most to the liither shore, and where the moon- light shone fair and clear, the rajiid current of the river, whose waters the nortli wind seemed hurrj-ing on to their southern gulf, was trans- formed to bridges of light, and the illusion hard- ly passed away until a raft came floating down the stream out of the darkness, a single form visible upon its TiTinkled surfirce, his hand upon the huge paddle guiding its course through the windings of the channel as it swayed from shore to shore. St. Clond, seventy-fivtfmiles north of St. Paul, the northern limit of the second stretch of con- tinuous navigation on the Mississijjpi, was our first station. Six or seven years ago there was nothing there but the forest primeval and a cabin or two: Now there is a capital hotel, the Stearns House, two or three churches, a hospital of the Sisters of Jlercy, and houses for a thou- sand people. The west bluff of the river, where St. Cloud stands, is high and steep, the prairie stretching back of it level. From various [joints on this bluff the river views are beautiful, espe- cially the one looking north to Sauk Rapids, two or three miles above. The greatest institution, the peculiar one of St. Cloud, I have failed to mention — the St. Cloud newspaper. Joseph and I called upon its editor, the well-known Mrs. Swisshelm, and were permitted to see the most northwestern printing oflice of the cis-montane States. We found the re- puted ogre a large-eyed, lively little woman, with a masculine and iraliandsome breadth and height of forehead, wearing a ])lain brown Quakerish dress, and occupied in sewing together a carpet for the principal room in her new house, just finishing and adjoining the old one. She was very busy, and therefore kept her position on the floor and went on with her work, telling us, how- ever, that she was glad we came, begging us to go on and talk, but launching her bark in the current of conversation before we had knocked away the shores of otir own. She was absorbent and capacious of information, uniting the pro- fessional inquisitiveness of the reporter with the friendly curiosity of her sex. Her comments were shrewd and her talk often witty. Present- ly she left her work and took us into the print- ing-oflice and sanctum. The latter was a small apartment partitioned off from the main room, long and narrow. In one comer stood the edi- torial desk, with a pile of exchanges surmounted by the professional scissors and paste-pot. She liad been comiiellcd to use the saiictum as a liv- ing room also. At the right stood a table with the dishes laid for tea, and close at the left a cooking stove loaded with tea-pot, frying-pan. and kettles. Every thing appeared in confusion in this sanctum ; for it was not large enough te swing a cat comfortably in, and yet was crowded with the miscellaneous contents of an editorial office, a kitchen, and dining-room, and served, besides, as the passage-way to the larger roon? beyond. In this room were the hand-]iress and stands of type, one or two half-madc-up fonns and half a dozen galleys rested on the table, while the walls were adorned with ])osters an- nouncing horse sales, houses to rent, etc. A window was broken, and the floorlittered. Lean- ing against the form-table in this dingy room, the brave woman told us how she had learned to set type herself, and then taught boys to ; how she made up the forms ; how she had got along with a stiff-necked and rebellious people ; how she had enjoyed her persecutions and mild martyrdom : how she had endured the res anrjitsla doiiii, and. like all the rest of us workies, had nearly died in getting a living. We had a supper that night— not bnt what, in the ordinary conditions of the exchequer, most of us were sure of three meals a day ; but thif was a particular and public supper. For mi part, I remember nothing of it except that the presiding officer was C. C. Andrews, immor- talized in " The Red River Trail," a lawyer who is making his mark in the northwest, and ; that, after his sensible brief speech, somebody pot j up and told who built the first wagon in Jlinne- sota, and somebody else expressed the opinion that the head of navigation on the Mississippi I was not St. Paul, nor S'n'anthony, nor St. Cloud, but Fort Edmonton on the Saskatche- wan. On Jlonday, June 20, the ti-ain stnick its fcnt~ and left St. Cloud : here beginning its experienccf of camp-life with a back-ground. So fiir we had been treading the w.arp and woof of civilization— now we began to slip off the fringes of its outer- most skirts. Our direction was northwest, by the valley of Sauk River, through the lake district of Middle Minnesota to the head of navigation on Red River. Such articles as were needed had been added to our outfit, including a boat to crns^ streams in, which served for a wagon box on dry land. The second day out all our horses anil mules ran away before breakf^ist. Half the cam] scoured the country in every direction in search foi the runaways. They were caught four miles awav. making steady tracks for St. Cloud and its pos- sible oats, led on in their desertion by two of the handsomest, smallest, and meekest-looking mules in the train. The road rewarded them with re- tributive justice that day. The sloughs were in- numerable, and indeed innumerable they con- . tinned to he for weeks and weeks, only ajjproach- ing the limits of mathematical calculation as w. neared Pembina. This may seem strange when it is considered that we crossed the divide be- tween the tributaries of the Minnesota and Mis. sissippi; but, as Joseph said, "with a general GETTING OUT OF A SLODGH. convexity of outline there was grofit coneaWty of detail." The convex " divide," like a rounded cheek, had a small-pox of lakes, bogs, ponds, sloughs, and morasses. To give in detail the particulars of this part of our experience would be cruel to writer and reader, though it might gain the former a seat in the Chinese Paradise of Fuh, where the purg- atorial price of admission is to wade for seven years in mud up to the chin. So let me give the spirit of it all, in a lump. The only external indication of some kinds of sloughs is a ranker growth of grass, perhaps of a dilYerent color, in the low groimd between two hills of a rolling prairie. Again, on a level prairie, where the road seems the same as that you have been traveling dry shod, your horse's hoofs splash in wet gi-ass. This goes on, worse and worse, till you get nervous and begin to draw up your heels out of the water ; and so, jierhaps, for a mile, whether in the water or out of it you can not tell, horses up to their bellies tnulgiug through the water and grass, carts sinking deep- er than the hubs, you travel at the rate of one mile in 2.40. Very often, however, sloughs put on no such plausible appearance, but confess themselves at once immistakably bad and ruin- ous to horses and carts. It is the wagon-master's business to ride ahead of the train a few hundred yards, and, on coming to a slough, to force bis horse carefully back and forth through it till he finds the best place for crossing. I have fished for trout in Berkshire streams so small that, to an observer a hundred yards distant, I must have seemed to be bobbing for grasshoppers in a green meadow ; but the ap- pearance is not more novel than to see a strong horse plunging and pitching in a sea of green grass that seems to have as solid a foundation as that yonr own hoi-se's hoofs are printing. Some sloughs Iiave no better or worse spot. It is mud from one side to the other — mud bottomless and infinite, and backing up in someinfernal Symmes's hole. The foremost cart approaches, and, at the first step, the mule sinks to his knees. Some mules lie domi at this point ; but most of ours were sufficiently well broken to make one more spasmodic leap, and, tliough the water or mud went no higher than their fetlocks, then and there they laid them do\^Ti. This is the moment for human intervention, and, on the part of pro- fane mule-drivers, for an imprecation of divine intervention. The men get off their horses and carts, and hurry to the shafts and wheels, tugging and straining, while one or two yell at and bela- bor the discouraged and mulish mnle. The census man w'ould have no difficulty at this juncture in ascertaining the persuasion to which ])rofane mule-drivers belong, or, at least, in which they have been reared. Some of their oaths derive their flavor from camp-meeting rem- iniscences. Another man excels as a close-com- munion swearer, and, after damning his mule, superfluously danms the man who would not damn him. Other oaths have a tropical luxu- riance of iiTcverent verbiage that shows them to have been drawn from the grand and reverent phrases of the Prayer-book, and still others are of that sort which proves their users godless ^vretches, with whom, for very ignorance, oaths stand in the stead of adjectives. Belabored by oaths, kicks, whip-lashes, and ropes-ends, the mule may rise and plunge and lie down, and rise again and plunge, until the cart is on solid ground ; but it was generally the quicker way to unload the cart or wagon at once, or to lighten it until the mule could get through easily. If this was inconvenient for any reason, a rope was fastened to the axle, and twenty men pulling one way would generally succeed in beat- ing the planet pulling the other. Our Indian ponies got through mud splendidly. Joseph was heard to recommend a stud of them for the hither side of Banyan's Slough of Despond. They were too lazy to be other tlian deliberate in getting out of a hole. They put their feet down carefully, and, like oxen, waddled along, one step or one jump at a time. So they never strained themselves asaliigh-spirited horse would, and yet were not so mulish as to be willing to stay stuck in the mud for centuries, imtil the branches of future trees should lift them up for fruit like Sir John Mandeville's sheep. Three times we crossed tlie tortuous Sauk, first by a ferry like the one at Rum Kiver. The next time, four days aftenvard, we had to make our own ferry. One stout fellow swam across vrith. a rope in his teeth, which was tied firmly to stout trees opposite each other. Then the wagon box was taken off the wheels, two or three honrs spent in calking it, launched, and a man in the bow, holding on to the rope which sagged down to within a yard of the water, by bending his body and keeping stiff legs, could head the bow up stream against the swift current, and pull himself and the load across. A Cree half-breed did this canoeing as dexterously from the first as if he had spent his life on the river. Horses, mules, and oxen were then pushed into the stream, one by one, their lariats tied around their noses, and held by another person in the boat, so as to guide them at once to the ouly place where they could get ashore. Finally, the empty carts and wagons were floated across, and pulled up the bank by a rope around the axle. Crossing other streams where the current was not swift enough to overturn the carts, and the water only deep enough to flow over the boxes, we cut saplings, made a floor on top of the frames, Uftcd the goods top of that, and crossed without unharnessing a mule. OLAIAI-STAKE. claim-bhantt. The conclusion of all which is, that people on railroad cars don't realize what they have to be thankful for. This valley of the Sauk up which we were traveling is one of the garden spots of Minnesota. The new settlers of tile last two or three years have many of them taken that direction. Claim- stakes and claim- shanties speck the road from one end of the river to the other. Some of the claim-shanties" were built in good faith, had been lived in, and land was tilled around them. Not a few, however, were of the other sort, built to keep the letter of the law ; four walls merely, no windows, door, or roof. We often foimd it convenient to camp near these edifices, and saved ourselves the trouble of going half a mile for wood when we found it cut so near at hand. A terrific thunder-storm came on one after- noon in this Sauk valley to which the average thunder-storms of lat. 40° 42' long. 74° 41' are two-penny and theatrical. We were drenched, of course, with the lowest cloudful, in a moment ; but the thunder was so near, prolonged, and hurtling, that it was enough to make a brave man sliiver to remember that his trowsers had a steel buckle. All day and all night the tempest continued, rain pouring, lightning flashing ronnd the whole circuit of the heavens, and the thun- der unintermitted. But the next morning rose as clear-skied as if the preceding had been a June day of old tradition, and not written down iu the calendar of the battle-mouth as the anni- versary of Montebello. Our last day's travel in syl- ^ van Sauk Valley took us to Osak- ^^ is Lake. Here we camped for Sunday, in an opening in a fine forest which surrounded the lake. Sund.ay was a perfect day. With patient sight one might trace here and there the graceful scarf-like shadowy white of the highest and rarest clouds against the pure blue. No lower or coarser forms were visible any where from hori- zon to horizon, and even these would sweep into such evanes- cent folds, and ripjile away into such ethereal faincness, that the eye passed them and looked through the blue ether itself. To breathe the pure air was indeed an inspiration. The wind came fresh and clear over the lake. I There it lies, surronnded by forests on every side, -nith only here and there vistas of open prairie. From the level of the roots of tlie nearest trees, and from tlie shadows tliat rest among their huge trunks, the shining beach slopes down, its white sand tlie floor where the waves endlessly run up, visible far out and then fused with the surface blue. I gave myself a baptism in this beautiful cold lake, and then finding an old gnarled oak whose spreading limbs made a comfortable couch overlooking the water, whiled the still hours away till the shadows of the distant trees lengthened over the lake and touched the hither shore. Osakis Lake is twelve miles long and two or three wide ; its waters are quite cold, and abound with the largest and finest kind of fresh-water fish— wa!l-eved pike, bass, perch, and other. The Doctor, our one skillful fisherman, brought in a boat-load, eaught in an hour or two's drifting. The rest otThe camp spent the day in reading, writing, sewing, fishing, washing, cooking, and mending wagons. Ten or twelve miles over the very worst road yet, brought us to a place which, when it gets to be a place, is to be called Alexandria. Half of the distance and more was through woods. Look up, and there was gorgeous sunlight flood- ing the fresh young leaves, lighting up old oak trunks, and glorifjnng the brilliant Ijirch and ma- ple, pigeons flying or alit, robins and thrushes, and what other mellow-throated songsters I know- not, making the vistas and aisles of shadow alive with sound ; but look down, and your horse was balking at a labyrinth of stumps, where there was no place to put his foot : this extending for ten rods, and there terminating in a slough ag- gravated by the floating de^ris of a corduroy bridge, and this ending in a mud.hole, the black- ness of darkness, with one stump upright to ' prevent your wading comfortably through it, to transfix your horse or upset the cart. The carts and their drivers could not get through by daylight, but were compelled to stay in the woods and fight mosquitoes all night, reaching Alexandria about noon the next day. Joseph and I, on our ponies, " thridded the som- bre boskage of tlie wood," and got to Alexandria before dark. It was slow traveling, but, on sure- footed Indian ponies, not very disagreeable. Tho mosquitoes were our worst torment ; we avoided their terebrations by " taking the vail." ^' -''^' ^^Z TAKING TW7. VArT- MAJOR PATTEN'S CEOSSINQ. About the middle of the afternoon we caught glimpses through the leaves of a lake at the riglit of us, and soon came to the short branch road which led to it. Leading our horses down to the water's edge, we observed a blazed tree just at the margin, and an inscription neatly writ- ten on the white wood, with date and name of tlie company hj whom it Iiad been cut. Coming out on the beautiful prairie which is the site of Alexandria, we were surprised to see tlie wagons and tents of IVIessrs. Burbank and Blakely's first two stage loads, showing that tlieir road-makers were not far enough ahead for them to follow on. Is it possible that I have forgot- ten to tell the romance of that stage load ? Two Scotch girls, sisters, journeying without any pro- tector save their good looks and good sense, from Scotland to Lake Athabasca, where one of them was to redeem her plighted faith and marry a Hudson Bay Company's officer. Ocean voyage alone, two or three thousand miles' travel through .a strange country to St. Paul alone, then this journey by stage to Fort Abercrombie, camping out and cooking their own food, and voyaging down Eed River in a batteau, near a thousand miles more, and fired at by Red Lake Indians on the way, then journeying with a Company's brigade to Athabasca, going north all the while and winter coming on too, and the mercury traveling down to the bulb; but her courage sinking never a bit. Hold her fast when you get her, Athabascan! She is a heroine, and slioiild be the mother of heroes. And the brave bridesmaid sister ! Wliere are "the chivalry?" Letters take about a year to get to Athabasca, gentlemen. Three English sjjortsmen and their guns, tents, and dogs filled another stage. They had iiunted in Canada and Floi-ida, shot crocodiles in the valley of the Nile, fished for salmon in Norway, and were now on their way to the buitalo-plains of the Saskatchewan to enjoy the finest sport of all. Purdy rifles, Lancaster rifles, Wesley Rich- ards's shot-guns, and Manton's shot-guns, sin- gle-barreled and double-barreled : these were their odds against brute strength and cunning. One of tiiem was a baronet, the others Oxford men, and all might have passed a life of ease in London with society, libraries, establishments ; but this wild life, with .all its discomforts and privations and actual hardships and hard work, had more attractions for them in its freedom^ its romance, its adventure. Their stories were of beleaguered proctors and bear fights. Hyde Park and deer-stalking, Eotten Row rides and moose hunts. Next year we may hear of them up the Orinoco or in South Africa. Better there than wasting away manliness in "society," or tlie " hells," or in bribing electors ; but is there not soraetliing else in all England worth living and working for ? One of the three was a splendid rifle-shot. With my Maynard rifle, breach-loading and weighing only six pounds, unlike any thing he had ever handled, he plumped a sai-diue-bo.x at distances of 100, 150, 200, and 300 yards, and hit the small tree, in a cleft of which it was fastened, almost every time in twenty. Our tented field was a fair beginning for a town. In fact, we far outnumbered the actual population of Alexandria. Josejjh and I were glad enough to be permitted to enjoy more than municipal privileges under the roof of Judge ^ • If pioneers were all of the kind that have founded Alexandria, civilization and re- finement would travel west as fast as settlements, instead of being about a decade behind. The house was built of hewn logs, of course ; but in- side grace and beauty struggled with the rough- ness of such raw materials and came off victori- ous, and yet nothing was out of place. There was an air about the main room that made you remember that the grandest queen walked on rush-strewn floors not half so fine as these spot- less planks— and what wall-paper had such deli- cate hues as the pealed bark revealed on tiie timber beneath ?— and there was a woman's trick in the fill of the window-curtains and the hang- ing of the net over the spotless counterpane in tlie corner, and the disposition of things on the bureau, crowned by its vaseful of beautiful prairie flowers. Here we enjoyed such dinner- table chat and such long evening talks, W. and I, witli .Judge G and his wife, as made us wish we had known them in London Terrace ten years ago, though we could regret the absence of none of the luxuries which they were dailv proving a well-ordered life could be lived without. Alexandria is environed by beautiful lakes- lakes which I obstinately refuse to rhapsodize over, simply because they are so many and all deseiTe it. To a promontory jutting out into one of these I took a seven-mile walk early one drizzly morning, with one of our party, accom- panied by a hound, for which he had returned to follow up the scent of a deer which he said he had shot and wounded badly two hours before We found the place— the leaves were splashed with blood— gave the dog the scent, and followed his wild running for two or three miles, but saw no deer, and walked home in the rain. Now there are three hypotheses, together exhaustive, which may explain this unfortunate occurrence. Either the deer was not badly wounded, and went further on, "making no sign," or the dog was not a good dog, or, if a good dog, had had his nose spoiled in killing skunks, which is possible. I never will believe that a chipmonk has as much blood in his veins as was scattered over those leaves, or that any sane man could mistake a squirrel for a deer. First day's travel from Alexandria train made 2i miles. Best four-wheel wagon had all its spokes onished out falling into some rut in a wood-road. Next day we got on a dozen miles farther to Chippewa crossing. A jjarty of fifty Cliiijpewas were hunting and fishing in the vicinity. Two dusky boys watched us erossltig from their canoe and laughed, I fancy, at white paddling. A sliower came up, but before the shallow lake had put on its goose-flesh to meet the rain-drops, their paddles were out, and thev "now I LAY UE— ' skimming the water, straight as a crow flies, fhrough the rushes to the shelter of trees whicli overhung the water, and there the canoe rested motionless again, and they watched us in silence. They had speared half a dozen buftalo-fish (of a i „ ^.w^^u «i.jii*iw-iiou ^^ui a ■ather coarse meat), and a jjlug of tobacco bought all we wanted for supper. I beg to be excused from mentioning the fact that, at this crossing, my pony in fonr-feet water, and with only two rods to dry land, disgracefully neighed a ^^Now I lay me — " and squatted, yes ! squatted down in the water, positively refusing to obey whip or spur till I had got ot( his back and walked to dry land, leading him. It is also needless to mention that my saddle, saddle-bags, Sliakspearc, and sketch- book, together with all of me that is fishy in mermen, became, to use a mild term, damp. The prairie from Alexandria to Otter Tail River was a very beautiful one, the hills moder- ately high but of gentle slopes, their green grassy sides flecked with wild flowers of a thousand brill- iant or quiet hues, and then eveiy mile or two a high swell of land from which we could look over these smaller undulations to the great green wave rising to its height again. As we passed over these successive heights, about noon we caught sight in tlie distance of a beautiful lake, which, on approaching nearer, appeared to have a line of ' ' white caps" running through it. Little wind was blowing, but the illusion was perfect. As we approaclied nearer, however, and saw that the white wave remained in the same place, it occuiTcd to us that we were looking at an isl- and of pelican ; and this became evident when we saw small portions of it disintegrating about the edges, and drifting away in white clouds, re- lieved against the blue sky or the deeper blue of the lake, or as they floated past the tree-covered islands and promontories which pushed their gray sandy beaches out into the water from either shore. I have never seen a lake which, for variety and grace of outline, apjieared to me so beauti- ful as this, though, to be sure, its beauty was far from being of a striking sort. As Joseph and I mounted to ride on after the train we observed a large flock of the same birds circling high in air overhead. The sight was worth go- ing far to see. There were hundreds of them sweeping around in slow and stately flight— the distance transforming all their ungainliness into grace, and the bright sunlight clotliing them in white splendor. To the right and left of us, from Osakis Lake, the head of tlie Sauk Valley, to Otter Tail or Upper Red River, lakes of every variety of out- line were visible as we journeyed on. Some were near at hand— our trail at times leading over their sandy or pebbled beaches, or upon others we looked down from the summit of a hill of rolling prairie, and again from the loftier ridges of the undulating land sea, tlie eye, sweep, ing the horizon, could trace the outlines of a dozen within the limits of its vision, near or re- mote — bluer than the stainless heavens, or blend- ing in the hazy distance with the long waving i^A JIEST VIEW OF THE EEB RITEE OF THE KOHTH. grass which sloped to the water's edge, or the black and brown rushes which, like timorous swimmers, did not venture far from shore, or with the deeper green of wooded capes and isl- ands, which caught the fierce sunlight and shaded its fall upon the gentle waters, casting themselves away upon the beaches. Joseph rhapsodized and I applauded. "These little lakes are my private passion — deep-set, dark-shadowed lakes, cozy nooks of sunshine that one may own within the compass of a farm— pocket-editions of poetry in velvet and gold— little lakes that, from under their wooded fringes, gleam with an under-soul, and flash back the introverted glances of the stars from depths as pure as the heights of the down-gazing heav- ens, such a lake as you can take into your con- fidence, and talk to in quiet hours as a lover talks to the image in a golden locket, and sees the cold crystal all aglow and shadowy -nith passion like a woman's eye." It was our habit to ride ahead of the train a [ mile or two, or behind it, if we staid to hunt or sketch or for sight-seeing. So riding the next morning, our eyes were the first to get sight of the waters which run to the frozen seas of the north. For four or five miles, at every elevation, we had seen ahead of us a line of timber, and be- yond level prairie, which we knew must be the trees skirting the Otter Tail or Upper Red River, where, a young and wayward stream, it flows to the south and west, hither and thither, before gaining breadth and volume and gathering trib- utary waters, it turns to its final direction, and thenceforward flows with steady currents toward the northern star. The prairie within this bend, and toward which we were traveling, moreover, we knew to be level instead of rolling like that to the east ; so on we spurred, and, surmounting a summit, on the hither side of which it seemed that the nearest curve of the river must still be miles away, there the river ran at our verv feet, bursting suddenly upon us in its full loveliness like a goddess disrobing. The day was the fourth of the month July, and this was our unexpected celebration of tlie Nation's gala-day. Taking the saddles from our horses, and leaving them to their independence, we sat down upon the brow of a high hill over- looking tlie river for miles of its wayward wind- ings. Pen and penqjil are both inadequate ; but the pencil is better than the pen. And as I sketched, Joseph made the oration. We remained here for the rest of the day. The place is called D.ayton, after a gentlemjin who, like millions 'of his fellow-freemen, was nol elected Vice-President. The present pojm- lation numbers one. They live alone by him- self in a breezy log-house, with a little oft'-shoot containing bunks and a cooking-stove, and whose walls are hung with dried sturgeons and cat- fishes, caught in the river. Breckinridge is about twenty miles below Day- ton, in a southwest direction, and is situated ]jre- cisely at the point where the river begins its gen- eral northwardly course, at the junction of the Bois de Sioux. Fort Abercrombie is about the same distance northwest of Breckinridge ; so that our trail toward the fort from Dayton was the liy])othenuse of the river's angle. When the gulfs of wood that marked the course of Red River had faded into dimness, and sunk below the horizon behind us, nothing was visible but the sky and this level grass stretch- ing away in every direction. There were lines of lighter and deeper shade in the green and yel- low herbage, flecks of brilliant flowers, cool blue skies, and a clearly defined horizon at the east ; and under the setting sun a yellower hue in the sky, and hazier lines upon the distant and waver- ing bands of shade and light where earth and sky met. At night we camped beside a marsh ; and when the last red streak had faded out of the sky, the full sublimity of the scene burst upon the mind. A night upon the prairie is worth a day at Niagara. As fiir as the eye can reach on hemisphere of stars looks down upon you, and all the earth occupying the least possible angle of vision. Just as we were camping for the night a com- pany of Red River carts appeared upon the hori- zon. At first we could hardly imagine what they were — for a moment widening out into bat- talions, and then shrinking to the width of a sin- gle company, as the trail came directly toward or was at right angles to us, so that it seemed as if we were gazing at the evolutions of a grand army. As they came nearer the illusion was dispelled, and the train began to look like what it was — a huge land caravan. Presently we saw galloping ahead of the train^- young man, well mounted, who in a few moments drew rein under the Stars and Strijics. which we had patriotical- ly hoisted when we first saw their white flag of march fluttering in the distance. The rider, a young M'Kay,who was captain of the train, was well mounted, and sat his horse finely. His clear, bronzed face was set off by a jaunty cap. Ho wore a checked flannel shirt, and each shoul- der bore its fancy wampum bead belt, that sus- l)ended the powder-horn and shot-jjouch. He had upon his feet moccasins worked with beads and quills, and carried in his hand a short-han- dled riding-whip, with a long thick lash of buf- falo hide. Meanwhile, as we exchanged the news and friendly questionings, the train had approached, one cart after another wheeling by in longprocession— scores upon scores, each wheel in every cart having its own individual creak or shriek, and each cart drawn by an ox harness- ed in rawhide, one driver to three carts. The drivers were all half-breeds, dressed in every va- riety of costume, but nearly all showing some flash of gaudy color in the invariable belt or sash, or in the moccasins, and politely touching the cap with a "Bon jour!"tosuch of usasstood near enough to return the salutation. The next morning, as we were eating break- every side sweep the level lines, slowly darken- ' fast, a new party a^ieared, which soon turned mg as they approach the horizon. Nothing ob- out to be Sir George Simpson, the Governor of structs or limits the view of the sky. A whole ' the Hudson's Bay Company in America and FOUT AOEBOSOMDIE, The day was the fourth of the month July, and this was our unexpected celebration of the Nation's gala-day. Taking the saddles from our horses, and leaving tlieni to their independence, we sat down upon the brow of a high hill over- looking the river for miles of its wayward wind- ings. Pen and pennjl arc botli inadequate ; but the pencil is better than the pen. And as I sketched, Joseph made the oration. We remained here for the rest of the day. The place is called Dayton, after a gentleman who, like millions 'of his fellow-freemen, was not elected Vice-President. The present pojju- lation numbers one. They live alone by him- self in a, breezy log-house, with a little off-shoot containing bunks and a cooking-stove, and whose walls are hung with dried stm-geons and cat- fishes, caught in the river. Breckinridge is about twenty miles below Day- ton, in a southwest direction, and is situated pre- cisely at the point where the river begins its gen- eral nortliwardly course, at the junction of the Bois de Sioux. Fort Abercrombie is about the same distance northwest of Breckinridge ; so that our trail toward the fort from Dayton was the hypothenuse of the river's angle. When the gulfs of wood that marked the course of Red River had faded into dimness, and sunk below the horizon behind us, nothing was visible but the sky and this level grass stretch- ing away in every direction. There were lines of lighter and deeper shade in the gi-een and yel- low lierbage, flecks of brilliant flowers, cool blue skies, and a clearly defined horizon at the east ; and under the setting sun a yellower hue in the sky, and hazier lines upon the distant and waver- ing bands of shade and light where earth and sky met. At night we camped beside a marsh ; and when the last red streak had fiided out of the sky, the full sublimity of the scene burst upon the mind. A night upon the prairie is worth a day at Niagara. As far as the eye can reach on every side sweep the level lines, slowly darken- ing as they approach the horizon. Nothing ob- structs or limits the view of the sky. A whole hemisphere of stars looks down upon you, and all the earth occupying the least possible angle of vision. Just as we were camping for the night a com- pany of Red River carts appeared upon the hori- zon. At first we could hardly imagine what they were — for a moment widening out into bat- talions, and then shrinking to the width of a sin- gle company, as the trail came directly toward or was at right angles to us, so that it seemed as if we were gazing at the evolutions of a grand army. As they came nearer the illusion was dispelled, and the train began to look like what it was — a huge land caravan. Presently we saw galloping ahead of the train ^- young man, well mounted, who in a few moments drew rein under the Stars and Stripes, which we had patriotical- ly hoisted when we first saw their white flag of march fluttering in the distance. The rider, a young M'Kay, who was captain of the train, was well mounted, and sat his horse finely. His clear, bronzed face was set oft' by a jaunty cap. He wore a cheeked flannel shirt, and each shoul- der bore its fancy wampum bead belt, that sus- pended the powder-horn and shot-jjouch. He had upon his feet moccasins worked with beads and quills, and carried in his hand a short-han- dled riding-whip, with a long thick lash of buf- falo hide. Meanwhile, as we exclianged the news and friendly questionings, the train had approached, one cart after another wheeling by in longprocession — scores upon scores, each wheel in every cart having its own individual creak or shriek, and each cart drawn by an ox harness- ed in rawhide, one driver to three carts. The drivers were all half-breeds, dressed in every va- riety of costume, but nearly all showing some flash of gaudy color in the invariable belt or sash, or in the moccasins, and politely touching the cap with a "Bon jour! " to such of us as stood near enough to return the salutation. The next morning, as we were eating break- fast, a new party appeared, which soon turned out to be Sir George Simpson, the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company in America, and FOaT ABEEOSOMBIE, CANTONMENTS, FOET ABEKCEOMBIE. his attendants. He was just returning from his annual visit to Norway House, and was only seven days from Fort Gany. He was accom- panied by relays of horses, and himself rode in an old buggy at a spanking gait. The voice, whicli is said to make chief factors and chief traders and chief clerks tremble, and which makes and mars fortunes in Rupert's Land, was to us strangers very jilc.asant in its tones. Our eyes followed the white round-topjied hat and white capote, as long as they were visible, with great interest, until we learned, too late, that one of the men in his party was Dr. Rae, the Arctic explorer. A few hours' ride the next morning brouglit us to the Red River of the North again, where it flowed northwardly six miles above (/. e., south of) Fort Abercrombie. We crossed at a con- venient fordiug-place, where the water was little liigher than the horses' flanks, aud galloped on to the fort. North of Gr.aham's Point, as we rounded a turn of the river, whose wooded margin had conceal- ed it from us hitlierto, we came in sight of Fort Abercrojnbie— that is, of the one building erect- ed for the commander's quarters, and the canvas store-houses, which aie built upon the jirairie near the river bank. The log-houses, which of- ficers and privates at present occu])y, are all built in a quadrangle upon a pear-shaped promontory, surrounded by water, aud a trifle lower tlian tlic level of the prairie. The view on the preceding page is taken from the neck of this pear-sha])ed promontoiy, looking west toward the prairie. The view above is taken from the same spot, back to back, looking cast toward the interior of the cantonment. Here were our old stage-coach friends, the Englishmen, quartered in their tents, and the Scotch lasses, by the kindness of Captain Davis, quartered in one of the completed rooms of the building shoim in the first sketch, where they were awaiting the construction of their batteau. Joseph found an old friend in the sutler of the fort, and by him we were introduced to the commander and princiijal officers. We enjoyed their hearty hospitality for the remainder of "the day and niglit. As we sat in the Captain's quar- ters at tlie close of the afternoon, smoking out tlie mosquitoes with Manilla cheroots, and listen- ing to his entertaining accounts of life on the border, an orderly brought news of another train wishing to cross the river at this point. Pres- ently they came along, the cattle bearing new armies of mosquitoes over the neck, and through the cantonment to the place where the Anson Norlimp was moored. Wheeling their loaded carts on the boat, they swung it back and forth, from shore to sliore, til! all were ferried over, then drove their oxen into the water, swimming them across, and camped in the woods on the opposite side of the river. The Captain gave Joseph and myself a whole house to ourselves that night, with straw beds, which were a luxury after the cold ground ; and the delicious coolness of the room, with not a mosquito to sting or sing, soon sent us to sleep, the last sounds tliat fell upon our ears being tin songs of tlie half-breeds over the river— songs of their own nation, and of Sioux and Chippe- wa braves— rising and foiling in monotonous cadences till all were alike unheard. The steamboat Auson Northup deserves an epic. Here is the argument, to which I hope some one will yet gird himself to wi-ite a poem. Late in flie winter of 1858-'9, jlr. Anson Northup, having run liis boat up tlie Crow Wing Kiver, a tributary of the Mississipjji, tlie previous fall, took it to pieces, paciced the cabin, machinery, and timber for building the hull, on sleighs, which, with great difficulty, were drawn by horses and oxen across to Otter Tail Lake, and thence westward to the mouth of the Cheyenne on the Red River. Assisted by the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce, but mainly depending on his own private resources, and by hard work and jjcrseverance, the boat was rebuilt on the banks of Red River, and launched snccessfiilly on the 10th of May, and, as the breaking bottle drenched the planks, was christened the Anson Northnp. In the high- water of early spring she made her trial-trip down to Fort Garry and back. She had to lie by every night, of course, and must have been greatly delayed by the necessity of stopjjing to cut timber for the fire. In spite of these delays, she made the return trip in eight days; and what must the quiet Selkirkers have thought of the American steamboat ? Tlie Albany burgomas- ters were not more amazed by the sound of the Chancellor Livinf/slon's paddles. And now about the navigation of Red River. Such navigation is undoubtedly feasible. The boat's two trips to Fort Gariy have demonstrated it. In the latter part of the fall, and in the win- ter of course, it is impracticable. After the ice breaks up, which usually happens about the 1st of May, the water is veiy high, and the river is navigable to as large steambo.ats as can make all the turns in the winding river, from Fort Aber- crombie to the mouth at Lake Winnipeg — near- ly five hundred miles. After the 1st of August the water has fallen sufficiently to reveal serious obstructions in the channel from the fort to the mouth of the Cheyenne River, its largest tribu- tary but one, entering Red River fifty or sixty miles below the fort. But from this jioint to its mouth it is easily navigable in the lowest stages of water, until the ice forms in early November. The success of the boat works a revolution in the Com]]any's business. Hereafter the annual outfit and returns will pass through the United States, instead of by the difficult and cii-cuitous passage of Hudson's Bay, to York and Moose Factories. The train did not cross the river above the fort as we did, but continued on for about fifty miles down the east side of the river to the Cheyenne Crossing, near the mouth of the Chey- enne River. Joseph and I, who had remained behind, crossed the river on the Anson Nortlwp, swimming our horses. We therefore had to ride thirty-four miles on the trail of the train, doing their two days' travel in one day, and that the hottest of the season. The air "was really furnace-like, reminding one of the accounts from India of the scorching heats of mid-day in that more tropical climate. But when we got to camp, two hours after sunset, there was still no rest for us. Mosqui- toes abounded, biting our hands, and necks, and faces, as we cooked our sujipcrs, and flying into our eyes and mouths whenever we dared to open either. At this season of the year mosquitoes are the intolerable curse of travelers, the little black fly the tolerable curse, and wood-ticks the curse. As for the rest of the entomological cre- ation, they bear no comparison with these in their power of inflicting annoyance and petty misery upon the human race ; and one soon gets the habit, I fouml, of brushing a spider from his fiice, an ant from his neck, or taking any creep- ing, crawling thing from the inside of his near- -rf si^gfc- m W TJIB 'aHSON NOETHUP." TUE &MUDGE. est piece of clothing, with the same indifference with which he brushes away a house-fly in Christian lands. But inasmuch as wood-ticle tuming off the immense grid- dle of the horizon, smoking hot from the fiery oven of the sun. On the right of us, with our glasses we could see the distant line of timber marking the northwarQ course of Red River; about every day we crossed some one of its west- em tributarios — first a line of blue on the north- ern horizon, resolvint; itself into trees wliiuh wo graduiilly ncarcd, jihin^jed into, fording tlic stream wliicli ran throiij^b tlieni, and omerj;- ing on the other side to anotlier stretch of open prairie, terminated at tlic distance of twenty or thirty miles by another timbered stream. Some- times we had no water but swamp water, and no wood but tlie Imls tie var.hc, or " buffalo chips," which gave an unpleasant Havoring to our cook's savory pancakes ; and once we got stuck, late in the afternoon, in the middle of a huge marsh, where with great ditiiculty we found a bit of dry ground big enough to spread our blankets on, going supperless to bed, and waiting for daylight to extricate ourselves fi-ora the wilderness of sloughs and marshes that environed us. Elm River, Goose Kiver, Turtle River, Little Salt River, I'ark River, and their numberless tributa- ries, were those which we crossed. On the banks ijf Park River we fjund a little orchard of blue- berries, and in less than ten minutes from the first alarm every body was on his hands and knees among the bushes, renewing the joys of youth. Strawberries, too, grow tliicker as we advanced. Tficy were near bringing one of our party to grief— one whom we all liked. He had a habit of walking ahead of the train for a mile or two, picking strawberries and wool-gathering, and besides, was very near-sighted. The train stopped to send after fresh meat — a young and fat bull, killed by L after a four-mile chase — and the ijhilosoiihcr trudged on. When we were in motion again somebody asked, " Where's T ?" He was nowhere to bo seen. Some- thing must be done. One officious personage, who at that time commanded the commander of the train, said, "Of course he is ahead," and objected to delaying the train till search was made. Joseph had no idea of leaving his friend alone on the prairie, and relinked this volunteered in- humanity with the information that he (brute) might go on as soon as he chose, and as far as he chose ; but as for him (Josejih), the train might travel till sundown before he would stir another step till the missing man was found. So ho took the sharp-eyed Cree half-I)reed along with him, mounted on my horse, and started off in the di- rection where, during the afternoon, a spot had been seen, which the man with the spy-glass had pronounced an Indian, and the man with a field-glass had pronounced an elk, and we with- out glasses had pronounced buffalo ; and which it was thought might be T . The train kept on slowly till it came to the first wood and water, and there camped. About sundown Jo- seph and the Cree half-breed came into camp with the philosopher between them. The rest of the story Joseph shall tell in his own words : "The last authentic recollection of the phi- losopher was during the buffalo-hunting news, when ho was seen, like " ' Grout Orion, sloping elowly to the Wont,' hunting for strawberries in labyrinths of reflec- tion. The savant, it was known, had lost his spectacles ; .and now it began to be feared that he bad lost himself in the bewildering mazes of his strawberry search. We had not gallojjed a mile befoi'o the half-breed's quick eye caught the figure — \vhich had been buffalo, elk, Indian, and what not, an hour before — standing, ap- parently motionless, on the summit of a distant ridge, some five miles off', visible to me through a glass only as a vague black line against the sky. A very anxious interval of doubt was passed at the swiftest pace of our horses before we were at all sure that the dim object was ray best friend. Speculation gradually dawned into recognition ; and as we approached him, the geographer of the Northwest descended from his eminence, and saluted us with a bland ;ind quiet courtesy, as if he felt quite at home, and was going to ask us to take something. 'I'lie geog- rapher was utterly lost on his own grouiul, and had not the least idea where he was. I'icking strawberries he wandered outside of the trail, forgot on which side of it he was, and took, of course, the exactly wrong direction in trying to find his way b.ack ; and so, after wandering for a while among blueberries and eagles' nests and buffalo tracks, he concluded that he was lost, and deliberately made up his mind to cam]) there, in sight for miles around, till he was sent for." UUFFALO CIIA8K. TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND. [Sccontr Dajier.] IT was tlie miilLlle of a hot July afternoon when we came to camp on the south side of Pembina Kiver — I'cmljina and the Peinbinese over the way. Joseph and I put on clean shirts, crossed the river in a canoe, and went to ask for our letters and jiajiers. The mail-car- rier, coming by a different route, had arrived be- fore us. To Magenta had been added Montc- -bello, and the thirty thousand slain ; and tlicn followed silence and newslessness for three months. Who that reads the papers has not heard of Minnesota and the man that fignrc^d in oim' New York I'unih as a runaway with tlie Cajiitol on his shoulders? Town lot sjiecnlators striving to have the Capitol elsewhere than at St. Paul (all but Minnesotians have forgotten the name of the town now — such its obscurity) ; carrying the bill making tlie change through a Legislature too virtuous for cakes and ale, and then getting a double checkmate from the Chairman of the Committee on Enrolled Rills, wlio ran oft' with the Removal Bill in his |iocket — ran off, on snow-shoes and with a dog-lrain, to Pembina, it was said — ran oif to Room No. 27 Fuller llonse, St. Paul, for a fact: and there hibernated, eat- ing Buri-eptitious turkeys and bass by day, an'1> MOUTU OF PEMBINA BIVEK. ets and arrows of Irdians, who used it instead of a colored boy and board for their target. The post was planted by Nicollet, we were told. Later obserrations have proved that it is 370 yards south of the parallel of 49', the true lioundary line. It seemed less than that number of yards from it north to Pembina Fort. The lodges around the fort are those of In- dians, come in from their hunts to spend their proceeds or outfit anew ; some, perhajis, em- ployed by the Company. Half-breeds, however, are the ordinary ' ' Company's servants. " The long dwelling, where .several fomilies of them lived, was on our left as we passed under the high gateway of the fort. The store-houses and store were opposite. Facing the gate was the dwelling of the officers in charge — whitewashed without, scrupulously ne.it within. The Scotch sen-ants and half-ljreed interpret- ers of the Company were standing by the store- house ; the half-breed women and children were here and there about the area ; half a dozen Chippewas stood, with arms folded, seeing every motion of our party, and bearing every sound ; hundreds of furs were hanging against the fences ; and through the smudge-smoke issuing from the half-breeds' quarters we could catch glimpses of dark eyes and babies' hammocks a-swinging. The river, as may be seen in the cut, runs veiy near the fort, and is eighty y.irds wide, and twelve feet deep. In 1856 it rose thirty-five feet higlier, whereby the Red River Settlement and Pemliina were disastrously flooded, as twice in Lord Selkirk's time. These inundations are periodical, but occur at long intervals, and. probably, are much less serious now than for- merly, for old settlers say they can note, of late years, a very considerable enlargement of the channel, both of Red River and the Assini- boine. St. Vincent is the name of the town-site op- posite Pembina, in the northwestern corner of Minnesota exactly. It receives large annual accessions to its poll-list, just before election times, from over the river; but ordinarily its population consists of a dozen half-breeds, with dogs and mosquitoes, ad lib. One of the last evenings of our stay in Pem- bina we were invited to a half-breed dance over the river. We crossed in a crazy dug-out, of precarious equilibrium, and heard the jiggish fiddle before we reached the house. The half- breed who had rowed us over stopped at a lodge beside the ])ath to wake up two dark-skinned maidens and invite them to the dance. We caught a glimpse of them rising from their bed of robes, their faces lit up by pleasure at the news, as much as by tlie burning shred of cotton which floated on a basin of tallow on the ground in tlic middle of the lodge. Opening the door, and entering the log-house where the dance was briskly going ,on, we were greeted by a chorus of Ho! ho! bo! — the universal salutation of the aboriginal (total and semi). The fiddle did not cease its scraping, nor the heels of the dancers for a moment intermit their vibrant thumps on the plank floor. The scene was a wild one, though within four walls. A huge mud chim- ney, with an o])en fire-place at the right, a four- posted bed, with blankets only, in the further left-hand corner ; one or two chairs, which were politely handed to the strangers ; and all around BALL AT i'Elllil.SA. the room, sitting upon the floor as Indians and tailors sit, were half-lireed men and women, boys and girls — twenty or tliirty in all ; one mother, with bare breast, suckling her babe ; another busy in keeping her little one's toddling feet out of the pan of melted grease low on the mud hearth, with a cotton rag hanging over the edge, alight, which made snch dark shadows in among the groups in strange places, shadow and light alternating against the rafters and the roof as the figures of the dance changed. Jigs, reels, and quadrilles were danced in rap- id succession to the sound of that " dem'd hor- rid grinil," fresh dancers taking the place of those on the floor every two or three moments. The m6n were stripped to shirt, trowsers, belt, and moccasins ; and the women wore gowns which had no hoops. A vigorous shutlie from some thick-lipped young dancer, with his legs in flour-sacks, or a lively movement of some wrinkled hag, trying to renew the pleasures and activity of her youth, would call out a loud chorus of admiring "Ho! ho! ho!" and, fired by contagious enthusiasm, a black-eyed beauty in blue calico, and a strapping hois hrttle^ would jump up from the floor and outdo their prede- cessors in vigor and velocity — the lights and shadows chasing each other faster and faster over the rafters ; the flame, too, swaying wiltlly hither and thither ; and above the thumj/s of tlie dancers' heels, and the frequent ho's! and the loud laughter of the ring of squatter sovereigns, rose the monomaniac fiddle-shrieks, forced out of the trembling strings as if a devil was at the bow. Perhaps it is clear that here we saw the com- monalty. The next night Joe Rolette gave a dance in his house, and here we saw the aris- tocracy of Pembina. There was the same en- thusiasm, but less license ; a better fiddle and the fiddler better ; and more decorous dancing. Joe's little boy of eleven, home from his school at the Settlement, and his father-in-law, of near seventy, were the best of the dancers. The lat- ter was as tireless as if his aged limbs had lost no strength by exposure to all weathers and la- bor, as a hunter and voyageur, for a long life- time ; and little Joe had e.xtra double-shuffles, and intricate steps, and miraculously lively movements, which made his mother and little cousins very proud of him. In the intervals of the dance Madame Gan- grais, one of Joe's lady cousins, sang some wild French ballads and a Catholic hymn. Those of our boys who were singers responded with a few choruses — negro melodies, of course. Monday week after our arrival in Pembina we left for St. Joseph — a place seven railee south of latitude 49'% about thirty miles west of Pembina, and likewise on Pembina River, which stream, west of St. Joseph (or St. Jo, as it is universally called) runs (according to Cap- tain Palisser) almost entirely in British terri- tory. Along the stream from its mouth to the lakes we afterward saw, in which it takes its rise, a belt of prairie on either side, varying in <--•■■ m^ 6TaAWIi£UblliB. width, and covered witli trees— oak, elm, poplar, and birch the i>rincii)al varieties. Our road was over the ojjen jirairic, two or three miles north of the belt of timber, touching it here and there at the larger bends. The wonder of this day's travel was the acres and acres of strawberries tlirongh wliicli the trail passed. Beds of them, so ttiick tliat kneel- ing any where you could fill a liat full without more than turning around ; large, ripe, luscious strawberries, tarter than those in our gardens, whose size has been increased at the expense of a riclmess of flavor. The wheels crushed clumps if them, and were reddened like the wjjeels of Juggernaut. Again and again we were temjit- ed out of our saddles by some bed of thicker and finer berries than that wo had just left the jMiiit of our knees on — gluttonous 6trawberr}'-bibbers every one of us ! When we could eat no more from the vines, we filled our hats full, which were devoured in the saddle as soon as a few mo- ments' srjuare trotting had made a place for new draughts of their red, ripe, pulpy delieious- ness. Some ate in silence, and some in thankful- ness, and some in wonder; and Joseph mur- mured between every hatful the praise — of An- drew Fuller, was it? — "Doubtless God might have made a better berry than the strawberry, but doubtless God never did." Half a dozen of us stofiped, about noon, at the farm of Charles Rottineau, which is on a bend of the river, nineteen or twenty miles from Pembina. Curet need not have been ashamed of the iahhi d'lu'ite. In the last half of the afternoon we drove on to St. Josejih, galloping down one of its grassy streets as the sun was sinking behind I'cmbina Mountain, which fills the western horizon. The city was deserted ; its one hundred houses were nearly all shut and barred, their accustomed inmates gone to the summer bufialo-hunt. A score or so of half-breeds, very young, or very old, or lame, most of them, gathered around our camj)-fire ; but of the hundreds whom we saw- on our return journey there were now no signs. Many that were unable to accompany the bri- gade to the ])lains had moved away from their homes in St. Joseph, and lived in lodges near Forts Garry and rembiua, for fear of the hostile Sioux. The houses were nearly all of hewn logs, mud- dcd in the chinks, generally one luit sometimes two stories in height, with a single chimney. Mr. N. W. Kittson has his large trading-house inclosed within a high stockiide; the nunneiy and church are larger buildings than the aver- age ; and one or two are frame-houses, who.se boards came from the saw-mill, which adjoins the church, and was built by its thrifty priest; but, with these exceptions, the houses are veri- much alike. St. Jo is a place of considerable present and greater prospective importance. It is on our frontier, the best of all sites for a much-needed frontier fort, in the midst of a rich agricultural countr)-, adjoining the great settlement of North- western Hriiish America, and is near the water- course which leads into our own teiTitory, and insures to our benefit somewhat of the riches of the great Northwestern areas, both now and when the advancing tide of settlements shall have swept over the great valleys and left them populous. Since ISoO the Sioux have stolen from the I<;oplc of St. Jo more than four hundred horses, many of them buffalo-runners, commanding from one to three hundred dollars each, and often the only jiroperty and sole means of support which their owners had. In the same time a still larg-^ er number of horned cattle have been stolen. Worse than all, every year has seen some deaths at the hands of the Sioux. In the absence of the hunters the Indian lurks about the place, shooting and scalping, sometimes in open day- light, those who stray away from the principal streets, and at night firing into windows heed- lessly left unshuttered, or falling npon some helpless man or woman who has ventured to cross the field to a ncighlrar's house. At times the half-breeds have taken their wrongs into their own hands, and have done their best to riglit them. lu the occasional bat- tles which have occurred they have exhibited a superior bravery and skill, one of their number being reckoned the equal of about half a dozen of any Indian tribe. They are the best of horse- men. The Sioux must dismount to fire with accuracy. A half-breed, from long practice in the buftalo hunts, will fire from horseback at full gallop without even taking a sight along the bar- rel, and that, too, with great rapidity and dead- ly effect, delivering half a dozen shots, before, behind, and on either side of him, while his horse is making a flying circuit within gun-shot distance of a Sioux war-jiarty. When St. Jo was laid out by the original set- tlers, each man was allotted not merely a por- tion of land sufficient for house and garden with- in the limits of the city, but also a farm fronting on tlie Pembina River, and therefore combining plenty of timber witli the rich prairie land. Few of these farms, however, are cultivated. The people of St. Jo, like tlie French half-ljreeds of Red River, are buffiilo-hunters by profession. In the early spring their work begins. Before the snow is off the ground those who are intend- ing to go out in tjie first summer hunts begin to look about after their horses and carts and cart- oxen. If they have no horses, they buy or hire them. If they have no carts, they set to work to make them — quisque su(B cartcE faher est. There are no mechanics among them. Such things as they can not buy of the English or American traders they make for themselves or go without ; so that nearly every able-bodied man is a chair-maker, house-builder, blacksmith, or wagon-maker, as occasion demands. These carts thus made are, nevertheless, all of one pat- tern, and enough alike to have been machine- work. "Pembina buggy" is the honorary title which they receive from those who despair of otiierwise making their jolts endurable — as one might call the stink-weed, rose. A wooden cart on two wheels is the simplest description of them. Wooden they are to the remotest parts. Leath- er linch-pins are not orthodox; and if the heresy of iron boxes has to any extent prevailed, it is only because imported from St. Paul. The fel- loes are wide and never tired. The bids is huge, and sometimes indulged with a girdle of raw buffalo hide, nailed on when wet and shiiuking tight. There is a neat fence high as the wheel on each side of the cart body, and the wheels themselves are large and enormously dished. For from five to ten dollars apiece you may buy any number of these carts, so cheaj) is labor. Twelve hundred jiounds can be piled into them on good roads ; and even where there is a slough at every half-mile, and a corduroy road the rest of the w.ay, they cany seven hundred jiounds without often breaking. The draught animals are o.xen almost exclusively, and these have har- nesses of raw hides, of a primitive cut and of an infinite endurance. With as many carts as he ' can afford, and at least one fast buffalo-horse, with a gun of the Northwest pattern (price 48 wholes.ale), and a full powder-horn and shot- pouch, the hunter is prepared to go to the plains. But he never goes alone. He and his friends and neighbors make up a brigade — large or small, it is called a brigade ; and the brigade is a trav- eling town sometimes' — men and women, horses, oxen, dogs, and carts, tents, lodges, frying-pans, =?«;;' ,i*> BT. JOSEm, FROM ^EiLlil^■A MOUNTAIN. and all other housekeeping utensils that are port- able, traveling together. In last summer's hunt, for example, there were, in one brigade alone, 400 men carrying arms, 800 women and children, 800 horses, 500 oxen, 1000 carts, about 200 train-dogs, and as many more mongrel curs. The wants of these people are simple and few, and about as easily supplied on the prairie as in the settlements. As for the animals, herbivorous, they live on grass and water ; carnivorous, they live on meat and water. The brigade desen'es the name of a traveling community for another reason. They subject themselves to a code of laws on the prai- rie even moi'e rigid than those in force at home. The latter end of June is the time of starting for the summer hunt, of August for the fall hunt. A large camp of half-breeds on their way to the plains is a sight to be seen. Their dress is picturesque. Men and women both wear moc- casins worked with gaudy beads. The men's trowsers are generally of corduroy or Canada blue, and their coats of the Canadian pattern, witli large brass buttons, and a hood hanging between the shoulders. A jaunty cap surmounts the head, often of blue cloth, but sometimes of an otter or badger skin ; and, whether with the coat or without it, a gay sash is always worn around the waist, the bright tassels hanging down the left hip. Into this are thrust the biiffi^lo- knife behind, and the fire-l)ag at the right side. Although it was not until tlie writer's return, with two friends and a couple of half-breed guides and servants, by Turtle Mount and Devil's Lake, that he passed through the great buffalo ranges where the brigades always liunt, it is better to give the particulars of one of their chases, the pemmican making, etc., in this connection than to defer it to its proper chronological place. Women, boys, and the supernumeraries of the brigade drive the. carts, each one taking charge of two or three, and passing his or her time in belaboring the forward ox, and yelling to the hinder ones as they lag in the march. The hunters are mounted on fine horses, and relieve the tedium of the slow, wearisome travel with an occasional scamper after a badger seen scram- bling to his hole ; or a shot at a gray wolf, dis- turbed in his lurking-place in tlio long rushes of some deep marsh through whicli the train passes. Some of the hunters keep at a considerable dis- tance from the train, on the look-out for Ijuftalo and signs of hostile Indians. If the latter are near, the train divides into three sections, and travel in ))arallel lines. The lowering and raising of the flag on the foremost cart is the sign to halt or start. At night they gather in a circle called a corral, where the carts are ranged side by side, with the shafts turned 4owai-d the centre of the circle, wliere the lodges and tents are raised, and the camp-fires made. The drudgery of the camp is performed by the half-breed women. Wlien the train is in motion every sejjarate wheel on every cart has its peculiar shriek. lu camp these are silent ; but Babel is continued by all voices, each with its peculiar shrillness or vehemence of lan- guage, by the barkings of all tlic dogs, comjiass- ing every chromatic of the canine gamut, by the lowing of tlie oxen and the whinnying of horses, rolling and kicking up their heels in the grass. But in the midst of it all matters are going on, fires lighted, water boiling, potatoes cooking, pemmican frying, and bread baking ; and before sunset sujjper is ready in most of the messes. After sup])er the pipe. As the twiliglit deepens into dark, all the an- imals are brought into the inclosure made by the carts, and picketed there, the buffalo-runners re- ceiving es])ecial care ; and the watch begins to control the camp. Numbers linger about the camp-fii-es, smoking and telling stories of buftiilo- hunts, or listening to some older man as he re- counts the early distresses of the colonists, the wars of the Northwest and Hudson's Bay Com- pany, the long journey to Prairie du Chien for food and seeds, or some attack of the Sioux upon the hunters in a previous year. But before the light has entirely died out in the western sky all are wrapped in their blankets or robes — the sweet odor of kinnic-kinnic lingering in the air — and the low voices of the watchmen are interrupted only by the long bowlings of distant wolves — long and exultant, sometimes, as if conscious that they are about to begin their annual feast upon the carcasses of buffalo. Early in the morning, before sunrise, in the cold gray dawn, dew dabbling every spear of grass, the flags are raised, and at the sign, and sound of the horn sleepers rouse, the tents and lodges are struck by the women, the oxen har- nessed into the carts and horses saddled by the men. The horn again sounds and the carts fall into line, and the hunters mount and the train is in motion. After about two hours of brisk travel the train halts an hour and a half for breakfast, and then pushes on again till the or- der is given to halt for dinner. During the early part of the day which is to be described, no large herds had been seen ; but all were in anxious expectation of falling in with one before the day ended, so fretiuent were the signs of their presence in the numerous trails — the fresh dung and the trampled grass in all the marshes looking like innumerable heaps of green jackstraws. Just as the leader was sounding the horn which was the order to " catch up tlie horses," a rider was seen galloping at full sjieed down the hither side of a hill by wliicli he had been liid from sight on the rolling prairie. All knew the message he had to bring before hearing it from his lips. He had seen a herd of hundreds stead- ily pushing their way over the [irairie toward the northeast, just beyond a high ridge which was the limit of sight in the direction the brigade was then traveling — nearly due south. Tlie oxen tliat had been harnessed were again loosed, all the buft'alo- runners saddled, and every hunter eagerly ex- amined his gun and ammunition. The horses too knew what was in the wind ; and the more higli-spirited ones among them, wliich had been trained to the hunt, stood shivering witli excite- ment, snuffing tlie air, and pawing the ground with their lioofs, needing a man's strength to hold them in. All the able-liodied men were speedily armed and accoutred, their superfluous clothing thrown off, sashes tied tighter, and girths buckled a hole or two higher, and, in less than five minutes from the time tlie rider had got to camp, the leader liad given the order to advance, and more than three hundred horse- men were steadily trotting southward in the di- rection of tlie herd. In a few moments they had reached a ])oint where the ground began to rise gently to the height of the low ridge on the top of which tlity would be visible to the herd. Here all drew rein, while the leader, with one or two of the older hunters, dismounted and crept along up the slope to reconnoitre, obsen-e the progress of the herd and the lay of the land, in order to de- termine from which direction the charge had bet- ter be made. There was little time to be lost ; the buft'alo were already o])posite the hunters, and the old bulls ahead might, at any moment, take a trail leading over the ridge and in full sight of the train. A moment's glance told ex- perienced eyes, peering through the tops of the long green grass, that the ground toward which they were moving was a rolling prairie with ab- rupt ascents and descents, and therefore full of badger-holes, dangerous alike to the horse and his rider, while the ground which they had just passed over was very nearly level, with here and there a marsh, and fenced in, so to speak, by the stream which ran hither and thither, and wound around by tlie dinner camp-ground. Hastening down the slopie and remounting their horses, a few quick, low words from the leader explained the order of the charge. A dozen or more of the fleetest runners were sent to the westward around the ridge to head the herd and start them back. The rest of the hunters gathered under its edge arrectis auribus. The ruse was successful. The dozen hunters coming boldly into sight directly in their path, and spreading out slowly to the right and left without chasing them, and the favorable nature of the ground, making it harder for them to go to the one side or the other than backward, turned them almost in their tracks. The herd was not so large but that ven' many of the buffaloes could see the hunters. The sage and long-bearded veterans who had led them stopped, w-re crowded ahead a few yards by the pressure of those behind, and then all were huddling together, cows and calves in the centre, and the bnlls crowding around, until the leaders broke through and led off at a steady gallop on the back track. This was the critical moment. The dozen hunters shouted at the tops of their lungs, and settled into a steady gallop on their trail. The three hundred and fifty horsemen came flying over tlie ridge and down its slope in full pursuit, and in front of them all, not a quarter of a mile away, a herd of near a thousand buflTaloes in headlong flight, tails out. Leads down, and nostrils red and flar- ing. For the first few hundred j-ards the chase was "nip and tuck." The buffaloes were doing their best possible, as they always can at the beginning of a chase, and the horses had not so good ground, and were hardly settled down to their work. But soon the tremendous strides of tlie buffalo-run- ners began to tell in the chase, and the hea\y headlong and forehanded leap of the buffalo to grow just perceptibly slacker. One after an- other the swiftest of the runners caught up to the herd, and soon hunters and hunted were one indistinguishable mass thundQiing over the plain. The gieen sward is torn up, clouds of dust arise, swift shots like volleys of musketrv' buffet the air, the hunters fly along with loosened rein, trusting to their horses to clear the badger holes that here and there break the ground, and to keep their own flanks and the rider's legs from the horns of the buffaloes by whom they must pass to get alongside the fat and swifter cow singled out for prey. And still they keep up this tremendous gait, flying buffalo and pur- suing horsemen. As fast as one fires he draws the ]ilug of his powder-horn with his teeth, , pours in a hasty charge, takes one from his mouthful of wet bullets and drops it without wadding or rammer upon the powder, settles it with a blow against the saddle, keeps the muzzle lifted till he is close to his game, then lowers and fires in the same instant without an aim, the muzzle of the gun often grazing the shaggy monster's side ; then leaning off, his hor.se wheels away, and loading as he flies, he spurs on in chase of another, and another, and another ; and in like manner the three hundred of them. One after one the buffaloes lagged behind, staggered, and fell, at first singly and then by scores, till in a few moments the whole herd was slain save only a few old bulls not worth the killing, which were suffered to gallop safely away. One after one the hunters drew rein, and dismounting from their drenched horses, walked back through the heaps of dead bufl'alo and the puddles of blood, singling out of the hundreds dead with unening certainty the ones they had shot. Not a dispute arose among the hunters as to the ownership of any buffalo killed. To a novice in the hunt they all looked alike, differenced only by size and sex, and the plain on which all were lying was in each square rod the fac-simile of even.' other square. The novices had thrown on their killed a sash or coat or knife-sheath ; but the best huntere had no need of this. To their keen eyes no two rods were alike, and they could trace their course as easily as if only four and not thousands of hoofs had torn the plain. The carts driven by the women come up, knives are drawn, and with marvelous dexterity the shaggj' skins are stripped off, the great, bloody frame divided, huge bones and quivering flesh, all c'lt into ]jieces of portable size, the carts loaded, and by sunset all are on their way to camp. At St. Jo all our plans underwent a change. It became clear that the leader ,f the expedition could never justify the " lofty and high sounding i pass that, with his necessities and his wheedling, phrases of his manifesto," and that it was even ' he obtained more than his wages before he began douljtfiil if wc shtjuld be able to get through the his work. This sort of credit system, liowevcr, mountains before snow fall, to say nothing of re- is usu#l among the h:ilf-brceds. Like the In- turning overland. One of the scientific gentle- dians they |/ass their lives in paying their debts, men returned to St. Paul from St. Jo by private and li.ivc to be trusted with the nicans of enabling conveyance. Another left the expedition at the them to do it. same place, preferring to go to the Selkirk Settle- ment. There remained only our one geologist and botanist to represent science, the through passengers for Fraser l{iver, the leader, and Jo- Michelle Klein, our faithful gtiideand cook, was a better than average specimen of the half-breed. More than fifty years old, he was yet as active as a boy, and liglit-heartcd as a girl. By virtne of seph and I. Our horses were growing lean, ex- those qualities which are always rare in anv „_. ._i.. . u , ._ . . ,. ,, ' party of men, early in the morning, during rain- storms or when cattle have strayed, he became a kind of jirivilegcd character, was ]jemiitted t