Pathfinding on Plain and Prairie: Stirring Scenes of Life in the Canadian North-westMcDougall, John
History
Pathfinding on Plain and Prairie: Stirring Scenes of Life in the Canadian North-west
McDougall, John
Frontier and pioneer life -- Northwest, Canadian; McDougall, John, 1842-1917; Northwest, Canadian -- Description and travel
I spent a Sabbath with the Victoria people, and then made for home.
At Edmonton I lost my horses for a whole day, and did not succeed in
finding them until evening. In the meantime a war party of Southern
Kootenays and Flatheads had come across and spent a few hours at the
fort, where they were on their very good behavior. Had I not been
delayed by the losing of my horses I should have been alone amongst
them that morning, and when I sized the wild fellows up I was
exceedingly thankful that I had been frustrated in my desire to push
on. These strangers went back the same evening, but when I swam my
horses across about sunrise the next morning, and started up the hill
to take the trail for Pigeon Lake, I almost ran into the same war
party. They had gone across my road just as I came up, as I could
tell from the tracks on the grass, on which the dew was still heavy.
I immediately took to cover, and went on the steady gallop, never
stopping except to change horses until I was thirty-five or forty
miles from Edmonton. The greater part of the time I kept away from
the trail, and early in the afternoon was once more at home, having
swam my horses across the big Saskatchewan that morning, and with the
two made the sixty miles in less than three-quarters of a day. This
same war party took a number of horses from a camp of Indians
situated at the time some fifty miles south of us, and I was very
thankful they did not take mine nor yet have a shot at myself.
And now what with hay-making and doctoring and preaching and
teaching, our time went quickly. Soon September was with us, and I
was thinking of starting for Victoria, when Samson came in, and we
went for a moose-hunt. On Saturday afternoon he killed a huge buck
moose, and we camped beside the carcase and spent a very quiet Sunday
in the woods. During the afternoon I took our horses down to a lake
about half a mile from our camp, there being no water nearer, and
while the horses were drinking I sat upon the bank admiring the
scene. The lake before me was several miles long and about half a
mile wide. The banks were quite high and densely covered with forest
trees in the full rich glory of their autumn tints. The day was
calm, and the whole picture was exceedingly beautiful, specially
fitting to the Sabbath evening. My horses, having slaked their
thirst, were lazily browsing on the rushes which grew on the edge of
the water, and I was being lifted up into a higher, purer atmosphere
of experience consistent with my environment, when suddenly my ear
caught the splash of water, and looking across the lake I saw five
moose doing exactly the same as my horses. Having waded out into the
water they were biting at the rushes, and as I watched them one swam
out into the lake straight for me. Soon the whole five were quietly
and gracefully swimming towards me, and I confess that as I watched
those fine big moose coming, I for a moment wished for my gun (which
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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