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
In a very short time I was at the bluff and found the dogs.
Unfastening them I brought my train, with old Draffan still in the
lead, and put them on my track, and then brought out Mark's train and
shouted, "Marse, Draffan!" and away we went. Fortunately there was
no wind, and though the night was dark Draffan's instinct and my
memory as to where to cross from one buffalo path to another worked
well. Once or twice I stopped the dogs and struck a match, and was
delighted to find we were on a hard buffalo path. Thus we came at a
good pace back to where the first cow was. But before we reached the
spot Mark came looming up out of the darkness to meet us. The
faithful fellow had been anxious; and now he thought it was his turn
to tell me that I had done well in finding the dogs and returning
them quick and straight.
We used the hide of the cow as a floor for our camp, and soon we had
a cheerful fire and meat cooking and dogs fed; and though it was long
past midnight before we finished our meal and were ready for bed, yet
with light hearts we sang a hymn and knelt in prayer and thankfully
rested.
We were now four days' journey from the Mission, but we had found the
people and also the buffalo. We had loads of good cow meat to take
home, where our supply was rapidly getting low, and as we turned
under our blankets in that small bluff, with the canopy of the sky as
our roof and the horizon as our walls, it might be cold, it certainly
was isolated, and yet we were happy in the satisfaction of success.
I, a Scotch-and-English-Canadian, and my Mountain Stony friend, I
believe, did that early morning more than ever before appreciate the
kingliness of God and the brotherhood of man.
When daylight came Mark went out to see how the meat of our second
cow had fared, for prairie wolves and coyotes were in great numbers
around us. Mark had built a great fire before he left, and I was
lazily dozing beside it waiting for his return, when presently there
was a great commotion amongst our dogs. Jumping up, I saw a monster
wolf just across the fire. He was snapping and snarling at the dogs,
who were barking at him with much vigor, but prudently not venturing
to attack him. For this I was abundantly glad, as undoubtedly he had
some distemper or he would not have thus come into our camp. I could
have shot him, but I was afraid to do so lest in his death-struggles
he might wound some of our dogs; so I went at him with firebrands,
and after some effort was glad to see him continue his course through
the bluff.
[Illustration: "I went at him with firebrands."]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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