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
Mark would tell of the mountains, and grizzlies and panthers and
avalanches, and encounters with the enemy, till Jimmie's eyes would
bulge with excitement. I would look on and listen and rest. Then
before retiring Mark would lead in prayer in his mother-tongue, which
neither Jimmie nor myself could understand, though we always said
"Amen."
During short intervals at the Mission Mark made several hunting
excursions, and killed some moose and deer. One night he came home
and reported one moose killed and another wounded. Early next
morning we went out and killed the wounded moose and brought the meat
of both home. Another time he killed two deer, and brought back word
that the forest was so dense the meat would have to be packed to the
river some miles above. Accordingly he and I took our dogs and drove
up the river opposite to where the deer lay. Fastening the dogs, we
struck into the forest, and coming across fresh tracks of more deer,
we went after these and killed two more. It was midnight before we
had packed the meat of the four deer to the place where our dogs and
sleds were. Hard work it was, but the venison was good, and our
larder was handsomely replenished.
All that winter the wood Cree camps were from one hundred to one
hundred and fifty miles distant from the Mission. The buffalo kept
out south of these camps, and sometimes were a long distance from
them. But now that there was a regularly established post beside the
Mission, trading parties and settlers and Indians kept passing to and
fro, giving us comparatively good roads, and thus enabling us to
travel quickly. Once well loaded with either dried provisions or
fresh meat, we lost no time on the road.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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