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
It was on one of the trips we made at this time that we were stopping
for the day in Ka-kake's camp, which was situated beside a pound for
catching buffalo, when, hearing of another cluster of lodges some ten
or twelve miles distant, I made a run over to see the people, and
while coming back the same afternoon I ran across a fine herd of
buffalo. As my leader was obedient to the word, I thought "now is my
chance to run that herd over to the pound." I had no load whatever
on the sled, so I gripped the ground-lashing with both hands and
feet, and sent the dogs after the herd, or rather to one side of it.
My dogs went into the hunt most heartily, and sometimes brought me
dangerously near to the flying mass. Then I would get them under
control again, and on we went from side to side, but always nearing
the point of timber where the pound was. Presently we came within
the lines of "dumb-watchers," and now these helped us, and I kept
looking, when I could spare a glance, to see some move in camp. But
as the lodges were behind the bluff, and the Indians did not look for
buffalo at the time, no one saw us until it was too late to prepare
and run the herd into the pound; so, after bringing the buffalo close
up to camp, I had the bitterness of seeing them break through the
"head sentinels" and dash away.
But what a ride I had that afternoon, my big dogs jumping together,
and with long leaps making the sled leap also. It required a firm
grip to stay on that narrow sled, and also dexterous poising to keep
right side up. Down hills, across valleys, over knolls, jumping the
rough frozen snow where thousands of buffalo had rooted and tramped
only a few days before, certainly that was a toboggan ride with a
race against a herd of buffalo thrown in; and the only disappointment
was that after bringing the bunch to the pound, the Indians were not
there to receive them.
When Ka-kake came in that evening he loudly lamented that we had not
been seen in time, for, said he, "It would have given a name to this
part of the country and to my camp, and men would have pointed to
this as the place where John brought buffalo into the pound with his
dog-train."
One day in February, 1866, while I was at home, my mother, coming
down stairs, congratulated me on the birth of a daughter, and when I
knew that mother and child were well I mentally and consciously made
a step forward in being. It was as God would have it. We gave our
first-born the good old Scotch name of Flora, which also belonged to
my youngest sister.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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