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
the eve of the Sabbath, it was very significant to our simple faith
as an evidence of the favor of Providence and an endorsation of our
Sabbath observance.
Early Monday morning the tents were folded and we were on our way
south-eastward. Wednesday we were given another moose, this time
Enoch Crawler being the fortunate hunter. Quite a number of beaver
were caught and shot during the week's travel, and on Saturday, as we
camped at the last point of woods, we killed our first buffalo. Here
we organized our number into two watches, five men and one boy in
each, to keep guard alternate nights. We spent a part of Monday in
cutting and peeling poles and laying in a stock of dry wood; for
while our fuel for some time would consist almost wholly of buffalo
chips, yet it was essential to carry wood to guard against storms.
We were now entering the treeless plains of the great North-West.
During the week we got several straggling bulls, and another Sunday
came without any recent signs of either men or buffalo in numbers.
We were now three weeks from home. For the first two our course lay
through woodland and prairie, an undulating country, rich in
succulent verdure, beautifully watered and with magnificent scenic
properties. If our living was often without change, nevertheless we
always had a sumptuous variety, to serve as both tonic and dessert,
in the exceeding beauty of the landscape through which we were
passing. Speaking for myself, these scenes were a constant stimulus
and blessing to me. My fare might have been hard, the crossing of a
creek or the climbing of a hill difficult, a balky horse exceedingly
trying, a childish and often unreasonable parishioner very
perplexing, but as I stood on some noble vantage ground and "viewed
the landscape o'er," I remembered these little worries no more for
the time, but with intense pleasure drank in the scene before me.
There lay spread a splendid panorama of slope and vale and natural
lawn, of terraced banks and lofty hills, beaver meadows and grand
prairies, mirrored lakes and gently flowing streams. The forces of
Jehovah had been at work. His turning lathes had shaped and rounded.
His storms and deluges had washed and laved for centuries. His
gardening winds and currents had carried and planted germs and seeds.
His rains and dews and light and heat had caused these to grow. His
resurrection agencies had covered and swarded and forested and
blossomed, and clothed the rich and lovely vales and hills. For man
all nature and nature's God had thought and planned and carried into
execution. In gratitude and thanksgiving I beheld and worshipped,
and with a feeling of growing dignity moved on to another vantage
ground.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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