The Great Lone Land: A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of AmericaButler, William Francis, Sir
History
The Great Lone Land: A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of America
Butler, William Francis, Sir
Northwest, Canadian -- Description and travel
of the Pas, the Porcupine, Duck, and Riding Mountains rise over the
forest-covered swamps which lie immediately along the water. These four
mountain ranges never exceed an elevation of 1600 feet above the sea.
They are wooded to the summits, and long ages ago their rugged cliffs
formed, doubtless, a fitting shore-line to that great lake whose
fresh-water billows were nursed in a space twice larger than even
Superior itself can boast of; but, as has been stated in an earlier
chapter, that inland ocean has long since shrunken into the narrower
limits of Winnipeg, Winnipegoosis, and Manitoba-the Great Sea, the Little
Sea, and the Straits of the God.
I have not dwelt upon the days of travel during which we passed down the
length of these lakes. From the camp of Chicag I had driven my own train
of dogs; with Bear the sole companion of the journey. Nor were these days
on the great lakes by any means the dullest of the journey, Cerf Volant,
Tigre, Cariboo, and Muskeymote gave ample occupation to their driver.
Long before Manitoba was reached they had learnt a new lesson-that men
were not all cruel to dogs in camp or on the road. It is true that in the
learning of that lesson some little difficulty was occasioned by the
sudden loosening and disruption of ideas implanted by generations of
cruelty in the dog-mind of my train. It is true that Muskeymote, in
particular, long held aloof from offers of friendship, and then suddenly
passed from the excess of caution to the extreme of imprudence,
imagining, doubtless, that the millennium had at length arrived, and
that dogs were henceforth no more to haul. But Muskeymote was soon set
right upon that point, and showed no inclination to repeat his mistake.
Then there was Cerf Volant, that most perfect Esquimaux. Cerf Volant
entered readily into friendship, upon an under-standing of an additional
half-fish at supper every evening. No alderman ever loved his turtle
better than did Cerf Volant love his white fish; but I rather think that
the white fish was better earned than the turtle--however we will let
that be matter of opinion. Having satisfied his hunger, which, by the
way, is a luxury only allowed to the hauling-dog once a day, Cerf Volant
would generally establish himself in close proximity to my feet,
frequently on the top of the bag, from which coigne of vantage he would
exchange fierce growls with any dog who had the temerity to approach us.
None of our dogs were harness-eaters, a circumstance that saved us the
nightly trouble of placing harness and cariole in the branches of a tree.
On one or two occasions Muskeymote, however, ate his boots. "Boots!" the
reader will exclaim; "how came Muskeymote to possess boots? We have heard
of a puss in boots, but a dog, that is something new." Nevertheless
Muskeymote had his boots, and ate them, too. This is how a dog is put in
boots. When the day is very cold--I don't mean in your reading of that
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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