During this period the only civilised person who visited us was Mr. Tait, a half-breed in the Company’s service at Carlton, who came over in a dog cariole, to collect furs from the Indians in our neighbourhood. He brought us a few cakes and potatoes, luxuries we had not tasted for many weeks. From him we learnt that almost everywhere there had been great scarcity of food. At the Fort at Egg Lake the people had been obliged to boil down buffalo hides for subsistence. Two men, sent over to the nearest port, Touchwood Hills, for succour, arrived almost dead with famine; but there they found the inmates at the last extremity, and unable to afford them any assistance. At Fort La Come the men had been half-starved for a long time; and even at Carlton the hunters were sent out so scantily provided, that they were driven to eating their dogs on the way. We considered ourselves very fortunate in having escaped so well from the general dearth. The buffalo have receded so far from the forts, and the quantity of white fish from the lakes, one of the principal sources of supply, has decreased so greatly, that now a winter rarely passes without serious suffering from want of food. This deficiency has become so urgent, that the Hudson’s Bay Company contemplate the immediate establishment of extensive farms in the Saskatchewan district, which is so admirably adapted for agricultural and grazing purposes. The days when it was possible to live in plenty by the gun and net alone, have already gone by on the North Saskatchewan. CHAPTER X. La Ronde’s Return--Letters from Home--A Feast--The Journey to Red River and back--Hardships--The Frozen Train--Three Extra Days--The Sioux at Fort Garry--Their Spoils of War--Late Visitors--Musk-rats and their Houses--Rat-catching--Our Weather-glass--Moose Hunting in the Spring--Extreme Wariness of the Moose--His Stratagem to guard against Surprise-- Marching during the Thaw--Prepare to leave Winter Quarters-- Search for the Horses--Their Fine Condition--Nutritious Pasturage--Leave La Belle Prairie--Carlton again--Good-bye to Treemiss and La Ronde--Baptiste Supernat--Start for Fort Pitt--Passage of Wild-fowl--Baptiste’s Stories--Crossing Swollen Rivers--Addition to our Party--Shooting for a Living-- The Prairie Bird’s Ball--Fort Pitt--Peace between the Crees and Blackfeet--Cree Full Dress--The Blackfeet--The Dress of their Women--Indian Solution of a Difficulty--Rumours of War--Hasty Retreat of the Blackfeet--Louis Battenotte, the “Assiniboine”--His Seductive Manners--Departure for Edmonton-- A Night Watch--A Fertile Land--The Works of Beaver--Their Effect on the Country--Their Decline in Power--How we crossed the Saskatchewan--Up the Hill--Eggs and Chickens--Arrive at Edmonton.