[1] Mr. Ross, the author of the “Fur Hunters of the Far West,” in his “History of the Red River Settlement,” makes mention of a storm very similar to the one described above. In that instance the party were camping out on the plains; three tents were struck by the lightning, and two men, a woman, and two children killed. Several horses and dogs were also killed. The rain fell in such torrents, that in the course of a few minutes the flood of water was so great that two small children narrowly escaped being drowned. A summer rarely passes in Red River without the loss of several lives by lightning. [2] About the year 1835 the colony passed into the possession of the Hudson’s Bay Company, by purchase from Lord Selkirk’s executors. This, however, made but little change in its condition, the government having been exercised by the Company, for Lord Selkirk and his executors, from the first foundation of the colony. [3] The pemmican used in the Arctic expeditions was manufactured in England of the best beef, with currants, raisins, and sugar; very different to the coarse stuff which is the staff of life in the Hudson’s Bay territories. [4] Fat seems to be the _summum bonum_ in everything, according to Indian and half-breed tastes. They say, “What a fine horse! he’s as fat as possible!” “What a fine woman! how fat she is!” and the same of men, dogs, and everything. And fat is very important in that country. It is the most valuable part of food in winter, and horses and dogs will not stand work in the cold, unless fat. [5] These Indians believe in one “Great Spirit,” or more literally “Perfect Spirit,” the Manitou proper, and a great number of inferior spirits, or lesser Manitous. They appear to address their invocations principally to the latter. [6] The skin of a skunk, which had been thrown aside near our hut, gave out no scent when the frost was very severe, but on the least abatement of the cold, its odour was perceptible. From the variations in the intensity of the smell we could judge very closely of the warmth of the weather. The scent is by no means so disagreeable as it is generally represented, and only when very powerful is it at all disgusting. The Indians use the gland which furnishes the secretion as a cure for headache, and other maladies. [7] From Dr. Rae, who crossed by the same pass the following summer, we learnt that a report had reached Edmonton to the effect that we had all been murdered by the Assiniboine, who was returning rich in the possession of our horses and property. [8] Hugh Miller explains the formation of peat-mosses in Scotland in a similar manner. The timber felled by the Romans to make roads through the forest dammed up the watercourses; pools were thus formed, which were gradually converted into mosses by the growth and decay of aquatic plants.