The Romantic Settlement of Lord Selkirk's Colonists: The Pioneers of ManitobaBryce, George
History
The Romantic Settlement of Lord Selkirk's Colonists: The Pioneers of Manitoba
Bryce, George
Red River Settlement
We have each a chamber to ourselves in the garret, reached in the same
primitive method as before mentioned--and are shown with a dip of
buffalo-tallow to our rooms. The furniture of these consists of a sort
of couch, with buffalo skins for mattress and wolf skins for sheets and
coverlet, a chest for a seat, a punch-bowl of water on a broken chair
for a washstand, and a torn bit of rag for towel; while a barrel covered
with a white cloth serves as a centre-table, and is besprinkled with
antique books. Among those in his chamber our naturalist discovers one
which appears to be a catechism of human knowledge containing, among
other entertaining and instructive information as an answer to the
question, "What is a shark?" the highly satisfactory reply that it is
"An animal having eighty-eight teeth."
The wants of the Colony were few, the peasantry simple and industrious,
and their lot in life did not seem to them hard. The earth yielded
bountifully, and in time of temporary disaster fishing and hunting stood
them in good stead. When they hunt, they go accompanied by Indians, who
live on the outskirts of the Colony. Further and further they have been
compelled to go, until at our visit no buffalo could be found within a
hundred miles at nearest.
The hunt is just over as we reach the Settlement, and every day carts
come in laden with the buffalo meat, hides, and pemmican. The prairie,
back from the river, by Fort Garry, is dotted with carts, lodges and
tents. Many are living in rude shelters formed of the carts themselves,
placed back to back, and the sides secured by hides.
These carts illustrate well the primitive nature and the isolation of
the Colony. They are the vehicles in universal use, and are built on the
general pattern of our one-horse tip-carts, though they do not tip, and
not a scrap of iron enters into them. They are without springs, of
course, and rawhide and wooden pins serve to keep together the pieces
out of which they are constructed. As they have no tires, and the
section of the wheel part or crowd together, according to the moisture,
a train of these carts bringing in the products of the hunt is a strange
sight. Each cart has its own peculiar creak, hoarse and grating, and
waggles its own individual waggle, graceless and shaky, on the uneven
ground. To add to its oddity, the shafts are heavy, straight beams,
between which is harnessed an ox, the harness of rawhide (shaga-nappi)
without buckles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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