f the Canadian bench.

"Where are you going?" he inquired of me.

"To Canada."

"Why?"

"Because there is nothing more to be done."

"Oh, you must come back."

"Why so?"

"Because we have a lot of despatches to send to Ottawa, and the mail is
not safe. Come back now and you will be here again in ten days time."

Go back again on the steam-boat and come up next trip--would I?

There are many men who pride themselves upon their fixity of purpose, and
a lot of similar fixidities and steadiness; but I don't. I know of
nothing so fixed as the mole, so obstinate as the mule, or so steady as
a stone wall, but I don't particularly care about making their general
characteristics the rule of my life; and so I decided to go back to Fort
Garry, just as I would have decided to start for the North Pole had the
occasion offered.

Early in the second week of October I once more drew nigh the hallowed
precincts of Fort Garry.

"I am so glad you have returned," said the governor, Mr. Archibald, when
I met him on the evening of my arrival, "because I want to ask you if you
will undertake a much longer journey than any thing you have yet done. I
am going to ask you if you will accept a mission to the Saskatchewan
Valley and through the Indian countries of the West. Take a couple of
days to think over it, and let me know your decision."

"There is no necessity, sir," I replied, "to consider the matter, I have
already made up my mind, and, if necessary, will start in half an hour."

This was on the 10th of October, and winter was already sending his
breath over the yellow grass of the prairies.

And now let us turn our glance to this great North west whither my
wandering steps are about to lead me. Fully 900 miles as bird would fly,
and 1200 as horse can travel, west of Red River an immense range of
mountains, eternally capped with snow, rises in rugged masses from a vast
stream-seared plain. They who first beheld these grand guardians of the
central prairies named them the Montagnes des Rochers; a fitting title
for such vast accumulation of rugged magnificence. From the glaciers and
ice valleys of this great range of mountains innumerable streams descend
into the plains. For a time they wander, as if heedless of direction,
through groves and glades and green spreading declivities; then, assuming
greater fixidity of purpose, they gather up many a wandering rill, and
start eastward upon a long journey. At length the many deta