have things other than their wits to rely upon. The Wit will prove but a
sorry steed unless its owner be ever ready to race it against those more
substantial horses called Wealth and Interest, and if in that race, the
prize of which is Success, Wit should have to carry its rider into
strange and uncouth places, over rough and broken country, while the
other two horses have only plain sailing before them, there is only all
the more reason for throwing aside all useless weight and extra
incumbrance; and, with these few digressive remarks, we will proceed into
the solitudes.

The days that now commenced to pass were filled from dawn to dark with
unceasing travel; clear, bright days of mellow sunshine followed by
nights of sharp frost which almost imperceptibly made stronger the icy
covering of the pools and carried farther and farther out into the
running streams the edging of ice which so soon was destined to cover
completely the river and the rill. Our route lay along the left bank of
the Assineboine, but at a considerable distance from the river, whose
winding course could be marked at times by the dark oak woods that
fringed it. Far away to the south rose the outline of the Blue Hills of
the Souris, and to the north the Riding Mountains lay faintly upon the
horizon. The country was no longer level, fine rolling hills stretched
away before us over which the wind came with a keenness that made our
prairie-fare seem delicious at the close of a hard day's toil. 36, 22,
24, 20; such were the readings of my thermometer as each morning I looked
at it by the fire-light as we arose from our blankets-before the dawn and
shivered in the keen hoarfrost while the kettle was being boiled.
Perceptibly getting colder, but still clear and fine, and with every
Breeze laden with healthy and invigorating freshness, for four days we
journeyed without seeing man or beast; but on the morning of the fifth
day, while camped in a thicket on the right of the trail, we heard the
noise of horses passing near us. A few hours afterwards we passed a small
band of Salteaux encamped farther on; and later in the day overtook a
half-breed trader on his way to the Missouri to trade with the Sioux.
This was a celebrated &French half breed named Chaumon Rossette. Chaumon
had been undergoing a severe course of drink since he had left the
settlement some ten days earlier, and his haggard eyes and swollen
features revealed the incessant orgies of his travels. H