tituting a
light sled in place of the cart which had hitherto been used, although I
still retained the same mode of conveyance, namely the saddle, for
personal use. Passing the Hudson Bay Company Posts of Battle River, Fort
Pitt and Victoria, I reached Edmonton on the night of the 26th November.
For the last 200 miles the country had become clear of snow, and the
frosts, notwithstanding the high altitude of the region, had decreased in
severity. Starting again on the afternoon of the 1st December, I
recrossed the Saskatchewan River below Edmonton and continued in a
south-westerly direction towards the Rocky Mountain House, passing
through a country which, even at that advanced period of the year, still
retained many traces of its summer beauty. At midday on the 4th December,
having passed the gorges of the Three Medicine Hills, I came in sight of
the Rocky Mountains, which rose from the western extremity of an immense
plain and stretched their great snow-clad peaks far away to the northern
and southern horizons.

Finding it impossible to procure guides for the prosecution of my journey
south to Montana, I left the Rocky Mountain House on the 12th December
and commenced my return travels to Red River along the valley of the
Saskatchewan. Snow had now fallen to the depth of about a foot, and the
cold had of late begun to show symptoms of its winter intensity. Thus on
the morning of the 5th December my thermometer indicated 22 degrees below
zero, and again on the 13th 16 below zero, a degree of cold which in itself
was not remarkable, but which had the effect of rendering the saddle by no
means a comfortable mode of transport.

Arriving at Edmonton on the 16th December, I exchanged my horses for
dogs, the saddle for a small cariole, and on the 20th December commenced
in earnest the winter journey to Red River. The cold, long delayed, now\
began in all its severity. On the 22nd December my thermometer at ten
o'clock in the morning indicated 39 degrees below zero, later in the day a
biting wind swept the long reaches of the Saskatchewan River and rendered
travelling on the ice almost insupportable. To note here the long days of
travel down the great valley of the Saskatchewan, at times on the frozen
river and at times upon the neighbouring plains, would prove only a
tiresome record. Little by little the snow seemed to deepen, day by day
the frost to obtain a more lasting power and to bind in a still more
solid embrace all v