liance with the Blackfeet, suffered very severely,
the number of their tents being reduced from fifty to twelve. On the.'
other hand, the Assineboines, or Stonies of the Plains, warned by the
memory of the former epidemic, by which they were almost annihilated,
fled at the first approach of the disease, and, keeping far out in the
south-eastern prairies, escaped the infection altogether. The very heavy
loss suffered by the Lurcees to which I have just alluded was, I
apprehend, due to the fact that the members of this tribe have long been
noted as persons possessing enfeebled constitutions, as evidenced by the
prevalence of goitre almost universally amongst them. As a singular
illustration of the intractable nature of these Indians, I would mention
that at the period when the small-pox was most destructive among them
they still continued to carry on their horse-stealing raids against the
Crees and half-breeds in the neighbourhood of Victoria Mission. It was
not unusual to come upon traces of the disease in the corn-fields around
the settlement, and even the dead bodies of some Lurcees were discovered
in the vicinity of a river which they had been in the habit of swimming
while in the prosecution of their predatory attacks. The Rocky Mountain
Stonies are stated to have lost over fifty souls. The losses sustained by
the Blood, Blackfeet, and Peagin tribes are merely conjectural; but, as
their loss in leading men or chiefs has been heavy, it is only reasonable
to presume that the casualties suffered generally by those tribes have
been proportionately severe. Only three white persons appear to have
fallen victims to the disease, one an officer of the Hudson Bay Company
service at Carlton, and two members of the family of the Rev. Mr.
McDougall, at Victoria. Altogether, I should be inclined to estimate the
entire loss along the North Saskatchewan, not including Blood, Blackfeet,
or Peagin Indians, at about 1200 persons. At the period of my departure
from the Saskatchewan, the beginning of-the present year, the disease
which committed such terrible havoc among the scanty population of that
region still lingered in many localities. On my upward journey to the
Rocky Mountains I had found the forts of the Hudson Bay Company free from
infection: On my return journey I found cases of small-pox in the Forts,
of Edmonton, Victoria, and Pitt--cases which, it is true, were of a
milder description than those of the autumn and summer, but w