e the most impudent,
among the latter were the whisky-jacks. They always hovered round us at
breakfast, ready to snap up anything that came within their reach--
advancing sometimes to within a yard or two of our feet, and looking at
us with a very comical expression of countenance. One of the men told
me that he had often caught them in his hand, with a piece of pemmican
for a bait; so one morning after breakfast I went a little to one side
of our camp, and covering my face with leaves, extended my hand with a
few crumbs in the open palm. In five minutes a whisky-jack jumped upon
a branch over my head, and after reconnoitring a minute or so, lit upon
my hand, and began to breakfast forthwith. You may be sure the _trap_
was not long in going off; and the screeching that Mr Jack set up on
finding my fingers firmly closed upon his toes was tremendous. I never
saw a more passionate little creature in my life: it screamed,
struggled, and bit unceasingly, until I let it go; and even then it
lighted on a tree close by, and looked at me as impudently as ever. The
same day I observed that when the men were ashore the whisky-jacks used
to eat out of the pemmican bags left in the boats; so I lay down close
to one, under cover of a buffalo-skin, and in three minutes had made
prisoner of another of these little inhabitants of the forest. They are
of a bluish-grey colour, and nearly the size of a blackbird; but they
are such a bundle of feathers that when plucked they do not look much
larger than a sparrow. They live apparently on animal food (at least,
they are very fond of it), and are not considered very agreeable eating.

We advanced very slowly up Hill River. Sometimes, after a day of the
most toilsome exertions, during which the men were constantly pushing
the boats up long rapids, with poles, at a very slow pace, we found
ourselves only four or five miles ahead of the last night's encampment.
As we ascended higher up the country, however, travelling became more
easy. Sometimes small lakes and tranquil rivers allowed us to use the
oars--and even the sails, when a puff of fair wind arose. Occasionally
we were sweeping rapidly across the placid water; anon buffeting with,
and advancing against, the foaming current of a powerful river, whose
raging torrent seemed to bid defiance to our further progress: now
dragging boats and cargoes over rocks, and through the deep shades of
the forest, when a waterfall checked us on ou