t Ellice, where
we stayed a couple of days to make preparations for the winter journey
into the Great Lone Land. It was near the close of the Indian summer,
and we travelled at the rate of fifty miles a day, I riding my little
game horse Blackie, while the Red River cart, containing the baggage and
medicines, was drawn by six horses--three in the shafts for a spell, the
other three running free alongside.

Between Fort Ellice and Carlton Fort you pass through the region of the
Touchwood Hills, around which are immense plains scored with the tracks
of the countless buffaloes which, until a few years ago, roamed in vast
herds between the Saskatchewan and Assiniboine. On November 4, and on
several successive days thereafter, snowstorms burst upon us, and the
whole country around was hidden in the dense mist of driving snowflakes.

On the 7th we emerged upon a hill plateau, and 300 feet below was raging
the mighty South Saskatchewan, with great masses of floating, grinding
ice. We contrived a raft made from the box of the wagon, but we could
not accomplish the passage in it. Later on, hard frost having set in, we
were able to cross the river on foot, with the loss of my horse Blackie,
and when half a dozen of the twenty miles to Carlton Fort had been
covered we met a party from it, including the officer in charge. The
first question was, "What of the plague?" And the answer was that it had
burned itself out.

On November 14, we set out again on our western journey, and crossed the
North Saskatchewan. On account of the snow we had discarded our cart and
used sleds. Travelling over hill and dale and frozen lake, we lost the
way in the wilderness, but, taking a line by myself, steering by the
stars, I came on November 17 to Fort Pitt, after having been fifteen
hours on end in the saddle.

Fort Pitt was free of small-pox, but 100 Crees had perished close around
its stockades. The unburied dead lay for days, until the wolves came and
fought over the decaying bodies. The living remnant had fled in despair
six weeks before my arrival. When we renewed our journey on November 20,
the weather became comparatively mild, and our course lay through rich,
well-watered valleys with groves of spruce and pine. Edmonton, which we
reached on November 26, is the headquarters of the Hudson Bay Company's
Saskatchewan trade and the residence of a chief factor of the
corporation.

My objective after leaving Edmonton on December 1 was Rocky Mo