. They are not warlike, as are the tribes of the great
prairies, but in their pagan state have many vile and abominable
practices, which show that they are just as bad as those who delight in
war and as much in need of the Gospel.

Missionaries of the different denominations have gone into these remote
regions, have lived amidst many privations, and have given their lives
to the blessed work of Christianising, and then civilising these long
neglected people. They have not toiled in vain. Thousands have
renounced their paganism and become earnest, genuine Christians. The
missionary life in such a land and among such a people is, as might be
well imagined, very different from that in other countries.

As these mission fields are in such high latitudes the winter is very
long and severe. Hence, the habitations to be at all comfortable must
be very warmly built. There is no limestone in that land, and
consequently, no lime. As a poor substitute, mud is used. The houses
are built with a framework of squared timber which is well logged up,
and the chinks well packed with moss and mud. When this is thoroughly
dry, and made as air-tight as possible, the building is clapboarded, and
lined with tongued and grooved boards. Double windows are used to help
keep out the bitter cold. When well built and cared for, some of these
homes are fairly comfortable; very different from the wretched,
uncomfortable abodes some of the early missionaries were content to
dwell in.

As great forests are everywhere in those regions, wood is used for fuel
instead of coal. Great box stoves are kept red hot day and night from
October until May.

The food used by the missionaries was the same as that on which the
Indians lived. Flour was almost unknown. Fish and game afforded
subsistence to nearly all. It is true that, many years ago, the great
Saskatchewan, brigades of boats came to Norway house and York factory
loaded down with vast quantities of pemmican and dried buffalo meat; but
long since the great herds of buffalo have been exterminated, and the
far-famed pemmican is now but a memory of the past. The last time I saw
the wharves of the Hudson Bay Company's post at Norway House piled up
with bags of pemmican, was in 1871. This pemmican was pounded buffalo
meat, mixed with the tallow and preserved in large bags made out of the
green hides of the slaughtered animals, and was the food that for some
months of each year gave variety