ever, to have himself seen any of these marvellous shots (although he gives a spirited little drawing of a buffalo hunt), and perhaps some of the wild fellows of the Saskatchewan brigade imposed upon his youthful credulity. These "brigades" are flotillas of boats, manned by Canadian and half-breed voyageurs, who take goods for barter to the interior, and bring back furs in exchange. The men of the Saskatchewan come from the prairies and the Rocky Mountains, and are consequently brimful of stories of the buffalo hunt, attacks upon grizzly bears, and wild Indians; some of them interesting and true enough, but the most of them either tremendous exaggerations or altogether inventions of their own wild fancies." To return, however, to the buffaloes. Two calves were wanted alive, to be sent to England, and a party was ordered out to procure them.

from the horse again sent it sprawling ; again it rose and was again knocked down, and, in this way, was at last fairly tired out; when the hunter, jumping suddenly from his horse, threw a rope round its neck and drove it before him to the encampment, and soon after brought it to the fort. It was as wild as ever when I saw it at Norway House, and seemed to have as much distaste to its thraldom as the day it was taken.

Buffalo-meat, however, though abundant in the prairies, is scarce enough in other districts of the Hudson's Bay territory, and so, indeed, is game of all kinds; so that at certain times and seasons, both Indians and Company's servants are reduced to very short commons, and amongst the former starvation is by no means uncommon. The contrasts of diet are as striking as those of climate; the provender varying from the juicy buffalo hump and rich marrow-bone, to miserable dry fish and tripede-roche-a sort of moss or lichen growing on the rocks, which looks like dried up seaweed, and which only the extremity of hunger can render edible. From Peel's River, a post within the Arctic circle, a chief trader writes that all the fresh provisions he has seen during the winter, consisted of two squirrels and a crow. He and his companions had lived on dried meat, and were obliged to lock the gates to keep their scanty store from the Indians, who were literally eating each other outside the fort; for cannibalism is common enough amongst the Indians of that region, and Mr. Ballantyne was acquainted with some old ladies who, on more than one occasion, had dined off their own children; whilst some, if report might be believed, had made a meal of their husbands. It is justice to the savages to say, that they do not eat human flesh by preference, but only when urged by necessity, and by the absence of all other viands. They will scrape the rocks bare of the tripe

"Upon meeting with a herd, they all set off full gallop in chase; away went the startled animals at a round trot, which soon increased to a gallop as the horsemen neared them, and a shot or two told they were coming within range. Soon, the shots became more numerous, and here and there a black spot on the prairie told where a buffalo had fallen. No slackening of the pace occurred, however, as each hunter, upon killing an animal, merely threw down his cap or mitten to mark it as his own, and continued in pursuit of the herd, loading his gun as he galloped along. The buffalo-hunters are very expert at loading and firing quickly while going at full gallop. They carry two or three bullets in their mouths, which they spit into the muzzles of their guns after dropping in a little powder; and, instead of ramming it down with a rod, merely hit the but-end of the gun on the pommel of their saddles, and, in this way, fire a great many shots in quick succession. This, however, is a dangerous mode of shooting, as the ball some-de-roche-which, however, only retards times sticks half-way down the barrel and bursts the gun, carrying away a finger, a joint, and occasionally a hand.

starvation for a time, without preventing it, unless varied by more nutritious food-before cutting up a cousin. Now and then "In this way they soon killed as many an aggravated case occurs, and one of these buffaloes as they could carry in their carts, we find cited. In the middle of winter, and one of the hunters set off in chase of a Wisagun, a Cree Indian, removed his encalf. In a short time he edged one away campment on account of scarcity of game. from the rest, and then, getting between it With him went his wife, a son eight or nine and the herd, ran straight against it with years of age, two or three other children, his horse and knocked it down. The and some relations-ten souls in all. Their frightened little animal jumped up and set change of quarters did not improve their off with redoubled speed, but another butt condition. No game appeared, and they

were reduced to eat their moccasins and never go to war, scalping is obsolete amongst skin coats, cooked by singeing them over them, and the celebrated war-dance a mere the fire. This wretched resource expended, tradition. But their pacific habits and inthey were on the brink of starvation, when tercourse with Europeans seem as yet to a herd of buffaloes were descried far away have done little towards their civilization. on the prairie. Guns were instantly loaded, Some of their customs are of the most barand snow-shoes put on, and away went the barous description. They have no religion, men, leaving women and children in the beyond the absurd incantations of the meditent. But the famished Indians soon grew cine tent; and the amount of Christianity tired; the weaker dropped behind; Wisa- English missionaries have of late years sucgun and his son Natappe, gave up the ceeded in introducing amongst them is exchase and returned to the encampment. ceedingly small. They drink to excess when Wisagun peeped through a chink of the they can get spirits; and formerly, when the tent, and saw his wife cutting up one of her Hudson's Bay Company, in order to conown children, preparatory to cooking it. tend successfully with other associations, In a transport of rage he rushed forward thought it necessary to distribute rum and and stabbed her and a woman who assisted whiskey to the natives, the use of the "fireher in her horrible cookery; and then, water was carried to a fearful extent. fearing the wrath of the other Indians, he They smoke tobacco, mingled with some fled to the woods. When the hunters other leaf; are excessively lazy, and great came in and found their relatives murdered, gamblers. Polygamists, they ill-treat their they were so much exhausted by their fruit- wives, compelling them to severe toil, whilst less chase, that they could only sit down they themselves indulge in utter indolence, and gaze on the mutilated bodies. During except when roused to the chase. On the the night, Wisagun and Natappe returned march, when old men or women are unable to the tent, murdered the whole party, to proceed, they are left behind in a small and were met, some time afterwards, by tent made of willows, in which are placed another party of savages, in good condition; firewood, provisions, and a vessel of water. although, from scarcity of game, every here, when food and wood are consumed, body else was starving. They accounted the unfortunate wretches perish. The hafor their well-fed appearance, by saying bitual dwellings of the Crees are tents of they had fallen in with a deer, previously conical shape, made of deerskin, bark, or to which, however, the rest of the family branches. The manner of construction is had died of hunger. simple and rapid. Three poles are tied This horrible story was told to an Eng- together at the top, their lower extremities lishman in the Indian hall of a far-away spending out in the form of a tripod; a post in Athabasca, by a party of Chipewyan number of other poles are piled around Indians, come from their winter hunting- these at half a foot distance from each grounds to trade furs. They were the same other; and thus a space is inclosed of fifmen who had met the two Crees wandering teen to twenty feet in diameter. Over in the plains after getting up their flesh by these poles are spread the skin-tent, or the swallowing their family. The loathsome rolls of birch-bark. The opening left for food had profited them, however, but a a doorway is covered with an old blanket, short while; for the Chipewyans had hardly a deer-skin, or buffalo-robe; the floor is told the tale, when "the hall door slowly covered with a layer of small pine branches, opened, and Wisagun, gaunt and cadave- a wood fire blazes in the middle and in rous, the very impersonation of famine, this slight habitation, which is far warmer slunk into the room with Natappe, and and more comfortable than could be imaseated himself in a corner near the fire. gined, the Indian spends a few days or Mr. C soon learned the truth of the weeks, according as game is scarce or plenforegoing story from his own lips; but he tiful. His modes of securing and trapping excused his horrible deed by saying that the beasts of the plain and forest are curimost of his relations had died before he ate ous, often as ingenious and effective as they them." are simple and inartificial. Mr. BallanNotwithstanding this sanguinary tale the tyne initiates us in many of them in the Crees, who inhabit the woody country sur- course of a nocturnal cruise overland with rounding Hudson's Bay, are the quietest Stemaw the Indian, which gives an exceland most inoffensive of all the Indian lent insight into trapper-life at Hudson's tribes trading with the Company. They Bay. We start with the Cree from his

The snow-shoes above referred to, and which are in general use amongst both Indians and Europeans at Hudson's Bay, are as unlike shoes as anything bearing the name well can be. A snow-shoe is formed of two thin pieces of light-wood, tied at both ends, and spread out in the centre, thus making an oval frame filled up with network of deerskin threads. The frame is strengthened by cross bars, and fastened loosely to the foot by a line across the toe. The length of the machine is from four to six feet; the width from thirteen to twenty inches. Being very light, they are no way cumbersome, and without them pedestrianism would be impossible for many months of the year, on account of the depth of the snow, which falls through the meshes of these shoes, as the traveller raises his foot. That they are not fatiguing wear, is manifest from the fact that an Indian will walk twenty, thirty, and even forty miles a day upon them. Only in damp weather, the moist snow clogs the meshes, and the lines are apt to gall the foot. Apropos of this inconvenience, Mr. Ballantyne avails himself of the traveller's privilege, and favors us with a remarkable anecdote, told him by a Highland friend of his, Mr. B, chief of the Company's post at Tadousac.

tent, pitched in the neighborhood of one of] the Company's forts, at the foot of an immense tree, which stands in a little hollow where the willows and pines are luxuriant enough to afford shelter from the north wind. We have no difficulty in realizing the scene, as graphically sketched by our young apprentice-clerk, who is frequently very happy in his scraps of description: "A huge chasm, filled with fallen trees and mounds of snow, yawns on the left of the tent, and the ruddy sparks of fire which issue from a hole in its top throw this and the surrounding forest into deeper gloom. Suddenly the deerskin that covers the aperture of the wigwam is raised, and a bright stream of warm light gushes out, tipping the dark-green points of the opposite trees, and mingling strangely with the paler light of the moon; and Stemaw stands erect in front of his solitary home, to gaze a few moments at the sky and judge of the weather, as he intends to take a long walk before laying his head upon his capote for the night. He is in the usual costume of the Cree Indians: a large leathern coat, very much overlapped in front, and fastened round the waist with a scarlet belt, protects his body from the cold. A small ratskin cap covers his head, and his legs are cased in the ordinary blue cloth leggins. Large "On one occasion he was sent off upon a moccasins, with two or three pair of blanket- long journey over the snow where the counsocks, clothe his feet, and fingerless mittens, try was so mountainous, that snow-shoe made of deerskin, complete his costume. walking was rendered extremely painful by After a few minutes passed in contempla- the feet slipping forward against the front tion of the heavens, the Indian prepares bar of the shoe when descending the hills. himself for the walk. First, he sticks a After he had accomplished a good part of small axe in his belt, serving as a counter- his journey, two large blisters rose under poise to a large hunting knife and fire-bag the nails of his great toes; and soon the which depend from the other side. He nails themselves came off. Still he must then slips his feet through the lines of his go on, or die in the woods: so he was snow-shoes, and throws the line of a small obliged to tie the nails on his toes each hand-sledge over his shoulder. The hand-morning before starting, for the purpose of sledge is a thin flat slip or plank of wood, from five to six feet long by one foot broad, and is turned up at one end. It is extremely light, and Indians invariably use it when visiting their traps, for the purpose of dragging home the animals or game they may have caught. Having attached this to his back, he stoops to receive his gun from his faithful squaw, who has been watching his operations through a hole in the tent, and throwing it on his shoulder strides off, without uttering a word, across the moonlit space in front of the tent, turns into a small narrow track that leads down the dark ravine, and disappears in the shades of the forest.' ""

protecting the tender parts beneath; and every evening he wrapped them up carefully in a piece of rag, and put them into his waistcoat pocket,-being afraid of losing them if he kept them on all night." This Mr. B.- had had a long and eventful career in North America, and was rich in 'yarns,' more or less credible, with which he regaled Mr. Ballantyne during a journey they made together. A deep scar on his nose was the memorial of a narrow escape he had made when dwelling at a solitary fort west of the Rocky mountains. He had bought a fine horse of an Indian, one of the Blackfeet, a wild and warlike tribe, notorious as horse-stealers. The animal had

To return to Stemaw the trapper, whom we left striding along with confident step, as though the high road lay before him, although no track or trail, discernible by European eye, is there to guide his footsteps. After a walk of two miles, a faint sound a-head brings him to a dead halt. He listens, and a noise like the rattling of a chain is heard from a dark, wild hollow in his front. "Another moment, and the rattle is again distinctly heard; a slight smile of satisfaction crosses Stemaw's dark visage; for one of his traps was set in that place, and he knows that something is caught. Quickly descending the slope, he enters the bushes whence the sound pro

been but a short time in his possession, when it was stolen. This was a very ordinary event, and was soon forgotten. Spring came, and a party of Indians, arrived with a load of furs for barter. They were admitted one by one into the fort, their arms taken from them and locked up-a customary and necessary precaution, as they used to buy spirits, get drunk and quarrel, but without weapons they could do each other little harm. When about a dozen had entered, the gate was shut, and then Mr. B beheld, to his surprise, the horse he had lost the previous year. He asked to whom it belonged, and the Indian who had sold it him unblushingly stood forward. "Mr. B― (an exceedingly quiet, good-ceeds, and pauses when within a yard or natured man, but like very many of his stamp, very passionate when roused) no sooner witnessed the fellow's audacity than he seized a gun from one of his men, and shot the horse. The Indian instantly sprang upon him but being a less powerful man than Mr. B, and withal unaccustomed to use his fists, he was soon overcome, and pommelled out of the fort. Not content with this, Mr. B- followed him down to the Indian, camp, pommelling him all the way. The instant, however, that the Indian found himself surrounded by his own friends, he faced about, and with a dozen warriors attacked Mr. B- -, and threw him on the ground, where they kicked and bruised him severely; whilst several boys of the tribe hovered around with bows and arrows, waiting a favorable opportunity to shoot him. Suddenly a savage came forward with a large stone in his hand, and standing over his fallen enemy, raised it high in the air and dashed it down upon his face. Mr. B when telling me the

two of his trap to peer through the gloom. A cloud passes off the moon, and a faint ray reveals, it may be, a beautiful black fox caught in the snare. A slight blow on the snout from Stemaw's axe-handle kills the unfortunate animal; in ten minutes more it is tied to his sledge, the trap is reset and again covered over with snow, so that it is almost impossible to tell that anything is there; and the Indian pursues his way." And here we have a drawing of Reynard the Fox, a fine specimen of his kind, black as coal, with a white tuft to his tail, looking anxiously about him, his fore paw fast in the jaws of a trap, with which a heavy log, fastened by a chain, prevents his making off. In the distance, the Indian, gun on shoulder, his snow-shoes, which look like small boats, upon his feet, strides forward, eager to secure his valuable prize. We give Mr. Ballantyne all credit for the unpretending but useful wood-cuts scattered through his book, which serve to explain things whose form or nature would otherwise be but imstory, said that he had just time, upon see-pefectly understood. They are an honest ing the stone in the act of falling, to com- and legitimate style of illustration, exactly mend his spirit to God, ere he was render- corresponding to the requirements of a ed insensible. The merciful God, to whom work of this kind. he thus looked for help at the eleventh hour, did not desert him. Several men belonging to the fort, seeing the turn things took, hastily armed themselves, and hurrying out to the rescue, arrived just at the critical moment when the stone was dashed in his face. Though too late to prevent this, they were in time to prevent a repetition of the blow; and, after a short scuffle with the Indians, without any bloodshed, they succeeded in carrying their master up to the fort, where he soon recovered. The deep cut made by the stone on the bridge of his nose, left an indelible scar."

The steel trap in which the fox is caught resembles a common English rat-trap, less the teeth, and is so set, that the jaws, when spread out flat, are exactly on a level with the snow. The chain and weight are hidden, a little snow is swept over the trap, and nothing is visible but the bait-usually chips of frozen partridge, rabbit, or fish, which are scattered all around the snare. Foxes, beavers, wolves, lynx, and other animals, are thus taken, sometimes by a fore-leg, sometimes by a hind one, or by two at once, and occasionally by the nose. By two legs is the preferable way-for the

trapper, that is to say-for then escape is unattended with danger. So long as he impossible. "When foxes are caught by one has only foxes and such small gear to deal leg, they often eat it off close to the trap, and with, whom a tap on the snout finishes, it escape on the other three. I have fre- is mere child's play, barring the fatigue of quently seen this happen; and I once saw long walks and heavy loads; but now and a fox caught which had evidently escaped in then he finds an ugly customer in one of this way, as one of its legs was gone, and his traps, and encounters some risk before the stump healed up and covered again with securing him. This we shall see exemplihair. When caught by the nose, they are al- fied, if we follow Stemaw to two traps, most sure to escape, unless taken out of the which he set in the morning close to each trap very soon after capture, as their snouts other, for the purpose of catching one of are so sharp and wedgelike, that they can pull the formidable coast-wolves. "These anithem from between the jaws of the trap with mals are so sagacious, that they will scrape the greatest ease." We are tempted to doubt all round a trap, let it be ever so well set, the ease, or at any rate the pleasure of such an and after eating all the bait, walk away operation, and to compassionate the unfor- unhurt. Indians consequently endeavor in tunate quadrupeds, whose only chance of every possible way to catch them, and, escape from being knocked on the head amongst others, by setting two traps, close lies in biting off their own feet, or scraping together, so that, whilst the wolf scrapes the skin off their jaws between those of a at one he may perhaps put his foot in the trap. The poor brutes have no chance of a other. It is in this way Stemaw's traps are fair fight, or even of a few yards' law and set; and he now advances cautiously toa run for their lives. Their hungry sto- wards them, his gun in the hollow of his machs and keen olfactories touchingly ap- left arm. Slowly he advances, peering pealed to by the scraps of frozen game they through the bushes; but nothing is visible. eat their way to the trap, and finally put Suddenly a branch crashes under his snowtheir foot in it. The trapper's trade is a shoe, and with a savage growl, a large wolf sneaking sort of business; and one cannot bounds towards him, landing almost at his but understand the feeling of self-humilia- feet. A single glance, however, shows the tion of Cooper's Natty Bumpo, upon find- Indian that both traps are on his legs and ing himself reduced from the rifle to the that the chains prevent his further advance. snare-and from the stand-up fight in the He places his gun against a tree, draws his forest to the stealthy prowl and treacherous axe, and advances to kill the animal. It trap. And hence, doubtless, do we find is an undertaking, however, of some diffithe occupation far more frequently follow-culty. The fierce brute, which is larger ed by Indians and half-breeds than by than a Newfoundland dog, strains every white men at least at Hudson's Bay. nerve and sinew to break its chains; whilst Nevertheless Mr. Ballantyne, whilst enjoy- its eyes glisten in the uncertain light, and ing dignified solitude in the remote station of foam curls from its blood-red mouth. Now Seven Islands, his French Canadian servant it retreats as the Indian advances, grinning and his Newfoundland dog Humbug, for sole horribly as it goes; and anon, as the chains companions, received the visit of a trapper, check its further retreat, it springs with who was not only white, but a gentleman fearful growl towards Stemaw, who slightto boot. This individual, who was dressed ly wounds it with his axe, as he jumps in aboriginal style, had been in the employ backward just in time to save himself from of a fur company, had married an Indian the infuriated animal, which catches in its girl, and taken to trapping. He was a fangs the flap of his leggin, and tears it good-natured man, we are told, and had from his limb. Again Stemaw advances and been well educated-talked philosophy, and the wolf retreats, and again springs upon put his new acquaintance up to the fact him, but without success. At last, as the that what he for some time had taken for a wolf glances for a moment to one side-apbank of sea-weed, was a shoal of kipling close parently to see if there is no way of escape inshore. He stopped a week at the station, living on salt pork and flour-and-water pancakes, and telling his adventures to his gratified host, to whom in his lonely condition, far worse society would have been highly acceptable.

The trapper's occupation is not always

quick as lightning the axe flashes in the air, and descends with stunning violence on its head; another blow follows, and in five minutes more the animal is fastened to the sledge."

Weary with this skirmish, and with the previous walk, Stemaw calls a halt under a