Another buffalo hunt--Visit Maskepetoon's camp--The old chief's plucky deed--Arrival of a peace party from the Blackfeet--A "peace dance"--Buffalo in plenty--Our mysterious visitor--A party of Blackfeet come upon us--Watching and praying--Arrive home with well-loaded sleds--Christmas festivities
We set out with Maskepetoon for the Blackfoot camp--A wife for a target--Indian scouts--Nearing the Blackfeet--Our Indians don paint and feathers--A picture of the time and place--We enter the Blackfoot camp--Three Bulls--Buffalo Indians--Father describes eastern civilization--The Canadian Government's treatment of the Indians a revelation--I am taken by a war chief as a hostage--Mine host and his seven wives--Bloods and Piegans--I witness a great dance--We leave for home--A sprained ankle--Arrival at the mission
We visit the Cree camp--I lose Maple and the pups--Find our Indian friends "pound-keeping"--The Indian buffalo pound--Consecrating the pound--Mr. Who-Brings-Them-In--Running the buffalo in--The herd safely coralled--Wholesale slaughter--Apportioning the hunt--Finis
"I made a fire, and by melting snow boiled my kettle" ... Frontispiece
"The dogs and sleds went sliding in around him"
"There he sat, his eyes bulging out with fear"
"The discharge of shot, bounding from this, struck both father and his horse"
"To save my life I had to climb to the top of the staging"
"I got Tom up, and held him close over the fire"
"I took deliberate aim, and fired at him"
"We went at a furious rate on that swirling, seething, boiling torrent"
"Tying our clothes in bundles above our heads, we started into the ice-cold current"
"Slapping his head, I turned his course to smooth ground"
"Maskepetoon calmly ...took out his Cree Testament ... and began to read"
"This strange Indian, without looking at us, sang on"
Old Fort Edmonton--Early missionaries--Down the Saskatchewan by dog-train--Camp-fire experiences--Arrival at home--Daily occupations.
In my previous volume, "FOREST, LAKE AND PRAIRIE," which closed with the last days of 1862, I left my readers at Fort Edmonton. At that time this Hudson's Bay post was the chief place of interest in the great country known as the Saskatchewan Valley. To this point was tributary a vast region fully six hundred miles square, distinguished by grand ranges of mountains, tremendous foot hills, immense stretches of plain, and great forests. Intersecting it were many mighty rivers, and a great number of smaller streams. Lakes, both fresh and alkaline, dotted its broad surface.