r, stuffed with hair or
grass, and having a broad and fringed crupper. Several of them were
trimmed and handsomely adorned with quills, the talent of the
manufacturer being especially exerted in ornamenting the saddle-cloths.
The stirrups were formed of curved pieces of wood, hanging by leather
thongs to the primitive saddle. The bridles might more properly be
called halters. They consisted of a thong of raw hide, thirty feet in
length, called an _atscacha_. One end was tied round the animal's lower
jaw, and the other, after being brought over the neck to the rider's
hand, was allowed to drag on the ground some fifteen feet behind. It
requires care, particularly by those in the rear, not to tread on the
thongs trailing behind. By so doing, the mouth of the horse receives a
jerk which seldom fails to make it rear and curvet from side to side.

The object of this long thong is to enable the rider, when he dismounts,
to hold his horse while he fires at a foe; or, should he be thrown by
the animal stumbling in a rabbit-burrow, to prevent it running off. The
long thong serves also as a halter, ever ready to tie it up, or to catch
it when at liberty. Even the gentlemen who used English bridles found
it convenient to have these halters secured to their horses' heads.

Day after day the travellers had been making their way along the Fertile
Belt, the name given to a broad tract of country extending between the
Red River and the base of the Rocky Mountains, bordered on the north by
forests, lakes, and rivers, and on the south by that sandy and desert
region which extends along the whole frontier of the United States.

The party rode steadily on, every man carrying his rifle at his back;
for although the natives were generally friendly, it was considered wise
to be prepared, lest so rich a booty as the carts would afford might
tempt them. At night, too, a constant watch was kept on the horses, as
the Crees roaming over that part of the country are notorious
horse-stealers, and would have considered it a creditable feat to have
carried off as many of the travellers' steeds as they could catch.

They had proceeded some distance, when, shading his eyes with his hand,
Mr Burnett looked out eagerly ahead.

"What is it you see?" asked Loraine, imitating his example.

"A party of horsemen, whom I at first thought might be Blackfeet on the
war-path, but I am satisfied they are Red River men, on a buffalo hunt,"
answered Bur