ks that their evil prognostications
had not been attended with success. But a few months later brought all
the three evils upon the Indians; and never, probably, since the first
trader had reached the country had so many afflictions of war, famine,
and plague fallen upon the _Crees and the Blackfeet as during the year
which succeeded the useless removal of their Manito-stone from the lone
hill-top upon which the skies had cast it.

I spent the evening of Christmas Day in the house of the missionary. Two
of his daughters sang very sweetly to the music of a small melodian. Both
song and strain were sad--sadder, perhaps, than the words or music could
make them; for the recollection of the two absent ones, whose
newly-made graves, covered with their first snow, lay close outside,
mingled with the hymn and deepened the melancholy of the music.

On the day after Christmas Day I left Victoria, with three trains of
dogs, bound for Fort Pitt. This time the drivers were all English
half-breeds, and that tongue was chiefly used to accelerate the dogs. The
temperature had risen considerably, and the snow was soft and clammy,
making the "hauling" heavy upon the dogs. For my own use I had a very
excellent train, but the other two were of the useless class.` As
before, the beatings were incessant, and I witnessed the first example
of a very common occurrence in dog-driving--I beheld the operation known
as "sending a dog to Rome." This consists simply of striking him over the
head with a large stick until he falls perfectly senseless to the
ground; after a little he revives, and, with memory of the awful blows
that took his consciousness away full upon him, he pulls franticly at his
load. Oftentimes a dog is "sent to Rome" because he will not allow the
driver to arrange some hitch in the harness; then, while he is
insensible, the necessary alteration is carried out, and when the dog
recovers he receives a terrible lash of the whip to set him going again.
The half-breeds are a race easily offended, prone to sulk if reproved;
but at the risk of causing delay and inconvenience I had to interfere'
with a peremptory order that "sending to Rome" should be at once
discontinued in my trains. The wretched "Whisky," after his voyage to the
Eternal City, appeared quite overcome with what he had there seen, and
continued to stagger along the trail, making feeble efforts to keep
straight. This tendency to wobble caused the half-breeds to indulge in