quietly to the plain and
stretched his limbs in death. Late that night I reached the American
fort with six tongues hanging to my saddle, but never since that hour,
though often but a two days ride from buffalo, have I sought to take the
life of one of these noble animals. Too soon will the last of them have
vanished from the great central prairie land; never again will those
countless herds roam from the Platte to the Missouri, from the Missouri
to the Saskatchewan; chased for his robe, for his beef, for sport, for
the very pastime of his death, he is rapidly vanishing from the land. Far
in the northern forests of the Athabasca a few buffaloes may for a time
bid defiance to man, but they, too, must disappear and nothing be left of
this giant beast save the bones that for many an age will whiten the
prairies over which the great herds roamed at will in times before the
white man came.

It was the 5th of January before the return of the dogs from an Indian
trade enabled me to get away from Fort Pitt. During the days I had
remained in the fort the snow covering had deepened on the plains and
winter had got a still firmer grasp upon the river and meadow. In two
days travel we ran the length of the river between Fort Pitt and Battle
River, travelling rapidly over the ice down the centre of the stream. The
dogs were good ones, the drivers well versed in their work, and although
the thermometer stood at 20 degrees below zero on the evening of the 6th,
the whole run tended in no small degree to improve the general opinion
which I had previously formed upon the delights of dog-travel. Arrived at
Battle River, I found that the Crees had disappeared since my former
visit; the place was now tenanted only by a few Indians and half-breeds.
It seemed to be my fate to encounter cases of sickness at every post on
my return journey. Here a woman was lying in a state of complete
unconsciousness with intervals of convulsion and spitting of blood. It
was in vain that I represented my total inability to deal with such a
case. The friends of the lady all declared that it was necessary that I
should see her, and accordingly I was introduced into the miserable hut
in which she lay. She was stretched upon a low bed in one corner of a
room about seven feet square; the roof approached so near the ground that
I was unable to stand straight in any part of the place; the rough floor
was crowded with women squatted thickly upon it, and a huge fire bla