g mileage
and perquisites, but the probability is that this public-spirited man
and the great Company he served made the contribution to the country.
His usefulness was so apparent at the meeting that he was asked to help
the Government in the great task of treaty-making which had baffled so
many other countries.

The other Commissioner whose name is found to nearly all the treaties
was the Hon. James McKay, one of the most picturesque figures the
western plains, amid all their unique characters, ever saw. I remember
him in his later years. His father was a Scot, who had been on one of
the Arctic expeditions in search of Sir John Franklin and had married in
the Saskatchewan country one of the tall, stately and handsome daughters
of the land. Their sons were all of distinguished appearance. The
following description given by the Earl of Southesk, who had come on a
hunting tour and a search for health in the great out-of-doors of the
North-West years ago, is true to the subject. He says: "James McKay met
me in St. Paul. His appearance greatly interested me, both from his own
personal advantages and because he was the first Red River man I had
seen. Immensely broad-chested and muscular, though not tall, he weighed
18 stone: yet in spite of his stoutness, he was exceedingly hardy and
active, and a wonderful horseman. His face is very handsome--short,
aquiline, delicate nose; piercing dark grey eyes; skin tanned to red
bronze by exposure to the weather. He was dressed in Red River style, a
blue cloth capote (hooded frock coat) with brass buttons; red and black
flannel shirt, which served for waistcoat; black belt around the waist;
trousers of brown and white striped home-made stuff, buff leather
moccasins on his feet. I had never come across a wearer of moccasins
before, and it amused me to see this grand and massive man pacing the
hotel corridors with noiseless footfall, while excitable little men in
shiny boots creaked and stamped about like so many busy steam engines."
It was this splendid man who was present to assist Governor Laird and
Mr. Christie in making treaties with the Cree Indians at Carlton on
August 23 and at Fort Pitt on September 9. The last time I saw James
McKay was when a number of us schoolboys rode up to Silver Heights to
see some western sports and buffalo running in honour of the
Governor-General, Lord Dufferin. And as the magnificent frontiersman
drove about with his famous cream horse and buckboard,