o, it was Jerry Potts who
warned against shooting at certain times, lest the bisons would stampede
and trample the whole cavalcade under foot. Potts remained with the
Police as interpreter till his death in 1906, making a long service of
twenty-two years. We shall meet his name here and there in this story--a
diamond in the rough, entitled to a niche in the hall of the men who
helped to shape the early years of our history.

Shortly after this trip to Montana, Colonel French, with the divisions
above named, left the foothill country, and, coming back by way of
Qu'Appelle, Fort Pelly and Swan River, he reached Dufferin, as already
mentioned, in the 30 degrees below zero weather, he and the men with him
having travelled about 2,000 miles since leaving there in July.

The third party already mentioned as leaving La Roche Percee was a
small detachment under Inspectors Jarvis and Gagnon. With sick and
played-out horses, a lot of cattle, and not much general provision, and
hardly enough men to keep up the rounds of duty, the lot of this
detachment starting out on a march of 850 miles was not very enticing.
The detachment left La Roche Percee on August 3, and reached Edmonton,
by way of Fort Ellice and Carlton, on the 27th of October. Pasture was
poor, water was scarce and, except where they struck Hudson's Bay posts
or, as in one case, met a caravan of traders from whom some rations in
the shape of pemmican were purchased, the outlook all the way was
hazardous. When the weather began to get cold the weakened horses often
had to be lifted in the morning and their joints rubbed, before they
could proceed on the journey. During the last 25 miles it seemed as if
the enterprise would collapse near the goal, as the cold had so
stiffened the half-starved horses that they could not travel over the
hard-frozen and icy ground. They had to be lifted and rubbed hour after
hour. No wonder Inspector Jarvis said after reaching Edmonton, "Had
these horses been my own property I should have killed them, as they
were mere skeletons." However, the detachment got through finally, and
were warmly welcomed by Mr. Hardistry, the Hudson's Bay factor, who, in
addition to his own open-hearted nature, had joy in exercising to the
full that generous hospitality for which the old Hudson's Bay men have
been famous for two and a half centuries. They had ruled in a
benevolently autocratic way throughout the years, and one would almost
imagine that they wou