Chapter I: Preface

People are supposed to have an object in every journey they undertake in this world. A man goes to Africa to look for the Nile, to Rome to see the Coliseum or St. Peter’s; and once, I believe, a certain traveller tramped all the way to Jerusalem for the sole purpose of playing ball against the walls of that city.

As this matter of object, then, seems to be a rule with travellers, it may be asked by those who read this book, what object had the writer in undertaking a journey across the snowy wilderness of North America, in winter and alone? I fear there is no answer to be given to the question, save such as may be found in the motto on the title-page, or in the pages of the book itself.

About eighteen months ago I was desirous of entering upon African travel. A great explorer had been lost for years in the vast lake-region of Southern Central Africa, and the British Nation--which, by the way, becomes singularly attached to a man when he is dead, or supposed to be dead--grew anxious to go out to look for him.

As the British Nation could not all go out at once, or together, it endeavoured to select one or two individuals to carry out its wishes.

It will be only necessary to state here, that the British Nation did not select the writer of this book, who forthwith turned his attention from African tropic zones to American frigid ones, and started out upon a lonely cruise.

Many tracks lay before me in that immense region I call “The Wild North Land.” Former wandering had made me familiar with the methods of travel pursued in these countries by the Indian tribes, or far-scattered fur-hunters. Fortunate in recovering possession of an old and long-tried Esquimaux dog--the companion of earlier travel--I started in the autumn of 1872 from the Red River of the North, and, reaching Lake Athabasca, completed half my journey by the first week of March in the following year. From Athabasca I followed the many-winding channel of the frozen Peace River to its great cañon in the Rocky Mountains, and, journeying through this pass--for many reasons the most remarkable one in the whole range of the Rocky Mountains--reached the north of British Columbia in the end of May. From thence, following a trail of 350 miles through the dense forests of New Caledonia, I emerged on the 3rd of June at the frontier station of Quesnelle on the Frazer River, still 400 miles north of Victoria.

In the ensuing pages the story of that long tramp--for it was mostly performed on foot--will be duly set forth. Written by camp fire, or in cañon, or in the little log-house of a northern fur fort, when dogs and men rested for a day or two in the long icy run, that narrative will be found, I fear, to bear many indications of the rough scenes ’mid which it has been penned; but as, on a former occasion, many critics passed in gentle silence over the faults and failings of another story of travel in the Great Lone Land, so now it may be my fortune to tell to as kindly an audience, this record of a winter’s walk through more distant wilds--for in truth there has been neither time for revision nor correction.

Fortune, which eighteen months ago denied me African adventure, offers it now with liberal hand.

I reached the Atlantic from the Pacific shore to find an expedition starting from England against Ashantee; and long ere this story finds a reader I hope to be pushing my way through the mangrove swamps which lie between the Gold Coast and Coomassie. To others even must fall the task of correcting proofs, while I assume my part in the correction and revision of King Koffi Kancalli, and the administration to his subjects of that proof of British prowess which it has been deemed desirable to give them.

Meantime, my old friends Chief Kar-ka-konias, Kalder, and Cerf-vola, will be absent from this new field; but, nevertheless, there will be present many companions of former travel, and _one_ Chief under whose command I first sought the Great Lone Land as the threshold to remoter regions.

W. F. BUTLER.

LONDON,
_September 21st, 1873_.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
PAGE
The Situation at Home--The West again--A Land of Silence 1

CHAPTER II.

Powder versus Primroses--The American Lounger--“Home, sweet
Home” 8

CHAPTER III.

Fort Garry under new aspects--Social Societies--An old
Friend--Pony “the perverse” 12

CHAPTER IV.

The Wilderness--A Sunset Scene--A white Savage--Cerf-Vola the
Untiring--Doggerel for a Dog--The Hill of the Wolverine--The
Indian Paradise--I plan a Surprise--Biscuits and Water 21

CHAPTER V.

The Forks of the Saskatchewan--A perverse Parallel--Diplomatic
Bungling--Its Results 36

CHAPTER VI.

Our Winter Home--A Welcome--I start again--The Hunter’s
Camp--In quest of Buffalo on the Plains--“Lodge-poling” leads
to Love 43

CHAPTER VII.

An Ocean of Grass--The Red Man--Whence comes he?--The
Buffalo--Puritans and Pioneers--The Red Man’s Friend 49

CHAPTER VIII.

Buffalo Hunts--A Picture once seen long remembered--L’Homme
capable--A wonderful Lake--The lost Indian--An Apparition--We
return Home 57

CHAPTER IX.

Strange Visitors--At-tistighat the Philosopher--Indian
Converts--A Domestic Scene--The Winter Packet--Adam and his
Dogs 70

CHAPTER X.

A _tale_ of Warfare--Dog-sleds--A Missing Link--The North
Sea--“Winterers”--Samuel Hearne 83

CHAPTER XI.

A Dog of no Character--The Green Lake--Lac Ile à la Crosse--A
Cold Day--Fort Ile à la Crosse--A long-lost Brother--Lost
upon the Lake--Unwelcome Neighbours--Mr. Roderick
Macfarlane--“A beautiful Morning”--Marble Features 95

CHAPTER XII.

The Clearwater--A bygone Ocean--A Land of Lakes--The Athabasca
River--Who is he?--Chipewyan Indians--Echo--Major succumbs at
last--Mal de Raquette 118

CHAPTER XIII.

Lake Athabasca--Northern Lights--Chipewyan--The real Workers of
the World 137

CHAPTER XIV.

A Hudson’s Bay Fort--It comes at last--News from the outside
World--Tame and wild Savages--Lac Clair--A treacherous
Deed--Harper 143

CHAPTER XV.

The Peace River--Volcanos--M. Jean Batiste St. Cyr--Half a Loaf
is better than no Bread--An oasis in the Desert--Tecumseh and
Black Hawk 158

CHAPTER XVI.

The Buffalo Hills--A fatal Quarrel--The exiled
Beavers--“At-tal-loo” deplores his Wives--A Cree Interior--An
attractive Camp--I camp alone--Cerf-vola without a
Supper--The Recreants return--Dunvegan--A Wolf-hunt 171

CHAPTER XVII.

Alexander Mackenzie--The first Sign of Spring--Spanker
the Suspicious--Cerf-vola contemplates Cutlets--An
Indian Hunter--“Encumbrances”--Furs and Finery--A “Dead
Fall”--The Fur Trade at both Ends--An old Fort--A Night
Attack--Wife-lifting--Cerf-vola in Difficulties and
Boots--The Rocky Mountains at last 191

CHAPTER XVIII.

The wild Animals of the Peace River--Indian Method of hunting
the Moose--Twa-poos--The Beaver--The Bear--Bear’s Butter--A
Bear’s Hug and how it ended--Fort St. John--The River
awakes--A Rose without a Thorn--Nigger Dan--A threatening
Letter--I issue a Judicial Memorandum--Its Effect is all that
could be desired--Working up the Peace River 206

CHAPTER XIX.

Start from St. John’s--Crossing the Ice--Batiste le
Fleur--Chimeroo--The last Wood-buffalo--A dangerous
Weapon--Our Raft collapses--Across the Half-way River 225

CHAPTER XX.

Hudson’s Hope--A Lover of Literature--Crossing the Peace--An
unskilful Pilot--We are upset--Our Rescue--A strange Variety
of Arms--The Buffalo’s Head--A glorious View 236

CHAPTER XXI.

Jacques, the French Miner--A fearful Abyss--The Great Cañon of
the Peace River--We are off on our Western Way--Unfortunate
Indians--A burnt Baby--“The Moose that walks” 247

CHAPTER XXII.

Still Westward--The Dangers of the Ice--We enter the main
Range--In the Mountains--A Grizzly--The Death of the
Moose--Peace River Pass--Pete Toy--The Ominica--“Travellers”
at Home 263

CHAPTER XXIII.

The Black Cañon--An ugly Prospect--The vanished Boat--We
struggle on--A forlorn Hope--We fail again--An unhoped-for
Meeting and a Feast of Joy--The Black Cañon conquered 279

CHAPTER XXIV.

The Untiring over-estimates his Powers--He is not particular as
to the Nature of his Dinner--Toil and Temper--Farewell to the
Ominica--Germansen--The Mining Camp--Celebrities 294

CHAPTER XXV.

Mr. Rufus Sylvester--The Untiring developes a new Sphere of
Usefulness--Mansen--A last Landmark 304

CHAPTER XXVI.

British Columbia--Boundaries again--Juan de Fuça--Carver--The
Shining Mountains--Jacob Astor--The Monarch of
Salmon--Oregon--“Riding and Tying”--Nation Lake--The Pacific
310

CHAPTER XXVII.

The Look-out Mountain--A gigantic Tree--The Untiring retires
before superior Numbers--Fort St. James--A strange Sight in
the Forest--Lake Noola--Quesnelle--Cerf-vola in civilized
Life--Old Dog, good-bye! 327

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