CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
THE WINTER IN CAMP--OUR LOG-HOUSE AND HUTS--HUNTING AND FISHING--BUFFALOSTALKING--SUPPER AND A DANCE, AND SUPPER AGAIN--HOW WE FARED IN CAMP--INDIAN STALKING--WINTER PASTIME.
We found that although the weather was still very warm in the day-time,that the comparatively short summer of those regions was already too faradvanced to allow of our pushing our way across the Rocky Mountains inthe present wild state of the country; a feat, however, which my friendPaul Kane performed some years ago; but then boats were in waiting onthe upper branch of the Columbia to convey him and his party to thesouth. We therefore agreed to employ ourselves in hunting, and inpreparing our winter quarters till it was time to go into them. As Ihave already described a summer buffalo hunt, I will pass over those weat this time engaged in, and proceed to an account of our life in thewinter.
Our canoes and such articles as we no longer required we exchanged forhorses--such as were likely to prove of value to us in our onwardjourney in the spring. We had selected a beautiful spot near a lake andin the neighbourhood of a tribe of peaceably-disposed Indians, for theerection of our residence, about fifty miles from the forts; and we nowset out for it, with our carts, horses, stores, and cattle in the truepatriarchal style, only the women and children were fortunately wanting.
Having reached our location we pitched our tents, and having unpackedsuch provisions and goods as we required for our immediate use, placedthe carts together, and covered the whole with tarpaulins. Our horseswe turned out, as they would be able to exist through the whole winter,sheltered by the woods, and feeding on the rich grass which they couldget at by digging with their noses under the snow. Our first businesswas then to cut down the trees necessary for the erection of our abodes.We all took axes in our hands, and in the course of a couple of dayshad trees enough felled for our purpose. There they lay around in alldirections, but it puzzled Trevor and Peter not a little to say how theywere to be made to answer the purpose of sheltering us during a winterof almost arctic severity. John Stalker was the chief builder, and Iwas architect; that is to say, I designed the plan of the buildings, andhe directed the way in which they were to be put up, while the rest ofthe party lopped off the branches and dragged the logs up to the spot.I had studied the way to construct a log-house while recovering from thewounds I received in our skirmish with the Comanches, and now I found anopportunity of turning my knowledge to account. The chief residence wasto be oblong; so we cut two long and two short trunks, making deepscores at each end that they might fit into each other. Above thesewere placed others also scored at the ends, till four thick walls hadbeen erected about seven feet high, without a roof and without doors andwindows. Trevor looked at it with astonishment, and Peter walked roundand round it till, stopping short near the builder, he remarked--
"Well, Master Stalker, that's a rum house! I'll be bold to ask, are weto be shut up all winter, so that we don't want a door to go in and outat? And is it so dark that we don't want a window to see out of?"
"Wait a bit, and you'll see what we'll do, lad," answered Stalker,laughing. "Light enough, day and night, when the snow's on the ground;and you'll be as much out of doors as in doors when the sky's clear."
Peter waited and wondered, for Stalker insisted on getting up all thewalls of the huts before proceeding to other portions of the work.
Besides ours, in which were to be deposited the stores for greatersafety, there were to be two of smaller size for the men. The walls,when only thus far completed, looked in no way fitted to keep out thecold, as we could see through the interstices on every side. "Wait abit," was Stalker's remark. "Now, lads, some on you go and dig thestiffest clay you can find, and others chop up some grass." This orderwas speedily obeyed, and, with a mixture formed of the two, every crannywas completely stopped up; and in the inside the walls were made soperfectly smooth that the logs were almost concealed. "There!"exclaimed Stalker, as he surveyed his work; "I doubt if Jack Frost,though he is pretty sharp in these parts, will ever get through that."With their hatchets, he and two of the other men literally chopped out adoorway and a window in each hut. The doors were formed from someboards taken from the carts, and the windows with sheets of parchmentnailed tightly over the aperture, so that they served the double purposeof drums and windows. As yet there were no roofs; but the men had beenset to work to cut a number of tall, thin young pine-trees, which servedas rafters placed close together, while a quantity of marsh grass, overwhich was spread a heavy layer of clay, formed a thatch which no stormcould remove.
We began to talk of putting up our bedsteads, and making ourselvescomfortable inside our huts.
"Not much comfort you'll get by-and-by, gentlemen, if you was not to dosomething more than you have done," observed Stalker.
"What can that be?" asked Trevor.
"I'm sure I don't know," muttered Peter. "To my mind the houses arepretty comfortable for poor men, though not much for gentlemen likemaster and Mr Trevor."
"I guess Jack Frost would pretty soon remind you when he comes,"observed Stalker, with a grin.
"_Ma foi_!" exclaimed Pierre Garoupe. "Monsieur Jaque Frost make hisway through de key-hole."
"Oh, how stupid--a fire-place!" I cried out.
"That's it," cried Stalker. "And now let's set about it."
I suggested that, instead of the ordinary clay of which fire-places arebuilt, that ours should be constructed of stone of which there was nolack, in the shape of boulders, near the lake. These we collected inthe carts, and by cementing them by mortar supported by a frame of woodoutside, we formed a substantial fire-place and chimney suited for sucha fire as we expected to require. By Stalker's advice we sunk the floorthree feet deep, and piled the earth we dug up outside; thus adding muchto the warmth of our abode. A trench was also dug outside, at somelittle distance, to take off any water which, during a casual thaw,might be inclined to run in. Then, to keep off the wind--the primaryobject--any grizzlies which might be wandering our way, or any Indianswho might prove hostile, we surrounded our whole station with a strongpalisade, so that it was almost as strong as one of the Company's Posts.Never sleep on the ground. To obviate that necessity we stuck someshort posts into the ground, and on them formed a framework, over whichwe stretched some buffalo hides, and so got first-rate bedsteads.Trevor laughed at me for what he called my effeminacy, but I suggestedthat, after a hunting tramp of thirty or forty miles, we might not besorry to turn into a comfortable bed. Our lads' labour was stacking allthe wood we had cut for burning, and then storing our goods andprovisions. We put off making the furniture for our huts till we shouldbe kept in by bad weather. A further supply of firewood could also beprocured at any time after the snow covered the ground. Writers ofromances make their heroes and heroines wonderfully independent of foodand rest; but we, being ordinary mortals, were aware that we could notexist in comfort without a good supply of provisions, and Trevor and Itherefore formed two parties of the men--one to remain in charge of thehuts to fish, and to cure what they caught, besides trapping or shootingany animals; while the other was to accompany us in search of buffaloand any other game to be found.
Scarcely were our arrangements completed when the snow fell, and allnature assumed her wintry garb, not to be put off till the followingspring.
Trevor and I, with John Stalker, Swiftfoot, and two other Indians,formed the hunting party. We first constructed four horse-sleighs tocarry the flesh of the buffaloes we intended to kill, each dragged by asingle horse. We were all mounted, also, on small, but active and hardysteeds, with our blankets, cloaks, tin-cups, pemmican, tea and sugar,and a few other articles, strapped to our saddles. We each had ourrifles, axes, and hunting-knives, while an iron pot and a frying-panwere the only articles in our camp equipage. The snow, however thick,was no impediment to our horses in finding their food, for, withoutdifficulty, they dug down through it with their noses till they reachedthe rich dry grass beneath, which seems, thus, in this apparentlyinhospitable re
gion, to be preserved for their especial use. We foundthat horses, cattle, and pigs lived out through the winter without anycharge being taken of them, except towards the end of spring, when anoccasional thaw melts the surface of the snow, which, freezing again atnight, forms so hard a crust that even their tough mouths cannot breakthrough it.
We had no tents or covering beyond our cloaks and blankets. As nightapproached we camped near some copse of willow or birch, which wouldafford us wood for our fires--rarely even putting up a screen ofbirch-bark which would shelter us from the icy blast. With a fire inthe centre, as large as we could keep up, we lay in a circle, our feettowards it, and our bodies, like the spokes of a wheel, wrapped in ourblankets, and our heads on our saddles. This was our most luxuriousstyle of camping. At other times we were not nearly so well off, as Ishall have to recount.
We had travelled about a hundred miles south of our station over ahilly, well-watered, and well-wooded country, which must, in summer, behighly picturesque, when Stalker announced, from the traces he had seenin the snow, that buffalo were near. We, therefore, immediately camped,but dared not light a fire for fear of frightening the animals, so wehad to make a meal off dry pemmican and biscuit, washed down with rumand water--very sustaining food, at all events. In winter the buffalomust be stalked like deer, and cannot be ridden down as in summer, whenthe hard ground allows the horses to approach at full gallop. Weconsequently left our horses and rugs and cooking utensils--and, indeed,everything that would encumber us--in camp, under charge of the twoIndians, and advanced on foot. We had to keep to leeward and to concealourselves behind any bush or inequality of ground we could find. "Toomany cooks spoil the broth"--too many sportsmen do the same thing, orrather lose it altogether. We advanced cautiously enough, when once wegot sight of the herd, for about two miles or more, each man taking uphis station properly; but it had not been arranged who should firefirst, or when each person should fire. There appeared directly beforeme a dozen or more fine bulls, rather too far for a certain aim. I wascreeping on slowly and cautiously to get a better aim, when one of theparty, in his eagerness, showed himself. We all said it was Peter, andscolded him accordingly, for off set the buffaloes at full gallop. Thenwe all let fly at the ends they exposed to us; but not a shot tookeffect, and we soon afterwards met in the open space, where they hadbeen, looking very foolish at each other. Peter bore his scoldingwithout complaining, and our good humour was restored when Stalkerassured us that we were sure to come up with the animals if we did notmind a good walk. Were we not bold hunters? so of course we did not,and off we set.
We trudged on for many a long mile, when Stalker called a halt, and toldus that we were again close to the herd, on their leeside, and that ifwe were cautious we should certainly bag some game. We had spent two orthree hours gaining our present position; evening was coming on, and ifwe did not kill some beasts now, we might miss them altogether. Thismade us more than usually anxious, as we crept on towards theunconscious animals, which kept busily cropping their afternoon meal.Now I saw one of them look up. Something had startled him. Hecommunicated his fears to the rest. I was certain that in anothermoment they would be off. One of them, a fine bull, turned his shouldertowards me. The opportunity was not to be lost. I fired. The animaldashed on with the rest. I thought that I must have missed him; but ina few seconds he stopped, rolled over, and his life-blood stained thepure snow. Three other shots were fired in quick succession, two ofthem followed by the fall of an animal; at considerable distances,however, from each other. We pursued the rest, eager for more. We werehunting for the pot--indeed, our very existence might depend on what weshould kill; but, after a hard run of a mile or more, the rest of thebuffaloes broke from us and scampered off into the boundless prairie.
We now called a bait, and came to the conclusion that, if we did nothurry back, we should find but a Flemish account of the animals we hadalready killed, as that moment the howl of wolves struck on our ear,telling us that they had scented out the carcasses. Though they aremuch less ferocious than are those of Siberia and Russia, they haveequally large appetites, and we knew that they would have no respect forour requirements of winter provender. We therefore divided parties.One half to remain by the animals last killed, while the others, that isto say, Peter and I, went back to the spot where I had killed the bull.We ran as fast as we could over the snow, and were only just in time toscare away a whole herd which was about to make an onslaught on ourproperty; for so, in that region, the hunter considers every animal hekills, a point disputed only by the wolves, who believe themselves topossess an equal right to it.
We now began to reflect seriously how we were to pass the night. We hadleft our blankets and cloaks at our camp, and the thermometer, if we hadpossessed one, would have sunk below zero. Wood was scarce, and shelterof any sort there was none, as the snow was not deep enough to dig ahole in it, cold comfort even as that would have been. We espied acopse of arbor-vitae, the close foliage covered pretty well with snow,at a distance, near a small pond, and from it we collected dry stickssufficient only for a small fire. Having lighted it, we commencedskinning the buffalo, taking his hump and tongue for our supper,intending to broil the one and bake the other in a coat of clay. I hada little tea in my pocket, and Peter had a tin mug, in which we managedto melt some snow and boil it sufficiently to infuse the fragrant herb;but, in spite of the warm beverage and hot meat, which we relished, wefelt the cold bitterly. To keep off the chilling blast we scraped thesnow up into a circular wall. I then bethought me of the buffalo skin,of which we soon denuded the beast, dragged it to our fire, and creptunder it. How warm and cozy we found it! and all our fears for ourcomfort during the night vanished. Having made up the fire, with ourrifles by our sides, we went to sleep. I was awoke by a sensation ofcold, and hearing Peter exclaim--
"Oh, sir, I wonder what has come over the buffalo skin?"
On sitting up I found that the lately soft and warm hide had formed afrozen arch over us, as hard as iron, and that our fire was nearly out.We could do nothing but spring to our feet, make up the fire, and thenjump about before it to restore the circulation. Though this employmentwas satisfactory for a time we began, at length, to find it very irksomeand fatiguing, and it seemed impossible to keep it up the whole night,yet I could think of no other way of escaping being frozen to death.
Peter proposed, as a variety, that we should eat some more beef anddrink some more tea, a bright idea, to which I acceded; and when thatmidnight meal was over, we took to dancing again. We knew that Trevorand his party would be as badly off, and we only hoped that they wouldhave thought of similar means of keeping body and soul together. Peterdiversified the amusement by singing and playing all sorts of antics,while I contemplated the stars overhead; but instead of rest we onlybecame more and more fatigued, and I was truly glad when at length thewolves set up a hideous chorus, announcing the approach of dawn. Asuperstitious man, unaccustomed to the sound, might have supposed themto be a band of evil spirits, compelled at the return of the brightluminary of the day to revisit their abodes of darkness.
Having eaten so many suppers we had no appetite for breakfast, andinstead of taking any we cut up the carcasses ready for the sleighswhich Trevor was to send Swiftfoot to fetch. They arrived at length,when we found that our friends had passed the night exactly as we haddone. The beef being sufficient only partly to fill the sleighs, Trevorand Stalker set off in search of more buffalo, while we followed slowly,intending to return to the camp in the evening. The result was that wekilled four more bulls, and found ourselves, as night approached, faraway from our camp. As, however, we had no desire to spend anothernight like the previous one, we set forth in search of it. We haveheard of looking for a needle in a bundle of hay, and ours seemed a verysimilar undertaking; still both Stalker and Swiftfoot asserted that theycould guide us to the camp by the stars; so on we travelled hour afterhour, till they called a halt, and owned that we ought to be there, butthat they were at fau
lt as to the exact spot. Some thought that it wasfarther on, some to the right, and some to the left. The only point inwhich we were all agreed was that we were not at it, and that we mustmake up our minds to spend as disagreeable a night as the last.
There was a crescent moon, but that was about to set; by its faint lightwe discovered a small copse not far off. On the leeside of it welighted our fire, round which we tramped for the remainder of the night,the trees not allowing us sufficient shelter to enable us to lie downwithout a great risk of being frozen to death. It was a weary anduninteresting employment after a hard day's work, and while I went roundand round the fire I began to consider whether I might not have beenmore pleasantly occupied in shooting pheasants and partridges at home,with a good night's rest in a comfortable bed at the end of each day."Begone such lazy thoughts," I, however, exclaimed; "I left home insearch of adventures, and I am finding them."
When daylight came, it was, I confess, rather provoking to find that thecamp was only three or four hundred yards off, where we had our supplyof blankets and other creature comforts. As we had now our sleighsloaded to the utmost, and three buffaloes besides _en cache_, or hidden,that is from the wolves, we turned our faces homewards. The ground washilly, and as the sun had still considerable power the surface of thesnow had been melted, and when frozen again was exceedingly slippery.The consequence of this was that, one of the horses slipping on the sideof a hill, the sleigh broke away and rolled over and over to the bottom.We ran down, expecting to see the horse killed or seriously injured,and the sleigh broken to pieces, but neither was the worse for theoccurrence, and the horse being set on his legs, trotted on as bravelyas before. We were not sorry to get back to our winter quarters, whichappeared absolutely luxurious after the nights we had spent out in thesnow without shelter. How we did sleep, and how we did eat! Hunter'sfare, indeed, is not to be despised. We had for breakfast fried fish,buffalo tongues, tea, sugar, dampers, and _galettes_--cakes of simplewater and flour, baked under the ashes, and which are very light andnice. For dinner we had, say a dish of boiled buffalo hump, a smokedand boiled buffalo calf whole, a mouffle or dry moose nose, fish,browned in buffalo marrow, loons or other wild ducks, and goose,potatoes, turnips, and abundance of bread.
We had no necessity to dry the meat we had brought, as it would keepfrozen through the winter. Near the forts the flesh of the buffaloeskilled in winter is preserved through the summer in the following way:--An ice-pit is made, capable of containing the carcasses of six or sevenhundred buffaloes. Ice, from a neighbouring river, is cut into squareblocks of a uniform size with saws, like the blocks sent over to Englandfrom Wenham Lake. With these the floor and sides of the pit are lined,and cemented together with water thrown on them, which freezes hard.Each carcass, without being skinned, is divided into four quarters, andthey are piled in layers in the pit till it is filled up. It is thencovered with a thick coating of straw, which is again protected from thesun and rain by a shed. In this way the meat is kept perfectly goodthrough the summer, and is more tender and of better flavour than whenfresh.
We entered into friendly relations with a tribe of Indians, who hadtaken up their winter quarters in a wood five or six miles off, and fromthem we learned many devices for catching game, which our own peoplewere not accustomed to practise. We had won their hearts by supplyingthem with meat, and as they discovered that we could kill buffalo withour rifles with more certainty than they could with their old firearms,or bows and arrows, they were anxious to get us to accompany them in anyhunting expedition, knowing that their share of game would be largerthan any amount they could catch alone.
The three chief men were called by us, Eagle-eye, Quick-ear, andWide-awake. Eagle-eye came to us one day to say that some buffalo hadbeen seen very near the station, and invited us to go out and shootthem. The Indians undertook to shoot too, if we would go to a distanceand kill the rest as they ran off. Our party was quickly ready, and offwe set--the Indians carrying some skins, the object of which we did notunderstand. After walking eight or ten miles, Eagle-eye called a halt.Quick-ear produced the skin of a buffalo calf, and Wide-awake that of awolf, into which they respectively got; while Eagle-eye, telling us toimitate him, led away to the right.
"There, you see, we make one big snake," he observed, as we prepared tofollow his footsteps. "The buffalo see us long way off; think we snakeamong grass."
What the buffalo thought I do not know, but certainly they took nonotice of us--indeed we were a long way off, and perhaps they wereengaged in watching the proceedings of Quick-ear, who was representingthe antics of an innocent little buffalo calf. Nearer and nearer thelittle calf they drew; now they stopped, rather doubtful; then theyadvanced a little and stopped again. Suddenly a wolf, represented byWide-awake, appeared on the scene, and the calf bellowed piteously; thewolf sprang savagely on him; the kind-hearted buffaloes could stand itno longer, but rushed forward to rescue their young fellow-creature,when Quick-ear and Wide-awake, jumping up with their rifles, which hadbeen lying by their sides, in their hands, let fly, and brought down twoof them. The rest scampered off towards where we were posted, nor didthey appear to notice us till four more of their number had fallen, whenthe survivors turned, and were soon out of reach of our rifles.
The Indians, on seeing the success of their stratagem, sprang forward,shouting and leaping with joy, and soon had the animals cut up and readyfor transportation to their lodges and our huts. Our horse-sleighs soonafter appeared, followed by theirs, dragged by dogs, and guided by theirsquaws. Before moving, a feast was held by our Red friends; the meneating first, and enjoying the tit bits, then the hard-worked women werefed, and lastly the dogs came in for their share. When the variety ofways employed to kill buffalo is remembered, it will not appearsurprising that their numbers are rapidly decreasing.
The winter seemed to pass far more speedily away than we could haveexpected, with a very limited supply of books, and with no societyexcept such as our savage visitors afforded us. The fact was, however,that we were never idle, though it must be confessed that we took a verylarge share of sleep, and ate large amounts of meat and fat, for thesake of generating heat in our system. Day after day we were out in thewoods trapping, and soon became very expert trappers. We caught thefox, the wolverine, the pokan or fisher, marten, otter, and otheranimals, for the sake of their skins, and occasionally fell in with theloon and other wild fowl. Our equipment was very simple. Doubling upour blankets, and uniting the four corners, we formed a pack to containour pemmican, frying-pan, tin kettle and cup, tea, sugar, and salt,pepper, garlic, and any other small luxury. We had also brought with usfrom Red River some steel traps; a rifle, ammunition, axe, knife, firebag and lucifer matches, completed the equipment of each man. Indeed,these last should never be overlooked by those who have to traverse wildcountries; a single tin box is easily stowed away handy, and will last along while. We carried our blankets--as an Irish woman or a gipsy doesher child and other worldly goods, at our backs, with a strap across thebreast. Well secured from cold, with snow shoes on our feet, we salliedforth into the pathless forest, trusting to our faithful pocket-compassto find our way back again, or to the guidance of our Indians.
The plan was to set our traps as we went out, and to visit them on ourreturn. The steel traps made to catch wolves are of necessity heavy andstrong, so that we could only carry a few of them, and had therefore tomake others on a more primitive plan. When the beaver was less scarcethan now, the beaver-trap was the usual mode of taking the creature; butbeavers are now all but extinct, so we spared the few which got into thetraps, and let them loose again. The steel traps are like our rattraps, but have no teeth, and require a strong man to set them. Theyare secured by a chain to a long stick laid on the ground, and arecovered over with snow, pieces of meat being scattered about to temptthe animals to the neighbourhood. The wolf, as he goes prowling about,is nearly certain to get a foot into the trap. Off he goes with it, butis soon brought up by the chain and lo
g, and they seldom had got farwhen we found them. The wooden trap is formed by driving a number ofstakes, so as to form a palisade, in the shape of a half oval. Theenclosure is large enough to allow an animal to push in half its body,but not to turn round. A heavy log is supported by a perpendicularstick, with another horizontal, having the bait at the end of it, muchas the brick is in a boy's bird-trap at home. The animal, if he touchesthe bait--a piece of tough meat or a bird--brings the log down on hisshoulder and is crushed to death. We could, after a time, constructthirty or forty of these in a morning, so there was ample interest andexcitement in ascertaining, as we walked back, whether our traps hadcaught anything. Our greatest enemy was the glutton, or wolverine, oras Garoupe called him, the _carcajou_. He is rather larger than anEnglish fox, with a shaggy coat and very broad feet, armed with sharpclaws. He is the most cunning and inquisitive of animals. Nothingescapes his notice as he ranges his native wilds, and he can climb atree or dig a hole with his claws. He used to take the baits out of ourtraps by digging through the back, and so getting at it. He was not tobe caught by poison, and he could select pieces without it, and bite intwo those he suspected contained any. Now and then, though, he iscaught by poison, but only when very severely pressed by hunger. Whenhe gets his foot in a steel trap he drags it off, though heavy enough tocatch a wolf, and instead of biting off the limb, as the mink and foxwill do, he retires to some secluded spot and there endeavours towithdraw it, in which he often succeeds.
Hunting and trapping in winter, though very interesting and exciting,are not to be followed without considerable hardships. Often the coldwas so intense that though sitting close to a blazing fire, and thicklyclothed, it was impassible to keep warm. Our usual dress was threeflannel shirts, one of duffel, and another of leather, over all; furcaps, protecting our ears and necks, mittens of moose-skin withoutfingers, easily pulled off; and secured by a string round the neck, andlarge moccasins over numerous pairs of socks.