The trade of this country is all in dry-goods, sugar, tea, ammunition, etc. Notes are also issued by the Hudson Bay Company, which are currency among them. Several of these, of the denomination of five shillings, payable at York Factory and bearing the signature of Sir George Simpson, were offered in change to various members of the expedition on purchasing articles. The skins collected in the summer hunt are usually retained by the hunters for their own use, while the robes collected in the fall hunt are a staple of trade with the Fur Company, and also with the Hudson Bay Company, which latter company do a large business in this portion of the country, supplying the settlers with most of their clothes, groceries, etc.
The Red River settlements are made up of a population of half-breeds, traders of the Hudson Bay and Fur Companies, discharged employees of these companies, and Indians, representatives of every nation of Europe,—Scotch, Irish, English, Canadians,—and speaking a jargon made up of these dialects, intermingled with Chippewa and Sioux, patois French being the prevailing tongue. These settlements, started some twenty-five years since, now number, in the vicinity of Pembina Mountain, some four thousand people. The men are generally much finer looking than the women. On the latter depend all the drudgery of camp duties, pitching the tents, attending to animals, cooking, etc. The men dress usually in woolens of various colors. The coat generally worn, called the Hudson Bay coat, has a capote attached to it. The belts are finely knit, of differently colored wool or worsted yarn, and are worn after the manner of sashes. Their powder-horn and shot-bag, attached to bands finely embroidered with beads or worked with porcupine quills, are worn across each shoulder, making an X before and behind. Many also have a tobacco-pouch strung to their sashes, in which is tobacco mixed with kinnickinnick (dried bark of the osier willow scraped fine), a fire-steel, punk, and several flints. Add to these paraphernalia a gun, and a good idea will be formed of the costume of the Red River hunter. The women are industrious, dress in gaudy calicoes, are fond of beads and finery, and are remarkably apt at making bead-work, moccasins, and sewing.
We purchased from the train a supply of pemmican, dried meat, sugar, and other things, some of the men buying moccasins, whips, and other necessaries.
I engaged the services of Alexis Le Bombard, who was in company with this encampment, as guide to the Yellowstone. He came from the Yellowstone this season, and the impression gathered from my interview with him, as well as the representations of others, satisfied me that he will be extremely valuable as a guide.
July 18. Started a few minutes before seven, still following the trail of the Red River train. About eight o’clock we crossed a branch of the Sheyenne, flowing through a deep valley with an extended plateau, bounded on both sides by the high coteau. This stream appears to take its rise in a number of small lakes, and the branch crossed this morning is slightly brackish. Many of the lakes are very salt. These appear to have no outlet, and their saline qualities are accounted for by the fact that they are never washed out, and consequently retain the salt deposits and incrustations. We often notice in this region lakes lying very close to each other, in some cases not more than twenty yards apart; one will be so saline as to be offensive, while the water of the other will be excellent to the taste. We passed to-day a narrow lake, some three miles in length, somewhat resembling a canal. It lay at the foot of a high hill, called the Butte de Morale. Here occurred an engagement between some half-breeds and Sioux, in which one of the former, by the name of Morale, was killed; hence its name. The altitude of this butte, as determined by barometric measurement, is 281.8 feet above the level of the Sheyenne River.
Our way was strewn with the carcasses of many buffaloes killed by the Red River hunting party. At times the air was very much tainted. One of our men reported having ridden through a section of land, a quarter of a mile square, on which were strewn the remains of some three hundred buffaloes. In killing these animals, only the choice bits and hides are taken, and the remainder is left as a prey to wolves, or to rot on the ground.
We had wood to-day, for the first time since leaving Lake Jessie, our fuel in the mean time consisting of greasewood and buffalo chips. The sight of a camp-fire of wood is quite a treat to us. Our camp is beautifully located on a range of hills, nearly surrounded with salt lakes, called the White Wood Lakes. An excellent spring near by furnishes us an abundant supply of cold, fresh water. The odometer line measured to-day was twenty and a half miles. That pursued by the train was probably two miles longer.
July 19. Our course lay over a level country. After proceeding ten miles we crossed a branch of the Sheyenne River, at this time very shallow, but the high banks on each side, together with the grass and deposits, gave evidence of its size during the freshets in the spring. After traveling sixteen and one half miles, we encamped near a small lake in sight of the Maison du Chien, which by bearings and calculation Mr. Tinkham estimated to be about twenty-one miles distant. We passed on the march several salt-marshes abounding with tadpoles, from which the effluvia was very offensive. In some places the ground was covered with deposits of salt to the depth of a quarter of an inch. I am much pleased with our new guide, Le Bombard, who appears to have a very accurate knowledge of the country, although his ideas of distance are not found to be very reliable, which is generally the case with voyageurs.
July 20. Fitted out Lander’s party, consisting of himself, Le Frambois, Guy, and Rummell, to make a reconnoissance of Butte Maison du Chien and the Coteau du Missouri, to connect our work with Lieutenant Grover’s survey, and join us on the Mouse River in four days. We moved off about half past six, and after traveling five miles reached the first tributary of the Mouse River. The crossing occupied nearly three hours, the water being shoulder deep; half the wagon-loads were removed and carried across in the india-rubber boat. The road was generally very good, passing over a level prairie intersected with lakes and sloughs. About twelve miles from camp we struck a beautiful ridge, resembling a railroad embankment, which lay directly in our compass course; on the top of this the train moved for some miles. We passed around the first coulee of the Mouse River, and after a march of some seventeen miles (odometer measurement, 15.7), encamped on the bank of a small lake.
July 21. Left camp at six A.M. It commenced raining about nine, and lasted an hour or more. About eight miles from camp we saw the tracks of Grover’s train in a slough, by which we judged that he had passed some days previous. Soon after this we crossed one of the coulees making into Mouse River. These coulees are very severe on the animals, in some places being very steep. We traveled to-day sixteen miles. Our camp is located on the top of a ridge, which descends into a coulee. We are about one hundred and fifty feet above the valley of Mouse River. There is plenty of timber in the coulee which we are to cross to-morrow in starting.