In the evening we rode back to Edmonton, and there found Mr. Pembrun, of Lac La Biche, who had arrived to take command of the Company’s brigade of boats going with the season’s furs to Norway House, and Mr. Macaulay, of Jasper House, who had come to fetch winter supplies. Mr. Pembrun had crossed the Rocky Mountains several times in years gone by, by Jasper House and the Athabasca Pass, and on one occasion in the winter.
He related several stories of these journeys, and amongst them one which bears a strong resemblance to a well-known adventure of the celebrated Baron Munchausen, but which will be readily believed by those acquainted with the locality in which it occurred.
The snow accumulates to a tremendous depth in the valleys, and at his first camp in the mountains he set to work to shovel away the snow with a snow-shoe, after the usual manner of making camp in the winter; but having got down to his own depth without coming to the bottom, he sounded with a long pole, when, not finding the ground, he desisted, and built a platform of green logs, upon which the fire and beds were laid. Passing the same place afterwards in the summer, he recognised his old resting-place by the tall stumps of the trees cut off twenty or thirty feet above the ground, showing the level of the snow at his former visit.
A party of miners came in from White Mud Creek, about fifty miles further up the Saskatchewan, where a number of them were washing gold. The captain of the band, a Kentuckian, named Love, brought with him a small bag of fine gold-dust as a specimen, and informed us that they had already made £90 a-piece since the beginning of the summer. From what we heard from other sources afterwards, however, there seems little doubt that this statement was greatly exaggerated. Love had been in California and British Columbia, and had reached the Saskatchewan by ascending the Fraser in a boat, and thence crossing the mountains on foot, by the Leather Pass to Jasper House. He was very sanguine of finding rich diggings on the eastern side of the mountains, and three of his company had started on an exploring expedition to the sources of the North Saskatchewan. Nothing had been heard of them since their departure, two months before.
Mr. Pembrun told us that he had found gold in a small stream near Jasper House, having been confirmed in his discovery by Perry, the miner, a celebrated character in the western gold regions, the story of whose adventurous life he related to us. Perry was a “down-east” Yankee, and at the time of the gold fever in California, crossed the plains and Rocky Mountains alone. His means being too limited to enable him to purchase horses, he put all his effects in a wheelbarrow, which he trundled before him over the 2,000 miles to Sacramento. Tiring of California, he returned to the Eastern States, but on the discovery of gold on the Fraser River, resolved to try a miner’s life once more. His sole property on reaching Breckenridge, on the Red River, consisted of a gun, a little ammunition, and the clothes he wore. He borrowed an axe, hewed a rough canoe out of a log, and paddled down the river to Fort Garry, 600 miles. From thence he proceeded on foot to Carlton, 500 miles further, supporting himself by his gun. At Edmonton he joined the party of miners about to cross the mountains, and succeeded in reaching British Columbia, having travelled about the same distance he had formerly done with his wheelbarrow.
This story brought out another from Mr. Hardisty, of an episode in frontier life at Fort Benton, a trading post of the American Fur Company, on the Missouri, in the country of the Blackfeet. One day a solitary and adventurous Cree made his appearance at the Fort on foot. Shortly after his arrival, a body of mounted Blackfeet arrived, and discovering the presence of one of the hostile tribe, clamorously demanded that he should be given up to them to be tortured and scalped. The trader in command of the Fort was anxious to save the life of the Cree, yet afraid to refuse to surrender him, for the Blackfeet were numerous and well armed, and had been admitted within the stockade. After much discussion, a compromise was agreed to, the white man engaging to keep the Cree in safe custody for a month, at the end of which time the Blackfeet were to return to the Fort, and the prisoner was to be turned loose, with a hundred yards’ start of his pursuers, who were bound to chase him only on foot, and with no other arms but their knives.
The Blackfeet took their departure, and the Cree was immediately put into hard training. He was fed on fresh buffalo-meat, as much as he could eat, and made to run round the Fort enclosure, at full speed, for an hour twice every day.
At the expiration of the stipulated month, the Blackfeet came to the Fort, according to their agreement. Their horses were secured within the walls, all their arms except their knives taken from them, and then the expected victim was escorted to the starting-place by the whole staff of the establishment, who turned out on horseback to see fair play. The Cree was placed at his post, 100 yards ahead of his bloodthirsty enemies, who were eager as wolves for their prey. The word was given, and away darted the hunted Indian, the pursuers following with frantic yells. At first the pack of Blackfeet gained rapidly, for terror seemed to paralyse the limbs of the unfortunate Cree, and his escape seemed hopeless. But as his enemies came within a few yards of him, he recovered his presence of mind, shook himself together, his training and fine condition began to tell, and, to their astonishment and chagrin, he left them with ease at every stride. In another mile he was far in advance, and pulling up for an instant, shook his fist triumphantly at his baffled pursuers, and then quickly ran out of sight. He eventually succeeded in rejoining the rest of his tribe in safety.
In the course of a few days we again went over to St. Alban’s to look for the bears. M. Lacome provided four half-breeds to accompany us, and we spent the whole day in a fruitless hunt. We found, indeed, places where the ground had been turned up by the animals in digging for roots, but none of the signs were very fresh.
The next day we made another search, assisted by a number of dogs, but the bears had evidently left the neighbourhood, and we returned to Edmonton vastly disappointed.