all horses in the North-west there is the very simplest manner of persuasion:  if the horse lies down, lick him until he gets up; if he stands up on his hind-legs, lick him until he reverts to his original position; if he bucks, jibs, or kicks, lick him, lick him, lick him; when you are tired of licking him, get another man to continue the process; if you can use violent language in three different tongues so much the better, but if you cannot imprecate freely at least in French, you will have a bad time of it.  Thus we started from Carlton and, crossing the wide Saskatchewan, held our way south-west for the Eagle Hills.  It was yet the dusk of the early morning, but as we climbed the steep northern bank the sun was beginning to lift himself above the horizon.  Looking back, beneath lay the wide frozen river, and beyond the solitary fort still wrapped in shade, the trees glistened pure and white on the high-rolling bank beside me, and the untrodden snow stretched far away in dazzling brilliancy.  Our course now lay to the south of west, and -our pace was even faster than it had been in the days of poor Blackie.  About midday we entered upon a vast tract of burnt country, the unbroken snow filling the hollows of the ground beneath it.  Fortunately, just at camping-time we reached a hill-side whose grass and tangled vetches had escaped the fire, and here we pitched our camp for the night.  Around rose hills whose sides were covered with the traces of fire-destroyed’ forests, and a lake lay close beside us, wrapped in ice and snow.  A small winter-station had been established by the Hudson Bay Company at a point some ninety miles distant from Carlton, opposite the junction of the Battle River with the North Saskatchewan.  There, it was said, a large camp of Crees had assembled, and to this post we were now directing our steps.

On the morning of the second day out from Carlton, the guide showed symptoms of haziness as to direction:  he began to bend greatly to the south, and at sunrise he ascended a high hill for the purpose of taking a general survey of the surrounding country.  From this hill the eye ranged over a vast extent of landscape, and although the guide failed altogether to correct his course, the hill-top yielded such a glorious view of sun rising from a sea of snow into an ocean of pale green barred with pink and crimson streaks, that I felt well repaid for the trouble of the long ascent.  When evening closed around us that day, I found myself alone amidst a wild, weird scene.  Far as the eye could reach in front and to the right a boundless, treeless plain stretched into unseen distance; to the left a range of steep hills rose abruptly from the plain; over all the night was coming down.  Long before sunset I had noticed a clump of trees many miles ahead, and thought that in this solitary thicket we would make our camp for the night.  Hours passed away, and yet the solitary clump seemed as distant as ever—­nay, more, it even appeared