on a high level bank 100 feet above the Saskatchewan River, which rolls below in a broad majestic stream, 300 yards in width.  Farming operations, boat-building, and flour-milling are carried on extensively at the fort, and a blacksmith’s forge is also kept going.  My business with the officer in charge of Edmonton was soon concluded.  It principally consisted in conferring upon him, by commission, the same high judicial functions which I have already observed had been entrusted to me before setting out for the Indian territories.  There was one very serious drawback, however, to the possession of magisterial or other authority in the Saskatchewan, in as much as there existed no means whatever of putting that authority into force.

The Lord High Chancellor of England, together with the Master of the Rolls and the twenty-four judges of different degrees, would be perfectly useless if placed in the Saskatchewan to put in execution the authority of the law.  The Crees, Blackfeet, Peagins, and Sircies would doubtless have come to the conclusion that these high judicial functionaries were “very great medicines;” but beyond that conclusion, which they would have drawn more from the remarkable costume and head-gear worn by those exponents of the law than from the possession of any legal acumen, much would not have been attained.  These considerations somewhat mollified the feelings of disappointment with which I now found myself face to face with the most desperate set of criminals, while I was utterly unable to enforce against them the majesty of my commission.

First, there was the notorious Tahakooch-murderer, robber, and general scoundrel of deepest dye; then there was the sister of the above, a maiden of some twenty summers, who had also perpetrated the murder of two Black foot children close to Edmonton; then there was a youthful French half-breed who had killed his uncle at the settlement of Grand Lac, nine miles to the north-west; and, finally, there was my dinner companion at Saddle Lake, whose crime I only became aware of after I had left that locality.  But this Tahakooch was a ruffian too desperate.  Here was one of his murderous acts.  A short time previous to my arrival two Sircies came to Edmonton.  Tahakooch and two of his brothers were camped near the fort.  Tahakooch professed friendship for the Sircies, and they went to his lodge.  After a few days had passed the Sircies thought it was time to return to their tribe.  Rumour said that the charms of the sister of Tahakooch had captivated either one or both of them, and that she had not been insensible to their admiration.  Be this as it may, it was time to go; and so they prepared for the journey.  An Indian will travel by night as readily as by day, and it was night when these men left the tent of Tahakooch.

“We will go to the fort,” said the host, “in order to get provisions for your journey.”