Pemmican.—­Out of the enormous waste of good buffalo flesh one product stands forth as a redeeming feature—­pemmican.  Although made almost exclusively by the half-breeds and Indians of the Northwest it constituted a regular article of commerce of great value to overland travelers, and was much sought for as long as it was produced.  Its peculiar “staying powers,” due to the process of its manufacture, which yielded a most nourishing food in a highly condensed form, made it of inestimable value to the overland traveler who must travel light or not at all.  A handful of pemmican was sufficient food to constitute a meal when provisions were at all scarce.  The price of pemmican in Winnipeg was once as low as 2d. per pound, but in 1883 a very small quantity which was brought in sold at 10 cents per pound.  This was probably the last buffalo pemmican made.  H. M. Robinson states that in 1878 pemmican was worth 1s. 3d. per pound.

The manufacture of pemmican, as performed by the Red River half-breeds, was thus described by the Rev. Mr. Belcourt, a Catholic priest, who once accompanied one of the great buffalo-hunting expeditions:[45]

[Note 45:  Schoolcraft’s History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes, iv, p. 107.]

“Other portions which are destined to be made into pimikehigan, or pemmican, are exposed to an ardent heat, and thus become brittle and easily reducible to small particles by the use of a flail, the buffalo-hide answering the purpose of a threshing-floor.  The fat or tallow, being cut up and melted in large kettles of sheet iron, is poured upon this pounded meat, and the whole mass is worked together with shovels until it is well amalgamated, when it is pressed, while still warm, into bags made of buffalo skin, which are strongly sewed up, and the mixture gradually cools and becomes almost as hard as a rock.  If the fat used in this process is that taken from the parts containing the udder, the meat is called fine pemmican.  In some cases, dried fruits, such as the prairie pear and cherry, are intermixed, which forms what is called seed pemmican.  Tho lovers of good eating judge the first described to be very palatable; the second, better; the third, excellent.  A taurean of pemmican weighs from 100 to 110 pounds.  Some idea may be formed of the immense destruction of buffalo by these people when it is stated that a whole cow yields one-half a bag of pemmican and three fourths of a bundle of dried meat; so that the most economical calculate that from eight to ten cows are required for the load of a single vehicle.”

It is quite evident from the testimony of disinterested travelers that ordinary pemmican was not very palatable to one unaccustomed to it as a regular article of food.  To the natives, however, especially the Canadian voyageur, it formed one of the most valuable food products of the country, and it is said that the demand for it was generally greater than the supply.