BUCEPHALUS. 47 



bravery in encounters with Indians, and the extraordi- 

 nary number of grisly bears which he had slain. 

 Voudrie was a little, dark-complexioned fellow, very 

 loquacious and plausible, but making no pretensions 

 to any great knowledge of hunting or travelling. 

 Bruneau was the son of a Bed Eiver magistrate — a 

 tall, good-looking fellow, but very simple, and the butt 

 of all the others. Our conversation with the men was 

 carried on in Canadian French, for their knowledge 

 of English was very imperfect. Amongst themselves 

 they used a mixed patois of French and Indian, for a 

 long time perfectly incomprehensible to us. 



We succeeded in obtaining very good saddle horses. 

 Treemiss bought the champion runner of the settle- 

 ment, and Milton had an old favourite of his and 

 La Eonde's, the hero of a thousand runs. Cheadle's 

 horse was, however, the most extraordinary-looking 

 animal in the whole cavalcade. Bucephalus stood 

 about fifteen hands, was straight in the shoulder, one 

 of his legs was malformed and crooked, his head was 

 very large, and his tail very long. On the road he 

 was continually stumbling ; and when Cheadle rode 

 him about the settlement, he was at first nearly 

 pitched over every gate and fence he came to. When 

 the horse caught sight of one, he made for it, and 

 suddenly stopping, stood stock-still, as a hint for his 

 rider to dismount and tie him up — an illustration of 

 the gossiping habits of his late owner. But he turned 

 out the most useful horse of the whole number, gal- 

 loped over the roughest ground after buffalo without 

 ever making a mistake, or giving his rider a fall, and 



