FORT PITT. 173 



On the 20tli we made a forced march, in order 

 to get in that night, travelling very fast and hard all 

 day, and we were very weary before we saw the 

 welcome stockade, and gained the hospitable quar- 

 ters of Mr. Chantelaine, who reigned at this time at 



Fort Pitt. 



Fort Pitt stands, like Carlton, on the flat below 

 the hio-h old bank of the river Saskatchewan, and is a 

 similar building, but of smaller size. This establish- 

 ment furnishes the largest quantity of pemmican and 

 dry meat for the posts more distant from the plains. 

 The buffalo are seldom far from Fort Pitt, and often 

 whilst there is famine at Carlton and Edmonton, the 

 people of the "Little Fort," as it is called, are 

 feasting on fresh meat every day. 



The farming, although carried on in somewhat 

 primitive fashion, is very productive. Potatoes are 

 abundant, and attain an immense size ; carrots and 

 turnips grow equally well, and wheat would no 

 doubt flourish as luxuriantly here as at Edmonton 

 or R-ed Uiver, were there sufficient inducement to 



sow it. 



We stayed several days visiting the Indians who 

 were encamped around, and trading a few horses 

 from them. Cheadle was fully employed, for the 

 advent of a white medicine man is so rare an event, 

 that every one seized the opportunity to employ his 

 services, or ask his advice ; and he was expected 

 not only to cure present ailments, and prophesy 

 concerning prospective ones, but also, with retro- 

 spective view, declare what course ought to have 



