62 a voyageur's tent. 



near it a piece of dried buffalo, fancifully orna- 

 mented with long black hairs, which no art, alas ! 

 can prevent from insinuating themselves between 

 the teeth, as you laboriously masticate the tough, 

 hard flesh ; — then a tolerably clean napkin spread, 

 by way of table-cloth, on a red piece of canvass, 

 and supporting a tea-pot, some biscuit, and a 

 salt-cellar ; — near this a tin plate, close by 

 a square kind of box or safe, of the same mate- 

 rial, rich with a pale greasy ham, the produce of 

 the colony at Red River ; — and, last, the far- 

 renowned pemmican, unquestionably the best 

 food of the country for expeditions such as ours. 

 Behind me were two boxes, containing astrono- 

 mical instruments, and a sextant lying on the 

 ground \ — whilst the different corners of the tent 

 were occupied by washing apparatus, a gun, 

 Indian shot pouch, bags, basins, and an unhappy- 

 looking japanned pot, whose melancholy bumps 

 and hollows seemed to reproach me for many a 

 bruise endured upon the rocks and portages 

 betwixt Montreal and Lake Winnipeg. Nor 

 was my crew less motley than the furniture of my 

 tent. It consisted of an Englishman, — a man 

 from Stornaway, — two Canadians, — two Metifs 

 (or half-breeds), — and three Iroquois Indians. 

 Babel could not have produced a worse confu- 

 sion of unharmonious sounds than was the con- 

 versation they kept up. 



