In North -West Canada. 83 



retvirn. On reaching the river they walked along its banks 

 for some distance, when they found a canoe, so they decided to 

 cross the river and explore the banks on the other side. Soon 

 afterwards they came across an Indian, who was sat down fish- 

 ing, and as they knew the Indian language they walked towards 

 him ; he started to use threatening language, and said the In- 

 dians were going to kill all the white men on this side of the 

 river before many more days had elapsed, so the eldest Mac- 

 donald told him he had better commence the killing now, and 

 therewith drew his revolver from his hip pocket. The In- 

 dian immediately sprang to his feet and bolted through the 

 bushes, and Mac. fired into the air to frighten him, which caused 

 the Indian to quicken his pace, glancing around as he ran. 

 After he had gone, the two brothers considered what they had 

 better do, and decided to return to the canoe and cross the 

 river again, as rumours of an Indian uprising had been talked 

 of for some days, and they began to think, perhaps, there was 

 some truth in the Cree's threats. On crossing the river the}' 

 dragged the canoe up on the banks, taking the paddle along 

 with them : they ascended an elevation a mile away, and 

 glancing back in the direction the Indian had gone, they saw 

 not far off' an Indian encampment of over a score tepees. So 

 they lay down behind the brow of the hill, concealing them- 

 selves in a Ijuffalo wallow. With the aid of their field glass, they 

 ]3lainly saw the Indians were in a state of excitement, running 

 from one tepee to another, and presently over a dozen bucks 

 were seen hastening towards the place where the two brothers 

 had met the Indian fishing. As they came nearer and nearer, 

 their voices and yells could be heard : presentlj^ they reached 

 the spot opposite to where the canoe was, where they came to 

 a halt for a few minutes, when one of their number was seen 

 to be stripping himself of his buckskins, and a few seconds 

 afterwards he plunged into tlie river with a splash, and swam 

 over to where the canoe lay, evidently intending to paddle it 

 back to bring his companions over, but on finding the pad- 

 dle missingf he swam back ag-ain, and as the two Macs. 

 thoufjht thev had better retire unobserved, they hastened back 



