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THE AMEEICAI^ BISON'S. 



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ever, of importance." 



supply the brigades of boats in their expeditions to York Factory^ on Hud 

 son's Bay^ and throughout the interior.^ 



Pemmican^ though made sometimes from the meat of other animals^, as 

 deer, elk, moose, mountain sheep^and reindeer, is prepared principally from 

 the buffalo. It is put up in bags of from ninety to one hundred and ten 

 pounds' weight (according to difibrcnt authorities), and consists of nearly 

 equal parts, by weight, of pounded dried meat and tallow. The method of 

 its preparation has been repeatedly described by different Northern trav- 



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ellers,t whose accounts differ somewhat in respect to the details, as they do 

 in respect to its flavor and desirability as an article of food. The Earl of 

 Southeskl speaks of it as scarcely endurable, and Captain Butler says that 

 when prepared in the best form it "can be eaten, provided the appetite be 

 sharp and there is nothing else to be had, — this last consideration is, how- 

 It proves, however, to be exceedingly nutritious, 

 and is the favorite food of the Indians and the half-breed voyageiirs^ and was 

 formerly so extensively used in the Red Eiver Settlement that the supply 

 was never adequate to the demand. || According to Mr. Sibley's account, as 

 furnished him by the Ecv. Mr. Belcourt,^ a Catholic priest residing among 

 the Red River half-breeds, the dried meat and the pemmican are prepared 

 by those people as follows : — 



The meat, when taken to the camp, is cut by the women into long strips, 

 about a quarter of an inch thick, which are hung upon the lattice-work pre- 

 pared for that purpose, to dry. This lattice-work is formed by small pieces 

 of wood placed horizontally, transversely, and eqni-distant from each other, 

 not unlike an immense gridiron, and is supported by wooden uprights 

 (trepieds). In a few days the meat is thoroughly desiccated, when it is bent 

 into proper lengths, and tied in bundles of sixty or seventy pounds' weight. 

 This is called dried meat (viando seche). Other portions, which are destined 



* Narrative of the Canadian Exploring 'Expeditionj Vol. I, p. 311. 



t See Ross, The Eed River Settlement, pp. 2G2 - 264 ; Sibley, in Schoolcraft's History, Condition, and 

 Prospects o£ the Indian Tribes, Part IV, p. 107 ; Hind, Canadian Exploring Expedition, Vol. I, p. 312 ; 

 Butler, The Great Lone Land, p. 153, etc. 



X Saskatchewan and the Rocky Mountains, p. 302. 



§ The Great Lone Land, p. 134. 



II Eoss, Red River Settlement, p. 165. 



IT Mr. Belcourt's account appears to have been previously communicated to Major S. Woods, by whom 



it was published in the original French as early as 1849, in his report of his Expedition to the Pembina 



Settlements. See Congress. Rep., Slst Congress, 1st Session, House Ex. Doc, Vol VIII, ^o- 54, 

 pp. 44-52. 



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