RED RIVER SETTLEMENT 81 



mind to return to Red River and become a farmer. 

 Perhaps it would have been as well if I had done so. 



Having borrowed a horse, I rode out some miles on the 

 prairie to have a look at the country. It is a different sort 

 of prairie from that of the Mississippi Valley, not being 

 distinguished by that billowy, rolling appearance that is 

 the distinguishing trait of the latter district. Occasionally 

 there is some undulating ground ; but for the most part 

 the country, outside the timber region, is almost flat. 

 Wherever there is a brook or rivulet, there is a narrow 

 belt of woodland on its banks. At other parts it is 

 difficult to find so much as a bush, the ground being 

 covered with a rich growth of long grass, with flowers as 

 abundant in summer as on the prairies of the south. 



Here and there are shallow lakes and marshes, which, 

 in many cases, are not permanent, but dry up in summer ; 

 but they attract enormous numbers of wild-fowl ; and at 

 evening time I sometimes saw flocks of ducks, &c., that 

 must have numbered at least tens of thousands. It is 

 only at certain times, however, that they thus congregate. 

 Generally they fly in small parties, and the geese and 

 swans, particularly, will be seen in wedged-shaped parties, 

 or straight lines, of a dozen to fifty or sixty birds. In a 

 ride of twenty miles out across the prairie I saw no big 

 game ; but many small mammals and birds congregate in 

 the woods. As none of them seemed to be peculiar to 

 this region, I need not dwell on them here. 



Having marked a small shallow lake, partially dry, 

 which was much frequented by the wild-fowl, I had a day's 

 shooting there, going alone. The birds were rather 

 wilder than I should have expected to find them at a spot 

 situated seven miles from the nearest habitation of man, 

 and for a long time I despaired of obtaining a swan, 

 which was the chief object of my wishes. At length, 

 however, after creeping slowly and painfully for fully 

 a mile under cover of the reeds, I arrived within fifty or 

 sixty yards of nine birds which were feeding near the 



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