SHEEP-HUNTING 177 



off the plains, knows little of canoes, and hates to 

 trust himself in the woods or among the mountains ; 

 while the Chippewa is a fish out of water when 

 away from his swamps, rivers, lakes, and woods. 

 They are a fine tribe, the Chippewas, as far as my 

 experience of them goes, and much to be preferred 

 in every way to their roving, marauding, trouble- 

 some neighbours on the plains. I think it is Wash- 

 ington Irving who has somewhere (I forget where) 

 unfavourably contrasted the Indian, half-breed, 

 or French voyageur, " cowering in his canoe," with 

 the bold adventurous hunters and trappers who 

 career on their high-mettled steeds over the bound- 

 less prairie. With all deference to Washington 

 Irving, I do not think he could have had much 

 actual experience in canoes, or he would not have 

 found it necessary to " cower," nor would he have 

 found travelling in a canoe conducive to a mean, 

 melancholy, dispirited frame of mind, as is evi- 

 denced by the fact that Canadian Indians and the 

 Hudson Bay Company voyageurs and other half- 

 breeds are about the most joyous, light-hearted 

 people on the face of the earth. 



I made a very extensive acquaintance among 

 mountain sheep afterwards in Estes Park in Color- 

 ado, and on one occasion caught a young one alive. 



M 



