A RED-RIVER CART. 9 



In the evenings we went to some half-breed balls, and found 

 many of the women were very handsome, chiefly those who 

 were the children of half-breeds, with no more admixture of 

 Indian blood. Anywhere else you would have taken them for 

 Spaniards ; the only thing which spoiled them was their hair, 

 which was always very straight and coarse. 



At last our outfit was ready. We had two ponies apiece and 

 three small carts between us, each drawn by a single ox, as we 

 had been told that they went better through mud than ponies. 

 Each cart contained a thousand pounds' weight ; and the way 

 in which the Joads were adjusted was somewhat unusual, Laronde 

 getting under the axle on his hands and knees, and raising the 

 whole thing off the ground. We soon found that we had made 

 a mistake in taking oxen, as they only did a mile and a halt 

 an hour, and riding with the carts was simply purgatory ; so we 

 exchanged them for ponies before we got out of the settlement. 



A Red- River cart is an extraordinary structure; it stands 

 on two wheels, and is made without a single piece of iron in its 

 whole composition ; the wheels have no tyres, and the felloes 

 are fastened on with wooden wedges. The axles are of wood, 

 and two spare ones are carried by each cart, as they wear out 

 quickly; and there being no boxes to the wheels, I leave my 

 readers to imagine the noise they make, this pleasant music 

 being audible for miles. 



When once out of Fort Garry, we passed very few houses, 

 and those only during the first thirty miles, when they ceased 

 altogether, and an undulating prairie country was spread out 

 on all sides of us. Scattered over this were an immense number 

 of ponds, some of them almost deserving the name of lakes, and 

 these were always covered with geese and ducks, while snipe 



