36 WINTER SETS IN. 



band of Chippewas who were out on a hunt, and remained 

 with them three days seeing a good many buffaloes, but 

 finding the running very bad, as there had been a light fall of 

 snow, so all holes were covered, and I got one very bad fall in 

 consequence. We loaded all the ponies with meat, and started 

 on our return journey leading them, and on the morning of the 

 third day we reached the Cree camp once more and found it 

 deserted ; but in the middle of it stood a big stake to which 

 was bound all that remained of the Sioux prisoner, and a 

 horrible sight it was. They had cut off his hands and feet 

 with Indian hatchets, taking perhaps ten or twelve blows for 

 each limb ; then he was scalped, his tongue was cut out, and 

 one of his feet was forced into his mouth, which had been slit 

 to admit it, and he was stuck full of small spikes of wood, most 

 of these horrible tortures, I was afterwards told, being done 

 by the women. We buried him as well as we could with our 

 hunting-knives, and proceeding on our journey reached home 

 safely, stopping a few minutes with old Mis-ta-wa-sis on the 

 way. Everything was just as we had left it, A-ta-ka-koup 

 having been in charge, and I do not think that anyone had 

 been in the house. 



The winter set in soon after this, and we had furious snow- 

 storms and the wind howled in the tops of the trees, though 

 where we were we did not feel it. This time we passed 

 in making dog-harness and mending our clothes, the former 

 being slow work, as it is made of three thicknesses of elk-skin. 

 I found that stockings were of no use, one's feet freezing in 

 them. All the Hudson's Bay men use long strips of a very 

 thick flannel called duffle, which is wrapped round the foot up 

 to the ankle. Of this you carry a fresh supply, and the strips 



