62 A MIDNIGHT APPARITION. 



good day's journey with dogs being from forty to sixty, ac- 

 cording to the state of the snow. 



Our second night out was on the open prairie, and we had 

 had to carry wood with us and to sleep without any bushes or 

 fir-boughs under our buffalo-skins. The fire being very small 

 and likely to go out soon, we had turned in early, and in the 

 middle of the night, feeling very cold, I put my head out of my 

 buffalo-bag to see what sort of a night it was, when to my 

 extreme surprise I saw two Indians seated smoking their pipes on 

 the opposite side of the embers. I thought at first that I must 

 be dreaming, but on my moving they both raised their heads, 

 and I saw that they were men and not the fancies of a dream. 



I at once woke Badger, and on his questioning them, we found 

 that they were Crees and on their way to the big council to 

 which we were also bound, and who, having seen our fire, had 

 come to warm themselves. 



The next evening we reached the Cree camp, which we found 

 to consist of nearly two thousand Indians, no women or 

 children being present. I was given a lodge and was told that 

 the next meeting would be held at sunset that evening. 



After making our lodge as comfortable as possible and lighting 

 a fire in the centre of it, I sent Badger out to discover, if 

 possible, why we had been summoned. He returned in about an 

 hour with the information that the Crees, hearing that I had 

 been killing a good many buffaloes, had been most indignant, 

 and had sent for me to say that I must leave the country at once. 



The main object of the council was to discuss certain wrongs 

 which they thought they had suffered at the hands of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company in allowing their enemies, the Sioux, 

 to trade at Fort Caiiton. 



