AND I PART. 83 



thinking, I presume, that the man had died very suddenly. Now 

 if the Indian had remained quietly where he was until the bear 

 had left the place all would have been well, but he got up 

 before it was out of sight, and the bear hearing him chased him. 

 The Indian threw himself down in the same position, but the 

 bear was not to be taken in a second time and tried hard to 

 turn him over, tearing off the whole scalp in his efforts, when 

 the man fainted, and on coming to himself found that he had 

 been bitten in three or four places, and that the whole of the 

 skin was gone from the top of his head. When I saw him he 

 had a bandana handkerchief bound round his forehead, and on 

 taking this off, I saw that he had been entirely scalped, the 

 skin being gone nearly to the eyes. In spite of this he was the 

 best bear-hunter on the Saskatchawan, and made a fair living 

 by selling the skins. 



The time had now come for F and I to part, as he wished 



to continue his journey to the mines in British Columbia, and 

 I found that he would not have much difficulty in getting to 

 Fort Edmonton, near the head waters of the river, whence 

 parties of Hudson's Bay men often crossed the mountains to 

 the Fraser River, where the mines were. It was arranged that 

 he should remain at Carlton till the spring had set in, and then 

 join the first party going up the river. 



I had been able to buy a little corn at the Fort, so that my 

 horses, which had been brought across, were now in very 

 fair condition, and by riding them gently at first we hoped 

 to do the six hundred miles to Fort Garry in about 

 twenty days. I laid in a few provisions, such as tea 

 and sugar, flour, salt, and pemmican, these being all I 

 could get, and one of the half-breeds made me a very good 



o2 



