24 ON SNOW-SHOES TO THE BARREN GROUNDS 



the white man. He should not be allowed to escape with 

 no severer penalty for furtive war-path festivals than that 

 of being merely herded back to his reservation, when 

 white men equally guilty would be hanged or shot. The 

 surest way of civilizing the Indian is through his children, 

 and possibly their children in turn will cease to remember 

 that once their ancestors roamed over the country hunt- 

 ing and learning the lessons of their common mother 

 Nature, instead of living fenced in on a reservation, 

 ploughing, and studying the precepts of the white man. 

 We left the Indian reformer early the next morning, 



after a broken night's rest on 

 a dirtier floor than, I think, I 

 ever saw in an Indian lodge. 

 We must have proved a bless- 

 ing to that fellow, for we put 

 money in his purse, and such a 

 meal in his stomach as I fancy 

 he had not had for many a 

 day. The weather had grown 

 colder, and one of our horses 

 gone lame, but our big fur 

 coats to keep out the one, and 

 mustang liniment to relieve 

 the other, put us in travelling 

 shape. We had broken our 

 sleigh, and patched it up again 

 before we camped for our 

 noonday meal in a squall of 

 snow, but we had covered by 



that time a good half of the distance which the previous 

 night separated us from our destination. As we neared 

 La Biche we renewed our troubles over diverging roads, 

 but this time our direction was so accurate that the delay 



BLANKET CLOTHING OF TIIK 

 LOWER NORTHLAND 



