NORTHERN OCEAN 257 



manner as to render them of any considerable value ; for, to 1772. 

 appearance, they are of the same quality with the skins of ""^'^' 

 the musk-ox, which are held in so little estimation in England, 

 that when a number of them was sent home from Churchill 

 Factory, the Company issued out orders the year following, 

 that unless they could be purchased from the Indians at the 

 rate of four [253] skins for one beaver, they would not answer 

 the expence of sending home ; a great proof of their being of 

 very little value. 



The buffalos chiefly delight in wide open plains, which in 

 those parts produce very long coarse grass, or rather a kind of 

 small flags and rushes, upon which they feed ; but when pursued 

 they always take to the woods. They are of such an amazing 

 strength, that when they fly through the woods from a pur- 

 suer, they frequently brush down trees as thick as a man's arm ; 

 and be the snow ever so deep, such is their strength and agility 

 that they are enabled to plunge through it faster than the 

 swiftest Indian can run in snow-shoes. To this I have been 

 an eye-witness many times, and once had the vanity to think 

 that I could have kept pace with them ; but though I was at 

 that time celebrated for being particularly fleet of foot in snow- 

 shoes, I soon found that I was no match for the bufi^alos, 

 notwithstanding they were then plunging through such deep 

 snow, that their bellies made a trench in it as large as if many 

 heavy sacks had been hauled through it. Of all the large 

 beasts in those parts the bufi^alo is easiest to kill, and the moose 

 are the most difficult ; neither are the deer very easy to come 

 at, except in windy weather : indeed it requires much practice, 

 and a great deal of patience, to slay any of them, as they will 

 by no means suff^er a direct approach, unless the hunter be en- 

 tirely sheltered by woods or willows. The flesh of the buffalo 

 [254] is exceedingly good eating; and so entirely free from 

 any disagreeable smell or taste, that it resembles beef as nearly 

 as possible : the flesh of the cows, when some time gone with 

 calf, is esteemed the finest ; and the young calves, cut out of 



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