HIS FIRST JOURNEY ACROSS THE PRAIRIES 55 



Grant, and myself got out of the wagon and took hands in front 

 of the horse. Mrs. Fleming in the centre of the road and Dr. 

 Grant on his right and I holding his left hand. For some miles, 

 and I thought hours, we tramped when suddenly the teamster 

 called, "All right, I see a light." We were actually through the 

 woods and onto the prairie and, sure enough, there was a light. 

 The teamster stopped and we got on board and asked him if he 

 could see the road now himself. He said no road was necessary 

 now that we were on the prairie. We just headed straight for 

 the light and, though we were two miles off, we started for it even 

 though there was no road, and arrived a long time after midnight. 

 The following is another extract from "Ocean to Ocean." "Ar- 

 rived there wearied and soaked through. We came to what 

 appeared to be the only building, a half-finished store of the Hud- 

 son's Bay Company. Entering the open door, barricaded with 

 boxes, blocks of wood, tools and so forth, we climbed up a shaky 

 ladder to the second story, threw ourselves down and slept heavily 

 beside a crowd of teamsters whom no amount of kicking could 

 awake. That night drive to Oak Point we 'made a note of.' 



"July 31st. Awakened at eight a.m. by hearing a voice 

 exclaiming: "Thirty-two new species already; it is a perfect floral 

 garden." Of course it was our Botanist with his arms full of the 

 treasures of the prairie. We looked out and saw a sea of green 

 sprinkled with yellow, red, lilac and white. None of us had ever 

 seen the prairie before and behold, the half had not been told us. 

 As you cannot know what the ocean is without having seen it, 

 neither can you in imagination picture the prairie." I may say 

 that Dr. Grant's expressions only conveyed a slight opinion of my 

 own thoughts in the matter. I was really astounded by the 

 number of species and their luxuriance that I beheld on that morn- 

 ing when I first saw the prairie. And for nearly a thousand miles 

 the same thing was repeated, at intervals, with variations chiefly 

 in color. The impressions then made have never faded from my 

 mind. 



We were now thirty miles from Fort Garry and struck out 

 on a straight road across the prairie. In that one ride I seemed to 

 have lived half a lifetime. When we reached the Red River we 



