EXPLORATION OF THE PRAIRIES, 1879 147 



south. We travelled rapidly, but, after one hundred miles or 

 more, we came into broken country and had a great deal of diffi- 

 culty in getting along as we left the trail and guided ourselves by 

 compass. I remember, one afternoon, we reached a creek and had 

 to unload our cart, carry everything across, load up again, and, 

 in half an hour reached the same creek and had to cross it again 

 in the same manner. Eventually, we reached what we thought 

 were the Hand Hills, but saw no sign of my assistant. 



Shortly after we arrived, an English half-breed, called 

 Phillips, came to the camp and, in conversation with him, he told 

 us a party had been there for a number of days before and had 

 left a couple of days ago and headed for Battle ford. I asked 

 him how he knew that they might be my party and he said: 

 "They had iron-bound carts and I see that you have one also." 

 We arranged with him at once for him to follow these men up 

 and bring them back. This was on a Tuesday and that night 

 there came on a great thunder-storm and, for the next five days, 

 Matheson and I lived on oatmeal porridge without salt, and this, 

 I consider, the greatest privation any man can undergo except 

 actual starvation. 



On Sunday morning, Matheson and I determined to head for 

 Battleford ourselves, as we could not exist without something 

 more than oatmeal and flour. We felt that the half-breed had 

 been killed in the thunder-storm and, as he took our gun with 

 him, we were finding out that we could not exist as we had noth- 

 ing but the articles mentioned. Matheson and I packed up on 

 the Sunday morning and started on the trail, that we saw in the 

 grass, of the half-breed that had deserted us. We had proceeded 

 about an hour when, in the distance, I saw a man on horse-back 

 riding at a furious rate from the direction in which we were going. 

 We waited until he came up and we found him to be Phillips, 

 who told us that he had gone eighty-seven miles before he over- 

 took the party and that they were now coming back and would 

 reach camp in the afternoon. We returned to our old camp at 

 once. 



While waiting for the return of the party that had run away, 

 I made quite an examination of the vicinity and saw a great many 



