FOURTH EXPLORATION, 1880 169 



of hills surrounded by water and the hills protected from fires by 

 the water, but there were no signs of a mountain. Here we had 

 our first view of an elk, and, I am sorry to say, my last view. As 

 we were going along the trail, a few yards from us, an immense 

 elk jumped to his feet, apparently with a spread of horns six feet 

 wide and a splendid looking animal. We gazed at him and he at 

 us and then turned about and, as far as the eye could see, he gal- 

 loped without a stop until he was lost in the distance. This was 

 the first and last deer that we saw on the prairie. 



My next objective was Old Wives Lakes, and Mr. Jukes laid 

 our course for the centre of the Lakes. We now entered upon a 

 section of the prairie that was extremely rugged, although almost 

 level ; we called it "The Great Clay Plain," and Regina is situated 

 on the northern end of it. The ground was so rough on account 

 of the great cracks that were in it, that the horses' shoulders got 

 sore with the jarring of the carts and water became so scarce 

 that we could only obtain it by digging into the clay in a hollow. 

 One Saturday evening, we reached a beautiful pool of water and 

 camped and decided to remain over Sunday. Sunday evening, 

 a thunder-storm came up and, after it was over, there was a clear 

 sky to the west and we saw a lake quite distinctly and decided 

 that this was Old Wives Lake for a certainty. Mr. Jukes im- 

 mediately took its bearings and Davie and I decided to go to 

 the lake the next day. 



Getting the right direction from Mr. Jukes, Davie and I, 

 with my buckboard, started in the morning to see if we could 

 reach the lake. We travelled twenty miles and came up against 

 the Dirt Hills, which are the outliers of the Coteau. We found 

 no lake and saw no sign of one and very little water, excepting at 

 a small creek that we crossed on our way to the hills. On Tues- 

 day evening, we reached camp and next morning were about to 

 start for the day's trip when I asked Mr. Jukes if our water keg 

 was filled and he said "No; but we will fill it at the first water- 

 hole we reach." I laughed and told him that likely this one was 

 the last we would see for some days. Davie asked to fill it and 

 I said: "No; they must bear the penalty of their own misdeeds." 

 We travelled all that day and neither horse nor man saw a drop 



