FOURTH EXPLORATION, 1880 177 



"The much dreaded salt plain, west of the Touchwood Hills, 

 contains a number of swamps and all of the very worst description. 

 Southwest of the hills, we became entangled in a series of these, 

 in the autumn of 1880, and it was only by hard work and much 

 ingenuity that we saved our horses. When we entered on the 

 clay flat it seemed quite hard, but first one horse went down and 

 then another, until nine were lying panting on the yielding sur- 

 face. By the time we got across, both men and horses were al- 

 most worn out, as all the carts had to be taken over by hand, and 

 the men had to assist the poor horses when they sank down com- 

 pletely exhausted. Nearly all the "sloughs" spoken of by travel- 

 lers are embryo mud-swamps. In every case, they are merely 

 saturated Cretaceous clay, and pass from liquid "white" mud in 

 the north to hard-baked clay flats in the south. These constitute 

 the "bad lands" of the south and the saline swamps and "sloughs" 

 of the north." 



We were now approaching the Carlton road, because we found 

 a few willows near the ponds and, as we proceeded further north, 

 remnants of burnt forest and Mr. Jukes, by his observations, 

 decided that we must be near Humboldt. It was decided that 

 Mr. Jukes and Davie should ride two of the horses to Humboldt 

 and send my telegrams to my wife and the Government and wait 

 for a reply. This was done and, after riding eight miles, they 

 found they were close to the village. On their return, we made 

 ready to start on our way to Fort Ellice, which would be the end 

 of our journey. 



On reaching Fort Ellice, we found great excitement prevailing. 

 Mr. Marcus Smith, who had charge of the surveys in that vicinity 

 for the last two years, found his party in open mutiny and, under 

 his assistant, they had deserted and started for Winnipeg. At 

 dinner that evening, Mr. Smith, myself and Mr. McDonnell and 

 another gentleman, whose name I forget, were taking dinner 

 together and discussing the situation pro and con. I knew little 

 about the trouble but listened with attention when Mr. McDon- 

 nell asked me: "By the way, Macoun, did you reach Leach Lake 

 the past week?" I told him that we had camped there two days 

 ago. Immediately, Mr. Smith exclaimed, with an expletive, that 



